Paul Studies and First Pages

Here is what I have been drawing the past few days. I'm working on a story from a veteran who I have not yet met in real life, it's been interesting translating this story into a comic. I'm trying to develop cleaner lines and possibly do more with less digitally with this story.

Page One Pencil

Page 2 Pencil

Studies of Paul, done from photographs.

Drawing Paul from memory, making a character.

Florida Week Two

I'm here at a three week comics residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in eastern/central Florida, a few miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean, in the midst of saw palmettos and stands tiny magnolias and brushy oak trees. It's already the beginning of the second week and time is moving quickly.
I got through sixteen pages of thumbnails in just a few days, which was a new personal best. Hoping to work faster! I learned some cool Photoshop moves from George Folz, his comics are really cool, check them out on his Tumblr here. Hopefully laying out pages will be less of a struggle now. Gonna try it out now.

Here's the thumbnails, pre-Dean Haspiel edits (they look a bit different now). These are only half of them, the other thumbnails were vague and uninteresting, because I drew them too small initially, and when I blew them up I drew them very fast.

This story is beautifully written by a friend-of-a-friend, Paul David Mansfield. He's an incredibly gifted storyteller, and it has been such an amazing experience to translate his words into comics. I will post pencils soon, I can't wait to share this story.

Also, currently obsessed with Bon Iver's newly-minted Stems Project, a collection of remixes from the most recent album. Not much of it is on Youtube, but you can find it on Spotify.

First Days in Florida

I've been at the Atlantic Center for the Arts Comic Book Residency with Dean Haspiel for the past few days. It's a wonderful and amazing program so far, here's some pictures of the vegetation, art folk, and other assorted items.

New studio space.

They have tea here, and we each got a mug :)

Outside the painting studio, where we are camped.

Inside the painting studio, view from my desk.

On the first day, we met most of the day and talked about our projects.

Dean imparts some wisdom to us.

Megan's amazing comic thumbnails during crit.

James' inked pages during crit.

Megan, Gregory, and Fionnula on a walk down the road.

Turnbull Bay and a heron!

Baby banana spider catching the sunset in his web.

Following Fionnula to dinner.

Dirt road between housing and art buildings.

My place.