Studying the Way of the Samurai

Preparing to work on an upcoming Usagi Yojimbo commission, Michelle and I realized we knew little to nothing about the character. So, this past week we’ve been researching the Stan Sakai comic, doing some sketches, and, in this week’s video, a full ink, wash, and watercolor study of the samurai rabbit.

Wikipedia tells me Usagi Yojimbo is heavily influenced by Japanese cinema, Kurosawa, and other samurai pop culture icons. And it’s here that I realize there is a giant hole in my pop culture/cinema foundation. Aside from flipping through some issues of Lone Wolf and Cub back in college, I never really dove into stories involving samurai and ronins and swordplay. I read a few issues of Groo the Wanderer, which Sakai lettered, but it was mostly for the comedy and the classic Sergio Aragones cartooning. Look, I like comedy and monsters. Who knew there was such rich storytelling going on involving feudal japan and anthropomorphic rabbits? Everyone but me, apparently.

The watercolor study this week doesn’t do much to shore up my knowledge of that culture, but it does help me put a shape to the character. I think what little research we’ve done informed my decisions on how to pose the character, and to try to convey a quiet strength in his stance and expression.

And though the character and storyline of Usagi Yojimbo are set centuries ago in feudal Japan, this study prompted me to use modern technology to develop a new tool to help in the inking and coloring process.

Worried I’d lay down a wobbly or broken line when inking the katana and sheath, and having no flexible ruler to mold to my drawing’s sketch lines, I used a scan of my sketch, vector software, and a laser cutter to create a custom ruler out of wood.

Was it an over the top move for a simple study? Probably. Should I have just used the opportunity to strengthen my freehand inking skills? Definitely. But like the ronin’s of feudal Japan, I have no master. And I have cut ties with my family and clan. So if I want to buck the traditional methods of inking an anthropomorphic rabbit to turn out a half decent illustration, who’s to say I can’t? No one. You’re not the boss of me.

We recorded my process for creating this Usagi Yojimbo illustration. If you want to see how the illustration turned out, or watch me wield my deadly samurai custom ruler, the link to this week’s video is down

*blog originally posted at vincedorse.com

Making A Mini-Comic: The Sequel

If you’d have told me two years ago that I’d have to spend time making a sequel to our popular “How To Make A Mini-Comic From One Sheet Of Paper” video, I’d have whined and complained for hours. But as it turns out, Michelle said that very thing to me just a couple weeks ago and I had the exact same reaction.

It’s not that I don’t like making videos…or mini-comics. But I thought we’d already answered all the questions about how to do that. Then Michelle pointed out the literal arm-long list of questions in the comments section of that video, and I agreed that maybe a followup would be helpful.

Since some people like to work digitally, we did a deeper dive in the second video on the different drawing apps you could use to set up your mini-comic. I dusted off my iPad and dug into Procreate for the first time in way too many months. Actually had a lot of fun working in that app and I look forward to experimenting with it a little more.

We also covered using different-sized paper, adding pages, and before it was all over, I’d put together two different new mini-comics to use as examples. Granted, one was just a portfolio of horrendous caricatures of Michelle, but what do you want? I was under a time crunch!

We also brought back our friend, voice actor Owen McCuen, to do some voicework on a dramatic reading of my new mini-comic about public domain cartoon characters. So if you want to see that, and maybe learn a little about making mini-comics, the video link is below.

And for anyone who missed the first part (nearly 3 years ago) here’s a link to that video too:

Hinkley Hills Gazette: Our Tribute To The ‘Burbs

It’s actually our second tribute to the 1989 Tom Hanks cult classic, The ‘Burbs, if you count that diorama we did a few weeks ago. But this one is of a 2D nature. And it’s part of Gallery1988’s latest show.

The concept is a ’80s-era newspaper comics page (something that was prevalent when the movie came out, but not so much now) that tells the story of The ‘Burbs through re-imagined classic comic strips.

The illustration was done digitally, using Clip Studio Paint (for the inks) and Affinity Photo (for colors). The reason I switched from Clip Studio to Affinity Photo is because Affinity Photo is one of the few digital illustration apps out there (Photoshop, being another) that has a true CMYK color space. And since this image would eventually go to the printers, we wanted a true CMYK profile. Plus, I just like working in those nice, desaturated CMYK colors.

It worked out well, too, because the print sold out at the show immediately. We’re talking to the printer about getting more, but don’t let our lack of foresight take any fun away from visiting the show online and viewing all the amazing ‘Burbs-themed artwork.

And If you want to see how we put the piece together, the link to this week’s video is right here.

Friendly Neighborhood Spider Sketches

No elaborate diorama building this week, just some basic ink and watercolor practice. For inspiration, we used a couple of Spider-Man characters that have been trending lately. First, because Across The SpiderVerse was king of the box office, we decided to do a quick ink and watercolor sketch of Miles Morales.

There was also a lot of buzz about Aaron Taylor Johnson and the upcoming Kraven The Hunter movie. So far, I’m not sure how I feel about a young, model-handsome Kraven, so I went with the old school, fed-face-angry, teeth-clenching Kraven from the comics. That guy was unhinged.

I like to try to stay in practice with the illustration tools I want to become proficient with, so for these sketches I used a couple different brush pens, as well as the old school brush and ink. With the watercolors, I challenged myself to mix the flesh tones with just the primary colors.

So, all in all, a good week of practice. I’m thinking about doing it more often. I go over the pros and cons of the tools I use, as well as my techniques, in this week’s video. I linked it below in case you want to see how it all turned out.

How To Make an 8-Page Mini-Comic from One Sheet of Paper!

That’s right! No staples, no stack of paper…just one sheet of typing paper, some creative folding and cutting, and you can make your own mini-comic! I’ll show you how in our video this week.

I mean, you’ll also have to write and draw your comic, or story, or whatever you wanna fill 8 pages with. But once you figure out what you want to say, there are a number of ways you can go about getting it on paper.

In the video, I talk about drawing and lettering it by hand directly onto a piece of paper. But I also create a mini-comic from scratch using some graphics software (Clip Studio Paint) and a printer. Either way, the process is pretty simple.

I hope you give it a try. And if you do, I hope you have fun! -v

Inking The Green Goblin

Norman Osborn is a wealthy businessman, a doting father, and an evil super villain. Eh. Gotta take the good with the bad.

I inked a sketch of Green Goblin this week, and you can follow my process in the video below.

While I ink, I talk with my friend Run Red Run about cherished friendships, deadly enemies, inking, and Dave Wachter. Enjoy the video.

Inking The Thing

When I inked The Hulk last week, I did it knowing that I’d be inking another bruiser this week that the green-skinned goliath has gone toe-to-toe with many times, the ever-lovin’, blue-eyed THING!

In this week’s video, I ink Ben Grimm, while Run Red Run and I talk about the inking process, and try to decide who would win in an all-out slugfest between these two Marvel monsters.

I also drag out my old ToyBiz Fantastic Four toys just for fun. Do you remember these? Did you own these? We ended up playing with them for an hour after shooting the video.

I’ll tell you right now, I’m not sure we figured out who’d win a fight between The Hulk and The Thing. But we had fun. If you have fun watching the video, consider subscribing to our YouTube channel. Run Red Run and I are always posting videos where we make art and talk about pop culture. -v

Illustrating a Twilight Zone Gag (for Jim Horwitz’s WATSON)

My friend, cartoonist Jim Horwitz, had a Twilight Zone gag in mind for his 3-times-weekly strip, Watson, and he wanted me to illustrate it. I accomplished this entire project in Clip Studio Paint. From roughs, to inks, to toning. Below I’ve posted some of the process steps. I also recorded the whole thing on video.

Based on Jim’s initial rough, I sent him my own rough. He approved this, so I moved on to the tight pencils stage.

At this point, even with tight pencils done and approved, Jim was still working out which direction he wanted to go with the gag. He had a few ideas and wasn’t sure which way to go. But that was his job. Mine was drawing. So I moved on to inks.

Now the inks are done and I’m about to move to the greyscale tones. The goal was to make it feel/look like an original Twilight Zone. The props and items you see scattered about the room are all from key episodes of the Twilight Zone.

This is what the final piece looks like, right before Jim sent me the final version of his gag. The entire thing, start to finish, completed in Clip Studio Paint. This was a fun project and I got to re-watch some of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes for reference. If you wanna hear Michelle (Run Red Run) and I discuss the Twilight Zone, Jim Horwitz, and the collaboration process, you can watch the video below. -v

Inking (& Needle Felting) The Penguin

Another process video. This time Run Red Run and I talk about Danny DeVito movies while I ink a comic book style Oswald Cobblepot.

Here’s the video for that.

And if you just can’t get enough of Cobblepot — and who really can — Run Red Run and I posted a video a while ago where she needle-felted The Penguin and we discussed ’60s TV Penguin, Burgess Meredith.

Inking Spider-Man

Some people think comic books are mindless fun. But I actually learned a lot of vocabulary words reading comic books back when I was just a kid. I talk about that this week with RunRedRun while I ink this Spider-Man.

Full disclosure: I may have embellished the story a bit, but the point still stands. Comic books can be valuable learning tools. Hope you have a nice stack of comics to keep you busy during the quarantine. -v