Feb 27, 2012... And the Winner is...

Damn right I am cheating today... here's the results from our family's Oscar Picks...

in this years Charipar family Oscar (guessing) Challenge.. The winner with 8 correct choices is.... AYLA!

This is Ayla's first time winning, her father Andrew Charipar took the top prize the last two years and Ayla is proudly following in his foot steps.

Second place (and proving that Christmas Tree-ing WORKS!!!) is Ray Mallari with 7 correct (Random guesses).

Tied for Third place is Tracey and Granpa with 4 correct choices and Drew bringing up the rear (go ahead and insert your joke her, Trace) with only 3 correct choices.

Ayla picked the Best Picture with the Artist

No one picked best Director Michael whateverhisnameis for the Artist

Ray picked the Best actor in a leading role with the guy no one has ever heard of from The Artist (anyone see a trend here?)

Ray and Granpa picked the Best actress in a leading role with Meryl Streep from the Iron Lady (and NOT the chick from the Help... boo hoo)

Tracey and Ayla both picked the Best actress in a supporting role with Octavia Spencer from the Help as well as they both picked Best Screenplay with Midnight in Paris

No one picked the Best actor in a supporting role, Christopher Plummer from the Beginners (poor Jonah Hill... ughhh) but then again, no one picked best Adapted Screenplay with the Descendants, Best Art Direction with Hugo, or Best Visual Effects for Hugo.  Transformers AND Harry Potter were shut out in all categories!!!

Ayla picked Best Animated Feature with Rango... yeah... Rango.  PO WAS ROBBED!!!

In and Utter example of how random picking works... Ray not only picked Achievement in Cinematography with Hugo, He also picked Documentary Short with Saving Face and Costume Design with the Artist (Granpa also picked that one) and... believe it or NOT, he got Animated Short Film by randomly picking number 2... The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lassmore.  I will NEVER joke at Ray's expense again... ok, that's a lie.  he he he (is anyone still READING this??? Guess we'll find out)

Anyway, other memorable notes was Granpa picking 2 out of three for Sound Editing, Visual Effects and Sound Mixing... he picked Hugo on 2 and Hugo won all three.

The Muppet song won for Ray, Tracey and Ayla and the only three Drew got correct were all random picks with File Editing for Dragon Tattoo, Foreign Language File with a Separation and Makeup with the Iron Lady... so in other words... i Suck.

not bad for a bunch of people who only saw maybe three out of the nine nominees for Best Picture this year.  For Next years Oscars... we should all strive to do better... AND SEE MORE MOVIES!

Congrats again to Ayla.

Feb 26, 2012... Size matters

OK, not really anything new to post today but I wanted to discuss page size... and you all thought I was going to talk about something else, didn't you?

Anyway, you may have noticed on the two pages preview that the images were a little larger than a normal comic page... and that's because it will be.  A normal comic page has a "live" area of about 6x9 inches with the total page size of 6.625x10.25 inches.  My comic will be published at the larger 8.5x11 inch pages.

Why?  Cause I like it larger, that's why.

I've published some of my sketchbooks at 8.5x11 and I really, really like that size so the next volume of Cornerstone will be published at that larger size.  Much more coming soon...

-Drew

Feb 25, 2012... the Master

OK, I will admit, this is nothing to do with Cornerstone but a new sketch for Illustrious Bits Sketch Blog.  The Master from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I was doing this as a simple sketch and went all into it.  If I get time, I might do it as a complete sketch, inks and all, but we will see...

enjoy
-Drew

Feb 24, 2012... ABC's

OK, here is a bit of a 2-fer.

First off, this is the rough layout for pages one and two.  Andi and Ms. Pennyworth and class are touring the museum.  More layouts coming soon.

And now, the ABC's.

I will totally admit this up front, what I am about to tell you I did not read myself.  A good friend of mine, who's a whole lot smarter than me when it comes to these matters, read about it and then told me about it.  Probably in a "How-to" book on storytelling by Will Eisner or someone like that...

From what he told me, the ABC's of storytelling are a principle, or a rule or something like that for storytelling.  In panel to panel storytelling, one of the best ways to tell a story is to move the flow of the images in a ABC pattern.  These two pages are a good example of that.

"A" is the dino splash page one.  In the next panel the "A" dino is part of the background and Ms. Pennyworth is the "B".  In panel 2, we see Ms. Pennyworth "B" and Andi "C" and then in panel 3, a closeup of Andi "C".  The story flows from A to C, from the dino to Andi.

People may not even see it but next time you are reading a comic, a good comic story, name the elements A, B C and so forth and see if the story teller followed this principle... or rule... or whatever it is called.

-Drew

PS thanks Todd... you are the smarter one here... I said it... now shut up!

Feb 22, 2012 ... panel work

OK, the fact that I have not posted doesn't mean I have not been working on it... it just means I've been too tired to post, he he.

Anyway, i am working on Cornerstone from two angles.  The first is the script.  I am still working on writing out the script for the first 8 pages, this is the exact opposite of how I usually work.  For my first two graphic novels, i drew 95 to 100 percent of the art before I even started writing the script.

A little messed up, I know, but that's just how my mind works.  This time I am working on the script at the same time as the art.

Another step in the process is sketching out individual panels separately then combining them all together on a single art page.  This is my second attempt at page 2 panel 1.

Page one has already been laid out I just want to get a few more pages setup before I scan and post it.  More coming, I promise.

-Drew

Feb 20, 2012... Why I don't want to do Color...

Truth... The real reason I don't like to do color drawings... There are HUNDREDS of people out there that do it soooo much better than me.

For example... my daughter... ROCKED this drawing I did of Killer Croc and she's not even finished with it...

Feb 19, 2012... JEM!

Having just got back home from Mega Con just a few hours ago, I was half inspired/half tired and out of my mind... and this is what happens...

Jem from the 80's cartoon with just a few liberties... okay... a LOT of liberties, he he he.

enjoy
-Drew

Feb 17 and 18, 2012... Mega Con

OK, so maybe this is a little cheat, posting for two days in one but I have a good excuse... Mega Con in Orlando FL this weekend.  OK, even that is a lame excuse since I am only going for one day and that's not till tomorrow.  I have been working on Cornerstone but what I have been working on I can't post simply cause it would ruin some surprises within the story... "yes", this means I am actually working on a script BEFORE I start drawing... whoa, something I have never done before.  Shock, shock.

More Monday after the show.  Have a great weekend, everyone.
-Drew

Feb 16, 2012... page layouts

I had to drive into the office today for my day job so I did not have a lot of extra time to work on this but I did start the initial layouts for the first part of chapter one.  Here is the first six pages (of what might be 8 pages).

Ok, let me interrupt myself for a second here and explain a little bit about my process.  First, I come up with an idea or a "scene".  Mostly just high points of the story, like a goal I want to achieve in the story telling.  Then I proceed to small thumbnails.  This is what I have here.

More tomorrow
-Drew

Feb 15, 2012... Andi

Just a quick post to say I did some prelim sketches of Andi but I am too tired to scan them in and post them.  Just know that I DID work on them, he he he.  Post pics tomorrow

-Drew

UPDATED, here's the design of Andi.  I like the school clothes but still have to work on the overall design.

Feb 14, 2012... Happy Valentines Day

Tonight's post is about a new character who appears in the first chapter of part one of the New Cornerstone book.  Ms. Pennyworth.  She's a teacher at Andi's school.  Other than the fact she fits the "sexy teacher" model perfectly, I'm not going to say anything else about her just yet.  She's more important than she first appears and a pretty important part of the new story.

enjoy
-Drew

PS I hope everyone was nice to someone special today... tomorrow we buy candy, he he he.

Feb 13. 2012... new character design

The first part of the New Cornerstone volume starts off with a story about Andi, the witch.

It starts back when she is in High School at age 12 and then follows her to college and the police academy.

Andi is a cute, plucky red head witch who's story takes place over eight years and she does a little growing up from the start to the end.  Here is a simple face/age comparison sketch I did today.

Ultimately, the third sketch is too mature/sexy for her character and her final appearance will be closer to the "college" face.  IF she progressed beyond that, she might have made it to the mature/sexy Andi... but anyone who has read volume one knows... that won't happen.  Sorry.

More tomorrow
-Drew

Feb 12, 2012... Cornerstone Update

Not much happened today but I did finish writing up my proposal for my editor on what I plan to do for the third volume of Cornerstone.  This may not seem like a big deal but compared to what I actually wrote down the last two times... it's HUGE.

Tomorrow I work more on plotting out the events of the first part of the book.  It's a story that revolves around one of the main characters from volume one, Andi, the witch.  I don't know if I wrote about it before but in volume one her character was to appear one time, say one smart ass line and then be gone... but I kind of fell in love with her and ended up giving her a bigger role in volume one.  Anyone who has read volume one knows that it did not end well for her and I've always felt a little guilty about that.

This story brings her into the forefront, gives her a really great introduction and makes her into a much bigger, important character and going forward, she only gets more respect.  More to come...

-Drew

Feb 11, 2012... it has OFFICIALLY begun...

That's right folks.  The die has been cast.  The bones have been rolled.  My next volume of TALES FROM THE CORNERSTONE has officially started.  I will be posting EVERYDAY from now till the project is finished on my Blog so check back often.

First thing on the agenda... finish writing the plot for the first chapter and get it to my editor for review.

This is actually a very big step for me since both volume one and two of Cornerstone were done completely without a written plot, script or synopsis.  I simply started drawing and just kept going till it was done.  This time I am actually laying done the idea on paper, mapping out where everything will start, go to and end and making it just a little easier for me to follow.  Kind of like a blueprint, something I did NOT do the first two times.

You might ask yourself "how the heck is that possible?" and believe me when I tell you that when I tell people how I work on a project, most people think I am insane.  Well, "yes", I may just be... but what the heck... here we go.

more tomorrow
-Drew

Week 10 at Illustrious Bits... Cammy from Street Fighter

This is my sketch for this weeks subject over at Illustrious Bits Sketch Blog... Cammy from the Street Fighter Video Games.

Cammy is NOT my favorite character, I'm a Chun Li fan, but I do like her.  I tried something different with this one and forced the perceptive a little and I think it came out "ok".  I was truing for... something and I'm not sure it came out right.

I also added speed lines digitally but i think when I have time I will go back and add a proper background.

Slave Leia Lois Griffin

This is one of those really long lost commission requests that has taken me forever to get back to.

I had an idea and I guess this one came out pretty well.  Hope the requester likes it...

enjoy
-Drew