GC#4, page 77 completed!

Well, it took longer than expected, slowing down my pace of the last few updates, but I was finally able to finish page 77. Good ol' "RL" work has reared its head as well, slowing me even more. It is hard to say what the progress of this week will be like, and I know Friday will be completely out (as I will be away from my desk most of the day in meetings). But I hope things will ease quite a bit by early next week. This page represents the 25% mark, with 5 pages out of 20 now completed. Enjoy the preview!

GC#4, page 76 completed!

It took a little longer than the last three, but page 76 has been completed! Now I remember why issue 4 took so long, as the details from that issue appear again on this page. The next page is also detailed, in terms of content, shading and panels, so there most likely will not be another update before the weekend. In the meantime, enjoy the preview!

GC#4, page 75 completed!

Cruising right along, with the completion of another page within 1 day's time. Luckily, I got a jump start on page 75 yesterday, that allowed me to finish it up today. I definitely got some practice getting Lynn's hair right on this page — not an easy task as she has one of those multi-level/light-streaked/but-dark-root hair colors. I love Adobe Illustrator's brush tool for this, which allows me to use my Wacom pen to vary the stroke width as I create hair. On top of that, each stroke is made up of about 10 smaller strokes. This way, I don't have to paint each individual hair, except for a few wisps or highlights.

Also, the preview for the previous post was actually incomplete. It has now been fixed. :)

GC#4, page 74 complete!

Page 74, which I couldn't quite finish before the weekend, was completed today. I am making a great start to the new issue. However, "RL" work in looming on the horizon that may slow this progress. Only time will tell. I had hoped to have another page done today, but this new work did not allow this to happen. We'll see about tomorrow. In the meanwhile, enjoy the preview!

(EDIT: the preview was incomplete when originally uploaded. It has now been fixed.)

GC#4, page 73 complete!

The first page of 20 for the 5th issue of grOw/cOmic#4, "grOwing Desires" has been completed. I also made very good progress on the second page, but I wasn't quite able to finish it up today, and, unfortunately, tonight is not a night that I can work a little later on it. With a little thoughful cropping, I hope to have made this preview a little more enticing than cryptic. Enjoy!

GC#4, pencils completed!

With a final stroke, the last panel of issue 5 has been completed, in terms of the underlying pencil drawings!

As I was working on this last set of 6 pages since my last blog update, I came across a sequence that I had planned over the course of 2 pages. Upon reviewing them before putting pencil to paper, I decided the layout was just too "tight" to do it justice. Rather than remove panels, I decided to — you guessed it — add yet another page to this upcoming issue. In addition to the 2 extra pages that are already appearing in each issue of this series already, Chapter 5 will now have an additional 2 extra pages for a total of 20 pages. This is partially what took the extra time this week, as I had to re-plan out 3 new pages (whittled down from a total of 8 possibilities). Then, of course, there was drawing the newest additional page.

Also, I was able to find the time to scan in these 20 pages and get them ready for production. Each page is drawn at a 11"x15" size, so it takes 2 scans that must be pieced together for each page. During this time, I also make edits to the drawings — for example, if I feel that certain proportions didn't come out quite right, but the actual line drawing is good. Instead of redrawing it, I will split it up in Photoshop and reconstruct it digitally. Saves a lot of time, and frustration. During this phase, I also make sure the "zoom" of each panel (close-up or wide shot) is enough, and, if need be, digitally zoom in if I feel the subject of the image should have a better focus.

Ink and paint are now in my sights, as we begin the countdown to the release of "All's laid bare in Love and War."

GC#4, issue 5, pencils progressing

13 out of the 19 pages for issue 5 are now done, with the completion of 8 more pages since my last blog update. I am happy that the pages are coming out quite well. A few delays have slowed me, but I hope to complete the last 6 pages before then end of this week (I was hoping for early to mid-week). After that, the "inking and painting" will begin, and the page-by-page updates with previews will commence for this newest issue.