A plan has hatched…

on April 21, 2022 at 5:25 pm

Okay, it had to happen… I mean, I like to plan. I like to have counter plans, even plans on plans! I just like being organised but with Fenton Hud I was enjoying putting a book together with zero idea of where it was going but this morning I found myself reflecting on Page 10 of issue #2 and a potential future plot point became a certainty.

Now I’m not saying what I’ve committed myself to but I just wanted to share the moment with you where this book got an overall arc. Gosh, I do like an arc…

From this ideas for issue #3 became more real, certainly a HUGE point in issue #4 and then something for… after that?

I still have a lot of pages to go that aren’t planned out in between the planned points but I have to say that despite enjoying the free-wheeling story writing style I had for this book there is something nice about having a few plot points to aim for.

Apologies for another self-indulgent post! Seriously! I just really wanted to share (plus I’ve been quiet for a few weeks so y’know…)

More soon! Bear hugs!

PS. This isn’t the finished page here – I’ve still sound effects, some shading and additional bits to add! But yeah, more or less done!

Perspective!

on April 9, 2022 at 7:26 am

Perspective can be hard!!! That being said, I always loved doing all the straight lines and perspective points as a kid when I drew big skyscrapers – although my page was filled with ingrained lines that couldn’t be erased and the buildings that looked more like kids building blocks! But hey, I enjoyed doing it!

Anyways, it can be difficult and even more so when drawing people! I caught myself in the early stages of laying out a page when I realised I was keeping the view point, the camera, at the same angle from panel to panel which didn’t make it very engaging.

I struggled getting a vision in my head of what viewpoint to go with – especially as there was two people in the scene! But then I hit upon an idea (okay, it was a memory of something I’d been taught before an age ago) and used action figures to work out not only the ideal position for both characters but also the best angle to tell the story!

And the best thing? I don’t need to worry about working out perspective points as I could just take a photo and draw over it! Which I did!

So I took a number of photos until I was happy with the shot and then uploaded it, digitally drew over, printed out and then drew over the copy… which I then scanned to the PC. Um, when I see it I’m now thinking I could have cut a few corners! Anyways, I’m well happy with the result! What do you think?

More soon! Bear hugs!

PS. If you’re interested I was using action figures from M.A.S.K. These guys were handy!

Issue #17 update!

on April 3, 2022 at 5:58 pm

Happy days! All the line work and writing has been done for issue #17! (okay, kinda. See in the PS’s…)

But I can finally show an example of how the book is going to play out!

So as mentioned before, this issue is a collection of short stories told by different people and from their own individual perspectives.

In between those short stories is a series of one panel responses with others who are also being interviewed (as it’s all for a documentary). The responses go from giving you a feeling of what adventures Lloyd and Bear have had, to those by friends (and enemies) that they (and we) have met before, and also some absolutely absurd stories in-between!

Do you want to see an example? Please?

When it comes to the colouring stage I’ll be adding in backgrounds but hopefully this page not only gives you an idea of what I’m up to but also gets you excited about the book! It’s been an interesting one to put together and really pushed me (I think I’ve mentioned that before..?)

I’ll be posting more pages to this issue as time goes on including the finished short stories.

As for the colouring stage? I’m going to put that on hold for a bit as I want to get back to drawing more Fenton Hud (which as per usual, I’m really missing! Seriously, whatever book I’m not on I start to miss after a few weeks!)

More soon! Bear hugs!

PS. I’ve yet to start on the final page of this book. I wanted to wait until everything was put together so I could fully work out the closing message. And man! I need to speak about how this issue has changed from it’s early planning! Soon! I promise!

(And yeah, I could have waited to post about this book once it was finally finished but I really wanted to post something and knew I was going to be moving back to Fenton Hud sooooo……..)

Final panel done!

on March 14, 2022 at 6:17 pm

So today I finally got the final panel done for issue #17 and although I should be happy I’m kinda miffed as I meant to have had this all done and dusted some six hours ago!

Anyhoo… here’s that final panel!

(I’m feeling kinda seen with this panel.)

So(!), I ended up using a dude from issue #2 for this final panel. I don’t expect anyone to notice this and I’ll admit I was being kinda super lazy as I didn’t want to design another alien for a one off paenl but having come up with the speech balloon I went back and looked at my old issues and saw this guy in a panel is issue #2 singing and figured to bring the character back!

This issue has been a LOT more work than I expected – both with the short stories with aping artists styles and also (unexpectedly) designing the different aliens for the separate panels – and seriously, I feel stupid saying that as I look at my style and it’s just a bunch of circles and square but yeah, it was a push!

I’ll post more of the designs soon but man, so happy and excited about this issue!

Next job is going back and adding the text for the individual shorts. I’m going to go back and read some of the work that I’m taking from and try and use a similar writing style. Fingers crossed!

More soon! Bear hugs!

PS. Saying I’m going to go back and do some research makes me think that this week might be spent on the final two pages and then the week will be research/writing. I’ll let you know…

Self-indulgent update on issue #17!

on March 11, 2022 at 7:49 am

It’s been a while since I’ve posted but I’m still busy working on issue #17 of Lloyd and the Bear!

As mentioned the short stories are done but I still need to come up with alien designs for the pages between the short stories. To be honest, I thought I was done until I realised I need another eight! Seriously, I thought I was done and even had a couple to spare! Oops! But yeah, design an alien, add a speech bubble with a story or joke or some such, it’s a push! Once done I’ll have 54(ish) new designs. Whew!

BUT I was super excited to do one of the panels where a character was going to introduce one of the short stories and found myself getting up early to working on it. I needed to create an alien to introduce the Ninja Turtles-esque short story I’d done and decided to go back and use a character I created when I was a kid – a (gadget) snail!

So back when I was a kid, and heavily influenced by Inspector Gadget, I came up with the idea of a snail with lasers from it’s antenna (I didn’t realise that that was actually a snail’s eyes when I was a kid) and had wings that popped out and other things which I totally can’t(!) that fought crows and the like. I don’t think I even got passed making one book (and I’m being generous saying book…)

But yeah, I had thought about bringing these guys in anyways (without the gadgets) at some point but really don’t know if it’ll happen so figured why not at least have them in a couple of panels?

And hey, this post probably doesn’t mean much but I really wanted to mention it.

Now I’ve got to get back and come up with eight more alien designs! Eek!

More soon! Bear hugs!

PS. I realise now that the antenna on a snails head is it’s eyes but young me didn’t know that and I wanted to stick with the original design. Check old me doing research!

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