Kelci D Crawford

So in the process of making the cover art for my webcomic’s first chapter, I came across a problem:

I liked the inks…but I didn’t know how to color it. And the background? I had no idea what to do with it.

So, to work my way through it, I got another piece of paper and made these sketches:

I would call these “color keys” because I’m tinkering around with colors to see what works best in the compositions. I knew I wanted to keep the girl in the right in a blue uniform, because that uniform color was decided on LONG before I started the cover. I was figuring out the dress color for the girl on the right, and what to do with the background.

And looking at these, I’m going to go with the thumbnail on the bottom. The girl’s dress pops noticeably enough, but more importantly, the girl in uniform doesn’t disappear into the background. And the background is noticeably cool, but not distracting.

So voila! That’s just a little snippet of my work progress in action for all you lovely peeps who might be stuck on projects of your own.

Don’t Forget to Be Awesome, and I will see you again soon!

Oh shit.

Ok, so I’ve been planning on making a compilation of the comics I made during my final semester at college, right? So I was editing the pages in photoshop and I discovered…

None of my pages are adequately sized for printing.

They crop weird.

And they’re JUST THE WRONG SIZE.

Excuse me while I freak out and then brainstorm how to get out of this mess.

In the meantime, I shall work on some cover arts and commissions I promised to make for peeps. It’s usually worked where I have a problem with one project, so I work on another, and it gives me a fresh perspective on the first project’s problems. I hope that’s true this time.

Indeed, I spent most of my day decorating my walls, as these super grainy phone pictures shall prove:

I believe a good desk space should have lots of posters around it to inspire you and pin things onto it to keep you interested.

However, I DID also apply for work at the Mall AND got the number of the special services coordinator of the mall: turns out there used to be a guy who drew caricatures there on the weekends, during the holidays, but he hadn’t drawn there for a few years. I believe it’s my time to step in and do that service. :3

I still have to call the guy tomorrow and see what happens.

Also sent emails to peeps. It’s important to follow-up with the pros that you talk to, and this past year I was REALLY bad at that! I want to improve and follow-up IMMEDIATELY from now on.

Cooking dinner now: fried chicken and a baked potato. After that I’ll start drawing the covers for the webcomic and the anthology I’m planning out. No rest for the comic artist.

On the other hand, I hope to skype with some friends this Friday. I’ll start asking around. :3

Don’t Forget to Be Awesome, and I will post again tomorrow!

Man I haven’t updated this blog for a while. But I’ve been up to a lot of projects.

Page 2, on my easel’s scratchboard.

…and Auxaton at the bottom, just for you.

So this evening I had been reading entrepreneurial material and watching Ramit Sethi, one of my personal favorite money people, talk about creative entrepreneurship and ideas and clients and such. And I came across this article on About.com talking about manga-artists in North America, and how thoroughly screwed the industry is.

Simple fact of the matter is, unlike in Japan, the United States or even Canada (as far as I’m aware) have no magazines for aspiring comic artists to submit their short comics to. People who want to get their first work published don’t have anyone to send work to aside from talent searches, and the talent searches are often looking for a specific look. I know Yen Press and Top Cow are both running talent searches right now, but they both cater to exceptionally different art styles.

But as of yet, here in the States, there’s no real way for an aspiring comic artist to get their first work published. I was exceptionally lucky when I got my first story published in IF-X, but IF-X isn’t going to last long: they stayed local to Michigan and Ohio, and they’re down to the last two issues or so before the line is retired completely.

So my brain crack idea was this: what if there was a magazine, on closer to a national scope, that gave comic artists a place to publish their short stories?

There were similar ideas with the Flight anthologies, and that’s admirable, but they kept themselves to a particular group of friends. I would want to reach out to all aspiring comic artists regardless of artistic style: manga or superhero, noir or cartoon, or something else entirely. It would be professional and professional-looking.

But I got a lot of questions in mind about this idea, like…

Who will the magazine be marketed to? The consumers? Which consumers? Or do you market to editors? Or other comic makers?

And how would you pay for printing? Selling ad space in the magazine can be one way, but what other ways can be added to that?

Those are the ideas and questions I came up with tonight. What are some of your ideas, questions, concerns, etc? Let’s talk about it. :D