character design

Mercenaries on the Move

Here’s an image with a few stories behind it.

Story one: the pub date for The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue has been pushed back for a third time. It’s now coming out in Fall 2024.

Story two: I’ve been teaching myself Blender so I can design some 3d model vehicles for upcoming Doctor Baer stories. You can output a Blender file to Clip Studio Paint as 3d material. Within Clip Studio Paint you can manipulate the model to set it in just the position you want, and you can even copy the rulers from that model into a drawing layer.

Here’s the blender file:

The bike I designed myself. The gorilla skull was purchased from Turbosquid.

I demonstrated how this all works on a recent live stream:

But who are these characters, and why should anyone care? I mentioned a while back that I was working on an outline for another Doctor Baer story, and that I wanted to put these mercenaries in it.

L to R: Shenandoah the barbarian, Dick the gizmoteer, and Kobros the creep.

The news about my book’s pub date got me thinking of getting something in motion sooner than later on another Doctor Baer story. Between the time of this writing and October 1st, 2024 are approximately 300 workdays, not counting holidays. Given my fall/winter schedule I can comfortably commit an average of 1.5 hours per day towards a new story. That puts me somewhere between 75-100 pages finished by the time Two-Faced Statue comes out.

Rather than have a half-finished graphic novel, I’m thinking of creating a shorter standalone story that I can serialize online leading up to the book’s release. It would certainly be a more compelling way to remind everyone that I have a book coming out next year.

So this image sums up my excitement around making lemonade out of this latest setback. I may not get to see my book in print when I had hoped, but I can use the wait time to come up with an exciting story with a giant thug of a cat, a two-headed cobra, and a little gadgeteer monkey who make life difficult for Doctor Baer.

More to come as I figure out what the story will be! But you can subscribe to the email newsletter or support me on Patreon to get more frequent and in-depth updates.

Mercenaries on the Move Read More »

Count Fishravin’s Sky Hydra!

(special thanks to my buddy Zack Giallongo for the name idea!)

It’s been a packed summer of camp workshops, A2CAF, and events surrounding the Facing Feelings: The Art of Raina Telgemeier exhibition (curated by my wife Anne!). So I’m slowly catching up on correspondence and getting back to drawing.

Most of you know that I love using the utterly mercenary toy marketing of the 1980s as a design constraint. Especially Hasbro toys like the Transformers and G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero. I was sketching Count Fishravin the other day and thought about those Robot Cuttlefish I drew some months back:

And it occurred to me that I might adapt this design to be one of the smaller vehicle sets you’d find in the G.I. Joe line, like Serpentor and his Air Chariot, Destro and his Despoiler, or Zartan and the Chameleon. Maybe Count Fishravin could drive a similar vehicle based on the cuttlefish designs above?

I took this as an opportunity to try learning Blender a little more. This vehicle was designed on paper, constructed as a 3d model in Blender, then imported into Clip Studio Paint. CSP’s 3d tools allow you to import an .obj file and manipulate it like you would any included 3d materials. So once imported, I was able to position the model in any angle I want–then copy the rulers to a penciling layer.

I penciled more details onto the model and printed them out on watercolor paper. I inked on paper and took the drawings back into Clip Studio Paint for coloring.

I thought it might be neat to include some electric (ELECTRONIC) eels for the tendrils on front of the cuttlefish. Though I’ll admit this does evoke a bit of the design of Sky-Runner, the main villain’s vehicle from SilverHawks.

It was a fun experiment that led to more Blender skill acquisition. I might use this in a future story, I might not. But I know I’ll be building more environmental elements in Blender going forward.

Count Fishravin’s Sky Hydra! Read More »

Monster High Audition

Back in 2012 a cartoonist friend pointed me at a call for samples for a licensed comic for kids. As a fan of comics based on licensed properties like G.I. Joe, Transformers, SiverHawks, and more, I was excited about the chance. I found out it was for a comics series based on the Monster ? High toys.

By today’s standards 8-year-old Jerzy might be described as “gender nonconforming,” but in my mind I just thought stuff that was marketed for girls was just as cool as the stuff marketed to me. I collected Strawberry Shortcake dolls, I watched the Jem cartoon, and the Rose Petal Place tape that came with my sister’s dolls got regular play. And I love the Universal Monsters! I thought this might be a fun chance to apply what I know about comics to this line of fashion dolls.

They gave me a brief script to draw. I penciled on bristol, inked in Clip Studio Paint (then Manga Studio 5), and colored in Photoshop.

I remember getting favorable notes back from the editors. They liked the acting and the energy I brought to the characters. But someone at MH didn’t like the way I drew the shoes. I updated the drawings several times, but I never got to what they wanted. To be fair, the characters’ shoes are intricately designed, so I don’t blame them. It was a fun experiment, regardless!

And if any toy license holders are looking for an artist who can bring your characters to life on a page, you can look over here!

Monster High Audition Read More »

TPD 184 – Flying Bad Guy Colors

character_sheet_exampleToday I talk about a lesson I’m taking to my new character design class, focusing specifically on comics villains.

Links mentioned:

Music for this show is by Eliott Drozd.
Audio hosting provided by Ka-Blam Digital Printing and IndyPlanet Digital
Voiceover by Tara Platt
Jerzy on Google+
Subscribe through iTunes
Listen on Stitcher

TPD 184 – Flying Bad Guy Colors Read More »

Thunder Punch Daily 149 – Why He-Man has that Mysterious Smile

Masters of the UniverseToday I explain my thinking process behind the design of He-Man in that big Masters of the Universe pitch I recently put together, and use it as a modeling exercise to highlight the various elements of communication in character design. If, as Dan Mishkin once said, everything in a comic is unreal, making everything real, then everything you use in your design is an opportunity to express something about your characters, their world, and the story’s worldview.

Music for this show is by Eliott Drozd.
Audio hosting provided by Ka-Blam Digital Printing and IndyPlanet Digital

Voiceover by Tara Platt

Subscribe through iTunes
Listen on Stitcher

Thunder Punch Daily 149 – Why He-Man has that Mysterious Smile Read More »

Thunder Punch Daily 143 – Surprised by Style

Today I share some thoughts on how a simple nudge from Kim Holm faced me with an inner demon that I suspect comes out of my history with mainstream comics. I don’t land on an answer to the issue, but I ruminate a bit about what my options are.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Music for this show is by Eliott Drozd.

Audio hosting provided by Ka-Blam Digital Printing

Voiceover by Tara Platt

Subscribe through iTunes
RSS

Thunder Punch Daily 143 – Surprised by Style Read More »

Thunder Punch Daily 142 – 3 Roads to Character

Today I follow up on a discussion started in Comics Are Great! episode 30 with some thoughts on character design from a writing standpoint. I share three different aspects that I oscillate between when creating characters.

Music for this show is by Eliott Drozd.

Audio hosting provided by Ka-Blam Digital Printing

Voiceover by Tara Platt

Subscribe through iTunes
RSS

Thunder Punch Daily 142 – 3 Roads to Character Read More »

Thunder Punch Daily 139 – Act Naturally

Today I share some thoughts on an experience I had while working on the latest of my He-Man and the Masters of the Universe character re-imaginings. It’s good to have a reminder that the best creative choices happen when we’re not looking for them.

Links mentioned in this episode:

Music for this show is by Eliott Drozd.

Audio hosting provided by Ka-Blam Digital Printing

Voiceover by Tara Platt

Subscribe through iTunes
RSS

Thunder Punch Daily 139 – Act Naturally Read More »

Thunder Punch Daily 119 – Justice Heroes

Inspired by the rage I felt when I read about a new Zorro film (shared by Jon David Guerra), I rant a little bit about the value of the Justice Hero, or better yet, the Smiling Justice Hero. A revisiting of topics first explored in A&S 112 – The Big Good Guy.

Subscribe through iTunes
RSS

Thunder Punch Daily 119 – Justice Heroes Read More »