Very first video progress! Unedited test!

Wooo! After recommendation from my friend, I decided to buy a tripod and have a go at video painting progress, rather than photos.
This is just a tester video which is way too long (I haven't edited anything out) and shows little progress. It was just made for me to become familiar with iMovie and general video-editing.

I hope the final one won't be longer than 5 minutes and show the entire painting from start to finish with a scan at the end.



(It's Page 3 of our story for the anthology called Bayou Arcana)

Japanese inspired commission: Safety scan.

This has again been meshed together from four separate scans. I intend to have the final version professionally scanned to avoid the potatoshop-patching-nightmare.

Japanese inspired commission: Linework.

No, the entire thing doesn't fit in my scanner. It took me four separate scans to get this image on the computer and the top still has a bit missing :P

Bayou Arcana: Example of watercolour process.

Here's how I painted Page 2 of Bayou Arcana in stages:

The A2 mermaid commission, final scan:

I actually forgot to post the final scan of this A2 painting on my blog! D'oh! It's been scanned at my local printers, but I'm a bit unsure about the colours. They seem almost fluorescent to me. Other people have said it looks fine, but I'm not sure. :/ Anyway, should give you an idea of the final painting:

After a lot of discussion and advice-seeking from writer-friends...

... I have seriously decided to grab Skal by the horns and do it properly.



It all came from a late night discussion with my partner about the uncertainty of creating graphic novels and short stories for print in today's economic climate. It's very difficult to actually make a living out of it, and creating a long story often takes years without any payment. Investing time in long projects that might not even pay the printing costs at the end is a big gamble! But I've kinda been doing pages of Skal on the side of paying work for months without too much disruption, and not seriously thought about it as a proper project.

Until partner said:

"Why don't YOU create a graphic novel yourself Jen?"

So! After consulting some writer friends (thanks guys!) I have now seriously decided to attempt to make Skal a story for print.

This would mean that I would sit down and iron out the story, the dialogue, the setting, the characters, the PACING (my weakness!), and then paint my pages without a weekly deadline.

The idea would be to release the entire first chapter and prologue in one go online, to avoid that break in flow when reading.

So, all of this means that the Skal bits you've seen will be redone, restructured and re-painted. I'm also having them proof-read by people who know how to create graphic novels XD

I'm very excited by this and will post my usual progress shots on the blog.
Just want to take the opportunity to thank the people who read Skal and send lots of love out to you people who've been so supportive and nice to me :D <3

Big Jen Hugs!

Bayou Arcana: Page 2. First unedited scan.

Bayou Arcana: Page 1.

Polish Bellydance design: Final design with a splash of colour.

The scanner really saturated the colours, but you get the idea:

Polish Bellydance design: Final design!

Polish Bellydance design. Colour Rough.

Nightcrawler robbed!

Bayou Arcana: Page 1, first unedited scan.

Polish Bellydance design. Sketches and rough colour.

Polish Bellydance design. Last update tonight :D

Polish Bellydance design. Doodlin' ideas.

I do tiny thumbs like this to start off:

Polish Bellydance design. The beginning!

Beginning doodles for inspiration.

Japanese commission. First full rough.

Japanese commission. Trying to get the face.

A banner for a Gamer. First safety scan!

Whoops. I have been spamming this particular commission a wee bit on my blog :D Don't worry. This will be the last update on this one before I carry on with the Japanese painting.



Larger Version Hereeee

A banner for a Gamer. More Progress.

Starting with a neutral grey text, but gonna do a safety scan before I continue messing around with it.

A banner for a Gamer. Progress.

Painting:

Japanese painting commission. The beginning..!

I have just started working on my newest commission. A japanese-style-inspired painting.
First up was some research, so here are a few doodles:

Making a gamers banner:

Process.

Pencil:


Larger version here!

Ink:

Larger version here!

Taped down to be painted:

Back from London-Land!

Will start posting more arty-art when I get back into the commission-grooove.
Still quite rough. Have this lingering cold that just means I'm constantly on 70% :(

Anywho. A bit of an insider from the pub-meet with fellow comic creator and the like:

Portfolio review with Marvel.

Storm from X Men.

My version of Storm. Not very happy with the face at all, but went with it anyway. :)


Tom: "You're cutting up an ancient book..!?"
Me: "I'm re-using it."