Concept Sketch: Striking at Night

 It's always good from time to time to go back over one's life or one's work and reflect on where one has been and where one should go.

I've been working on a new comic book, and I've spent a lot of time contemplating what style I should render it in. I've spent a lot of time looking over my past work analyzing it for what  and worked and what didn't work so well.

After much reflection and thought, I've come up with the two illustrations at the left. They strongly resemble the style I used for Wandering Koala rides the Phantom Coach. I always really liked the style, but felt it was too harsh and didn't have enough life and character to it. So I've incorporated elements from my Raw Umber style.  I love it, but it can be a little boring to look at a series of images in it.

I am really happy with this look. It fits the story I've written. It's not too harsh or boring, two faults of previous styles, and the drawing is much stronger with cleaner lines and better structure.

The buildings in the background were created in Google SketchUp. The people will be drawn by hand with Staedtler 2B pencils and inked with a Zebra brush pen from Japan. The coloring was done in Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter X.

I'm still working on how to letter it. And I'm not sure if I want to use dialogue balloons--they tend to look very cartoony. I want a more serious tone and mood.

But I'd love to hear what you have to say. Do you like it? Do you have any suggestions?

Character Sketch: Wiseguy

It's kind of strange how people embrace the bad guy and his bad ways. You hear about girls going for the "bad boy" and many people cheering for the "villain" of a movie or book--although I have to admit Darth Vader was pretty cool.

Even today you see a lot of people calling socially destructive behavior like homosexuality good, and branding those that try and defend society, freedom, and the necessary principles for their survival as "bad" "closed-minded" "ignorant" "bigot" and other labels that couldn't be further from the truth.

What is it about evil that is so seductive? What is it about good that is so repelling? And why are people so easily confused about which is which?

Here is a digital illustration of a wiseguy displayed as a card. A wiseguy is part of organized crime and should be considered a bad guy, yet there are many out there who would look up to him and even want to be him.

I created the illustration in Corel Painter X and Adobe Photoshop CS. I really like the design, although a different style might have worked better. The colors are nice.