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Posted
October 27, 2020
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comics
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inktober 2020 day 23

Last night when I showed the pencils to my 5 year old I accidentally called Captain Kirk, Captain Cork, and I think it's the greatest thing ever.
It's a little known fact the Gorn species is considered some of the finest garment-makers in the quadrant. It's also widely-known that I just made that up.

rip

If you’re just discovering us today, please visit all of my Star Trek Themed Inktober Comics here.

You’ve probably noticed that I’ve modified my posting schedule to every other day. This means my Star Trek themed Inktober will continue sometime into November.

With day 23’s prompt, ‘rip,’ we have the return of the Gorn, previously seen having McCoy work on his teeth on day 8.

process

By the time I’ve drawn the finished strip, I’ve drawn it a few times already.

Here’s the initial idea I drew in my September sketchbook. (You can also see the early sketches for day 22, chef, right above the day 23 sketches.)

I love these childlike scribbles. One day I will figure out how to get this energy into the final ink drawings.

You can see it’s really just gestures and a couple of facial expressions. You might be able to make out a gorn-like creature making some slash marks in the first image, and see his arm lashing out in the second image. The third image is Kirk reacting and the fourth image is the Gorn sewing up the uniform. But these drawings really only make sense if you know what it is already. They’re very childlike in that way. You might not know what a toddler has drawn, but as soon as they explain it to you, you can see it. Same with these early gestures.

Than a few days ago I further refined the idea in my October sketchbook. You can see I’m still working out the timing of everything.

Kirk's belly-button is probably the funniest thing I've ever drawn.

Finally I’m drawing the pencils on the bristol board.

I inked directly over these but wasn’t happy with the results, so I grabbed another sheet of bristol board and traced the final copy which is what you at the top of the post.

If any of you have read this far, thank you.

You can also visit past Inktobers I’ve done.

There’s my Zelda themed Inktober 2019, where I did some strong work but ran out of steam and time halfway during the month.

In 2018 I completed a Metal Gear themed Inktober, and 2017 was my first themed Inktober. It featured the world’s greatest detective.

Posted
October 4, 2020
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sketch
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inktober 2020 day 3

Bulk

Prompt: bulk. That leads me to bulkhead. I looked at a lot of pictures of bulkheads on memory alpha. I looked at a lot of pictures of bulkheads for boats on the internet. I’m still not sure what a bulkhead is.

But Kirk ran into it.

Inktobers Past

You can visit (or revisit) my Zelda themed Inktober 2019, where I did some strong work but ran out of steam and time halfway during the month. In 2018 I completed a Metal Gear themed Inktober, and 2017 was my first themed Inktober featuring the world’s greatest detective.

Posted
September 9, 2020
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sketch
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september sketchbook

I’ve talked about this before, but at the start of every month I start a new sketchbook.

This month’s sketchbook happened to be one of those mead composition books that comix artist Lynda Barry loves. So in honor of that, I’ve been filling it up with comix.

I divide the page up in to 4 panels, than sprinkle in text as I move through my day.

I don’t always have an idea for an accompanying image in the panel, so I leave them blank.

Then, a few days later I revisit the panels. Re-reading them helps spark an idea, and I’ll make a drawing.

Posted
March 12, 2020
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comics
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collaborating with kieron gillen

Honestly, that’s a woefully misleading title. Grabby, though, ain’t it?

In January, comics writer Kieron Gillen teamed up with Project Art Cred to write a script, release it to any artist that wanted it, and bask in the wide variation in storytelling that resulted. You can check out the results that resulted here.

Amongst all the brilliant entries, you’ll find one that does not look like the others. Mine.

I did not adapt Kieron Gillen’s full script because I didn’t realize he had written more than one page. When I downloaded it from his newsletter I didn’t realize it was a multi-page document.

I adapted Kieron’s letter to the artist.

When Gillen mentioned in the letter that he was keeping this loose and minimal, I thought to myself, “No kidding.”

Here’s my final inked artwork. There’s another pass at the pencils below, as well.

Posted
October 19, 2019
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comics
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inktober day 15 legend

inktober and linktober 2019 continue with day 15: legend.

inktober day 15. legend. in which link does some stuff

as you probably noticed i’m behind. and skipping around.

inspiration for the giant book that link consults is the lindsfarne bible, which i’d never heard of before doing the research for this strip.

this is the first day this year that i used a wash.

i got lazy and tired this strip. it shows in the final two panels

Posted
October 12, 2019
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comics
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inktober day 12 dragon

inktober and linktober 2019 continue with day 12: dragon

inktober. day 12. dragon. in which link does some climbing

made some changes to the way i worked on today’s inktober and it really helped.

the final piece looks more like i imagined.

here’s how it went down. (if you find this sort of thing just mindnumbingly boring, here’s the color version, colored digitally, of today’s piece

here is the initial sketch

then i hunted down a bunch of reference of alex honnold climbing el capitan

i didn’t really use any one image in particular, but it helped me refine my early sketches

for the dragon’s pose i just did an image search for sleeping dogs.

all of that reference helped me refine the drawing and make it more convincing…

i think the sketch, done digitally, has a lot more energy than the final inks.

the biggest change to my work came in the next step.

i haven’t been happy with my inking at all, this inktober, so i decided to draw bigger. i’ve been watching a lot of cartoonist kayfabe lately and somewhere in there ed piskor said ‘pencil small and ink big.’

i’ve been drawing each panel at 4 x 4 inches all inktober. last night i decided to go bigger.

i resized the panels to be 5 x 5 inch and worked on 11 x 14 inch bristol instead of 9 x 12 inch bristol

inking at the larger size made all the difference for me.

i was able to vary the line weight more than in every previous inktober. it took way longer to work, but it was worth it.

it felt like a breakthrough.

now i just have to do it again tonight…

Posted
October 10, 2019
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comics
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inktober and linktober day 9 swing

inktober and linktober 2019 continue with day 9: swing

(i know it’s the 10th. i’m behind.)

inktober and linktober 2019 continue with day 9: swing

i also did a digital color version

lately i’ve been doing the sketch digitally, and inking over that

here’s the sketch

inktober. day 9. swing. sketch.

my sketches are better than my inks, but i guess that’s the whole point of inktober, right?

i did splash some watercolors on the page

inktober. day 9. swing. ink. and watercolors. but ugh.

Posted
October 9, 2019
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comics
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inktober and linktober 2019 continue with day 8 – frail

inktober and linktober 2019 continue with day 8: frail

inktober 2019. day 8. frail. forgot to ink in her boots, and squandered link's pose in panel 2, but this effort felt much stronger than day 7's.

view the color version, where color reveals a little more information about one of our characters…

forgot to ink in her boots, and squandered link’s pose in panel 2, but this effort felt much stronger than day 7’s

the main thing i need to remember when working is just to slow down. all of the pressure is imagined…

Posted
October 7, 2019
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comics
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inktober and linktober 2019 continue with day 6 – husky

yes that is a sports clips coupon in the featured image. and no they are not a sponsor. but since my barber retired and then died, that is where i get my hair cut

inktober and linktober 2019 continue with day 6: husky

as i continue to struggle with the drawing of day 5: build, i’m moving on to day 6. only a day late.

for all of you inktober purists out there, here’s today’s strip in glorious black and white

if you’d like to see the comic in majestic color, please click here

i think the gag is solid, but man, panel 3 was a lost oppotunity

i should have pushed the pose more

(hangs head in shame)

(shuffles solemnly back to the drawing table)

Posted
October 4, 2019
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comics
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inktober and linktober 2019 continue with day 4 – freeze

inktober and linktober 2019 continue with day 4: freeze

inktober 2019. day 4. freeze. link faces the frozen wrath of a freezor. did he come prepared? panel 1: link shelters behind his shield as a large freezor unleashes a blizzard of snow and ice. panel 2: link politely gestures for a brief timeout. panel 3: confused, the freezor watches link, tongue out in concentration, dig in his satchel. panel 4: freezor breaks the fourth wall, deadpanning for the reader while link now stands at the ready in furry snow suit and goggles. trivia: can you spot what link is missing in panel 3?

can you spot what link is missing in panel 3? seems like i forget to draw something every day.

i didn’t have any ideas going in to fit the the prompt, but i read about the freezors, and once i started getting the pencil moving the gag came to me

i’m a little more satisfied with the gestures today

i also realized i’ve been casting my little guy as link this whole time

Posted
October 2, 2019
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comics
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linktober continues – inktober 2019 day 2: mindless

linktober continues. inktober day 2 official prompt: mindless

linktober continues

jake parker’s inktober 2019 official prompt: mindless

penciled this piece 2 days ago

felt less than confident about it

inked it late last night after my soccer game

hated it. told myself i’m going to throw it out in the morning

in the morning i looked at it again and accepted it. (after adding a lot of correction fluid)

added watercolors. felt better about it

i know, i know. i forgot to color his hair pink. i also have no idea what happened to link's shield.

now it can be yours

but if the original is too pricey, you can check out the cleaned up, digitally colored version where i remembered to color link’s hair pink (WHY IS LINK’S HAIR PINK IN ‘LINK TO THE PAST’?)

Posted
October 1, 2019
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sketch
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inktober 2019 is here

inktober 2019. day one. ring

jake parker’s inktober 2019 is here!

and i’m pretty excited because i’m adding a few wrinkles to make the challenge of doing an inked drawing every day even more challenging for me

here’s the deal, coming at you in 4 parts:

inktober 2019 part 1: the theme

if you’ve been following the blog the past few days, you’ll have noted that i’ve been playing the super nintendo game, ‘link to the past’ for a few minutes before bed

i decided that this year my inktober theme would be zelda, so that i could count playing video games as research:)

once again, i’m using jake parker’s official prompt list as my jumping off point. this time in the world of zelda. Day 1 is ‘ring.’

part 2: 4 panels

to further raise the stakes in 2019, i’ve decided to do a 4 panel inked comic every day

part 3: color

and to raise the stakes even further i’ve decided to clean the comics up digitally, add a little color, and post them so you can read them straight through.

i’m calling this year’s legend of zelda themed inktober: Linktober

inktober 2019 part 4: shop

I’ll be selling the original strips in the store. They’re done on 9 inch x 12 inch bristol board.

Free inkstains with every drawing.

buy it now

And if that’s not enough inktobering for you, feel free to visitinktobers of years past.

2018 metal gear solid themed inktober

2017 sherlock holmes themed inktober

Posted
July 30, 2019
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comics
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illustrating a comics page

The Origin of the Amazing Spider-Foo. A parody comic. Script by Crhymes. Art by Tone.

Here’s a one-page comic I recently illustrated called the ‘The Origin of The Amazing Spider-Foo’. It’s a Spider-Man parody written by Crhymes; a writer, comedian, and musician based out of San Diego.

From Script to Rough Layout

Originally conceived of as a one-page 12 inch by 12 inch record insert, Crhyme’s script was a brillliant parody of Stan Lee’s verbose Marvel Comics stories.

Here’s the script:

My first task was to break the text up in to individual panels. I was originally thinking a 9 panel grid, but couldn’t squeeze all of the text in, so I added a tenth introduction panel on top. I even started thinking about color at this stage. Here’s an early rough that was meant just for me.

I refined my roughs and sent them over to Crhymes. (I sent them without color, since I wasn’t sure yet what my color plan was.)

At this point, Crhymes had some much-needed suggestions to help make my drawings more convincing, including the addition of palm trees, making Spidey-Foo’s sandals more accurate, and adding tattoos to Pedro Parker’s arms and neck. Crhymes also wanted Spider-Foo to break the panel borders in the last panel.

Changes are welcome at this rough stage because they’re easy to make before inks and color are added.

Pushing and Refining the Poses

At this time I also decided to push the poses in the piece, especially in panels 1 and 2. (The poses of those two panels in the roughs just looked too similar to me.) Pedro Parker also looked too relaxed in panel 3, so I changed up that pose as well.

Here’s a few rough drawings I made while working on the piece.

Digitally Inking the Comics Page

Inking went slowly for me, though you wouldn’t know it from the timelapse below.

If only I could work that fast.

I originally estimated the page would take me about 6 – 8 hours, but each panel took about 3 hours including rough drawing, inks, lettering, and colors.

A lot of that time was spent trying things that didn’t work out, like those early rough colors, or some of the unused poses, for instance. And a lot of undos. Undo. Undo. Undo. Making comics is hard.

Here’s the final inks.

Coloring the Comics Page

I finished the colors, (done on a separate layer from the inks and pencils, as you can see above), choosing not to show Spider-Foo in full-color until the final couple of panels.

I sent the final artwork to Crhymes. He had a few edits to the text, which was no problem since the lettering was a well-crafted font I purchased from PixelSagas.

Leading up to San Diego ComicCon, Crhymes started posting a panel a day to his Instagram. Crhymes is wild, ambitious, and smart. It’s my guess that he has a lot of stories in him, and not just Spider-Man parodies.

I’m grateful he took a chance on this fairly untested comics-maker.

Go buy a shirt from him, or a print of the comic, while he works on his next project.

Posted
April 11, 2019
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zines
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late layout changes to steps volume 2


the nice thing about printing these up myself is that i can make changes late in the game

when i printed up a few copies of steps volume 2, for instance, i was unsatisfied with the size of the images in the book (in a way that i wasn’t with volume 1)

the comics felt too small. they had no oomph. no impact at that size

so i decided to go with a 2 x 2 frame instead of fully vertical

with this change in the layout the images are quite a bit bigger. i didnt realize how important having those panels be as large as possible is – especially since the panel don’t change much

you can still preorder volume 2 in the store. or save some money with a steps 2 pack if you haven’t yet picked up volume 1

my plan is to start printing these no later than april 16

Posted
April 6, 2019
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comics
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redacted’s dream

this dream’s not mine, it was a friend of mine, but it was a good one to turn in to comics

i wrote down as many dreams as i could remember in march, so i’ll be making more of these

and today i picked up a ream of cardstock, so i’ll start printing copies of steps volume 2 soon. preorder now!

and if you didn’t pick up volume 1 yet, pick up the 2 pack. they look and feel really good

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