Nightmare Pro Wrestling Issue 2 Page 32 Pencils & Inks!!

Finally a new blog post. A lot of things have been going on and I've been keeping myself really busy with working on new character designs for all the Nightmare Pro Wrestling characters. My style has changed a lot since I first started drawing NPW about a year and a half ago so I want the characters to reflect those changes.

I've also been working on some new images for the new NPW website my wonderful wife Nicole is putting together. Speaking of my Wonder wife, she too is working on a project of here own. Check it out on her blog: The Minted Mouse.

So here are the Pencils and Inks for Issue 2 Page 32. Lately I've been trying to be a little more creative with the panels of my pages. After reading a blog about advanced panel layouts, I thought I'd give it a try. I don't think I'm there yet but I do like that my thought process for paneling has incorporated some of the concepts I'd read.

I also recently noticed that I've started to be able to draw my characters more expressively. Not that I'm saying 'My drawing ability is amazing, PRAISE ME, PRAISE ME!' I'm just saying that it's nice to be able to look back on my older pages and see that there's a big change. I hope I can keep growing as an artist and cartoonist/storyteller.

Issue 2 Page 25 Pencils and Inks

Page 25 of Issue 2!!! WOW! I never thought I'd be saying that. Finally on the last pages of NPW Issue 2. The big showdown between Nightmare Pro Wrestling Champion, Grim and Mr. Hyde. At this point, I'm still at Grim's intro. I wanted it to be so epic so you know how important he is in this world and to the NPW fans.


I pictured Grim with a bit of a Triple H kinda entrance, as this intimidating force with a cool ring entrance. I've actually had this page in my head for a while -- fire breath and all. It's nice to finally see it on paper/computer. 


I'm really happy with the way the inks came out on this page. I was a little worried about how the pyro on the last panel was gonna come out but I think it looks good. I think all of that will look a lot better once its colored though. 


I changed the fire coming out of Grim's mouth so it looked more like a controlled burst. The original sketch in pencils was a lot smaller and less intense. I want there to be the idea that if Grim wants to breath fire on you he can control its severity.


I also took off a lot of the motion lines from his arms. I think it was too much. It almost made the original drawing look like he was going to clap his fists together (or in Nicole's opinion, made him look hairy) which I didn't want. I'm also not sure if I need the "BOOM" sound effect. I think the images creates the sound all in itself, but I'll test it out and see how it looks.


Alright, hope the pencils and inks got you excited to see the colored page. Check it out on Monday at NightmareProWrestling.com


Later.

Issue 2 Page 24 Pencils and Inks

Here are the Inks for page 24 of Nightmare Pro Wrestling. Something that I've started doing on the pages is creating the backgrounds and characters differently. For the characters I sketch them out on paper then scan them in but for the backgrounds I've usually been drawing them directly on the computer. It's been saving some time and allowing me to still get the perspective I want.

Page 24 is pretty much the beginning of Grim's entrance into the arena. I really wanted to get the mood right on this page. What I wanted the reader to feel was the the excitement of and anticipation of Grim's entrance, along with the knowledge of how popular he is with the fans. When a big star comes into the ring his entrance music gets the fans cheering and then the star pumps up the crowd and the fans get louder. Then the star's music stops and then suddenly the bigger star's music plays. And the crowd goes WILD.

I hope I can get this moment across to wrestling and non-wrestling fans alike.

I plan on putting in some cheering for Mr. Hyde in panel 1 in a big font. Panel 3 is the moment I imagine Grim's music starting. I'm going to use a bigger font for his cheers to establish that the crowd really loves this guy.

In this page I'm also playing around with a special insert panel for the announcers. I like the idea of a smaller panel with the announcers in it to remind you where the commentary in the caption boxes are coming from. I'll test out throwing these panels in every other page during a match.

The last panel is the one that took me the longest but it's also the one that I had the most fun with. The biggest obstacle was drawing each monster in a way that has  them doing something without covering up the other monsters too much.

What I ended up doing was separately drawing all the main monsters first, scan them in, cobble them together in Photoshop. Then just filled the spaces with other random monsters. I had a lot of fun designing the monsters and it was great to finally have the Nightmare Night Creatures in a crowd shot. If you look closely you can also see a few celebrity monsters in there, including the Strange Kids Club puppet.  I'm not really sure what to put on there signs yet. I'll think of something.

  

Now to do paints....ugh...that last panel is going to take a while.

Later.

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.