issue #1 glimpse...

well i got some time to settle into things and crank it up. why so long? i had the pages set up to where i'd be doing the inks. so there was no need to tighten them up. well that is now out the window, as we have now pulled in a legit' pen-men. so i went back and tightened up. i posted the roughs a while ago. but if you scroll down they should be visible. on another note i find more often that i think God is very good, he opened some doors for us, that got some more signings and apperences lined up. to soon to spill the beans, but Erik is good at makin' things happen. but all in His time. now pages 1,2 are done. i have something special for the big blank area in page 3. more on that later. on with the show.....

peace out

Faction Siging....!!!

That was definately awesome. Southern California Comics is the supreme gem when looking for a place to buy comics. it sets a standard that i will measure all shops from now on. Jamie, (the owner) welcomed us with open arms from the jump. he's a guy that encourages creators to participate in more endevors like this. and i couldn't agree more.

i also was finally a great honor to finally meet Michael "Hammer" Hamersky in person. he was also kind enough to post us up on his blog ComicBookCollectorsBlog, thanks again Michael. and speking of meetings, can you believe after six months of texting, emails, and phone calls, this is actualy the first time Erik and i have met face to face. yeah. in this age of the of technilogy, it's more common, but we only live less than an hour away from one another. but hey we got to get a good handle for one another, i just think email can be so impersonal sometimes, and the one on one interaction between another human can be lost. we weer actually were supposed to meet at SDCC, but i was knee deep in work and projects, so it couldn't be helped.

however thanks to eveyone that chatted with us, and even bought a book or two. i hope to see you all agin soon. and please, tell a friend.

peace out

Faction Signing...!!

yes it's finally here our first signing, at Southern California Comics! copies of Faction #0, winner of Small Press Idol 2009, will be available. come by and meet me, the artist, and Erik Hendrix the creator/writer, from 11am-5pm.

Southern California Comics

8280 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, #124

San Diego, CA, 92111

(858) 715-8669

hope to see you there.

peace out

working the night....

draw night that is. i forgot to post my second encounter at our regular draw night spot. not much to share except Jim Lee seems to be the measure in which we compare everything to. and relationships (specifically marrige) in reguards to how we make them work and still get time to draw. the skinny is, it takes work, on both parties. some couples belive it's dating on steroids. nothing could be further from the truth. "marrige is work". the phrase ' the honeymoons over" is absolutely correct. but it doesn't mean, you have to be misarable. a wiseman once said " if you find something you love to do, you'll never work another day in your life". in the frame of marrige, if you love her, you should be willing to work at being happy in a marrige. but since it is someone you love, it shouldn't "feel" like work. Ephesians 5:25

for me and my wife, the Lord is the ahcnor in our marrige. in other words, if you want to know how something works? ask the manufacturer. ;)

scribles, and doodles.....

heads and torsos. if you do the them well all is forgiven. the profile was an excersise to work on the sternomastoid muscle, which connects to the skull behind the ear, to the callor bone. and the trapizius. also i wanted to work on the proporsions of the face, as they relate to the positions on the skull. still needs work but the important thing is, i wanted to clean up my anatomy, to improve my forms.

the torso, or just upper body. i sketched out first, then went back to reference and defined the muscles in relation to one another. the result helped me clearly see where i'm "making things up" and where i can impove my proportioning. but as you can see i'm working my way down. over all, i'm improving the forms, by learning the muscles, and finding the shapes in them. the key to it all, proportions

these are just some warm ups. getting the hand loose. focusing in on the basics.

hope you enjoyed these.

peace out

updates

Life is distracting. for art at least. do you realize it takes a good 20 to 30 minutes, for me, just to get warmed up to draw. and in that time i never, NEVER, get to string more than 2 or 3 of them together. and by the time i get back to drawing, 2 hours have passed, i'm thoroughly frustrated by the inability to understand, why kids need to tell me that thier sibling is touching them. and to top it off, we still have practacies, and dinner , baths, homework, juice, oh for the love of God don't forget the juice, we would die without it. we needs it....my precious (juice).

so i came up with this.... it's still mostly unfinished however, i had some problems with his arm on the third panel. not completly satisfied, so i moved on and completed his hand. also roughed in the shawdows that were cast. i left out the backgrounds because i'm not etirely sure how to approach them. and when i don't have clear idea, i just go on to the next page until inspiration hits, or i get tired of looking at nothing behind him. the same can be said for panel one. in the second panel, i tried creating the effect that he was being realesed by the light, and it's intensity was fading away. don't know if accomplished that, but the ink and color will tell. another fore thought on my decisions is, in the Zero issue of Faction, i was introdced to Mikes coloring style. and i noticed he a more "painted" approach to his work. so with that in mind, i could be a better idea to leave instructions as to what i was thinking, and leave a lot of space for Mike to do his thing.

the next page is even less complete, but just as i started to darw, i realized i had to toss it. you see i made some panels to big, and others to small. so Erik asked me to resize the layouts, before i started on the second page, so all the lettering would fit. but i got tossed for time and didn't transfer the changes to the art board. i wasn't mad, i felt like an idiot for jumping the gun, because i knew time is percious to me. i could've avoided all that, if i had sent the layouts "sooner". either way i was struggling with one of the characters, Neko. i hadn't drawn a sketch of him. which created another stopping point. i don't like creating on the fly so went back to the character descriptions, and put the first image that came to mind, on paper. Erik approved, but secretly, i think he would've taken a sketch of Charlie Brown, as long as i was drawnig the pages. LOL. but in panel 2 and 3, i'm not likin' the way Acker turned out. but i moved on cause i needed to get to the rest of the page. panel 4, neko's face is to short and just off. i'll revisit that before i ink.

that leaves this page.... what page you may ask? exactly. the script called for a series of facial expressions as Neko recounted his memeories for Acker. i had the brilliant idea of creating an colauge of Nekos' tales as spots and misty dreams, to create something that might be visiaualy dynamic. well yeah, should have stuck to the script, because i created more work for myself. however, if it makes Faction a better presentation, i'm all in. now i did start on the first panel because when i sat down to do the secoand page, realized my debacle, and moved on. but like a said i hadn't done a sketch of Neko at this point. not much here either. but after i did one, i roughed out that first panel, of neko and Acker, leaving the "awekening" chamber, as the entrance begins to seal itself off.

so enjoy these for now, and i'll get back with more updates, as time permits.

peace out

Faction

i finally gettin' back to it with the rough pencils for issue #1. and then i stopped because i realized i hadn't done any sketches, zero, nada, zip, of the other charcater that appears in the first five pages. so this is Neko....

the jury is still out on the official version, (erik) but at least the fondation is on paper. so'll continue to give updates as i work them out.

now as for the pages, here's the roughs for page one. as i get into the inks i'll do a recap of each page, from scipt to finish.

enjoy the updates i'll be back soon

peace out

Working Back...

at being lazy. i hate my job sometimes. but i like paying my bills. been trying to get mt stuff together, but it's been murder. but i finally got a break and was able to hook up with some friends, get out of the house, and just draw. friends you say? yes Deth and Fig, who i just call josh, and D. hit me up and asked if i'd like to join them for a few hours at starbucks and draw. it's something we talked about at the 2007 SDCC, but i never was around for it. (work again) however Josh and D have been hitting it off in my absense, and the duo has become a trio. hopefully it could become a full on art jam here in SDCC city. so until we can hook up again i had a great time, and i must thank D for rockin' the "art rock star" look, and gettin us some free latte's YEA!!! and even if they don't know, the awesome ladys at Satrbucks for hookin' up the pastries. thanks again ladies. and to Josh for trackin' me down and never stop fightin' for the dream.

Faction, fianlly i've been able to get things right and start gettin'g back into these characters. as any artist knows, on, off, on, off, and on again is akiller for creative juices. and that's where i'v been. i needed some stability and i got it back, today. and i was able to crank this out.

this is Zephan, one of the "Enlightened Knights" of Faction. i could ramble on about who he is and what he does, but you'd be better served going to his, as well as my new home, BeardedLady.com, to get the details. and while your there harass Erik. he likes it. lol

http://www.beardedladyonline.com/Faction/

now let me show you some scribbles of book one.

enjoy and see you soon .

peace out