Where do you stand on Ninjas vs. Pirates? Isaiah knows ninjas have the upper hand, and has already started practicing. He was running around outside in his pajamas, picked up a stick, and I snapped these shots with my iPhone. I had to make a comic - he looked like a little ninja master:
Have a look at the standalone shots: these were cut out of the iPhone photos, then passed through a watercolor filter to give them a gravelly dark comic feel.
PS - If you have a better idea for use of these images in a comic let me know - this is a barebones version just to get the idea out.
June 12th, 2008
Check out this collage of Isaiah. It contains all Isaiah photos we have taken to date (about 1,000). It’s generated using the Shape Collage software I recently stumbled upon. This goes into my suite of cool photo tools (which also includes Rasterbator for hugified posters). Click through to see the full size image (5MB) which is a lot of fun. A detail of the 2nd “a” is shown below.
May 31st, 2008
Have you drawn yourself as a teen? This is an internet meme I couldn’t pass up, though I’m a bit late to the party. (I read about this originally on the Flight Comics blog). I felt I needed to do three versions: the 15-17 year old Abe, the 18 year old Abe, and me today. If you’re honest with yourself, this is actually a lot of fun. Crazy to think how much our world can change. At the core, not much has though; still focused on kindness, honesty, and giving back more than I’ve been given.
May 25th, 2008
I’ve finished the Francesca and Isaiah piece. Check it out here, or peek at the thumbnail below. I’ve had pieces of this composition floating around in my head for a while - I knew I wanted to draw Franny, even the pose & meadow setting, but couldn’t make it all fit in my head. I finally sketched it out and realized that Isaiah was the missing piece. I’ve wanted to draw the Laundry dress too - that was tough but well worth it.
Art process - maybe it’s just me, but I love the drawing process as much as the finished work. I love reading artists websites where they share their creative process with others. (1) you can learn from each other, and (2) it’s just great to see how everyone ticks. Plus I find the art itself beautiful at every stage. Click through to see my art process from sketchbook to this image.
Overview of the process: tools - sketchbook, pencils, MacBook + PhotoShop CS3 + Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet (11 x 9 inches). I sometimes start in a sketchbook, other times I just sketch directly in PhotoShop using the Wacom. If I start in my sketchbook, I scan into computer then finish in PhotoShop. I work at very large resolutions (this image was done at 70 x 50 inches, wound up at 250MB). This way if I squiggle a little while drawing, downsampling smoothes everything out. It also helps to be able to zoom in and do details at high resolution.
PS - Click the images to see the full size originals in my gallery.
1. Character sketches - sketchbook & pencil (or pen), or direct into PhotoShop. This image started in the sketchbook, then I traced over the image on the tablet.
2. Detailed Inking - Wacom & PhotoShop, regular round brush, stroke dynamics. Isn’t Isaiah a cutey?
3. Coloring - for real people, I match colors against photos. I use a big brush to fill in large areas, then add detail with various appropriate PhotoShop brushes.
4. Clothing (Sketch, Ink, Color) - call me strange, but I need to draw clothes on top of a body. Even if they totally obscure the body. So after I’ve completed my nudes, I add the clothes. For Isaiah’s simple onesey I didn’t bother with a sketch, but you can see from Francesca’s complicated dress that I started with the blue sketch, followed with black inking & lots of color / detail work.
5. Finished! Francesca and Isaiah are now done - that took about 3 hours. The dress took most of the time - I had to get the actual dress out to see what the patterns were.
6. Background started - if I can start with a photo I will, here I found a nice meadow picture that suited my mental image of the final product. I scaled it to match my canvas, and resized & placed my subjects.
7. Background sketch - I go faster with the background, so broader sketch strokes to help me place the color later.
8. Background color & detail - just like with the people, I add detailed ink, broad swaths of color, and then more detail. I use assorted brushes here to give the natural feel to the wildflowers and sun highlights on the trees. Again, I do color matching from the original photo.
9. Horizon and sky - the flattened image above doesn’t show this, but I left the sky transparent, allowing me to add a sky layer below the background layer. I then added a little gradient and some fluffy clouds, as well as a few horizon hills in darkening colors. Almost there!
10. There is no step 10. All done! Actually, I added a little shadowing and detail under Francesca & Isaiah’s feet to plant them in the scene. I’m more or less happy with this outcome - I’d had the idea in my head for a while and it finally came together. I may re-use the Francesca & Isaiah images in a simpler desktop image, but that’s for another day.
Thanks for reading!
April 6th, 2008
The art bug has bitten me recently. I don’t know why, but I’ve been on a huge comic kick - reading Scott Pilgrim comics and checking out Bryan Lee O’Malley’s art archive, reading other Flight comics artists, reading Questionable Content and feeling very jealous of all of these fellow artists who jumped from comic amateur to pro just by going for it.
So I’m drawing again - yay! Check out my first in progress piece in a while below. I have a number of other ideas, and will probably do another mini comic for the nieces and nephews sometime soon. This eats a lot of time though ;-). But my brain is more creative and happy. Click image for full size, and stay tuned for more artwork! Also, compare this version vs. the earlier - Franny’s shoulder was too high before, and Isaiah needed an outfit. But I lost something in Franny’s smile…
April 5th, 2008
Franny and I just discovered Comic Life, which came bundled on our new MacBooks. For those not in the know, it is a brilliant application that makes it easy to compile photos and more into comic strips, complete with word bubbles, etc. For those of us who love documenting memories but hate typical scrapbooks… this is a god-send. It is also fun for all kinds of neat little projects. We created a fun little adventure comic starring our nieces and nephews - some teasers are included below. Click on them for the full comic at phanfare.
Update: switching over to Flickr, until then photos unavailable 
April 17th, 2007
My neighbor Shirley Bell is a wonderful watercolor artist, and I just completed overseeing her first foray into the world of the web. You can see some of her artwork at www.shirleybelldesigns.com. Just thought I’d share! Some samples of her work are shown below, she also does greeting cards, giclee reproductions, and much more.
July 30th, 2006
So it turns out that I still sketch while I’m thinking, during classes, etc. And thus I present the fruits of today’s labor.
January 31st, 2006
Christmas has come and gone again. Time is flying. Anyhow, Family Photos are available. I also made pop-art images of various family members, including my beloved and now dead (except Basil, far right) cats:
More pop art: Moyse family, Murray family.
Update: moving to Flickr, no photos until then
December 28th, 2005
