cards, sketches, and draggins

Hey guys! I did stuff today!

So first off I have a bunch of new card designs, which is great because I'm really digging the style, but it's bad because I have so many I like.

The first I'm going to put on the back of all my cards. It's for the site I'm working with, Rocket Powered Dragon. And since I don't want to carry 2 sets of cards around, I'd figure I'd fashion one similar to the style of card I'm using.

Stuff is happening!

I've just realized that almost 2 years ago I created this and called it "Daily Graphic journal", and what with the new Rocket Powered Dragon website up and subsequent blog, I haven't been doing much daily updating. Well no more! I can at the very least update on what's going on in my other comics and blogs and give some sketches here and there.

It's Tuesday! And that means there's a new Brother Rabbit and Acquaintances! You should go check it out, but here's a preview here:

Yeah, I did the sideways dialogue thing. Not because I want to be a fancy shmancy typographer, it just fit in that space that way. What do you think? Too mainstream?

Also I have some pics of backgrounds and of boards over at my Rickety Rat blog.

Also also, I've been doing more work on my sketchbook project, and I'm getting close to being done. I may put it online as a webcomic type organism if I like the art that much. So far, I only feel meh about the art though. But here is the cover and some bits of art:

I like the slightly tan of the page with all the lines. I'm considering making a business card of the second guy.

Also the third, I want to make a Random Awesome comic this week entitled, "A Man of Science". I've been working on the main character and I just can't get his head shape right. Here are his many incarnations!

I will probably do an in depth post of his head on the RPD blog. I'm also going to try to do a Sketched Screenings post this week. Sometime. More stuff to come!

Noir sketches and webcomics!

Hey guys! I haven't really posted on here in awhile, so I thought I'd give you a look at some noir sketches! It's for an upcoming sketchbook project and I'll most likely be done and posting about it in about a month, so look forward to that!

One of the protagonists-The Florist

A saucy Secretary

Two sisters. Hmm, "opposites attract" or "Twisted Sister"?

Bad Cop Good Cop

Some skeevy character: A business man, drug dealer, and a druggie

Some lovely ladies

A bartender, an old guy, and a psychiatrist

Also, I haven't been doing comics here, because I've been doing comics for another site I've become a part of, Rocket Powered Dragon! We have comics, animations, games, illustrations and more! You should really check out our stuff! Also, I animated the banner, which I'm pretty proud of.

If you've been going through Josh comic withdrawl, you'll be happy to know I have three webcomics up there! The Adventures of Purple Boy and Turquoise Girl, which is funny and light hearted, The Book of the Barber, which I've finally started up, and Brother Rabbit comics, which I'll be doing a couple of every now and then.

We also have Random Awesome comics, which I did one for, and I might do one there every now and again.

Considering I have 3 of them, and I'm trying to be professional and not BS them, they updates on all of them might be sporadic, but I'll try to get a new one of each up every week.

Oh also, if you didn't know, I did a bunch of reviews over at Sketched Screenings! So you should check those out too!

RPD reserves month begins: The Mad Hatress

So a fellow comic maker Joe Hunter started doing a month of megaman bosses, so I decided instead of doing comics this month(and possibly for a week after), I'm going to put one of my friends in the RPD reserves and turn them into a hero(or villain)! There will be less panels, but better quality sos I can hone my figure drawing, creative, photoshop and flash skills.

My first one is sort of an experiment(I reserve the right to redo it in flash at a later date). My friend Noelle(who has a lovely but very NSFW blog here) distinctly said she wanted to be a villain, so I made her into The Mad Hatress! A crazy femme fatale who thinks The Mad Hatter
is a real person and is obsessed with finding him. She likes hammers, knives and scalding tea! Think Joker and Harley Quin wrapped into one crazy burrito.

If you'd like me to make you into a hero, message me! There might not be another post tomorrow as I'll be gone for the weekend to the New York Comic Con. Or maybe there will. Who knows!

Dumgens & Draggins 7:Brand New Mask

Seriously, there are just some items I don't understand. Why would a mask that hides 90% of your face give you more charisma? Wouldn't that just make you less trustworthy? Unless you were really really ugly I guess.

Other pick-up lines:
Girl:You look like you're about to rob a bank.
Guy: Yeah, the bank of your heart!

Girl: You look like a bank robber.
Guy: A sexy bank robber!

I went completely photoshop on this one not because I think it looks better, I just got tired of using flash. And also, I figured out it's a lot eaiser to do shading if I create a layer over the color layer, switch it to multiply, and use a medium gray. Also, flash is best when I have a clear perfect line map fo what I'm doing, photoshop is better for Bsing.

And why was I so tired of using flash you might ask? Because I was busy doing this!
It's the full RPD group! I'm still playing around with color schemes for the costumes and I haven't shaded it or added any fancy background graphics, but I still think it's cool as balls.

Quentin Tarantino and Gadget Greg!

This one I'm not too proud of. The joke is meh and I actually liked the anti-climacticness of that part. But I only did it in 20 minutes and I was drawing all day and the sun was in my eye yada yada yada. I swear tomorrow will be the last one.

But I'm pretty proud of this random sketch of a friend I did!


Also, I started to get back into illustrator and I wanted to do a test to see which program would take the least amount of time while having the best quality between illustrator, flash and photoshop. I used one of my characters from my upcoming RPD heroes comic, Gadget Greg! Here's the starter sketch:


Here's the illustrator version:
Time taken: 8+ hours
Maybe it's that I'm out of practice, but compared to flash I just think the layer and pen system is clunky and takes waaay too long. But these are just my views, I know many people who use illustrator like a second language.
Pros: good for handling big files, interesting style techniques
Cons: takes a long time, don't like the layers system, hard to create lines, brush techniques don't look that great

Flash:
Total time taken: 2 hours.
I really feel like this is my magic comfort zone program. The outline took me an hour and then the fill and shading too just under an hour.
Pros: fast, can get a smooth outline fairly quickly, easy to select, delete, copy and change assets, good for figuring out multiple color schemes
Cons: can't handle large files sometimes, brush tool not as good as photoshop brush tool, using the M key to zoom, sometimes outlines look too curvy

And also here's a version with no line. I thought it looked interesting.



Photoshop:
Time taken: 2 hours 15 minutes
It takes just a little bit longer than flash, and it gives that sketchy style (if that's what's you're looking for) but it's murder on the hand and I really prefer the smooth line.
Pros: can handle relatively large files but slows down when painting, better for blending, patterns, and stylish techniques, shading good for detail and a natural look
Cons: needs a waccom tablet and can be murder on the wrist, sometimes harder to do curves and straight lines

This one I took the flash version and shaded it in Photoshop:
I somewhat like the shading in photoshop because it can look more realistic and more easily get those tiny shading details and highlights.

This one is similar to the last, but I used some patterns for the clothing. It's kind of cool, but it's not really needed.

So, I've proven without a shadow of a doubt that Flash is awesome and there is no reason I should use any other program. EVER. Except maybe Maya.

RPD Gang

Man, not getting a bite from the comic bug this week. But, I did do a lot of sketching for the upcoming RPD heroes comic(and by upcoming, I mean sometime between now and eternity). Here's a sketch of the whole team if they all had superhero tights! Sure, this could work from a design standpoint, but a few of them don't really NEED tights. I think I'd rather go with an avengers "Band of Misfits" look rather than an X-men "shared color scheme" look.