Ahoy to all me shipmates n' crew! Welcome back to another visit on the ship and I thank you all for doing so!
This post will be another installment of the Art-Gazing series meant to inspire and energize your creative self. We all need this from time to time especially when we are draining that creativity into our art. I know that sounds strange but if you think about it, when you are creating you kind of spill it onto the page/canvas/screen or instrument and swish it around to get your final piece. Sometimes it is logical and others it is chaos just made pretty but either way this still empties our reserve some. We, as creative individuals, need to refill and revive that battery or we will lose sight of why we are creating in the first place. That is sad and it is my intent to give you a place to stop and charge up every now and then.
So, in this post I want to address something very close to me and something that I have struggled with before in my life. I am a graphic designer by trade but I created this blog to express my love and enjoyment of both design and illustration and one of my favorite industries is COMICS!
Since I was a child I lived inside of these types of stories and bowed down to masters like Marc Silvestri, Michael Turner, Mark Bagley, Stephen Platt, Jim Lee and David Finch. Now I have new pros to add to the list like Kenneth Rockafort. These are guys who just knew how to breath life and action into a page and tell a story that the eyes could be consumed by.
Then, as I grew older, I hit a point in my life when I became jaded over the industry and I lost touch with my love with it for many years. I didn't realize how much I missed it until I found my way home again. Now, I have a whole new matured appreciation and admiration for this industry and I am finding more reasons to do so all of the time.
That brings me to this post. I wanted to share some topics that are currently getting me excited about the comics art form and industry and how I am seeing it change and grow all of the time. It may be long winded but I hope you enjoy. At the end of the post I will tell you about some new progress in my projects and new ideas that are brewing in the "Lightning Box!"
The World of Fans!
They're Everywhere!!!!! My gosh! Seriously, this is probably the most important point in this post, people love comics and art! Three simple topics that I hope will remind you of just how deeply this industries connect to people.
TV
The Big Bang Theory!
Holy Crap, this is an awesome show and just makes ya love geek, nerds and fanboys that much more!
Other shows of awesomeness!!!
Power Rangers (for the kids)
and so much more!
Movies
Star Wars - This birthed a whole society of fans!
The Lord of the Rings and the upcoming Hobbit
Snow White and the Hunstman - A movie in process that just makes me excited! Fantasy and film meet!
and
Captain America
Thor
All of the Spider-Man films
and Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog - Comic fans meets musicals. My son and I love this one!
Daily life
I just want to mention how the love of comics, sci-fi and art can connect down to the very fiber of us. I have seen photos and videos of people getting married with Klingon vows (Star Trek) and being wed in costumes (cosplay). We collect books and sketches and get giddy when meeting a favorite artists (like for me getting to shake hands with Marc Silvestri, below, creator of some of my favorite characters and comics!!!).
That was a Darkling sketch that he so graciously made me.
Our lives are connected to this art form and people will always care about it. As an artist, this gives me great relief and hope. I hope it does so for you too. Now, we just need to develop content that our fans and visitors would enjoy tagging along with. Thank you all for traveling with me and the content that I share.
Future Posts
Captain's Rant #4 - Kodi the Starfish Art & Story Update!
- Updating the finished pages and quick explanation of the progress of the story points being hit.
Captain's Orders #2 - Waist-ed!
- Sketching power in the body from midway up. We are building to full body posing with the beginning of the this tutorial series so this is the next step.
The Captain's BLOG #4 - Friendly Waters!
- This post will be a promotion and short introduction to other amazing artists and creative scallywags I have met as I have started on this journey in to the internet sea. It is always good to know you have friends beside you.
The Captain's BLOG #5 - Building the Epic!
The Captain's Orders #3 - Concept Sea!
Current Project Progress
The Unknown Comic (well, at the moment) - My writer is almost finished with lettering the 16 pages we created for the submission. We will then construct the pitch bible document and print a short run of the submission book through KABLAM! to send a professional appearing finished piece for them to review. We are sending packets to Image and Dark Horse Publishers and each have about a 4 week waiting window. They say to consider it rejected after that because they cannot contact every team submitting. If they like the product and want to start talking business then we are good to have that conversation and get ready to go!
This tight schedule is one of the reasons I am pressing hard through the Kodi short story. It is not a great idea to have more than one major project stacked at a time because with both being important, you cannot dedicate yourself properly.
Hence,
Kodi the Starfish! - Allllllrighty! With Kodi, I am almost finished with the 4th out of the 8 pages and I have a few minor adjustments to call these pages complete. This is one of the first projects where I will be both doing the line work and the digital coloring. I will explain in detail the ideas I have on this and later this week will be the Captain's BLOG post with the Kodi update so keep yee ayes peeled!
Here are some of the latest progress for the finished page 4 and the rough page 5. I will post the up to date pages with the Kodi post soon.
Future Projects
1. I may be moving over to a WordPress build for the blog and site so I will keep you "posted"!
2. Well shipmates, as you know I both work full time as a graphic designer and do illustration and design on the side. I mainly do this to keep my creative self alive while building a real professional presence and a place for myself in the industry. I say this to let you know that I have other great ideas brewing for both Kodi and new projects, (one with the amazing community of illopond) but I also have to balance that with the paying freelance until these take off on their own. I will keep you all updated on the ideas, concepts and progress as it happens just know that there is definitely more to come!
As always, I am very glad that you have tagged along and please let me know if you have any comments or questions. I am open to answering questions about my drawing and sketching methods too so feel free to ask.
May the winds be at your backs and friends be at your sides. Blessed be your journeys.
- This will be the first post in my exploration on what defines and how to create epic content in scale and emotional weight. This is a very important subject to me because I am wanting to incorporate more power into my stories and art. I would love for us all to learn with each other in this!
- This will be a post where I will take a certain subject/setting idea and show how I would concept out the main ideas and feelings of the environment. This will be mostly pencil with some color (because I am mostly a penciler) and will hopefully help to show my crazed thought processes.
Current Project Progress
The Unknown Comic (well, at the moment) - My writer is almost finished with lettering the 16 pages we created for the submission. We will then construct the pitch bible document and print a short run of the submission book through KABLAM! to send a professional appearing finished piece for them to review. We are sending packets to Image and Dark Horse Publishers and each have about a 4 week waiting window. They say to consider it rejected after that because they cannot contact every team submitting. If they like the product and want to start talking business then we are good to have that conversation and get ready to go!
This tight schedule is one of the reasons I am pressing hard through the Kodi short story. It is not a great idea to have more than one major project stacked at a time because with both being important, you cannot dedicate yourself properly.
Hence,
Kodi the Starfish! - Allllllrighty! With Kodi, I am almost finished with the 4th out of the 8 pages and I have a few minor adjustments to call these pages complete. This is one of the first projects where I will be both doing the line work and the digital coloring. I will explain in detail the ideas I have on this and later this week will be the Captain's BLOG post with the Kodi update so keep yee ayes peeled!
Here are some of the latest progress for the finished page 4 and the rough page 5. I will post the up to date pages with the Kodi post soon.
Page 4
Page 5
Future Projects
1. I may be moving over to a WordPress build for the blog and site so I will keep you "posted"!
2. Well shipmates, as you know I both work full time as a graphic designer and do illustration and design on the side. I mainly do this to keep my creative self alive while building a real professional presence and a place for myself in the industry. I say this to let you know that I have other great ideas brewing for both Kodi and new projects, (one with the amazing community of illopond) but I also have to balance that with the paying freelance until these take off on their own. I will keep you all updated on the ideas, concepts and progress as it happens just know that there is definitely more to come!
As always, I am very glad that you have tagged along and please let me know if you have any comments or questions. I am open to answering questions about my drawing and sketching methods too so feel free to ask.
May the winds be at your backs and friends be at your sides. Blessed be your journeys.
Captain Dutz
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