sketch o' the day 1-31

 

A panel from CREW page 5. I originally penciled in the words in the background, but before inking them I experimented with putting regular text in the background (yay photoshop). I like it and I think I'll implement it into the final page, which I'll post at some point in the near future.

CREW: page 4

Page 4. I almost left this page out of the story, as I wasn't terribly happy with it to begin with. I had originally had a few captions explaining what was going on, narrator-style, and it was kinda clunky. When I went back through and inked it I went ahead and left these captions out, instead filling in the background and giving the panels a lot more depth. From here on there is no more narration/exposition, and the story starts to take on a life of its own. The narration was just experimental to begin with, and I don't think it really fits in with the style.

pencil + ink + color = done

Quite pleased with this one. The shadow on the ground ran away on me a bit but not too worried about it, it's just a sketch for fun. The coloring was done w/ Photoshop (obviously) but I don't have a tablet so coloring remains fairly basic. I think it fits with the style, but I would at some point like to experiment with more detailed coloring. I can't really paint in real life so I'm not sure how well I can paint on a computer...but at least on the computer you have an undo button.

sketch o' the day part 2

sketch o' the day 1/29

Working on a concept for a book. Also good ink practice! I'll post the finished picture, which will probably be in color.

Portfolio link...?

Attempting to upload my portfolio...click here

gregshraderportfolio

sketch o' the day - 1/28

Another warm-up.

CREW: Page 3

Ta da! I feel I accomplished something today. It finally looks like I didn't spill an ink well across the page. Another issue I'm finding is the size of the panels - the original size of these early panels is about 7 1/4" x 10 1/4" - a fairly arbitrary measurement, but at the time it was a comfortable working area for me. As the pencils have progressed I've increased the size of the entire frame, and I now work at 9 1/2" x 12". The smaller size of these early pages makes it tougher to ink with the detail I'd like - for this page I used a .005 micron pen, the smallest line size I have, and it ends up being much more proportional to the size of the figures, but tougher to work in variations in line weight.

The moral of the story? Draw bigger pictures.

CREW: The Comic



Page 2. I am currently on page 28 or so of the comic, at least in pencils. This is actually pretty early work, done well over 6 months ago. Inking is tricky because the original pencils don't have the depth/detail that my current work does, so I end up trying to overcompensate and the results are varied. I'm hoping that by the time I catch up to where I am with the pencils, the inking will be just as good.

Finally!

I've finally managed to overcome my irrational fear of ink and finally bring CREW into the wonderful world of black and white. I was frustrated with ink for a long time - I saw it as the tedious task of tracing lines, and whenever I did it my pictures always looked flat. I've since learned that it really is a medium all its own, demanding as much attention and style as the original penciling. Line weights, layers, light/shadow, etc. I've been reading a great book by master inker Klaus Janson called The DC Comics Guide to Inking Comics. Very articulate and insightful.

My inking is definitely a work in progress - I'm not super happy with this, but it's a start, and I'm really looking forward to inking the rest of the comic. Stay tuned.

sketch o' the day: 1/27/11

Just a warm-up...and I happen to enjoy dinosaurs.

Each day I'll be posting a sketch/doodle/scribble in order to get in the habit of regularly producing something and sharing it with the planet. They're usually a whole heck of a lot weirder than this, so, um, brace yourselves.

Testing...testing...

Under construction.