Author: Byrd

Concerning Music Selections for a Medium That Is Silent

Posted on February 20, 2023 by Byrd

I miss doing songs with the comics. Maybe not with every page, but every episode should have a recommended song. Because Tapas Comics had a feature where you could add a song, there’s an entire Original Soundtrack for “Deep Circuitry”.

I really enjoyed that, because most of my comic projects were meant to be either live action or animated. Overall, I really miss audio. I miss the music and working with voice actors. I miss the collaboration and the spontaneity that would come with working with others.

Groph didn’t get music accompany. When I started illustrating “Groph’s Green Wizardry”, I didn’t have any music in mind. In retrospect, I think the soundtrack for “Groph’s Green Wizardry” would just be lofi.

For “Enter Cedar”, here are my initial thoughts on a recommended song accompany.

Episode 01: Smog “In the Pines”
Episode 10: Teho Teardo & Blixa Bargeld “Hey Hey, My My”
Episode 11: Philip Glass “Tagore-Scene II”
Episode 12: Tom Waits “Come on Up to the House”

Concerning the Log Children

Posted on February 12, 2023 by Byrd

This is an early piece depicting the Log Children. It was done digitally, because I thought I didn’t have an option to not do digital. You’ll note the lack of loincloth in the actual comic.

Original designs also incorporated a lot of lazy appropriation of Coast Salish elements. I had a lot of conversations with friends over this. The native elements are not super important to the story, as the gods behind the masks are not the actual gods, just beings who feed of the follower’s faith. Therefor, would that being use native elements to appear to people? They would to those they would be tricking, like someone who believed in the raven spirit. But would Ian see this? He’s just a white boy, with no affiliation with local tribes and customs, and since the appropriating beings use the thoughts and images they’re living in, they would appear with what’s available in Ian’s head. Thus, logs and blue tarps.

The added benefit is that this imagery is lot more personal to me. Making my stories personal to me is challenging.

Concerning the Details

Posted on February 6, 2023 by Byrd

“Paying attention to things – it’s how we show love.” – The Last of Us

That quote from last week’s episode hit me hard. I’m not one for details, both in my art and my personal life. My fear of not getting things done before my focus deviates causes me to seek the fastest method to get what is in my head outside. That means skimping on the details and embracing messy.

These are lichen hounds and mushroom tripods. I’m transcribing a script that happens about 6 books after “Enter Cedar”. It’s the same sort of creatures that form the “black mold boy” and the “moldies”.

Concerning Thumbnails

Posted on January 29, 2023 by Byrd

I like doing thumbnails first. Small scribbles that provide a blueprint for the bigger sketch.

But I always talk myself out of doing them because I want my sketch to be the blueprint. I want as few steps as possible. Ideally, it would be (script already written):

  • Sketch
  • Ink
  • Inkwash
  • Digital formatting

Like, these 4 steps I can get done in five 2 hour desk sessions (10 hours total). Which is the time I alot for each weekly page/post.

But I find that after I’ve finished posting, I’m often daunted by the big white page of the next part. If there’s thumbnail, it’s less daunting. But a thumbnail is just another stage to this work. But it’s a stage that gives me the confidence on what the sketch process needs. A script alone is not sufficient to start the sketch stage.

So I think I’ll start thumbnailing from now on. Scheduling wise, I find if the sketch is done before the weekend, so I start Monday with a full sketch, that the ink/inkwash/formatting stages can get done by the Wednesday posting deadline.

And thumbnails are stuff I can bust out in the cart or watching tv or before bed. It’s not something I need to be at my desk for. I’m always trying to identify parts of my process that can be done away from my desk to speed things along.

Concerning the Black Mold Boy

Posted on January 17, 2023 by Byrd

On my Tapas Comic page, I have the following listed under my profile:

“Toot toot! If you’re reading this comic, all aboard the Attention Deficit Train…”

Because I can’t focus on anything. Just doing weekly pages in a single installment of the Imbibe Universe is painful. So here’s some character design for the Black Mold Boy, a character in the series “This Bitter Earth”, which is scheduled to be illustrated 5-8 series down the line.

Concerning the Googling of Oneself

Posted on January 9, 2023 by Byrd

I’ve been on the hunt for jobs for longer than I care to admit. The modern job hunt includes more than just submitting your resume. Ensuring that an online presence is positive (at the least, not offensive) is important. So googling myself is not a frequent activity, but it’s not uncommon. On my last googling, I noticed the book cover for Tapas (a webcomic site) was not great.

So I created this new book cover for the Imbibe Universe. I mocked it up first on my phone, and then finished it on my desktop. I might use that method in the future.

Concerning Goals and Mantras

Posted on January 3, 2023 by Byrd

It’s goal setting season and I love it. New Year’s Eve and Day are arguably my favorite holidays for that purpose. It’s a time to reflect on what you’ve done and look forward to what you plan to do. I’ve been setting yearly goals since 2013. Every year’s goals get written on a small scrap of paper that I keep in my wallet.

Instead of just a list of goals, I’ve started to organize them into a mantra that I can repeat to myself. Below each section of the mantra are bullet points with the general list. So last years was “Read, Write, Draw, Work, Self, Live”, with things like comic projects listed under “Draw” or “Write”.

This year things are divided up into “Be Social, Be Grateful, Be Vulnerable, Be Productive”, with the last being reserved for comic projects. I should be able to finish “Enter Cedar” this year, which means I’m looking forward to a new project.

Chronologically, the next project is “Where the Highway Meets the Corridor”, which is “A documentary about a small Washington county bootlegging operation turns into a state wide chase to return a young alien to it’s family.” Are you noticing a theme? This particular alien is supposed to be Gray’s older sibling, the one that was driving the flying saucer that Gray was hiding out in.

Concept Art – WHMC

But we’ll see. I might change things up. Setting goals helps with the attention issues, but sometimes you have to listen to where the attention leads you.

Concerning Exploration of Analogue Color

Posted on December 27, 2022 by Byrd

Spending more time exploring analogue color. Here is a scene from a future series called “A Gaze”.

And some experimentation with eye shapes that are just straight shapes.

I think I’ll reserve these weekly blog posts for “future development” talk. There’s not too much to talk about when it comes to things in “current development”, unless I’m not posting that work weekly.

Concerning the Gods

Posted on December 7, 2022 by Byrd

Dammit. The Cacophony of Frog would have been a good name for the frog god. Right now, their name is Choir of Frog. For reasons, I kept the grouping name of gods in the letter C. Mostly because we have the Raven Council, and then that became the Salmon Collective, and then it became Commune of Bear. Choir, Council, Collective, Commune.

But Cacophony of Frog would have been good too. These “gods” are not singular entities, but groupings of like minded human sentiments and emotions. They don’t get a name, they get a title, representing their collective consciousness.

Except for Morah, who has been removed and/or removed herself. Can you really say “I removed myself from the collective” when “you” had that thought when “you” were still the collective?