This is the early process work for Page 25.

I have 4 separate sketchbooks that I use in making this comic. They are: my Script-book, my Thumbnails Sketchbook, my Concepts Sketchbook (where I write ideas for the world and story), and my General Sketchbook where I hash out the details of the pages and do any number calculations. I do the colorscripts in Photoshop.

I have a story outline for The Pelkern Cycle, but the outline isn’t set in stone. Sometimes, as the characters develop in the story, I realize that some plot points I’ve planned for my characters aren’t consistent with who the characters have become. When that happens, I shift the plot to match the characters. As a result, I write each chapter’s script after finishing the comic pages for the preceding chapter. I will write the script and do the thumbnails for Chapter 3 all in one batch once I finish Chapter 2.

Here’s another preview of the upcoming page, and the reason this page is taking so long–There are a lot of characters on this page, including 4 who haven’t appeared yet in this comic. This is Panel 5. From left to right, Carolyn’s 3 younger brothers Kevin, Oren, and Vincent, her mother Maia, an unknown man, and her father Myles. 🙂

I’m still coloring this page, but it should go up today (Thursday), probably in the evening.

I haven’t finished coloring Page 28, so it’ll go Thursday Morning. This is a Preview of Panel 1, because I liked how the inking layer turned out.

I’ve been enjoying seeing other artists online pick their “Best 9 of 2018,” so here is my favorite 9 concept art/comic panels from 2018. 😀

The Pelkern Cycle is taking a short page break for the Holidays, Page 27 will be going up January 9th.

The Pelkern Cycle is taking a short Page break for the Holidays, the next page will be posted January 9th. Here is a concept sketch of The Phoenix.

The bards of Pelkern only have garbled fragments of stories of the Firebird. One story fragment tells of the battle between the Phoenix and the Pale Wyrm, which shook the world to its very foundations. Another tells of the great fire that was consuming the world, and how the Phoenix plunged into the fire to quench it. But mostly, the memory of the Phoenix is now only held in a bedtime story that parents tell to comfort their children.

It is said that if you fall into the Tenebris, no one will be able to find you. The Tenebris is where the land has died; there, the light fades into utter darkness, and the air becomes thin (remember, Pelkern is a subterranean world). If you are lost in the Tenebris, you are lost indeed. But–Mothers tell their children–you can sing, and the Phoenix will hear and come to lead you out of the void, for the Phoenix fears neither darkness nor death.

 

Here is a 1 minute video of me inking this drawing, sped up x300:

 

The Pelkern Cycle is taking a short page break for the Holidays; Page 27 will be posted January 9th. Next Wednesday I will post a concept sketch of the Phoenix character from Pelkern.

This week’s post is a video of my work on the setting for the Phoenix sketch. In the video I explain how I use Photoshop’s Masked Layers to ink my comic. Masked Layers are a bit of a mind-bender, but hopefully I managed to make it make sense, haha.