Page 7 painting complete

So I finished the painting for page 7. It turned out pretty well. There's a lot of sky in the panels as I've got a lot of word balloons that are going to go in there. All in all I'm happy with the end result here. The wispy clouds in the sky look nice. The distant cliffs and hills look as if they are seen through a lot of atmosphere. And the faces came out well. The one thing that bothers me now is that when I drew the ox eating in the first panel I thought I should put his horns down, and as he lifts his head in the later panels his horns rise into their natural position. But I didn't really think about that the ox doesn't really rotate his head much to eat, it just lowers down from his neck as if in an elevator. So the firest panel with his horns down looks like a different kind of ox than the one in the later panels. Oh well. It's just a comic book, right?

The skies I did by painting cerulean blue, leaving trails of blank paper for the clouds, then adding a little bit of ultramarine blue to the upper sky to add a bit of depth. And I dashed just a bit of cadmium yellow on the tops of the clouds to get a hint of sunlight.

On to drawing page 8 tonight.

The Possum and Spy Guy

Wondercon is going very well so far. I'm getting good feedback from a lot of different folks. I always enjoy talking to other artists. It's great to learn how others are approaching their projects and what difficulties and challenges they are faced with, as well as feeling that the grass is always greener for somebody else. I ran into a few old friends and made some new ones.

I've got to give a shout out to a pair of brothers who are kicking out some great comics. Blair and Mike Kitchen are the creators of The Possum http://www.possumpress.com/ and Spy Guy http://www.ultraist.net/. They are turning out some of the best comics I've seen in a while. You should pick up their books now before they get too famous. They're located at booth AA117. Check them out if you get a chance. They're Canadian, but don't hold that against them.

Wondercon this weekend!

Wondercon is happening this weekend at the Moscone Center in SF, and I'll be happily seated at my table in the small press area at SP14. I was able to get some prints made of my Xiola cover which I'll be selling along with my Wanderings prints for $5 to anyone who wants to buy something. I feel like kind of a schmuck that I didn't get a preview of Xiola out for Wondercon, but I'm not going to be too hard on myself. I work full time as an animator, take on contract storyboard gigs, spend time with the wife and kid, and somehow still manage to plug away at my book. If only I could only ditch one of my other responsibilities .... hm....

Well, I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of cool artwork, reading a bunch of great comics, and meeting some nice people. Hope to see you there.

Also, I designed my street apinting image for this year's Italian Street Painting Festival in San Rafael. The theme is "Bella Terra" (Beautiful Earth) It's supposed to be representational of the relationship between humans and nature. For some reason this was the first image that popped in my head. I've never actually done a piece that was based on the theme of the festival, but this came out so naturally I thought I'd go for it. The contrast of dark greens and deep purple should look great in pastel on the pavement.