Ship Scene

I'm working on a few dramatic at-sea panels. Here's one that's partially completed.

(click for larger version) Here's Martin in rough and less-rough versions:

(click for larger version)

(click for larger version) Also, did you guys know I set up a twitter feed? It basically just links to this blog, so if already follow this blog, you should be fine. If not, or if you just like signing up for things, it's twitter.com/victorandmartin or just @VictorandMartin

From Sketch to Colored, Lettered, Final Panel

I made a little video featuring one of the panels from The Adventures of Victor and Martin in The Hunt for The Emperor's Treasure. The video shows the process from sketch to ink to the slow coloring process to lettering to the final panel. The background music is a song called "Shasta" by my friend Kurt's band, Country Mice. Click on Full Screen if you can. The quality really holds up.

New Sketch - Nearly Under

One of the hazards of whaling. This sketch was done with PrismaColor markers, which I'm still not very good with, and some digital coloring and adjustment afterwards.

Color Mutation

I've been finishing up the current submission, and one of the things I've been doing is muting the colors a little. I found that in the original format my comic looked a little too kiddie. I'm trying to write an all-ages comic, but not a comic specifically targeted at the youngest of the young kids.

The original version just looked a little too crayola-bright, so I muted the colors by desaturating them a little. I'm not great with colors, so it took a while and I'm not 100% stoked about the results, but it looks better, at least. The original is on the left, and the yellow-green-blue combo was just too bright for my tastes.


(click image to enlarge)

Arctic Exploration

It looks like a French animation firm is working on an arctic exploration-themed animated movie. It looks beautiful.

I only wish I'd been able to complete my first Victor and Martin submission, from 2010.



Well, this will only strengthen my efforts to get the first Victor and Martin comic completed.

Victor in the desert sketch

(click for larger)

Victor, lost in the desert. Pencil, pen, Prismacolor marker, digital clean-up/coloring.

Also, I've started a Twitter feed where I will post the updates to this blog and other work. twitter.com/victorandmartin If you're on Twitter, sign on up.

New Sketch!

Here it is!

Sketches

I'm going to try to post more. The posts will be short, though. I've started making more sketches with the sole idea of messing around with them a little and then posting them.

Stencilworks

My good buddy, the artist Jon Wakuda Fischer of Wakuda Studios, was in New York city for artistic purposes a few weeks ago. Jon specializes in stencil-based fine art that's a cross between traditional Japanese ukiyo-i woodblock prints and modern spray paint street art. His work is fantastic, and he was kind enough to show me how he creates his stencils. We worked together to create the fun stencil work below.













I'm probably going to use this stencil to make some posters in the future, most likely featuring Victor and Martin.

Cover Art

I finished coloring the cover for the next comic submission. I'm not very good at coloring, especially speed-wise, and there were so many greens in this that it took forever to make them all distinct.

Sneak Peek

I've been working all week on a cover for my new submission. I finally inked it, so now I just need to color it.

Here is a blurry, tiny shot of it:

One Week Later

Wow. It's almost been a week and the video has almost 3,000 views on YouTube.

That's astounding, considering it features unknown characters, no real formal distribution, and a song that is a year and a half old. I got a big boost from some friends with connections to websites, but I'm mostly just shocked that it did so well.

Over 1,000 views!

In two days, the video got over 1,000 views! I'm a youtube novice, but that seems pretty sweet! My friends all did a great job promoting the video for me.

The Adventures of Victor and Martin Animated Video!

It's complete and here it is!



I wanted to finish it by my birthday, but I will settle for on my birthday.