Saturday, October 6, 2012

Entered



I just entered this last year's Yarns cover into Creatively Quarterly's competition under graphic design. We'll see if anything comes of it.

Sunday, July 29, 2012


Digger Jones: Adventurer of Lost Worlds.
...is back in his second installment, this time with his faithful sidekick Lucy the She-Ape in an all-new exciting adventure!

Digger recalls his close encounter of doom during his dangerous trek into the cold winter North!  Set in the 1890’s, the Yukon was booming with the gold rush and opportunity!  Yet in the mountains…rumor has it that there is something strange and evil afoot!
Digger and Lucy tread into the harsh blizzard terrain of an Alaskan frontier town...and find themselves heading straight into trouble!
Can our adventurer stay ahead of certain death? 
Who is the person being boring to death listening to Digger's re-telling of the story? 
Why is an Ape his sidekick? 
Is this a nightmare or a terrible reality?
Will the Man-Eating plant cut from issue #1 of Y.A.R.N.S. somehow miraculously make it into this issue?

Stay tuned for the exciting next chapter!

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Terran Spark

Yo!

Better late, than never. Here is my super neato awesome pitch for YARNS 2.0. Western with a healthy twist of Sci-Fi! :)

In the not-so-distant future, the devastation of Earth has forced mankind to leave both its world and its galaxy in the search of a new place to call home. Vita unda offers the promise of such a place...if the land can be terraformed.

The story follows one of the first settlers to this new, desert planet--a young boy named Spark. With the help of his blood-bound guardian, the mysterious alien woman Ule, he sets out on a quest to find his missing sister and rescue her from the outlaws who stole her away.

Through Spark's journey he will find that there is more to himself and his sister than they ever knew and discover how their fate is inexorably intertwined with the very survival of the human race.

So, yeah. Let's see how this shapes up, but I am dreaming big for now. Below are some starter sketches of Spark and Ule in her two forms.




Sunday, July 8, 2012

Coyote Cortés and the Silverman's Daughter

I have a fun, action-adventure story in mind for our western themed, Yarns 2. I'm still thinking about the overall feel with some faint ideas on art direction, so more to come. For now, here's the summary:


Silver tycoon, Thurston Goodchild and his beautiful, Harvard educated daughter Eloise make their way to San Francisco to oversee a new business venture. But, their trip hits a major road bump as the notorious Buckshot Bronson and his gang board their train and kidnap Eloise for ransom. Helpless, Thurston has no choice but to concede to Buckshot’s demands.

Thurston stops at the next town to obtain the ransom and proceed to the drop off point that Buckshot articulated, when a mysterious man who overheard his predicament offers another view point. Bounty hunter and local eccentric, Coyote Cortés knows that Buckshot’s not to be trusted and offers his services to get Eloise back. It takes some convincing, but when Coyote reveals Buckshot’s hostage survival history, Thurston decides to hire Coyote on. With the help of his trusty steed, Poncho and his spirit guide, Thistle, (whom Coyote can be often heard talking to, but never seen by anybody else,) Coyote set’s off in search of Buckshot’s gang.

Monday, June 4, 2012

keeping up the creative energy

I promised Amanda Nichole I'd relay this question to all you after-hours artists out there: "How do you maintain the creative energy to do comics and illustration after 8 hour shifts of squeezing your brain for design day jobs? … I find myself doing so much critical thinking and design for marketing agency work and FanimeCon that my brain and body are totally drained by the time I get home!"

Saturday, June 2, 2012

draw

Just a little ditty to get the creative juices flowing. I don't think I'm going to have any gunplay in my tale. :)

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Yarns Photos Pas

I've posted more pics of the recent Yarns exhibit on our Facebook site. A big thanks to Tiffany Dreyer for taking the photos.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Yarns Volume 1, Now Available at Isotope Comic Lounge!

Also, I took a trip this week to my local comic shop and dropped off a few copies. I was pretty stoked and had to take pictures of our book sitting next all the other shiny new books. A few more pictures and details on the shop over on Pixelor…

A Few Yarns Reception Photos

I finally got around to posting some pictures over on my Pixelor site. Here's a sample…

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

I'm so excited...

...and I now have an 80's song stuck in my head. : /

So...quick question. I have been brainstorming on my story for YARNS 2 and was wondering if a genre crossover would be considered cheating?

My initial concept is about an orphan boy (14-15ish) who is searching for something/someone. The spin is that he's actually not from the Old West or even on Earth. He's part of the first round of earthling settlers on an alien planet being terraformed by said earthlings. The planet is similar to our 'High Desert' and actually already supports life, it just needs a little more user-friendly work. All of the attire, scenery, etc. will be Western-esque with little tweaks here and there for the whole "futuristic-alien-world-cowboys" thing.

And so I ask, is this okay? Or am I cheating by making this a western/sci-fi combo? I can always rework my storyline I would just rather do so now before I become too endeared to it.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

yarns 2 kick off


Yarns volume 2 is now underway! We've chosen to go with a theme this time around: the western genre. Y'all stay tuned as we begin the research and idea development for our stories.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

'til may 18th

Just a reminder that the Yarns exhibit is up until May 18th at Sacramento State University. In fact, if you happen to go the Dept of Design Spring Show on May 15th, we've made special provision to have the 2nd floor gallery open that night so you can take in both! For more info on the exhibit, click here.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

yarns fb fan page


We just started up the Yarns Anthology fan page. If you'd like to keep up with Yarns 2 progress on FB, surf over  to https://www.facebook.com/YarnsAnthology and "Like" our page.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

hot off the press


These little babies will be available at the reception tomorrow. :)

Monday, April 30, 2012

My poster that I'll be bringing up for this Wednesday's reception…

Saturday, April 28, 2012

yarns reception this week

Just a heads up that the Yarns Exhibit reception is this Wednesday, May 2nd, 6pm-8pm at the CSUS University Union 2nd Floor Gallery. Meet the artists of this anthology and see the process that led to the book becoming a reality. Signed copies of the limited edition book will be on hand for purchase ($20). And all book purchases get a free sketch inside to boot. We hope to see you there!

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

exhibit up!


Yes, indeed. The Yarns show is now up. The exhibit will run from April 25th to May 18th at Sac State. We will be selling the limited edition books (autographed by all the artists) at the May 2nd exhibit reception. Come on down and check it out.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Here is one of the four 11 x 17 process pages.
Just in case of a "Director's" cut 2nd printing of Yarns, this will also fit as a 2 - page spread. ;)



and one more


I thought I'd already posted this up, but I guess not. From left to right, we have the artwork of Rich Lee, Mike Aurelio and Mario Estioko.

and more


And here's the opening spread from Joe Fenton's tale.

more story art


Here are more samples of the work in Yarns. From left to right, we have the art of Randy Peña, Orysia Riesen and Mark Yeager.
Hey all-
Wanted to share with the back side of Digger's postcard.
The front image is of both Digger and Lucy swinging in the jungle (as seen from my previous post!)
Fun!

Saturday, April 21, 2012

poster


Here's the lobby poster for the exhibit. It was designed by Sac State graphic design student Lisa Lam. Thanks Lisa!


Wednesday, April 11, 2012

cover art done


Minus a few details, here is the cover for volume 1 of Yarns.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

almost final paint

All but a few flatted. And then the fun (and surprisingly quick) process of pulling up highlights begins. As you can see, I couldn't wait on a couple and just jumped in with the lighter paint to give depth. Almost there.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Yarns Exhibition, April 25–May 18


Yarns will be making its debut this month at Sacramento State University near the end of April. We're all excited to see this collaboration come to fruition. The reception for the show is on May 2nd, 6pm–8pm in the University Union Gallery. Come out and meet the artists, see the making of the book, and secure your very own limited edition of Yarns. For more info, go to  http://www.union.csus.edu/gallery/

Monday, April 2, 2012

Sneak Peak

Here's a little preview of my colorized story. On this page, the grandpa offers his version of why the horse and cow are no longer friends.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Poster Concept 1


Swinging into action!

Digger Jones: Adventurer!
(With nod to Amazing Fantasy #15.)

After this story, I am now dreaming of inking leaves and bushes in my sleep! Yikes!

This will be the cover art for front of the postcards and the poster.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

I'm the Caboose

Okay, I'm bringing up the rear as we close in on our final deliverable. Here's a sample of my “pencils” (actually they're a mix of ink and a motley patchwork of tracing paper and scotch tape). I love the hands-on feel of “Frankensteining” the composition in analog. Right now I’m moving into the inking phase. That actually goes fast for me. I scan these sample pages in, convert them to light bluelines, output them on Clearprint vellum, then ink directly on them. Then I'll rescan them RGB and blast out the bluelines in P-shop (Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation: Activate the blue and cyan channels and crank the Lightness slider to 100) and I'm ready to flat and paint. Colorizing will happen in bulk (and earnest) this week. I'm pretty excited about the story, though. It ended up being 18 pages. Phew!

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Yaga Sample Shady


Just a quick post of one of my shaded pages. This page is one of the more dialogue-heavy pages, so the backgrounds are quite simple. Maybe a little too simple, but ah well.

Title Design

I didn't think I'd have time to do so, but since we had a little time extension I took the opportunity to use the put together a little logo title.

Spread Page


Here is pages 3 & 4, the only open spread page of the story.

Originally a 1- page sequence, (the director side of me) decided to push more of the travel panels by streching them across 2 pages in wide panels...and keeping the original amount of dialog.

Side note: These pages longer than planned due to locking down the logo design.

But worth it I think! ;)

-Mach

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Masks of the Nameless: Page Three

A process post showing pencils, inks and colors for page three of six.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

More WIP's

A peak at page two of Digger Jones:Adventurer!

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Title Spread



First to pages... just the base coat of paint. The title is the only text in the 8 page "story". It's one of those artsty, no dialoge jobies that people may or may not get something out of... but there is implied meaning. I jumped ship on my original idea months ago.

url changes

I just updated our blog name from yarns2011.blogspot.com to yarnscomics.blogspot.com. It was looking dated. Please update any links you may have to our page. And thank you for your support!
~the management

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Preliminaries





I'm straggling along, but making progress. Should have the last four prelim spreads up this weekend.

Second Color Iteration - Page One

The first version felt a bit too green to me, so I revised it. (Note: the transparent black border denotes the trim area.)

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Revised opening splash page for Digger Jones.

(For proper comedic effect, please read the narration in your best James Mason or Sean Connery impression!)

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

A Pinup and then off to bed...


Since I have the attention span and focus of a gnat, this lovely little distraction popped into my head while I was trying to buckle down. Just a quickie of Yaga, pinup style.

Anyone else have major ADD?

Page 5 Ink

Here's one of my inked pages. After doing multiple variations with how to ink it, I for whatever reason settled on something minimalistic and analog (strangely enough). I am adding in a layer of shading "manga style" for the different gradations, but here's the base anyway.


On this page, Vassa and her brother Michail are trying to escape the burning apartment building when Vassa falls through the floor. Yaga (who has been observing the whole thing) is very pleased with the bad turn of events.


Monday, February 6, 2012

Page One Pencils

Six pages of pencils, check. Here's page one with my main character running to the point of exhaustion.

Sunday, January 22, 2012


Going for a look a little different that the John Solo project. (just to see what happens.)
Here is a inking/digital zip-a-tone test panel. Got a pipeline process now in play with my Pshop build files.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012


Sketchbook drills prep for some of the pages.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Character Concept



Here is a character design for one of the antagonists. Chief of the "TigerMen of the BalliBalli Jungle!"

Yarns Exhibit

I'll post more information in the coming months, but the Yarns anthology will make its premiere at the University Union Gallery at Sac State this spring. The exhibit will run from April 23–May 18; reception May 2nd. More details to come. This will be a great launch for the work as all of the artists of the book are alumni of the Sac State graphic design program. Please look out for a flurry of posts as we make the big push to get our pub finished and ready for the show.