Vitamin Z

Interviews

2012-01-27T20:46:00.000-08:00

Me and James were just interviewed by Invest Comics about our upcoming Blue Water and Cosmic Times work, as well as our take on digital comics which you can read here and I'll be appearing on Sunday's episode of Nerd Nation for a round table discussion with Gene Hoyle, Martin Pierro, and James Whynot about our upcoming comic from Cosmic Times entitled "From Blood."

Lots of new comics coming soon!

2011-12-24T21:11:00.000-08:00

Decisions ish 2, pg 4, 5 preview by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

No West to Cross Issue 1 out now by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

Black Cobra redesign cover by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

Souled 2 Preview Pages 2 by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

Souled 2 Preview Pages 3 by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

From Blood 1 Preview Pages by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

Decisions 2 Preview Pages 2 by ~xaqBazit on deviantART
These are preview pages for Souled #2, From Blood #1, and Decisions #2 from Cosmic Times Comics. Black Cobra #0 from Radioactive comics, and No West to Cross #1 that was put out by 215 ink, but will now be self published. I penciled all of the images and inked the pages from Decisions.

Lots of news

2011-11-07T11:59:00.001-08:00

Dragonboat design

2011-10-11T11:48:00.000-07:00

Dragonboat logo submission by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

Adult skateboard design

2011-10-02T21:36:00.000-07:00

Finally got a couple comic irons in the fire. Really loving some Chris Sprouse and Steve Skroce.

Adult Skateboard Design by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

Skateboards

2011-09-26T22:07:00.000-07:00

I've recently got some local and national work doing some skateboard designs. Here's the sketch and finished project for the local one.

Kid's Custom Skateboard by ~xaqBazit on deviantART

"Real Books"

2011-08-23T09:17:00.001-07:00

So I'm now noticing after basically only reading comics for a few years out of college I'm now having a hard time going back to novels. I championed comics as a gateway to literacy when you're young, but at my age it can almost be a crutch. And I do believe that there are different processes in your mind when combining pictures and text but now I've developed other problems. I have found reading books with larger font helps me but that might be just my eyes. Even my attention span has shortened, I don't know if it is conditioning from the fairly fast reads that today's comics are but I can't bring myself to be interested to read for a novel for more than 10pgs to a chapter or so in a novel before I get bored. I can't keep track of names or visualize characters or scenes that arent pictured somewhere. Am I just used to comics showing my exactly what's going on that I've lost the ability or become lazy to the point that I don't fill in the details with my mind? I have the same problems I had in high-school, I'll space out in the middle of a paragraph and have to reread. Part of it may be that I'm doing most my reading in my bed, which I've heard to never study in your bed, because your mind associates locations with actions, such as sleeping. Though I am able to make it through novels with terse fast paced short sentences like the Parker novels. Is everyone getting to be like this, and will we have to actively fight to not be like this or have I just overstimulated the visual part of my brain and, like a drug, am not getting the same high off of purley text reading material.
And on a last note, me and my little brother tried to read the Megamind comics, which are funny but aimed at an audience who can't read or understand the words megamind uses. Though I heard Stan Lee used to do that specifically to get kids to look them up and expand their vocabulary - but do kids really do that these days, or just put it down and move on?

Buffy, Bats, Nazgul and Walking Dead

2011-08-22T21:08:00.000-07:00

check the da pages for my comments. Sounds like I'll no longer be doing art for the Periodic Heroes blog, but I have been enjoying Marcos Martin, marcos martin and eric canete's work on Spider-man: the gauntlet. as well as the first three trades of mark waid's irredeemable.

NWTC #2

2011-08-11T00:42:00.000-07:00

No West to Cross ish 2, 2 pgs by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART
Just been diligently hitting my deadlines for both a series of Blue Water books I'm doing and No West to Cross #2 that I just finished.

No West to Cross ish 2, 3 pgs by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Street fighter and Nu DCU

2011-07-19T09:33:00.000-07:00

Chun Li vs Cammy vs Vega by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

My DC comics relaunch trinity by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

No West to Cross promo by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

no west to cross

2011-06-22T00:39:00.000-07:00

No West to Cross preview pages by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART
just finished the first issue for 215 ink, heres some highlights.

Tezuka vs Kirby

2011-06-13T00:42:00.001-07:00

I just got to take a look at Osamu Tezuka’s “M W” which was awesome and so amazing because it is still shocking how ballsey it is even today (originally published in 1975 and just released in the states in 2007). To preface, I am not making any judgment calls on the material in MW, but it was shocking to see some of the things that were in it, especially for someone as famous as to garner the nick name “the godfather of Manga/Anime.” He called it his “anti-Tezuka manga” with a story involving Catholic priest who is sworn to celibacy with women, so he gets his jollies in the loophole of sleeping with a guy who crossdresses as a woman for him. There are scenes of implied sex with children and even scenes that suggest things with animals (like a whole page of the crossdresser wrestling in the tub with his dog – framed to always show both the dog and human’s full bodies even though the lower half of their bodies serve no importance). Things that are less explicit but you can tell are meant to make you connect the dots. Making such notably odd comics as Charles Burns’ “Black Hole” look like Sesame Street by comparison.
There were some questions I had about the inconsistencies in his choices about how overt to be with his rendering of the story. Some scenes seem so graphically violent (explosions which throw severed body parts at the viewer and a murderer sticking an unconscious victims head in a furnace) and yet other scenes, especially sexual ones will skirt around the overt images, and I’m not sure if this is the case in the original manga or just how it was edited for American audiences: Things like an image framed to show full naked bodies will fade to white towards their waists leaving only a line or two to describe any detail, and yet leaving this blank space to occupy at least ½ the panel. Similar scenes cut to pure abstract shapes moving with the character’s dialog over the. Certain sexual scenes will become increasingly dimly lit the longer the scene lasts until they are purely silhouettes. I also noticed oddities like entirely black word balloons – which I’m not sure what it is supposed to mean.
It’s such an odd mix artistically because Tezuka’s characters’ are so cartoony and exaggerated and yet the props like guns and backgrounds will be photorealistic unlike Kirby’s backgrounds which follow the basic style of his figures. This may be due to Manga’s approach of using assistants specific to items and not processes, like a motorcycle artist, or gun artists, instead of the American process of a penciler and a an inker or finisher. And while Jack “the King” Kirby is reported to have drawn 20,000 pages over his career in comics, Tezuka is reported to have drawn over 150,000 – almost just less than 8 times as many pages – though I believe Manga’s storytelling at the time was much more decompressed than American comics – something we’ve started to match pace with over the last 10 years. Both men helped write the stories they worked on, and created much of their country’s comic visual vernacular, as well as did many things outside of comics, not the least of which for Tezuaka was pioneering the start of Japanese animation. It’s startling to see how these two seemed so similar and influential, like peers to compare and yet so vastly different I in their output, both probably effected by the culture and processes they worked in.

New published work

2011-06-13T00:12:00.000-07:00

Dynast splash page sample by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Dynast color samples 2 by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Dynast color samples 1 by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART
I was the colorist for these pages and about 25pgs of the book Dynast:The Rise of Bherek White, which is to be published by Shatterday Comics. You can expect the book around July-Aug. I penciled the top page as a sample page.
Also in Aug Kord and Harley: 7 deadly sins, which I inked 1 1/2 issues out of will be published, you can find more here.
I also wrote a story for the Japan Needs Heroes anthology, called "Frozen Hopes" Which is my first writing exclusive project. Below is a sample page though the final will be colored.

Frozen Hopes Pg1 Letters by ~Master-Futon on deviant ART
And lastly the 11'oclock comics anthology is debuting this week at the Summit City Comic Con, which me and James did the art for the Battle of Hastings story in it. You can find more about it here.
Which will feature the finished version of the below artwork among other pages.

Viking Battle by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Lots o art

2011-05-30T22:30:00.000-07:00

Souled 2 Preview Pages by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Decisions 2, preview pages by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Padme by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Ang by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Future Foundation Phoenix by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Pris by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Super Show 2011

2011-05-04T17:22:00.000-07:00

Ghost Rider by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Mirror Master by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

CGS Jamie D. Gift Art by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Spider Jarusalem by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Creature from the Black Lagoon by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Bat Boy Portrait by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Green Arrow Sketch by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART
Had a great time at the show and even got to talk to Lee Weeks for a while.

Denver Comics Fest

2011-04-17T22:21:00.001-07:00

Here's a few sketches from the convention.

Green Lantern by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Nightwing Commission by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Snake Eyes Boba Fett by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

DC Trinity by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Here's a texture page I did for my students to show them the different qualities and types of lines you can make depending on your tools and purposes.

Post Megacon Update

2011-04-04T20:50:00.000-07:00

Hey just thought I'd update after being back from Megacon. Me and James are actually in talks with a publisher for From Blood, so issue 1 was not at megacon this year though I did get a few commissions and sold a few prints. Here's one me and Jame's did just for fun.

Supergirl Megacon 2011 by ~JamesWhynotInks on deviant ART
Also had a lot of fun getting to see old favorites like Hobbes, Patrick, Watts, James, Martin, and a whole slew of new friend's and contacts like Adam and Comfort of "the uniques," they also gave me a very valuable portfolio review and just talking to them about the philosophy of their work ethic really gave me a new attitude about working in comics in general. I also was able to spend only the money I made at the convention and managed, for the 1st time, to spend all of it in Artist's Alley. It went a lot faster but I really got surprised and how much good stuff was out there, and really took a chance with a lot of books that paid off when reading them - it was time for me to finally put my money where my mouth was, and it was great. There were also a few different people/organizations trying to raise money to help with the Tsunami Victims in Japan. One thing I'll be doing is contributing to the anthology for that very cause, which you can find here.
Other than that Paul Pope's comments on this panel really changed how I looked at my style, when he talked about Kirby as a "cartoonist" - which is usually such a shunned term to refer to comic artists who aren't doing funny books, but it's true. It's also the 1st time I've tried "indie spinner rack" since I normally listen to Comic Geek Speak.
I've penciled and inked two 10pg stories last month that will be published soon, and I'll give the details soon. I also just learned how drastic of a change in body language tilting a figure's head to one side or another can effect their mood/expression.

Thor fanart and my first comics

2011-03-15T02:55:00.000-07:00

Also ran into and remembered some of my first comics that I no longer have:
Superman #59
Back to the Future #4, 6, 7
Wild West Cowboys of Moo Mesa #1
Malibu's Mortal Kombat: Blood Thunder #6 (which my mom made me throw away because I wasn't supposed to buy such violent comics, lol)
Various #1 issues when Dark Horse was doing "Comic's greatest world."
I remember getting Phase 1 (a small black and white comic), various issues of Dark Hawk and Classic Star Wars which I still have, all around the time Star Wars Dark Empire and Preacher just started coming out.

Thor Pinup Inked by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Thor Pinup Pencils by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Souled #2 and 7th Control

2011-02-28T18:52:00.001-08:00

7th Control Band Poster by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

I finished the pencils for Souled #2 the other day and did this for my friend's band, but I've heard mixed reviews about its readability. If you turn it 90 to the right you can see the skull pretty easy. But I think it works as being intrinsically visually interesting even if you don't know what you're looking at. So I think I still accomplished my goal and got to do another digital painting.
As far as souled goes since doing 20pgs for From blood #1, back to back with a 24pg issue for Souled - my style is starting to cement itself. In my opinion somewhere between Chris Spouse and JRJR. Drawing for color with Souled has also changed things like my black placement and made me use more lines and hatching, like a exaggerated or blocky Kubert. Though I love seemingly simplistic work of guys like Alex Toth and even how loose Rick Leonardi's work is. But I'm also finding out how great and different a piece can look when you leave that much up to the inker. Some things that don;t matter to me and some that I envisioned as being a bit different when finished out than they go - not better or worse, it just means giving some of the finished product up to the inker. Which takes a little getting used to, especially since before Souled I hadn't worked with a separate inker over me. But I've still been able to stay well ahead of my deadlines and even fit projects into crunch areas when I have a break.

Not relating to my style, but finding some classic Jose Luis Garcia Lopez artwork that I grew up with and being able to say - "That's my Batman" and feeling so dumb for always assuming his art was Niel Adams - though both look great and I prefer with the bold inking of my fav. Dick Giordano, RIP.

Choose-your-own-adventure: an essay for writers and readers alike

2011-01-31T16:53:00.001-08:00

Recently I’ve really been itching to do some writing, and have done “some.” My 7yr old little brother just started reading in the last year or so, and while I was the biggest proponent for comics as a tool for children’s literacy it just didn’t stick as I had planned it would – like me, he was just “reading the pictures,” I’ve even read various places that for those who do read the words many completely skip the captions all together – so there was a stigma against using them or relying on them in comics. But what did grab his attention, and held on tight, were the choose-our-own-adventure (CYOA) or pick-a-path books. I soon became vicariously obsessed with them for about a week straight, even venturing to create my own, and learned a lot in the process.

I got him Disney’s recent Prince of Persia and he loved it. So I immediately went to the used book store and started getting all the ones I could, never spending more than a dollar or two per book. And eventually becoming so intrigued I drew out a “plot chart” for my own story, which I found incredibly fun and exciting - while the few people I tested it on/read it to found it cliché and predictable at best.

Basically the whole hook of the different books are the concept – “space vampires,” “playoff champion” etc. Because that sets up all your possible variables, and defines everything about your reader’s predictions about the story while the individual decisions usually rely on the same tropes as all the others creating “once you’ve read one, you’ve read them all” and causing a kind of “genre buffet” when choosing one, which may be worth it for library checkouts but makes it difficult to spend money on.

After researching more I found most of them are written by an author named R.A. Montgomery, and that they were all the rage before computers were able to randomize simple events and introduce variables the reader didn’t have to pick (such as in the original Carmen San Diego, to change where Carmen was hiding) and this improved the experience of returned playing/reading, which I must say in CYOA books is difficult at best because the only way you care about the story is if you have some investment in the decisions you make, the second time around you’re doing just the opposite. The books are written in second-person “you go to the lake and find a dead body” which is great because it puts you in the shoes of the main character.

Some of the better illustrators for the books even take this a step further by either not showing or only showing from the back, the main character – but it’s rather difficult since he/she is the only one the book can talk about and any images immediately identify a gender, which alienates half of the potential readers’ identification with the main character – assuming that the books are written equally for boys and girls, which they are usually not. My wife mentioned that she thought doing a petty-romance version would interest girls, like the romance comics of the 70’s found an audience with them. But how far can you go with romance for the age group they’re aimed at - or any genre for the matter? You basically have to skirt around any real dangers and situations because of very type of book you’re writing.

One of the major limitations, which I found researching and reading them is that for any given path there is not usually a fulfilling narrative arc – as far as the “three act structure:” Beginning, middle and end. It usually ends up feeling like one-thing-after-another until it’s over – which usually results in your death. And plot devices like foreshadowing of events, or even repercussions for your decisions are either: 1) virtually non-existent or may become non-existent depending on the choices you made or 2) occur directly after your decision, since most of the storylines usually end up crossing back towards the end – if you live to see it – such as: the story where maybe you “didn’t take the blue pill” must now conclude on the same page as if you had, so the mention or consequence of must be left out entirely to generalized enough to share page space between stories.

The last disadvantage I found was that everything mentioned must be through one character’s eyes – the book cannot cut to a scene taking place on the other side of the world that the character doesn’t know about, so subplots and characters really serve no purpose or get any screen time unless they directly affect the main character, as opposed to just running parallel to the main story.

I think they are funner to write then read which seems to bee the conceit of the format. If not only a headache to keep track of, they take the pressure off the writer of trying to choose between where he wants the story to go and puts the pressure into making as many of those situations as possible and usually writing both. Each plot point is usually a page or less in length and has a decision or ending at the bottom, unless it is a linking page by which the author lays out basically the extent of whatever differences may be in your story before you link back up with a main one – basically one extended page split between two for economy of space. As I mentioned they usually include illustrations and run about 150 dime-novel or smaller pages long.

I have seen they now have the Dungeons and Dragon’s interactive DVD “Scourge of Worlds,” and some websites even offer organizational tools and web space for user-written adventures that you can simply click your way through. Furthermore there’s even a microcosm-of-a-microcosm of people who play “mud connector” a text-based command-line-driven internet game, which makes even the most hardcore D&D fans look incredibly sociable. There are also, more currently, some “Anything can happen… Whatever you want” or similar books, for older readers and usually run about 4-5 times longer in page length. I suppose Dungeons and Dragons, and similar games, are a version of this medium for a somewhat older audience, but the books themselves fall victim to the strengths of other genres – in games: having more choices and randomization, and in books: having the ability to be an “omniscient viewer” and learn more than your character, a key to suspense versus surprise.

So they end up being a sort of novelty niche-genre/medium, a guilty pleasure for most (if at all), and for those excited about books that read like video games, and don’t mind the thin plots they may offer a bridge for children away from video games/tv/computer and into the world of reading and literacy – even if they aren’t the destination.

Check out this link for a cool roll over version of a cyoa story map.

"From Blood" #1 available at Megacon 2011

2011-01-29T19:41:00.000-08:00

I've started teaching sequential art at the Community College of Aurora here in Colorado, which has been very fun and rewarding, though just like comics you have to do it for the love of it. I heard a quote the other day that I really liked, "Do what you love and you'll never work a day in your life."

Viking Battle by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

"From Blood" Issue 1 Cover by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART
Here's some new art, since its been a while. Ive been hard at work and now am proud to announce me and James will have the 1st issue of our 1st series that is all us - meaning we created it all. "From Blood" #1 of 2 will be 30pgs long, black and white interior and a color cover. This is the pencil version of the cover - price should be around $3.00 and will premiere at Mega Con 2011. It will be lettered by Michael Moore.

Con Schedule 2011

2011-01-05T17:38:00.000-08:00

It's been a while. I'm back at the drawing board getting started on Souled issue 2, and a few other projects with cosmic times comics as well as the first half of a book me and James have been working on that were calling "from blood" - the first issue will be 30pgs b+w and should be ready to debut at Megacon. I've been working on coloring the Dynast as well as winding up to teach a Class on graphic Novels at the Community College of Aurora later this month. So between my computer crashing in the middle of all that and me and my wife changing day jobs its been hectic since mid-november but it's good to be back and doing art that is better than ever. So far I've planned to attend the following conventions in 2011:
Megacon - entity, from blood and souled will all debut with some contribution from me.
SuperShow (those guys keep me motivated all day long)
SwarmCon (scad)
Ny Comic Con (hopefully)
San Diego Comic Con (hopefully)

I may be selling original comic pages and art at the con's as well as doing convention sketches for $10. We'll see how things go, hopefully we can finish up Souled, get in some other projects and finish up "From Blood" before 2012, just in case the world does end. Oh yeah and I also finished digitally painting my first cover for souled #1 - which is full color by the way for only 3.50 thanks to my friend Kevin Ziegler, as well as my wife doing the alternative cover. See the cosmic times website for more info here.

Souled Issue 1 - Cover by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

as well as a teaser trailer for Souled that used some of the interior artwork.

notes from a monkey with a hand grenade

2010-10-28T12:24:00.000-07:00

803 published "notes from a monkey with a hand grenade" which has the short story i colored "mommy said." james posted it on his da - here it is. as well as a sci-fi pinup i drew and he inked.

Xaq Bazit's Sci Fi PinUP by ~JamesWhynotInks on deviant ART

Mommy said page 1 by ~JamesWhynotInks on deviant ART

Mommy Said page 2 by ~JamesWhynotInks on deviant ART

Mommy Said page 3 by ~JamesWhynotInks on deviant ART

Mommy Said page 4 by ~JamesWhynotInks on deviant ART

Mommy said page 5 by ~JamesWhynotInks on deviant ART

Mommy Said page 6 by ~JamesWhynotInks on deviant ART

K+H #6 and New Influences

2010-10-16T10:20:00.000-07:00

I've found some new influences I've been looking at a lot lately like beart sears, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Steve Scroce, Bill Reinhold - awesome inker, and more of the usual Rick Leonardi and Walt Simonson. Also been getting into mainstays like Joe/andy/adam Kubert and Jack Kirby. Out of the new guys I think Koi Pham is pretty good and I think Ivan Reis is the new Jim Lee, someone who could actually meet his drawing ability and be his stylistic sucessor (i think the inking is one of the main ways they look different) and yet his storytelling doesn't fall into the all too overused Jim Lee Sterotypes, similar to what I'm finding JRJR does as well.

As far as Kord and Harley goes - NO I didn't draw or color these, but I did ink them. That credit goes to Johnathan Rector for pencils and Chandran Ponnusamy for colors. Comes out soon from Arcana.

Kord and Harley 6 - Cover by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Kord and Harley 6 preview-pgs by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Kord and Harley 6 preview-DPS by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Mysteria - at long last

2010-10-14T13:56:00.000-07:00

R.I.P - a generation of greats passes on

2010-09-22T09:43:00.000-07:00

Got to take a break and finish writing a 3-issue script I've been wanting to get finished, and the first arc of a web/newspaper comic directed at kids ive been wanting to get started, in between issues.
I just added my ashcan Amanda to my Webcomics Nation account, so everyone can read it now. I started it in college and finally finished it. The center page is a fold out.
With the recent death of Al Williamson I couldn't help but notice how many legends of the comics world have been passing recently. Dick Giordano, Frank Frazetta, Will Eisner ((who even coined the term "graphic novel") among others. If you don't know their work you should check these guys out, chances are you've seen it without knowing. It also brings up the point that if you get a chance to meet one of your heroes at a con or signing etc, like I got to meet Dick, say hi, let them how much their work meant to you - if you're working in comics chances are these guys helped pave the way and direction of where it is now and where it went for the last 30 or more years. The phrase "standing on the shoulders of giants" would not be misused to describe what we're able to do today because of these guys. They spent their life working on comics and many were still doing it when they passed. Their spirit will live on through the pages, the new readers and their influence/inspiration on the generations of both readers and their modern day protégés that follow and are now succeeding them. R.I.P. guys, and thank you for everything.

Decisions Review

2010-09-07T10:21:00.000-07:00

Indy Hunter recently reviewed Decisions issue 1 saying my art "...has a rough style that speaks to me as an artist. It’s a bit raw, unrefined but highly energetic. It does however seem a bit rushed and too loose in some areas. Also there were some structure issues in the second story that I wonder if drawn as an afterthought. With that being said, I think there is some promise with both Martin and Zach as a regular writer/art team. I do look forward to seeing how these guys mesh and progress into one working, effective voice." Se the rest of his review here.
I also just finished inking issue 6 and the first half of issue 7 of Kord & Harley for Mortal World Entertainment. And that is being published by Arcana Comics. Should be cool.

New art from Mortal World Entertainment

2010-08-20T07:31:00.000-07:00

All these have been posted on his Facebook Page so I added them to my deviant gallery.

NMP character designs by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

the mind of a child- 8pg short by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Immortal Chronicles 8pg short by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Comic Shop Appearance

2010-08-17T13:53:00.000-07:00

I'll be at Cabin Fever Comics in Longmont Colorado on Sat Aug. 28th for their one year anniversary celebration doing sketches and signing copies of Decisions and so on. Hope to see you there if you're in the area.http://cabinfevercomics.com/1stAnniversaryCelebration.aspx

Working Professional

2010-07-13T23:18:00.000-07:00

Well I'm not sure how much I can say about each project but I have secured enough work for the next year or two to finally quit my day job and go pro.
The second best news is that it is all pencilling, and some of the inking will be handled by my good friend and soon to be neighbor James Whynot. We have also nearly completed our pitch packet for "From Blood" formerly referred to as "27." I will be doing some more work for Cosmic Times, Mortal World Entertainment and What the Flux Comics, and have also started getting a fairly healthy stream of commission and side work as well.
So other than having to move twice this month, getting struck by lightening and getting my identity stolen the only thing that makes this month any better is (st some point) getting to celebrate my anniversary.
I have also colored a 6pg short horror story that Whynot inked over Drew Zucker, who is already getting to work with one of my idols of a related industry - cartoons! And I am submitting to Soyfucker vol 2 - an all vegan comic anthology.

Books I'm in that just came out

2010-06-25T22:56:00.000-07:00

trash #1 is out and Asassin's Guild #4 are both out now- which i filled in some inks for on both, though - partially my fault for not correcting the error when i had the chance - i was miscredited as having only inked pgs 22, 24, 25 in ASG4 when i aditionally inked pgs 20 and 23, which were credited to Joe Fauvel. But no biggie, it was a last minute change and job anyway. ASG is available through ICCW and Trash will be available through the WTFC website.
I also penciled 6 pages this month, and inked 26.
James Whynot was was able to ink this pinup I had done about a year ago, which will be published in Issue 1 of the Indy Comic Magazine Network.

The Industry (inking) 2

2010-06-20T02:47:00.000-07:00

When asked why his style had changed over the years since Spiderman 2099, Rick Leonardi was nice enough to show me his thumbs, pencils, script and samples of different inkers over him over the last decade or two - and sited the inker's interpretation rather than his own style changing that may have lead to the change I referred to.

I also found this in the back of a Spectre issue, which was short and helped answer some of the questions I had about how far and inker's hand goes. Specific things to watch are the city in the background, the rendering on his arm and the musculature in his shoulder, among the other things the article mentions.

I also found this comparison a fun example of inking styles, since they are a similar composition and subject, but two decades apart. James Whynot did the inks and Drew Zucker did the pencils on the Aliens one. And obviously Brett Breeding and Dan Jurgens did the Doomsday one.
But I've really been back and forth about how much inker's are meant to do - if they only control the look of the lines and not the placement - or do you look at inkers as "art partners" and that pencils are basically glorified thumbnails, meant to be finished out in the interest of the story and storytelling, above all else. The article does point out the difference between "finishers" and "inkers." But I'm starting to learn there is a lot of gray in between.

the (comics) industry

2010-05-30T02:48:00.001-07:00

Penciller/Inker relationships
Is he a tracer, a finisher - art partner, continuity cop, embellisher? The analogy of an inker as a drummer in a band doesn’t even really fit because American comics is done in so much of an assembly-line style that they really have no say until everything else is done - almost more like the mixer or sound engineer, if we were to use the band analogy (and if so then what is the colorist or even letterer for that matter. I’ve seen pencilers leave all the black placement and shadows to the inkers, correct anatomy and perspective, finish out buildings add background and even draw in full figures like the famous jim lee and scott williams page shown here. is it their job to point out all they do to the penciler, in hopes that things will change and they wont have to do as much next time or is it too much for any one person in the process to try and tell the others how to do their job.
Does a bad penciller/inker reflect on the other’s skillset and talent in the finished work if it looks bad - or can artists only tell the difference. Are we cutthroat enough to only do “our job” or is it the nature of a team effort that each person down the line must pick up the slack the others have left? I suppose this is the job of the editor to make sure that everyone is doing their job to their full extent - or that there is an understanding between the various creative teams - supposing that every team is different. But its hard to say anything as a statement - that isn’t a question for clarification - without stepping on the other’s toes. Is it the inker’s job to silently make the penciller look as good as possible and change things or is his job only controlling the look of the lines and not their placement (the pencilelr’s job)? There are even inkers that take over the art, that you see the inker more than the penciller like Bill S. or Joe Kubert.

writer/artist relationships - and their effect on the reader
I’ve also been talking to my friend about the difference between “rockstar artists” that grab you from a distance because of their own intrinsic power from their style (jim lee, kelley jones etc) - and “story artists” who really go unnoticed until you read the work, and find it served the storytelling the best and played second fiddle or even in tandem with the writer rather than over his head (steve dillon, john cassaday, etc). There are some that are both or have become that.
For a long time, I guess growing up in the 90’s - the age of rock star artists - I began buying and reading comics purely visually, and it wasn’t until recently that I would buy a book because of the writer, disliking the art at first because it didn’t “grab” me and then find the artists to be a perfect fit - and I couldn’t imagine it any other way.
How does this affect marketing that is either based on a name by name basis, or splash page art? Of course there have been artists in this transition that I used to like visually but can’t stand to read, or found confusing. I’ve known writers who hate artists who render or take time for themselves such as drawing full splash pages etc, that the reader slows down to look at - because it messes with their pacing. Then there have been artists that even play with that idea, and actually simplify during action sequences so you read faster- you have less to look at, like Mignolla.
I might never pick up a book if I don’t respond well to the marketing or I have to go through the work to read synopsizes or listen/read peer reviews. Neither of which are bad, and are probably by far more accurate than splash-page art, but it is almost totally the opposite in terms of how we process that type of marketing and the types of people that respond to it - or would go through the work, its not as immediate as it used to be.
Then there is also the difference between cover artists and interior artists like Brian Stillfreeze, and Dave Dorman who could sell sand to Egyptians, or bottle water to Americans - lol. I suppose in certain instances they have become recognized and gone on to an easier and higher paying career where they are a house-hold name in the comics world but by and large it is a totally difference industry from a buyers perspective and no one really told anyone else to change the way you look for new books. You just kind of get jaded after spending a couple hundred on beautiful cover art that delivers nothing inside - not saying that Dorman or Stillfreeze have done that , just that they easily could.
Many have even said that this is the age of “rock-star artists,” who people will sit through bad art they don’t like just to read a good story. I suppose it is such a subjective subject that a perfect match and balance will only be found in the eye of the beholder, and is still changing. But its interesting for a guy who fell out of reading for a few years to come back and see it almost flip flopped of where it was 20, 15 or even 10 years ago. Ideally we are looking to take in all aspects equally well, but it rarely happens as such.

Many of these conversations/arguments were inspired/introduced to me, by things I heard inker John Holdridge, and writer Mike Baron say years ago at a class they taught, rather dualistically - for these very reasons, in Denver’s RMCAD about 10 years ago, now. But they are things I am only now beginning to experience and question for myself.

Busy Bee

2010-05-25T16:47:00.000-07:00

I’ve been a busy bee, and a very ADD one this month. I’ve helped ink 2 pages of Jeremay’s Trash #2 for What the Flux, and 2 pages of Randy’s Assassins Guild #4 for Knightshift Studios. I’ve all but finished the last script in a 6-issue superhero series I’ve wanted to do and have been plotting since my first year of college. I’ve also Penciled an 8pg story for The ICCW Psychic Kids Anthology in about 3-4 days, which you can see here and set up to go to both Heroes con and Florida Supercon - both 3 day cons - in June. You can see me eitehr at the Cosmic Times booth where they will be selling copies of Decisions that I worked on, or at the What the Flux booth - at supercon. On top of that I’ve landed some ongoing work with Mortal World Entertainment which should keep me busy for the good part of this next year - you can see some of my character designs on Matt’s facebook page, here. Not to mention some other secret work I can’t talk about with WTFC. I also finally acquired a Waccom Tablet and an 11x17 scanner - my essential gear for this kind of work load.

Con Schedule and the Lowdown

2010-05-04T18:32:00.000-07:00

Concrete Dove Poster by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART
Finally here is the poster from megacon, and here are Larry's pencils. I inked and colored.

Airforce Colorado Grads Gift by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART
And here is a painting I recently finished.
I'm rather busy at the moment, multitasking - but that is all a lot better than not having anything to work on - like what happened for about 2 months surrounding megacon.
I Will be at Heroes Con, on the floor - looking for even more projects and Florida Supercon - that time, behind the booth at the WTFC table. Hope to see you guys there.

you can see my pencils here
also wanted to add this in, it is Robin's inks over my pencils - very interesting. We may work as a team here in a while.

Free Comic Book Day Mini-Con?

2010-04-23T07:06:00.000-07:00

Hey guys I'll be hanging out at Past Present Future Comics in West Palm Beach Fl. for free comic book day, where you can get a poster I inked and colored over Larry's pencils from What the Flux Comics and where you can get your own copy of Descisions Issue 1, from Cosmic Times - which just recently premiered at Megacon, just over one month ago. It will be like a mini-convention with many local creators and publishers - Check out this article on the store and event, here.
Other than that I've gotten started on some new secret projects and have also been comissioned to do two paintings, one as large as 6ftx2ft. I'll post pictures here in the next month as they get finished.

Post Megacon 2010

2010-03-16T16:34:00.000-07:00

As a guest of What the Flux Comics, my Megacon table looked like this. With my prints on the lower left, portfolio to the right and shirts in the background. I was able to sell at least one of everything I had at the table. I also had the Concrete Dove posters, I inked and colored, as well as my shirts and Bellydancer posters, and actually had quite a diverse audience for them. I later started hanging the following sketches, that I did, live, at the con, on the front of the table to get people interested in Commissions, which you can see below, of Daredevil, Emma Frost, Batman and Batgirl.

Batgirl Con Sketch by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Batgirl con sketch - inked by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

I did end up getting four Commissions, including: Death, a character the man apparently got various con sketches of and seemed to list mine among his favourites, and mentioned it getting very positive comments from several other artist’s he approached to do one. A fellow artist’s personal character, for whom I regret to say I don’t remember the name (please email if you find this and let me know so I can link you). Batgirl sitting atop the Hulk’s shoulder. And a character from Patrick Sessom’s comic S.O.A.R.

Megacon Commissions 2010 by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART
Jeramy Hobbs, a fellow WTFC artist seemed to like my work quite a bit and I was asked to ink one of his pieces. This one of the main characters from God of War and Assassin’s Creed fighting one another, I was told this piece sold, later that same day.

God of War vs Assassins Creed by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART
I got to sit next to Larry Watts and his wife Sarah, who along with Patrick Sessoms and Randy Taylor, along with a few others were running the ICCW table right next to us. We were all kind of in the corner, and business was hard. There were many artists but very few companies – so networking was about the only option and for that reason ICCW flourished, with around 25 new members after the first day. The ICCW rampage Vol. 1, featured my story “Friend$hip” and Patrick’s story that I inked, “3:33am” will premiere in Vol. 2.
I got to meet new artists, such as Banky Farando, Patrick Larcada, Matt Buck, and Lamar Mathurin as well as catch up with some past acquaintances from the Mini-Megacon, and old friends like Ryan Miller. I also bought a book from Botobit, Epidemic vol. 1 – which, like the ICCW rampage vol. 1, was an anthology of different artists from around the globe, though more fine arts related and less sequential focused. I also stopped and grabbed a flyer for the Orange County Regional History Center, who have several comic themed exhibits, both currently and upcoming.

I got a few artists’ to critique my portfolio and recent work in Decision’s, such as Rick Tucker and various companies I talked to. And I was even asked to review up and coming artist’s portfolio’s, which was great, such as Jeanette Pabon, who is working on putting a website together. I got to meet and talk art with one of my recent influences, Erick Jones, one of my all time favourite artist’s Dave Dorman, and others as I examined their wealth of original artwork they all had on hand.

I was also able to spend some time at the Cosmic Times booth with Robin on Sunday, where we signed the first available copies of Decisions for customers, which premiered this weekend, and got to talk with two of the nicest people working in Indy Comics. Here’s a pic of the three of us, the creative team for the 1st issue, excluding only the cover artist Dan Mann, who was also available for autographs at the con though I didn’t get a chance to meet, and the editor Connie Voss. (From left to right: Martin –writer-, Robin –letterer- and me, Zach –interior artist).

I did want to mention, to those of you who bought the book, and there is a note towards the end of the book that Cosmic Times is depending on readers like you writing in and letting them know what you think about the series, to decide weather of not to continue Decisions into a series. So send in those reviews! Speaking of which, we should hear back soon after from a few different blogs and websites who will be giving their opinion. Arthur: The Legend Continues, the Legend Continues (their flagship book) was received very well and even featured on the popular podcast Comic Book Geek Speak (CBGS) so I can’t wait to hear back about this one.

I was able to pick up some trades I was looking for at ½ cover price such as The Return of Superman, New X-men: Vol. 2, Fables Vol. 1 and Vertigo’s: First Cut. And while not everyone who stopped and looked bought something, most did take the time to grab a business card and that exposure alone is enough to help. All in all it was a great first Convention to officially be on the other side of the table at.

I was also informed I am slated to ink their next coming first issue – Outlaws, as the banner displayed on their website shows.

Megacon Preview

2010-02-25T20:19:00.000-08:00

I'll more than likely be at the What the Flux booth durring most of Megacon which is located in the Orange Section of Artist's Alley, booths 21-23.

I'll also have a 11x17 pinup poster I inked and colored at the What the Flux booth for Concrete Dove for sale.

Possibly a few t-shirts featuring some the Elephant and the Angel Warrior from my DA pages.

ill have prints of the belly dancer available for sale.

Belly Dancer Commission by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART
as well as the iccw anthology in which these two stories are published.

Friend$hip - pg 1 by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Friend$hip - pg 2 by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

"3:33am" I inked and "Friend$hip" i did all on my own. You can read the first few pages of each on my DA page by clicking either one of the pictures.

3:33am Pg 1 by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

3:33am Pg 3 by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

And don't forget a whole issue of interior b+w artwork in "Decisions" for Cosmic Times Publishing at their booth. With beautiful cover art by Dan Mann and letters by Robin. Check out the page for more a plot synopsis and credits on their website.

Decisions, issue 1- preview by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART
And of course I'll have plenty of original art on hand for all to see in my portfolio.

Pre-megacon work

2010-02-10T15:54:00.000-08:00

Belly Dancer Commission by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART
Just finished this a week or so ago. You can read details on DA. I did mention I will most likely have prints of this to sell at the con as well as some other original artwork of popular characters. I've also been working on a Concrete Dove Pin up for What the Flux that I'm inking and coloring. This month I'm working on a tattoo commission and for a chest piece, and designs for MMA fighter's t-shirts. So far I've done one and more are on the way. They have been seriously fun, like the tattoo design because it has been general directions and has basically been left up to me to make look cool. Which I think I did quite well.

Waring Angels by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART
I also recently finished this tattoo commission, you can find out more on my DA page by clicking the image.

One heck of a Month

2010-01-16T04:55:00.000-08:00

This month alone:
-I have drawn and inked the 9pg story for Cosmic Times, “Saving Father” in “Decisions, Issue 1.”
-I have written/penciled/inked/lettered a 5pg story entitled “Friend$hip” and inked (with my wife’s help filling some spot blacks) a 5pg story entitled “3:33am,” written by Patrick Sessoms for the ICCWW Anthology Showcase.
-I have done 2 pgs of inking samples and a pg of pencil samples for ECV press.
-And lastly I have penciled the first 5pgs for James’ Graphic Novel “27.”

Megacon
The two stories I worked on for the ICCWW Anthology “Showcase,” will be sold at Megacon, as well as my first published whole issue of art, “Decisions Issue 1 (which will be available at the Cosmic Times Booth). I believe Issue 2 of “Concrete Dove” will also be available but it may be saved as a web comic, for What the Flux Media that I did the cover for.
I’ve also started a Con Calendar on my profile if anyone is interested. Right now Megacon is the only one up, but I’ll be adding more soon. I will be jumping between the “What the Flux Media” booth and the “Cosmic Times” booth and will have issues of the ICCWW Anthology for sale as well (which can also be bought through the ICCWW booth).
I will have my portfolio as well as plenty of original art on hand either to see or buy, and will be doing Con Sketches for $15-20, depending on if you want it inked etc.

Experimenting/Influences
All this work forced me to ink everything but “Friend$hip” and the ECV inking samples here in the last week. I wish I could taken more time on but I am extremely proud of the work none the less. I do believe the work I’ve been doing is my best, which is always the goal and have even snuck in a good amount of experimenting.

-For example, Friend$hip is done in a cartoonier style as an homage to Humberto Ramos, an artist who my wife loves and I’ve been watching for some time. We just finished collecting the complete “Crimson” series he did a while back. The story is dedicated to her, and is autobiographical.

-For this second story “Saving Father” in Decisions Issue 1, I was told to try a darker style and so every time the characters get angry the style changes to a grittier rougher inking style. This was highly influenced by the work of the late, great Jorge Zaffino and this page specifically - available on his website. It was also the first time I have used Google “Sketch Up” for my art, a fact which many artist would hide but I wanted to state, because it was my first time and I have been on the fence about using 3D for comics after being shunned away by professors in college. But the truth is I ran into so many professionals at Mini-Mega Con who used it and made it work, and know of so many more, that I figured I better see what everyone was talking about. I found it decently easy to work with (after being a 3D major for a year in college) but still clumsy. I also noticed several details I would have needed to add to the model had I shot it from the other side, and the use of photo reference for textures and details like that must (I believe) go hand-in-hand. I also believe what someone said at the con, that “they might be laying it out digitally, but are Inking it by hand” And I think that goes a long way to making it mesh with your artwork.

-I tried Strathamore’s line of “smooth” comic Bristol board, because of its economy (around .50 cents a sheet) and Higgins Black Magic ink, for its availability (the only brand of waterproof ink that Michael’s carries). I don’t know if it is the combination of both together but I could Not use a quill without it bleeding horribly. In which case Faber Castell’s “M”and “B” size tech and brush pens came in extremely handy. I was able to pull it in a way that feathered the line and imitated the Quill, even with the “M” pen. Using the ink in a brush to fill spot blacks I also found the ink to be incredibly watery and gray.

-Dave Gibbons and seeing the Watchmen Motion Comic has had huge effect on how I draw, the close up zooms of his art really let me study and see what he was doing and so the way I shade walls and even draw some faces closely resembled his style while illustrating Watchmen. The way I illustrated the father character in “Saving Father” closely resembles the way he drew the character Moloch, mixed with a pseudo self-portrait of me while working on the pages. I also got to do some cool things with a toothbrush, reminiscent of John Cassaday’s run on Captain America, after 9/11.

-I tried some reflection techniques similar to the Jurgens/Breeding style run around the time of the Death of Superman. As well as picked up on a few things other superman artists did to quickly depict buildings during those issues. I posted a small picture a few posts back relating to what I’m talking about.

-I experimented with mark-making using the brush to imitate leaves though I still need to work on that more.

-And lastly I’ve found that printing Blue Lined Art at Fed-Ex/Kinkos stinks and is expensive. It printed way too dark and lead me to have to use the “Replace color” tool in photoshop to replace left over Blue (even after tweaking the “levels”) with White - which thinned much of my inking out in the story “3:33am.” Which will also be my first published story just as an inker over another artist.

A short word about the 90's
-It’s been a weird experience growing up and loving what is now considered a dark and nearly was “the final period” in Comic’s history - the collecting bubble of the early 90's. On the popular podcast Comic Book Geek Speak (CBGS), which I have been listing to almost non-stop for the last week, the first question they ask their guests burring interviews is “what was your first comic” or even what was your “gateway” comic, that lead you into wanting to do this as a profession. And the comics I grew up on are now something to shy away from, stylistically and otherwise. So re-learning what “good comics” are, has largely been a very troubled road for my generation I think. And for more reasons than this, but - it may be why it is so hard to break in right now, is because the people that are young grew up learning with the wrong idea of what comics are and should be (in the eyes of the people who would hire you now). We are the ultimate fanboy generation, who bought multiple issues, foil, variant and fold-out poster covers and anything that had an “X” in the title or that resembled either mutants or Jim Lee’s art. Don’t get me wrong, I still like Jim Lee but it was that whole generation of artists and writers who either by choice or were told to imitate him that lead to such a derivative and similar in the name of money - and maybe that generation was even more so a “fanboy generation of creators” than the one’s who grew up reading their work, but never the less - now here we are, the kids who grew up with that being our definition for comics and now we are in a world where that type of thing gives some people shivers. So it is up to us to redefine it for ourselves, but it is also a burden, I guess of every generation of artists to not look outdated and move past your influences, to look more modern and to get work that way - who knows, perhaps that’s all they were doing as well.

Comics and Pop Culture
-I good point was brought up the other day on CBGS, that “comic characters are more popular in movies/games than they are in the comic books, anymore.” And even comic-related shows like “Heroes” are capitalizing on what comics brought to the world and while the companies are seeing the money at some point it is passing through more hands, forcing specialty shops to widen their product base to everything related to comics just to keep people comic in. My point is, it is sad that comic characters are so popular right now and yet they are making the least amount of money through their original medium. How would they have ever gotten where they are with out it? Or are they like movies in the theater or Disney world, they make very little off of your ticket but everything off of the snacks and t-shirts. Has it always been that way? Or does a spike in the actual market cause the 90's collector bubble I previously commented on? I, myself saw/read “one of the most celebrated comics of all time,” Watchmen, for the first time as a “motion-comic.” But at least they were nice enough to add at the end of the credits something like “be sure to enjoy Watchmen in it’s original form” - but did I? No. What does that say about the industry?

One last note:
- I recently acquired a reprint edition of the Star Wars Dark Empire II trade (I’m still trying to get I) which includes Empire’s End and it’s the only time I’ve been compelled to buy a different edition of a book because of the print quality. All the colors are light and washed out, the blacks are every shade of gray and rarely dark enough to keep a consistent tone and all the colors look fuzzy and grainy, similar to what saving a picture as a low quality .jpg will do. I love Cam Kenedy’s work and I love being able to get it in reprints but the quality of this most recent reprint just ruined the experience for me - of what I remember the original Trade having - vibrant saturated colors and stark blacks - amazing clarity and the classic iconic Dave Dorman covers - which they also changed and moved his art to the back cover.

Unused Designs

2010-01-04T21:36:00.001-08:00

Mysteria

2009-12-29T17:14:00.001-08:00

So the pages I finished a few months back finally saw print the other day. I penciled them out and then learned I would also be inking myself. But I had fun with it and it has been my first published work that has truly been collaborative, I haven't just been a penciler on a project yet but this is pretty close considering it passed through a letterer and a colorist before it hit the presses. So that has been an interesting experience to get used to. I did the first 8 pages, not including the black title page.
http://1089comics.com/2009/11/08/misteria_herculean-tasks_pt1_title-wc/
I'm still trying to see if it is alright to post the original art now since the final art is open source anyhow.
You can use the thumbnails along the right hand side, the labeled arrows at the bottom or just click the pages to navigate.

ECV samples

2009-12-20T20:04:00.000-08:00

major current influences:
Kelly jones Klaus janson Dick gardino Bruce timm Kirby Jorge zaffino Peter cheung JRJR Lee weeks

ECV Pencil Sample page by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

ECV inking sample 4 by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

ECV inking sample 3 by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

ECV inking sample 2 by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

ECV ink sample 1 by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

the unsexy girl

2009-12-05T19:59:00.000-08:00

New art! sort of, actually i drew this while i was waiting for an oil change on the back of a comic page i finished. i was trying to make her sexy but she turned out just the opposite.
Ive been listening to comic book geek speak which has been great, some other comic podcasts especially art specific ones were not - unfortunately. but i just listened to episode/issue 697 of comic geek speak which has an interview with freddie williams author of "dc guide to digitally drawing comics" and he talked about all aspects of comics - mistakes he sees a lot in beginners - things to keep in mind - his book. all in all was a good refresher and a very good hr.

Higgins black magic was suggested and all they carry at michels but it is very watery no good for brushing in blacks. i also tried strathmore smooth comic boards which ive been using for my "cosmic times work" though i havent used a quill for any of it. today i did the inking samples for ECV press and tried it. At only 12 bucks a pack - it is a deal. it is thinner (scary when erasing) and it might be the ink being too watery or a combination but I couldn’t use a quill at all because lines would blead up to 2 ½ times the line width. so if you get it only use tech pens a occasionally a brush or 2. I have found how to use tech pens like quills though, to imitate their lines and pull it so it moves thick to thin especially the “b” brush pen and the “m” pen, also just found they make a “xs” variety equal to the micron sizes. Very nice and a great help.

ECV had a variety of different pencilers to ink over, some reminded me of
the new jae lee using photo reference
cam kenedy
adam hughs
but inking over these people I think i found my nitch inking wise may be finishing rough pencils - finishing out is where have the fun and get to play with texture experimentation. also with emotional drama penciling vs where i thought id want to be - super heroes.
pencil samples were all sooo tight - could feel arthritis coming on because I couldnt use my arm to move the pens and used a “xs” pen 60% of the time. I even blew the panels up bigger than they would be on the page. That being said I did try some stuff and was extremely happy with the end result based on what I was given.

am also wanting to try "drawer boxes" for my collection but they're expensive. And I've been enjoying Heroes season 1.

storyboards

2009-12-04T19:04:00.000-08:00

finished with my first 13pg story, now im boarding for the second 8 pg story.
the added my boards for the first 6 pages to the sketchbook part on the cosmic times website.
http://www.cosmictimes.net/Decisions/DecisionsBoards.htm
http://www.cosmictimes.net/Decisions/DecisionsBoards01.htm
http://www.cosmictimes.net/Decisions/DecisionsBoards02.htm
http://www.cosmictimes.net/Decisions/DecisionsBoards03.htm

been doing inking samples for "ecv press" and have sent stuff out to "papercutz" and a few others.
doing storyboards for "27" with james, which i co-rewrote and will be a 50 pg graphic novel, shou;d be bloody but meaningful. im sending him the first 5 pgs to ink soon.
also doing an 5 pg story for the indy comic creators worldwide anthology.
all these projects should be done by mid january.
also got my bio up on wtfc? site though i havent been able to do much for them as of yet. http://www.whatthefluxcomics.com/staff.html

A few small things

2009-11-28T17:02:00.000-08:00

Just a few small things. I know these are some bad pics as I struggle to get my camera back.

I found some new Kelley Jones work relatively in comparison to what I had been looking at. I liked a few experimental things he was doing since he was inking himself. Like using his fingerprints in the backgrounds here almost like Kirby crackle.

Something I will be trying in my current work.

Or here where just the barage of textures and intersecting lines made me think of that scene Todd Mcfarlane points out from Ninja scroll on the Animatrix Special Features, where there is a successive pop of black and white in the background just to give you a jarring effect - you may not even be consciously aware of as a reader/viewer.

I found these two dps’ in Marvel’s thor from 200-something and in the Elementals circa 1990. Almost two decades and a completely different publishing company and artists apart its interesting to see how they both interpreted the same mythological place differently - Asguard.

And last I found one of the artists in the Death of superman graphic novel doing this with small buildings in backgrounds for windows. Where he would ink a few parallel lines straight down and then cut across them with whiteout with a few parallel lines - forming small rectangles only a line width thick but none the less effective and faster and more consistent than just the straight black on white technique of drawing a separate line for each window.

Also my little bro broke his wrist playing with some friends but my family was able to make this sticker and attach it w/ SuperGlue so he could have something I made with him since I couldn’t draw on his cast. I posted the art on my DA page a few weeks ago and had made the image as a present for his birthday party.

Decisions comic - first look

2009-11-06T17:13:00.000-08:00

So the website has posted some stuff about me and the book I'm working on for them, including character designs and a brief synopsis. Here's some links.

Synopsis
Skecthbook

News about me (copied and pasted since the page will change and soon be outdated. But right now it can be found here, or you can search the archives.)

Preliminary artwork by Zach Bassett for our forthcoming anthology series "Decisions". has recently been added to the Special Features section of the site and can be found - HERE. - 11.3.9

Zach Bassett is currently working on thumbnails for the first story in "Decisions". We were so impressed with his storytelling ability that we have offered him the second story as well. - 10.30.9

Artist Zach Bassett will be penciling and inking the first story in the "Decisions" anthology coming in 2010 from Cosmic Times. Look preview art coming soon. - 10.10.9

Also “somebody” I know will be lettering my pages for Decisions, and will have a short bio and pic up on the “team page” of the Cosmic Times website soon. As will I.
A similar bio will soon be found on the What The Flux “Staff page.” They also uploaded a small gallery of some of my black and white work (Capricious Alchemy cd cover, 2 Star Trek Defiant covers and the promo image for my Terra Novus serial radio drama.)
I’ve also been credited on all the promo material for “Outlaws” on the WTFM page as the inker.

The good news first and now for the “horrible, terrible, no good, [almost completely] very bad day” I got so busy inking that I neglected to clean my cats’ litter box, resulting in them using my comic box as a new litter box. When I discovered this I stopped immediatly to clean them, leaving my inking supplies out. The night got away from me and the next morning I woke up to a zebra striped room as my dog had managed to bite apart one of my brush pens and drag it across the apartment, leaving india ink everywhere. I found scraps of a plastic bag for my bottle of india ink, which I eventually found bitten up but not open under the bed, where he wasn’t able to complete his plan of total apartments destruction So the long and short of it is, its hard enough to keep my pets out of my professional things - let alone when I have kids. Like a page Ryan Ottely from Invincible posted on his DA page that took him 2 hrs. to ink and 6 in photoshop removing all the crayon from it, that his son thought he was just coloring it like a coloring book, when Ryan forgot to lock his office.

Super Heroes?

2009-11-06T16:01:00.000-08:00

Shadow Hawk Holiday Sketch by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART
You can check the DA page for info on the above sketch. Anyways, read this snippit from Elementals Vol. 2 #10 by Bill Willingham (not Wilmingham, as I have mistakenly refered to him in previous posts - my bad!) that basically states, contrary to popular belief that "Super Heroes are not Role Models" but rather self centered beings on a power "trip" for easy self gratification. Can see his point, what do you think? If super heroes are our generations form of Myths and legends to pass on morals - what exactly are we passing or teaching our young ones, per se?
(Hope people don't mind me posting a few of these every now and then, I think they are brilliant for conversation and some "different" opinions.

Questionable

2009-11-05T17:18:00.000-08:00

So a lot of the work I've done recently has been for general entries competitions or submitting multiple designs to a single company, after which they pick one or none for you to complete for use on their product. I've thought about posting these images that were not used but I would like to show them around to some other companies and see if they would like to pick them up instead since most are not company specific. So here's the dilemma, how do I get them interested without showing the designs away at every shop and two weeks later seeing rip-offs from everyone who didn't mail me back and just had an in house artist do a cheaper version? Where are the submission guidelines for companies like t-shirt/clothing and sports gear like skate/snow/surf boards? Any ideas, suggestions?

The worst week of sleep

2009-10-30T17:34:00.000-07:00

These are the final inks over some pages I did probably 6 montsh ago for my friend. You can get the whole lowdown on DA but I had some of the pencils up here a while ago, here and here
, though they are very faint.

BBA pg. 1 by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

BBA pg. 2 by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

BBA pg. 3 by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

BBA pg. 4 by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

BBA pg. 5 by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

BBA pg. 6 by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART
I've plotted out 2 6-issue series I want to do, relating to one another. They have been writing themselves, in my mind, keeping me awake at night. The first time that cliche thing has happened where I actually wake up to write something down because I've figured it out in my sleep. Very excited. Though I might not have much time here real soon as I've been getting some more comic work - but that's a good thing.

Pacing

2009-10-24T07:56:00.000-07:00

The curse of losing my internet (at home) has actually been a blessing in disguise and I’ve been working very diligently on my comic work. I wrote myself a not that says “this is your job, treat it like one ” above my desk. Working at home the lines between work and leisure can be thin if you let them. But I think I’ve overcome them. Without giving anything away, I’ve stressed making the characters look different from one another instead of basic male/female models w/ different clothes/hair. I’ve also been reworking some of the scenes to imply things/creatively concealing other that just showing it. But its been tricky looking at it and seeing how much the reader has to put together and how crucial it is if the reader skips over it. I’ve also been working very very fast drawing things but my time has been going back and looking at things critically/logically. Making sure that stairs have handrails, corners have trim, doors have frames and hinges etc etc.
Expressions have also been tricky, for this story, for example, I have many close ups with similar expressions but I’ve been working to make them all unique from one another and all different levels of the feeling they are expressing. I’m also doing enough pages now its been especially fun to mess with layouts and look back and know that I haven’t done certain things with layout that I look for places to try it out. Which is making me look for different things when I look at artists, making me see different reasons why I liked certain artists and see through others I thought were good but now I see where they cut corners.
I also just acquired the majority of the second volume of Elementals - which is all written/plotted by Bill Wilmingham, which is good and as the stories progress the artists have learned and grown and are getting much better. I don’t know if it was the time it was published or if Bill is just outspoken, or because it was a semi indy book but there are various places where I see something/hear something and I look back at it and just go “I can’t believe he just got away with saying that and wasn’t stoned to death as he would in this day in age. In some places he seems to be also pushing the readers buttons just for shock value and that is annoying because there is no depth to it, I don’t mind when there is - as many of the plot lines have pushed the boundaries in ways I respect, some of the most famous are referenced at the elementals Wikipedia page. But some of the dialog and small scenes I just block after time because of Bill's outspoken homophobia and racism (even going as far in some issues to use the "N" word, which I wouldn't mind if a racist character said - I know the difference between character's opinions and their writer's - but it was in response to a letters column.) that's not to say that he now, it was the 80's/early 90's and homophobia was at a high point with all the new but not understood info about HIV. But he could be a product of the time just like most people have someone they know who has a racist grandparent or something of the like because of the generation they grew up in.
Also as I'm making clear with current projects I'm working on, excessive cursing (no
i don't think comics should be controlled/silenced etc from what can/can't be said) as bill has said several times in th letter's column "if you don't like my book, don't buy it." but i do think it, makes me at least, jump back from what I'm reading - takes me out of the story/reading experience - and anything that does that should be avoided. I've met writers like Mike Barron who only want artists that render sparingly because he believes if you render like Jim Lee it interrupts the reading flow of the story the writer takes time to pace out. which is true, I can see his point - artists like Mignolla even simplify their style when it comes to fight scenes so you read faster - which is a cool idea as well. All I'm trying to say is I think you can have your cake and eat it too. I think books like Watchmen accomplished plenty in character depth etc with sparse cursing, and yet you get how mad, sexist etc a character is.
All this drawing for other people's stories has also got me inspired to write again and I have had great success revisiting old ideas after years of letting them "cook" as Darwyn is famous for with projects like "hunter" and am excited about the possibilities that they are unfolding. I've also been reading some great stuff like...
The Hulk series - bruce jones
Daredevil series - b.m. bendis
Death of superman - louise simonson/jurgens etc.
Knightfall - dixon
the enigma - pencilled by duncan figredo
and how they really take advantage of the serialized format in comics. thats why i always thought it would be fun to write for soaps with a team of guys - and build towards "friday cliffhangers!"
I've also realized what a big difference it makes to be consistent. Looking back I was in love with Astonishing X-men artist John Cassiday, but looking back I realize some of that, as well as Dave Gibbon's work was just a ridiculous amount of consistency in their style etc.

3/28/07 tOrN reposted update

2009-10-03T14:48:00.000-07:00

This post is in reference to a webcomic I created a few years ago. If you are confused please refer to the previous posts.
You can read the webcomic by following the link here.

contents
>thanks
>deleted panels
>similarity
>transitions
>process
>the original story vs. the comic

Thanks

Im in the car on my girlfriends laptop on our way back to scad from a stressful, fun, and short road trip to long island. But before I sign off here’s some of the last of my tidbits. And before I forget, thank to matt for his fresh set of eyes, though out of order he helped me with his opinions on certain sequences and panels and eventually helped be print copy cut and staple the physical books together at 3am the night before the due date. Sorry green tea ice cream at the Frigate in NY wasn’t as good as you’d hoped, thanks anyways though.

My parents and josh for reading over the original story and helping me with constructive criticisms as well as a ever important fresh pair eyes.

And lastly robin for staying most ever night I was drawing this beast, even if you were sleeping on the couch in the conference room, you were with me and supported me - thank you and it meant allot to me. And for checking my grammar and finding a flipped word balloon the day before it was due. I love you with all my heart. Thanks to all.

Deleted panels

the first panel was in the first sequence and was replaced by the panel of the waitress turning around. This way I set up the direction in scene geometry of the diner from the waitress. I did however leave the text inverted, which is the way I did it for real and then like all the white text in the book planned on flipping once I scanned it into Photoshop.

This sequence was a very classically cinematic shot. I envisioned the camera panning with the character down to get the photograph and when he sat up, the camera pinning with him again, to see a tree in the headlights only a few feet from his hood. However in the process of making the panels I had drawn the first one in such a way that the interior of the car did not have barley any details, and in this way would contrast the outside. I eventually got so wrapped up in drawing the car and having it look totally off without a glove box, radio, footrest and so on that I forgot what I was trying to accomplish in the shot. Eventually the solution ly in raising the angle of the camera so that it was almost overhead of the character in the shot where Logan dives for it and then panning back up. It works generously in film partially for the format and aspect ratio of film. However vertical panels trying to hide a very horizontal windshield became a very difficult problem. So I eventually redrew them with reference and kept the concept above the image. Now its one of my favorite sequences in the book.

When I drew this panel I knew I needed the phone to be in his right hand but what I didn’t realize was that in the following panels I was going to have to pan into the phone speaker (very matrix and city of glass transition). - not all of us can do the creative wipe to show a change in location George Lucas!!!

These panels were meant to go between the shots of Logan loading the adultery bullet into the cylinder with the sister’s names and was a spur of the moment decision that I wanted to add. Eventually the discontinuity in shapes didn’t end up transitioning as well as I’d hoped and I had to cut panels so multi panel shots would line up on the same page later in the book. (Probably something I should have figured out in the first place.) This one was a panel I had drawn as a direct reference to a line in the story I wrote as a way of literally illustrating the metaphor. It didn’t work as well as id hoped and I had to cut panels. Though did like the “ahhhh” sound effect bridging panels from sleep to reality but eventually had to steal the text from the first panel and digitally combine them leaving ahh in the second panel and scrapping the first one. (I planned on inverting the roller coaster panel by the way.)

similarity

though these two aren’t actually next to one another in the book, I tried to show the children in similar positions to show even more the deja vu or symmetry of the past present and future in context of the story. Two girls in his life two children, two halves of a photo, two holes in the door and so on.

The panel on the left is actually from later in the story. I put them next to one another because I wanted to show how the panel on the left was meant to subconsciously put in your head that it would actually be him on the other side of the photograph. Almost like the transition when the waitress is looking at the photo and holding it where his head is and then turns revealing the same face behind the photo and you are meant to make the connection that it’s the same person even before she explicitly states it.

Transitions

these two actually came after one another and as many transitions were supposed to transition by composition but because of the text and lower contrast on the left panel few people saw it, though a fade in film would have worked beautifully. I shall work on it in the future since my mind thinks very much in a film sense.

This sequence was something I thought of as I was drawing it in pencil. At first I wanted to show her division in wanting Logan to save her and wanting to kill herself then I thought about the ever abundant duality and decided one side would be the first sister and the other a different sister. The text reinforced the idea for all of you who didn’t catch it the first time around.

Process

heres some pannels showing how and where i used the computer to do some of the work for me in shots where bery little changed.

the original story vs the comic

When I wrote the story I hated the ending, I had wanted to show the remorse in the character and his willingness to change his life. The hole idea of him losing his memories was that he would see his life objectively and approach his old decisions without the subjectivity of the cycle he created. The inescapability of the situation once he started and his inability to appreciate his surroundings. So in the comic I forgot to look at the script though visually I knew I wanted the last set of panels to show the division and then unification of the characters.

I wanted the last two pages to be boarderless pages, the same image, a full page spread of them hugging showing the entire body and with no boarders. One page the inverted image of the other. The great duality. Surrounding I wanted the text from the ending of the story. However once I drew the last actual panel I immediately loved it. And when I looked at the script I realized I didn’t need the last two. All the text had been better and less pretentiously explained and I doubted I could have drawn a better image than that panel and it was 6:45 am the day I needed to scan and print the images so I left it as the lst panel and don’t regret it nor view it as a constriction of time.

Rather that I think I produced better under pressure, though it was very stressful, deprived me of 66 of 72 hours of sleep as finals were going on and was allot of pressure. Though I had people for and against my ambitiousness in the class, the fact that I had stayed up so many nights over the previous week I would have all been a waste had I not finished it so after the second night straight of no sleep I passed the point of no return.

I waned to finish something and this being only my second completed graphic novel and the fact that I want to redo some of the other story “Yurushi” which I wrote as a story then comic book then film script then story boarded 70% of in film aspect ratio. This was really the first project that had turned out better than I expected and I learned so much making it. It was better than the written story which I cannot say about the other. Just the fact of finishing it and actually doing it rather than thinking about it and producing nothing in which to show both the story and my artistic skill to others I had to do it. And love it. I love the different format and the restrictions I placed in the panel size and overcame.

I do like my thumbs better in both stories though, but the amount of detail I added was necessary to keep the characters straight to the viewer. Though they do change preto radically throughout the corse of the book. Probably due to getting to know the characters artistically as I did the book rather than in my sketchbook.

Anyway what I was trying to work towards saying was that the story is different in the ending mainly in the fact that not allot of people bought the ending in the story. They didn’t think she should have taken Logan back he didn’t seem story enough. So in the coarse of revisiting the story which I wrote a year before back at cu in telling tales class. I decided to make Ashley part of the problem by confessing that she too added to the stress by sabotaging the condom that resulted in her pregnancy and his anger towards their future child. However her motivation was that she knew of his relationship behind her back with her sister and thought a baby would bring them back together and force him morally to split up with Julie once and for all. The shots of her loading the bullet in the gun were supposed to be symbolic of her forced sexual consequences and both parts were supposed to be similar in physical form to their genitalia, as gross as it sounds it’s the truth.

The story twist and her deeper motivations made the ending more believable, I think though the whole thing seems kinda fake and unbelievable (or the whole story fro that matter) and as my friend pointed out they would probably go to jail as soon as the found out it was the parents. But it’s a comic book and I loved the story none the less. My girlfriend finds my stories depressing and I guess its because its drama. A series of unfortunate events. And I assumed the heavier the events, motives, secrets and relationships the better the story.

I had just seen magnolia when I saw it and was watching allot of house of sound and fog and other Jennifer Connely movies which tend to be downers. Though she says she wants to do comedy she always ends up balling in some part of her movie. (Ps: also requiem for a dream ) speaking of which I wanted to see “the fountain” which is Darren Arenofsky’s 3rd film though I am sure he is one of the most talented directors of his time and one of my biggest film inspirations as well as depalma but people seem to have mixed feelings about him. However once I saw femme fatale I was sold, he’s also been behind films like Mission Impossible, Scarface and taxi driver so give it up already. Black Dahlia sucked though. But that’s what you get with writer/directors, pure magic or disjointed disconnected and un obliterated vision.

So anyways this may be one of my lastly posts before I get working on the tentatively titled “Sleepgate” another story I wrote last year in creative writing at cu and have changed just like torn.
© 2007 zach bassett, all rights reserved. no part of “torn” related material posted here may be reproduced an any form without written permission of the author via email, also any copyright not stated here is stated at the bottom of the blog. Any art/pictures not done/taken by me are copyright of their respective owners.

3/17/07 - tOrN reposted update

2009-10-03T14:05:00.000-07:00

This post is in reference to a webcomic I created a few years ago. If you are confused please refer to the previous post.
You can read the webcomic by following the link here.

contents
>drawing the panels
>shading
>fixing the panels
>inking
>lettering
>format and the comics field in general
>cinematography
__________________________________________________
Drawing the panels

My original idea was to draw basic spheres and then just trust my hand at inking as a way of improving my inking style and becoming confident in a permanent medium. Because I had seen how I loved my sketches, but how they went flat and static when I inked because I was so cautious. I used a micron #8 and a fiber castle "f" and "s" sizes. They had a flat point I could put at an angle to get thin lines and hold perpendicular for thicker lines. However most of the time I wanted a thicker line I just did a double line like Charles Schultz. I was only reducing the panels to 86% of what they were drawn at, so there wasn't that much difference in size from the printed version. I did start off this way and I guess that's why the panels looked kinda wonkie to begin with but by the end I was sketching out panels fairly tightly at least specifically in the face, because I found that's the part I screwed up most often. Not to mention the expressions got harder to think about and draw as the comic went on. Emotions became more complex and I had to be an actor of sorts and think about what faces went with what expressions.
This is about the only place I used reference because while people know (much is the problem in 3d) when something isn't right they couldn't identify the iconic traits of the gesture, walk, expression whatever without actually doing it, they just know its wrong because we've seen it so much in our everyday lives and tv. It's a subconscious thing but something artists have to think about and be able to identify. I was taking a photo for the hand on the table in the panel where Logan leaves a tip and had my girlfriend put her hand down. It was wrong, I couldn't tell her why but it wasn't the symbol for that gesture.

As Duncan, my professor for intro, was saying each panel is a symbol in pictures for what is actually happening. If your trying to show someone cutting hair you show spray bottle, scissors, a black comb.
By the end the problem, as I've grown to respect artists that draw clean and simple, is that they have to think about drawing the panel before hand the most. It's like what are the barest bones I can give the audience and will still get the idea across. I thought it was laziness and while it's not as much work physically, it makes up for it in planning. I think this is why I liked my thumbnails better than my actual panels. And they were small enough for me to see the composition.

I think if I go pro (please let it happen eventually) I would use a method which unfortunately I heard of from Rob Liefield - sucks by the way but for reasons which I will explain later. He draws small and blows them up and then draws the details. I think it is good for a sense of proportions especially if I were to do a splash page or something big. Though figure drawing has helped me get comfortable drawing big, I am so used to 8 1/2x11 work its hard to draw bigger. And like I said earlier especially with composition and silhouettes.
Drawing the panels was a difficult problem, because I didn't know if I should draw the pictures first and assume the size of the text and then have those problems in editing dialogue. Or if I should letter first and draw around it, which felt weird and awkward.

The entire book was an exercise in confidence, storytelling over art, and profile shots. I had a hard time drawing profiles and so I purposely made the photo a double profile shot so I would have to draw it so much I would eventually get it right. And I think I nailed it in the last panel. But it took the whole book to get it right, but practice makes perfect right? Anyway, figuring out the difference between males and females faces not to mention bodies has long since been one of my problems. All these things much as the gestures are easily solved with reference because you don't have to think about it, but next to a few expressions and a few hands or object - like the gun - the whole thing was drawn completely out of my head. Jaw lines, hands, feet, noses and eyebrow. Mouths, lips noses - each must be drawn so different to imply the gender defenses that if you mix and match you will get them looking like some manly hermaphrodite.

I remembered Jim lee saying and seeing it most comics, you barley draw the nose with girls , usually just the nostrils and you have to keep them small. The jaw is particularly hard and something I think I still have to work on. But in profile as well all the features change. Men you can add as many lines as you want make them knobby and exageratedly 3d and they can still look young. With women if you draw any lines between the cheek and eyes it adds 20 years. Men are so ugly so wrinkly. Why do women like us. If I was a girl I would be a lesbian.

Many of the panels I would draw and the angle would change from behind the character to in front of him/her which means according to the viewer the right hand will go from one side and flip to the opposite. The 180 rule, from film, which splits characters to sides of the composition and tries to keep them there to avoid confusion by not rotating the camera more that 180 degrees, in fact usually around only 90. When you have to see the back of one of the character's heads, and not the faces, it means the viewer has to think about it and it detaches them from the story and the reality of the story with the technicalities of its presentation. However changing the camera angle, and screwing up this rule and other rules can subconsciously make the viewer say, "wow something is wrong here," because were so trained with these rules we don't even know how much switching the characters, just for one panel, can be.
Shading.

I had originally been really excited about using a zip tone to separate layers of depth in the composition which would have been amazing and worked so much better. But because of time I did parallel lines as a shading technique, the problem was I used the same thick pen, as I had drawn the outlines with in the beginning, which made all the lines the same weight and you ended up losing the contours.

Fixing panels

I started using the white out tape to edit text easily though because of the sharp points of the pens I used, the white out tape would tear through. I would try to flatten it with my fist, hoping to flatten and stick it into the rest of it which still stuck to the paper - but it fell off most often. In the beginning I had used acrylic paint that I would paint on and draw over. This didn't have the same problem of "fraying," however it did become 3d and didn't make it easy to draw straight lines and it didn't take permanent marker at all. Around the time of the phone contestations and the diner scene I didn't have my lettering guide so I had to leave space and then rewrite the text and cut it out on a separate sheet and paste it on with some double sticky tape - thanks to Alison for that tape by the way. For the most part this scanned alright without casting a shadow. This took a particularly long time because it added steps and I had to draw background that was eventually covered up.

Inking

Anything goes in inking. It all comes down to the fact that the final product will be 2d, and whatever you have to do so that it is black and white, and so it is the panel you want goes. If that's cutting and pasting, whiting out, digitally mixing images, adding text afterward etc.

Lettering

Much as I believe Frank Miller drew some of the panels for Sin City I drew the text in invert of what I wanted the final to look like and then flipped it on the computer, knowing I was scanning these before I would be able to reproduce them. I tried buying a white paint pen
but it was a piece of crap and soaked into the Bristol without doing a thing. I could also copy things from other panels, if they didn't change such as in the panels I mentioned earlier. I chose a 5 for lettering size which ended up meaning, I could only fit about 3 to 4 lines of text across the top of a panel and still be able to include an image.

Format and the comics field in general

However making sure the left character talks first or the highest character speaks first, and so on, become problems you have to deal with. I guess in short comic artists are not so much artists as we are storytellers and problem solvers. Some even go so far as to say the hero should always enter from the left and move right, like your eye across a page. Villains contradict this rule and should subconsciously make you estranged from them, at least some bit. This also ties into how composition should be thought of with how the eye moves from panel to panel and word balloon to balloon etc. I asked one of my friends when we read through the other's minis and I realized we didn't actually look at the panels. We read from word balloon to word balloon and only saw the panels peripherally. Which was a disappointment to me but good to know when I draw. Thank god I didn't have to think about how I would get down to the next tier of panels like a vertically stacked conventional orientation page would.
I had originally thought I wanted to post the images as a web comic -all side by side, one big long scrolling comic - this was brought on after seeing McCloud speak at SCAD about how the web browser/screen could be a window to a bigger canvas and how without having to turn pages there is no leaps of faith or cut off point in which the viewer kind of has to remember what happened before without being able to see it.

On the internet its all right there. Its almost how film editing works and how good editors are, in theory, are supposed to make cuts when people blink and some actually use infrared cameras on a test audiences to watch for blinks and make cuts on a majority of simultaneous blinks. But well see if it ends up on the internet. I will however try to post pictures with the what I'm talking about.
I was really inspired by city of glass' use of the basic 9 panel page.

When David Mazzucchelli deviated from it the panels were multiples of the single panel. They were double size, quadruple or whatever. I figured I could get the same effect but still drawing the panel boarders. Speaking of which, I drew 36 panels to an 18X24 Bristol sheet which I then scanned in four portions and then arranged into pages on the computer. Which became a problem dealing with figuring out which panels ended on the right page because I would have transitions or as I call them sequences - who's composition directly related to the panels before or after it - this is one of the main reason I have any deleted panels. The rest of the deleted panels were because the panel just didn't work and needed to be completely redone. Or something was wrong to the point it would just be easier to redo it than fix the same one

Cinematography

I tried to think of the shots very much like I would direct it if it were a film. So many of the shots are the same angle with things happening over time rather than changing the camera angle for every new panel. This way the viewer focuses on the change and allows me to be more specific and predict more easily points of interest and focal points for the viewer. Like when ashley opens her eyes angrily later in the story when she backs up into Logan after stepping in Brandon's blood. Looking at these early panels really makes me realize how much the style changed throughout the book. How I progressively used fewer and fewer lines, less shading and just simpler panels in general. Though the style of storytelling changed as well. I started off trying to remember what I was thinking of when I wrote the story in the first place. It was done in such a quick fashion that I drew and drew ideas I had picked my favorite and moved on from the beginning of the book to the end, making a few notes along reading through the script before I drew thumbnails at all.

There were a few reoccurring images I tried to repeat when they made since. Like before Logan knows who he is, I used the image of a face over and over. In the sink, the breakfast plate etc. Many of the sequences were slow zooms with the progressions of actions in them. Or transitions based on composition and layout - like the shot changing from when the waitress sees the blood and him inside looking at his hand in the bathroom. The food, the clock, the face. And most consciously when he would wake from flashback and have the same figure with different backgrounds.

© 2007 zach bassett, all rights reserved. no part of “torn” related material posted here may be reproduced an any form without written permission of the author via email, also any copyright not stated here is stated at the bottom of the blog. Any art/pictures not done/taken by me are copyright of their respective owners.

Geocities closes - tOrN's new home

2009-10-03T13:54:00.000-07:00

Geocities is closing next month and as I had a fairly extensive behind the scenes section on geocities previously at
http://www.geocities.com/xaqbazit/
for my webcomic/mini "tOrN" I will be moving all of that content here in the next 3 posts.

I have also joined a small but growing new ".ning" site called "indy comic creators worldwide" you can view my page here.
I haven't been able to post very much new artwork though I assure you I am working on several projects, most of which will not be published for a while so I can't post anything before they do.

In general here;s what to look for/a guide to the madness. I had two main posts dated...

3/17/07
>drawing the panels
>shading
>fixing the panels
>inking
>lettering
>format and the comics field in general
>cinematography

3/28/07
>thanks
>deleted panels
>similarity
>transitions
>process
>the original story vs. the comic

Moving

2009-09-23T12:58:00.000-07:00

I might be doing a 12-pg piece for Cosmic Times here coming up and just finished my cover for What the Flux comics. I've had a little extra time this week for packing and have also been able to read some comics, specifically event/crossover titles. I got the 1st two graphic novels for Batman: KnightFall and The Death of Superman. and got to read the image miniseries Fight for Tomorrow. As well as finish what I had of Elementals vol. 1 and a few scattered issues into volumes 2 and 3.
Elementals was great up until the final last few issues, that their creator/artist Bill Wilmingham had nothing to do with and according the The Elemntals Wiki page dropped off of comico's map for a while. He apparently supervised vol. 2 and I have a few good issues from it that he even came back to draw. Towards the end of vol. 1 you could tell it was beginning to get into the 90's market, variant covers, specials, spin-off titles that never got past the 1st issue. By the time vol. 3 rolls around that's all it is, and the only reason worth reading the issues are some of the writing, which is still interesting as it starts to break all the rules the 1st volume set and expand the world. Though there are various obvious marvel/dc rips and rip-offs as well as fill in stories that are self contained and irrelevant. They even did Sex-specials - originally saying it would further explore their characters, then moved onto swimsuit and lingere specials where it became increasingly aparent they were looking to turn a buck and capitalie on all the horny teenagers using their parents money to buy comics - just like the other comics at that time.

Willmingham was a good storyteller, not a great artists, but i got used to it, a very non-pc writer but he was fairly good at pacing and plotting and kept it interesting.
Knightfall and Death of Superman are similarly great for those reasons, pacing and plotting. Thank you Louise Simonson and Chuck Dixon. They are essentially the same story:
Act 1) hero gets injured
Act 2) new heroes step up,
Act 3) old hero returns and must fight to reclaim his mantle.
But they are done very differently and both explore, fairly deeply, the philosophy of the main character - through the viewpoints of the secondary characters, since the hero isn't there to do any of the things they are talking about. I also got Kelley Jones' Deadman, which is among my favourite of his work. And there is experimentation at every turn, some things working amazingly, others not. Even to the point he uses his fingerprints to put down the ink. I'm also intrigued by the plot for the story as I don't know much about his character.

I have been working on finalizing a script for a graphic novel with James that I will pencil and he will ink while im down that way. During which time we will finish plotting and writing the scripts for the rest of Maelstrom. I'm hoping to get A project done, period, with him so we have something to show for our work and as we have played off of before we are trying to mix our styles. In the upcoming series I may just let him pencil and ink himself for the flashback sequences, or something - like marvel has been doing with JRJR and Joe Kubert on X-men.

The final cover/frontier

2009-09-09T01:00:00.000-07:00

got to do a comission for my friend's girl friend. Charcoal, 18x24.

here's the original inks, used some quill, some tech pens and sharpie.

here's the inks with some textures from a few posts ago, and some more blacks digitally filled in (sorry still has the glow form the coloring layer on the candles.)

here's an alternate colored version, i wasn't satisfied with it (the real one) the night of but woke up the next morning and gave it another look and saw it was fine. it will be my final cover for pendant audio as i move on to even more ever more time consuming projects.
below is the final version.

Star Trek: Defiant, Ep. 39 by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART
just finished my last page for the 8 pg pencil/ink project i found through digital webbing, some of my best work yet. cant say much till it gets published but i learned a lot doing them.
also just finished my cover for what the flux comics, still needs colors but it rocks already.

mini-mega-con

2009-09-01T04:50:00.000-07:00

Got back from my first comic-con last week and took my portfolio around to show. went to see some of my favourite artists and came out getting to know some new ones.
People I knew going in:
Dick Giordano - was very hard of hearing but also one of the nicest guys in the business. He liked my work and said it was hard to break in, and pointed out the gun in the second to last panel of pg. 2 in my Hickok stork and said "that's not a gun, that's a lolly pop" him and his wife were selling art and he has just taken an assistant.
Chuck Dixon, Darwyn Cooke, Tony Bedard, and Jimmy Palmiotti were all nice and did a panel on writing "tough guys." Which was good and different than you might think these guys would think about their characters. That night I got to hang out with most all of them including Alvin Lee at the hotel bar and talk about all sorts of stuff.
Never found Tim Townsend - but he's cool too and it would have been great to see some of his stuff up close.
Jimmy Cheung - said he didn't really look at portfolio's and was working on a commission all day long that was amazing. I talked to him about his style as I loved it and thought it was a great mix of manga and american styles, he commented and continued to work diligently. He was nice, but said it took him a long time to do his pages and that he thought he was slow.

People I didn't:
Pat Broderick - a very nice artists who's worked for marvel in the 90's doing spider-man and Doom 2099, he now is a teacher at the International Institute of art and design. He mentioned having a foot in every door, as he moved to doing storyboards when comics started to take their flop in the mid/late 90's. Thought I might do well doing a few war story samples to mix reference with my action/storytelling.
Morry Hollowell - colorist for the Oldman Logan and much of Steve Mcniven's stuff. talked about his process and his relationship with mcniven through the years as he wrapped up the final book for the Old man Logan series.
Drew Geraci - who has inked who has inked over mcniven and had some pages by Rags Morales I really wanted, was cool. He thought my inking was slop and compared to his it was. he showed me how well he could ink a circle w/o a template and fake straight lines, said it was all practice and you could tell he had.
Casey Jones - worked on spider-man and various x-character books had a lot of good feedback. Recomended a few books that helped him understand hands, as i mentioned i needed help simplifying them. He draws panels seperate then shrinks/blows them up to fit the page. He flips and worked on the back like Clement demoed at scad a few years ago and uses sketchup to comp the tech in, then inks everything together to make it all work as one. I had a page from a writer with over 9 panels and it was hard to read, he said "it might be their fault to give you this many but its still your job to make it work, and your fault if it doesen't." he talked about anatormy being a composition of softly curning lines intersecting, but where they intersect makes all the difference, and spoke about the rhythm of those lines with one another. he drew great simple hands. He was big on leaving space above the character's heads to fit dialog and that the panel size should match the action and said i had a lot of wasted space in my new pages, though they were spaced that way (not above the character's heads) for where i intended the dialog. Him and Synott probably looked at my work and gave me feedback individually for probably a good 20-30 mins each.
Alex Saviuk - has drawn for the daily spiderman comic for the newspaper for a while now with joe sinott. Some times one inks the other pencils, vice versa or both. A friend of mine made the mistake of calling him "oldschool" which he didn't like, but he knew his stuff and used tracing paper i brought to show me how he would have done things differently. Like lyle, he liked my pieces but said the bodies weren't working as a whole. And one of the best pieces of advice he gave was to start your portfolio with your tightest work, I started mine with my newest stuff, though not as tight, he explained why and it made since. He also talked about how to make hands/bodies more feminine (much of what lyle told me too) and little things you can do to sell the likeness of an object to the viewer. he mentioned a few books and was very nice. Seeing his art at (that is still done 2 fold bigger than it would be printed in comics, and even bigger than that if printed in a newspaper) made me want to work that size.
Mike Perkins - pencils and inks himself, using some reference but pencils very loosely before just laying figuring it out in ink, though you'd never know. He is awesome with a brush and said he usually takes 2 weeks to pencil and 3 to ink a book but is on a schedule where he can do that.
Sergio cariello - like, Mike, Sergio inks himself and used to teach at the Kubert school, his work in some cases is very reminiscent of joe's work. But he was probably the most inspirational, and both him and Perkins talked about inking the pages together so they have a since of unity and finishing the whole book in stages of completion so you don't completely finish 15 pages and have stick figures on the last 7-9.
Everyone (who worked there) talked about working at crossgen, most of them had, and said it was great. studio setup everyone saw each others work and it drove them to do better, they got health insurance and between all the guys had a massive reference library.
I also got to see some of Linel yu's rough pages on 8 1/2x11 that his rep was showing Billy Tan.
On my end:
I got lots of good feedback and met editors from several small companies who all gave me nods on my work and I even ended up doing a small amount of inking over one of the artists there which lead to a job. So I will be starting with What the Flux comics when I get back into town.
Met a new friend named Larry who's art can be found on his blog, he's working on a book for top shelf.

The Osprey

2009-08-18T17:23:00.000-07:00

above are the inks w/o leveling them in photoshop, I used the brush they included and the tech pens that are in the pack.

Commission: The Osprey by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

I had to create a sequence using my own character, letter it myself and ink and color it - using only the tools in the pack that it will be sold with. Here is the colored version.

Suffice it to say I was less than thrilled about coloring it but I still had fun with it, despite being able to blend a convincing flesh tone. And below a picture of how and where it appears in the booklet in the "Complete Comics Illustration Kit" from Faber Castell.

Here's a link to my turnarounds and maquette I did for him semesters earlier. I kind of stole Rorschach's face from Watchmen as I had just watched the Motion Comic the week before, Did I mention I had to do this in a week on top of my schoolwork? And then I had to throw in the "stunner glasses" for my bro - they made it into the final clip in the book. This was my first official paid comics page too, so I was delighted to do it regardless.

Deadclaw

2009-08-13T19:25:00.001-07:00

Deadclaw: Commission, Inks by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Deadclaw: Commission, color by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART
Really worked on my inking here, and worked big, which I do better with. I've done some other brush stuff for DVLP clothing that will be in their fall '10 line. Very proud, thought I'd use it to try and get some work. Also just finished my 1st 3 pgs of the secret project in my first full day of work. Need to do 3 more tomorrow and 2 on Saturday to hit my deadline before I head back to my job.

Aquajones 41 more - done

2009-08-11T16:42:00.000-07:00

So I finished my Aquajones covers, the ones I like I posted on DA

Aquajones: Octoband by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Aquajones: Octofaces by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Aquajones: The Human Figure by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Aquajones: Swordsmen by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Aquajones: More Instruments by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Aquajones: Adventures by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Aquajones: When Animals Attack by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART
and here are the ones that didn't quite make the cut including one I painted over completely.

Giant Art Review

2009-08-09T16:36:00.000-07:00

So recently I’ve been getting a lot of graphic novels through Swaptree.com, and or Half Priced books, here in Austin and even the local library. I thought I might share some thoughts on what I’d found.

Captain America: the new deal - Cassaday defines his post Planetary style, and develops an entire way for Captain America to move. Much like what has become customary for other marvel characters such as Spider-man or DC’s Batman. I noticed him moving very symmetrically, which was cool, and all the art is very iconic and has been since it came out a while ago.

Also, picking up where Cassaday left off another modern artists I like, Simone Bianchi, took over Astonishing X-men and I was able to pick up the first couple issues. Its an interesting transition because both use some inkwash and are fairly realistic, but as I’ve mentioned before (and I think it worked with Whedon writing it and having a background in TV and film) he used almost exclusively full-tier panels and gave a film-like experience. Bianchi is completely the opposite using overlapping, circular, sliver, and even triangular panels - even in scenes where characters were only talking. Warren Ellis’ wordy dialog is quite a change from Whedon’s curt, almost one-balloon- panel-per-pannel style.

I recently got to look at The incredible Hulk vol. 1, written by Bruce Jones, whom I’ll see at the Florida Mini-con when I go latter this month. The storytelling, as always with JRJR is amazing but partially because of the writer, who cuts around seeing the Hulk at all and focused on Bruce (Banner, lol) trying to control becoming the Hulk at all. I have to say Tom Palmer’s inks are my favourite I’ve seen on JRJR, for his current style. And when the inker stayed on and the penciller switched to Lee Weeks (Whom I love as well) after a few issues, Tom held it together very well, which was cool to see, and made the transition fairly smooth, even though the pencillers’ styles were very different.

Above, Inker Tom Palmer makes the transition inking from one artists to the other on Hulk.

It's interesting looking back at the famous inkers that have covered Johnny and how his style has changed as well, my personal favourite was Klaus+JRJR on Punisher: War Journal, his style had gotten so geometric, angular, bulky and filled the page and Klaus’ inks looked so intuitive. Al’s inks over him back on Daredevil and X-men, when JRJR’s style was much more realistic and minimalist by comparison were cool too, and each interpreted his side of pencil shading very differently. I think it was the reason that Eternals didn’t really hit it for me the way I wanted was that Danny Miki was inking him and I was so used to Scott Hanna on Spider-man, or Klaus, etc etc. Similar to how Klaus talks in his DC guide to inking about how Dick Giardinno, and a few others, had their own style in combination, when inking over Neal Adams. Kirby had a few inker’s like that as well. There's a prety cool short visual history of JRJR's work here.

Above, Klaus over JRJR in the early 90's Punisher: War Journal.

Above, Al Wiliamson inks over JRJR in the 80's in Daredevil.

Speaking of which, that brings me to Batman: Knightfall vol. 1
Where you get to see Jim Aparo inked over by himself, Tom Mandrake Bob Wiacek, Joe Rubenstein and Dick Giordano (for the finally, obviously). I like Jim, don’t get me wrong but he has such a straight forward style sometimes especially when he’s rushing that it’s hard not to see the corners her cut, especially to ink himself. Though some of his influences seem to come out, he has a much thicker style reminiscent of Milton Cannif’s Steve canyon. And he looks like he just switched between brush and techpens.

Above, Mandrake over Aparo, would have loved to see this in B+W.

Above, Rubenstein over Aparo.

Above, the man himself, Dick Giordano over Aparo. Notice the hatching that gives him away in the lower left panel, same that he used over Neal Adams.

Above, Aparo inks over himself.

Also I noticed this odd theme of loose back and forth brush strokes surrounding headshots, that was started by Breyfogle the issue before Hanna takes over inking a few other artists, but is used multiple times. I didn’t know if it was to take up space, make it interesting (As Al Williamson has been known to do) or to mean something I wasn’t picking up on.

Above, Hanna imitates the squigggles started an issue earlier by Breyfogle.

Above, Breyfogle.

I never really took to Norm Breyfogle’s work until I saw he always inks himself. Which I think is an amazing feat for any artists to pull off convincingly and skillfully, which is part of the reason I respect Cassaday so much. He experiments with some fun stuff, his panel layouts are always cool in action scenes and I like his anatomy. His inking is so bold in places it is powerful but his drawings fall apart in others, he really stretches reality sometimes but with batman that kind of worked anyway.

Notice how Breyfogle uses such bold lines on the under-side of objects, specifically batman's leg muscles as he inks himself. He alsoways sort of warps reality to emphasize and fit the storytelling.

And of course the real reason I got it was the cover’s are by Kelley Jones, still one of my fav’s, who inks himself though it never shows. Bob Pendarvis once called him the poor man’s Bernie Wrightson but I love his stuff, his hands, his lighting, fabric, use of splatters and and the fact that he does stretch reality most of the time with anatomy etc. like Breyfogle. I just always thought he was so unique to be in mainstream, though his style did pin him down to Batman almost exclusively, though I did see him do a venom issue the other day.

Also, I have gotten Thor vol. 1 with Oliver Coipel, whom I’ve mentioned before as one of my favourite modern artists. Haven’t gotten to look at it much yet but I had already seen much of the original art for the issue on a site selling his original pages. He is kind of a mix between the line work of Stuart Immonen and Adam Hughes with a touch of the eastern influence seen in Jim Cheung’s work, (whom I also love and will be seeing at the Florida mini-con latter this month.)

Also here (above) is the picture I was saying Bruce Timm based the cover of Superman vs Doomsday off of a few posts ago. Here’s a link to Timm’s rendition.

And while I'm mentioning cool modern artists I just had to throw in Deodato Jr. (Above) Whom I've talked about before but I had to mention again. Had seen this DPS in the store and passed, later regretted it and found later. Awesome layouts, awesome pencils and awesome storytelling (from thunderbolts). He only pencils and tweaks them in photoshop to ink, that's why his hatch lines never taper. Very odd, but you can learn more and see a ton of his work and some b+w work on his DeviantArt page.

And what about Xaq? Well I'm working on some new pages for the Florida mini-con, my radio drama is on hold until my sound fx guy gets moved-in to his new place, and I've been writing what could started out as a script and I would love to make a novella if I have enough time. I'm going to be posting more soon, when I get some art done here in the next week. I have swarms of projects I'd love to write and get going on I just need some time, and to take that time I need money. You know how it goes.

Defiant 38

2009-08-05T01:00:00.000-07:00

This episode focused on the regret of a character for the death of another and I immediately imagined the pieta. Of course comics are filled with this type of imagery:

although "googling" pieta you get a bunch of master srtists renditions which are all amazing and very different in style and composition.

(above) is the one i based (mocked) my piece on. i had originally wanted to draw all the crew of the defiant in the poses of the angels around him but didn't have time.

Though it bears little resemblance to its influence the posture and the look on Magas' face. I had, as I always do with star trek covers, various incantations and usually spend most of my time trying to figure out what option to take. The coloring came out of the short time I took on it, but with the colors it almost worked in a very iconic pop art way. I eventually added the glow on top of the lines (by just duplicating the white layer i used to color the wings and Gaussian bluring it above the lines) as a way of finding a middle between the pop art route and the feathers route i also had planned out using a layer type and a b+w photo of feathers.

I have also posted a small, fast (2 hrs) mini i made to send to my little brother a few years back called THE DRAGON AND THE 3 LITTLE BOYS.

And have finished my Aquajones promo covers which I will be sharing with you all soon. First I thought I'd post this pic from one of the first freelance pieces I did for CFU magazine in Co. Most the other stuff can be found on my DA page. They later used this image and retyped his speech bubble to match what they were doing that month. Not great but not bad for still being in highschool (at the time).

1st 10/50 Aquajones and Humble Boy

2009-07-14T13:02:00.000-07:00

The band I did these for (Aquajones) were nice enough to let me show them to you all. You can hear their music and see alternate scans of a few of these images on their myspace page here.

Aquajones by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

(Below) i was trying to figure out what or who aquajones could be and I thought of Scuba Steve from Big Daddy.

(Above) Again playing with "AquaJones" this time making him look more like an action figure.

(Above)i was going for a Betty Page kind of look but the way her eyes and her mouth came out reminded me of the Max Fleischer Lois Lane.

(Unrelated) Juts thought I'd post this. It was my first envolvement (professionally) as I had done theater posters as early as grades school (Willy Wonka) and High School (the Importance of Being Ernest). But this was for an actual theater company for which I also designed the logo (lower left) Fire House Theater company in Colorado. Both of which were colored by a professional friend, Danielle, through which I learned a lot about the process. But I did the inks and drew the image. I drew the tree the bee's and the ground all separate so we could place them to fit and I think it worked wonderfully.

Here's a close up on the logo I designed for them some 5/6 years ago, and again it's colored by Danielle.

Defiant 37 and Aquajones

2009-07-08T01:00:00.000-07:00

Here's my new cover for Pendant Audio's ongoing fan radiodrama. The drawing was hard actually, I've fallen kind of out of it but am working on getting back on top with a few other projects because I've been so busy, and it looks like I'll be moving yet again here in a few months. The inking was okay, using brushpens and tech pens again, and I got some cool fx by setting two similar photo textural layers (of the sunset through a dirty windshield) to "multiply" (grayscale) and the other to "color burn" overtop and under my line art. The streaks gave it a cool brushed painterly look at certain spots but overall the photo gave it an awesome color palette. The stars were the same texture page I made for the last cover but overlapped and used bigger to look like stars instead of snow.
You can listen to this and other episode at pendant audio's website.

Star Trek: Defiant, Ep. 37 by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART
I've also been doing some promo-pack covers for a local band called Aquajones. 10 down 40 to go. And I might be doing t-shirt designs with a Denver based clothing company DVLP soon. No word yet on the skatboard designs, poo.

Work - Yay!

2009-06-23T11:21:00.000-07:00

here's the inks for the piece on the previous post.

So after a few days of looking around and sending out about 25-30 emails, I've found a few freelance gigs.
I'll be doing a set of 50 8x10 quick paintings for a local band called the AQUAJONES, for their promotional packets.

I'll also be working on a secret project - all I can mention is what was mentioned on their post on Digital Webbing since I have to sign a non-disclosure agreement:
Artist Needed For Super Hero-Related Marketing Project
First off, this is a "purely for exposure" kind of gig.

I'm heading up part of a team developing a promotional campaign for an upcoming web series. As part of our efforts we're developing at least one mini-comic.
We'd need either one artist or a small team to help produce around eight pages of sequential art--pencils, inking, coloring and lettering.
This could be a fun project for the right person/team. You'd get full credit and your work would be part of a project with potentially high visibility.
I'll be scanning my skateboard designs and getting in touch with them this next week - should go well.
I got a lot of nods from people on Digital Webbing but was ultimately passed over, not bad for getting my foot in the door. Hopefully I will be able to post some work soon, as the Aquajones need the first 10 by the end of the week. I am still w/o a scanner but it is the first place any money from these projects will go. I also put up a piece I did a while back for Dave on DA.

Wonderboy: Hero Initiative by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART
I also just acquired the "best selling graphic novel of all time" - The Death of superman and was disappointed that Jurgens/Breeding only did 2 issues, but I should have known since the GN is compiled from all the differnet issues from different superman series that the Doomsday event crossed over into, so the regular artists form each got to do an issue too. Jurgens/Breeding's style for the actual issue, (Superman 75) is rather strange.

It's all full page spreads, some of which are majorly wonkey, others are great, all are iconic, but its almost as if they worked on them smaller and blew them up. The feathering and line weight are way larger than you would ever get with panel-to-panel pages. Idk, just an observation. Also noticed that this image by Bruce Timm is based of one of the small panels that Jurgens/Breeding did in Superman #74.

I'm also trying out for a new Metal-core band tonight called Next of Sin. Well see how it goes.

Forbidden Fruit

2009-06-22T05:05:00.000-07:00

Temptation: Triplett by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART
This was just a fun piece to keep me drawing, it was an idea I've had for some time and never got to do. I (unfortunately) don't have a scanner so I had to use my camera but it was done using Tech Pens on a scrap of Illustration board, with some white out over top. I couldn't decide on colours so I went with all three. I went much the same route and format as I did on the skateboard designs I've done recently as far as composition and inspiration. I was very inspired by the art and working method of a particular deviant THEIRISON As well as LIDETO
It would make a good wallpaper, very pop art, no?

Update

2009-06-18T11:20:00.000-07:00

this is an old coloring piece I did for julie's class. I've been applying for the whole spectrum of comic's positions.
Hey all, i haven't posted as often as usual recently. Ive been out of school and saving up for a scanner. Been working on various side projects like:
Maelstrom with james,
Phil's prequel comic book to his student film\
possibly penciling a comic james wrote and him inking it. But were working the script over first.
I designed a tattoo for my brother and have been taking it pretty easy since I just moved out of georgia this last weekend. Other projects I'd like to work on include:
a 9-11 firefighter story I wanted to do for 24hr comic day,
Vicky's Unnaturals,
my 6-issue Subhumans super-hero book
a special project I want to take some time writing called "the Samaritan."
i hope to work on these self published books as a way to keep working and creating a fresh portfolio and send new pages out every couple of months.
Ive also completed over 15 skateboard tight roughs that me and James will be sending to a connection of his for approval by the skate team before we finish out a select few. I'm excited and am researching comic companies in my new home to see if i can go visit and make some connections.
We've also been keeping a pretty intense conversation going on at Tom's blog about the industry in general along with some more specific points.
I'd also like to start opening commissions over DA, as I have been seeing a lot of poor or decent artists making hundreds at it, with little to no effort. Tattoo designs, portraits, pinups anyone?
Ill also be checking back every few days on digital webbing's wanted pages.

Definat 35

2009-06-03T00:00:00.000-07:00

Defiant 35 was probably my least favourite cover I've done for pendant. But this time everything, including the script was better. I was even thinking of giving up doing covers from them because I just wasn't inspired anymore. It's hard to make Star Trek exciting and not make it look like a bunch of stuck up sci-fi geeks standing around in spandex, they don't have the muscles to make them look cool like super heroes so they just look like regular people in extra ordinary outfits. This last episode had the crew disguised as the Breen, which despite having a helmet directly swiped from Boush from Star Wars is pretty damn cool. I was looking at this book of fleer star wars trading cards I had lost as a kid and recently was given as a gift - anyway its got lots of pieces by lots of famous artists I now know, but didn't at the time and this one particularly caught my eye. I quickly saw it was Mignolla and was just blown away at how powerful his stuff always is despite being simple and he uses so many techniques that are his trademark.

Anyway, So I scanned it and swiped the colors and was really hooked on the yellows I think I was channeling Dune or something, but eventually I just wasn't sold on the whole "yellow snow"-thing, call me weird, or just a boy. So i eventually but a blue layer over the top and set the layer to hue. I had tried messing with the colors and adding more blue and sucking out the red to make it feel colder but it still didn't sell the idea of "cold" like blues and purples.

Another fun thing was that I knew I would need texture for the snow but it would also need to be coloured white so instead of drawing it out and then having to color the snow white in photoshop I just drew some scratchy textural things seperate in black, inverted them in photoshop and added them as a layer above the line art after i set the layer type to cut out all the black - the same process I used for the Kryton logo and any white on black text I do in comics. So anyway, it worked, it was fun, and it looks frign' sweet.

I did fight with the size of the Defiant cover, as I usually do. With the text on top (unlike comic books) and the title centered at the bottom) and the whole cover being closer to magazine format than comic book, by the time you get done you really are working with a safe area that is more of a horizontal rectangle than a verticle one, so i swiped and clone tooled my way out of it but as always it catches me off guard as I am used to working in comic book format. The composition was inspired by a splash page Tim Sale did of Batman in a riot outfit, in The Long Halloween.

Star Trek: Defiant, Ep. 36 by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Simpsons and Constantine

2009-06-01T11:06:00.000-07:00

These were done as part of my "Character design and storyboarding" class, over a year ago, and animated last semester in "Adv. survey of computer art apps"
Its the first few minutes of episode 10, season 1: Homer's night out.
A bunch happens in a short amount of time, you can watch mine here

and watch the real one here.
The Simpsons 110 Homer's Night Out
I didn't see the episode recently until after I was done storybording it but they are rather similar.
also i thought I'd post a few pages we did of Hellblazer we colored and lettered. The font didn't come through for the lettering unfortunately but I guess you can see the balloon placement if nothing else.

also here are a few clips and trailers for a student film called "the winter of 1914" that i did the storyboards for. I'm trying to get a copy of it so I can sync the audio to the storyboards like I did for the simpsons but contact with the director and even the editor (who posted the videos" has been difficult and sparse.

i also was a production assistant (PA) back between highschool and college on a movie called "the Sensei." Which is making it's rounds at film festivals now.

and oh yeah! i started a blog for my Radio Drama and the first episode came out about a few weeks ago. You can learn more and listen to the first episode, here.

New Fan Film

2009-05-27T16:46:00.001-07:00

Also I just got my new Star Wars fan film done as one of my finals. It is supposed to be a sequel to my first (Star Wars, Episode 0: Guardians of the Prophecy) one and is more fx heavy than anything I've done to date. It was a lot of work, luckily I had split up some of the work in my free time over the last 2 1/2 years since we filmed it. A big part of the problem was the incompatibility of .WMV files with Adobe software.
I wasn't able to get some of the cool advanced effects that some people could get like the lightsaber stretching out to tween between frames, or light flashes upon contacts but i was able to change the size when the saber was closer to the camera and create original spark fx animations and play with the lasers receding in space in perspective. it would have been cool as a 3d movie, lol.
Here's the breakdown:
65: sounds – 4 sound hrs editing
2: hrs 3d texturing – and 2 more animating
4: 3d fx shots
1: green screen fx shot
3: title/credit sequences
28: practical camera shots
6: hrs frame-by-frame flash animation

Here's a little behind the scenes action where Luke was his own stuntman and took a paintball to the chest so we could track the wound in the part where his character (the Cyborg-Sith) gets killed.

Here is the original fan film we did.

Goodbye SCAD

2009-05-27T12:41:00.000-07:00

Sci-fi Pitch Pin-up pencils by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Thor AOT 1 - Unpub cover inks by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Man in the Iron Mask Inks by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART
these are 2 covers by Marko Djurdjevic I inked. They had previously been either unpublished or finished as a digital painting so I thought it would be interesting to emulate his hatching marks more authentically. On the thor one i added a little bit but mostly played with line weight, I was going for some "hitching"/tight crosshatch rendering.

also i started talking with tom about what some people called his "dated style" so you can see what i said and add your two cents over at his blog here.

ok inks

2009-05-21T16:15:00.000-07:00

put up a bunch of new inks on da, this one didnt quite make the grade - i loved the figured but the back ground was so rough i just didnt make it through. anyway - pencils by rick leonardi, idk what book.

Batman Scarecrow inks by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Hellboy inks and zip by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

X-men: academy x inks by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART
my finals will be up next week, im doing two uninked and one unpublished cover my Marko Djurdjevic and a buch o stuff form lyle's class.
also some of my art was featured on the "art and fist" they have a blog and it could make it into their anthology. check it out here and here.

Xyris at the Wormhole

2009-05-12T19:32:00.000-07:00

Finally got a video of our show, so everyone what we really sound like.

After Graduation

2009-05-08T16:58:00.000-07:00

Today was editor's day - yay! I got to talk to Joan Hilty from Vertigo and Nate Cosby from Marvel. Both went incredibly well and complimented me on my storytelling, camera angles and style. The only criticisms were: 1) that i need to pick a style and stick with it - as far as rendering and cartooniness. And 2) keep better consistency with anatomy and faces.
These are both things that I am struggling with and as they said and i knew, will come with time. I just need to draw more pages and I will settle in. My major influences range from guys like the cartoony and angular Bruce Timm and soft edged Chris Bachello - to in the middle of the road guys like JRJR and Tim Sale and Jim Cheung - to realistic/semi-realistic guys like Essad Ribbic, John Cassaday, Lee Weeks and Oliver Copiel. So they're all kind of fighting for and finding a place in my style which will make it quite a diverse style.
Also the angles I'm choosing are not the kind you can fake but they told me I was pulling them off rather confidently. But drawing the face at those extreme angles is really unforgiving especially on women's faces and it has and will continue to be a challenge.
My inks were not up to par before this class - so that may stay as a side job, there have been plenty of guys who pencil a book and ink someone else's book in the same month. But I plan to keep working diligently after school and not stop drawing! despite all the chaos that will ensue immediately after like moving, getting married and probably moving another 2 times in the next year or two. The good news is I'm working enough to pay rent and get my pages done so once school is out I will have loans to pay back but I hope to find a job fairly quickly.
A friend of mine passed my contact info along to a skateboard company in Florida that pays very well and we might be working on a series of boards for them. that would give me enough money to keep working the hours I am now and put the time i was in school into my pages, to secure a comics job.
I made sure to drop off a leave-behind in almost all the editors boxes and try to make them specific to the publishers. Dark Horse is coming next week, though Ill be out of town and Oni will be here the week after, so I'm excited about that as I hear the hire many young budding artists and accept a very wide range of styles.
Various projects like the Radio Drama, Terra Novus, Phil's prequel comic, Vicky's Unnaturals and various idea's I've had will be used to flesh out the next year's worth of material if I don't get picked up by anyone.
I think some of the issues in the pages were purely due to the amount of time I had to put into the page, so being out of school should give me the time to really nail every detail. The reviews relit the flame of inspiration for me that was quickly getting burned out by stress and semester after semester. I'm sure not having teachers to set my deadlines will come with its own problems but the advantages seem enough to get me headed in the right direction.

deviant and defiant update

2009-05-05T20:51:00.001-07:00

here's my mock star trek movie site for class. and here's me new defiant art.

Star Trek Defiant, Ep. 35 by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Wolverine Inks by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

Bryan Hitch Inks by ~xaqBazit on deviant ART

giganto skecth post

2009-05-05T07:38:00.000-07:00

yeah. i been busy. most all of this is from tom's advanced drawing for seq class.