How I do it! Part one! (Air Pirate)

So I know there is a lot of people that read my comic that know more about making comics then I do …. but there are a few folks out there that have no idea what so ever. so I’m going to walk you through a day of drawing for me. This is going to follow the path from sketchbook to your web browser.

This is drawing is of  “Sarah the Steampunk Polyamrous Air Pirate” (Some title huh)

This image .. She is PISSED OFF! She just discovered someone trying ….oh wait I’m not going to give that away! The drawing was done over a few days with my sketchbook. and a 4H hard pencil!

Drawing of Sarah

This is how it looks right after being scanned into iphoto.. The problem I have been having is that the paper is too big for my tiny scanner . so you notice that the center of the image is sharper then the edges. this is because I place my hand down on the center of the image so it can be properly scanned .. I’m looking to fix this problem later.

The image was Scanned in as full color and not gray scale. at 300 DPI. I choose to not use gray scale or B&W because of some issues with Iphoto only liking RGB color pallets.  I use Iphoto to keep my images organized till I can have a chance to edit them in GIMP

Once I have them in Iphoto I categorize the image so I can find it quickly later . Keyword and bookmarks are my best friend.

Sarah in Gimp

Here I start to remove the background caused by the light escaping because my scanner is too small for the size of paper I use. One the background is removed it will be easier to add any kind of background that I wish!

Once I have done that. I add Layers ..

• Jacket
• Clockwork Arm
• Hair
• Sarah skin
• Eye Patch
• Brass works
• Gun
• Bullwhip

The idea is that each object should have its own layer .. I like to make changes to those layers later on.

Next time I will show you what happens when I add color.

http://steampunkadventures.smackjeeves.com/

 

How to get past “Artist Block”

Artist block .. its that moment where your staring at a blank page .. art tool in hand and nothing comes to mind. You want to draw but you can’t …. Writers bitch about this all the time, but who says writers get to suffer alone. I have a few tips that might help get past that blank sheet of paper

• Keep notes and save it for later …  sometimes ideas flow like a river.  You have more ideas then time. or like me these ideas come to you when you cannot pick up a pencil and start drawing.  Like a meeting , Driving , having a long boring conversations.  I use a program called Evernote.  It allows me to make a note of these ideas when they strike (I just have to remember his is a resource)

• Draw something else.!! Instead of working on your current project .. draw your cat or try out a new drawing technique. Start a painting if you draw .. or draw something if you normally paint … perhaps a potters wheel has been sitting around waiting for attention. This noodling and keep your skills sharp while your ideas are dull.
• See what someone else has done. I love Deviant art for this. The website is filled with creative people. It is very hard to not get inspired. for you comic book artists out there perhaps this is the excuse to go get that latest graphic novel by your favorite artist.
• Watch/Read movies/books on similar topics. I’m currently reading the “Lost World”
• Sex …. This is one place where the married folk have an advantage (And if you don’t find being married an advantage perhaps its time to talk about how you can improve your relationship… I am one of the lucky ones) . I always seem to be more creative afterward.
• Talk to someone about the topic. If your ideas are running dry perhaps someone else can provide that creative spark.
• Blog about what your doing …. see
• Walk away !  you might be trying too hard .. I find that this is very powerful for me. Most of the time I go for a walk to the local mall.. People watching will often trigger an idea.
• Side projects .. you know that idea you had .. that one you did not start because you were in the middle of this project! Well devote some time to start it, but remember to come back to finish this project!

I would love to get some feedback on these ideas or if you have a good way to get past your artist block!

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Diffaculty drawing chapter 3

So chapter 3 has been a huge problem. It has been the most difficult to draw. And not just on a physical draw correctly kind of way. But also in the area of motivation. It has taken me some time to get past that. Here are the problems I have had to overcome

- introduction of the poly pirates
Not that I’m in the closet about being poly or anything it’s just I want to be more then “father knows best of. Polyamory”. Who wants to read about people who are perfect I want to have some real issues to overcome without giving the lifestyle reputation of being dysfunctional. So I have been trying to write something that will be fun at the same time not be a “how to manual”

- Nudity. What!!!! Nudity?!?! Yes the pirates get necked. I don’t feel like censoring my work at the same time it’s part of the story. So I have been working on a compromise. I’m also going to have a few versions when to goes to print. These will very from the version I would let my son read to version that will have disclaimers all over it. Do other writers run into this problem?

- violence
I’m not talking about your standard comic book violence. I’m talking about harming someone on a deep personal level. I had a hard time drawing this because I could not relate to someone who would want to do such a thing. I had to resort to reading some clinical info as well as some fiction. Both of those will give me nightmares. However this has made the scene where bjorn gets his revenge on such violent and twisted individual so much clearer in my mind. In fact my problem is finding a reason for bjorn not killing him.

http://steampunkadventures.smackjeeves.com/

 

Keep posting

So I had to move my hosting ,so far so good. The site does a lot of things automatically that i was going to spend hours trying to write code for. As much as I’m a DIY kinda Internet guy you have to consider that need to focus on the creation of the comic and not the hosting/web design. When you think that 30 hours of teaching my self php is a lot of drawing.

I have posted all 47 pages with the first 16 released right away and the rest set to be released once a day . This will give me some time to create more.

I need to get my domain from godaddy and this is taking way too long. I will keep you informed

Chapter 1 Page 9

Chapter 1 Page 1

Chapter 1 Page 1

The Adventure begins!

So when I say that the adventure begins, I’m not talking about the comic – but my life; and you get to come along for the ride.  When I was growing up many of my goals were squashed by the same people that should have been pushing me towards those goals.  One of the major goals in my life was to create a comic.  Welcome to my therapy!!  I’m always looking for feedback please email me at Artofpaint@gmail.com.

About the Comic

The comic is hand painted in watercolor and heavily influenced by my fascination with Stan Lee.  I have deliberately chosen to not ink the comic in order to keep the watercolor feel.  The images below started as doodles and then inspired the rest of the comic.

Steampunk adventure.

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