DeadDrone Solider

I have recently become obsessed with comic books again. Yes again, I have always loved comic books and super heroes and I have always wanted to create my own comic book. So I have been trying to discover the best way to go about this.

I have always drawn traditionally with a pencil and inked with rapidograph pens. Well after drawing again, I devised this process where I would thumbnail everything out at like 1/8 the final drawing size, then blow this up to final size in the computer, print that, then light box and redraw the image, then ink, (I was trying to see if I could get away with just penciling and no ink….not so sold on the look. Only person I have seen that can pull this off is Joe Madureira when colored by Christian Lichtner) then I need to scan that into the computer, clean up the image and then start to digital paint. Man…lot of work eh?

So to try to avoid some of the steps I am trying to force myself to draw directly into the computer using a Wacom tablet. There are many advantages when working directly in the computer; you can move your drawing around with ease, keep everything on layers so you can try new stuff and never worry about messing up part of your drawing that you like, you can save multiple versions of your work, try various color combinations with ease.

The down side is that it is very unnatural to draw on a tablet and see it update on a monitor. I have been working at it for over a month and it still doesn’t feel natural to me. It is getting better but I am still fighting the computer to draw certain shapes and lines that are no problem with traditional tools.

Well I wanted to show off a test piece that I did for myself. It’s mutant – robot, hybrid, cowboy. Why, I have no idea but I do know that I had fun making him. With that said here is the line and color work that I created in Photoshop.







As I become more comfortable with the process I hope to make brushes and techniques that I am using available for everyone!

Peace –NickZ. :)