Pencils for the Damned

The Damned_Page 1_Pencils

The Damned_Pages 2-3_Pencils

The Damned_Page 4_Pencils

The Damned_Page 5_Pencils

The Damned_Page 6_Pencils

Here are the pencils for the six page comic entitled The Damned. The biggest thing about this story was that it took place in 1931 since that's when Boris Karloff's Frankenstein came out, and so I had to do some research. I chose not to research the clothing style since I didn't think that suits or tuxedos would be that drastically different from today, but cars have come a long way since the 30s that I had to focus my research on the cars. Cars aren't the easiest thing to draw anyway, but these cars were so weird looking that it made it more challenging especially drawing those...domes over the wheels. I did learn a lot about cars from the 30s such as no side mirrors and no doors for the backseat. However, the biggest thing that I learned was what a running board was. It was mentioned in the script for the double page spread that there was a guy standing on a running board firing his machine gun. What's a running board? I had no idea, and so in the thumbnails, I attached a wooden plank to the car. It was a piece that the gangsters added for drive by shootings or car chases. Well, it turns out that the running board is part of the car design, and it's like a step to get in or out of the car especially for women. Also, it's much shorter than my wooden plank. So I not only got rid of the plank, but I also had to reposition the shooter. Instead of being straight on, the shooter is half turned. Overall, I am not too pleased with how the cars came out, but they do get the point across that this is a time period piece.

Finally, if that demon on the sixth page doesn't frighten you or at least give you the creeps then I don't know what will. Perhaps the inked version.

This project has already been critiqued, but I'll save that until I reveal the inked version probably next month.

A Challenge on So Many Levels

No One Can Hear Me Shout_Page 1_Thumbnails

No One Can Hear Me Shout_Page 2_Thumbnail

No One Can Hear Me Shout_Page 3_Thumbnail

I wrote a story for my Non-Fiction Writing class last spring that dealt with bullying and suicide, but unfortunately nobody except the professor got to read it since we ran out of time to do a third story critique, which is too bad because I would have liked to have heard what everyone else had thought. I'm not entirely certain what the professor thought. Anyway, that story dealt with the main character dealing with his friend's suicide, and the fact that he didn't notice that the pain that his friend was going through with the bullying. The story focused on someone on the outside of the pain that bullying causes, and so with this story for Vis. 2 I decided to tell a story that was in the mind of the victim. Perhaps my next bullying story will delve into the mind of the bully himself.

I had a tough time trying to come up with this story in the beginning because I didn't know what the bullying tactics should be. I knew that I wanted to use cyberbullying, but what would be the insults that would actually drive this character to consider suicide? For starters I still hadn't decided a sex for the main character. All I had was an idea and the title No One Can Hear Me Shout, which is a song lyric from the song Deeper by Dexter Freebish. If it was a female character it would be about her weight, but if it was a male character then I could go either weight or sexuality. In comics, I have never really done a gay character since I don't know how to write for one without resorting to stereotypes, and I prefer to avoid using stereotypes. It's not fair to those who are gay. So I decided to leave that challenge for the future. I decided to go with a male character who was overweight, but I still needed some cyber insults. I mentioned this problem on Facebook, and Jennifer Frisco, an animator who you all need to remember, told me to Google cyberbullying and read some real life insults. I did just that. It was depressing. However, reading those stories generated some ideas for insults that could drive him over the edge enough to consider suicide.

I was still having trouble with it because I had originally envisioned that he was on the computer at home before going to school when he sees the insults on his Grapevine page (my version of Facebook), and then when he gets to school everyone is laughing and making fun of him. It was supposed to be a combination of both cyberbulling and traditional bullying, but it was just running a little too long. It had to be a three-page comic. That's when it hit me to have him reading the insults from his phone while he is waiting for the school bus in the morning, and then he gets laughed at on the bus. Although after the script critique it was changed from morning to mid-afternoon because the time difference was confusing. Now the whole story takes place in mid-afternoon.

I had mentioned once before a storytelling term called "Chekhov's Gun" that states if you show a gun early in the story you need to have that gun used later in the story. I felt like I needed a version of that to at least let the audience know that there's a gun in the kid's house. I didn't want the appearance of the gun to, as Nolan Woodard would say, come out of left field. Hence the reason I show a picture hanging on the wall in the second page to show that the kid's father is a police officer, and so a gun has to be in that house. It also allowed me to add another element to the story, the mother. Where is she? She's dead, and that's a huge plot point for the story. Whenever I can show a picture on the wall in the house, it will be a photograph of her to emphasize her importance.

Now the ending evolved quite a bit. I decided that it would be the father that convinces his son not to commit suicide although he is unaware that he has done so. Originally, I ended it with the father and son hugging, but after the script critique I changed it. I got rid of the father altogether except for the photograph and the door slamming. It ends instead the kid remembering the death of his mother and how that really affected his father that if he killed himself it would just devastate his father. However, after the thumbnails were critiqued I changed it back, and I am glad that I did. It's better this way, and more in line with my vision.

Oh, Frabjous Day Calloh Calley!!!

Great news! In fact, it's not just great news, it specTACULAR news!!! I got the internship to Crazy Legs Productions.  I was supposed to start work this Monday, but due to complications at the studio it has been pushed back until March 18th, after the end of the winter quarter. I don't know where this internship will lead, but I am looking forward to finding out.

Final Thoughts

Now I would like you all to do me a huge favor. I want you to visit http://tapastic.com/series/258 because there is an excellent webcomic there called Hat Hair created by my friend, Sara Vivanco. She's another artist that you should really acquaint yourself with. Spread the word around about her webcomic because if she gets enough page views she can make some money. It would be a huge help to her. It would be a great graduation gift for her.

Until next time, this is Billy Wright wishing you all a good night. So long, everybody!!!

Thumbnails for the Damned!!!

The Damned_Page 1

It has been a while since I've written anything, and in fact, I believe this is my first post of 2013. So Happy New Year, everybody! Fortunately, there won't be a huge gap between posts because there is a lot of work that will be posted soon such as the pencils and inks for this story. The pencils are already done, but I am going to hold them back until my next post. I am taking Visual Storytelling 2 at SCAD Atlanta, and our first project was to pencil and ink a story following someone else's script. We were given three choices: The Damned, a story about a comic convention, and a story about a record shop. Of course, based on what our professor, Shawn Crystal had said on the first day of class I probably should have chosen the comic convention story because he said that we should challenge ourselves, and the fact is, I hate drawing crowds. I detest them with all my heart. However, I knew that the second and final project was going to be working from our own scripts, and I know myself well enough to know that I will write a crowd scene into a script no matter how much I hate drawing them. That is exactly what happened too. Anyway, I chose the Damned, and not because it was a great story, which it wasn't, but because I wanted to draw the demons that appear in it. I love drawing monsters. There is no right or wrong way to a draw monster. You can go as hideous and crazy as you want or as simple as you want.
 
This is page 1 of the thumbnail, and this is actually the second...actually the first panel was the second attempt and the second panel was the third attempt. I wound up combining them. It was something that I had done on the final project for Visual Storytelling 1. The important thing was to make the drawings not look static, which was the problem on my first thumbnail attempt. A good way to make objects like cars look like they're moving is to use diagonals.
 

 
This was my most challenging page or pages because it was a double page spread, and it's my first one that I've ever done. The challenge was trying to break out of habits. The first habit was in the first panel where it's an establishing shot, and I have this mentality that all establishing shots need to be done from the air, but no, that's not true. You can lower it especially if it's an action sequence that needs to be more interesting. The second habit was constantly thinking about the 180 Rule that dictates that if you have Character A on the right and Character B on the left you have to keep them that way throughout the scene unless you have a reason to break it. Artist Eric Canete mentioned that one can break it to show a change such as the main character is losing in a fight, but then you break the 180 Rule when he begins winning the fight. I have yet to find a reason to break the rule. So I was having trouble with coming up with shots of them in the car because I was trying hard to keep the 180 Rule intact. Every good shot that I could think of broke the rule. Finally, I decided to seek help from a professional. I pulled out my comics looking for car scenes, and it was in Batman Year One where I found a car scene that moved the camera to the driver's side of the car. That was good enough for me. I'm still not sure about that second panel though because that's where I go bonkers with the 180 Rule. However, it just wouldn't look right if it was a 3/4 from the front view.

The Damned_Page 4

The car crash is the big moment of this page, and a tough one to do. Shawn Crystal had recommended that I curve the car. That was fine, but it was a pain when I had to transform the plain rectangular car into a car from the 30s during the penciling stage. It looks very strange, and I'll be interested to know what you all think of it.

The Damned_Page 5

The problem that I faced with working on this script was that the writer mentions a lot of stuff in his panels from time to time that it really challenges your thinking on how to show everything while still making the panel interesting. It sometimes felt like I was doing Scripting class' the Wrong Script project, but I was able to figure out how to draw things that seemed impossible at the time. In this case, the fourth panel. It mentions that we switch to the docks, and the camera is on the guy leaning against the car with his hat pulled down low over his wrinkled forehead to conceal his eyes. It sounds like I am supposed show the front of him, but I am also supposed to show the city skyline and smoke rising into the sky. Hm? After three attempts, this is what I came up with. We see the skyline and smoke through the reflection of the window.

The Damned_Page 6

I don't have much to say about this page except that I may creep you all out when I reveal the look of the second demon of the story. He's even creepier inked.

Internship

Several weeks ago I had gotten an email from someone at Crazy Legs Productions, a visual effects company in Atlanta, and they told me that they were looking for an unpaid intern. They were really impressed with my resume, and they asked if I would be interested. Wow! I certainly was even though visual effects isn't really my thing, but it doesn't mean that I couldn't learn it. So last week I was called in for an interview, and it was the first interview that I've ever had. Most companies either ignore me or turn me down, and so this was a nice change of pace.

The interview went pretty well. If I get the internship I would be working two days a week for five hours probably, and I would be helping out on their latest show that they're doing for Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. They're looking for two interns, and so I have a 1 in 2 chance in getting it. Here's hoping.

Post-Impressionism

Last year the Atlanta Art History Society visited the Campbell Stone Retirement Community in Buckhead to give a lecture about our favorite artworks. Then President, Abagael Warnars and then Vice President, Lisa Tolbert were the main speakers, and I just sat in the front listening although I did speak once. Abby asked me what my favorite art period and artist was, and I said that it was Post-Impressionism and Vincent Van Gogh. Well, before Dr. Jasin turned over the club advising to Prof. Williamson (she was leaving to teach at the Savannah campus) she told us not to forget the retirement community. We didn't.

It was a month and a half of planning, but on the final day of January the Atlanta Art History Society returned to the Campbell Stone Retirement Community to give a lecture on...what else...Post-Impressionism. Since I was the President of the club now I did most of the talking, and I was more nervous about this event than I was during the internship interview the day before. However, when I actually started talking I didn't feel the normal nervous reactions that I tend to get such as my body heating up. My only guess is that the heat was burned out of me. That afternoon, the Vis. 2 class read our scripts to each other, and my nerves were burning up because my story was about bullying and suicide. I had no idea how the class was going to react let alone the professor. Then I had no idea if anybody was going to show up for the lecture. The Atlanta Art History Society has had trouble getting people to come to events unless we feed them. I already knew that Abby wouldn't be able to make it. That left Melody Ledford and our treasurer. We were supposed to meet in the Hub at 6PM, but when no one was there I began turning into the White Rabbit. Let's say that when Melody came around the corner it was such a beautiful sight although I stayed in that White Rabbit mode because Prof. Williamson wasn't there yet. Then there was a concern that Campbell Stone's cords may not fit the professor's HP laptop. Finally, to top it all off, I got lost on my way there. So by the time I began the lecture I don't think that my nerves could take it any longer and decided not to burn me up from the inside.

I began the lecture by telling them a little about myself and showed them some of my work to let them to get to know me on an artistic level. I showed them Norman and the Love Triangle, It All Started with a Mouse, and the first shot of Snape's Office. I am a sequential artist, but I didn't show them a single comic page since I wasn't sure how appropriate any of the pages that I've done would be. Ironically, Melody, who is also a sequential artist, didn't have a single comic page either. Well, my Post-Impressionism lecture focused on five artists and their artworks: Georges Seurat's A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte, Paul Cezanne's 1887 version of Mont Sainte-Victorie, Paul Gauguin's Vision After the Sermon (Jacob Wrestling the Angel), Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night, and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec's At the Moulin Rouge. It wasn't the longest speech that I've ever written (the Neal Adams' speech holds that record), but thanks to having to stop from time to time to answer questions about the artworks we were able to get it close to an hour long.

The audience enjoyed themselves. We had brought some paper and colored pencils if anyone wanted to draw something, and three people did. It was a successful night. Melody, who spoke after the Post-Impressionism lecture, did a fantastic job standing before the audience to talk about her work, and I can't stress enough how thankful I am for the work that she and Prof. Williamson did. That night wouldn't have been as successful without either of them.

Farewell to a Professor

Prof. Chris Schweizer announced before the start of the Winter Quarter that he would be leaving SCAD at the end of the academic year to focus more on his comic work. It's understandable, but it is sad. I've never told him this, but I actually met him before I took Intro. to Sequential, and I don't think he was a professor yet either. It was February 2, 2008, SCAD Day, and I visited the Sequential Department, where he, Prof. Shawn Crystal, and one other graduate student were. He was working on a comic page, and I think that it may have been from his Crogan series. I didn't ask that many questions, the family that came in along with me did most of the questioning, but I was able to ask about whether or not I should get a laptop and if so, Mac or HP. Though once the family left, however, I let the questions fly. So when Prof. Schweizer walked in that first day of Intro. to Sequential I instantly recognized him, but I've never mentioned it. Though if he is reading this then I guess my secret is out.

He was a great and fun professor, and he was willing to look at your work from another class and give his opinion on how to make it better. He has touched a lot of us in the sequential department, and we will carry it along with us wherever we may go in our careers. He will be missed, but I wish him all the best.

Final Thoughts

The Vampire Mouse webcomic is operational at http://thevampiremouse.smackjeeves.com/ but aside from DeviantArt it is nowhere else. I couldn't make up mind what the other webcomic site should be. The webcomic is updated every Friday unless I announce a hiatus.

I haven't heard anything about the ANIJAM in a while, but my end of it is over. I turned my section of the film over early in the quarter. I'll let you know if I get cut from the film or if I am staying in.

Until next time, this is Billy Wright wishing you all of a goodnight. So long, everybody!