Don't want to talk too much.

Here's some stuff from the List:





And some more commission work:

 

Says it all doesn't it. The Australian government in it's infinite wisdom has decided to pursue this "Clean Feed" and actually implement this idea of censoring the internet on the pretense that it is "protecting children". Sure it is. Just like banning the sale and use of knives because someone got stabbed with one. Trying to kill a fly with a nuke. Et cetera.

This topic was discussed on the tv show ‘Insight’ a while ago, and the main argument is that it protects children.

 

Well, power companies don't administer you house's power sockets and amperage to prevent electrocution because you're so lazy/negligent as a parent to mind them and your children yourself; why should it be the same for the internet?

 

If you are unskilled to set up a computer in such a way, DON'T have the internet installed in your house. For some reason, people are able to stop their children from stealing the car and going joy-riding, but when it comes to the internet no one can do anything about it, can they? I suppose any parent that buys a computer, sets it up in their child's room, connects to the internet, and doesn't monitor their child's use of the internet really means that parent's are completely helpless and have absolutely no control in the matter. 

 

For fuck's sake, you can stop your children swallowing paint, playing with knives, playing with fire, but for some reason the internet is just beyond the average parent?! No. It’s not. The onus is on the parents and not the state. I don’t want my internet suitable for 3 year olds and below only, meaning the rest of us are reading the Wiggles instead of BBC news.

 

Also, the proposed 44% reduction in speed will cripple the economy. For a nation that has one of the slowest and least progressive broadband in the world, to decimate what little speeds it has, conflicts with the proposed federal initiative to enhance our broadband, where it is already acknowledged as integral to the nation’s interests economically and socially.

 

It is not the government’s role to censor its people. They can and will enforce the law, but censorship serves no just role. You can enforce the law fine without harming the public doing so.

 

As for the prevention of crimes, it’s fairly evident it won’t do anything aside from make them use more underground methods (even still using the internet), why doesn’t the government spend more time and resources preventing these crimes and inforcing the law than censoring the internet. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather the issue of some child being abused should be addressed first rather than the matter of the internet, because it just happens to coincidentally be a distribution tool. I’d liken the situation to banning a model of car because it is used often for bank robberies. But maybe that’s just silly, as the government cares more for its populace control rather than enforcing law and order.

Fun shit. Exams are over and that has freed up quite a bit of time for me, so naturally I’ve been going out and enjoying the weather and not doing any comiking. That time is now over. I am crying on the inside, I assure you.

 

Time for comiking. It is long overdue. But I like comiking, so not really such a bad thing really. :)

 

I’m doing ‘The List’ pages too, but I have to scan those, and I’m not near a scanner.

 

Here’s a panel for a short promotional commissioned comic instead, that I am spending way too much time on. I think that this delay is produced by a tendency to be perfectionist for every detail. Hey, now that a lot of time has elapsed, I have no choice but to deliver the quality, eh?

 

Getting much appreciated support for the Anthology idea I have. Looks like that pipedream of mine that’s been bobbing in my head for the last few years might very well go somewhere, and dare I think get done. Funding looks like it will be covered. I might be able to afford to boost the production quality, although I’d say that’s a premature statement as I haven’t gotten around to getting printer quotes just yet.

And because I like transparency, I’ve put this down.

From what I conceived of it at the moment:

-         Title has not been created yet. Expect some weird name.

-         10-15 contributors

-         Invite only for first round artists, and then it’s open to others if room is available. I think this is would ensure that the quality of the work is there. At the moment, I have a fairly large shortlist, so it’s going to be hard culling it down to a mere 10-15, but then again, it also depends if anyone is up for being a contributor.

-         10-20 comic pages each

-         Full colour

-         I wouldn’t mind A5 size, but it’ll probably be the same size as another anthology called Gelatin (smaller than A4?).

-         Optional theme: Psychosomatic

-         Each author has 1-2 little pages dedicated to their biography and description of works (and pimp out their websites/contact details/whatever else).

-         Tentative 3 book anthology, where the first one will determine if the others will get done as well as if further print runs are required

-         Initial print run will be 200

-         Glossy dust cover jacket (I initially wanted a matte finish without a dust cover, but after seeing this done on another anthology where it really worked, I wanted to do this)

-         Glossy interior pages if budget allows

-         I’ll try to promote it as much as I can before its release and after, by flyers and whatnot during conventions. To help generate interest, I’ll try to include it with my works, and probably encourage other contributors to do the same if they go to cons, or to include it with their works as a freebie.

-         Each contributor gets one copy.

-              Each contributor retains the right to their work, but for the first edition, I'd like the first printing rights to include it in the anthology. For further print runs, the agreement has to be renewed with the creators for the right to print for each subsequent run.

-         I’d like the sales price per book to be around $25-$30

-         The idea is after printing costs and excluding contributor copies (at cost per unit), each contributor (including myself as I’d be a contributor) will have equal share in profits. So that means whatever is left over is split evenly amongst however many contributors there are in the book.

This can be done either as a lump sum payment when the first print run sells out or included on a per unit basis and paid in instalments after certain predetermined sales marks are made. I prefer the former as it’s less complicated for me. ;)

Maybe I’m a bit naïve, but I think that 200 print run is doable to sell out, and after printing costs are recouped, I don’t see why anyone who contributed shouldn’t be able to have profits (even if I do run at a (hopefully minor) personal loss for myself).

-         If further print runs are required, all contributors have to consent to a second printing (per book if it gets to that). If it’s not a full consensus, then it does not go ahead.

 

 

These things will most likely change during the course of the production, and this is by no means a complete list inclusive of all contingencies. So far this is an idea at its roughest design stage.

I've been doing exams. Yay me. Rest assured, I'll be posting so much when the exam period ends, you'll be sick of me. Lots of 'The List' related updates to look forward to.

Here's a little something for you.

Keep this short and sweet. I’ll post more shite later on other stuff.

Webcomic. MÜT ON A STICK: You won’t get the title unless you’re very, very ethnic AND old, old school.

I spent the better part of today doing CGing this comic. As usual, I make things difficult and don’t use reference, even at least for the colour. Goes to show that just grinding it out gets the best results for me when it comes to CG. 

I was surprised how decently I managed, at least for rendering the sky. I used Photoshop and the same old brush I always use. For some reason I’m more effective with full opacity settings on the brush. I can blend without it being a faint thing. 

If I keep this webcomic as sporadic ongoing, I should stick with it as it’ll remain interesting for me to continue. My long form comics are what I really enjoy doing predominantly,

It’s entirely “uncalled-for” humour, but hey.

In other news:

Comic a week is chugging along. I’ve been doing it, but I haven’t been posting nearly as much as I should. I’ll change that as soon as I get some obligations out of the way; which should be cleared up after 8 September.

I’ve worked on Incunabula a bit more. I’m redoing it again from the start. I’m working bigger so that my inked line work will be tighter. I found that working at A4 was too restricting, and that my inks look like some amateur did them. When I did the cover on larger manuscript paper, my inks were satisfactory. So far I’ve done the first two pages. Admittedly, they are splash pages, but the amount of detail I’ll put into them will be quiet a feat.

Since I am taking my time with these pages, I’m somewhat enjoying it. I like working on something, taking time off, and looking at it with fresh eyes. You tend to admire the results more too, as the work you put in pays off. If you rush shit, then you get shit.

Commission work is now my priority for this week (amongst all my other non-comic related priorities). I went out of the house today, and went to my Uni’s library and got some work done. These days, I cannot work at home. There are too many distractions. Internet, for one, is very, very bad for getting things done. It’s also refreshing to move about and just bask in outdoors. The library is quiet, and there’s enough space to put a laptop on the table as well as spread your page. The best thing is that it’s open until 9pm on weekdays; plenty of dedicated work time. 

The List isn’t getting a lot of love as of late. It has a tentative January release date (same like the last volume). I best get cracking on that so I can give it Tom in increments. I don’t want to do the same thing I did last year and lump it all on him in one shot to ink. As I’m sure I’ve said before (if I haven’t, I’m saying it now), I want to put more work into my pages. I felt that with each volume, my work is improving, but there’s always something that feels like a step back. I’m going to put more attention into my backgrounds, and I have to learn to adapt to Tom’s inking style. When I pencilled the last volume, I was pencilling like I would ink it myself, but Tom has a grittier bolder inking style than I do. He also takes liberties with my details. So I have to make the most of his inking style as its pretty damn good.

Henry

I’ve been throwing the idea of doing my own anthology for quiet some time now. Sure there’s the tentative Oztaku Anthology, but I want to do things differently. This is spurred on by getting other anthology comics over the years. Titles released locally like: Fist Full of Comics, Xuan Xuan, Moshi Moshi, Pirates, Something Wicked, Oztaku, Generation, et cetera; but also other international anthologies, in particular Robot and Flight.

 It’ll be a limited series of 3 collections. I think 3 is a good number, and doing an anthology one way can only last so long until it’ll stagnate. 

Ideally I want it in full colour, making it expensive from the onset. I’ve also found that there are a few artists I know of already hesitant with working in colour. I might be able to assist with that by doing the flats for them to work off, but I already see this turning into a nightmare task.

Although, the main differences that separate what I want to do from most other Aussie anthologies is the quality control. I want to choose artists that would go into it. I’ll be flipping the bill for this, so I might as well make it the way I want; and I want quality. This poses problems in itself, as getting artist commitment would probably be difficult.

I’d be acting as a default editor in chief as well, so that would be additional work for me, on top of creating content. It goes without saying, that because this is my project, I’d be doing the lion’s share of work as well, which is honestly, something I am looking forward to. I happen to like learning new shit, and because I’d be working at my own pace, I’d have the chance to enjoy it too. So pre-press, marketing, distribution, sales and customer service.

Storywise, they’ll be shorts. It can be a story spanning the whole 3 collections, or just disparate one-shots per collection. Nice and easy. It would range from 15 to 20 pages from each artist per book. If there were 6 comikers in total, and each did 15 pages minimum, then it would hit the 90 page mark. I think that having 15 pages per story is important as it would give the reader something substantial. This anthology would conceivably be shared with everyone who’d come across it, so I want those who come by it to enjoy it naturally, and come away with an experience. Ideally, I’d want the shorts to be experimental, so whoever comes across this anthology will experience something they haven’t read before, but I know not all comikers are inclined so, so this isn’t essential.

That’s it for the moment. This is only an idea. I don’t have the time necessary to devote to this…yet. I guess after July 2010, I’d have the time to do this properly. 

I’m putting this in writing so that this may actually happen in the future. By writing things down, at least I find for myself, that I eventually make my ideas happen.

Smash 2009. I'm off to Smash tonight at midnight.

I'll be at the OzTaku booth helping out and maybe working on sketches there, so I'll be promoting myself and earning money. Well, that's what I say now; I'll see how I feel at the con. If you're there, or planning to go to Smash, definitely come and say hi.

If you want a sketch, I think I can cover paper, but if you want me to draw something for you in particular, please bring a reference.

I hope there's a bunch of stuff I can bring back. I mainly go to cons for new independent works. I don't buy the shite I can get here (and choose not to buy anyway), or useless fanart. I go for the comics. That said, I am looking forward to seeing RockSalt GN and finally meeting Mark after all this time.

There's some more stuff I intend on doing there, like getting some other work done, as well as designing a business card for myself.

I suppose that's it for now. I'll post more when I get back.

Cheers


Henry

So it's been a bit between posts. For the two people reading my blog, I've probably lost them. :P

Well, I've maintained some output in my self-imposed sabbatical. I have sort of been creating one comic a week, but some I can't really show. What I will share is some development of The List. I've done this for the List website which needs some content inbetween volume launches. ;)

I'll also be making some changes to the layout of this blog. At least the banner. Probably work on a welcome picture for my DA Portfolio which has been set up recently. It's a new feature of DA, which I welcome. I don't think it's any real substitute for creating your own portfolio site, but it's better than the nothing I had. 

The List Process.


 
Here are the thumbnails of the first few of pages. What I do is I open the script in Word, and then I print it out the script so you get 2 pages on a single page. I work directly on the scripted page. It saves paper, and I don’t have to flip between pages. Also, doing more than one thumbnail on a page helps with the storytelling relationship between the pages, and makes it more cohesive overall.



Nifty fact #1: I work in traditional media, even though I am reasonably good in digital (I paint in digital though, but the main work is done on paper first). It feels better, and with art, that is what I usually go for. For me, the result doesn’t matter as much as the process. Somehow, it always works out with producing the results in the end. :P

You might notice the thumbnails are pretty weird. Thumbnails are meant to convey layout only. I used to do more detailed ones when I started working with Paul, but that was more the fact that we haven’t worked together before, so putting more detail in was a way to get across what I was doing visually to Paul. The script writing probably changed as he got more familiar with my work. 
Now, thumbnails are purely for organising what Paul has written in the script into a storytelling format, and design purposes. It’s a planning stage. I figure, that if you put too much detail into the thumbnails, you might as well be doing the finished page.  

Nifty fact #2: Oh, and the lame offhand comments written on the thumbnails are there for my own interest/amusement. :D

Page 3 is a finished page. I pencil fairly sparsely typically, because I’m used to inking my own work, and I do all my detail in that stage. But as of the last volume, I am working with Tom Bonin. Working with an inker changed my pencilling process somewhat. I had to put all the detail, as well as pencil the entire page. What I used to do was pencil the foreground and ink it, and then do the background objects in layered order. Now it’s all done at once. It feels weird doing what every other conventional penciller does.

I’ve also included a close up of my pencils. I’ve sharpened it up in Photoshop a bit to make it more crisp for intertrons viewing. As Tom is inking this, I usually leave the scans unaltered. He’ll then use whatever process he has to transfer it to paper.
Tom would probably have his own preferences on how he wants to reproduce copies of my pages to ink, and therefore altering my pencils post-scanning would just end up being a pain in the arse for Tom. 

Page four has been scanned prior to its completion just to further show how I work pencilling. If you take a look at the thumbnails for this page, the layout is roughly the same. But you still have to transfer it to a page. In this stage I chose the main things to draw and position them roughly how I want them to appear on the final page. I then adjust the layout slightly to accommodate. Thumbnails are a good indication of how the page should work, but it is by no means final. Layout is an art in itself, so my advice to anyone doing comics is to treat it with care.
Working on paper on the physical page also visually helps with composition. It’s hard for this to be replicated in a digital canvas for some reason (zooming out is not the same as standing back), so I can’t imagine myself working entirely on a computer.

Nifty fact #3: The List is a sausage-fest. Even as heavily silhouetted, as this female character is, I’ll draw the detail in, if only for the fact that it’ll be a while until another chick is in this damn script. :P


Cheers

Henry

Despite all evidence to the contrary, I have been progressing with One Comic A Week, albeit in a different form. Over the last 2 weeks I've been working poster-size on the cover to my 24 hour comic, which is now called Incunabula. It took ages to do all the cross-hatching detail, and even half-way through it didn't look like it was forming well, but that's the nature of working creatively. Thankfully, I think it turned out rather decent. I used nibs, ink and a pen brush. Here's a draft of the cover.

Aside from cover, I have also been planning the story to Incunabula as well as another project I've called Quorum. While I intend for Incunabula to be a fairly short 20-30 pages story, I want Quorum to be a significantly longer story. Indeed I want it to be Novel length 100+ pages. I've done the outlines to the scenes for the story and it's starting to take shape before my eyes.

I also created a poster for Quorum. I wanted a retro circa 60s feel to it, and I think I achieved it. I used a different medium for this though. I used a Pentel Aquash disposable brush ink pen. It’s distinguishable from other brush pens like Copic’s or Windsor & Newton’s as it has bristles, and you can refill it. It’s not to the same standard as a really good brush and it has a habit of forming large globules of ink on the bristles if you do only fine lines and not use the whole brush (scrap paper to wipe off excess essential to using this!), but on the whole I am liking it.

I even used the brush pen to do all the lettering for the logos in the images. That's right; all this shit is hand-written.

I did the Quorum poster in all of 20 minutes. I like the way the folds in the cloths are rendered with the brush. I’m still uncomfortable with the loss of detail as I am a detail junkie with my nibs, but I’m getting line work similar to other brush users I admire (Meredith Gran, Craig Thompson, Jeff Smith, et cetera). I’ll be planning on using a brush entirely or at least for the figures for Quorum.

-Henry

Something I've started over on the Oztaku forums. After the high from the comikraze 24 hour comic challenge last weekend, I've been listening to comiking podcasts like SEQALAB and going over old podcasts from Webcomics Weekly. One particular SEQALAB podcast brought up the professional production schedule differences between French and American comics. French work on poster size works, and usually paint one page a week. American comikers do a rate of one page a day. The French comiker does this for about 46 weeks which is then put into a BD, then knocks off for a month of holiday and starts all over again for the next year (publishers have the right idea for creatives there).

This got me thinking, that working on a page a week is really doable. It's easy. No matter what is going on in your life. I am working more frequently on pages for the List, than that schedule. 

Then it reminded me of something from a Webcomics podcast brought up. If you think of doing a 40 page book, your natural reaction is that it is impossible before you start. Sure. If you think about doing a page a week, suddenly that's not impossible. The point is, if you keep doing one page a week of comic, before you know it you have a GN.

That's the idea behind A Comic a Week. While the Australian comic scene is very creative, and there are some real good comics being produced, there's a whole lot of wasted potential. Good artists that could otherwise do a comic (look at the 24 hour comic challenge), just don't even start. Something I've learnt while doing GNs is that if you just concentrate on just the next page, you suddenly have a lot of pages under your belt. After a while I was counting by the GNs I've produced and not pages.

From now on, every Monday, I will post a new page of comic. I also have multiple projects, so I'll also alternate between them depending on immediate priority. This will most likely be concurrent to work on the List as well as commission work, but I think I can always find the time to do one page a week.

It's this focus I want to introduce people to. It's not a natural thing to adapt to, but I assure you, once you start, it will never feel like grinding. It feels like grinding when you look at the end, but if you look at just the next page, it feels like a stroll. Suddenly your at the end.

Henry

Last weekend was the comikraze 24 hour comics challenge. It's a annual event always held on the Queens Birthday weekend hosted on the Pulpfaction forums, and this year I did the event again but this time it was with a few other comiker friends. Essentially we started around 5pm, although I rocked up around 7:15pm and started around 7:30pm.

I have to say that I really enjoyed it. I think it was a bit of a pain working all night and all the way until 11:00am the next morning, but I think all in all I had fun and so did everyone else who did too. 

I did not finish my entry. I decided to change my approach this year. I put a lot of emphasis on experimenting as usual, but I concentrated on making it more polished. Ink nibs were indeed out and on show. Previous years I did 16 pages, then 12 pages, then last year it was an 8 page story. This year, in much the same trend, I increased the quality by boosting it to my finished polished work standard; however what was different is that I increased the story page count to a full 24 pager. I managed 8 finalised pages only.

I did not end up posting it online at Pulpfaction. I've decided to finish this comic and then print it. I based the story on one of my nightmares I've incurred from this upcoming Corporate Law exam (shudder). I thought I realised this quite well as a story, and I think it would be a waste to leave it as an unfinished 24 hour comic, particularly as I changed my approach this year precisely because of how I felt the story translates to a comic. I intend to print and sell this comic, as well as post it online for free on my deviantart. 

Aside from last weekend's 24 hour comiking shenanigans I have also been doing commission work based on a to-be-released Sci-Fi novel. I have some art which is near finished that I'll share. Essentially, it is a promo comic to be posted online, and I suspect might be gracing print as well. I won't be posting a lot of this online, but I thought I'd share the first page. It's in greyscale, so it sort of is a departure from my pure black and white inks, but those familiar with my CG style should be able to recognise some similarities between the two.

Henry

Playlist: Mars Volta - Francis the Mute & Amputechure, At the Drive-In - In Casino Out, Mastadon - Crack the Skye, Zwan - misc. live stuff, Kyuss - Welcome to Sky Valley, IAMX - Kingdom of Welcome Addiction.

Progress on the List is pretty good. I have decided on the thumbnails of the first few pages and have been working on the first two pages. Here are the first two pages of Volume 03. I think they’re coming along, but I’ll either modify parts of it or redo the pages entirely to get them just right.

I want to put more time into the pages of this volume. I thought with the last volume it could have benefited with better composition/design/layout. It was adequate, and the drawings were good and detailed, but that doesn’t cut it when it’s a comic. A comic needs all elements to be good, and not just pretty pictures in boxes. 

A lot of comikers either don’t know this or they don’t care they make shit sequentials. A comic has to be functional as well as balancing aesthetics to complement storytelling. I dislike a lot of comics pure illustrators/painters do because they don’t put thought into it. Pages look horrible despite individual panels looking nice.The most important thing is to notice what you’re doing wrong and fix it. 

Henry

Now, I don’t intend to use this blog to bore you with my personal life, but this is probably an exception. I went to the Penfolds Grange 10 Year Anniversary Dinner last night with some friends. I’ll just concentrate on what I thought were the highlights of the dinner.

Surprise was the Gewurztraminer, which I quite enjoyed, but the meal that accompanied it didn’t really suit it I found. I was served with sliced raw swordfish, and the wine really overpowered it, so I don’t think they complemented each other well.
I preferred the 2008 bin 311 Chardonnay over the 2007 Reserve Bin 07A. I thought the 2007 was a bit young, and very citrus-y. The Morton bay bugs and scampi souffle that accompanied it was really good.
Now the best part of the dinner: The Main with 4 Granges. Fuck yeah. The 1983 Grange was my favourite. I didn’t like the 1989 Grange as much as I thought I would, a few of us at the table found it a bit too sweet, but then there were some who preferred it; it is a personal preference thing. The 1999 Grange, and the only straight shiraz of the lot, was alright. I liked the 2004 Grange. It’s relatively new, and still has a lot of room for aging, but it was good.
The main dish was wagyu tenderloin, which is a meat I have always been disappointed by. It has always had too much fat or just dry (it doesn’t matter if it’s aged or not), and frankly I prefer a good old black Angus rib eye. Last night’s wagyu was one of the best steaks I’ve had. It was perfectly cooked medium-rare with a layer of foie gras on top served on top of mushrooms and Penfolds Grange jus. Fucking A. It’s funny, because the Grange dinner is at the same restaurant that I usually try wagyu. I guess they went all out last night. I doubt I’ll ever have a steak that good again anytime soon.
As a consequence my mouth went entirely purple. Unfortunately, despite the amounts of alcohol and my best efforts, I did not get drunk nor even tipsy. Fucking tolerance to alcohol went up again. I drank about 4 bottles worth of wine dammit. Probably the food absorbed it or something.
Peter Gago chief winemaker was there and I even got him to sign the complementary book. He recommended a few other underrated Granges, which I will save to get one day. I took home an empty bottle of 1983 Grange as a memento.

So another thing that warrants its own post: The List.

Volume Two is now out and available on our website: http://www.the-list.com.au/
Actually, for that matter, Volume One is out as well, since I never mentioned that as well.

The first book has my name misspelled and only features me and Paul Bedford. The second volume brings in Tom Bonin (www.tombonin.com) who does lovely inky things to my pencils. In all seriousness Tom's inks really bring out my pencils and I'm pretty glad he's on board.

Volume Three is in the works, where I await my script for it. I suppose any news on that front will be published here and on the List website too.

...I still don't have a copy of Volume 2. ;_;


Henry

So a year, eh? It has literally been over a year since I last posted anything. And it was a leap year too, so that means an extra couple days there.

Here's something new. I was asked very kindly by the people at www.sawbonesonline.com to do a colour pinup for their second volume. And here it is. Loose linework done in pencil and then scanned and completed entirely in Photoshop. Tried a new brush, and I have to say I like the rough quality it produced.

I haven't done new CGs since the last post, and it took an whole year to get around to doing a new one. It took about two days on and off. It was surprisingly quick to do. As always, it's a learning experience as I rarely do CG but I somehow know how to make the most of it. I improve greatly with every attempt.
I don't think it's wholey a matter of "practice, practice, practice". I don't practice and my work is noticably better than the last. I don't even do it often enough to retain muscle memory of pen flicks. I think that you have to really know how composition, design, lighting, physics, human behaviour etc. works to really get better.
There are a lot of technically able and brilliant artists out there, but are incredibly and tragicially shit. There is nothing in their work that speaks aside from the "clever" things they manage to do in their works. There's no humanity; if it features a human figure at all there's no emotion or life or anything natural; they're plastic and might as well be a mannequin. The pose is unnatuaral and there's no expression. Also the composition and design isn't there. No one is imaginative enough to break away from their training wheels and move from the centre focal point.
Another thing is that I really can't get over how people don't know enough about design or typography to incorporate it into their work. For the small amount that do, can only do more contempory designs and dismiss every previous era of design. This is more apparent in fantasy art or comiking, especially on places like Deviant art, where people have a set aesthetic and no one will dare challenge that.


Henry