SV page updates Chapter 02

I finally got these done. It took a while since I had to get used to my new job. Well,  I guess it’s time to move on to chapter three. Old ones are to the left/on top. New ones to the right/bottom.

In slightly related news, I’ve begun to use some photo reference. The results are frequently good so I’ll be using it a lot more from now on. Here are some examples:

Serial killer face! Ehum, anyway, that last self-portrait is the only one I’ve made that I don’t hate. Hey, working with color is fun, I should do that more. Oh wait, I have a 100 page chapter to draw. Dang. Well, I haven’t been all that active on this blog but I’ll try to step up the pace. There is some material I’ve managed to do this summer, I guess. We’ll start with that…..soon.

“Lake” & SV Guest Feature

Two posts in three days? I’m not sure what I’ve been smoking but I sure want some. Bad jokes aside, it’s time for some features! Let’s start off with that comic project I talked about last time:

Let me introduce the comic “Lake”. It’s about a guy named (wait for it): Lake. He wields magical cards of many types, looks like he just came from a Sisters of Mercy concert and is traveling his world trying to hide from his past. Sounds exciting? We’re going for two updates a week, starting today with this pretty cover.

As you might figure from the cover; this comic is the brainchild of Ronald Betfjord. He’s asked me to help him with cleaning, coloring, screentones, translation, dialogue and some general ideas. READ IT!

Let’s move on to the Silver Vein guest art. So, the book might take a bit longer to get done but I received some really nice guest art for the book that I want to show off. It’s a nice chance for a little guest feature that I’ve wanted to do for a while. So here goes:

RONALD BETFJORD

Yep, squirrels again. Ronald seems to have caught on to one of Ailys’s national pastimes. Chasing small animals with your trusted knife & dog. Ronald has just recently gotten himself a blog but I suspect there’ll be some stuff happening there soon.

ANNA LANDIN

Anna Landin – creator of fictional universes involving more characters than people you know and illustrator of amazing & pretty things. She’s recently gotten more into colour with amazing results. Here she’s showing us what Silver Vein would be like if Whisper was actually cute.

LINUS REMAHL

Ah, Linus. Every paper he touches turns into an awesome picture. Now a professional illustrator. Damn/bless him.

DANIEL OLSÈN

Is there anything this guy can’t do? From concept art for games to all kinds of illustrations & comics. From black & white to color, Daniel gets it all done with an incredible sense of style.

OLOV REDMALM

If there’s one person I wouldn’t want to be trapped in a dark room with, it’s Olovs imagination. This guy manages to make ME scared of my own character. Need I say more? Check out his fantastic webcomic Wayfar and have a look at the amazing short film based on the prologue of Wayfar.

SO, those are the features.

Now that the first volume of Silver Vein is pushed back, there’s plenty of time. Feel left out? Didn’t have time to get it right? Didn’t hear of this ’till now? Keep the art coming, friends, and I’ll put it in the book. Anyway, SPX draws near. I’ll see all of you who are going in a few days!

Change of plan

Due to a tricky economic situation and being unable to find a good printing-house; the first Silver Vein-book will not be printed in time for SIS/SPX 2012. It just didn’t work out for me this year. This has created some interesting opportunities though. I found out that the printing-house I originally intended to use (but couldn’t thanks to the long shipping time) offers double the pages I wanted in the book for 1/3 the price compared to what I found here, in Gothenburg. So instead of rushing to print the book now, I intend to wait until I finish making chapter three and then include it in the book. This will allow me to make an affordable 200+ page book with plenty of time to revise some pages I don’t like and add more extras. In the end, I think it will be worth it. I’ll still be going to SIS though, as I want to meet friends and get to know more people in the comics community here.

Anyhow, have some pics:

This is an anatomy exercise turned Silver Vein concept-art. For once I didn’t hate working with colours. This might also be some of the brightest colors I’ve used in a picture so far. Anyway, I’m spending some time doing random pics and practicing anatomy after finishing work on the book. The cooldown-period I need after big projects is starting to disappear.

Some random doodles.

Another Howl-pic. This one was another anatomy-excercise.

That’s it for this time. I’ll have one more post done before SPX. It will feature the guest art I received for the SV-book and also a whole new comic project I’m working on with a friend. Look forward to it.

Silver Vein #2

So! Chapter two is now completely available over at Smack Jeeves and will be complete over at The Duck in just a few days. Read it!

Anyway, I want to take the time to reflect a bit on this chapter.

Generally, I think the quality has gone up a bit. Chapter 2 looks a bit better than the first one and the pages have more variation and sharper design (screentones, word balloons etc). The plot is moving a bit slowly right now but I wanted to have a stronger focus on the main characters since this comic is an exercise in working with more developed characters. I’m the plot-centric kind of author, so I need this. Yet plot-centric it’s going to become with the next chapter, where I introduce the main story, the story of the Silver Vein world.

Going back to this chapter, I think I’ve improved a bit (doing 100 comic pages ultimately does that to you). I feel, however, that my anatomy-skills and perspective-skills are starting to rust. So there will be a break between chapters 2 and 3. I’m going to spend the time working on another comic project while I study comics, anatomy and perspective as much as I can. I’ll still work on the storyboard for chapter 3, only not on the actual pages.

Enough of my ranting. What did YOU guys think of the new chapter? I’m curious to hear it. Don’t be afraid to tell me even if you have a lot of negative criticism going on. That’s why I’m making this comic after all, to be able to improve.

Oh, and as a small extra, let’s have a look at that cover for the collected version again (it’s already on deviantart):

Yes – I’m a bit proud of it, although I’ll probably hate it to death in a month or so. I am working a lot right now to be able to print it in time for SPX. I also pushed back the deadline for the guest art to sunday this week. Anyone who wants to have their art in the book MUST have it ready by tomorrow in other words. Well…time to get more work done on the book.

Cover & Doodles

Yeah, I’ve been a little stressed out lately. A lot of stuff has come in the way of finishing chapter two of Silver Vein. Now that I’m done with it, though, I can finally turn my attention towards working on the collected version. Fortunately, I found a print shop that can print it in about a week. So there’s still hope. Now, about the guest art. As I’m about to start the book I need it handed in this coming week. Wednesday or thursday would be best. I’ll be printing in 300 dpi A5, so send me a sendspace link or something similar when you’re done with the pic.

Anyway, time for some pics!

Drew this yesterday. I'm already starting to transition into "practicing skills mode" it seems.

I had some time for doodles lately.

And now for a peek at the cover for the book that I’m working on.

That’s it for now. I’m working on a new comic project and I’ll start storyboarding for a new SV chapter soon. But that’s a story for another day.

Silver Vein #1

The comic known as Howling Thousand Sun is dead. Now welcome its younger, less crappy brother:

The first chapter is finally finished. Now go read it, HERE.

So….chapter one. I HATE IT. It took me OVER A YEAR to create due to several problems such as it sucking, hand strain, having to move to another city and coming up with the rest of the story while drawing it. It’s a clichéd, rambling, incoherent mess of a fantasy story. It makes me want to slap it around but unfortunately it’s digital. NO, WAIT, IT ISN’T. I still have the original pages!

RAAAAAAH!

Anyway. I’m working on chapter two right now. It’s about 60 pages long and a whole lot better. Well….back to work, I guess.

Overdue

This is a bit late since I’ve been busy and have had some scanner-related issues.  That last post was a bit depressing so let’s talk about the good things that has happened.

I’ve somehow managed to get a hold of decent mac, a student licence for Adobes CS5 Design Premium and Manga Studio 4 Debut. I’ve also finished the second japanese course, started training and waking up early. Now I just have to find a job and things might start looking up.

Here’s some of the stuff I’ve been doing:

A Nausica-fanart I drew this summer before moving. Never got around to coloring it.

A test in Manga Studio. Character slightly inspired from a creepy woman in the TV-show Millenium.

A random crappy water color-painting. Used some ink and dry pastel pens as well.

Here's that pic again, in colour.

Some anatomy practice and figure drawing.

I drew this while listening to the storm outside.

This is random. I might colour this later.

Last but not least - UNICORNS.

And that’s that. The rest of the time I’ve been busy learning japanese. Oh, and working on a certain comic. More about that, in a day or two.

Farewell

I’ve been putting this off for a while now but here goes. I haven’t updated this blog for a while. This has two reasons. The first being that the japanese course I’m studying right now has a ridiculous amount of homework that needs doing. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem but then there’s this:

My father died this october.

Yeah…..so I’ve been feeling physically unwell, have had to deal with this and had to quit everything for a while. I’ve almost catched up to the japanese course now but not had much time to draw stuff. Anyway, the rest of this post will be a kind of transcript of the funeral for those who knew my father but couldn’t attend it. If you’re just here for the pictures, scroll down to the end for one.

So, what happened? Let’s start with the facts. He suffered from not one, but two strokes, each on my and my brothers birthdays. Then he died two days later. I haven’t cried much but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt. It really hurt like hell. After what seemed like an eternity, I was finally able to go back to my hometown to attend the funeral. My mother and a select few of fathers closest friends helped arrange all the matters that needed attending to. I have nothing but thanks for my mother who despite being divorced for years went through a lot of trouble to make everything surrounding the funeral work.

The funeral was finally held on the 28 of october. Attending were a diverse group of about 20 neighbours, old friends and family. My father was not a fan of big events so we felt it appropriate to make a priority of quality over quantity. No priest, a modest hall and coffin and an array of flowers yet a whole lot more feeling put into it than an overly expensive thing.

The ceremony clocked in at around 45 minutes, where my brother, I and my mother held it by ourselves. My brother started off with looking back at father’s life. He was an excellent football player and later on trainer for the Yugoslavian team called “Sloga” (sorry if I misspelled that). Apparently they won some big cup in the day. He continued on with how strong father had looked in his youth (to which I can only agree, in the seventies he looked like a character straight from a Tarrantino-movie). He then ended with speaking of his feelings. In between every speaker we had short snips of classical music played. Next up, I spoke shortly of how my father had been ill for as long as I could remember but how he despite that always greeted you with a smile. Last up was my mother, who had written a really good poem about life in general (I had no idea she was that talented with poems).

Then every one got to place a flower on the coffin and say one last goodbye. When we exited the hall a neighbour and friend of my father told me that it was a very odd funeral, but that it was all the better for it. Lastly it started to rain lightly when we exited the chapel. All these coincidences are enough to make a man religious. Father himself had chosen to be cremated and we felt that this funeral would honour his wishes. As I left the church I felt slightly relived and all the memories of a man who could make friends with anyone in 10 minutes after he met them only made me happy somehow. Is that how you’re supposed to feel after a funeral?

Well anyway…

I’ll leave you with a picture I drew the night before he died. Next update will have some of the material I’ve been able to produce these last two months…..and maybe a little news of a certain comic.

Science!

I just finished inking 51 pages of comics. I’m trying to avoid the cooldown-period I usually have after finishing a big project so I’m going to draw some random stuff and start up some storyboards.

This is what happens if I listen to podcasts about how the brain works.

All hail Scuba Knight.

Recovery

Yes, it’s true. While my arm doesn’t hurt anymore it’s still a bit worn. It gets healthier every day though, I can feel the strength returning. You might think I’ve been resting a lot after hearing that, but no. I’ve actually been drawing like crazy. The reason for the recent inactivity is actually due to moving to another town (Gothenburg) and no longer having easy access to a scanner. So what is the reason for this swift and magical recovery? Well……training. I’ve started exercising a lot, especially in the arm-department. I’m sure the 3-week period of resting I had back in june had some effect but it wasn’t until I started doing push-ups and grip training that the weariness started to go away. I’ve also found that hour-long walks help, especially after sitting still and working on a piece for a long time.

So anyway, I mentioned drawing like crazy. Well, there isn’t much I can show at the moment. But it involves a certain webcomic I’ve been whining about for a while now. So I’ll just give you a small teaser:

P: 51/51 I: 41/51 ST: 0 D: 0

Speaking of teasers. Here’s another one for a project I’ll start working on soon:

BLARG!

That’s enough teasing for now. The rest is just some random stuff. Here’s a test-page I made while trying out Deleters manuscript-paper:

I kinda feel sorry for him.

I also bought a sketchbook with fine paper that I’ll be using for random Illustrations. Here’s what I’ve got so far:

Creepy brush practise.

That’s all for now!