Dark Brotherhood

Posted on October 5, 2011 by treebeerdy

I am a fan of the horror. I will watch crappy B-movies all day and play a goofy scary video game. I will spend a weekend reading horror comics. I don’t spend much time reading horror novels. Mainly because I haven’t found much love for contemporary horror in this format. This isn’t to say that I don’t read and even enjoy some, just saying that there are few I really enjoy.

Please don’t take this to mean I am close minded or that this is a chance to school me (though I don’t mind suggestions, presented in a kindly manner.) on what I “should be reading”. I assure you, I read tons.

Anyhow, the point to this is, recently I was driving and started thinking of one of my favorite H.P. Lovecraft short stories. The Dark Brotherhood is a favorite of mine because it’s so, I don’t know, goofy. It was Lovecraft giving a tilt of the hat to Poe, it was aliens, it was “gothy”.

If you are unfamiliar, basically the story revolves around the Arthur Phillips and Rose Dexter who often walk together in the late hours of the night. One night they cross paths with a “Mr. Allen”. I don’t want to spoil the story for anyone that hasn’t read it so, I will just say that Mr. Allen has an interest in Edgar Allan Poe. Later it turns out that young Mr. Phillips and Mr. Allen and his “Brothers” also share an interest in astronomy.

I should stop with that because I am giving a terrible explanation and also don’t want to spoil the story for anyone.

Back to the point, eh? Years ago I wanted to adapt this story into a comic, but, well, I didn’t. I have a renewed interest in doing so now and think I may make this a project once things slow down a bit.

For now, I wanted to post a drawing I did quickly yesterday. Consider it a study in developing characters. For those that are familiar with the Dark Brotherhood story, it could be more. I don’t know. Either way, hope you like a little!

This is just a rough group of stuff. So there are plenty of goofs.

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Marquis de Galle

Posted on September 29, 2011 by treebeerdy

I have a day job as a uniform delivery person and have to drive to a different city that’s about an hour away, 5 days a week. On Wednesdays, I usually have someone with me, so I get a break from driving at least. Lately, I have taken to doing drawings with a brush pen and posting via Twitter. It’s hard to draw in these particular vans… that’s all I really want to say about that at the moment.
Yesterday, I ended up doing a sketch of Guy Davis’ Marquis de Galle, from his “the Marquis: Inferno” I am a huge fan of his and this book!

Here is the sketch:

Of course I posted this not once, but twice, with “Marquis de Sade” before it hit me that I was a complete stupid head. Luckily, I made sure to post it @guydavisart on twitter and he was kind enough to compliment and correct my miss step. I felt smart…
Aaaannyways…

When I was doing the sketch I realized I really wanted to do a full drawing of the character. So, I did.
Here are the pencils:

Here are the inks (all done with a brush, in case you were wondering… not that you were.)

And now the final after I threw in a little wash and red.

I really enjoyed doing this drawing. I haven’t sat down and done a well thought out one in awhile, mainly just quick drawings so I can get back to work on Red Plains (which is were I am headed now..)
This was rather quick also, but I like it.
It is 11×14 on Bristol. Hope you like!

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Working on the Red Plains

Posted on September 28, 2011 by treebeerdy

So, I want to show how I work in different mediums and such on here as well as just show stuff I do. I am starting with the work I am focusing on the most at the moment, Red Plains. Red Plains is a western comic based in the latter 1800’s created and written by Caryn A. Tate. It appears on the 2.0 section of TopShelf comics website, as well as having previous issues to download via Graphicly.
Caryn was cool enough to let me show previews of pages 10 and 14 of issue 28. Today I am posting the thumbnail and full size pencils of each of these. You will notice my pencils are really loose and that some backgrounds seem to be missing. Mostly this is because I am doing all inking and gray tones digitally. After I do this post I will be posting the inking in progress along with what I use and explanations. For the moment though, I will say I do all of the inking and gray tones for Red Plains using Manga Studio.
I work super loose when laying things out when I am doing finishes loosely (most of the time anyways) and am doing all of the art myself.
So, here we go then.

This is the thumbnail for page 10. Actual size is tiny, I just look at the script and figure out general stuff, pretty typical stuff I guess. I usually have 4 thumbnails to a page in a sketchbook.

Now the initial pencils.

So on this page I will fix certain things like one of the characters face and add in more of the background details.

Here is the thumbnail for page 14.

and the early pencils.

So the of the reason for the lack of detail in the latter panels is because I am currently behind and trying to get caught up. I just needed to get the general look for the page down enough for Caryn to see that it has what she needs and the rest I do in inking. Though, the first issue or two I did, I sent more detailed pencils because I was working differently. Plus I’m sure she really wanted to see what the hell I thought I was doing. She runs a pretty tight ship, which is awesome because of all the detail the world calls for. It is based in reality and she strives to keep it firmly based there.

So this is where I leave it at the moment. I plan to try and have a post about inks in the next few days as well another “TreeBeerd” comic strip.

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“TreeBeerd” comic strip incoming..

Posted on September 21, 2011 by treebeerdy

I am pretty busy trying to get caught up on Red Plains work right now, which is why I was reluctant to start this blog when I did. I wasn’t even sure what I wanted to do with this blog other than “get out there”. I’m not going to lie, I hate self promotion because it makes me uncomfortable and I also hate that friends have to see me say “Hey! Look at me!” more than usual.
Then, the other day, while having a pretty bad day I decided what I wanted the main focus of this blog to be. Oddly enough, it will be about me. Not me in the “I had a bad day and I fucking hate people, here, let me tell you about it…” way.

A month or two ago Dick Blick had a sale on paper. I went nuts and ordered a ton. Then realized I ordered 4 pads of Strathmore 5″x17″ comic strip bristol pages along with my other paper. I really didn’t have a project in line for it and was a little bummed.
So, this is where I am. These pads contain 24 sheets. Thats 96 (in case you were wondering). So, I am going to do 96 comic strips using TreeBeerd. It’s me without having to worry about repercussions, I guess. I don’t know, I am a grumpy guy, ask anyone who knows me. I actually hope this will be somewhat therapeutic for me, but probably not.

So, I am doing exactly as many as I have pages for right now, and then it’s over. I am posting a preview tonight. It’s a little sloppy as I took a Red Plains break and did it up real quick. I may even change tools as it goes on and the look could change tons. So bare with me and try to enjoy. I won’t be doing these on a regular schedule until I am caught up on Red Plains and even then it will probably only be one a week. At least until I have nothing else to do.

So, here is the preview slop:

Yes, some will be a tad on the crude side.

I will be doing other posts and still showing my work process, just wanted to put a little start out here. I needed it to help me understand why I have a blog. I know now, because in real life I would be shot for saying whats on my mind around humans 90% of the time.

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Thumbnailing to the finishes

Posted on September 13, 2011 by treebeerdy

I work in odd ways sometimes. When I work digitally I have a tendency to go very loose and quick on my pencils. Part of it is that I have found that in the last year or so it takes me a little longer to ink a page of a comic digitally than it does with a brush and ink.
I dealt with having a small scanner at the beginning of working on my run on Caryn A. Tates Red Plains. It was a mess. Took forever to do a page because I would pencil each panel on a separate piece of paper and then scan them and arrange them digitally before inking.
Now I have a larger scanner and can pencil the full pages. I generally (for this project at least) do my pencils on 11×17 100 lb. bristol, but I will talk more about that stuff in a day or two.

So, I rambled. There you go.

I will leave this off for the night with where I begin most of the time. I open the script on the laptop and do (very) rough thumbnails to help me get the flow of the story and page and general what nots.

I know most artists work the same way. I just have a tendency to second guess myself sometimes and it leads to longer times making decisions. Like I said, I know most artists work this way.

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My (first) little blog post.

Posted on September 12, 2011 by treebeerdy

Hi. My name is Kelly, though a lot of people know me as “TreeBeerd”. Whatever. I am still trying to figure out what to do with this blog. I want it to be it’s own thing and not just another site I post drawings on. So, I guess I ask that you bear with me for a post or two before you jump ship.
I want to use this as a way to post process pics while I work on various projects. I also hope to get a better feel for doing something like this daily.
So, here is a sketch of Mystirio to start us off.


Also a sketch of swamp thing.


I will post terrible process pics for the Swamp Thing drawing soon.
Next post I will show pencils for Red Plains… I think…

Again, I am new to the blogging thing, so, you know…

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