The First In the Hope of Many
As you can see, very quickly after I launched version 2.0 of this site, 2.1 is already live. I figured that since I design websites for a living, I should probably spend a little more time on my personal website’s design.
I went in and cleaned up all of the code, most of which was simply deleting tags in the CSS that I hid instead of removing. I also designed my own custom header in CSS, and custom email, rss and home buttons for the site as well. I haven’t learned as much about PHP in this process as I would have hoped, but I have cemented my knowledge of CSS usage and I’m very excited that this looks the way it does and I coded it correctly in addition to designing something for myself that I actually like. And doing that is quite a challenge in itself. I usually hate everything I design for my own use.
I even accomplished the subtle art of making the site look the same in IE, Firefox and Safari, and that makes me extatic. I hope to be done for a while. I like the feel of this site, I’m happy looking at it, and I feel a huge sense of accomplishment by learning something I didn’t know before. I hope you guys like it to.
End personal horn-tooting.
Just so this post isn’t entirely devoid of art, I posted the pencils for the first page of the Zabka comic. There isn’t any speech or story text just yet, so you can speculate what’s happening in the panels. Sufice it to say, it appears geeks are laying a smackdown, and there is only one man who can set things right.
Talkin Bout Tablets
Got the chance to practice a little more with my Wacom this weekend. I think I’ve finally settled into the settings and style that I like for the tablet. Here are a couple painted Zabka heads from the previous sketches I posted.
It really is so much fun to draw with a tablet instead of using my mouse like I used to. When I first started writing my comic, I couldn’t wait until I finished writing so I could start drawing. Now that I have a tablet, I can’t wait to finish drawing so I can start inking and coloring.
It looks like I need to start saving my money to eventually upgrade to a Cintiq so I can draw right on the freaking screen. At that point, I might be able to eliminate the need for pencil and paper for drawing. I guess that’s one way to go green.
Return to Order
After spending a good eight hours putting all my toys on shelves in the new office — 1 hour to install shelves, 7 hours for toy placement — I finally feel settled in my new work area. So, I celebrated by getting back to work on the Zabka comic. Here are a few head study sketches for The Zabka himself.
I think the writers and I are getting together soon to go over the story again and get started on the page layouts. In the meantime, I’m going to start doing some Macchio sketches and even do some new studies of the main characters. I feel like my style has already evolved and improved in the past couple of months, and I want to try something slightly different with the main characters.
I also got to start playing around with my Intuos 3 last weekend, and while I feel like I’m learning to draw all over again, I think I started getting a handle of it by the time I wrapped up for the day. I think I figured out the settings I want too. Using the tablet is going to save so much time it’s not even funny.
I’ll try to post some pics of the office just because the amount of toys in that room is borderline insane. All that’s left is to paint the walls in there, but I can wait a few months for that.
New Blog with New Art
Deciding to go all out on this comic creation idea, I’ve created a new “business” for myself. The new place is called Killer Robot Comics. As you can see, I already have a fancy new URL to match, and my previous portfolio site (Ten People Think I Am Cool) also now directs to the Killer Robot coming soon page.
As for how soon the site will be up, I’m not sure. Laura (my wife) and I are in the process of moving into our first house in two weeks, so art and whatnot is kind of being put on hold until the transition is completed. But fear not, I have this blog in place to showcase some of my random sketches, or to show glimpses and previews of my current projects. If you like me or my art, feel free to bookmark this blog and come back again sometime.
I’ve started this thing off right by posting some artwork from my current project (see above). It’s for a group called the Fraternal Order of the Zabka, and you can learn more about them by checking out www.billyzabka.com. They’re out to rid the world of greasy geeks who think they can move to California and learn mad Karate skills in a couple of months.