Willis Henry Story Thumb Part 1.1

To the Future!

Trey

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Hel-Thanatos

Moon Rabbit Story

A little story that I liked. I give this away at Conventions as a freebie.

I would also like to say "Thank You" to all of the people that came by the booth at Wonder Con. It was a special moment for me and the Orange Shirt Guys.

Trey

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Nidhogg Maw

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Dragon Bone Cave


(Note: I will be at the WonderCon this weekend booth 717 "Orange Shirt Studios". The guys and I will be selling our first comic called "Unforeseen Voyage"; of which the first chapter of 3Rings is included. I'm so excited! Trey )

3 Rings Comic Process: Panel MockUp

Learning and Troubleshooting

I think everything is a process, and learning the process is the hardest part.
I made the Comic to learn the whole Comic Making process.

Some of the things I learned were:

Story Process and Phases
Character Designing
Working in the Comic Format
Making Backgrounds in WaterColor
Inking
Lettering

I Learned a lot in the making of the comic, and now I have a better idea about how to improve the process which leads to Troubleshooting.

Troubleshooting.

So you can't change the past but I can make improvements for future comics.

Difficulties:

Time (not enough of it)
Over estimated my ability
I hobbled everything together
I was wasteful.
time issues
little time for quality check, adjustments and corrections

The biggest issue is Time. I did not know how long making a comic would be. It took me over one year (1 year and 3 months) to make a 18 page comic. It seemed that everything took at least 3 times as long to do. Now some of that was my inexperience, I also overestimated my own abilities to a great extent.

Solutions

Make a Dummy Comic for every phase from Thumbnail to Final. Work out everything by making a dummy comic as close to the actual comic, including panel placement, lettering, character placement from the very beginning.

The biggest solution is to give yourself enough time( this is huge).

So this is what I learned from my first comic, and now on to the 2nd Ring.

Trey

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Yama's Path

3 Rings Comic Watercolor Backgrounds

3Rings Process: Backgrounds

For the 3 Rings comic all of the backgrounds, props, and animals are all painted in watercolor.

Why?
Well, for a few reasons.

I had seen the french comic 'La Chronique des Immortels' by Eckartsberg, and Kummant. The book is beautiful!

At around that time I was also doing experiments in using traditional medium for background and using the computer for character work to get a bit of the animation cel look. So the french comic was a lovely example that it could be done.
But then I thought, could this be done in a comic by me.

These were some of the main reasons for making the book using watercolor.
But it was also great practice, it gave the backgrounds texture and some random noise that gives some contrast to a computer colored character.

The first page is all the props and animals
1-3 are just about all of the background that went into making the comic.
Page 4 is one of the backgrounds that did not make it into the comic but is one of my favorites. This is an example of the black and white background study, which is what I make in preparing for the painting.

Next 3Rings Comic Process final week: What I Learned and What I would do Differently

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King Yama

3 Rings Comic Process: Characters

3Rings Process: Character

Some samples of how the characters for the 3 Rings comic were made.
Start with a ruff sketch, (usually in red pencil)
then to a tight pencil, (usually in blue pencil)
then ink (ink without eyes)
then color (color in photoshop)

The eye is made later in photoshop then placed on the character in the final scene. I do this because the characters were all drawn separately and out of context and if inked often not looking at what they should in the end scene. So I composite the eye in after to make the scene complete.

Note. Sometimes I will skip the tight pencil phase if I know what I want or have a drawing I like. But this is rare, and I usually need to ruff out the character before tightening the pencils before inking.

After inking and scanning I get rid of the white of the paper in photoshop so there is only the clean lines, and then use the color bucket to drop in color.

This was my process for making all of the characters in the 3 Rings Comic.

Next week process: Watercolor Backgrounds

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To the King

3 Rings Comic (WHY)

WHY?

Have you ever wondered if you had it in you to ...

For me it was I wonder if I can make a comic.
This all started by getting into the Long Beach Comic Con 2009, and sitting there with relatively little. Frankly I was a little embarrassed, sitting at a comic convention without a comic. So me and my con table mate Robert, thought what if we made a comic.

That started a more than a year long journey. Yep, starting in January 2010 we had a meeting with the guys to go over story ideas, and today I got my part of the a group comic to the printer. Now I feel a mix of elation and extreme tiredness.

But again why. I am a big fan of comic books. I started reading comics in the late 80s, and early 90s. Which was an interesting time to be reading. I remember the Image guys coming up, but my favorite comic was the Uncanny X-Men. I came in at the end of Marc Silvestri run and the Jim Lee start on the book, and I was astonished. The characters, the artist, the stories. I had a great time.

But then I got older, and I guess I out grew comics. My greatest reason was it seemed the stories started to repeat, and I could only take so much of a characters death, and then return. It was about that time I found manga. I think I was drawn to manga because the stories are have greater variety of genre, and the characters actually age. Manga started my learning Japanese,and even my doing a study abroad in Japan. I still read some of the series that I read when I was there. So now with my comic eyes were open I began looking at everything.

Then walking through San Diego Comic Con, I started to notice some of the European comics, and my mind was blown again. It was the european comic that made me stop and think of all the similarities and differences of approach to comic. The American love of superheroes, the Japanese use of the long narrative, and the European incredible artistry in style and genre. It is all beautiful.

All of these experiences made me think; I wonder if I have it in me to make a comic.

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Majlis al Jinn

3 Rings Comic Sample

Some friends and I are giving an anthology comic a shot.
My story is about 18 pages but here is the first 5.
We hope to have the anthology printed by WonderCon.
So until the con I will break down my hows and whys of making my first comic.

Next week: Why make a comic.

Trey

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Descent

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Attack!

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Red Dragon!

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Helios

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Surprise

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Dawn

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Chthonic Phase

Awakening

Trey

Untitled Project MPP1 Sketch 4

She is ready, she is not perfect and there are still some tweeks to her look. But I will iron out the kinks and find her true character in telling her story. All of my expectations on her overall look is complete, she is exotic, human but also otherworldly in look.
So then I moved to watercolor test to finish off her look with color tests. I like some samples more than others as I try different colors. My biggest mistake was that I wanted her hair to be jet black, so I tried using ink for her hair. That did not work for me, just alittle too black, so I will try different colors for her hair in the telling of her story.


Some rules and guidelines for this project.
Paint faster
work on watercolor technique
try various watercolor paper

The reason for this project I went to the 2010 ComicCon and realized I wanted to do a sketchbook. But I want to do a loose visual storybook.
This is to help me work on my watercolor painting skills. I would like to try some different things on this project. I hope to have it done by San Diego ComicCon 2011 but lets just see how it goes.

Trey

untitled Project MPP1 Sketch 3

Character Evolution continues.
I'm starting to feel I'm close. I like her, she is near what I was thinking about in my initial idea. When I do character designs, using different poses can help with finding her character. It helps me visualize the character moving, and makes her feel more alive.

Trey

Untitled Project MPP1 Sketch 2

Getting closer.

Untitled Project MPP1 Sketch 1

Untitled Project MPP1

One of the two big projects of my year.

It starts for me with trying to get the character.
The idea was of a young innocent girl with a slightly unnatural look.

So I started from left to right. Sometimes I can come up with what I want after only a few drawings. Yet other times, and this is one, getting the look was more of a challenge. After drawing the one on the far right, it started to click with me.

Trey

New Era

Allow Myself to reintroduce Myself.

I'm Trey Hodges; I started this blog about 4 years ago.

That seems like so long ago, but through the process of making art; I learned much and much has happend. Since my start of the Blog, I feel more positive about my art and my direction. Now, I have a better feel for where I would like to take my art and myself.


Business
I'm starting a business, or rather I'm in the process of starting a business.
It is something that I have been thinking about since my early college days. But in my youthful mind I thought I would start one "someday". Ah yes the magical "someday".

But a few years after graduating college the idea would not leave my mind, and I thought why not start now. Why wait for the "someday" and start today. So I am. On the blog I might ramble on about the business of starting my own.


Travel
I would like to live abroad, if only for a short time. So in 2014 I'm applying for a Visa and will go to Europe. Paris to be exact. Sounds crazy doesn't it. Yeah it does to me too. But again, I thought the worst the French govenment, the US government, or whichever government; they can say is No. The reply "No" really would not be so bad. It would mean nothing in my life would change to much.

However, if they say "Yes", now that would be the butterfles in the stomach "wow" moment. Because then every thing could change. So why not give it a try and see what happens I would rather a govenment deny me than I deny myself.


On to the next Era

Years after graduation I am in transition.

My next Era, a span of about another 4 year( I'm calling the next era 8-bit)
I will tell you my intentions and the things I will try to make.

Books
Willis Henry Savior of the Future
Untitled Project ( a 4 part project)
Willis Henry and the Moon Princess (Vol2)
Momotaro (childrens book)
Willis Henry and the Child of Darkness (Vol3)

I also want to do at least 1 large Watercolor painting a year.
2011: Year of the Rabbit, Vasilisa and Baba Yaga
2012: Year of the Dragon and Tiger
2013: Year of the Snake, HecateMoonKingPrincess (triptych)

What I want to accomplish this year
50 pages of Willis Henry
50 pages of Untitled Project

So lets begin again

My 8-bit Era

2011 Year of the Rabbit

A New Year Begins!!!

We can put down the past and look to the Future.

Trey

ToraSoraChibi

It has been a beast of a year.

A little image to wrap up the year of the Tiger.

Happy New Year Everyone
See ya in 2011

Trey

3 Rings Comic Prop Key

So the 3 Rings Comic is back on, and coming to an end. This image is a prop from the comic. It is one of many pieces that are waiting to be composed into something that resembles a comic. So now comes the hard part.

Trey

Hanuman

Hanuman the Monkey King!

I was working on this painting at the same time as the Torasora painting. This painting is also done in watercolor. This was one of my first larger paintings, being about 13 inches by 28 inches. I have my eye on gallery shows, so I'm trying to work larger. This one was fun and taught me a great deal about my process.

Trey

HanumanProcess

Some thumbnails on the painting process of a Hanuman painting.

ToraSoraReturn (SQ)

Torasora Final

A painting is never really done until it is cut free from its tapped board. So here is the final piece. The original idea was of a mythical tiger descending from the sky by walking on storm clouds. I made some mistakes here and there, but I like how it turned out.

Trey

ToraSoraReturn (SQ)

Deadline

Today is the end. The painting is done.

Trey

ToraSoraReturn (SQ)

Day 13

Tomorrow is the last day. So I washed the painting down, now it is time for detail work on the tiger.

Trey

ToraSoraReturn (SQ)

Day 12

Some minor tweaks.

Trey

ToraSoraReturn (SQ)

Day 11

Washed the painting down, and now I'm trying to get the sky just how I want.

Trey