finding your style
Finding Your Style
Finding your style takes time and experimentation along with the ability to let yourself know that you don’t have to be perfect. Being too critical about every line that you put down on paper or an electronic tablet in this day and age will force you into frustration. I watched an old Bob Ross video and I remember him saying to embrace the happy accidents and let them help add to your painting. I think the same can be said about drawing as well. This week’s post is of my current horror comic, a time lapse of my work, and some of my discovered insights.
WIP
My WIP is from my second story which is part of my horror anthology that I’m working on. The tool I used to create this is actually in Clip Studio Paint. I clearly haven’t been paying attention to some of their recent developments but I’m happy to say it sure works well. This is relatively short BUT I don’t want to give away too much before my book is complete. I’m expecting to release it on Amazon over the next couple of months. If you notice I’m not posting as much, wellllll, it’s probably because I’m going full force into finishing this project.
One of the things I struggle with my line art is perfection. Why does it have to be perfect? I don’t think it does at all. It just has to be be able to tell the story well. Not every line may work the way it’s supposed to. Input I received from other people is that they like the roughness of the scenes and that it gives the story an edgy look. I’ll take it as a compliment and as a realization that art appreciation is definitely in the eye of the beholder. Not everyone will like everything but everybody likes something. So when you feel like you are not good enough. Shake the feeling off and keep drawing. Improvement along with style development comes with time.
If you like this excerpt, I have provided the first story for free and it’s right here. You know I’m always looking for likes and comments. Please leave yours. I’ll be sure to comment back. Have a great evening!
In Need of Help is also on YouTube
I’ve made a video on YouTube of my short comic story. You can watch it here. Please enjoy!
In Need of Help
In time for the new year I’ve written and illustrated a short story called “In Need of Help“. This was created using Clip Studio Paint and is a ghost story for those horror enthusiasts out there. Inspired by shows like the Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits, this is my first swing at developing a plot twist that makes you think, “I didn’t see that coming”. I love the old gothic ghost stories about love, loss, and forgotten secrets and I tried to put a little of that into this too. In a previous post, I had shared the sample of the first half. Herein is the completed first story.
The Process
I wrote out the script for this story and made some digital thumbnails. I then penciled each frame based on my thumbnails while adding subtle tweaks where needed. My inks are a separate layer that sit on top of the pencils. This makes it easy and quick to drop in the blacks where I want them. Lastly, I lettered each page and colored the pages using a very low opacity color fill. This made for some very neat gray scale variations.
Final Pages
The final pages are here and are provided absolutely free! I’d love to hear your feedback and what you think of the art. If you like this and want to see more, please follow my facebook page and my WordPress site by clicking the appropriate buttons.
Sooooo grab some popcorn and a bubbly beverage and enjoy the short story…….”In Need of Help”.
Swamp Tree Explained
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Good evening everyone,
I hope you all enjoy my latest video. I wanted to share my lastest piece with you. I call it Swamp Tree. I use Clip Studio Paint as my main drawing platform. It was inspired by some trees that grow near where we live. I thought that using its basic design and adding a little imagination to it might give it more of a haunted look to it. I enjoy using cross hatching techniques along with ink washes for the background which help to create the illusion of depth as you look out into the distance. The brush choices of Clip Studio Paint made it easy to detail the texture of the bark as well as some work on the grassy bushes.
I hope you enjoy and I look forward your comments.