In trying something new, I'm trying to get back into fighting shape as they say for the continuing story of my book.
After I finished the graphic novel, i was pretty wiped physically, emotionally and mentally. I then went right into the selling of it on the convention scene which takes a lot of time, effort and lots of attention. There were good cons and not so good cons, which is par the course. After the last one, I knew it was time to refocus on what was next.
The experience of creating the book taught me invaluable lessons of my process and what worked and didn't. One of which, was my method of inking. Due to my long hiatus of not drawing, combined with my carpal tunnel which developed due to years using a mouse as a graphic designer, I chose to digitally ink my art.
It was a mixed blessing.
On one hand it gave me a safety blanket to undo bad strokes and experiment with things. But the end result just didn't feel organic enough for me. So in planning the next chapter, I thought I needed to go back to hand inking to get the results I wanted. Before I could do that, I needed not only practice but the feeling I'm showing to an audience as I go.
Enter facebook.
As I said, late to the party, but jumping in with both feet. I would try to have some fun while working on my inking and use the fact there was at least the feel of an audience push me harder to do my best.
It's worked better than I could have hoped. What was supposed to be just quick pencils and then inks has turned into me doing more elaborate artwork of which I'm pretty happy with.
Please feel free (if you haven't already) to friend me to see what art I've put up there. I have two, one under Mike W Belcher and then I have a page you can "like" under AMK Comics.
Thanks again for reading!