grOw#2, issue 5 — drawing begins

The rush for issue 4 is winding down. It's a busy time answering emails, responding to forum posts, and fixing the occasional problem (more on that later).

Issue #5, "Losing Control" has begun! (Yeah, I know I misspelled it in the preview as "Loosing Control". ) I spent a couple of hours yesterday doing some more rewrites, and adding more BE action. I also redrew some thumbnail sketches of the page layouts. This issue will be biggest yet, with 21 pages!

Another thing I was working on is using Poser to "sketch" the scene. The comic will still be drawn by hand as usual, but I use Poser as it was originally intended — as a virtual, posable "wooden doll" drawing reference. With the numerous intertwined bodies, the greatly varied heights (for those following the story), and the"camera" angles I want to achieve, it is an invaluable tool!

Problems: Just a reminder that if you do not receive the link email within 4-6 hours of your order, please send me an email at help@bustartist.com . Actually, most links are sent and received within 20 minutes. Some email systems are very slow (Yahoo!) and even do not deliver the message on occasion (5-10%)! If you have one of these emails, do not worry — my manually written emails seem to go through with no problem.

NEW FREE BE color drawing and CONTEST!

I just updated my BEA Gallery (Free and Members) with a NEW BE Painting titled "The Bride to BE". Posted here, is a small preview. For larger versions, please visit my gallery (BEA Members get 2 über sizes, one up to 3300 pixels wide for detail!)


Contest: Contest, you say? Yes! I already have the "story" behind this one in mind, which I will reveal at the end of the contest. The idea is for YOU to come up with a quick description (just a paragraph... maybe 4-8+ sentences).

Two winners: 1) Best description. 2) Description closest to mine (which I will reveal at the end).

Judging: By popular vote by Forum visitors. I will set up a poll at the end of submission.
Where: This BEA Forum post.

Dates: Submissions due by Fri., Dec 14th, 12midnight EST. Judging from Dec 15-21. Winners decided Dec 22.

Prize: FREE issue 5 of grOw/cOmic#2, "H2grOw", plus any 2 other single issue grOw/cOmic or grOw/stOry -- current or future.

My BEA Gallery Updated!

New updates to my Gallery:

BEA Members: 1) New FanTITY morph 2) New BE/miniGTS color painting in 4 sizes (the largest is 2430 x 1659). This is a remake of the old "Shower Girls" pencil drawing (that is nearly 19 years old this month!)

Free Gallery: The same new BE/miniGTS [b]color painting[/b] in 2 sizes (the largest is 1000x 683).

Coming soon: 1) another NEW BE color painting. 2) a newly found (by old) pencil comix series like the "Wishful Thinking" comic.

Enjoy!

> FREE BEA Gallery
> Members BEA Gallery

Issue 4 "Fighting for Control" Released!

Post-production work went fairly smooth, with few problems at the proofreading stage, or at the store set-up. I was unable to make a "new" Combo purchase option, but if you have not done so, you can still purchase the 1,2,3 Issue Combo, and then issue 4 separately. I am looking into the problem.

Issue 4 is now AVAILABLE! I hope you enjoy all the hard work. It was a difficult schedule, but I actually enjoyed it myself, I am happy with the results!

Go to: www.bustartist.com

Page 70 and Issue 5 Cover Complete!

I finished the last remaining items — page 70 and the cover for issue 5 (remember, I try to show the cover of the next issue at the end for a sneak peak at what is coming up next).

Now, I am going through proofreading. There were a few small text mistakes here and there, and one big one (the entire issue was mislabeled as "issue 3" along the bottom folio of each page).

Once the corrections are made, the PDF is finalized, and the store is set-up, issue 4 will be released (which I will announce here, as well as other venues).

Page 69 (huh huh huh) is complete!

A more involved page again, with some nice new water effects that I had to figure out. I've gotten used to all the other pages, but this was new. I had to figure out how to do a nice wave of water -- not from the ocean, but from clear pool water. A tricky thing, but I think I achieved something that fits nicely with the rest of the art style.

Page 70 is close to done as well! Plus, I am half way through the cover of issue 5! We are really close, folks!

Page 68, just finished

A complicate page, to say the least. Extreme angles, new background to render, and lots of characters. But what do you expect from the next-to-last page?

Another late night to finish a page. It's been tiring. Hard to say if you will see another update before the weekend, due to the hard work. I don't want to work on the last page while tired and make a mistake. It is too important. Even if there is not an update tomorrow, I have completed a lot of work this week. We are almost there! *

(*Note: even when all pages and the cover of issue 5 are done, there will be at least a week more of production to do: proofreading (very important), making the PDF, getting the store ready, etc).