Jan
29
2009
Two shows that will enhance your Wondercon experience.
The Art of Stan Sakai: Celebrating 25 Years of Usagi Yojimbo
February 27 – July 5, 2009
Opening reception Friday, February 27, 2009 from 8:00-11:00pm
Hint: February 27th is the Friday of Wondercon.
But do you make of this:
Jan
29
2009
OK, the comic is over, but here is some concept art…
Thanks for Reading!
Can’t wait to see how the story ends, you can purchases a copy of Brian Kolm’s Team Sonic X on Etsy:
| Etsy Buy Handmade atomicbearpress |
Jan
27
2009
Here it is everyone, the last page of my 24 Hour Comic Book Day comic. Thanks for reading and I hope that you enjoyed my comic.
BONUS! Next Thursday January 29th see concept art from the comic!
Can’t wait to see how the story ends, you can purchases a copy of Brian Kolm’s Team Sonic X on Etsy:
| Etsy Buy Handmade atomicbearpress |
Jan
25
2009
Well from 10:30 am to 10:30 pm today I did my first attempt at my 12×6 Comic Challenge. The idea is to do a 12 comic pages in 12 hours jam six times (giving a 72 page graphic novella). So today I tried to do 12 pages in 12 hours that will be part of a final 72 pages that will be done at the end of June.
The story starts with the diminutive circus strong man, Ollie being rescued by his sister, Tess who has been looking for him for many years. At the small train station they catch a train along with a short older women and well dress gentleman. Things start to get odd when the old women goes to the back of the train and rings a bell. This leads to the train stopping with a large man standing in the tracks….
I will post final art when it’s ready. Encouragement is always appreciated.
The result: I did not get as much done as I would have liked. When I did the 2008 24HCBD challenge I really did well I feel, but today the results were hardly finished. This might have been for a few reasons…
- I have been thinking up ideas for the comic all week, all the while trying not to plan in my head the comic too much. Trying to live up to what was in my head is possibly a problem.
- Take the time to design the characters in some detail before you draw the character. It was hard to jump into inking with confidence when your drawings of characters very in look and proportion.
- If you really want to get it done in time: less characters, simple setting. I had 6 characters.
- Try hard not to be a perfectionist.
- I added 4 additional pages to make the story work.
- Some materials were hard to find since I did not get organized ahead of time. In my case a small brush.
- I had a week of sickness, a friends memorial service, and a parent in the hospital.
What did work:
- If your stuck, work on something else. When I found that I was too worried about the inking to do a good job I switch to drawings the panel boarders.
- Rough out at least the start and end of the story and work on those first, then fill in the gaps. This worked well, though I did add some pages (16 in all).
- Avoiding realism.
- Have templates made ahead of time.
- Remember that it’s only the first part of a bigger project and there’s time to learn and to catch up.
Final result: Basic character designs. Chapter 1 (16 pages) fully plotted, penciled, panel boarders drawn, and inking started. I plan to work on it more in the coming weeks.
Jan
24
2009
Here is a promo video from 826 Valencia literacy project for there new book where kids wrote letters to our new president. Find out more about this great organization at http://826national.org/.
Jan
23
2009
OK folks, I had a sneak peek at the “art of Coraline” exhibit at the Cartoon Art Museum and it’s……fantastic. Most of the main characters are represented in full size puppets and Maquettes. There are prints of digital concept art. There is a case of Coraline’s inner workings and and tiny hands spelling out a message in sign language. All so cool, all so amazing.
The show opens Saturday and runs for 3 weeks. Spread the word. These are tough times for non-profits and by supporting the museum it will make sure we get to see more work of the medium I know we all love.
“The Cartoon Art Museum proudly presents original works of art from the feature film CORALINE, produced by LAIKA, the Portland-based animation studio owned by Nike co-founder and Chairman Philip H. Knight, and released by Focus Features on February 6, 2009. The exhibition features drawings, storyboards, puppets, sets, costumes and more from this groundbreaking movie, the first ever stop-motion animated film to be shot in 3D. In stop-motion animation, everything seen on screen actually exists in the real world, as opposed to computer-generated animation. This exhibit includes almost 80 pieces from the extraordinary world of Coraline, created by a team of over 300 artists bringing to life the vision of the world’s foremost stop-motion animation director, Henry Selick.”
Find our more at: Live Journal http://cartoonart.livejournal.com/20758.html or the official site http://www.cartoonart.org. They also have a facebook group you can join.
Jan
22
2009
ONE MORE PAGE TO GO! Update on January 24, 2009
Can’t wait to see how the story ends, you can purchases a copy of Brian Kolm’s Team Sonic X on Etsy:
| Etsy Buy Handmade atomicbearpress |
Jan
20
2009
I have a project I plan to do this year staring next weekend (Sun Jan 25, 2009)…the 12×5 Comic Challenge. I really want to create more artwork and do more projects this year and I figured one way to do that would be to make a challenge for myself.
I really liked the results of my 24HCBD comic (see it here: http://atomicbearpress.com/2008/11/11/team-sonic-x-page-1-and-2/) and wanted to take what I learned and keep moving forward.
The idea is that I will do a 12 comic pages in TWELVE hour jam SIX times. I.E. 12×6=72 pages. That will give me a graphic novella that will be drawn by the San Diego Comic-Con.
My rules are:
- Do draw the comic at some other location away from home if possible. Less distractions make is easier to do.
- Do the first 12 page jam as a stand alone story.
- After the first 12×6 challenge you can work on the project in-between, but you still have to do all 6 challenges. The idea is to do more projects and more art after all.
- Like 24HCBD, don’t write the story ahead of time or make big plans. But do plan themes and gernés ahead of time and think up general ideas.
- Production work can be done after/in-between the 12hr jams. The important thing is to produce 12 pages of art on each jam.
- Do post the art on-line.
- Do invite other artist to join in the fun.
- Do dedicate the story to someone that matters to you if possible.
- Do reschedule if you can not do the jam when planned.
The only issue I have now is to find a place to do the jam and get figure out how big to create the art. Since my father is having some serious health problems, I might need to do the challenge at home.
I all ready know what ideas and concepts I want to use, but I will not state them encase I decided to change them.
