Last night I finished chapter 3 of the Adamsville. This chapter felt like it lingered and lingered. Mainly because I had to study for and pass two licensing exams for my job during that period. But the tests are behind me and so is the chapter. I feel like I really was able to refine the process on these pages and get to a style and appearance for this book that is leading well into the final push to finish the book in the next three to four months. It will also mean a likely cleaning up of the e
So much is the works right now and keeping it all moving along has been challenging at times, but I have been surprised by my energy to push through the process and finish the daily workload to stay on track.
I have recently decided to really focus my attention on the penciling process of the book and finish up the next two chapters worth of pencils so that I can know exactly how much work I have left ahead of me and get a work schedule completed. The final two chpaters are coming out great I think and it has been my earnest desire to make it all worth it.
Here’s where I am at so far:
I’m now drawing the final two scenes of the book and should have the pencil done by the end of next week. Once that is done I’ll begin the early stages of writing book 2 as well as preparing all of the pitching documents to begin the look for an agent and publisher once the book is complete.
All in all I am very excited about where things are. There’s a ton to do, I have no idea when I will be able to share it all with you, a lot of that depends on what happens with the picthing process. But I thank all of you for your encouragement, cheers and anticipation of seeing this book become a reality. It’s been my dream to make this book and it’s finally happening. Stick around, lots more to come.
Today I thought I would walk you through how I make a page of Adamsville. Don’t want to give away much of the context of this page, gotta keep my spoilers low, but here we go!
First things first, I go through my script and do a pretty standard thumbnail of the page I will be doing. Then I do a very loose pencil rough of that page, which is above. I draw these roughs on a sheet of 8.5×11 paper that has a template on it for each page. Which you can find HERE.
After I am done with the rough I scan that in and resize it to fit the final page size within the program, Manga Studio EX. I then go to town, inking the mess out of that page! I started inking all digitally about six months ago when I got frustrated with the flexibility of the analog brushes and tools I was working with. I highly recommend this program. This page was a challenge because of the space the characters are in. Lots of perspective lines and all.
After that I do a process called color flatting, in Photoshop. It’s a fairly analog process, but it sets the page up to be colored more easily. If you are interested in learning this process more, you can see a great tutorial from Kazu Kibuishi on his blog, right HERE
Lastly I color the piece in Photoshop. I use a number of custom brush settings I have aquired over the years or learning how to do this better. BUt I aim to add mood, atmospheric lighting and texture to help the space feel as real as a make believe place in a comic can be!
Hope you’ve enjoyed this walkthrough. Right now I am right on track to be finished with this book by August. So close I can taste it!
Since about the end of December I have been studying for a new a set of licenses that I need at my job and it has made work on Adamsville a bit spattered. Well this week I finally passed both of them, so now things are wide open. I have my schedule in place and am ready to put my foot to the gas pedal and go! I’m within a window of finishing this book in the next three to four months. So look forward to a lot more updates, previews and the like. Here’s a recent finished page for your enjoyment!
I have been fascinated this week with the idea of your specific voice in storytelling. Trying to understand the things that attract you most to a medium or say what is most on your heart. It all sort of cropped up in me after watching this interview with one of my favorite filmmakers M. Night Shyamalan:
He makes specific statement in there by saying that the reaosn he has found success as a writer is because in the end: “I’m just more me than they are them. That’s just the bottom line.” In other words be yourself, passionately.
I really thought about what does that mean to myself as an artist. What do I care about? What themes? What genre? Am I trying to copy others or am I just playing to my interests with no mind for my audience, making impersonal work?
I sort of realized that suspense movies have been my favorites all my life. In particular my favorite films have been: Jaws, Super 8, Unbreakable, Signs, Rear Window and Psycho. There’s a tonality in those that I love. And in the case of M Night’s movies and Super 8, a tremendous amount of heart. It lays on me to realize that sometimes I try to reach outside of these genres when I write and my voice figuratively stutters in these moments. Maybe the genres I’ve loved all my life should be embraced instead of run away from!
As a comics artist there are very, very…. very few artists who are tackling this particular type of book. There is a vacum in this area. And something I hope I can bring into the mix with Adamsville and some of the other ideas I have poking around in my head. It will be fun to see how others take my first suspense offering in Adamsville bk 1.
So how about you? What makes you tick? Are you being creatively honest? Give it a try, be more you than they are them!
This week marked an important milestone in production on Adamsville. I passed the actual haflway point on the book. I sort of took some time to reminisce on this moment. I jokingly posted on Twitter that I was a bit teary eyed. It sounds corny, but it was true. A lot has come and gone over the last five years since this book first crept into mind. The biggest thing of which I think, if I am being honest, has been an attitude of maturity.
When I first began the process of making a proposal for this book, I had all sorts of impatient tendencies and bad expectations. My wife had just given birth to our first daughter and I spent days and nights toiling longing to be home and hoping some magic bullet would just come into the young artistic hands of my pencil and breathe a career into me. When my packet for submission for literary agents went out into the world and I waited for months looking for a reply from them to tell me whether they wanted my book, I lost sleep over it. I spent my whole day wondering and wondering and wondering. It was a perpetual stream of infatuation with a career that I longed to have since I was in third grade and discovered I could make comics for myself. In many ways I had fooled myself into thinking I was ready for this step.
And then my feelings were validated, so it seemed, when I landed an agent. This was in early 2009. That year was a crash course in how the publishing industry works. I visited NYC to see my dad and got to meet my agent. I chummed it up about the industry. I learned a ton about what goes into this and really was brought back down to earth. Ultimately the proposal didnt go through and I didn’t find a publisher. I had never been more passionate about a project in my life. I love these characters and this world so much and having to reconsider my whole path was hard.
It’s a difficult thing when you care so much about a particular thing in your life and it’s as fickle as work can be. You ultimatley have no control over the outcome of the success of your project. It’s a hard reality. It’s an even harder reality to realize that comics just don’t make a ton of money and if you have a family and home, paying bills comes first. So when reality and your passions mix… well it can ultimately devastating.
Or is it?
I took some time to really reassess my goals last year when I quit my webcomic Kevin and the Light of Destiny when I came to grips with the truth that it wasn’t going to be a realistic project I could finish in a reasonable amount of time. So I took my time and focused on what I wanted in life.
I’ve been blessed with great friends and colleagues in comics, most of whom are people I am a huge fan of who take their time to offer their words of encouragement. Josh Ulrich, Stephen McCranie, Christopher Wharton, Kazu Kibuishi, Amy Kibuishi, Mike Maihack and Wes Molebash were all sort of front and center and a sounding board as I wrestled through things. Mostly I hope I didn’t come across as too much of a whiner. But they were all really helpful in reminding me to work hard and love what you do.
Bobby Chiu, one of the most positive artists out there, is fond of saying that hard work trumps talent. I sort of got sad when I realized that I spent, like, FOUR YEARS, talking about, and dreaming about and pretending to be something I wasn’t: this graphic novelist… Who has never really finished a graphic novel. Kind of sad. You know, I’m also a Christian and one of the most popular things Christians like to talk about, is God’s will for you life. You know… What is my destiny type stuff. And I believe in that. I believe in it a lot, because I don’t believe my life is an accident or we are all flying through space and God just flung the universe into existence without any care for us. My life, your life, has a purpose. The downside to this though in our thinking is this idea that destiny just finds us. Magically. You won’t find that. The only admonition in the Bible regarding work, is god blesses hard work. Kind of earth shattering. I know. Seems simple enough.
But I give this story because I had to go through a radical shift in my mind. It was HARD! HARD! There is no easy way through this. You have to work for your meal. It is a very rare person who just inherits this great career from next to no hard work. And their longevity is questionalble.
So the moto around the house hasn’t been that I hope my book sells and ticker tape parades begin. My moto has been finish the book. FINSH. THE. BOOK. That I can control. That I can do. That I can be excited about. And I will work to earn my meal.
So what have you been wanting but not putting forth the effort on? What can you do about your dreams?
I recently began thinking through my topics around planning and how to sustain myself as I enter into the final push to finish Adamsville bk 1. It yielded some interesting observations.
I noticed that the primary way in which we think through the process of finishing something is to plan like this: I can probably produce one page per day, so at the pace I can do a 130 page book in 130 days. Seems simple enough right? But is it very realistic and does it really help you stay on track? I find that more often than not it actually bogs you down and it still leaves the actual end product somewhere on the proverbial assembly line waiting for you to get there.
What if we change the way we think about that to something more like this: When do I want to be done with this book? August would be my goal. (now hang with me there’s more steps here) So that gives me roughly four months. I have about 62 pages to do during that time. I then start considering steps that are involved in making a page, which for me is 5 (penciling, inking, lettering, color flatting, final colors). Four months have basically 30 days in them so I have 120 days to do this in roughly, meaning that I have to do about 2.5 steps a day to be done on time.
Why is this better? Well what it does that the other doesn’t is gives me an actual completion time and the work that needs to be done to get there. It’s much more definite. If I can start to fit in actually 3 steps a day I will be coasting to completion much faster, allowing time as well for vacations and sick time etc.
So think about ways you can organize your project better so you have more clarity over how you can finish your book or whatever it is.
I recently wrapped up reading two books that I thought I would give a quick review of that I think are a great resource for aspiring artists. The first is OUTLIERS by Malcolm Gladwell.
In this book, Malcolm Gladwell looks at what makes a successful person. It’s at once inspiring and at the same time discouraging. It makes you plainly aware of just how little control you have/had over circumstances that have lead you to being the person you are today. It is very encouraging because you also realize that now that you are aware of these patterns and conditions, you can begin to change some of the behaviors you exhibit towards your goals. If nothing else it’s a fascinating book. The 10,000 hour rule alone makes it worth a read.
THE PERFECT BAIT by Bobby Chiu is a much more applicable book for a creative person and something every artist should look to own. Bobby is one of my favorite artists and listening to him speak on his experience of being an independent artist is refreshing, inspiring and empowering. This is a great little book full of wisdom. PICK THIS ONE UP!
Other than that, Adamsville continues slowly but surely right now as I’m finishing up yet another license I need for my work . That will end here in a couple of weeks and then it will be full speed ahead. I recently did the math and it looks like I will be done by the beginning of August. I will then begin the process of pitching the book to publishers and agents. So hopefully by October I’ll know where the book is at in the traditional publsihing world. Self-publishing isn’t an option I will be taking until I have exhausted the traditional avenues. In April things will get cooking really heavily towars the finish like. I can’t wait!
It’s all downhill from here! I have now passed the halfway mark of inking the book and things are moving smoothly enough!
I got very busy for a few things at work involving studying for two licenses I need for my day job. Things were going well without it effecting my comics stuff, but then I had to shut down all comics work to focus on the test. I passed though and now I am working on the second license, but things seem to be a bit easier to handle. Additionally my grandfather passed away unexpectantly last week and I was with my family. Super sad, but thankful for the times I spent with him and my family as a whole.
So I have been trucking right along with it and I have no inked 67 pages out of 130! It’s crazy to realize it’s all just moving forward from here. I am a bit behind schedule, but there’s not much I can do about that sometimes. I’ll do my best to pick up the slack! Thinking I may take a brief break from inking the comic and focus on coloring for a bit. Things feel like they need a shake up! I’ll share more as I get there.
Progess has started up on chapter 3 pages and I’m about 8 pages into the 28 page sequence as far as inking goes. The pages have been looking good and been challenging.The very first page of the chapter is a complicated shot with police cars, houses, people, trees… woof. The work has been good though. I’m getting more and more confident in the work I am doing and the look I’m achieving. It does all feel like the same book pretty mcuh which is a big deal. I don’t want it to feel like I suddenly leveled up at any stage. There’s a bit of holding back going on right now. Well above you can see the panel I finished last night. This page is taking two days as opposed to my normal 1 night of work. But it will be worth it and I’m sure I’ll be able to hammer out two in one night here soon to make up.
On to Book Recommendations and The Such:
AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS adaptation.
Picked this adaptation up of HP Lovecraft’s great novela. The adaptation is really solid, though more an adventure story than horror. Not that this is a bad thing. I highly recommend check it out if you want a good quick read with some nice visually and adventure.
MAKING COMICS PODACST: Interviews Doug TenNapel and Ethan Nicole
These two gentlemen are two of my favorite creators and they did a great interview with Jason Brubaker of reMIND. It’s well worth your time and the second part in particular is really uplifting as they deal with issues around comics as a culture, the messages we put out and the vision they have for comics. This is something really dear to my heart as I feel like Doug TenNapel says: “Comic have not lived up to their charter.” I hope this changes and want to be a part of it.
Well, I got done about a month faster than I saw myself actually getting done, but chapter 2 of Adamsville is now complete and as it stands I am 53 pages in and 41% totally done on the whole thing. Chapter 3 is 28 pages long and almost fully penciled. I plan to start the inking process the beginning of February. Hopefully I can keep the same schedule up and be done with it by the end of March.
Chapter 2 presented a lot of challenges, not the least of which was my decision to go all digital in my presentation. The only part of my process that is done off the computer now is thumbnailing and penciling. But the tools I have found in Manga Studio have truly allowed me to see this story in a bigger scope. I feel much more confident in the story that I am gearing up to work towards the ending,
Chapter 3 looks to be just as challenging as we make our way into the heart of both the character story and the mythology I am building of this town called Adamsville. I will be posting little preview panels here and there as I continue.
Now please keep in mind that Adamsville will not be released any further than chapter 1 to the reading public until the book is finished, but I wanted to do something fun and give you all a little “clip” of the chapter that I just finished. Dim the lights please….
See you all next time! Hope you enjoyed the brief scene!
