Concept Art

Zya did some concept art over the weekend while we were playing some D&D with friends, I'll post a bit of it here.


Zya is also working on a full portrait based on a rough sketch she did, so far it looks spectacular, much like the one on our Facebook page, actually. In terms of excellence, not in content or style.

What you see posted above is just a quick sketch she did based on a test script that I hammered out to test prospective artists.as I mentioned in a previous post. The test script didn't take long to write, about 20 minutes I think, but I liked it so much that I am now thinking of expanding it into a 3rd project. All I need to do is find an illustrator...

Fortunately, the new school year is about to start and that means I will have a greater chance of finding illustrators here once Evergreen is in session. As I said earlier, it seems like every quarter they have one student who does a project in the comics medium, so maybe I can get them full credit for working on this project. Stranger things have happened.

Going to try and hit up Oly Cards and Comics today with a flier, and maybe Danger Room later this week. The Craigslist method didn't work out too well for me, but I am going to keep trying it.

No risk is no reward, as they say.

It's way too early.

I didn't get a chance to post anything yesterday because after a hideous day at work I came home and had to run errands for another 3 hours then pack for a camping trip Zya and I are going on this weekend. It's Saturday morning, and I am awake and working at 6 am. I haven't done that since I was in the Army, and no, I don't miss being up this early on the weekend.

As soon as time permits I intend to do a couple columns on some of the comics that have influenced me over the years, as well as the creative teams that I most enjoyed. Today won't be that day, and tomorrow doesn't look too promising either, to tell you the truth.

In Project-related news, I have lost another potential illustrator which is disheartening to say the least. I am going to print some fliers and post them at Olympic Cards and Comics and Danger Room if Gabby and Kendra allow it (and I think they will be open to the idea), as well as University of Washington (my Alma Mater), Evergreen (Zya's Alma Mater), and St. Martin's University (because it is right here in town).

In the future, I would expect that Zya and I won't be posting much on the weekends, and one of us will be posting something each day. It might be directly related to our project, or it might be about the comics field in general, hard to say at this point. As soon as we find an illustrator we'll add them to the masthead if they are a full-fledged collaborator, so if you know of any feel free to email us.


ADDENDUM:

I just switched over to Cracked!.com (one of my favorite humor sites) and found this article from Jonathan Kirnak. I posted it here because everything in it applies to comics, but in comics the offense level is about 500X higher, at least for me. I will be returning to this point (hopefully) in my next entry, which I wanted to post yesterday but couldn't due to time constraints. So if you read Kirnak's article, you will have a preview of one of the reasons I stopped reading comics over a decade ago.

To Find An Illustrator

So I've been looking for an illustrator and I have already run into a couple roadblocks. I know I should have seen these coming, but I was hoping to find local people since Diva Zya met some comic artists at Evergreen University when she was a student there. So, I did what seemed logical and posted an ad on Craigslist.

The trouble was that I hadn't fully thought through what type of artist I wanted to work with, what would happen if I couldn't find a partner (which is what I prefer) and had to settle for an employee...things like that. Response to my ad has been less than anticipated, and most of the respondents are from out of state. One of the few locals who responded clearly didn't understand that "artist" and "illustrator" are specific terms that cannot be applied to someone who knows how to draw a picture, but we got that sorted out rather quickly.

Right now I am dealing with 3 rather promising people, I just need to write out a test script to see what they can come up with. If I like it, great we can see where it goes. If I am not impressed, then neither of us is out anything except time. Of course, this has it's own problems...do I do things "the Marvel Way" where I, the writer, just write up char descs, and spell out the plot leaving the artist to fill in the blanks? Or do I use "Full Script" method and lay out everything frame by frame?

If I am working with a partner, I don't mind saying that I would vastly prefer the Marvel Way. Not that I am going to leave my artist with the lion's share of the work, but I want to give them a great deal of creative freedom.

Conversely, if I am going to hire an illustrator to do the graphics then I am not going to tell them anything they don't need to know. I'll send them a frame by frame layout of the book sans dialogue, color, etc. After I get the art and they get paid, then I can use a graphics editor to add color (if I am going that route), dialogue, etc.

Each method has its assets and liabilities so we'll just have to see how it goes. The test script will be ready to go by Saturday, so I expect to have concept art from the potential illustrators about 2 weeks after that. After all, I am only sending 2 pages of script so it shouldn't take that long.

In the meantime there will be much researching going on. Stay tuned and feel free to send in any advice you might have, especially if you have ever done anything like this before.

Dr. V