Page 22 Pencils & Inks

Here are the pencils and inks for Page 22 of Nightmare Pro Wrestling. With this page I wanted to get across that Grim doesn't play well with others. He's a more action, less talk sorta monster. I also wanted to show that Grave thinks Grim is a cool guy and tries to be his friend. And I wanted too include what Grave's dad is like...all in one page!?

Yeah I wasn't really sure how I was gonna work it out but Nicole and I sat down and talked the whole page through. I think we accomplished making the points we wanted without slowing the pace or making things feel too rushed. Let me know if it works.

Alright, well you can check out the finished page on the site NightmareProWrestling.com.

Later.

Sketches for a new Vampire Comic

So here are a few sketches for a new project I have stewing on the back burner. It's a Vampire comic and no, there will not be any teen angst or sparkling -- I want to bring Vampires back to their Monster origins. You know, Vampires that carry  the plaque of death with them, control nocturnal creatures, change into bats, look like monsters...that sorta thing. I don't have the story ironed out all the way yet but I'm hoping to soon.

These sketches are just ideas right now and the designs will probably change as I work more on the various monsters and characters in the story. I'll be sure post updates on the story, inspiration, and any new concept sketches I do. Take these as an appetizer of things to come.

Later.

NPW Comic Issue 2 Page 19 Inks

So I'm finally getting back to blogging and I'm going to try even harder to do more posts and more often. Here are the pencils and inks for page 19 of Nightmare Pro Wrestling.

I took a lot of things into consideration on this page. For one, I tried to make sure everything that the characters were doing was clear. I also tried to push the poses as much as possible to get some dynamic acting from the main characters on the page.

I don't know how many times I've heard that I should be doing those things but it never really sunk in until I found these drawing tip tutorials by Sherm Cohen. Maybe I'm just a visual learner or maybe it's that the tutorials had images of Spongebob, but things finally clicked for me. You can find the Tips here and here if you want to have a look.

I discovered his Artrage tutorials and Adobe Illustrator inking tutorials about a year ago. They helped me to evolve the inking style and look of Nightmare Pro Wrestling. I don't want to sound like too much of a fanboy but I have to thank him for that. He's a got a really great site with a lot of information and inspiration on there, plus he's a cool guy and is happy to share his knowledge of cartooning. Lately his storyboard tutorials have been inspiring me and I try to work those concepts into my comic pages.

On this comic page I also messed around with my approach for doing speedlines. I'm now using a little less of them and focusing more on creating a sense of movement with the lines I already have on the page. For example, on the last panel of page 19, I made the outline of Devastator Dragon's arm into speedlines to make it look like it was moving fast. I did the same with Grave's body on that same panel. I guess you can say I'm trying to convey movement with the lines on the characters which is something I've been studying from anime and manga.

Finally, I think the biggest difference in this page compared to some of the earlier pages is I've been using more blacks in my backgrounds. I think it makes it look spookier and adds more interest to the panels that don't have backgrounds.

Alright, well be sure to check out the completed page over on NightmareProWrestling.com

See you Ghouls next time.

Sketches & Inks for NPW Comic Page 13

Wow...I really haven't posted on the blog in a long time. Nicole and I were talking about it this morning and we had the idea of not just posting Inks and Pencils of pages but some of the things that get me inspired to work on the comic so hopefully I'll be posting more often.

Here's Page 13 Pencils and Inks of Nightmare Pro Wrestling. I really had a lot of fun doing this page. I think I'm finally getting the right look for the backgrounds and the fans.

If you look closely you can see some old school movie monsters in the crowd.

I made a few adjustments from the penciled page to inks like making Baby Face's arm a bit long and bulgier. I also added where I wanted the arena lights and camera flashes on the penciled page just for reference when I do the colors.

Make sure to check out the finished page on Monday!

Later.

Sketches and Inks for Page 6 of Issue 2

Here are the sketches and Inks of Page 6. I finished this page pretty quick and even messed with some line styles in the inking phase. I'm hoping I can finish the pages faster now that I have a sense of how long things will take with each page.

For those of you who are worried that all of Issue 2 is going to be just wrestling, it's not. There will be a lot of added story along with the fights. I plan to have a new format of telling the story, starting with this issue. The format will be more like a wrestling show with little stories in between each of the wrestling matches to help develop characters and plot lines.

Later

Nightmare Pro Wrestling Issue 2 Page 4 Inks

Here's Page 4 of Nightmare Pro Wrestling Issue 2. The page came together really quickly during thumb nailing the whole fight. Pretty fun action here on this page. My favorite has to be panel 5, with the Jolly Roger elbow dropping Chickgan. I hope the whole fight sequence in the next few pages comes out as well as I think it will. Alright, well check back on Friday, I should have the inks and rough sketches up for page 5.

Later

Nightmare Pro Wrestling Issue 1 is done.

I'm finally done with Issue 1 of Nightmare Pro Wrestling! The first issue has been a great learning experience for me. When I read through all of the pages I saw a lot of ways that I had grown as an artist and I'm proud to have something tangible to show for all my effort.

I have to give a quick thank you to the guys over at Art and Story, Chris Oatley, and the guys at Big Illustration Party Time. Without their influence and inspiration I would have never taken that big step to just go for it and do the comic.

And I also want to say thank you to everyone who reads Nightmare Pro Wrestling. The comic was just an idea in my head for such a long time that it's really great to know that there are people out there reading and enjoying it.

Maybe it doesn't seem like much but finishing this issue is a really big deal for me. To anyone out there who has something that they want to do but are afraid to take that next step, just jump in. It feels great.

Cheers.