Art Technique: Filters and Digital Painting

 

So I've wanted to get into digital painting for awhile. I've tried several times with several programs, but have yet to find a satisfying technique. Maybe I just wasn't meant to paint.

Today I tried to do a digital painting of Jak Phoenix, the star of two really fun and entertaining novels. And he's a blast to create fan work with. I created a painting completely in Corel Painter. I wasn't satisfied. So I brought the painting into Photoshop to see what I could do with it.

Needless to say after a few filters and a little simplification later and I was MUCH more satisfied. It worked because the structure was good, the design was strong, and the colors and values were almost working. I'm always amazed at how it only takes a few modifications to make a work go from almost working to working beautifully.

Here is the original. It's not bad, but it's not really good either. The background is from a public domain photo by Lynn Greyling.

But don't take my word for it. What do you think?

Coming December 12!

Art Philosophy: When Universes Collide

 

One thing that makes the Marvel Universe so much fun is how easily and how often characters in one book will crossover into another. In the DC Universe that's always been a lot more rare. Probably why I enjoyed (and still do) SuperFriends so much.

But while I love to see Superman meet Batman and Wonder Woman and Spider-man team up with DareDevil and Captain America, I'm not sure I'm a big fan of Superman meeting Spider-man. I love both characters, but for different reasons. They each have a different tone and feel that just don't mesh well with each other. And I don't mean just because one is heroic and the other is tortured, but there is a different feel to the Marvel Universe as opposed to the DC Universe. Their universes are just so different, that they don't make sense to me together. Am I alone in this? Even when the same writer and artist team work on the different characters, the work is so different. Take a look at Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's Batman: The Long Halloween and compare it to their Spider-man: Blue or Hulk: Grey--they have totally different vibes.

But there are some characters and universes that make sense to meet. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have had a lot of crossovers, and those have made sense. Hellboy has shown up with characters from other companies (including Batman) and it worked. So I guess I'm not against crossovers per se, but I want the crossover to make sense. I want the characters to mesh.

So does Wandering Koala meeting Wonder Woman make sense? I think so, and not just because I created Wandering Koala. I think they work, because Wandering Koala is a pulp-style hero, and pulp heroes seem to have the most flexibility because of the visceral place they come from. Pulp art and pulp fiction is as basic to humanity and human emotion as one can get, and for that reason it makes sense with other characters. Look at Tarzan--he crosses over with everyone in one form or another (KaZar in the Marvel Universe for example) and he works. Hellboy is pulp and works. Spawn in some forms is almost pulp and he made sense crossing over with Batman. The new Arrow series on the CW is a pulp interpretation of Green Arrow, and it works better than any other version of the character.

What do you think of crossovers? Do you enjoy them? Have any ever bothered you?

It's Done!

Have you ever worked on a project and thought it would never be finished?

That's how I've felt working on the second issue of Wandering Koala Digest, which is funny, because I'm actually on schedule. I guess it's because the page count for the graphic novel portion grew to 35 pages instead of the usual 32. Oh, well, the story needed the extra pages.

I'm so excited it's finished that I decided to share the final page as a teaser.

What do you think? Be sure to leave a comment and let me know.

Wandering Koala Digest will be available for pre-order in a couple of weeks from Barnes & Noble, Apple, and Kobo, and will go on sale mid-December.

Books to Film

Ender's Game is one of my favorite books of all time. I have been wanting to see a movie adaption of it for years, but I've been scared of seeing a movie adaption because books don't always translate well to film.

This time they did a pretty good job. They were true to the book, showed all the essential elements, and cast the characters well for the most part. (Anderson -- bad choice.) The themes and messages came thru. The few places it deviated from the book fit the later books and the author's state of mind now. It wasn't a full two hours, so they could have spent more time in Battle School developing relationships and showing how brilliant Ender really was.

I did miss all the parts that were cut, but I understand it just wouldn't have fit in a single movie. Maybe one day they'll turn it into a TV mini-series and film the entire book.

I'm just curious where they'd go with a sequel. There are literally 3 different groups of "sequels" -- the original Ender's Trilogy (which has four books for some reason), Ender's Shadow Quadology (even though there are five books), and then Ender in Exile.

And in completely unrelated news, below is a teaser from the next Wandering Koala story due in December. Being the beginning of a month, I thought I'd give you a little morsel to whet your appetite.

Rude Awakening

 

Some people are morning people. Some people are night people. And some are neither. The first two panels in the page above illustrate how non-morning people must feel when the alarm goes off, and the last three are how a morning person reacts. The page is from the Wandering Koala Digest 1, now on sale in print and all eBook formats. It was drawn with a stick (yes, a stick) dipped in Sumi ink and then colored in Corel Painter. I thought it was pretty funny when I drew it. I'm trying for a more cartoony and exaggerated approach to drawings. We'll see whether it works or not.
 

Archetypes in Art

 

Archetypes are recurrent motifs or images in art or literature. They include the Hero, the Wise Old Man, the Damsel in Distress, the irredeemable Villain, the Magic Animal, etc. Evidences of them can be found in all cultures and all times. Some speculate that they are part of our makeup and that's why we respond to them so readily and why they are not limited to any culture or time period. One of the most famous scholars to study archetypes is Joseph Campbell. His book was a major influence on George Lucas when he wrote Star Wars.

Above is my version of the archetype of the Thief. In this version, he is a masked highwayman on a motorcycle robbing from the good and the innocent. I drew it with a zebra brush pen and colored it in Corel Painter. I really like the greyscale with one color approach, and in this image it almost looks like full color. And it's very appropriate for Halloween.

Let me know what you think!

Page 2 of the Upcoming Wandering Koala Digest

 

In case you are wondering about the technique, I drew the pages with a Staedlter pencil, inked them with a stick (yes a stick) dipped in Sumi ink, and then colored them in Adobe Photoshop.

Wandering Koala Digest 1 will be available in print and all eBook formats on October 16. To stay up to date, why not like the Wandering Koala Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/wanderingkoala ?

Preview of an Upcoming Graphic Novel

 

Next week the Wandering Koala returns in a bi-monthly anthology entitled Wandering Koala Digest. Issue one contains a 32-page graphic novel, 2 pages of humorous comics, part one of an apocalyptic virus novella, and an essay. It will be available in both print and eBook formats. You can preorder a copy at Barnes & Noble, Kobo Books, or the Apple iBookstore.

But while you are waiting, you can see a preview right here. Above is the first page of the graphic novel. Enjoy!

Stuffing a Square Peg into a Round Hole

 

If you've been in a bookstore lately (and if you're like most people you haven't), you would see the titles organized by genre. The purpose of this is to help a potential customer find something to buy. The idea behind it is good, but the execution doesn't always follow.

Some books could easily fit in more than one genre. I've always found the literature section an odd one, because all good books are literature. And a lot of horror books are also science fiction or fantasy. And fantasy just means something fantastic or imagined, but it's turned into castles, magic, and dragons. Which means other fantasy books that don't include magic, dragons, and castles have to go elsewhere. And what about supernatural books? Yes, they could be horror, but they could also be fantasy or suspense.

I get annoyed for two reasons. First as a consumer I've had trouble finding a specific book I went into the store to buy, because I wasn't sure of the genre. Second, as an author I'm not always sure how to classify my books. My most recent title, Wandering Koala Digest 1, contains a supernatural thriller, but also a science fiction novella. So do I put it in horror, because it's not really horror, but there is no supernatural category? To me that's like putting a square peg in a round hole--it just doesn't fit so well.

That's one of the joys and wonders of the digital bookshelf--a title can be listed in multiple places without having to place a physical copy in each one. You can also search for a specific title and get right to it. It's no wonder I've gravitated more and more to buying books online and as digital editions even though I love the feel and smell of a physical book, and I love browsing bookstores.

So what does any of this have to do with the above illustration? It could easily fit in several categories: science fiction for the weird monster, pulp fiction for the protagonist, horror or supernatural for the weird monster, graphic novels for the visual nature, young adult because that's usually the reading level I write, or even holiday/special occasion for Halloween because of the weird monster. Maybe we just need a Weird Monster genre?

Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think.