Author: beyondforward

HARK includes weird, alien-looking technology that serves purposes we can’t ever comprehend. It’s my comfort zone. I figured if I’m going to draw this thing, I might as well fill it with the stuff I actually enjoy drawing. These airships, for example, are admittedly implausible, but at least they are unique. When I was in art college, I briefly, for about 10 minutes, entertained the notion of switching from Graphic Design to Industrial Design. I love designing spaceships, but the field involved way too much engineering and construction, 2 areas where I don’t need to be anywhere near. I’d much rather just draw something crazy and not have to worry about whether or not it would work as an actual model. 

SR

Here’s a short video showing my process, from initial sketch to finished art. The subject of this video is a fan art commission I completed earlier this week, a character from stint as an inker for Dark Horse Comics G.I.Joe series back in the 90’s. This was a fairly quick 8″ x 11″ drawing, my first comic art commission in quite a long while. There was a time when I was cranking these out every week, many of which I post over at Twitter @_Scott_Reed_

I’m also including a high res pdf of this sketch. One other thing. The character’s name is ‘Inferno’. I know nothing else about him, other than he’s a by-product of 1990’s super heroes, complete with belt/shoulder pouches and a gigantic gun attached to his fore-arm. 

SR

Seems like just yesterday I launched this Patreon thing, and here we are 8 weeks later, at page 8. Behind the scenes, I’m at the halfway mark on issue #1.  I’m starting to feel like this is turning into an actual comic book. 

SR

Since this week’s page is a gigantic double-page spread, the next new page will be in 2 weeks instead of next Wednesday. That’ll give me a little more lead-time, as I’m currently working on page 15 this week. My goal is to always stay about 8 weeks ahead of schedule and so far that’s the case. In the meantime, I’ll try to get a new WIP video and some other things posted here to tide you over. 

About page 6-7. I love double-pagers, but only if they actually serve the story in some way. When I was starting out in the comics industry, back in the long ago times of the early 1990’s, there was a widespread trend of including gratuitous splash pages or double-page spreads that did little more than detract from the story. Why would there be so many of these in a comic, you are asking yourself right now? Splash pages are usually more valuable to collectors, so in an industry where there’s typically not a lot of money on the front-end, creators sold their original splash art at a much higher price. The other reason was pure laziness. Writers and artists provided filler with what was essentially a full stop, so the heroes and villains could strike a dramatic pose. It was ridiculous.

On the other hand, when done right, implementing a spread can create a powerful moment. Some great examples of this are in the works of Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima, creators of the acclaimed comic book series Lone Wolf & Cub. They introduce somber, panoramic silence interspersed with ultra-fast Samurai violence that make every issue a breathtaking experience. They accomplish with ease what I’m attempting with painstaking effort in my own work; building tension in the quiet moments, as visual foreshadowing of impending action.

SR