Like an idiot, I missed my scheduled posting last Friday. I fail.

I did, however, maintain my comics schedule. In fact, as of today, I have 7 pages penciled, with the exception of a few panels that either need references or other special handling. In the coming week or so I will be posting some of the more complete pencils.

So far, I’m having a lot of fun drawing, even though I have to get up early to do it. I’ve found that some of the simpler pages take longer while some of the pages that I would’ve thought more complex take less time. I’ve also found that I’m not dreading or becoming bored with the slice-of-life type story. Although I really want to do a fantasy/sci-fi epic, this story is satisfying me right now. Perhaps because it’s fairly complete, plot-wise, and I have no shortage of scenes that I know will be included. I pretty much know how the story will progress, what scenes will come next, and how everything will end. Sure, there are some vague points, but I have no doubt that I will be able to plow right through them and onto the next “landmark.”

As for the drawings themselves, I have to say that even though there are some things I don’t like, there are a lot more things I do like, and that’s a good thing. It makes it easy for me to move forward without harping on the work that’s already been completed.

So far, the schedule has been working out and I’m overcoming some of my past problems.

As part of my post-rehab regimen, I’m updating my comics progress on a weekly basis. Fridays will be post days, though that doesn’t mean I can’t post during the week if I have something to share.

I had a good week. I have four pages almost completely penciled; I say almost because there are a couple things that didn’t get completed: things that need referencing, detail, or some other work. But, in all, four pages have been penciled. Plus, I started using two-page thumbnails to figure out what I want to have happen. This has been useful since I’m working from a plot (and not a page breakdown) and, with the thumbnails, I can figure out what I want to have happen on a page, in what sequence, and about what I might want to draw. When I get to the full-size page, I sketch everything out like normal, tweak the layout, make changes to what content I want on the page, and then finish the pencils.

My goal is to be able to pencil a full page in an hour-and-a-half. Today, I almost accomplished that feat. I do realize time will be determined by difficulty, but I do want to average a full penciled page in that timeframe.

I think I’m making good progress so far, and I really like the work… inasmuch as I can like my own work

It’s 1:11 AM, Saturday morning. I did my rehab time on Friday morning like I was supposed to, but didn’t have time to post about it all day.

For my last day of rehab, I started sketching out panels for my graphic novel project. A couple years ago, I played around with the idea of not scripting the story but instead sketching in a sketch book key panels I knew I wanted to include with the intent of filling in the rest when I went to go pencil. I thought I’d try the process again since I’m working from a condensed plot.

I don’t really like doing thumbnail layouts. I’ve found they don’t really help me all that much in the writing process, partly because I try to incorporate the dialogue and their respective balloons as integral parts of the artwork, and I need to know how the lettering will fit, what people will be saying, and how the characters will act. I like to do my layouts on 11 x 17 paper, left and right pages at the same time. Often, this just leads to penciling the pages. I’m always willing to experiment with the process, but generally I would rather avoid doing thumbnails.

From this point on, I’m going to maintain my morning schedule but I’ll be posting updates about my progress on Fridays, unless I have something I’d like to share during the week. I’m also going to make it a point to draw in the mornings on the weekends (can I give up sleeping in?).

I’m glad I decided to undergo rehab. It really helped me get back into creating comics again. Hopefully my output will increase, and someday I’ll be able to draw as well as I’d like to as long as I don’t slack off. Right now, I just want to create comics again and tell the stories I want to tell in the medium I love. I know that, as a result, I’ll be extremely busy. But if I can accomplish the things I want to accomplish in comics while still being able to make a living as a musician and a person-in-need-of-a-better-day-job, then I’ll be happy.

(I’m very, very tired. I hope this post makes sense)

I almost didn’t make rehab today. But here’s what I churned out about an hour-and-a-half ago:

I didn’t get to draw this morning because I had to report to jury duty. Luckily, I don’t have to report back, which means my morning schedule can stay intact for now.

Most of the sketches above were done using some reference material I have stashed away in a pull file. I was looking for faces I could use as inspiration for the characters in my project. Everything was done with a penbrush (though today doesn’t qualify as an Inkspill because I didn’t get them posted within the hour). Other sketches were done off the top of my head to see if I could create something using what I learned from sketching from the references.

Out of the four pages of sketches, I didn’t scan one of them because, well, it’s just not as good as the other three. Excuse my vanity.

I think I decided on the look for the wife, and I know what hairstyle I want to use for the main character. His face still escapes me. I hope I can find it by Saturday.

A new sketch! It’s been awhile since I posted a drawing.

This is a sketch of the main character for the graphic novel I’m going to get my ass in gear for. I also started working on his wife. They’re not finalized by any means; I want to pull some references before I decide on the final look. But, once I get the look of each character down – and there are really only three main characters – I should be good to go and can start working on pages. Because the story is so straight forward and raw, I’m looking forward to just finding ways to grind through each panel, each page, until it’s done. Though I’m more of a fantasy story guy, this story is actually exciting me when I think about it.

As the week nears a close, I started thinking about how I want to proceed with the schedule… especially the posting part. I’m pretty sure I don’t get a whole lot of visitors at this point, but I know they’ll come and I want them to come back. Exposure, right? More importantly, I think the daily posts have actually been kind of like imposing a deadline upon myself, one that I have to meet everyday. I don’t think I’ll have anything worthy to post every single day once I stop the rehab and go straight into the project, but I think a weekly, Friday deadline might be a good thing.