Day 22 of 31: Drop Dead Sketchbook - the First Promo Pinup

Hey cats and kittens! Hard to believe there's only 9 days to Halloween! I hope everyone's plans for the big night are going swimmingly. While there's going to be an entry dedicated to early concept art and sketches for Drop Dead Vince sometime this week, tonight is dedicated to Vince's very first promo pinup! 

The top left was some sketches I scratched out for ideas. At the time I really liked the bottom two but eventually I decided to go with the bottom left. I then sketched out a larger and more fleshed out version of it, went over the lines with PaintTool SAI and worked some magic in Photoshop. This was pretty exciting for me since it was my first "official" illustration with Vince and Betty together and I really enjoyed how it turned out. It was the start of a pretty crazy ride and even after two and a half years I'm thankful that it's still going, even despite the bumps in the road. 

Thank you everyone for your support! Take care and stay spooky! 

Day 20 of 31: Drop Dead Sketchbook - Designing the Logo

Hey cats and kittens! I know it's been a few days and I'd like to apologize for being inactive over the past few days, I've been working on the last few pages for Vince's first chapter and whenever I suddenly remember I had to update the production blog I look at the clock on my computer and it's midnight. Oops. But I promise that I'll make it up to everyone, in fact I'm going to be scanning some material from my sketchbooks to upload for the blog for you to take a gander at. This is the first batch: Designing the Drop Dead Vince logo! 

I do freelance graphic design work and I can tell you that designing a good logo takes a lot of thought even before you put it to paper; although sometimes little things like the doodle I did in the top left of the scans above can inspire a big design or concept. The text was a challenge since while I am experience in graphic design I'm not quite experienced in typography (designing text and typefaces/fonts), but I think it turned out pretty well despite my inexperience. Originally when I was setting up the tombstone I thought of using the broken heart design, but I liked the pompadour skull the best since it represented the main character Vince the best and was much more iconic. I tinted the sketch red in Photoshop and printed it out to go over with multiliner ink and brush pens (the grass was done with a brush pen) and then rescanned it to touch up and color in Photoshop again. And the last image is the end result of the logo!

Thank you every one for your support and for being so patient with me. I hope you're having a great Halloween season and have your plans for the 31st underway, there's only 11 days left until the big night! Take care everyone, and stay spooky!

Day 13 of 31: Sneak Peak of Page 30 and 31 Chapter One of Drop Dead Vince!

Hey cats and kittens! I'd like to apologize for the REALLY late entry tonight, I've had to do a few things around the house and was working on the next Vince page. And speaking of, check this out: Exclusive previews of two frames from the last two pages for the first chapter of Drop Dead Vince!

As for which page each frame is from and what's going on I can't say for the moment. But you'll see soon enough. You can say that you have gotten a peek at the last two pages before anyone else! As for page 29 it's off to a bit of a slow start this week but hopefully I'll be able to get back into the groove of things soon.

Thank you so much for your support since the countdown and Betty and Vince Month started! Take care and say spooky!

Day 13 of 31: Progress on the 2013 Drop Dead Vince Special Edition Halloween Print

Hey cats and kittens! Tomorrow is the start of a new week and I hope everyone is having a great October so far. Thankfully I was able to get that project I was working on finished (for the moment) and get back to working on some Vince projects!

Here's another preview for the 2013 Drop Dead Vince Special Edition print, which is finally getting some lines! When it'll be finished I can't say, since I'm also working on the last few pages of the comic, but I'll definitely keep you informed on the status of both, as well as any other surprises you might see in the Drop Dead Shop. So sit tight!

Thank you so much for your support! Take care and stay spooky!

Day 11 of 31: 2013 Drop Dead Vince Halloween Print Preview!

Hey cats and kittens! I hope everyone had a great Friday! For me it was kind of hectic, I had a last-minute project I had to deal with and I also had some family visit from out of town. So this is going to be another mini entry, but I promise you'll get to see something much more interesting soon (maybe much sooner than you think!).

BUT! I can give you a preview for something you might see pop up in the Drop Dead Shop this month: the 2013 Drop Dead Vince Special Edition Halloween Print! It'll feature both Betty and Vince getting festive for the season, and along with the print you will get a special Halloween goodie bag featuring stickers and other spooky treats! So stay tuned for more updates on that in the (hopefully not-too-distant) future.

Thank you everyone for your support! Take care and stay spooky!

Day 9 0f 31: Another Preview of Page 29!

Hey cats and kittens! I hope everyone's been doing alright this week. As for me I'm still pretty stuffy but I feel like my allergies are getting better so hopefully I won't be snotty for that much longer.

I've been trying to work on the next Vince page and I thought I'd give you a mini preview of what it looks like when I work on pages. The software here I'm using is called PaintTool SAI, it's a fantastic program with incredibly smooth lineart tools. Unfortunately it's only available for PCs, but from what I hear the lineart tools for Manga Studio 5 took cues from SAI so if you use a Mac I would look into that! As for what goes into making a Vince page I'll make a more detailed entry about that in a future entry.

Thank you everyone for your support and for tuning in for each entry for Betty & Vince Month. Take care and stay spooky!

Day 7 of 31: Page 29 of Chapter One Coming Soon!

Hey cats and kittens! I hope everyone's doing well this month so far. I'm currently feeling a little under the weather but I hope that whatever it is it'll be short-lived. 

Anyhow, here is a preview of a panel from page 29 of the first chapter of Drop Dead Vince. There's still some work to be done for this page but hopefully I'll be able to get this page online soon. As for the last two pages, they're both close to being finished and will both be uploaded together as a double update once the time comes. So stay tuned for them! 

Thank you everyone so much for all your support. Take care of yourself and stay spooky!