I have a handful of outstanding commissions, some of which are quite old, which I have not completed, usually because I’ve received either no guidance or at best vague suggestions. Some of these commissions are from backers of the Suburban Jungle Kickstarter, others are charity auction winners, etc., and so I realize that the recipients of said commissions might not mind that they’ve never actually received ‘em.

However, having them sit there on my too-much-to-do list for years is starting to poke at me. So as of next Saturday (April 6), I will be going down my “to do” list and marking any and all outstanding commissions as “completed.” If you feel I owe you some art, please let me know via thegneech@gmail.com ASAP and I’ll make it good, whether via art or refund.

Thanks!

-The Gneech

Just a heads-up, all you happy people! I will be running a “Penciling 101″ panel on Saturday, April 6, 4:30 p.m. at Fur The ‘More: Time Traveler’s Party in Baltimore, MD. This is the first outing of a brand new furry con! It should be fun.

The panel will cover some basic artistic concepts, including thinking in shapes, the magic grid, and dynamic posing. I’ll also do my best to answer questions and offer specific tips as needed. Hope to see you there!

-The Gneech

25 Essential Expressions– Tanya by ~the-gneech on deviantART

Expressions, round two! I’ve reached the point in the new comic where Tanya shows up, and it’s time to get her appearance hashed out.

I love Tanya, but she’s tough do draw.

Verity exercise here: http://the-gneech.deviantart.com/art/25-Essential-Expressions-Verity-348688888

Original exercise sheet here: http://napalmnacey.deviantart.com/art/25-Essential-Expressions-55523083

-The Gneech

Verity and Tanya Ref Sheet by ~the-gneech on deviantART

I made this for my and my colorist’s reference, but it also makes a nice teaser for the new comic. Here are the updated incarnations of Verity and Tanya, together for the first time in their new context and with character designs complete.

Verity’s a bookish nerd with an affinity for gadgets; Tanya would kick butt and take names, except she doesn’t actually give a damn what your name is. Both of them have to make their way on a future planet that’s made of crazy.

Tentatively scheduled to launch this summer. More details as they get ironed out!

Both characters copyright ©2012 by me (John “The Gneech” Robey), all rights reserved.

25 Essential Expressions– Verity by ~the-gneech on deviantART

One of the things I always regretted about my previous comics was that I never really put a lot of the professional-level homework into them, not the least of which is an expressions sheet. So for my current one, I decided to remedy this. I grabbed this template for the task: http://napalmnacey.deviantart.com/art/25-Essential-Expressions-55523083

Holy cats, this is a lot more work than it looks like. But on the upside, I now have a proper expressions reference for Verity. The hardest one to settle on was actually “flirty,” as Verity is not exactly a seething cauldron of self-assurance and social adeptitude. (Is that a word?) So I went with “giggly and embarrassed” instead, which is pretty much how she’d react to anybody she really found attractive. “Fierce” and “rage” were tough choices as well, considering how neither of those things Verity tends to be.

I’ll need to do one of these for Tanya too, but I have some time before that since she doesn’t actually appear until about 5 pages into the comic.

-The Gneech

Manga Studio Study — New Comic Panel by ~the-gneech on deviantART

My first ever completely-digital-from-start-to-finish comic panel, done in Manga Studio. On top, all the working layers I used, including perspective lines, blueline roughs, sketch, and ink; underneath, just the inks. I haven’t decided if I want to try adding tones for shadows in Manga Studio, or just leave that to the coloring process.

This single panel took me several hours, but a lot of that time was spent learning the tools, in particular the focus line ruler and parallel line rulers.

There’s a lot to like about Manga Studio– being able to ink while zoomed way the heck in is huge– but there’s no denying that it has a steep, steep learning curve. Intuitive, it is not.

But powerful? Oh yes. It is powerful. This may just be one small 10″x3″ (ish) panel, but what it represents is huge, to me!

-The Gneech