But now everything’s out in the open and I can show some stuff off!

Like Vapor Trails!

Hit the jump for more info and a process article!

The site is fully up and running, with some new features being added over the coming months. I’ll be doing updates Tuesdays and Thursdays.

As promised, here’s the process I used to make the cover for chapter 1…

I started with red Colorerase pencil, like I always do. I love the color it gives and it’s really easy to wipe out when you scan in. Lately I’ve been inking with a Tachikawa G-Nib and Kuretake Manga Black Ink that I got from JetPens.com. I’ve been using mine for about 3 months now and I really like the line variation you get from it.

I scan at 400 dpi, then use levels and the Channel Mixer (Black & White w/ Red Filter) setting to sharpen up the blacks and remove all my pencil marks. I’ll generally do these on Adjustment Layers so that I can fiddle with them later if I find a problem. Next step is to create a layer mask so that I can color the outlines later (thanks for the trick Mr. Sheldon). With only the black & white visible, go to the Channels tab and hit “Load Channel as Selection”. Go back to layers, create a new layer, inverse your selection, and hit the Add Vector Mask button. Now you can paint all over the layer and it will only show up where your outlines are.

Next up it’s flatting time! In this case I just paint in with my tablet and then adjust colors later once i’ve got all the areas filled. There’s also a simple gradient in the background. At this point I’ve also got a white vector mask on the outside of the picture so that I don’t have to worry about overcoloring.

Now it’s time for shading…for some reason I did the background elements separately from the characters in this one. Not what I would normally do but it’s what happened. I selected a realistic brush with a lot of texture, set the opacity low, and started scrubbing away with colors from the gradient I’d dropped in during the flats. I also took this chance to color the outlines so that it wouldn’t stick out so much. That included whiting over the outlines to the smoke silhouettes.

Now the characters get shaded. I wanted to have a pinkish lightsource just offscreen to the right where Pancake is running, so I made sure to add a lot of lighting on his front side as well as a lower level on Jared’s face. The shadows are pretty much the same color as the darkest parts of the background. I didn’t really change brushes at all on this, except at the very end where I went over Pancakes face to smooth the texture out. Once that was done, I added a low-opacity Multiply layer of a texture from Bittbox, and lightened it up to where it wasn’t messing with the colors.

And that’s about it. I added text for the finished product and a cover was made. Hope you like it! And more importantly, go read the comic!!

Work noise:

I’m still trying to peg down a style for this comic, it’s definitely more cartoony than the work I’ve been doing lately. I’m trying to get back to my roots I guess, weird animals and people with simpler shapes.

I’m also working up a site redesign now, so expect some changes to the homestead soon enough.

As a special treat, I’ve also decided to post the original Zuda submission that I did way back when. It will be up later today when I get the pages setup.

COMIC UPDATE!
Go read the new pages!.

Click the picture to read the newest pages!

Thanks everyone for reading, stay tuned for more Mourning Electric!

100 DAYS TALLY – END OF DAY 66
PNN Issue 01 – Layouts – Pg 1-8
Mourning Electric – New script – pg 1-14

Last night it was Ghost Hunters International’s big GHOST OF HITLER episode. Rob and the crew taunted, cajoled, and bragged to the nonexistent Ghost Hitler. Of course they didn’t find him because they are retarded and the show is really fake, but at least their nerd-courage in the face of absolutely nothing dangerous made me laugh a few times.

Lindsey and I have a game we play during any of the Ghost Hunting shows, I would recommend you do the same. Every time someone says “What the hell was that?” you try to say it in as many different inflections as possible. It’s a surprisingly long-running game.

So that’s the GHI crew down there, Rob on the left, Joe Chin and his epic fuzzy cockroach chin ornament, and Brandy the goblin. Oh and the ghost of Adolf Hitler

What the HELL was THAT?

I’m also sketching some stuff for a short I’d like to do as an anthology submission. If you know anybody that is looking for an anthology submission, this one is a doozy. Promise.

Hey look people! These guys will be doing some serious comic talkin.

Often when I speak with like-minded comicnauts, they ask, “do you have a small piece of card stock with which I can remember your fanciness?”. And I say, “oh shit no I forgot to make one.”

Well those days are now over. I present to you a thing that represents the very essence of Will:

Yes you can hire me to make you a comic.

I cannot even tell you how much I wrestled with a freaking 2×3.5 inch piece of artwork. Ugh.

If you see me at Long Beach Comic Con, make sure to ask me to give you one. I will consider it.

The Maltese Falcon
I don’t know how in the world I got through my whole life without seeing this movie, but I can now say that 28 years is far too long to wait for such unadulterated excellence. I was planning on sketching while I watched and ended up swept into Bogart’s slick-talking ruse.

Mark & Olly: Living with the Machigenga
Ok I’d actually seen this before (I have all 3 seasons of their FREAKING FANTASTIC show. Go buy it on iTunes.) Mark Anstice and Oliver Steeds spend 3 months living with one of the Amazon’s incredibly remote indigenous tribes. It’s all presented in a wonderfully uncluttered manner and it’s pretty much the closest you get to a good documentary on TV. Let’s just say they led an exploratory party into my heart. So I did this little piece for the jollies of yonder excitmentes. That’s English for the fun of it. Trust me I am a master of English people.

Why in the world didn’t I put Gianna in this picture?

Thanks for stopping by.

So don’t blame me for silly posts, blame the story.

I was also doing some more character sketches for the seemingly unending cast of Codename Operation Electric and came up with this. It only took me about 5 tries and multiple screaming fits to get that pose down, but it turned out cute so I was happy. Here’s Trish and her big sister Mimi:

Torturing your siblings: a lifelong passion

Thanks for stopping by.

In case you don’t follow it, Goodbye Blue Monday’s new story arc is going to start today. We’ll discover some inner secrets about everybody’s favorite orange cat, and a big surprise is in the works for Itty. Go catch up if you haven’t already!

Doing some more sketches for the poorly-titled Electric. This time we’ve got our classroom hottie Stephanie coming to be that dangerously adorable girl next door. She’s the one with all the off-kilter facebook pics and the temper from some hormone-soaked level of hell. That stuff will still be around 30 years in the future right? Sure it will.

Have a looksee, and keep an eye out for the next post, where I drop some fanart style shit on your shitty asses.

Stephanie – hot, brainy, totally nail-driving crazy

Thanks for stopping by.

Also there’s like a goat or something up there in the left corner and I think he represents fertility or the fall of man. Something incredibly deep I assure you.

Mushezib the demon warlord of Babylon