Jellybots: Lizzie

As long as the ideas keep coming, I'm gonna keep riding this thing out...we'll see where it goes!

This is Lizzie :D

She's based off my friend, Lizzie (who, after I did one based on Jen, asked for her own :p) And I realize this has effectively opened the floodgates for anyone who wants a portrait (which wasn't my intention) but I'm trying not to design characters I don't actually believe in.

I've been jamming on plot development with my friend Peter, and at the same time I was considering..."what kind of character would I turn Lizzie into?" he spontaneously wrote me a draft of a script (yay!) that contained a character named Anne who was pretty much all the buck-toothed, awkward, befreckledness I had been dreaming of.

So here she is...in the current scheme of things she may even be the protagonist...a young girl who doesn't quite know who to be. She's kind of a lot of crazy energy all pent-up in a very self-conscious shell. (hence the little doodles: a) has obnoxious laugh, b) is embarrassed) The kind of girl who would decorate her suit with smiling stars, but get a little shy if you brought it up. Also, she likes llamas (not pictured).

Spring/Summer/Any-Sunshine-At-All couldn't come soon enough. I was thinking about pink lemonade all the while I was working on this...I think Jellybots in general is my way of pulling myself out of Winter and into Spring. Hope you all like it! It is, after all, for you!

Also: Cheers, Lizzie! Welcome to the lineup! Now don't ask me for anything ever again. ;)

God is love!

-n

PS: I'm not sure anyone's noticed, but I've updated the blog with tabs! In particular, I've been updating the "Playlist" section with music that's really inspiring me. Which will also keep me from spamming it here :p But check over there for new songs every now and then! Hooray!

Jellybots: Jen

Another one? It's true! From 3am in the morning I bring you: Jen!

I'm just continuing to jam on this topic and see what happens as it develops...as Ideas occur I'm trying to get them down on paper. I've also been really throwing down ideas and rearranging them in terms of where the plot is going. I don't want to rush it, but I do think this could have a lot of story potential. It's funny: but I'm experiencing how hard it is to just write a fun story that doesn't get soooo SERIOUS.

Anyways, this is for my friend Jen Hom, who wanted her very own Jellybot :) So it's not a portrait per-se, but I tried to get the gist of her in 'bot form. Of course I picked a color palette she probably wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole (teal was already taken, Jen, sowwy!) HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY! :p Anyways, I'm having a ton of fun on these...I mean...I was up till 3am last night making sure this got done. Hope y'all are enjoying them too! We'll see where this goes. I've got a couple more character ideas in the queue before I have to figure out what next. Hopefully those will materialize soon!

Oh, and at this point of development, I'm open to any and all ideas and suggestions: so let me have em!

Cheers!

-n

Jellybots, Craig?

I guess I'm on a roll? I had some time and the inspiration...so rather than doing my taxes, I did this tonight!

I enjoyed slapping the Candyman together so much, I figured I'd keep going and work up a portrait of another character I've been sketching. I think his name is Craig? I'm not sure yet, though. I'm open to better ideas.

Just to prove that not EVERYTHING is happy-go-lucky in Jellybots-world (just most things)...Craig is a big bully, and not terribly bright or open minded. A kid with a Jelly suit and something to prove. Small ears, big mouth, and one 'eye'. Not really a sensitive listener.
Kind of the result of my thinking about the range and variety of suits and forms possible. I'm trying to keep them simple, but distinct in terms of silhouette...and as things move forward I hope to get crazier and crazier.

In a lot of ways he's a less adventurous design than the Candyman...I mean, we're all pretty super-saturated with lantern-jawed neckless badasses. But why not one more, for old times' sake?

Jellybots, The Candyman

Hi guys!

I've been feeling a little aimless since I wrapped up work on my Flight comic. Things have been crazy-busy, but that's not the same as having a project to work on. So I've been thinking about a few different stories and ideas I've had bouncing around my brain, and I thought I'd do a little development on whatever strikes my fancy.
Today, it's Jellybots. This is the first work I've done for myself in a few weeks.

So this is (working alias) The Candyman. He works with the kids, and (in the current version of the story I've been fantasizing about) he's the only grown-up who can interface with the Jelly. He's kind of a eccentric/kooky mentor ala Miss Frizzle :)
This is still a tentative first pass...I just wanted to get my ideas down. I'm not sure about his face and whatnot. He'll probably get adjusted and revised.

The dial on the visible side of his headgear controls what color his 'hair' is, and there's another dial on the other side that controls the style.

Oh, and his cravat is a robot that detaches to assist him.

There's no real outline for the story, but I have a lot of ideas for character designs, so that will suffice for now...I'm having fun :)

And below are a few really quick color studies I threw down last night...just to get myself in the mindset again. I'm not really fond of any of them...maybe the first. But I have little I can actually post these days, so I figured: why not?

FLIGHT, DUDE.

GUYS. It's done.

For the last several months it has been my worst-kept secret that I have been working on an 18-page submission for Volume 8 of the Flight anthology. (Which happens, tragically, to be the series' last volume)

It's basically both a dream-come-true opportunity, and the longest comic I've ever written. It has also been the most fun I've had working on anything in a long time.

I hope you guys don't mind if I take the opportunity to wax a little sentimental:

The Flight anthology has been such an important thing to me, over the last several years.

If you've talked to me, you know I love comics and (despite pitifully little work to show for it) I love making them. Graduating from RISD was an intense experience, and by the end I had to make a hard decision: what was I going to pursue?

Long story short- I made a list of things I wanted to do...things I really felt like I wanted to do. It was short list, and at the top of it was "Be part of Flight". Even above working for Pixar.

I really don't think there's much else like Flight out there.

As I pondered whether I wanted to enter the American comics' industry, I learned how hard the work is, how small the pay, and how little creative input or control someone like me would have most of the time. Past all of the myriad of superhero books I've slowly stopped reading, one by one, I realized my love was for webcomics and for Flight. I feel that Flight is the tangible representation of that new spirit of webcomickery that's growing (which includes works like The Meek, Rice Boy, and Bird Boy among countless others): why not use the medium of comics to tell honest, true stories that come right from the heart of the artist? Comics that aren't out to just make a buck or fill a monthly billing. So Flight, to me, has been this beautiful haven of freedom. So many great artists have told great stories through it's pages and it's a heartbreaking shame that it can't last forever. But I am so grateful to have been allowed to be a part of it.

It's been a labor of love, completely.

Now, I guess I need a new dream :P

Above is a tiny preview panel of the finished piece, and below is some of the concept art I did for myself before I started out.

As the release approaches, I may post more of the in-process work...just because I think it might be neat to see?

Nonetheless, to see more of the good stuff you'll just have to buy yourself a copy of Flight vol. 8 :P And let me assure you, having seen some of the work that's been done for it: it will be WELL worth your money. It's going to be an incredible send-off for the Flight series. I am SO incredibly excited to have my work printed alongside some of my heroes'.

And if the Lord wills it, plans are for me to be in San Diego come July for Comic Con, where I'll be sitting at the Flight table for signing! I would love to meet any and all of you, so if you're going to be there, stop by!

A Few Things...

So I know I uploaded a bunch of work in a hurry, and now I've totally gone quiet again. For which I am sorry. I'm totally swamped right now with work both at the studio and at home...all of which is totally fun, and none of which can be shown just yet. :)

The work-work I won't be able to talk about until our game ships, but the personal work may or may not have anything to do with a comicentryforcoughFlightcoughohmygoshi'msoexcited.

So for now you'll have to make do with an old in-progress piece. To tell the truth, I'm not sure if I'm ever going to get around to finishing this, but it was something from a couple of months ago that popped into my head and wanted out. So, in a frenzy I knocked the inks out and just haven't been able to find that muse again, so it's all alone and, I think, kind of boring.

ALAS!

I wish the snow would stop. I feel like the moment I see grass, I'm going to cry.

Also, my friend Fabiola has been featured on this awesome blog in a totally wonderful article about Fabiola-ness. It's be best!

In other news: My Mom has landed a children's book gig, The Illusionist was gorgeous, and fantasizing/spontaneous note-taking about Jellybots is proceeding sporadically.

God is good, even when it's snowing, and especially when the sun is out.

love love,

-n

The Old Man

Hemmingway's 'The Old Man And The Sea' was the last thing my grandfather gave me before he passed away years ago.

Only just now did I finally read it, and then I did this quick doodle (and since my doodles are in color now, I feel justified in uploading them!) Sort of to commemorate the occasion, and to continue to explore some new stylistic stuff in Photoshop, and to procrastinate, if I'm being perfectly honest (which one should always be on the internet :p). He's a bit...whiter...than he should be. Alas.

I also just read Blankets for the first time. Heavy stuff, all around.

-n