Drawing Cyber Force

Eat lots of food, drank and played games, and did this drawing. I wanted to take a little break from Steamroma, so did this Cyber Force drawing. 

Marc Silvestri is one of my favorite artists of all time. I've included the in progress drawing too. 

Comic art has always been an art form I was interested in. I started drawing due in part because of comics. I found most interesting was the different styles that were produced in comic art. Why did I like certain styles over others? Sometimes it was due to knowledge of anatomy and other times it was consistency. Bart Sears had an interesting style, and he clearly understood anatomy. I didn’t like his work as much as I liked Todd McFarlane, and it had nothing to do with anatomy or consistency. It was simply an appealing style. I would find myself negating the story over the visuals. I’d study his work as if somehow I’d figure out his secret formula. Each page was an explosive exploration of dynamics and detail. Today I can remember the art more than the story.

Today I draw comics with the mindset completely opposite of Todd’s detailed work. Though this approach is different than what I’ve done in the past, it has stuck with me all the more now that I’ve been working on the same project for over a year. I feel that there are stories that require the kind of attention to detail as Todd’s work implores, but for Steamroma it is important to keep the art simple and direct. I think this is something I never considered as an artist. I always assumed once I find my style I just stick with it no matter what. But for now that’s not how I approach a project.

At the moment I’m working on Steamroma the most. I have the other project I’m doing with a friend called Rock Slingers and that story I believe can more closely resemble a more detailed art form, not like Todd’s work, but something with more detail to give the sense of adventure in the story. While Steamroma seems to be more about the people in the place they are in, Rock Slingers is a story about the future and potential of space travel. I think both projects will be a challenge if I continue to draw them at the same time, as I am now. I’ll have to put my brain in a different mindset to keep each of the stories from spilling over into each other.

Here are some pages from Steamroma.

 

Rock Slingers cover pencil

Still making corrections, but I think we're almost ready for inking. Now I just have to get some time to do it. I'm working on Steamroma as always and in between work and other work, I'm drawing Rock Slingers. Still I think we are good to get the first book done this year.

This is a sketch of JJ and Becky, the main characters to a side project called Rock Slingers I'm working on, which is going to be a Kickstarter in the next month or so.

Doing the math for my kickstarter is below.

I'm in the process of starting a Kickstarter for a writer that has hired me. This is a side project from my regular gig, so it's just one shot 26 page comic.

I started doing the math and remembered some of the finance math I learned in college.

I thought this might help anyone that is starting a kickstarter.

Using the formula px = vx + FC + Profit

Where,

p is the price per unit (the price you're selling the comic $10.00)

x is the number of units, (we're trying to solve for this, which is how many comics you have to sell to break even)

v is variable cost per unit (this is the cost of printing the comic, shipping it to you from printer and then to the customer)

FC is total fixed cost (paying the artists, writer, etc.)

I used Ka-blam to get my printing costs.

For a 26 page comic the price is $2.20 or $1.77 if you put their ad in the comic. I chose not to get the discount, so $2.20 is the printing cost.

Going to USPS and getting a flat rate 3-5 day standard large envelope with a weight of 5 ounces is about $1.82. I put in several different zip codes too. One from Seattle, Washington to Boston, MA and still was the same price. Now you have to add the price of the envelope and handling charges too, so I was averaging $4.00 for shipping each comic within the US. The charge of shipping the comics to me, from Ka-blam averages around .20 cents.

The variable costs are as follows $2.20 + 4.00 + .20 = $6.40

I’m selling the comic for $10.00, which includes the shipping costs. So the customer is paying a flat rate of $10.00 for one comic.

Finally the fixed costs (FC) is how much it costs to make the comic. For art it is $1,300 and other charges are $260, which equals $1,560.

Putting the formula to work written to solve for x is FC/(p-v), $1,560/($10.00-$6.40) = 437.

X = 437

That means in order to pay for the shipping and all the other stuff I need to sell at least 437 comic books to break even.

Since each comic is being sold for $10.00 the total funding I need to ask for is $4,370.

If I want to add international charges I would need to add more for international pricing. I’ve seen pricing from $6.00 to $10.00. That is no insurance, first class and no tracking.

Pinup WIP of a book I'm doing called Rock Slingers. It is a slow going project that won't see completion for several month, because I'm plugging away with Steamroma. This is a pinup of the two main characters.

A little exercise in styles. I was reading Inhumans and I felt like sketching one of Joe's drawings and then I decided to draw a similar pose with my own style. I think it is interesting looking at the difference in technique and whatnot.

Here is the first page to the comic I just finished called Steamroma. I've started on the next installment for the story. This is going to be big. It's been a lot of fun so far and I'm looking forward to what comes next. I'll post more pages as the week progresses.

Panel 1 of page 22. Steamroma (r).

It shouldn't be hard for me to update my blog, but I find I'm updating this site far less than other sites I frequent, like deviantart, facebook and some of the forums I visit. Here is a big update, I'm in Imagine FX April edition.

Please pick it up or get the digital copy. I found one mistake where they called me Todd in one of the articles, but no big deal.

Here is a panel from Steamroma.

Josh

A bit of process for page 13 panel 1 of Steamroma (r).