From Writhe’s journal:
I’m all for changing it up a bit now and then, but I really don’t like Boo’s hair right now.
I’ll keep my mouth shut unless she specifically asks me. I don’t want to hurt her feelings.
I think I’ve learned at least that much about women.
I have added all the photos of Writhe and Shine in Austin!
And I also added a new section for YOU, the FANS! I dug around in some of my old files and pulled up some images to share with you. If you have any more for me to add, feel free to send them my way! I’d really like to build this section out with photos of people wearing my shirts, showing off their Writhe and Shine tattoos, pictures of happy fans receiving their books and stickers, and showing their skill with Fan Art!
Click on the FANS link in the Menu bar above!
I have finally uploaded all the photos I took if the Writhe and Shine dolls in New Orleans as well as added links to the stories, articles, or websites about the places they visited. Check out the [see the map] links too! I hope you enjoy them and inspire you to visit for yourself! Click on the images to see their vacation.
I will be in New Orleans this week, taking a break from taking a break. I plan on walking around, taking reference photos, jotting down ideas for Writhe & Shine, hanging out with old friends, and hopefully making some new ones! I’d love to meet you and so would Writhe, Shine, and Doomie!
Follow me on Facebook to find out where I will be hanging out so that you can catch up with me!
Emerald City Comicon was a SUCCESS!
It started off well. In the week leading up to the convention I received my order of new stickers and T-shirts as well as the Shine doll [who had not been able to make it home after three separate attempts.] I had everything I needed.
Thursday afternoon I walked a load of merch and other things down to the convention center from my apartment on the Hill. I picked up my packet of badges and paperwork and headed to my booth. I had seen my placement on the map but had no idea what it was going to look like. It was next to the women’s restroom and the map made it look like there was some cort of closet or cubby space behind my table. When I got there it turned out that the space was just an electrical closet with doors. Unfortunately, there were two huge water fountains taking up half of my space behind the table! I took a couple pictures with my phone and went back to registration to find out if I had to keep the fountain available to the convention attendees. I wasn’t about to let a stream of people behind my table.
The organizer said I could cover them up. That was good. On my way back through the convention floor I noticed a couple of people setting up a backdrop with the same Target-bought metal-and-plastic closet-organizer stuff that I have. For some stupid reason I had only thought to build it in cubes, but these people were building a nice wall structure. I had to stop and look at it. I then knew exactly how I was going to make mine.
I was able to build up and around the fountains, creating a tall wall and three spaces to put T-shirts for easy access.
Everything was starting to look pretty good.
I made one more trip that afternoon carrying the bulk of my merch on a collapsible luggage cart and then one more trip that evening with my booth babe, Dawn, with remainder of what we needed. We finished building and rearranging the wall and placed everything under the table so that we could set it all up on Friday before the Con started.
The next three days were spent having a good time, talking to lots of people, selling some merch, handing out flyers, taking pictures of the dolls with various people, and sharing a space next to Playboy legend, Doug Sneyd!
I will be adding the pictures with the dolls on Facebook for the next month and then add them to this site when they’ve all been posted.
I was asked to speak at the Dark Industry Night at the spooky club last Thursday and my presentation didn’t go as smooth as I wanted it to. Mainly, my slideshow was more of a partially blind file search…
So I wanted to post the images here and give you the commentary in case you missed the night.
In preparation for the event, I took photos and screen shots of the process I got through when making a comic strip.
First, I write. I have several small notebooks that I carry with me wherever I go. Inspiration strikes at the oddest moments and you can’t be caught without something to write it down.
I go through my notebooks and choose which entries can be written as comic strips. I type these in bulk, sometimes 3-10 at a time. These are then sent to be edited by my girlfriend, who writes notes, corrects spelling, and generally helps me make everything make sense.
I take the edited text and convert it to word balloons in a program called Manga Studio.
I then bulk print the ballons, fitting as many on a page as I can to save paper and ink.
I also print blank panels so that I can do my sketching and drawing on normal paper without ruining my good paper with deep pencil marks and eraser smudges.
I use my light box to transfer the word balloons onto the blank panels page. I work backward compared to a lot of comic artists. I like to know how big the balloons are going to be before I start drawing. That way the final composition turns out decent and I also don’t end up spending time drawing something that’s just going to be covered up.
The next stage is sketching.
After sketching is drawing.
Another thing I do in bulk is cut down a bunch of my good paper [Borden & Riley #234 Bleedproof Paper For Pens] and measure out the panels.
I then transfer the word balloons onto the good paper and make any last minute changes to their positions in each panel.
Then I lightly transfer the drawing.
Here are my light pencils and word balloons on the good paper.
I ink the word balloons with a Micron pen.
I ink the outlines of the drawings with a Crowquill #102 nib and Bombay Black India Ink.
Sometimes I make mistakes.
I then erase the pencil lines and fill in the large areas of black with my Rapidograph pens.
And fix the mistakes with Dr. Martin’s Pen-White and a very tiny brush.
Here are the corrections up close.
Then I scan the strip 1/2 at a time because my scanner isn’t big enough to do the whole image.
I ink the panel borders after scanning because it is easier to move an image around the digital panel without having the inked panel lines to get in the way.
Here are the inked borders.
I store the original drawings in a portfolio. Hopefully, I can sell them in the future if the comic gets big.
I take the scanned images and place them with the previously created word balloons in Manga Studio. That file is saved.
And placed in Photoshop where more work is completed…
And lines are cleaned up. That final black & white artwork is saved.
The coloring process starts.
The colors begin as “Flats.”
All the colors are then worked up to create three-dimensionality.
The comic is saved, reduced to web-viewing size, uploaded to the website, then scheduled to be posted.
