ART

No, I have a day-job as a truck driver and farm worker/security. I do this in whatever free time I have, but my goal is to make comics my full-time job again.

Both. I took a bunch of community college life drawing classes to quickly learn anatomy, and went to a CalArts Animation summer program in highschool. Applied and was accepted into many art schools, but I didn't qualify for any financial aid, so I learned whatever I could online until I could get some freelance jobs.

After my time in the Marine Corps I went to art school for a couple years on the GI Bill. Normally I would say you don't need art school because there's way better (and way cheaper) learning resources online these days, but my drawing abilities were in such horrible condition after military service that I needed a structured environment to rebuild them to an acceptable level.

CLIP STUDIO PAINT EX. Previously I used Adobe Photoshop for about 12 years, and dropped it immediately when I saw how much faster I could work in Clip Studio.

I deliberately set my tablet's pressure levels to high sensitivity, which means I use less pen pressure to attain a heavier line when I draw

Drawing with a tight grip or heavy pressure for long periods causes wrist pain and can lead to serious long-term conditions. I've managed to mitigate this by training myself to draw with an extremely light touch.

If you deal with forearm/wrist pain, I highly recommend giving this a try. It takes some getting used to, but it's well worth it for preserving your longterm drawing ability.

Honestly, I just studied the art of Mike Mignola to an obsessive degree, as well as Alex Toth, Doug TenNapel, Frank Miller, Alex Alice and Claire Wendling. Pick an artist who's inking you really like, and just study it to death.

One exercise that helped me a lot was watching movies with really good cinematography and highly dramatic lighting (Film Noir and Kurosawa films are great for this - go for classic cinema), pausing the movie at really good frames, and then sketching the whole scene with a heavy black marker as fast I can in 5 or so minutes.

Finally, master studies. A few times I would pick out a panel from a Hellboy comic page, then copy it as closely as I could, maybe swapping out Mignola's characters with my own. I found that to be an exceptionally good way to learn solid inking.

Prior to embarking on my comic, I spent many years doing life drawing, and took a figure drawing class under Albert Epshtyn, who taught in the Russian neoclassical method. It's a pretty intense process where you first learn the skeleton, then underlying musculature, and then finally doing 20-40 hour long drawings of a live model.

Now, before almost every comic work-day I try to warm up by drawing at least 1 full-body figure of one of my characters in an expressive or dynamic pose, from imagination with as little reference as possible.

I use reference only if it's a pose I want to go extra realistic with (like a martial arts move), or if I start struggling with a particular bit of anatomy. I find that this makes it easier for me to draw complex poses quicker and without having to rely as much on external reference.

If you're interested in learning from my figure drawing method, all of my character figure studies get posted to my Patreon. I welcome you to use them for reference, study, or even tracing.

Presently, no. I'm extremely thankful and appreciative whenever people ask me this, but I'm sorry to say I just don't have the time for it. All my creative energy goes towards my graphic novel right now.

BOOK OF WYIT

However you like. I pronounce it "why-it", but others have said his name like "wit", "vit", "vy-it", and so on, which I really don't mind.

Good, all things considered. The simple answer is that it’s coming along as fast it can. I’m working on it with every bit of free time I have. If you see me livestreaming and drawing, I’m having a good day!

Short answer: Because it looks cool.

Detailed answer: Growing up on a farm, around more animals than people, I was always into stuff like Chronicles of Narnia, The Secret of NIMH, Redwall illustrations, StarFox, and various other media with anthropomorphized beasts in high-stakes action/adventure settings with serious storylines.Book of Wyit is, in some ways, meant to be the story I wish had been around in my teens, so it was a pretty easy choice for me to make.

Also, I think it can be an interesting way to add an extra layer of symbolism and otherworldly fantasy to a story while still keeping the characters familiar enough for the audience to connect with.

As soon as I can finish it. I have to work a day-job on a farm with unpredictable hours, and am dealing with some complicated matters in my personal life. It's hard to give a specific date for the launch or the delivery, so I really appreciate the patience everyone's had for me during this production.

If it helps to know, over 160 out of 200 pages have been inked so far, and I'm currently lettering the book.

Due to the high cost of overseas shipping, I will likely release a digital version for my international audiences.

Most likely. I have friends and business contacts across multiple languages, so I definitely would like to commission them for translations.

I don't have any plans to right now. My main focus is to just deliver an excellent story in a graphic novel format. We'll see what other options there are after the book's done.

Maybe? I suppose I would be open to it if it were a developer/team I knew and fully trusted, since I know nothing about game dev. Gaming is an insanely complex field, and I just want to make books.

Previously the answer was "Yes". Now, I'm not so sure. International shipping in the post-2020 world is a mess, so I will have to assess the situation after I finish the book. If international shipping proves too difficult, I will at the very least make a digital version available.

Around $30 USD, since this will be a large book at 200 pages. Keep in mind this is just an estimate; I'll know for certain once I have the pages inked and get a quote from my printer.

No, I am working on this independently for now. I very rarely collaborate.