The Local Dive - Drawing and Inking

I'm pretty happy with this page so I decided to quit when I got to a point where I wasn't sure what to do next. I took some of the characters I featured on the other pages and put them at a dive bar.

I've been reading "the Ten Rules for Drawing Comics" http://www.10rulesfordrawingcomics.com/search/label/Mike%20Allred and getting lots of great advice and food for thought, the post by Mike Allred stood out as one to remember.

My style seems to be announcing itself the more I draw, it isn't quite pretty yet, but I'm getting there.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

 

Working The Blue Pencil

Started drawing with the non photo blue pencil today and got some great results, I should have kept on trucking (oh! bad pun) with the second panel I think it would have turned out pretty well if I hadn't bunged up the inking so badly on the figure holding onto the side of the truck.

Lesson learned, I need to check some references in other comics to see how some artists I like handle motion lines etc. when trying to show vehicles in motion.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@livelcom



Samurai Zombie Chopfest

Whoops I lied I'm back and working on this samurai/zombie battle page. Not too bad overall, messed up the hands in a couple of panels and the shadows are perfect but I think I'm improving, I might have to do another page today to see if I can get on a roll.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Not Every Day is a Banner Day

Crappy photo, but you can click it if you like, this was a crap day, this may have been a little too complicated the photo source I was using didn't give me enough information and the legs ended up being a problem.

I've now started using 01 and 02 Pilot Drawing Pens which I quite like, I can't believe how small these nibs are!

I'll be in the studio tomorrow painting so there may not be another post here for a couple of days

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Samurai, Abandoned Towns and some improvement

This turned out well, not 100% happy with the shadows and some facial details but I am improving. I used an 005 pen for the face and the samurai armour but still feel like I rushed it, I guess I'll be buying that mechanical pencil sooner than I thought. I can't complain too much about this page, I can see my mistakes and won't repeat them on the next one.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com



Fight Club for Blondes, Page inking

First Pass) Rough pencils for fight scene, not bad, I need to concentrate more on getting these figures tighter at this stage, may switch to a rough sketch in blue pencil then refine in fine lead.

Second Pass)Lining the fight, problems with feet and hands - need to work on that, got ahead of myself again, I can draw the anatomy, I just rushed ahead.

Third Pass) Decided to skip the background colour - couldn't decide what to do and after the sky on the last past, it's best to just avoid it. The shadows are okay, needs a better sense of drama and contrast, need to look at some other pages - there was a great fight in an issue of Global Frequency that I'll go back and check out for future reference.

Summary - Not bad still at about 60% satisfied with what I'm doing, still have to slow down and work more intelligently.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

 

 

 

A Fool and His Tools

I've known for years that I rush my drawings, for years I just sketch ideas as quickly as I can, my sketches for paintings are just quick little stick jots and I try to capture as many ideas as quickly as I can. Thumbnails and small 2x2" sketches are where my head is at so now that I'm deciding to draw and fully realize everything I find myself rushing ahead.

I have got to slow down, I was really liking where this was heading as a plotted page and then messed it up by going too heavy in parts, making a bad call on the clouds in the second panel - anyways there are too many mistakes to list.

Moral of the story - slow the hell down.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com



Final Three Panels on Page #?

For the last three panels on this page I wanted to do some facial expressions, the Robot with no eyes is responding to something that JFK said, RWNE thinks he has the upper hand and then realizes that he's been duped.

It's not bad - I would say I'm at about 66% satisfied with what's on this page. My big problem/fear that I have to over come right now is using a mechanical pencil - I hate them and I've hated them all of my life. Why? Because I have a heavy hand I push much too hard on the page and have to teach myself to lighten up on the pressure. This is going to take some time.

Not sure if I'll get to another page today I have a commission for an alphabet letter that I need to get started and some other crap jobs around the house.

But the next page I work on is going to have some action in it and a few more characters.

cheers,

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

 

JFK and The Robot With No Eyes

The next two panels are a medium shot of each character, the first cat in the suit reminds me of JFK, the second character I decided would have no eyes - only because of how the figure looks in the first panel.

I'm using Staedtler pigment liners for the black work, 0.5, 0.7, 0.8 and a skinny 005 Prismacolour Premier for the finer lines. The colours are a mix of everything from Copics to Crayolas.

The content of the story isn't important to me, this could be the first page or the tenth page of the story, it doesn't matter, it's just about fitting figures into panels and having them interact.

I will post character sketches and other sketches at this blog but my primary goal is to have things happening inside comic panels, trying different angles and styles until I develop a way of working that I enjoy.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com



A.Shay Hahn, Smudges and Lines First Post

Hey there it's A.Shay Hahn and my FOURTH blog, "Smudges and Lines". This blog is going to focus exclusively on comics and drawing. The other blogs are pretty specialized, the mad craft shoppe is for my paintings and illustration projects, Any How Town is for my books and dioramas, the alphabet shoppe is for my kids letters and this will be for comics.

I have always read comics, they are the first love of my life creatively, I still read and buy comics it was the first job that I ever wanted but going to University changed all of that. I still read comics but became a painter instead.

I talk endlessly at the mad craft shoppe and Any How Town about drawing, how I wish I had more time to draw, how I'm terrible at it etc. so I've begun this blog to fix that problem. Here I'll be focusing on comic panels, character sketches, comic reviews - anything that has to do with paper and ink.

The top three photos are of my first attempt in a long time to draw a comic panel, something simple just two guys talking in a dilapidated courtyard, I am not happy with this piece at all , but this blog is going to be about improvement so every day I'm going to try and draw one or two panels and post them here with my thoughts on the process.

I can't come down to hard on myself with this panel but what I want to learn about with this piece is line weight and making the important areas stand out - it's obvious that didn't happen.

I'm going to get back to drawing and hopefully get the next panel in this series finished, who knows what the dialogue will be or where the story goes, but that's all part of the discovery.

The inspiration for the first panels, the three panel page, is from Darwyn Cooke's "The New Frontier" a recent purchase that I've wanted to pick up for awhile. I love his "firm sketch" approach to his work, the simplicity of his panels is deceptive, everything is there that needs to be there.

back to the boards,

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com