malandchad.com

Hey all! If you were familiar with my old website, Doodle Alley, it is no more! Doodle Alley has undergone a whole new transformation and is now a picture blog that details my thoughts on creativity and on being a creator. The cool thing about this site is that all the essays are told in comics form. There is now one entry up which tries to answer the question: Which is more important, an artistic process, or the principles behind the process?

Please check it out!

Hey all.

So.

I’ve finished the second Mal and Chad book, entitled: “Food Fight!” (see the link at the side to pre-order a copy!) and I wanted to show you guys the process I use to make a single page.

Namely, the first page of Food Fight!

My process is very similar to the work flow used in making films. Just like a film, it all starts out with the script. I use a free program called celtx to write out my scripts. It is fast and intuitive, and makes it easy to indicate who’s speaking and what scene you’re in. I use the screenplay mode, but it also has a comics mode you can use which might be nifty. The only disadvantage I’ve found is that it can’t export to Word, so when my editor asks for Word files, I often have to reformat it by hand.

Once the script is approved, I translate the words into pictures, much like a storyboard artist would do for a film. Except, instead of doing storyboards I do what’s called thumbnails, which are tiny, messy breakdowns of the pages I’m going to draw for the book. In this way I plan out every page in the book. Doing this planning step is important, because it allows me to make mistakes with little consequence. After all, only a small, messy sketch is on the line. If I make a mistake in the later stages, however, I might have to redraw and re-ink a whole page, costing me a lot of time.

Speaking of mistakes, you can see in the first pass, I wasn’t sure which “camera” angle to use on Chad.

After exploring different options, I find a solution that meets the needs of the scene, and clearly expresses the action I want to portray.

After finishing the thumbnails, I then begin penciling the book. By penciling, I don’t mean that I use a pencil, I actually use a Cintiq drawing tablet. During this stage, I draw a detailed but still some what messy sketch of the page. This is done at full size.

After I’ve finished penciling the entire book, I send a copy to my editor who checks it over for errors. Once I’ve got the okay, it’s time to start inking, which means I do my final pass, tracing over the messy lines with a slick black line. To ink and pencil, I use a great program called Manga Studio which was made for the specific purpose of drawing comics. I’d recommend it to any digital cartoonist.

Ta da! Thanks for stopping by!

If you guys have any questions, I can answer them in the comments.

If you’re in the Albuquerque area, I wanted to invite you to a Mal and Chad event I’m doing at Barnes and Noble. I’m going to give a short presentation on drawing comics, then read a passage from Mal and Chad: The Biggest, Bestest Time Ever! and then do a signing. This event is specifically designed for kids, but if you’re a grown-up, you’re still invited!

The event will be Saturday, September 24 at 3:30 PM and will take place at the Barnes and Nobles next to the Coronado mall. Here’s the store address:

Barnes & Noble, Inc. Store 2049
6600 Menaul Boulevard
Albuquerque, NM 87110

Hope to see you there!

The Mal and Chad strip was a blast to do, but it is finished and I have no plans to do any more strips. Mal and Chad still live a bright, full existence in the books, so this doesn’t bother me to much. However, some people still tell me they miss the strip– and that’s why I’m pulling this off my hard drive and posting it online today!

I did this exclusive Mal and Chad strip as a promotional illustration for a flyer made to entice independent booksellers to order copies of Mal and Chad to sell. That’s why the strip takes place primarily in a bookstore. Enjoy!

Hey peeps! I wanted to show you guys this cool event I did a while back in promotion of a Mal and Chad book signing that took place in my home town of Los Alamos.

(drum roll, please)

I made Mal and Chad graffiti!

The local art store there has a wall specifically designated for graffiti, and the owner invited me to draw a Mal and Chad mural for them.

That morning I sat down with my parent’s cute dog (who was a partial inspiration for Chad) and together we sketched out a cool stencil to use in the mural.

Everything looked good, so I cut out the stencil.

Then I headed down to the wall, where some other artists were already doodling on the walls with various spray paints. The crazy thing about this event was that I only had about an hour and a half to paint the mural! I had to lay down paint quick, or I wouldn’t finish!

Not bad for an hour and a half of work, huh?

Here’s a picture of me and the other people who were there painting and helping out.

Special thanks to the Village Arts store for letting me draw on your graffiti wall!