Legend Of Bill

A look at the new Legend of Bill comic (drawn directly under the LAST comic!)  as it was seen in progress (ultimately completed inks)… straight in the sketchbook ye olde fashioned way. I should offer this up for sale… I get quite a few sketch commission requests, this is right up an LoB fan’s alley!

Good morning or afternoon Billbarians! (Depending on where you reside)  Our Dungeon Master Extraordinaire, David Reddick, has asked me to do a little blog post on the “in progress” KOHR wall paper, and maybe explain my process a little. So here it goes! Sometimes inspiration hits like a freight train, and things just fall into place, not very often, but it does happen. And in the case of this KOHR piece it most certainly did. As soon as I read the “BIO” strip David posted about the many dragons that Kohr had slain, I started to hear the Song in Disney’s beauty and the Beast about Gaston, and remembered the scene about his “Trophy” room. So I immediately sat down and sketched a very quick doodle on a post it note.

I sketch ideas on “Post-it” notes all the time so I do not lose my idea. So that afternoon I started to sketch my idea on a piece of 19×24 newsprint, and it just flowed out.

The initial sketch only took about 90 minutes. And it actually was a pretty tight sketch. This is where the internet and social media become very important to me. I currently sit in my house trying to make a go at illustrating freelance full time. While this is great at times, I do not have an art director or any studio mates to bounce ideas off of or get any critiques. And these things are extremely important to grow as an artist. I might think something looks great, but in reality, it could be much much better. And in the case of my Kohr sketch, this was very true. I posted my initial sketch on face book in various places, and also on Google +. I got some very positive feed back, and people seem to really enjoy the sketch,

so I started inking it up in Photoshop. It was at this point that Glenn Zimmerman, a studio mate of David’s at PAWS (the Garfield studio, and David and Glenn’s day jobs), mentioned that I might want to show some arm, and make him a little broader.

So I went back to my initial sketch, and digitally in Photoshop, redrew Kohr according to the feedback I received.

And the end result, comparing the two sketches, was mind blowing. So instead of having what I think would have been an adequate illustration, I think we are well on the way to have an illustration that meets the high standards of the LOB universe and the fans.

So this is where the sketch is at this point, and I will continue to post progress to get feed back and improve. Then with any luck, I will trick Don (LoB’s exceptional, wizard colorist) into coloring this one, because it is going to be a huge pain in the ass, and he is a WAY better colorist than I am.

Thanks for reading, and if you have any questions, please drop me an email or hit me up on Facebook. I need to have as many friends as David, that’s my goal! Well gotta go draw a Barwench Tales before David beats me again…

Thanks

Jason

A little sneek peek at how I create the Legend of Bill comic, in its beginning stages, in this case, some upcoming Kohr strips, as Bill (and Frank) delve deeper into what is Kohr, and how this may play out well… or not.

I write the comics directly into Photoshop, where I’ve created my own font, templates for the comic, etc. I then, very often, print the writing out in a batch and loosely doodle the action, tweak the words a bit, etc. I often do this at Panera Bread or a Starbucks. I of course always have my sketchbook handy for doodles and poses and facial expressions (and just general fun)… then, once I’ve staged things a bit, I go back and begin drawing in Photoshop directly on my large monitor Cintiq 21UX (where I can draw directly on the screen with a stylus.) But as you know, sometimes I draw on board in pen and ink as well, depending on my mood!