Wow two updates in nearly a week I think I need to see a Doctor. While I was working on Sirens Call -Was only on writing duties- I also worked on another 4 page story. This one is called Message To The Stars. A sci-fi short with a slight comedic ending for those in the know. This was initially a pitch for an anthology but it was rejected. Now months later I got around to making it a reality.
I hope you enjoy it and maybe read some of my other stories on my site.
Been working on a few new stories that are available to read on my website.
The Hero which was called Power when I first published it has been updated with much needed colour. I’m still getting the hang of selecting the right colours and making sure they won’t change much when I turn them from RGB to CMYK in the future. I’m trying to limit my colour selection using the Copic Marker Colour Wheel as a baseline – Not including skin tones and hair colours. It has helped me as I do tend to to be daunted looking at the full spectrum in Clip Studio Paint.
Also available to read is a short story called Sirens Call.
This one is different as it’s my first time solely in the writing role. The art is done by Liz Kramer a fantastic artist from Chicago. This story was initially for the Anthology project late last year but due to having to provide art on another story and the initial artist not getting back at me I had to shelve the story but I knew that I would need to hire an artist for it rather than doing it myself. Liz was interested in the pitch during the anthology but couldn’t commit at the time so I contacted her later if she was interested and she said yes. Liz has done an amazing job on the story and I’m happy I made the right decision hiring her for the job.
You can see more of her work online, twitter and her own webcomic Threader
Just received the final version of a recent anthology I took part in. One Comic To Rule Them All – OCTRTA for short – is an anthology created by members of the Comic Book Hour forum community.
Following on from the success of the first anthology Vilified, OCTRTA features 24 stories all based on the same prompt ‘Fantasy’. Some took the prompt as the genre setting while others used it as the theme of their story.
I’ve provided the art on the story Who Gets Cancelled which you can read here. If you wish to get a copy of the whole anthology you can purchase it here – Along with the first anthology which I also took part in. I’m really proud of the work I’ve done for this book and of what the other creators have created. I do hope you look in to purchasing the collected anthology.
Today is my birthday!!
So here is a short comic I was able to complete. If you enjoy it and want to show your support (or give me a birthday present) send a ko-fi my way.
A new year with new possibilities and new goals to miss/give up/forget.
Last year I only got to complete Samaritan and the anthology story Comet. This year I’m raising the bar higher in many ways.
Goals of 2018
1. Complete 8 projects (in any capacity)
2. Collaborate with 4 creators
3. Get one project printed
4. Attend my first convention as a seller
The latter two are dependant on getting a table but still a goal worth achieving.
Currently I have 9 projects that I have ready to work on. I have 3 other stories set in the same world as Samaritan. Hoping to chip away at these in between smaller projects.
I’m on art duties on a collab story for the new ComicBookHour anthology. This one is called ‘One Comic To Rule Them All.” I did also have a script up for a time but after an artist didn’t reply back if he was still interested I withdrew it. I’m hoping to hire another artist who liked the idea but couldn’t commit at the time to work on it later.
Cover By Mharz
Alterna Comics have submissions open for their new IF Anthology collection. This year is Horror. I’ve got a 10 page story worked out and hope to start on that after OCTRTA is over. If it doesn’t get selected for the anthology I can still publish it on here.
Lastly I have several short 4 page story ideas I want to work on. I’m hoping to get 6/7 of them done by June/July and have a short print run done to sell.
Pg1 of Power (Working Title) – a 4pg short.
A lot has happened since my last post.
Samaritan has been fully uploaded you can read the full story HERE
This was my first real story and I’ve learned a lot while making it. I’m hoping to take what I’ve learned and apply it to my next story Kingmaker which I’m currently working on.
Another exciting thing is that I’ve participated in an anthology called Power Ups: Vilified. This was done with members of the Comic Book Hour community. You can read the 4 page story I drew HERE. Better still is that I have the digital rights to the completed anthology.
*drumroll*
You can buy the anthology on my newly made store HERE
16 short stories
Prompt:”I am not what they think I am”.
104 pages
£2.99
If you are a fan of comics I do hope you take a look at this. Not only will you be supporting me but hopefully you’ll enjoy the stories and see the work of the up and coming creators in the indie scene. Tonight CBH will be revealing the details on the next collaborative event and I can’t wait to get involved.
Lastly if you wish to spread some good karma then support me via Ko-fi
The first page of my comic is up to view!!
Well it went up on Monday and forgot to make an update.
Nothing game changing at the moment but everything starts somewhere. I’m so excited to get this comic out. Almost 6 years of self doubt and procrastination has led to this moment.
You can read on my website
But if you are on Taptastic or Webtoons it’s up there as well.
It’s gotten some subs/likes so far which is amazing. I hope you enjoy the story. It is my first try so it will be rough around the edges which I’m learning as I go.
At the moment I’m colouring pages 5-8. If I get them done this weekend then I’ll have a 2 month buffer to work with giving me breathing space to work on Samaritan and also bite into other stories.
Best panel I’ve coloured to date and had to show you guys!!
The first 4 pages are completed.
Tomorrow I’m going to start posting the comic up. It will be one page per week this means I have a months worth of content ready and I’ll start on the next batch immediately so I should be a month ahead at all times allowing for the possible sickness or life stuff to fit in without fearing missing an update.
I’m excited to start posting.
Finished the colours for page one.
I have no affinity for colours. I preferred leaving my work in black and white as I never could make colours wok. That being said I do personally prefer coloured comics over black and white or grey toned/washed comics and knew from the beginning that this story will be coloured.
In the end I’ve gone with a block colour with soft graded highlight/shadows with minor harsh shadows for specific areas. I’ve used Jordie Bellaire’s work as a reference as she uses this style a lot and as such was a major influence.
As I work on my current project I’ll be putting up progress pics of the entire process.
This page will update as I complete the pages.
Here are the thumbnails of pages 1-7.
I use index cards for my thumbnails. It allows me room to draw what I need, but there is a danger of adding too much detail which isn’t the purpose of thumbnails.
When I scanned these in and blew up to a larger canvas I then tweaked the pencils if they were too big or -in the case of pg 7- added additional panels.
13/2/17
Progress on Page one which is a full page spread. You can see the blue lines from the initial thumbnail sketches.
One site which has started to become invaluable for me is Pinterest which is a great resource for collecting reference photos for anything you need. Here it’s helped with designing the masks. This is suppose to be an extravagant festival so even these background extras need to look one of a kind. This will come back and bite me later on in the story.
14/2/17
4 pages penciled and scanned ready to be inked. Because I’m inking my own work I’ve been catching myself go “This is wrong. I’ll fix when I scan it” or “I can do this background during the inks”
This is a huge positive of doing all the work. You can draw a panel and if you realise too late that a hand is too small or characters or not close enough you don’t have to break out the eraser and instead just leave a note for future self to resize later.
The mask for Sam (top panel) is way more complicated than it should be so when I ink this will change and I’ll fix the mask when I pencil the next batch of pages. Also her hairstyle changed because hair is so not my expertise.
17/2/17
I have 10 pages penciled and will start inking tomorrow.
I’m using bristol board for penciling but I finding it to be a waste of good paper. As I’ve been drawing I’ve cut corners or not fully draw a panel at all because it’ll be easier on the computer. I’m thinking of looking into just normal drawing paper but of thicker stock so I can use the back of the page (printing thumbnails and penciling).
I’m starting to get a hang of drawing the faces of the main characters so I will be correcting the previous panels when I ink.
19/2/17
WELCOME TO THE LANTERN MASQUERADE!!!
Page one is inked!!
It’s a splash page so not as fiddly layers wise. The buildings did prove to be tough even with a reference photo.
Colours will come after I’ve inked the first 10 pages.
1/3/17
3 pages are inked. Should have the first 10 pages done in the next 2 weeks at this pace. I’m finding shortcuts to get the same effects but I can see that at times I need a detailed pencil layer in some cases while others I just need a rough layout.
I can’t tell you how motivated this project has got me to work on some longer scripts.
But I know my art isn’t there yet to do those stories justice. Better to improve over several 22 page stories rather than one 100 page idea and feel the need to redraw the first half again. That being said I’m seeing the sticking points in my art and have been sketching on spare paper working them out.
Luckily I have a lot of comics to browse and take notes on how the artists tackle the areas I’m struggling with and incorporate it into my art.
6/3/17
7 pages inked.
Pressing on to get the first 10 pages inked by the weekend and start throwing some colours around like a madman.
If all goes to plan I’m thinking of the first page being published by the start of April. Also looking into setting up an account on tapastic and post on that maybe brush the dust off my deviantart account as well..
Kevin Pass 