Back when I got my start with webcomics, I was in highschool and drew a picture of a kid with some zombies. It was a neat concept, and from that single image spawned a webcomic that I would struggle with  for the next four or so years of my life and eventually abandon. I’ve come to accept that not all ideas work, and was having increasing difficulty relating to the characters in this project as I grew up and went to college and got a job and the characters remained in highschool.

Flash forward to yesterday when I revisited this concept as a means of taking my mind off of a comic page I was struggling with. I aged him up about nine years and did some quick notes on how the story would need to change if I wanted it to be interesting. While I can’t promise I’ll ever make it into a real comic again, I did have a lot of fun with this, and traditional media was a nice break from photoshop and SAI.

Faber-castell PITT artist pens, Copic and prismacolour markers. Highlights are done with Sakura White JellyRoll gel pens. 

So, here are the results of an entire Sunday’s work, as well as what feels like a broken finger (the one thing I forgot about using pencil crayons for prolonged periods of time is the amount of pain it causes my hands).

August 13th was Jenny Everywhere Day! It was requested that I contribute at the Open Fire! Ignition party. I had so much fun that I ended up doing a quick bust of Raine from The End, as well. Here they are:

• Custom logo.
• Custom headers for posts, sidebars.
• Comicpress and essential plugin installation and setup.
• Analytics setup.
• Custom graphics and seamless backgrounds.
• Custom navigation.
• Custom chapter title bar.
• Lessons on how to use all of these things.
• Lessons on making custom word balloons in photoshop.

Very pleased with the results, and well worth the effort. Here is a screencap of what the page looks like:

As well as a shot of their logo:

He ended up commissioning the First Doctor, who I couldn’t find a reference for that wasn’t extremely sinister. I’ve been told that he’s not super sinister, which is unfortunate, but I was pretty pleased with the results none-the-less.

The second thing he commissioned was the oft hobotastic Eleventh Doctor, which I had a far easier time of.

And last but not least (in fact, the most challenging aspect of this commission), what Dr. Who banner would be complete without the Tardis?

This was the most difficult thing, but also the most fun.

The first two pieces were done entirely in Paint Tool SAI, and the third was done entirely in Photoshop.

I spend a lot of time drawing people running around in space, so drawing people in mundane situations is actually kind of relaxing from time to time. Did this one a while ago. Inks in Sai, everything else in photoshop.

A while ago I discovered ATCs, and then introduced them to many friends. The result is that I have in my possession a number of cards that I have either done completely myself, or have done some manner of collaboration with someone else. These are some of my favourites.

From top to bottom:

1. Jillian from Allison Myres‘ soon to launch webcomic.
2. LaGuerre from Allison Myres‘ soon to launch webcomic.
3. Reagan Mancuso from Spike’s Templar, Arizona.
4. A collaboration between myself and Diana Stoneman.
5. A collaboration between myself and Andrei Story.
6. No character in particular, by myself.
7. Cassi from my webcomic, The End.
8. Batwoman!
9. Michelle from Pictures of You by Gibson Twist.
10. No character in particular by myself.

I sometimes use markers to colour, and i really regret not being able to use them as much as I used to. They’re time consuming, and it’s easy to ruin a piece even after I’ve been using them for about ten years now. On top of that, my copics befell a rather horrible fate last month, and I have about 30 working markers left out of about 400, which really puts a cap on what I can use them for (very limited pallet, argh).

I coloured the both of the at AN. I’ve CGd them in the past, they’re actually about 6 months old, but I was looking for something to do, and I’m rather pleased with the results.

This (yeah, same character at two different ages) character is from a 10 page comic I’m working on in the background. I haven’t had much time to work on it lately, and every time I do, i end up revising everything, go figure.

In no particular order (not even chronologically!):

I don’t know what it is, but there’s something about cyan and bright, solid red that makes me want to put them together, repeatedly, for the rest of ever. I enjoyed this page mostly because it let me play with light sources, which is something I always enjoy about colouring.

Earlier this year I decided that I really needed to work on facial expressions–this was before that revelation, but that doesn’t mean i wasn’t working toward it. This was fun all around, and I was happy with the results despite the lack of a real background (something else I’m working on incorporating–I often flat-colour or texture overlay for BGs as a means of saving time, and I need to do it less).

The thing that made me the most sad about this page was that I ended up having to cover up a lot of it with word bubbles. This page really let me play around with the way the Fiah look in our comic; in chapter one, Endi and Ethma look almost identical. I had to keep a bit of that for this page, but for all the Fiah in the first flashback panel, I got to play around with their plumage and clothing, and gave them a bit of individuality.

This one is a bit older. Looking back, there is a lot of things I would fix or change about it, but the very last panel is what endeared me to it, and lets it make this list.

Without context, what’s happening on this page might be a little unclear. Designing space-ships for other alien species was more difficult than I thought it would be, but again, I couldn’t resist all the fun lighting. I’m definitely used to using more subdued pallets, so the chance to use bright and interesting colours makes me infinitely happy.

Anyhow, that’s about it for now. I’ll likely do another post like this when I actually have more new pages to select from.

Kalindra is a character (quite possible a villian, I’m still not sure) from the webcomic Inscribing Ardi by my good friend, Andrei Story. Andrei is extremely talented, and I very much enjoyed the entire process of this piece.

Part of my “Other People’s Characters Series”.