THE SIMPSONS NEWS

I’m back on SIMPSONS show 500  this week. This time around I’m doing board revisions.  Seems the screening of the show went real well.  Act 1 (which was my act) was assigned back to me to revise and it turns out the rewrite on it was very slight.  So slight in fact, that I finished revising it yesterday (Wednesday). That doesn’t happen too often.  Today I’ll be working on my section of Act 2 as well as the rest of the Act.

The revisions for Act 2 are a little more involved but perhaps not too involved because my director also assigned me almost of all Act 3.  Here’s hoping I can get most of Act 2 done by the end of the week.

VIDEOS

Wednesday of this week, I accompanied my co-workers to the comic book store during lunch.  Later, while my friends looked through their comics (I didn’t buy any) as we eat lunch, we started talking about the comic artists we liked.

One of them was Sean Gordon Murphy. Later, when we got back to work, my friend Paul sent me a link to the video below of Sean Gordon drawing only with ink and a brush.  It made us want to shoot ourselves. He’s too good. Enjoy:

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So if you’ve read my earlier posts on this blog, you known that I’m going through one of those artist growing periods where I’m about to learn something new and become a more well rounded artist but BECAUSE of this, my work has now become worse.  This happens to all artist all the time.  Once it’s happened to you enough times, you recognize what it is.  It’s best at a time like this to just enjoy the process even though the work you produce is lousy.

As I’ve struggled through this time, I realized it would be best to talk things over with my friend and “Art Sifu” Paul Wee.  I wanted to run some thoughts by him about what I was doing wrong and how to handle them. There were two big questions really wanted answers to:

1. Why did everything I draw look cartoony?
2. What, if any, details should I put in the shadow area?

To get to this point I basically showed Paul all  the work I’d done and told him how I’d been tearing my hair out over it.  During the conversation, the realization came out that I thought of myself as a trained cartoonist than an illustrator, while Paul, thought himself more as a trained illustrator than a cartoonist.  We’ve both had secondary training in each other’s fields but we come to drawing from different foundations.

After Paul heard me out he first told me to pick a medium to do the final cover in. Once I did that, I should practice doing my roughs in that medium. Switching mediums, as I had been, was only making things worse for me.  He asked me to find a style I wanted the cover to have and use that as my goal.

He then answered my first question.  He told me the reason my stuff was looking cartoony was because I was thinking like a cartoonist and not like a painter.  He told me, in order to get the realism I wanted, I should not think of drawing any lines at all. I should be thinking in planes and values. This made sense to me and it really cleared a lot of things up.  I’ve been to classes for this. I knew what he was talking about.  I was never great at it and I’d need to practice more, but the solution was clear.

He then answered my second question.  The shadow should have no detail. It should just be dark.  The center of interest would be the one eye looking to the side, why have any other details distracting from that detail?  The reason I had asked was because I’ve been trained in my figured drawing  classes to NOT put any details in the shadow areas.  I though somehow that because the piece I’m working on has so much shadow in the face that it would be weird to do that. He basically told me it wouldn’t look weird and reinforced my training.

The conversation was long and personal. We talked a bit more about different things about art but the main things that I got from it was what I just wrote above. When the conversation was over, it was time for me to decide what medium I was going to use to finish the drawing.  After thinking about it and IM-ing Paul once or twice, I decided to go with gouache paint. I’d never used gouache but I thought it would be a valuable tool to learn. It would make me more versatile as an artist.

Since I didn’t have gouache, and I had a little bit of time, I decided to start experimenting with a “plains and values” study, using Black Prismacolor on tracing paper.  This is what I did. The first drawing I did was the one on the right and I believe the last one was the one on the left.

These drawings helped me wrap my head around trying to think in only planes and values. Problem was that I kept getting uneven values in my drawing which threw me off. So next I decided I was going to use my markers to try to get all the values in certain areas to be the same. So I did the drawing below:

I was mainly concentrating on the face.  At this point I wasn’t sure how dark to make it but I did begin to see that an all dark face with just the right combination of light patterns would work.

That day, on the way home, I bought some gouache.  The next time day, during my lunch break I began experimenting with the paint.  I painted some test shapes in order to see how I could blend and render with them.  I found that I really liked gouache.  The next day, I decided to begin my first pass of a rough sketch. The problem was that I used a different method to paint the rough than I had used with my shapes test.  I didn’t have the type of control I wanted using this new method.

Next time, I’ll use the method I used with my test shapes.  I think I’m getting closer and closer to making a breakthrough.  I hope I am.  I want to get done so I can go back to my cartoon.

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THE SIMPSONS NEWS/VIDEOS

Head Director of THE SIMPSONS, Mike Anderson, decided to do a little experimental film using his iPhone.  He took a bunch of pictures of a “typical” day on the show and then put them together to make a strobing film put to music.  It’s a very Mike Anderson idea.  Wacky, unexpected, unique and very creative. Have a look.  I’m not in it, but the current office I’m working in is:

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As I wrote last week, I made a mock up of the cover I’m working on.  I placed all the elements  where they would be in the final piece using Photoshop. I used the pictures I’ve taken for reference and place them there.  The only thing I have left to take a picture of for reference is the fire:

The problem with the mock up is that all the values are wrong. So I did a thumbnail value study.  Below is the first one I did using black prismacolor pencil on tracing paper:

I didn’t think it was working.  I still couldn’t really get a good idea of whether the values I chose would get me the feel I wanted. I told this my friend and mentor Paul who suggested using black and gray markers. So I did tried it again. Below is a thumbnail drawing using black and gray Copic markers on tracing paper:

I was going to bring my other color markers and try a pass using some reds, yellows, and oranges but I forgot them. Instead I scanned the thumbnail above and used Photoshop to add the colors:

I’d like to think I’ve got what I want.  That these are the correct values, but the truth is, I’m not planning to darken the face up as much as I have it here.  I’m not sure if it matters if I do.  I’ll need to ask Paul.

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THE SIMPSONS NEWS

As of the time of this writing, I’m ALMOST done cleaning up the section of the board that ‘s due by the end of this week.  It’s been a really interesting experience for me.  After the meeting last week that left my head spinning and feeling overwhelmed, I’ve really had time to internalize it all.

I’ve learned a few things about myself as well as the people who I’m working with.  Biggest thing I learned is that I have a big ego. I mean, if I didn’t, I wouldn’t have been so disappointed by how the meeting went.  Having spoken to other board artists on the show, they’ve told me meeting sometimes go that way and sometimes they don’t.  It’s just about learning the style of the show and learning to let go.  I thought I had learned that lesson already but obviously I hadn’t.

Second, I’ve had time since, to talk to both the director and head director about the meeting.  To them, the meeting was just like any other and they’re happy with my work.  Too often, I over think and over worry.

Not only that, but after working on the boards after the revisions, you start “owning” the revisions as well. After all, you have to execute the new shot and any fixes to the original versions.  The interesting thing about doing the revisions is that you’re less worried about whether the shot you’re working on is going to be rejected.

In any case, I will tease the fact that there’s something special being planned for the section I’m working on right now.  I’ll keep you updated as things get closer to finishing.

VIDEOS

I’m a big fan of LOST and a fan of what Damon Lindelof did on it.  I also think it’s fascinating how much he seems like just “one of the guys”.  How down to earth he is and how public he is. He’s a very rare screenwriter in that he’s almost as well known as some actors.

For this reason I was curious to see this interview with him on the Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show.  It’s awesome! If anything, I now respect Lindelof even more.  The story of how he met J.J. Abrams and ended up the show runner on LOST is one of the most compelling things ever.  I love how he tells you what exactly about the show was his idea and what J.J. Abrams came up with AND how much time they had to do the pilot. It’s amazing.

The interview is well over two hours but it’s so worth watching. I highly recommend it.

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I’m still plugging away at that book cover for my wife.  This week I blew up my sketch and with a blue color erase pencil I mapped out the rhythm lines for the character’s face. I also fleshed out the construction of the face a bit more.

I picked up the book  Robert Fawcett: The Illustrator’s Illustrator edited by Manuel Auad, last week and have been sooo inspired.  HE’S SO GOOD! It’s amazing.

If want my cover to somehow capture SOMETHING of Fawcett‘s work.  He’s leagues over my head in mastery. He’s draftsmanship is incredible. I mean, look at his drawing!

So taking his work and having it at the back of my head, I start working on my own thing.  I’m not Fawcett and I don’t think I’ll get there anytime soon (if ever) BUT it’s good to have him as inspiration.

Using the photo reference I took of a friend of my wife, I began doing a slightly tighter version of my rough drawing above.  It was kinda going good until I ran into the problem I was hoping I wasn’t going to have, namely, my reference doesn’t have her eyes open.  In my reference the eyes are looking down, but for my drawing, I wanted the eyes looking back.

Turns out, I can’t fake it.

My drawing below is my first tonal study. If you notice, the area around the eye is darker than the rest the of the drawing. This is because I erased the heck out that area trying to get the eye to look right.  In the end, it just looks cartoony somehow.

I was also testing out what it would look like if I was to really obscure the details of the right hand side of the face in shadow.  I didn’t really like it.

I decided to give it another try.  This time, I would put in the details in the shadow area.  It turned out better, BUT once again, those darn eyes messed me up again.  It’s the one thing I made up out of my head and it’s the one thing that looks off.  Especially the right eye.  I was going for half lidded but it just looks off, and the iris is just way too far away. Plus it seems like it doesn’t line up well with the left eye.

It’s really frustrating. Once again, you can see where I was erasing the most because it’s darker in that area.

I finally did the sensible thing and decided to get the photo reference I needed.  Instead of asking my wife’s friend to come back just to her a picture of her looking back, I asked my wife to model  it instead.  Hopefully my next study will have the eyes right.

For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.

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THE SIMPSONS NEWS

So I’ve started work on show 500.  It’s a good show.  It’s gets crazy. Personally, I think I was given the funniest parts.  I was assigned Act 1 and the start of Act 2. The amount of script pages I was given is more than usual.  Figures I wouldn’t get off doing a normal amount of work on my first go.  Still, I’m up to the challenge.

I didn’t realize how much I’d enjoy myself. I know I’m doing really creative work because when I leave work, I’m still thinking about shots. I usually reserve that sort of problem solving to my personal projects.

The first two days I spent working on the couch in my office.  Something I almost never get to do.  You wouldn’t think that sitting down on a couch could be so exhausting. After my first four hours of sitting there composing shots, my brain felt like mush.  It helped to take a break for lunch and do something else with my brain.

So far, the only thing that really has me worried is the amount of time I’ve got to do this.  I’m trying to pace myself in such a way that I can get the most time cleaning up the drawings and least amount of time, coming up with them.  Hopefully, it won’t be too much of an issue.  Since this is my first time doing this on an actual show (as apposed to The Movie), I’m still feeling out what works best for me.
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The Chealsey Michigan art exhibit I’m a part of opens up this weekend.  The exhibit has some incredible art from some fantastic comic artists.  It makes be very proud to be associated with such an amazing pool of artists.

The artist exhibiting are:

• Dave Roman
• Raina Telgemeier
• Matt Feazell
• Jannie Ho
• Kasey Van Hise
• Brandon Dayton
• Kim Holm
• Luis Escobar
• Anne & Jerzy Drozd

So far the exhibit has gotten attention from the newspaper, THE DETROIT NEWS, in which I was mentioned.

CLICK HERE to read the article.

It’s been given podcast time by Jerzy Drozd, (who had the idea for the exhibit in the first place). Jerzy interviewed Deborah Greer, the owner of the Chelsea River Gallery, on his podcast for Kids Read Comics. They also mentioned me:

CLICK HERE to listen to the podcast.

And if you’re interested in seeing all the artwork in the exhibit, please feel free to check out the slide show that contains the artwork on display.

CLICK HERE to see the slide show.

The artwork is up for sale so keep that in mind. If you want to purchase my work, please give the gallery a call. Their numbers in their site.

VIDEOS

This is a fascinating documentary on the life of the king of comics, Jack Kirby. Thanks to Jon David Guerra on Twitter for posting a link to this:

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Here’s the final Alice in Wonderland illustration.  I decided to do a “sloppy inking” style on the blacks in the piece.  I like the look of that sometimes.  I’m not sure if it turned out well to do that or not.  I’m happy enough with the result to not want to do anything about it.

You’ll notice that in this final drawing,  the Mad Hatter’s arm  is down instead of up on the table, like I had it in my original pencils.  I changed it because I thought the pose looked forced with the hand up.

I really hope the drawing tells the story clearly.

For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.

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Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Tuesday I was sitting at my desk looking at artwork on DeviantArt during my lunch break. I was suppose to be writing my blog but I was procrastinating.  I heard a knock at my office door and in comes the head of production.  She looked a little serious at me and sat down on the couch I have,

“Something has come up.”

Uh oh, I’m losing my job, was my first thought. She went on,

“I think I might have a storyboard job for you.  Not just revisions but a whole Act.”

Woah! I thought surprised.

“One of our board artist has taken a leave of absence to be with his family and for health reasons. We don’t know how long he will be gone but that opens up a position.  The specific show that will need to be boarded is show 500.”

My face was like a statue, but my thoughts and my emotions where all over the place.  Holy cow! No way.  Oh my GOSH!

“We gave the director a list of possible candidates that could do the job and asked him who he wanted.  He asked for you.”

I just about fell over but I kept as cool as I could.

She looked at me, “It’s show 500 so it’s going to be a big deal.  You’ll have four weeks to do the Act.  Two weeks to do the roughs, for the meeting with the director and Head Director. After that two weeks to do the clean ups. The first meeting will take about three hours or so. Do you want to do it?”

My thoughts went racing. The last time I was given this kind of responsibility over  a board was on the movie.  I was terrified when THAT had happened. I thought, shouldn’t this be easier?  Not really, the movie had time to finesse boards a bit. Boards on the show felt like a bigger pressure cooker.  BUT hadn’t I been in a storyboard pressure cooker situations in the movie as well? Yes.  Didn’t I handle it okay.  I think I did. Okay then.

“Yes, I’ll do it,” I replied.

“Okay then. You start Monday.  You’ll meet with the director and you’ll get on your way.  If everything goes well and the Head Director likes your work, you’ll get more,” she got up from the couch, opened the door and smiled as she left, “no pressure or anything.”

“HA, yeah no pressure,” I replied nervously. The door shut behind her.  SHOW 500! Oh man!…I hope I don’t blow it.

I covered my face with my hands. An overwhelming urge to hide came over me.

VIDEOS

I’ve now officially started developing a webcomic.  One that will update regularly. I don’t know the exact specifics but I’ll figure that out as the time to publish approaches.  Right now I’m in pre-production on it.   I’m taking my time since I’m still working on something else right now.  That said, I’m very interested in other people and their approaches to webcomics.  These videos, which interview a webcomic artist with a fantastic idea for a webcomic, intrigued me.

It’s an interview with Dave Wachter who has an Eisner nominated webcomic The Guns of Shadow Valley. Superheroes in the wild west? Count me in! (wish I’d thought of it):

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Here’s the tighter rough for my Alice in Wonderland illustration. From this point on, I get a lightbox, do a light under drawing on bristol paper and ink it.

For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

Comments are appreciated as well.

I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.

If you would like to have a text ad on my site, click on the red BUY LINKS button under the Archives list.

And while you’re at it, please Digg me too.

Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.