Long time no talk, huh?  Well I'm sorry for being incommunicado for so long, but sadly I haven't had much new to report lately...until now.

I won't go into too much detail here, but I did want to swing by to tell you about a new site I put up and to let y'all know about a project my good friend Jeff Dabu and I have been working on.  It's a mockumentary-action-spy-humour comic, and you can read more about it over at Season of the Shark.

Anyway, that's about it for now, but in the mean time, here's a sneak peek at the cover to issue #1.

Later,

-Ed

To say I was surprised by what I found there would be a ridiculous understatement, and ever since then I've had certain thoughts pecking away at the back of my mind that I just needed to try and put into words.

Before I go on though, let me make one thing quite clear. What surprised me wasn't that Gutters got nominated...well okay, it surprised me a little. Not because I feel that Gutters is lacking in quality, but rather because I am kind of a pessimist so I'd be at least a tiny bit  surprised that something I've had a hand in got nominated for anything. 

In truth though I honestly feel that Gutters nominations in "writing", "online comic", "humor" (or as the Canadian in me demands I type out at least once, "humour"), and "new series" are well deserved.  Everyone involved in this project has worked incredibly hard at making it the best it possibly can be with each page that gets produced. Sure, some pages are better received then others, but viewed as an overall body of work I feel we've done a great job of coming up with something quite wonderful and I'm proud to be a part of it.

Were there other comics or creators that should've maybe made the list of nominees as well? Of course. And I'm not just talking about in the categories that Gutters got nominated for. I don't think there's a single category in the Harvey's where any number of people couldn't come up with a list of at least a dozen other books or professionals that they feel got passed over that should've been nominated.

I mean who hasn't thought like that whenever they hear about the lists of nominees for any type of award show? I know I have. It's inevitable, and for some it's even quite enjoyable to sit back and come up with their own list. However in this case I do stand by my previous statement that in my honest (though let's face, possibly biased) opinion that I feel comfortable seeing Gutter listed in all those categories I just mentioned.

So no, seeing Gutters listed there didn't really surprise me.

Seeing my name listed in the "colorist" category, did surprise me however.  And not just due to the fact that, as I mentioned before, I'm a natural pessimist (though that is part of it). No, you see as a full time colorist I'm one of those odd folks who constantly follows other colorist's work the same way that a lot of readers follow pencilers or writers. When I'm reading a book or see a panel or page online one of the first things I do is look past everything else and focus on the colorist's work. And if I'm blown away and I can't tell just from looking at it who coloured them, then I usually stop right there, find out who the colorist was, and start checking out what other work they've done.

So when I saw my name on the list of nominees for "best colorist", the first thing I did was suddenly come up with my own list of people who's work I would've put on the list instead.  I couldn't stop myself. Names just started popping into my brain.  Granted some of the names I came up with were already on that list, but there were at least half a dozen others who I feel had every right to be there too.

At the same time though, as someone who has currently dedicated his entire art career solely to being a colorist and has worked incredibly hard on Gutters, LFG, Evil Inc, Terminals, and whatever other projects I've been lucky enough to have come my way, I admit that I am pretty happy to be on that list.  Yes, not every page I've done on Gutters has been gold, and as my own worst critic I do tend to focus mostly on my failures there, but overall I am proud of the work I've done.  As well I feel Gutters presents a colorist with certain challenges that could possibly warrant a bit of this type of attention.

Don't get me wrong, I still feel among the other nominees that I am firmly in the "it's an honor just to be nominated" zone, but at the same time I don't feel completely out of place either.

Which brings me to what has been pecking away at the back of my mind all day and well into the night...

The last category that Gutters received a nomination for was "best artist". Specifically, me for "best artist".  And I gotta tell ya folks, I can't help but feel that's just completely and utterly wrong.

Do I feel that colorists are artist who deserve to be seen as such just as much as anyone else working in the creative side of comics? You bet your ass I do. If you took Laura Martin's name and put it in that category along with her nomination for colorist, I wouldn't even think twice about it. Same goes for any number of colorists or other artists who might have been listed in two categories like that. But me? No, I just can't let myself  be okay with that.

I'm not saying this to try and be humble or out of some neurotic inability to accept praise, but rather because I just flat out feel it's the truth.  Maybe in the future when I've become a more well rounded artist in general or am at the top of my game as a colorist, sure. However I just don't feel comfortable with a "best artist" nomination at this point in my career.

I mean let's face it, unless I'm totally unique in my way of thinking, typically when you see a "best artist" category in comics I'd imagine the first thing the average person would think of is the penciler, right?  Essentially it's a category put in place to single out the main artistic voice behind a comic, which is almost always the penciler.  I mean it's great that they opened up that category a bit by attaching a broader title to it which allows people who might not quite fit the "penciler" mould a well deserved shot at it. Or, like I mentioned before, I personally would also consider people like Laura Martin to be someone who would deserve to be in the running.  And I would feel the same for anyone who's ability might take them beyond whatever category specifically targets what they are best known for in comics.  But in my case I just feel like I've been thrust into something I'm not completely comfortable with.

In other words, I get the impression that the professionals who voted me in for that category weren't actually expressing that they felt I was indeed the best fit for it.  Instead I suspect they wanted to express their overall enjoyment of a comic that doesn't have another consistent artist working on it, so by default picked me.  Which, while awful kind of them, isn't in the spirit of what I feel that category should represent. As well, in my mind that sentiment was already covered by Gutters  "best online comic" nomination.

Anyway, later today (once I've had some sleep) I am going to try and get in contact with The Harvey Awards and ask to be removed from the "best artist" category (though to be clear, not the "colorist" category). In doing so I would mean no disrespect to the Harvey Awards (quite the opposite actually) or anyone who voted for me. In fact I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone kindly for doing so. At the end of the day though I have to do what I feel is right for me, and at this moment in time and at this point in my career, withdrawing from that specific category just feels like the right thing to do.

In the future however, if I ever find myself back in this exact same position, I promise I will just shut the hell up and try my best to enjoy such a nomination in silence...for at least 24 hours anyway, and then I'd make the exact same call.

Later,

Ed

PS: Oh, and for some of the more snide people out there, I'm well aware that my dropping out of that category still gives me roughly the same odds of winning that I would have had if I had stayed in. Trust me though, this isn't about my chances of winning or losing, it's about what I feel is best for the spirit of the "best artist" category and the Harvey Awards in general.  Because if I truly thought I should be there to begin with, I wouldn't care if I felt my chances of winning were slightly less then getting hit by lighting as I won lottery, wild horses wouldn't be able to drag me away from that list of nominees.



Wow! Been almost two years, huh? My how time flies!

To be honest I planned on posting the first entry of my triumphant return to blogging back on April 1st so that it would coincide with the one year anniversary of my switching to doing freelance art full-time, but not surprisingly deadlines kinda got in the way. Add in the fact that at the best of times I'm pretty god awful at taking the time to type something out and well, let's just say that I'm kinda shocked that this is coming out only a couple weeks late.

Now what I had originally planned to do was a write up about how things have changed for me over the past year as well as letting you know both what I'm currently working on, and what projects I've got coming up in the near future.  Sadly though, that would take far too much time then I have right now.  So instead I decided to start a bit simpler and just post a few of my favorite pages from Gutters that I've done in the past year.  Then maybe next time if I still haven't gotten around to writing up a more in-depth description of what I've been up to, I'll share some of my favorite pages from Terminals, or Evil Inc or something else I've had the pleasure of working on lately.

For now though...on to the Gutters!

The page below by Ryan Lee is still to this day one of the only bits of work I've done where I feel like I couldn't have done any better on it even if I had a chance to do it all over again. As well, it's one of the rare times where I actually I got to paint something rather then just "colour" it, if that makes any sense.

Also, while I can't speak for other colorists, I know for myself at least that painting someone's pencils is a much tougher process then colouring inked lineart, but when you get the right artist to work off of, I'll be damned if I can think of any other type of work that is more rewarding.

Linework by : Ryan Lee

Click on the pic above to see the full sized image

The linework with this next page was done by the amazing, Guy Allen. One of the only downsides of Gutters is that since the artwork is provided by an ever changing group of artists, and the turn around time for me to finish a page can be insanely short, it can be extremely hard at times for me to figure out how best to colour certain peoples work on the fly like that. In fact when I start a new project I prefer to take a very long time with the first page or two just to get the feel of what works and what doesn't, but for Gutters that's just not an option.

With Guy however, even though I haven't done an exact tally, I'm pretty sure he's responsible for more Gutters pages then any other artist to date. Which means that with him I've already had the rare opportunity to learn from my past mistakes. So with this page not only was I allowed to draw on the previous experiences I had working with Guy's art, but also with my past efforts on Evil Inc a well where I tried to give certain strips a sort of aged look.

Linework by : Guy Allen

Click the pic above to see the full sized image

I'm really not a fan of the Hulk. Never have been. But sweet jeezus do I love this page! Kevin Stokes is such an awesome artist whose work is almost impossible for a colorist to screw up. With some artists I feel like I really have to stretch or adapt to get the colours to look or work right, but with Kevin I feel like the style I've personally grown most comfortable doing is the exact right fit for his art.

Granted I have no idea how Kevin feels about how I colour his work, so for all I know he took one look at this and said "Wow, did that dude ever fuck up my page!", but personally I'm quite happy with it.

Linework by : Kevin Stokes

Click the pic above to see the full sized image

Okay, I actually have about three other pages I wanted to show, but since I am the world's slowest writer this has taken me far too long as it is, and I really need to get back to work. Still, I'll try to get part 2 of this entry up over the weekend (or at the very least in less then a year and a half from now).

Later,

Ed

So here are two more portfolio pages for y'all to see.

First up we have a Gen 13 page which I picked because I've never coloured anything even remotely mangaesque before, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

Why was a Gen 13 book was done in this style, you ask?  Well truth be told I don't really follow the book so I haven't a clue actually (though I am fairly certain it's not normally done like this..right?).  However this was taken from an annual instead of a the regular series, so maybe it was sort of a "What if?" one shot type of thing.

Pencils by Kaare Andrews

Inks by Mark Irwin

Colours by me

Click the pic above to see the full sized image

Next up we've got a Green Lantern page that oddly enough doesn't have a single member of the GLC on it (though it does have Alan Scott, so at least that's something). Can't really remember why I specifically picked this page, but I'm guessing it had something to do with the fact that it allowed me to colour Superboy Prime, Cyborg Superman, and Sups himself all on one page. Sadly, no Krypto though, but no page can perfect I guess.

I should also point out that I spent way too much time tweaking this page once it was done. Don't get me wrong, I think it's always good to take another pass at something that just doesn't look perfect to you, but there comes a point for me where if I obsess about a page for too long I lose all sense of perspective and begin to second guess everything I've done. That's where I'm at right now. So in the end I figured the best thing for me to do at this is just post it, move on, and then look at it again in a couple weeks with fresh eyes.

Pencils by Ivan Reis

Inks by Júlio Ferreira

Colours by the man sitting here wearing nothing but a smile and a wacom tablet

Click the pic above to see the full sized image

Alrighty folks, that's it for me.  Have yourselves a wonderful weekend and I'll see y'all when I have more to show you.

Later,

-Ed

Sorry for the long delay between updates. Most of the time I get so wrapped up in doing the work I have laid out in front of me that I forget to take enough time out to actually show it to y'all.

Anyway, here are a couple more pages from the colorist portfolio that I'll be carpet bombing editors with in the next couple months.

First up, much like the last one, we have page inked by Tim Townsend. This is one of those pages that really shows the unbelievable talent of Townsend, and how he can take an already beautiful page and then turn that bitch all the way up to 11. Seriously, for those of you out there who still think inkers are just "tracers", I dare you to check out this man's work and not be blown away.

My only regret with this page is that I wasn't able to get a clearer high-res version to work from.

But enough blabbing, here's the pic...

Pencils by Chris Bachalo

Inks by Tim Townsend

Colours by some jackass who doesn't update his site often enough

Click the pic above to see the full sized image

The second page I've got for ya is the first of two Green Lantern pages I've done up (I'll post the other one in a week or so).

When I pick pages to do for my portfolios I always try find ones that will be a bit of a challenge, or that'll allow me to work on one of my (many) problem areas. So this next page I chose because I figured it would be a real bitch to light properly.

As well I have a horrible habit of going off the deep end when I need to add any type of glow effect to something I colour. I try my best to keep this tendency under control, but sadly it often gets the better of me. In fact I can easily point out a couple dozen of Brad's strips that I feel I went totally over board on. I won't mind you, but I could if I felt like putting my numerous past mistakes on display for your entertainment.

Anyway, I knew that this particular page could do with a bit of a glow here and there, so I figured this might a perfect opportunity to show some restraint on my part.

Pencils by Ivan Reis

Inks by Julio Ferreira

Colours by me

Click the pic above to see the full sized image

Well that's it for now I think. I'll see you guys in a week or so when I finally get around to posting yet another portfolio page.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a tattoo to get back to work on.

Later,

-Ed

Well I'm finally getting around to posting some of the portfolio pages I've been working on this year.  For those of you who read this who may not know, a lot of artists create portfolios to send around and try and help drum up work for themselves and catch the eyes of potential employers.  Think of it as sort of a resume with pictures rather than words. 

In my case I'm currently working on a colouring portfolio that I'll be sending out to various publishers as well as handing out at this year's San Diego Comic Con.  SDCC is one of, if not the best show for artists such as myself to try and find work, as there are dozens of publishers represented there that are constantly looking for talent.  As well, it's one of only two shows of the year where DC comics accepts open submissions (which they refer to as their "talent search").

Anyway, over the next couple weeks I'll be dropping by here and posting different pages from my portfolio for y'all to look at, which you'll hopefully get a kick out of seeing.

So the first one I did up for 2009 was a two page spread from the House of M series that Marvel did a couple years back (be sure to click the pic below to see the full sized version). 

Pencils by : Olivier Coipel

Inks by : Tim Townsend

Colours by : Me

Click the pic above to see the full sized image 

Most of the time when I pick a practice or portfolio page to colour I do so because I want to try my hand at a specific pencilers work or comic title (which is why I will always have at least one Green Lantern page in my arsenal at any given time).  My picking this page however had way more to do with the inker than anything else.

I never really used to pay that much attention to the work of the various inkers that are out there busting ass each and every day to make the pencilers look good (and in some cases, look better than they really are) until I started seriously working towards a career in colouring.  Now that I have however, I've got to say that Townsend is by far one of my favourites.

Alrighty folks, that's it for me for now.  I'll be back in a couple of days to post another page for y'all to take a peek at.

Later,

-Ed

Yeah, I know it's been a while, but I'm hoping to make up for my lack of activity by posting multiple art updates over the next couple weeks.  Before I do that though I just I wanted to do a quick plug for a project I did some colouring work on late last year which has since come to fruition...

Brad Guigar's Evil Inc Annual Report Vol 4 is now up for pre-sale over at Evil Inc.  Now if you've never bought one of Brad's Annual Reports in the past there are a couple things you should know.  First off, unlike a lot of webcomic collections, Brad doesn't simply throw all his strips in a book and be done with it.  What he does is completely reformat a years worth of material and lay it all out so that his books have the look and feel of a proper graphic novel, which results in an impressive new reading experience.

The other thing I wanted to point out about this particular book is that for the first time ever the Annual Report is being presented in full colour.  Not only that, but the strips you'll find inside are all from the year before I even started colouring the webcomic, so they've never actually been seen in colour before now.

Brad and I put a lot of time and effort into this project so that it could be available in colour, and I think all that hard work and dedication have resulted in book that you folks will really get a kick out of.  So if you have a bit of extra coin kicking around, please head on over to Evil Inc and pre-order the Evil Inc Annual Report Vol 4 today.

Alrighty folks, that's it for me for now.  I'll be back on either later tonight or this time tomorrow at the latest to post one of my portfolio pages for y'all to look at.

Later,

-Ed

PS: I am insanely tired right now as I write this, so kindly forgive any typos you may have found.

Been a long time.  How ya been?  Really?  Awesome! Now lets get back to talking about me, shall we?

A while ago, Lar, put the idea in my head of trying out caricature work, and ever since then I've been sort of batting the idea around, but never really followed through on it.  Well, to be honest I have made a couple passes at this art form in the past, but I never really felt comfortable with the results, so I quickly abandoned the idea.

Then recently I noticed another artist who's work I've enjoyed for a couple years now stepped out of her comfort zone and tried her hand at some caricatures, and posted the (quite impressive) results on her blog.  So in the end I decided maybe it was time I grew a pair and gave it another shot.

Now, being the conceited guy that I am, I decided the best subject for my first attempt would of course be myself.  Also, I figured if I was going to offend anyone with a piss poor likeness, it would be best if that person wasn't someone who would either inflict bodily harm, or withhold certain intimate favours from me (or quite possibly both).

And so this is what I came up with in my first attempt...

Not exactly perfect, no, but I think it shows a lot more promise then the stuff I did a few years ago.

Anyway, I guess it's time for me to wrap this up with another comment filled with good intentions and hopeful promises to update this blog again soon, but which will eventually prove to be completely false, and then get back to work.

Later,

-Ed

PS: I recently added more links to my links page, but I'm still far from done. So if you're not up there, and you're pretty sure you should be, please don't be offended.  I'm sure you'll find yourself kicking around there sooner or later.

It occurred to me today that even though I've been doing a fair amount of colouring as of late, I haven't sketched anything in quite a while.  So I figured it was about time I dusted off my digital pencils and threw some shit down in Photoshop.

Oddly enough, once this one was all said and done, I found I was more happy with the sketch itself rather than the job I did on the colours.  Granted I didn't spend a whole lotta time on this piece, but that's kind of a lame excuse. I just feel the colours here are a bit too bland, and rather...I don't know...kinda pedestrian I guess. So I'm thinking of maybe using this piece as a sort of a practice zone for me to try out as few different things.

More often than not when I'm working on Brad's stuff I tend to play it pretty safe and use the same bag of tricks over and over instead of getting too experimental.  Mainly this is because I know that Brad has worked hard over the years to develop a very specific style to his artwork, and despite the fact that said style has changed, it has done so at a very natural and gradual pace.

This has allowed Evil Inc to have a nice consistency to it that I feel people have come to appreciate and expect.  So out of respect for that consistency I do my best to augment it rather than destroy it.  Which means that even though I have tweaked and altered a few things with my EI colours over the past year or so, I tend to shy away from using his strip as a testing ground for drastically new techniques and colouring methods (unless of course a specific storyline requires it).

As well, the other project I'm working on right now demands a very particular colouring style that I have already worked out with the writer, and therfore I can't really deviate from it.  Which means that if I want to do any type if experimenting at all, I best be doing it on my own time, and on stuff that no one else is really gonna care about or see.

And trust me when I say that I really want to get some extra practice in.  After all, San Diego is only a few months away, so I best be getting my ass in gear and do all I can before I need to start putting a new portfolio together.

Anyway, to make a long story longer, I might be posting a few versions of this particular piece over the next couple of weeks, so keep your eyes open for either that or maybe even some more new work.

Alrighty, time for me to try and grab some sleep.

Later,

Ed

PS: Sorry about the big copyright symbol gumming up the visuals a bit, but given all the infringement stories I've heard over the past couple of years, I figured it was better to be safe than sorry.

Just a quick note to say that if you're even half the Half-Life fan that I am, then this should pretty much blow you away.  Enjoy

 Later,

Ed