Lines and Colors

Picked up a nice little mention on the linesandcolors.com site late last week. Check it out here.

DPW 03

Time for a change of scenery...

TLE Blog

Hey, one of my favorite comic artists - Tommy Lee Edwards - has just fired up his own blog. Get on over to here for some really beautiful Star Wars art and Con sketches, all produced by one of the finest artists currently working in comics.

DPW 02

Although I don't usually work up thumbs to this level of detail, it's a worthwhile exercise to get obvious visual problems sorted before going to finished page art. Between the first and second draft of the script the first speech balloon on page 2 here suddenly became an orphan. Not good, and it obviously needs to be moved up into the final panel of page 1.

This is also where I try to work on character design. If you are going to have to live with these guys for months, or in some cases years, you've really got to be comfortable with them. What do they look like? What clothes would they wear. Haircuts? Body language? No amount of character sketching can solve all the problems - this is the stage where each character has to actually fit into the story. Its worth trying out different stuff, and so here the visual aspect of each character is still very fluid, and they may change quite a lot from panel to panel until I arrive at a stage where I am completely comfortable with their visual appearance.

DPW 01

After another weeks work, and some crucial help from a couple of people who know a whole lot more about this than I do, I've finally got a second draft of the dBs Ep 1 that I'm happy with. Time to work on some thumbs. I doubt I'll have the time to do the whole story to this level of detail - my thumbnails are usually VERY sketchy! - but whenever I start a new project I find that at this stage its a good idea to throw in as much detail as possible.

Working title...

About ten years ago, when we moved from France back to Australia, I almost gave up drawing comics for a living. What made me stay in the business was a promise I made to myself that one day I'd work on a project with a little more personal involvement than anything I've drawn since Dans L'Ombre du Soleil. My recent series in France - Du Plomb Dans La Tete - was my first step in that direction, but I was not responsible for the concept or the writing, so this wasn't exactly what I was thinking of either.

Yesterday, using what little spare time that my various Star Wars commitments allow, I finished the first draft of a comic script. I haven't written anything for myself, or anyone else for that matter, for years, and I'd forgotten just how bloody hard it all is.

Diesel Park West currently clocks in at 23 pages, which could boil down to the standard 22 for the US market, or it could stretch out to 24 or 25 by the time I finish the next draft. Whatever happens, it's the first book in what could become an open-ended series: working title - the dBs. And no, it's nothing to do with a story about an failed indy rock band...

I'll probably never get the time to draw this script, but it's a work in progress, and I'm pleased I've finally done something about that ten year old promise to myself. The next step? Rework the script, get a final draft that I'm reasonably happy with, and then post some thumbnails here.

Stay tuned?

Six months ?!

Yeah yeah, I know....

It's been a while, but I've got an excuse. It's been a busy few months, and just to summarize, here's what I've been doing: Star Wars: Legacy #8 (cover), Star Wars: Legacy #9 and #10 (interior art), Star Wars: Legacy #13 (interior art). The first three are now available, the Legacy #13 story is a one-off episode that I started last September (see below) and which has now been slotted into the Legacy continuity.

Upcoming are three more covers for Dark Horse: Knights of The Old Republic #16, #17 and #18, which look a little different (at least for KoTOR) and have yet to appear anywhere on the .net.

Working with the guys at Dark Horse has been fun, and it looks like there's more to come....