Blue Moon Blog

Between my regular gigs, work continues on the short story to appear in the Image comic book, Proof. Layouts are almost done, and I’m eager to start on the final art. For now, here’s a quick preview of one more panel.

Elvis Chesnutt has an idea to tickle someone — who, I wonder?!?

Right now, creator Alex Grecian and I have it slotted for Proof # 17. Hop aboard to Proof Express before it passes you by. Issue 9 is due out soon, but you can catch up with the Proof trade paperback (collecting issues 1-5), out now.

Between other jobs, I’ve been working on roughs and layouts for that back-up story for the Proof comic book I mentioned here a bit back. For “thinking work” like this, I like to get out of the studio sometimes, and kick back a bit, more comfy-style. That was easier to do this week since it’s finally warming up here in Minnesota, so I was able to get some sun or at least fresh air as I sketched away while sitting on the deck or patio.

Lately, for my comics work, I’ve been doing breakdowns for each page right on the printed script in red pen. No one else (not even the writer, I’d guess) can tell what the heck’s going on in these tiny page roughs, maybe 3″ tall. If I wait too long before going to the next step, even I can’t decipher some of the strange scribblings!

The next step is to do a larger layout. These I do at print size, so I can get a more clear idea of the actual size and proportions of things as it will appear to readers. I’m showing here just a few panels from this page, so as not to give away too much or ruin the story for those who’ll read it later when it sees print.

I like to draw these layouts quickly in marker to figure composition, character expressions and gestures. For me, word balloon placement is integral to the page and panel design, so I draw those in at this stage, rather than later, to allow enough room for both word and pictures, that they support each other and work together seamlessly. Boy, there’s just nothing I like doing more than this. Comics!

I hear more and more comics artists are printing their layouts in non-repro blue on larger sheets or bristol, and that’s what I’m planning to finally try for this story. I’m getting awful tired of transferring pencils to board on my light table. It seems like an extra step to me more than ever, and I’d rather streamline the process. We’ll see how it goes….

Like a fine wine, Clint improves with age. Ten minute sketch with my trusty woodless pencil.

I’m coloring my storyboards digitally now, with my trusty Cintiq. Still penciling at the drawing board, I scan the pencils, darken them in Photoshop, and color away. I’m finding with the Airbrush Pen Opacity Flow brush at certain settings, I’m able to achieve a similar look to those frames colored with markers. To rough things up a bit, and to lessen any computer sterility, I use a large chalk brush to finish things off. The more I do, the quicker it gets!

About half (and in the past, sometimes more) of what I do is storyboard work for television commercials. Storyboard frames are quickly executed drawings to communicate a concept, and help test and plan television, movie or animated projects.

I’ve been doing storyboards for over a decade, and find it helps me as a cartoonist, requiring me to think and work fast, and keep loose. For years, I’d color them with marker over inked drawings I’d copied on marker paper, achieving a more cartoony and clean look, but which also created an extra step and took time.

The last five years, I’ve skipped the inking step altogether. With these two examples above, I colored with marker over printed pencils on marker paper. I beef up some lines and spot black areas with a thick marker, and rough up and add texture with a black colored pencil. Some storyboard artists do more polished and finished frames that look nearly like finished illustration. I prefer a looser, rougher look and feel, and so work with Art Directors with a similar sensibility.

The last few months, I’ve been coloring my penciled storyboard drawings on the computer with the Cintiq, and will share a frame or two of those tomorrow.

This Hellboy color sketch and others will be for sale at the one-day Minneapolis comic book convention at which I’ll be appearing this Sunday, April 27. I do these with black marker, color pencils and a dash of Wite-Out on colored paper. It looks to be chilly and maybe rainy, a good day for a con. Stop on by!

I’ve done plenty of comics the last decade, just not any that have appeared in a comic book. After having drawn hundreds and hundreds of pages within the comics industry, all the comics I’ve drawn since have shown up beyond its borders. That’s about to change, as I’ve signed up to do a short story that will appear in the pages of Proof. I’ve not yet received the script from my pal, Alex Grecian, but the story sounds like it will be a blast to draw.

Alex has divulged to me I’ll get to draw even more crazy creatures from the book, and one that will be making his debut in the story I’ll be drawing. In preparation, I doodled a couple pages of character studies of Elvis Chesnut and the Dover Demon, two of Proof’s best buddies, and a couple of my favorites from the series.

Here’s a sneak peek, although Elvis will look different; he’s had a haircut since I did these studies, some in pencil, some in ink.

When drawings robots, I find I don’t like to get too technical (I don’t much love drawing cars or machines, either), instead preferring to make them as animated and organic as possible. I vastly prefer drawing the human form and face more than anything else, so my robots are also a reflection of that, while taking liberties, of course, to stretch, distort and exaggerate.

This first group shot was a convention sketch, a commission from a Chicago fan who gave me carte blanche, and this is what I came up with. The droid on the right has an Art Deco quality, or perhaps suggests an African mask. Kinda needly, ain’t he?

This next series of robots were done for a CD kiosk company that never quite got off the ground. I tried to work the CD shape into the design throughout, as ears, buttons, wheels, and the like. These guys needed to be friendly and are more on the cute side. One of them reminds me a bit of the old cereal character, Quisp. He, and his cereal are back, or still around!

That doesn’t mean I’ll just go for the cute or goofy when doing robots. I can go nasty and gnarly, too. Space Waster is one of ten postcards I self published way back when. I’ll probably post the rest around Halloween.

While preparing this post, I’m reminded of some early robots I liked drawn by certain comics artists, and one of my first characters, say, circa 1979, a robot named Mac. So, it looks like there will be another robot post in the near future.

It’s two for the price of one today, with this second post of the day. That’s a first, and I’ve skipped but a handful since beginning this daily blog more than three months ago, also inching us closer to our 100th post.

I don’t mean to be gruesome, but the mummies have gotten in to my head. This time, I digitally colorized the line art, again done directly with a brush, then threw behind them some mid-tone background color.