gC#4, issue 1: Pencils Complete!

Today, I finished the final page for grOw/cOmic#4, issue 1, in terms of the pencil drawings -- all 18 pages. I added another extra page to the normal 16, to allow for more initial story and first growth encounters. I made very good progress this week, with my "real life" work easing considerably. (I would have made more, but a dizzying head cold slowed me somewhat.) Listening to the "Avatar" Soundtrack also "propelled" me. Being a big movie soundtrack fan, matching the emotions of what I am drawing to the music is a real muse. Now is the time for scanning, inking, and coloring. Sneak previews of the colorized pages will be posted as I finish each page.

grOw/cOmic#4: Good Progress Made

I made some really good progress this week on the new grOw/cOmic series. I completed the 7th page in terms of pencil drawings. Normally, I could finish more than this is the same amount of time; however, the first 5 pages have a lot of new characters (which I am getting used to drawing), as well as a large number of characters in every panel, which makes the process a lot more time consuming. Some panels have 7 or 8 characters in a single shot. I am passed this part of the story, so the next few pages should go quicker. To show you some of the detail, as well as the amount of individuals I had to create, here is a full page preview from the beginning of issue 1.

I am also very pleased with the drawings. Drawing so many new characters is a daunting task -- getting used to each character's nuances and traits, as well as making them consistent from frame to frame. But, using more reference materials, as well as drawing in a larger scale (11"x14.5: instead of 8.5"x11") is making a huge difference!

I was also working on the 3D models for the backgrounds. I tried something new this time: Google's SketchUp, which comes in a standard version, which is free. It is quite easy to use. Plus, the fact that a lot of furniture models can be found online free, it made creating the dorm room and other backgrounds MUCH quicker to create. While not a full renderer, it is sufficient to create backgrounds that I can then lend my Photoshop skills to flesh out more.

Enjoy the preview!

Updates?

As mentioned in my Jan 2, 2010 entry, a number of simultaneous projects in my "real life" job came crashing down on me at the end of 2009 and into 2010. As I predicted, this work would seriously delay the start of grOw/cOmic #4 until mid- to end of January.

However, during the last few weeks, I had a couple of instances of down time when I was just waiting for the client's response. During this time, I managed to pencil the first 3 pages. I am also trying something new this time, and so far, I am pleased with the results. I used to draw the cOmic pages on 9"x12" paper. Taking a cue from my success when drawing the last grOw/stOry (#12), I am now drawing each page about 40% larger, on 14" x 17" sheets. This allows me to draw each frame larger, allowing for more detail, and an easier time at accuracy and consistency. When drawing faces, the slightest shift of a line can make all the difference. By drawing larger, a minor shift will be even less noticeable. So far, this new technique has worked very well, and my hand/wrist have been a lot less strained when it comes to small details.

The crushing workload I mentioned earlier is coming to a close. I hope to start on pencil drawing more pages in earnest soon -- even starting this week! In the meanwhile, enjoy the preview pencil sketch!

Happy New Year !

It's been a while since my last update, but its been a few weeks of time consuming endeavors and events. First, of course, was the typical holiday season — filled with fun, presents, family, and revelry. Then, we got hit with the worst of that East Coast snow storm — one that set an all-time record snow fall for Long Island, NY (in a single storm) at 27+ inches. Then, at year's end, when it was supposed to be slow between Christmas and New Years, all hell broke loose on my "real life" work front. Sometimes, I swear, all our clients get together, and plan to hit us simultaneously.

So what news on the "grOw" front? Well, due to all of the above, it is not as far along as I had hoped. I wanted to draw all during the last week of the year, getting at least 10 pages of pencil drawings done for the newest grOw/cOmic (#4). Alas, none of that happened. In fact, that may not happen until the mid-, or even end, of January. But it is too early to tell. A few projects coming down the pike are really set to eat up my time. But, as usual, when clients drag their feet, I have open spaces of time that I may be able to make some progress.

Not that no progress has been made. In the last few weeks, I refined the script for "grOw/cOmic#4", as well as planned out (in thumbnail sketch form) the first 4 issues (that's about 78 pages) of the 6-issue series — which is quite a bit of work, just nothing to show or preview just yet. At the beginning of any new series, this is quite typical.

So hang in there! I hope that 2010 will be a year of more new releases than 2009 (which had 5 releases; 2008 had 7 releases).

New Free BE Painting

I actually released this just prior to grOw/stOry#12 coming out, but I wanted to make sure the stOry's release stayed at top of the blog for a few days, so that everyone saw it. While my Host was handling the upload (which, I am happy to say, went surprisingly fast!), I decided to do a new BE painting. I have been tossing this one around for a while now (like 2-3 years). In some planning sketches, I had the woman opening a gift with a surprised, but elated, look on her face, and Santa looking in the window with a smile. I eventually changed it to this. A small preview is here, but you can download larger resolutions at:
My FREE BEA Gallery (1024x768 and 1470 x 1200)
My BEA Members Gallery (3300 x 2686)
The Process Forum (1470 x 1200)
My DeviantArt page (1024x768)

Enjoy!

grOw/stOry#12, "Beaver Lake Summer Camp", Released!

(I am shocked at how fast my Host put this up. I just sent it to them earlier today. Good news for the new owners of the Hosting company!)

grOw/stOry#12: BEaver Lake Summer Camp

Darryl was the only male counselor left at the end of the season at Beaver Lake Summer Camp. Now that the kids were gone, it was time for the counselors to clean up and have their end-of-season "personal" time together. But things start to get a little odd starting at the camp fire that night. Tanya, a busty counselor who has eyes for Darryl, tells the group of three females and one male of the "Curse of the White Mountains" that caused her boobs to get so big -- a story that she tells everyone who asks her about her large bustline. Though the night ends in raucous laughter at the so-called "curse", her fellow counselors, and even Tanya herself, wonder if the curse is actually real. You see, all the women's counselors boobs are suddenly starting to grow. And grow. And GROW.

This fully rewritten version of the original E.L. Publication's "BOOOooob Camp" completely re-imagines the original story. Well-known BE-author Mr. B has created a whole new scenario for the sole male character who is surrounded by women whose boobs are growing wildly! The only things that are the same from the original story are the names of two characters, a camp setting, and a campfire story.

This stOry features:

> the longest grOw/stOry released! -- twice as long as the average stOry!

> the original story and artwork are included in the index, you will be getting TWO FULL STORIES in one book!

> 16 newly created BustArtist illustrations which are the best quality to date -- which is 3 more than average, and includes 2 full-page spreads.

> the images are saved in the highest compression quality, as well as 50% more resolution!

Category: Breast Expansion (big/huge/wow - mystery); buttons popping; tight spaces; wet t-shirts

151-page PDF ebook, with 16 NEW color illustrations by BustArtist, which are the highest quality to-date! Also contains both the original story by Gene Erik, as well as the original 8 black-and-white line drawings by LoSarro from the former E.L. Publications print version. You get 2 different stories in 1 book!

This story can be purchased at: www.bustartist.com

grOw/stOry#12: Last illustration completed !

Update (04 Dec 2009 11:50am EST): the stOry has been proofread and finalized. The PDF file has been uploaded to my Host. Release will depend on how quickly they attach it to my store, which could be 2-10 business days, based on previous times.

Yes, all the illustrations to the latest grOw/stOry are now finished! The release of this long-awaited edition is imminent. The last few images took some time to complete, as the level of detail was quite large. In addition, the last image is a huge 2-page spread. Click the image to the right for a preview!

The fun new thing I have experimented with in this release is the use of a Photoshop filter called "Lens Blur". Originally, I thought it was just another complicated Blur feature that had little extra compared to the standard blurs. However, I was very wrong. Seeing a demonstration of it online, I realized it's power. Basically, it is a blur filter than uses a grayscale alpha channel to simulate depth of field. Some 3D rendering programs render an alpha channel which is based on the depth of items in the image — white is closest, black is farthest. Using this info, the filter blurs the image in an amount based on the grayscale value. For example, white would get no blur, gray would get some blur, and black would get full blur. You can take an in-focus image and simulate a depth of field similar to photography focusing techniques. Since I use layers heavily both in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, it was easy for me to create my own alpha channels that were "depth based". Click the image for a full visual demonstration.

So what's next? Tonight, I will be doing a final proofread, setting up the PDF, and then sending to my Host to upload to my store. Now, just recently, my Host changed hands to a new owner, so I do not know how fast they will work at doing this. However, they have assured us clients that the change-over will be seemless, even hiring many of the employees of the older company. We will see. For the last few releases, this process took anywhere from 2 days to a week and a half.

I will make an announcement here when the stOry is released. I will post any unusual delays as an addendum to this post.