Saturday, October 28, 2017

From Pencils to Inks (Tom)

Every once in a long while on one of my various social networks (usually Instagram), I'll post a before/after of some the Switch work from my pencils to the finished inks. I've gotten comments remarking on how "loose" my pencils are.  Do I always work that way? Nowadays, I'd say yes for the most part. But it didn't use to be that way.  At the beginning of my career, I'd pencil so anally/tightly (perhaps a poor choice of words LOL) that you may as well just do a "straight to colors" copy of it before it goes to print.  With that method, the inking stage not only became incredibly boring (essentially you're replicating the drawing, line-for-line, twice), but the art lost some of its dynamics and stiffened up by the end of the inking stage. In other words, it lost whatever energy and looseness it once had during the pencil stage.

In the middle of my career, I remember working alongside my pal Doug Mahnke during a crazy deadline.  Sometimes he'd come over and we'd pull late nights on literally several pages at a time.  Sometimes he'd be inking right on top of his loose pencils, and I was telling myself, "This is why I need to always get better drawing!"  One particular deadline during Green Lantern, I actually was helping him finish some of his layouts as we'd pull an all-nighter.  We'd swap pages, and I'd do some black spotting, some contouring, then swap and he'd do some detailing, etc.  Talk about having your back against the wall and being thrown into the wild!

Contrast that to today: I'm a better and more confident artist, and in turn I'm much more relaxed than my younger self.  I'll rough in just enough to layout the page, and then do necessary guidelines.  I'll draw just enough information so I'm not guessing too much--but largely my inking stage is the drawing stage.  It not only saves me time, but it also saves my sanity and keeps things non-redundant.  The bonus is that I feel this process keeps more life and energy into my lines than my previous method of drawing by carving out pencil lines tight enough to make grooves into the paper.

Enjoy these before/afters from The Switch, heading to you this winter :)


Crom, Nagengast, and half of Vladimir Putin


Lover Boy losing his sh*t


Lover Boy again, he can't seem to keep his saliva in his mouth huh?


The Switch

In contrast to the above examples, this is fairly tight (for me)





Friday, October 20, 2017

Preview follow up

Hey everyone, it's Friday so that can only mean one thing: there's an 87% chance the Switch production blog is going to be updated before the weekend hits. And seeing as you're reading this, clearly we fell within the point spread this week.

We were very happy with the enthusiastic responses we received for the 20 page preview over the past week. You guys are the best, most supportive group and we're so glad you enjoyed the appetizer as much as you did! We've been working on this stuff in more-or-less a vacuum for so long, it's gratifying to get that extra encouragement.

IF for any reason you weren't able to access the link or download the preview, please email me at keithchampagne@gmail.com and I'll make sure we iron out whatever kinks are preventing you from seeing it.

Tom emailed me a bunch of snippets to share this week so without further ado, here's the weekly preview art, presented all out of context with captions that generally have nothing to do with anything that's really going on...

Bartender subtly eavesdrops on Jenn and Jodi. Electricia promptly kills him.

Jodi reeeeeaaaallly loves her Arnold Palmer


Jenn notices Jodi got a nose job

Lover Boy realizes he forgot to wear deodorant

Putin shows that world leaders don't manscape their pits


The Truth wins the local "Whatchoo talkin' bout, Willis?!" Gary Coleman lookalike competition.

And that about wraps it up for this week. Again, please contact me if you didn't have any luck with the preview. We'll be back next week where I'm sure Tom will give an extensive update on where he's at with the artwork.

Thanks to all!
Keith

Friday, October 13, 2017

20-page SWITCH PREVIEW to be available to backers!!!!

You read that right-- Keith, Robb, Bill and I have prepared a 20-page pdf. preview for Dynamite's solicits...so we figured "Why not let our patient and trusty backers to get a first peek, anyway?"  :)  So expect an email/update any day now on where you can download it.  We're both nervous and excited to see what you'll think.

Since the book is still awaiting final colors and letters, I thought for this update I'd let you guys in on some sneak peeks at the Switch Behind the Scenes movie project that all backers will also receive:



Keith working away in St. Louis last year....

And "switching' shifts as I work and Keith sleeps.  



Talk to you guys next week!