Test Subject A

ghostwerks had a meeting on Sunday and Corance and I hung out long after. As we talked about comics, I drew. We talked about the character Test Subject A (see GhostwerksComics #1), and I drew this portrait of him and Annie.

I look forward to coloring this one, hoping to get a Josh Middleton-inspired softness to the colors.

The Boo-ness!

Here's another new one. (Click the image twice to see the big 'un) This is a page for the next crop of ghostwerks stuff. The ghostly character is BOO, ghostwerks' mascot.

This is a weird page- the actual drawings took very little time- what REALLY took a lot of time was combining them, coloring them, altering the background photos - all the digital photoshop stuff. Plus, as I began working the next page, I realized that it's not as easy as doing it once and "getting" it. The images after this have been less successful so far.

Full color comics is new to me and there's still a lot to learn- but I smell a breakthrough coming.

More Double Scribing

Experimenting with two scribes working at once has gone great lately. This morning I worked with a scribe-in-training, Stephanie Plagens (above). Together we listened to an hour long conversation, drawing the entire time, capturing the key points and entertaining the crowd.

It helped me see that this "double-scribing" technique really helps with training new scribes. Stephanie worked with a lot of confidence for a rookie, in part because she knew I was there capturing stuff she might miss. Vice versa- I enjoyed being freed up to spend more time than usual on drawings myself.

More to come!

Double scribing - Ocean Metaphor

Make sure you click on the above thumbnail TWICE to get the full sized image.

My co-worker and good friend David Rodriguez and I experimented with some "double scribing" this week. We simultaneously scribed on a wall of dry erase about 12-15 ft long and about 6 ft high. We agreed on a metaphor beforehand (in this case the ocean) that the facilitator then worked into a conversation with the client. 50 or so people spoke and David and I turned their comments into this huge piece.

What was fun about this was that it allowed one of us to catch the content while the other spent much more time illustrating. Therefore you get good stuff you don't normally have time to do while scribing (like the whale and the sailboat).

It was also cool to trade places back and forth as we drew and pass quietly pass comments directing one another. I think there's a LOT to explore here. We need to do this a lot more.

*****

Side note- I need to find a medium on dry erase that will "shade" images. It's got to be something that can go on and come off quickly and easily. I've used watercolor paint before- but it needs like 5 coats and is messy to remove. No good for the live, rapid fire environment of our sessions.

If anyone's got a suggestion on that one send it to me please.

New ghostwerks drawings

Two new ones for an early next year ghostwerks comic.

Enjoy.

LG Pinkston High School

Yesterday I worked live for LGP High in Dallas, for their professional development day. It was the day all their teachers returned from summer break (and the first day for all the new staff). LGP's principle, James Colbert, had seen me perform over a year ago and remembered me and found me when he wanted to do something special this year.

Another facilitator, Terry Stone, already had a strong design for the meeting and allowed me to work within that- drawing live, teaching graphic modeling, and just helping make the day more creative and fun.

Previous years had days like this that were just all the teachers sitting in a room and being lectured at- all day long. This one was filled with laughter and movement and creativity. Many teachers told us it was their favorite professional development day ever.

One neat highlight is the last image above. I had hoped to try and fit in time for a really nice image that highlighted the main points of the day. I had brought some posterboard for it, but when I started I really wanted to do something softer than the markers I brought would allow. I cursed myself for not bringing my colored pencil set, when I realized Terry, the other facilitator, had brought boxes of 24 count crayola crayons. There were among the candy and trinkets she had put all over the tables as fun stuff. Man I hadn't worked with crayon for years. It's actually a really good medium- a lot of fine artists use them. They allow you to shade softly from dark to light, and they mix a bit too. You can get cool effects with them.

The piece came out great. The staff loved it and wants to frame it.

There were several inquiries for more work. Since I'm interested in doing more with schools, and since I already know and like several of the staff at Pinkston, I'm going to try and build a relationship with this school. I've offered to do a few freebie drawings for the staff and I've talked with the principal about future meetings and events, including coming in and talking to students.

Illustrations for WildWorks

Lately, I've been getting more requests for traditional illustration and cartooning gigs. Which of course, I love. These are some drawings WildWorks will be incorporating into templates they sell that help groups run meetings. I'm proud of these. They have kind of a Rick Geary flair to them.

Coloring Samax Randolph's work

Ghostwerks... back from the dead???? Rumors abound.

This image was drawn by Samax Randolph - and the lower version was colored by me. The coloring was done in Photoshop using my wacom tablet. I imagine some final changes will be made prior to using the image on the cover of Samax's comic Manchild #1. This book is already completed and current plans have the book premiering in 2007 from ... yep, ghostwerks.

Incidentally, Samax also writes one of my favorite blogs on the internet. You can check it out here.