Syndicate Product #20

I created the cover for the newly released Syndicate Product 20 / The Meta-Comics Issue. The zine is an anthology of essays, stories, and comics about comics. A.J. Michel, the editor of the zine, ran a successful kickstarter campaign a while back to raise money for printing the book. You can buy the issue in the Syncidate Product Esty Shop.

HIVE Comics Anthology #5

The above panel is from a 3 pager I have in Hive Comics Anthology #5. Grimalkin Press has been doing some interesting anthologies these last few years, so I feel privileged to be in this collection. You can order a copy of the book in their online store.

Monthly blog schedule takes a hike

The monthly schedule of this blog is taking a hike. The blog will be updated periodically when I have a new project to share. I've got quite a few projects to work on, so hopefully you'll see something sooner or later.

House of cards

I created an ace of spades card for the Columbia Art League's House of Cards art show that ran October 19th - November 20th. Artists picked out a card from a card deck and created their interpretation of the card for the art show. The works in the show have been printed into actual playing cards that are now for sale at the Art League.

Light painting comic at 24 hour comics day

I decided to make a comic using light painting for this year's 24 hour comic day event put on by the Mid-Missouri Comics Collective. You can see the whole comic in my flickr photo set.

About my light painting method:

Light painting is a photographic technique where you open a camera shutter for a long period of time and "draw" in the air using a light source. I've wanted to try a light painting comic for a while now, but drawing freehand in the air seemed to be problematic without some kind of light stencil. The solution I came up with involved pointing a digital camera at a large sheet of plexiglass that I set up vertically using clamps. I would sketch on a sheet of newsprint and attach this to my plexiglass with clips. Turning out the lights and opening the camera shutter release, I'd use my right hand to trace my drawings with colored laser pointers (and occasionally a blinking LED). My left hand would hold a small dim flashlight so I could see my sketches on the newsprint. When I was done tracing, I would close the camera shutter and allow the digital camera to process the image for several minutes. The final step was to download the image to a computer and flip it horizontally to match my original drawing.

About the 24 hour process:

The event location was the Artlandish Gallery, and I asked for a special space away from the main group of artists so I could work on my comic in the dark. The windows in the room had to be boarded up with cardboard, and I had to have a curtain to block off light between rooms. I had one solitary lamp that I could turn on for light.

I wanted to create a story that involved my character Izzy the mouse encountering a visitor from space. I started the process by spending a few hours sketching out thumbnails for the story. I then redrew my thumbnail images to larger drawings on newsprint (32 inches by 20 inches). Redrawing the panels larger ended up taking quite a while and had to be done while standing.

Next, I attached newsprint drawings to the plexiglass, clicked open the camera shutter, and got to work tracing the drawings with laser pointers. It was a relief to sit down and trace after the prolonged standing involved with the previous step.

The finished product took a while. I had to end up re-doing a lot of my panels because I'd forget to trace one detail or another. I finally got done a couple of hours before the noon deadline.

Conclusions:

Overall, I found light painting pretty frustrating: I had to "draw" every panel three times, I would often forget if I'd traced a line or not, I had to wait several minutes of camera processing time to see what I had just drawn, and I didn't get much variation in line weight from the lasers. I doubt I'll be experimenting more with light painting, but I'd love to see what some others could do to create comics or illustrations with my method.

Final comments:

Many thanks to Lisa Bartlett and her Artlandish Gallery for hosting the event, Scott Ziolko for event organizing, Josh Nichols, Keith Chan, & Scott Sutherland for technical support, and to all the other artists for ideas & support during the event. Check out the write up about the event in the local Missourian paper.

Mid-Missouri Comics Vol. 1

The above panel is from a six page comic I have in the new Mid-Missouri Comics Vol. 1. It's an anthology that collects the work of eight Mid-Missouri based artists, and was put together by Josh Nichols. You can contact Josh if you want to get a copy of the book.

24 hour comics day coming soon

This month I've been over-thinking a special project that I want to do for 24 hour comics day on October 2nd. I'll hopefully share the completed project in a couple of months.

Update: I've reformatted the above graphic to make the 24 hour comic event poster. I based the design off of the 24 hour poster I did last year.