Spreading my comic to friends and strangers alike

So, I've been reading about zines for quite some time, but as far as I can tell, they are near impossible to find around town. The reason I got onto a zine kick was because of last year's 24 Hour Comic Day. I wanted to print my comic, and then I started reading online about mini comics and the zine subculture. I want to get into that, and share my comics on a more peer to peer basis.

I personally believe my printed 24hr comic looks really cool. Yes, some of the art is cheesy, but that's due to time constraints. I'm talking about the overall package. Its manga sized, 5"x7.5", full bleed, and strict black and white. The cover is #90 cardstock, and the inside pages are 24# paper (a little thicker than generic printer paper), double sided, and saddlestitched. I figure if my rush job 24 hour comic looks this nice, imagine actually spending the time to make a nice comic, utilizing screentones and grayscale effects, more time on the layout and design, everything!

This idea is really kickstarting my engines on getting comics out there. It wasn't expensive either. Honestly, if I buy the cardstock and heavier paper and have a print shop print on that, I think I could get even a better deal.

So, getting back to spreading my comics. With my 24hr comic, I have sent it to friends all over the world (seriously), and even to some zine places, and zine fans, in hopes of catching someone's eye. Some strangers out there will be getting a random mini comic in the mail, and I hope they enjoy this random surprise.

I'm thinking if I pursue this, I'd like to offer these comics on my website for sale via paypal. I have tons of ideas, and now I have proof that a nice looking comic can be made from home, so there is nothing stopping me from making my art. NOTHING! :D

I have several one shot stories that I'd like to render into a mini comic, as well as several longer stories. This practice could also help me build a portfolio to attract the eye of a real publisher... Hmm.. This also means that I'll have some comics to hustle at next years Spokane ComiCon.

All Spanish Today

He estado trabajando en varias pinturas en los ultimos meses. Quiero tener otra exhibición de arte pronto. Invitaré a todos mis amigos y familia de nuevo. Se siente bien tener amigos cercanos que vengan a apoyar mis intereses.
Hablé con el dueño de "The Missing Piece Tatto" y le gustaría llevar algunas de mis pinturas. Su taller tiene muchas pinturas, muchas de éstas vendidas. Me gustaría vender algunos de mi trabajos y posiblemente conseguir algún reconocimiento.
Este año venderé libros de dibujos, pinturas y dibujos de comisión en la Segunda Convencion Anual de cómics. Algunas de mis amistades han conseguido beneficiarse de ello y han hecho conecciones. Con mis nuevas pinturas, y un portafolio mas grande, me gustaría ver si puedo encontrar trabajo pintando portadas para compañías de cómics independientes. Oni Press y Blue Water Productions son bastante grandes y no lejos de Spokane.

Just practing my Spanish for a change.

Robin in the style of Damion Scott

Sorry I've been so sluggish with the Joker tutorial. I was sick last week, and this week catching up on bills, just lots of stuff going on so I haven't been able to photograph anything new.

I just realized I have been rusty at drawing since Ive been painting Joker for so long. So, to prepare for the 24 Hour Comic Day I will be participating in again, I am filling a sketch book with tons of fun gestures. I want to really make something cool this time.

I've been liking Damion Scott's art a lot, especially his work in Robin: To Kill A Bird. So to try to learn some techniques from him, I drew the same Robin he did as a cover in the back, but with a bit of my style to it. I like his animated feel to it, he's not worrying about rendering everything to infinity like Jim Lee.

The sketch was probably 15 minutes at the most.

The Joker - Daily Sketch

I'm really wimping out on these daily sketches! I haven't had enough time to put into something really cool. I spent about 15 minutes at work, and came up with this Joker:

It could be better, but the little sketchbook I have is so small, I get timid about drawing full bodies because there is little room for detail. I need to get over my stupid ocds about drawing, and just draw til my pencil falls off the page.
Anyway, my Joker is taking a lot from the cartoon series, then I also added the Chelsea smile, just like from the newest movie, which I saw again!!! Just as amazing on round two.

Other than my daily sketch, I bought I new t-shirt today. Its a Comic Book Shop t-shirt, but it has the Danzig logo on it, pretty impressive stuff. The CBS shirt was $8.00, if I were to buy the Danzig shirt at Hot Topic, it would have been $25.00, the CBS shirt could not be passed up.
I also went to the annual Baroque festival in Riverfront Park yesterday... For some reason, many women were confusing baroque with Civil War southern belle. What the hell?! They needed to be beaten, but not as badly as the people trying to do an accent, announcing the events on the mic. They were speaking softly, or gently, hard to describe, but in their mind that equates to a European 17th century accent. It sounded a little closer to gay than baroque to me, but I never lived in the 17th century so what do I know?

Oh, I also bought a few used books a couple days ago from abebooks.com, for those that don't know, its a network of used bookstores across the globe, and you can find anything you want at great deals. I picked up two Burne Hogarth books (Dynamic Figure Drawing, Dynamic Anatomy), Drawing a Likeness, and Drawing Animals. Hoping these might add to my arsenaul of art skills.
Well, that's about it for today. I'm seriously trying to put together some nicer stuff for a daily sketch, just you wait!

Dark Knight and THREE Daily Sketches

I saw The Dark Knight today, it was the best movie this summer! I was kind of grumpy that people were suspecting Heath Ledger to be receiving awards for his role before the movie was released, but now I say he deserves everything he can obtain for that role. I feel bad for his passing because he deserves the hype. The film was phenomenal, the movie is like a great crime drama plus Batman... Amazing, watch it again and again!

Secondly, at work I put together a couple daily sketches. First two about 30 minutes each, the last about an hour and a half.


This is some crazy dude staring in the sky while smoking. I was thinking of awful office jobs while drawing this.



Someone said something about Dead Pool, so I drew a shaved headed zombie with goggles and a gun.. makes sense, right?


Lastly, I tried imitating Mystique's pose from an X-Men cover by Humberto Ramos, from memory. I did pretty well if i do say so myself. The arms are slightly funky, but the overall piece contains a sense of attitude.

Its hard to put together daily sketches, since some days I don't sketch at work or home due to just being busy. So I feel these three made up for some missed days. Also, I'm trying to work my way up to longer sketches. Its just hard, because most of my free time is only during my breaks at work, so I'm just drawing on my little pocket sketchbook which is hard to render details on.

Daily Sketch, and some thoughts

So I sat myself down at a local cafe for close to an hour today to draw a friend's character my own way. By actually noting start and end times for the drawing session, I realized I am the sloth of illustration. This is what I came up with:



I think a lot of it has to do with confidence with pencil strokes and the capability to move on.. I spend a lot of time loosely sketching, erasing, redrawing, erasing, redrawing.. I also noticed certain things I hate to draw, namely foreshortened limbs (the hand and arm coming up front), bars of a bird cage (I think in part because I had no reference to a bird cage), and female clothing. I think I grew too comfortable with comic book women who just wear lycra.

How does one speed up their drawing? Is it by just drawing religiously, or forcing to move faster?

Daily Doodle for Tuesday July 15

So, to honor my word about trying to do daily sketches, I have uploaded my first sketch for the blog project. I did this while on break at work. Its no 90 minute sketch, but it is a start!

Tried to draw someone, I did it from memory, so likeness went out the window, in my opinion!!

My left arm has a "driver's tan"

I started listening to Sidebar Nation, a really great podcast that interviews some great people in the comic world. I love to hear the artists' ups and downs, gems of knowledge, how they broke in, and how they work. Its really inspiring!
For those who know, I'm trying to put together a couple comics, so I'm trying to collect as much information I can. I thought I could draw, but a pinup or portrait is so different than telling a story through sequential art. I'm fighting to find my voice in telling a story, so to practice, I'm going to try to share 90 minute sketches when I have time. One of the artists on Sidebar Nation, Eric Canete, actually is doing this daily, and he feels its a great exercise.
As a second exercise, I bought a sketchbook small enough to fit in my cargo pockets of my scrubs. This way I can sketch on my downtime at work. Usually just on my breaks and lunch since we are so busy, but its added minutes to my drawing.

Anyway, these are just some thoughts after going for a long hot walk with my dog. I'll be hitting the sketchbook momentarily!