Mega West Production

PAGE 10

2010-03-15T14:41:00.002-04:00

Hey, page 10:

Alright, I've been messing around with a color scheme for the issue, and I want to stick to a monochromatic pallette. I was thinking have a different pallette for each setting, interior, building, etc. I'll figure it out.

-ryan

PAGE 9

2010-03-08T13:21:00.002-05:00

Thanks for reading, everyone. I'm working on figuring out a coloring scheme for these pages. Probably going to go towards grayscale for print, since I haven't been happy with the two-color approach I was trying. I eventually want to do it in color, but lower the saturation of the colors in order to give it a grittier and older look.
Coolness.

-ryan.

PAGE 8

2010-03-05T16:21:00.003-05:00

Uh-oh, Look out for that guy.
Sorry about the lack of an update Monday. But there will be one this Monday.

We finished our book project for graphic design and are moving on to the next. We're developing an brand identity/logo for a fictional magazine. I came up with a magazine that showcases comics and design, or comics that show a design influence, like Chris Ware's stuff. For now, my title is "Gutter", because I wanted to reference something related to both comics and design, and hopefully incorporate that into the logo design. Also, the tagline would be something like "The Intersection of Comics and Design", so I'm working on designing a logo playing off panels and gutters. WOW. It's getting there.

Check back on Monday.

-ryan

PAGE 7

2010-02-26T19:41:00.003-05:00

The comics train keeps on chugging along. Sean sent me final dialogue for 3 more pages last week, so I've almost finished inking those. Gotta draw a mansion for one panel, so I need to do some reference work.

Other than comics, I've been busy with graphic design homework for school. I'm finishing a project involving a book on sustainability, and I'm adding some last minute touches. I pulled an all-nighter Wednesday night to finish a paper, so yesterday in graphic design class, I was fighting falling asleep. The weird part is that this was happening while I was working on illustrating some shapes for my book in Photoshop. At one point, I actually snapped out of it and realized I had been drawing faces and other objects while half-asleep. Weird. Sleep-drawing.

later.

-ryan

PAGE 6

2010-02-22T18:31:00.002-05:00

I think at some point, I'm going to spend some time and color these, and possibly reintroduce them. The reason that I don't have a lot of shadow in these pages, is the fact that we planned on them being in color. But when it comes to actually printing them, I might convert that to grayscale, or color them monochromatically or something. Color costs money.

Oh yeah, last Monday I mentioned being a guest artist for 6-COMMANDO, a webcomic by Mathieu Moyen, while he's on vacation. Well, he updated his site today, so check out the tank I drew: 6-COMMANDO And while you're at it, go back and check out the whole story so far. It's headed in an interesting direction. (warning: there are a few swears here and there..if that offends you.) Regardless, it's a great comic blending both quality artwork and engaging plot. The experience was pretty fun, and I think not too far off of what MegaWest will look like in color. I wanted to keep the color close to what 6-COMMANDO usually looks like, but I prefer this style for now, until I improve my digital painting chops.

Well, that does it for now. Check back on Friday for page 7, as our story continues...

(...ominous mood being set, due to use of ellipses...)

...ryan

....

...---...

PAGE 5

2010-02-19T21:20:00.002-05:00

Alright, page 5.
I'm also working on inking the next 10 pages or so, so I'll start on 1-2 this weekend.
The posting schedule remains the same, however. Eventually this will be colored, but I don't know how it will work out when we print it.

Sweet. Later.

-ryan

PAGE 4

2010-02-15T21:40:00.002-05:00

Alright, I'm hoping to update twice a week for now, just to get up to speed on the pages I've already inked, but need to scan. Haven't had a whole lot of time to do comics this past week. Usually Friday and Saturday are the days I tentatively schedule for that, but this weekend I was too busy with getting my graphic design portfolio together for the annual AIGA student portfolio review that I attended Saturday.

Representatives from several local design studios, ad agencies, and universities were there to give "practice" interviews to students, and just critique and review portfolios. All of my stuff is work I've done for class, so a lot of the comments I received were in the vein of developing campaigns for brand identity–something that wasn't in my portfolio at all. However, I got some great advice and comments. The three people I interviewed with all seemed to like the book jacket I did for my Illustration class, as well as the barf bag I did. I was surprised, but as one interviewer said, it was a memorable piece, and you want to be remembered after the interview.

Overall, I think I had a decent range of work, but I'll make sure to beef up my presentation for real interviews. I included several package design pieces in both printout and mock-up form, with the intention of pulling out the mock-up to show the interviewer. But in the future, they suggested I just photograph them and put that in the portfolio instead.

It was a good experience–there were a lot of students from several schools around Detroit, so it was encouraging and inspiring to see the level of others' work, and how I could improve my stuff. I just need to get some interviews in the next couple of months, as well as try to get an internship or something. I want to work so bad.

Alright, well, I'll put the next page up sometime soon. Maybe as soon as Wednesday, but if not, Friday.

By the way, I'm doing a pin-up illustration for Mathieu Moyen's webcomic 6-Commando while he goes on vacation, so that should be on his site next Monday or the week after that. I know him and his work from the Flight forums, and he's been kind enough to provide encouragement and critique on my Guten Tag thread, as well as on the Guten Tag blog. He's a cool dude. So is 6-Commando, so check it out. It's kind of like a modern G.I. Joe, but more realistic, but with a cool, automated beast of a tank as well.

Well, take care then.

-ryan

PAGE 3

2010-02-08T21:05:00.001-05:00

PAGE TWO

2010-02-08T21:01:00.006-05:00

I'm planning on adding text to the newspaper in the first panel. I know it looks empty right now.

-ryan

PAGE ONE--finally...

2010-02-08T16:18:00.000-05:00

Alright, finally, here is page one, inked. Really debating the best way to show these pages off, i.e. Wordpress blog vs. actual hand styled HTML. But for now, I couldn't wait to show you guys, since I've been talking about it for so long. And now you can see it. I will probably put up the next few pages intermittently, with no set schedule for now. I've got 10 pages inked and ready to be scanned/polished/delivered/etc. for your eyeballs.

So, please, feel free to leave comments and critiques, advice, etc.

Thanks!

-Ryan

New Year, New News.

2010-01-13T11:47:00.002-05:00

Alright, everyone, incredibly sorry for the delay. I got pretty busy last semester with school and family, but I've managed to keep on track with Mega West. I've finished all the pencils and am now currently in the inking process. I'm technically up to page 5, but I'm also going back to the first 4 pages and filling in black areas that I left untouched for the time being. It's one of those things that you don't think of at first when reading a comic, but filling in areas of black such as shadows on faces, objects, etc. actually helps to lead the reader's eye through the page in the direction that you want. It's hard to get a handle on at first, especially in the pencils stage, but it makes sense once you start to ink. At least, that's my experience so far.

By the way, if anyone is interested in making comics, I'd recommend a book I've been reading for reference and help on this whole process: Drawing Words and Writing Pictures by Jessica Abel and Matt Madden. It explains a lot of visual techniques, materials that are used in comics, what kinds of pens and brushes to use and how, as well as story structure and developing characters. Nick Sousanis, the former editor-in-chief and cofounder of thedetroiter.com, recommended it to me last year. He's pretty cool, and uses comics to talk about and explore a range of topics.

Anyways, I would like to start posting previews of what I've inked so far, but I may have to switch to a WordPress blog for that. Last night I lettered all the dialogue that Sean had finalized up to page 10, so that's my next benchmark for now. Get to page 10. Get to page 10...

Take care.

Ryan

Halfway

2009-08-26T02:44:00.008-04:00

I'm back from Tennessee, didn't get but one page done while I was there, so I'm behind where I would be if I had been drawing everyday since then...

What I mean to say is that I've finished drawing page 15, which puts me at half the issue. Here are some scans to show what the issue is looking like so far:

pg.5

pg.6

pg.7

pg.8

pg.15

I set all my pages up on sheets of 11 x 17" Bristol board, ruling off a page area of 10 x 15.375", and a “live area” of 9 x 13.5". There were quite a few bleeds in this issue, so I needed to have room past my page area for the art that would get cut off. I figured the proportions out so that I can scale it all down to a regular comic size of 6.625 x 10.25", with a live area of 6 x 9". Yagh. I have only Jessica Abel and Matt Madden's book "Drawing Words and Writing Pictures" to thank for the help on all this technical stuff.

I scanned half of each page since the size is 11x17, then stitched them together in Photoshop--hence the dark band in the middle from edge that didn't completely touch the scanner bed. It'll look a lot nicer when they're inked, since I can just go in and set a threshold, converting the whole think to black and white. However, that probably won't be for at least a week or so, once I've finished all 30 pages.

Well, this is the furthest I've ever gotten in drawing a comic, so even though the end may still look like a long way off, I'm getting there. Sometimes it sucks to draw, other times it's really fun. I'm finding that I'll too worked up over getting correct proportions or perspective, but once I step away and take a break, then come back, it gets better. I'm trying to find a balance between drawing realistically and figuratively, and sometimes I'll get it. Practice makes better, though.

Alright. Enough. I need to sleep.

-ryan h

Progress.

2009-08-12T15:22:00.002-04:00

Hey, not much to share, but pages 5-8 have been pencilled. Started on page 9 today, but I'm gonna have to finish it tomorrow (hopefully). Tonight I'm headed down to Tennessee for a week with my friends who are going back to school. I'm bringing my stuff to draw, but who knows if I'll be able to get that much done.

Cool. Hopefully I'll be able to scan some pencils when I get back.

-ryan

Back on the Wagon

2009-08-10T12:25:00.005-04:00

Alright, Sean and I recently redid the page layouts for the whole issue, since we decided a lot of pages had too many panels and were cramped, and also to streamline the story better. So now we're at 30 pages for the first issue, and I've already begun the pencils. I finished pages 1-4 Saturday, and I'm starting on page 5 today. My goal is to get all the pencils done by the 20th or so, in order to start on inking before I go back to school. It's gonna be a challenge, but a fun one.

Also, we're starting to put together ideas for an actual website for Mega West. Hopefully we'd have it up when the first issue is printed, and you could go there for character bios, backstory, and other news.

Yup.

Here's a sketch.

Alright, I don't think I'll post images of the penciled pages. Maybe I'll scan one and then again once I ink it to show my process.

Cool.

-ryan

Baby Steps are Better Than No Steps

2009-03-19T23:33:00.007-04:00

So I finished the layouts for the first issue today. They are super rough.
Most panels are no more than stick figures, but that's okay. It's all about panel layout and flow at this point. Seeing what works, and what will drag it down. The fun stuff won't come till later, but until then, I'll show you some of the spreads.

Here's the first 5 pages so far.

I probably won't be able to start drawing for at least until the semester is over. But that will give me time to work out any further rough spots in the flow of the panels.

Alright, back to homework. It's funny that even though I'm on spring break this week, I feel guilty for enjoying it, and not doing work every day. I guess that's what it's going to take to survive in this economy.

whatever.

-ryan

First Post! And some Logo stuff.

2009-02-23T00:01:00.004-05:00

Okay, first post. Here are some logos I whipped up quickly. I want to have the words 'mega west' be solid white or some other color, but look like they've been hastily stenciled or printed on wood or some surface.

This is supposed to just the basic kind of ink/paint smear version:

Here's a revised version of it, I added some notches and stuff.

And here's supposed to be a 'weathered' look. Don't know if it works or not.

Finally, here's a larger version of cal shooting his revolver.

Thoughts?

alright, back to homework.

-ryan