Category Archives: Comic

Comic updates & info!

Expression Practice

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To prepare for the production of my graphic novel I’m doing a lot of planning. This includes acknowledging my weak points as an illustrator and taking steps to improve that now. Consistency is one of the most difficult things about making comics – a character has to look the same when it’s drawn hundreds of times – so I am making turnarounds and expression sheets of the main characters in my book to use as reference later.

I will post them as they’re finished, but for now, here’s a test of the heroine. Style isn’t quite spot-on, but I’m working on it.

The spring semester has ended and I have three weeks left of working full time at my day job before fully diving into this project. I am so ridiculously excited! This past Thursday I went to the Boston Public Library to meet the Associates, the current Writer-in-Residence Elaine Dimopoulos, and to see my future office. Everyone was so nice, September can’t come fast enough!

As part of my residency I will be doing some programs/events/activities within the community at BPL. I’m considering holding office hours in the teen room for aspiring cartoonists and maybe doing a couple workshops for young adults who want to make comics. I’m taking suggestions!

Maggie the Riveter

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I’ve needed a new promotional piece for Under the Apple Tree and wanted to practice my refined style some more, so I decided to try out a chapter cover concept I’d been sketching for a while. This wouldn’t appear until Chapter 4, so it’s a bit premature, but as a promotional image the effect would be strong. It establishes the main character and the setting of the graphic novel.

Rosie the Riveter is a pretty commonly parodied image, but after careful consideration I decided there really would be nothing else that would get the point of that chapter across quite like that comparison. It’s really about expectations of the era. With Maggie’s father and brother in the military, she has a very strong sense of patriotism and duty. What better a goal than to go to nursing school and support her country and future?

This is where the theme carries over into something applicable today: Maggie has this goal, but it is not necessarily her dream, and herein she is tested. Teenagers today know the drill. It’s hard enough to figure out who you are and what you want to do, then you have the pressures and expectations of family, teachers and peers on top of that. Nothing’s simple, and while I’m sounding a bit like a guidance counselor, how you handle those troubles can really define who you are when you “grow up”.

Of course, Maggie is no different. Here she is trying to emulate what is idolized and expected of her: strength, decisiveness, ambition. But she isn’t really there yet, and the book follows her on her journey to become that person.

Click to view on Deviant Art!

The Dreamer Fan Art

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The Dreamer is a web comic by the lovely and talented Lora Innes. I’m greatly attached to it in a lot of ways: it’s a great story that always keeps me excited for the next update, and the creator has been a mentor since it started and I gave my first shot at web comics almost five years ago! It’s crazy to imagine that it started in 2007 — I’ve grown a lot since then and Lora has supported me not just as a fan, but as an emerging artist.

I made her first piece of fan art back in the day:

Boy, that’s an oldie! I’m glad to say I’ve come a long way since then. Maybe someday I’ll post some of the art from my teenage years. I’ve grown up a lot, so it’s turning into one of those embarrassing stories that you can laugh about later even if it’s still a bit awkward.

Recently I’ve been working on developing my personal style, and it’s fun to draw my own characters over and over, but sometimes a good test is to try out someone else’s to see how it translates. It seemed fitting to do some new fan art for The Dreamer.

I’ve had an idea for a while that I’ve tried sketching out a few times but haven’t been happy with. The Dreamer is about a girl who dreams about a seeming “past life” during the Revolutionary War, and at this point in the story she is distressed because she’s getting so caught up in the dream world that her “real” life is suffering. I wanted to portray her as stuck in the middle, curled up in an 18th century dress with modern sneakers, looking a bit under the weather.

I did some sketches and decided it would be fun to pick a color palette from one of my favorite inspiration websites, Colour Lovers. I needed something that was a bit “blue” to show her mood, and browsing around gave me a starting point.

I ended up choosing “Be Kind“.

I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. It was great practice for my developing style and a nice update from my first Dreamer fan art.

Thank you, Lora!

Most Exciting Month Ever

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My life has changed considerably since May 1st.

Firstly I would like to announce the revamp of Under the Apple Tree. I have redone the website using a better viewing script for the pages and PHP includes to make it easy to update, as well as made the overall design much simpler and more natural to use for frequent web comic readers. I have also started posting the pages that have built up the past couple months. Check it out!

In other news, I have graduated from college and moved out from my parents’! I now live in Salem, Massachusetts (an appropriately historical city close to my job in Boston) with my boyfriend and have never been happier. I am working as a full time artist and may have some exciting projects coming up, but I’ll keep those to myself until I’m sure of them.

Six Red Marbles has posted demos of the games I have been contracted to work on at their website. The one I’ve had the heaviest hand in is the middle school girls’ math game in which you play as a celebrity recruiter and manage your own business (sounds a little weird, but trust me, it’s wicked fun!). 100% of the character artwork is mine, so as you see them flip through the screens, I am proud to say that a huge part of the visual style is mine. Kudos also to the two other designers I have been working with: Pam and Vanessa!

Exciting Weekend!

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So, this weekend is full of excitement – tomorrow I am going to PAX East, and the next few days are also the Boston Underground Film Festival! My friend Andy’s piece, CD-ROM, will be part of the Animated Animus show on Saturday. Check it out!

Also, I am apparently allowed to show work from my fancy design job as long as we’re not going to use it in the game. Here’s some (silly) concept work I did for one of the games, in which there may have been jello animals…

Picture 1

: ) Also, Under the Apple Tree is still going to be finished for the Maine Comic Arts Festival! I’m just not posting pages until I have the first chapter finished (the last couple scenes are much better read as a whole rather than installments, especially the cliffhanger).

Much Productivity

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Watch out, this is going to be a long one!

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Firstly, I would like to engage your attention with some art. I’ve done some portraiture lately and am really digging it. I tried a looser style than usual and am really happy with the result, I look forward to doing more.

Work on Under the Apple Tree/my senior capstone project is still in progress! My blog hasn’t seen much action, but I have been quite busy with preparations. A lot of energy has gone into networking in particular, and I’d like to focus on that part of my project in this entry.

I’ve discovered that a huge part of the enjoyment of creating comics is the company, advice and support of other creators. It’s invaluable to my process and I’ve focused a lot on it recently. There are a couple different venues I have utilized…

The Internet.

The most obvious and definitely one of the most helpful, the web has a huge amount of resources. Some of the most useful have been…

Drunk Duck (Support from readers and constructive criticism are both huge motivators.)

Webcomics Community (A specialized forum is a great resource for everything from crit to finding places to get merchandise made to… well, everything.)

Deviant Art (This website has a bad reputation as far as quality goes, but I’ve found a great amount of support there and even have built relationships there with professional cartoonists who give me advice. Pretty awesome.)

Local Organizations.

The internet is wonderfully convenient, but it doesn’t replace real contact with other creators, as well as such genuine opportunities for networking. Some options…

The Maine Comic Arts Festival is new as of last year and a great opportunity! I am registered as an exhibitor and can’t wait. The first one was awesome and the next one, I’m sure, will be even better. For those who don’t know, it’s a convention of sorts in Portland, Maine that takes place in May (mostly self-publishers with a few fancy guests, comparable to a small MoCCA Festival).

Maine Cartoonists is a group I co-founded. Its e-hub is a Facebook group, and as you’ve seen a couple entries ago, we hold “roundtables” where a bunch of people get together and share our work and mingle. It’s a lot of fun and something really cool has evolved out of it (which I’ll get to momentarily).

Other Stuff.

I’m not a Penny Arcade fan, really, nor am I a gamer… but I am going to PAX East. It’s a great networking opportunity that I’d be silly to pass up. It’ll be a huge event that combines two things that are very important to me right now: comics (after all, the huge phenomenon that is Penny Arcade originally just started out as a web comic, just like Under the Apple Tree), and the game field (though I am not a gamer, my current full time job is as a designer for games, so I have that association). I plan on bringing business cards, as well as perhaps postcard samples, to share as I mingle.

And now for the best part…

THE COLLECTIVE.

(YEAH!)

I realized a couple things recently.

Firstly, I plan on moving to the Boston area in the near future and that means I will be somewhat disconnected from Maine Cartoonists. Not that we meet all the time, and not like Boston doesn’t have its own group, but it just won’t be the same. How will I keep in touch with all the great people up there?

And also, I’ve admired collective blogs such as Gorilla Artfare for quite some time, and suddenly realized it wouldn’t be that hard to start my own. Except mine would be geared toward comics instead of general illustration.

And then, from these realizations, something was born!

Picture 7

The Collective is a blog I have started that will function much like Gorilla Artfare, only the members are all New England creators. (That’s right, not just Maine, but all of New England! I couldn’t start something like this without including all the other amazing talent I’ve met from places like Boston and the Center of Cartoon Studies in Vermont and the Trees and Hills dudes from New Hampshire.) It’s just getting started, but there is a great handful of creators registered to be authors and I can’t wait for things to really get going.

The site will hopefully expand, but for the moment we just have the blog, a lovely rotating header system so all of us can contribute artwork to the design of the site and an events calendar (still being worked out) so we can keep up with the goings on.

I can’t wait to make it turn into something really great.

If you’re still reading at this point, I am very impressed. Look forward to some more updates soon, including the conclusion of Chapter I (which must be finished in time to get printed for the May festival), some art and some other tidbits. I know there isn’t much to show, at least visually, for all the work I’ve been putting in this past month, but I assure you, much has been accomplished. I don’t feel like it’s been wasted at all.

I really wish I could share the game development work I’ve been doing for the agency in Boston. I can’t wait for them to be released in September so I can finally show everything off, it’s been so much fun! My main responsibility lately has been character design/development and it’s been one of the most fun, educational and productive experiences of my life.

Oh, and I redesigned my main website. Check it out. (Still fixing the portfolio section, though. d’oh)

Sketches and Trades

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I’d like to apologize for lack of updates on Under the Apple Tree. I can promise that updates will resume within a week or two not just because I think I can do it, but because I HAVE to – it is a condition of my graduation this spring, as it is my senior capstone project! My new job has just been more time consuming than expected, even just in the first week, and I need a bit more time to settle into the new routine.

Until then, I have some art to share! I’ve been taking trades and also have done some sketches for people. Here’s a few:

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Comic Update!

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p017webWe have arrived at a new scene! I altered the colors to portray the fickle weather of New England; that afternoon was bright and sunny, but once Maggie got out of school it became overcast and a little dreary. I am now more than half way through the first issue and look forward to reaching the home stretch.

I apologize that it’s been a few days since the last page, but I have great news! I have landed a full time job as an artist for a company that is currently producing some games. I had my first day yesterday and it really is one of the most amazing feelings to know that all my hard work and these years in college haven’t gone to waste and my talent is needed. I’m pretty sure I’m one of the luckiest people in the world, and the support I’ve received from friends and family in wishing me luck and celebrating the good news really means a lot. Something even crazier than getting a job before I even graduate in my field: my best friend Vanessa got a position, as well, and we’ll be working together. So awesome!

Fortunately I’ve accomplished a good amount of my comic before full time work came in the picture and am not too concerned about my productivity being interrupted, it just may be a bit slower. Considering I started exactly a month ago and have already produced a full website, done a good deal of networking with other cartoonists and have completed 17 page (at 3-4 hours each that’s about 60 hours of work in 30 days), I believe I am in pretty good shape.

This past Thursday I organized a Maine Cartoonists Roundtable and we had a great turnout! A couple fellows from the Trees and Hills collective out of New Hampshire/Vermont were in the area, and we had some new faces as well. I look forward to the next one. Thanks to Coast City Comics for lending us their space, and thank you to the people who showed up! I look forward to the next one.

And thanks to anyone who reads this thing, too. : )