Friday, December 7, 2007

6:42 am










from the book the kids are doing with Jason Latour for 12 Gauge Comics called "Loose Ends", page 1 "pencils" and what a relief. given that its been over a year since id done pages, and ive always been slow, it was a surprise to get this one done in a day with an hour to spare. and it was fun as hell. that said, theres a lot that goes into every page, so maybe i should back up and explain (and not expect it to be this easy with the next 96 pages). thumbnails come first, as doodles on the actual script, then tightened up and resolved at 2 3/4 in x 1 3/4. you can get a LOT in that lil bit of space, and fast. if i dont rush, the final page barely deviates from that first thumb. then i go do homework. let me stress that the reference comes second, otherwise the thumbs start bending towards ref, when it should be the other way around. god bless the internet for streamlining this process, and god bless car enthusiasts for being so....enthused. theres like 50 websites dedicated to this specific 1970 monte carlo, and a rash of videos of the car on youtube. home movies made in the 80's of kids doing peel outs in the parking lot. so that research was pretty thorough, but now its done, for the next 96 pages. other elements were drawn from life, in the way that something randomly clicks and you think "aw, i gotta use that". the shot of the dashboard and rearview mirror came from a photo i took of my woman during a cross country drive (arizona? nevada? dont remember). she has the most amazing eyes, caught them in the rearview along with the idea for panel 2. the soda "mirinda" i know from her too- as much as its a lil shout out to her in this page, its also for storytellin (riiiiight....). when we get to iraq scenes the soda will show up again, with its arabic logo, to show the transition. referencing stuff like that, or the mack truck, or the .45, doesnt take a minute with google. ditto for 3-d models, although you have to settle and fix those a bit. the correct perspective looks right maybe half the time and is worth ignoring. sunglasses? cd's? got that handy in the apt. couldnt have spent more than an hour setting up and drawing the last panel. there's a lot of strands in the old duders head, but the imac has reduced so much effort and desktop clutter. all this ref gets pulled up on screen, itunes gets turned up to 11, and i get to sit with just the paper page and sketch from the ref like life drawin. thumbs keep things on track and alive. oh yeah, no rulers, no templates, and eyeballed perspective (so far), for the love of wonk. hey Rico, you want to explain your colors to us?

8 comments:

Jason Latour said...

HAWT DAMN!

capprotti said...

Wow! I agree with jason! That page is a ton of fun to look at, and get lost in. And ya can't beat a peek behind the curtain. It's always cool to see where an artist works.

arnie said...

you did all that just to composea page? no wonder mine looks so generic. that is aewsome.

peace out

chris be said...

whats up fellas, glad you dig! ive been pretty worried about being able to deliver, i think i developed a bit of an art-beer-belly at the old day job. drawing ball players with no backgrounds.....may have lost a bit of the edge. capriotti, you get lost in it too? i hope so. i hope its not distracting from the story. hey arnie, it other than finding ref for the car (which i consider work for the full story and not just one page) it was all cake. it is page one, and i always really try to set the tone with them. as far as amount of information, the rest of the story can breathe where page one's end up being a lot more dense.

Gary Fitzgerald said...

bit of sketchup in there?

chris be said...

haha, gary, i dont know if i can answer without sounding defensive, so ill just say: yes, there is a bit of sketch-up in there.

Gary Fitzgerald said...

hey man, it's just a tool.. it's as good/bad as reffing from photo's (and it's better for tricky perspective... and no.. that's not cheating either ;-)

Shawn Crystal said...

Cheater ;)
I"M KIDDING!