This would be an Awesome Look

If I had the time. Making this took a while. But I am assuming that if I draw everything properly and lay it out well, I can cut down the amount of time I'd waste coloring this way. Also, it helps in terms of wonky pencils. Once you've laid down the paths over the pencils, you pretty much have different parts you can move around easily.

For example, I had drawn Ambrose with a head that was about 30% too big for his body, but once the paths were done I could resize it to match.

This requires some thinking.

More CONCEPTS!

Greetings true believers! So, I've started doing the concepts for the fourth issue of Ambrose. Once again, I've gotten ahead of myself when it comes to this project, but then again, I have plans for all 12 of the first volumes issues. Seriously, they're all written out, with outlines for scenes and stuff.

Yeah man, I'm deadly serious about this shit.

The cool thing about writing this thing though, is that new things are popping out of my head all the time. There was a point on Friday, when I was walking through town, when I saw a guy who looked like the Fijian version of Albert Einstein. Which got me to thinking about, what his name would be and how I could work this character into Ambrose.

I even called up Wilson to get the translation of stone. Because, translated into English, Einstein basically means One Stone.
Another thing I like doing is drawing heads. Which some of you may have learned by now. Here are a few heads I did, I started out trying to get some new faces and stuff for the girls of Ambrose, but I ended up drawing Lydia and Lily a bit too much, I reckon.



And here are some sketches for the villain of Issue 4, the Nefarious Avinesh.

The EC Gloves must have taken a lot of work to get right, so I played around with the idea of various experimental versions that Dr. Strock went through before he created the Orb. One of them...was Avinesh. Who's crazy.

Scarabian Concepts

Concept art is always fun. Coming up with ideas, drawing them out and extrapolating even more ideas from that point. Last night I decided to sit down and do some proper concept art for the Scarabians, which are kind of a major part of the latter half of the first series of Ambrose. Way back in the day, when I first started drawing Ambrose, they looked like Egyptian Zombies, pretty much.

Yeah, I know. That art is SUPER LAME. That's Ambrose circa 2008 by the way (eagle eyed people will notice that the colors of the gloves are reversed)

Anyway, I went with a more bug-like theme for the scarabians this time. I thought it would be cool to have these skinny, undead bug guys mucking around in floating pyramids across dimensions. I also worked a little bit on the background story for them as well. Before, they were just a race of interdimensional zombies trying to find a new home.

I worked from that origin point a bit more, and played up the zombie curse part, so that whichever dimension they do enter, their very prescence causes decay and ruin, forcing them to travel from one dimension to another to find a place to stay.

Also, the cool thing is that now that I have the concept and the story for these guys, I can start putting little nods into the earlier parts of the story, which would make for a pretty cool reveal eventually when they do...what it is this they're going to do.

Oh, I am such a huge tease, aren't I?

Zigga Zow!

Ambrose 2: Electric Boogaloo

Just a short post, been working most of the week on Ambrose, so I thought I'd post up a stand-in cover that I did for Issue 2. Despite many people's insistence that the cover art should be the same as the art on the inside pages, I want this to be a real comic. That means that other people will be doing the cover art for me and I get to relax on a bed supported by mountain maidens.

Do you want a Banana?

Ah, bananas. The most awesome of all fruits.

Yes, a comic about boners. Which I personally think are awesome. In most situations. I'm pretty sure I ripped that joke off from somewhere though. Also, speaking of bananas, you need to watch this clip. It will probably make your mind wobble a bit.

This weekend really was a bit of a blur, so there are no stories there. In fact, the boner comic was drawn on Friday evening, just before things got blurry.

Moving on, I was thinking about Lydia last week, and how she affords all her equipment and stuff. Reality Unlimited of course has government funding, but there are some things that would just break that budget. However, Lydia is also independantly wealthy, thanks to her best selling book on relationships.

That's right ladies, I can design book covers!

And finally, while we're on the subject of Ambrose, Wilson finally sent me the first draft of the cover that he was happy with. I warn that this still needs tweaking and stuff before we consider it print ready, but it was just too awesome for me not share.

So full of win that it magically puts
bananas into peoples pockets.

This week is the week that I have decided to throw even more effort into Ambrose. Mainly because it's almost July, and The Plan that Ms. Manager and I have put together has a big red mark next to July.

EXCITING!

It's NOT a flowchart.

Okay, it is kinda, just finished up the inks and colors for the second issue (episode? chapter?) of Ambrose. I was going to just update the old cast page, but decided to do something a little...different.

Different? WHAT DO YOU MEAN DIFFERENT?

I'm pretty happy with how the second issue came out, but I will wait for responses from the test audience before I pay myself awkwardly on the back. (Yes, you gang I emailed it to, read it, please)

Also, I'm sorry for being a bit of a tease when it comes to this comic, but there are things in the works! I promise!

Getting a little Ahead of Myself again

OMG Sneak peek. And yes, I still use CS3.

Even though I've finished (basically, still some extra tweaks to do here and there) the first issue of Ambrose, I'm halfway through coloring the second one. Now, why put so much effort into something that might not even get printed, you ask? Sit down, go on, right there and I'll explain.

When I get an idea, be it for a story, a comic or a giant laser cannon, it is very rare for me to finish it satisfactorily. The difference with this is, I have the whole plot in my head for the first season (or volume, whichever), which has been simmering away for the past couple of years. Also, my art isn't completely disgusting right now, so I'm not worried about it looking bad.

Ambrose needs to be finished, properly, or I won't be able to consider myself a proper writer and artist. Heck, I've even got ideas for crossover comics and a main storyline that spans several dimensions and thousands of years. My favorite thing about this project though, and the part that excites me the most, is that it's sci fi.

Be prepared for some outlandish shit, ya dig?

Well, That's the Easy Part out of the Way

So, I've completed pencils, inks and colors on 1 (one) issue of a little comic I will call "Are you Ambrose?"

Yes, again, because it never got published the first time. No hint of bitterness in that sentence at all, although I was looking at my old pages recently and yeah, it's probably just as well :P

Like the title says, drawing and coloring this thing is the easy part, it's getting the work out there that will be difficult. But! I've mentally put myself down as proactive about this project (see, that helps!) and so after I post this I'll start working on some proposal letters.

Dear Sir,

I have an awesome comic that you should totes advertise in. The kids will love it, we'll be rich beyond our wildest dreams. Yes, even that one you had where you had a harem full of nubile young mountain maidens.

Yours,
Albert.

In further news, Wilson has finally put up the production diary for the shoot we had last week saturday. As much as I hate directing traffic away from here (seriously, stay a while, and listen) this is the LINK. Further required reading is Mr. Directors blog, which you can find (I'll even link to the post!) HERE.

CLICK IT OMG WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!?

The Return of Ambrose

Ambrose hates phallic looking tentacle monsters.

With a vengeance! Yesterday Mr. D pointed out that I had just been painting pretty random things lately, and that I should try doing some "Characters and shit, y'know?" as he put it. So I spent a few minutes chewing on the end of the paintbrush and then realised that I hadn't drawn Ambrose in a while. Plus, when drawing Ambrose you can have fun drawing all sorts of outlandish alien shit.

Also, you can't draw phallic tentacle beasts without drawing Toothy McVaginamouth next.

And of course, you can't draw Ambrose with Action Scientist Lydia giving him "the look".

Ah, "The Look", I know it well.

In related news, went on a location scout trip today to check out the place where we're going to be shooting this thing. Was good fun, and very inspiring, especially for Mr. Cass (our director extraordinaire) who proceeded to shoot a short animatic to help with the storyboarding process. Once again, I'm pretty excited about this whole thing, should be freaking awesome when finished.

EDIT: If you want some more information on the short film that we're working on, there's Lawrences site here, which has information about the location and our recent scouting trip, and Wilsons site, which has the first Production Diary post up. EXCITING, NO!?

Inventing a Time Machine...please wait...

Definately need to work on mine, been neglecting the heck out of it. The thing is though, that if I do manage to finish it, I could just go back in time and give it to myself before I start. However, by causing a time loop I could be damning myself for the rest of eternity. Ah the problems we potential chrononauts must face.

Also, instead of inking another page last night, I colored two. This was because I got home to find the page I had penciled had been scribbled on by my housegirls grandkid. When I get my own house with my own drawing room, I will put a big ass lock on it. And a sign. That says "No Kids, Fuck off."

It took me a long time to draw angry Ambrose. I mean, he's supposed to be really mad, his friend just got shot and such but I don't have much practice at drawing angry people. I hope I managed to get that across with the art >_<

Speaking of travel in the more fun dimensions, methinks this is the first time I've drawn Ambrose traveling inter-dimensionally. The Exile (evil bad man) has a slightly different way of traveling than the other baddies, in my head anyway. Picture big gloopy black stuff, an interdimensional insulator if you will, that lets you move yourself or other things between dimensions. As opposed to the clean portals that are more common, powered by refractions through crystals. Yes, I think too much about this sort of thing.

Also, textures make my job so much easier.

Insomni-tastic

I had a bit of a personal conundrum when it came to posting this page. I am pretty serious right now about trying to get this one out as a proper book, (call it my late goal for 2009) and the next few pages are plot-like. As in, not very interesting to read to as opposed to action pages. Then again, that's just my personal opinion, I love action pages. When hit with a huge wall of text sometimes I am guilty of just looking at the pretty pictures and guessing what the heck the people are talking about.

Was a bit of an insomniac last night, and extremely lethargic during the day. The two may be connected, but I did manage to catch up on my Facebooking. Which is fun! Theres nothing like searching for people you haven't seen in years and seeing if they pop up. I've friended about 3 of my old primary school friends that way.

In other videogame news that isn't Warcraft: Torchlight comes out tomorrow. Well, is available for download, I'm interested in this one because it might run on my pc, since the graphics requirements and the size of it are very small. Despite that, it looks pretty and has an awesome aesthetic. Steampunk magic? Sign me up.

I'm totally playing an Alchemist.

Lisztomania

So with a little help from my sister (she has good eyes for letters, although she seems to see the word "rooted" everywhere for some reason, I knew I shouldn't have let her hang out with the Griff so much) I beat the last boss in Bookworm Adventures Volume 2. Woohoo me! And yes, my World of Warcraft account is down again. This explains my sudden interest in other games and my increase in comic output, for sure :P

Apparently, my highest scoring words were ones like regulators, marveled, and defecate. I don't know why I saw that word there in the tile box but there you go, it's on my high scoring word list. I'm pretty proud of pugilist though.

I'm off to try the Arena mode, which will probably be super hard!

Here's the second page of the Ambrose comic, it has energy blades in it!

Last Bosses should always be this hard.

So I'm kinda stuck on the last boss of Bookworm Adventures. That fucker has so many buffs and debuffing things on him that the whole bottom row of the battle screen is always full of bleeds and shields and shit. And then! The fucker sets my tiles on fire! I actually went to bed at 2 in the morning after trying about a billion times to beat him. The crap thing about that game is, you can't just keep trying over and over again, because you actually have to think about words to do damage.

I shall try again later today, and let you know how I go. Until then! I have been working on a new Ambrose comic. Wilson actually asked me yesterday, why I'm doing it. I have no idea at the moment, I just know that I have a few ideas that I want to draw. Also, John suggested a new coloring idea that I'm interested in. Kind of a saturated look for some of the pages, we'll see how it ends up :D

Serious Lag man

You may have noticed that I haven't posted in a couple of weeks. I dunno, been feeling a bit depressive lately, but we live and learn and move on and set fire to things don't we?

Anyway, this the 300th post here on Awesomecake, which is awesome! To celebrate, imma post a comic I've been working on as a treat to people. And if you don't like comics then...I guess...

I dunno, you could pretend I posted something amazing for my 300th post instead ^_^

Yes, I know it's in black and white...and grey, but that's how I've been feeling lately. I kinda like it, and it's a different take on Ambrose, it's always good to give projects some depth :P

In the first page above, observe how Albert tries to use shadows and kind fails miserably. Also, I'm pretty sure I spelled Austrailia wrong, but that's alright, because it is a FICTIONAL UNIVERSE that is not related to our own. Fuck yeah, I am the king of excuses. Nothing much happens on page 2, apart from the Energy Blades coming out and the fact that zombies without eyes arent a good idea.
Yay! Some action! Pretty proud of that blur effect in the second panel. And the pages punchline. Hehe, mouth full...hehe...

Many manhours (and womanhours) were spent trying to get the sound effect for the death scene right. We tried many things, but in the end we had to scrap "Kigga-runch!" as being too over the top.
And then it ended. I'm actually looking for titles for this chapter. If anyone has any ideas, feel free to leave em in the comic. You may win fabulous prizes!

+1000 experience points!

you know what, my life isn't so bad. when you think about it, things could be mucho grande worser. that's totally my new term now, do not steal it or so help me god i will hunt you down. i have just spent the last few hours thinking about how, alright my life is. i mean, i have an amazing person who loves me, i get to basically draw all day (and help my family when they need me!) and i'm decently healthy.

i only hope that this zen like state can continue :P

here is a random page from the comic book i am working on:
it's not really a comic book book per se. i mean, that would imply that i hope to get it published one day.