NYT and Baseball.

Rough night. That stomach virus I was down with earlier this week landed on my wife last night, so that skewered my workday. She's doing much better, though. Thank God. I'm so done with vomit, man.

I did manage to work on the colors for the CHEW Vol.5 Cover (above), so that's something. Pretty sure I'll be changing and tweaking colors around by the time this sees print in early 2012 (because I always tweak them...), but works for now. I'll be adding the character shots to the top of the cover a little later. Should be pretty cool.

And speaking of trades, CHEW Vol.4 "Flambe" just landed at #3 on the New York Times Best-seller's List. Purty awesome. This is the third CHEW volume of the four to make the list (Volume 3 was the one that didn't make it...WTF???), so that's pretty neat.

Back to it. Long weekend before I fly out to Melbourne.

-Rob

Trade 5 Cover. In Progress.

Workload for the day, cover art for CHEW Vol.5 "Major League CHEW".

-Rob

Peek.

Panel from CHEW 20.

Process Junkie.

Alright, people have been bugging me for what seems like forever to do a walk-through my process for doing a page of CHEW. Of course, being busy (and a bit lazy), I've been ignoring said requests until now. Short, sweet and simple, here's the making of a page of CHEW.

Please excuse the crappiness of my photos. I don't have the will to actually scan in each stage. Told you: LAZY.

10:30am: Thumbnail.



Step 1 is actually reading the script a few times, but for the sake of boredom, I'll skip to the thumbnail. Above is a reeeeally quick thumbnail of our page. I tend to focus more on mass, layout and pacing than much detail. It's not much, but it's all I need to get started.

11:00am: Rough Pencils



Next, I work up a quick, very rough layout of the page. I pencil using red graphite, because I find blueline's too waxy to ink on top of. Red's easier to see, plus it won't show up on a scanner. And it kinda looks cool under the finished inks. Again, focusing on layout and mass, but starting to flesh out character acting. I try to do these as quickly as possible, because Morning Rob tends to need a warm-up like a car in winter. I attack the blank page before it can intimidate me, really. These take, maybe, a few minutes.

11:15 to 1:00pm: Detailed Pencils



Now, onto the details. One panel at a time, I flesh it out, generally starting from the last panel, working backwards. I'm weird like that. I spend more time on body language and facial expressions than anything. As simple as they look, I agonize over the nuances of them.

Pencil Details: Click to embiggen!




1:oo-2:15pm: Fine Line Inks.



I think this might be the most important step of my process, mentally. This is the point where I commit to the page. Right or wrong, there's no turning back. Unless I f*ck up and have to use white-out, but that's rare. I tend to draw a lot with the pen, adding details without ever penciling them. Fairly improvisational. It's all cake from here.

More details:



2:30-5:30ish: Line Variation and Blacks



This is the part where I get to put a movie on and shut my brain off a bit. Simple stage. Adding thickness and variation to the fine lines, adding patches of shadow, etc... I usually add easter eggs and background jokes at this stage, mostly out of delirium.




And that's kinda it. Maybe one day I'll walk you through the Photoshop stage. Maaaaybe.

Peace,
Rob!

More Original Art Info.

Above is a framed page that my buddy Tofuguns bought at SDCC.

Still got pages from #2-4 available, and ONE page left from #1.

These suckers have been selling great, so if you're interested or want to inquire about a price list, shoot an email to chewcomicsales@gmail.com.

I'll be posting an updated price list on the site shortly and trying to keep it as up-to-date as possible each month as new issues debut. Speaking of which, we're pricing the #4 pages this week, so they'll be available for sale soon.

And on the subject of future issues:



Above is the cover to CHEW #7. Enjoy!

Peace,
Rob!

CHEW #1 Tomorrow!

Yes, tomorrow is the big day. And guess what? I also turned 27 today, so you know what you can get me :)

Also, just in the spirit of keeping the news flow going, here's a bunch of recent press, plus advance reviews that we've been stockpiling:

AintitCoolNews.com Interview
Newsarama Ambidextrous Interview
TFAW.com Interview
ComicsWaitingRoom Advance Review
Secret Identity Podcast Advance Review
Eye on Comics Advance Review
Comixtreme Advance Review
Fanboy.com on the CHEW #3 Cover Art

And there's more to follow, including some cool stuff we'll be putting up on ComicBookResources.com over the next few days. Until then, how about some peeks at future issues?

UPDATED: CBR just put up a cool Process of CHEW piece that I scribbled up a while back. It chronicles the creation of the CHEW #1 cover and 2-page spread, from script to final image. Check it out, you process junkies, you!

The Process of CHEW on CBR.







Peace,
Rob!

TFAW.com Interview and First Look.

TFAW.com just posted a great interview with John and me. Tons of new discussion about story, art process and future arcs. Check it out here.

Plus, there's also a 4 page peek at CHEW #1's interior art with a few never-before-seen pages, so hit that here.

Peace,
Rob!

The Art of CHEW on CBR.

For those that may have missed it, CBR has posted a mini-sketchbook of CHEW art at this link. It's a great behind-the-scenes look at my art process and gives a good peek at future issues. Hit it!

-Rob!

Chop-Sockey!

Panel from CHEW #2. Bigger for the details!

-Rob!

Chewed.

Character sketches for CHEW.

John Layman makes me draw the craziest crap. Love him for it.

-Rob!

Late Resolutions...

Man, I really suck at this updating thing...

Alright, so this is a few weeks late, but I figure now's as good as any time to show a few of the 09 projects I'm cracking away on. I've got three projects in development that are too early in the going to really chat about, but the stuff below is what I've got locked in so far.

1. CHEW



I've been posting the occasional peek at some of the CHEW artwork over the last few months, and I'll be revealing more until its release in May/June. We're starting it off with an initial five issue run through Image Comics, and I'm thinking there will be more to follow. My writer on this, John Layman, is a total mad genius, and I've had a blast kicking his scripts around. It's an edgier, more mature break from the kid-friendly stuff I've been dabbling in lately. Speaking of which...

2. St. Spooky's



Just finished Book 1 of Spooky's (9 issues, 4 page serialized chapters) for Random House's The DFC. This one's available via subscription only, and primarily in the UK, but US residents can order it with shipping costs attached. I'd highly recommend it. The DFC's an awesome way to get kids not only reading, but reading comics. We may be doing a Book 2 of this later in the year.

3. Teddy Scares



Yep, I'll be doing more Teddy Scares this year, too. So far, I've contributed to three issues (both on sale here, and the third will be on sale soon), and they were a blast. I'm a huge fan of infusing humor in my art, and the TS stories are always hilarious. Plus, the guys at APE have been really cool about letting me experiment with different techniques, which is always fun. For the new issue (above), I went with a dirtier, textured look.

4. Solo Project



This one, I've hinted at in a couple past posts. Keeping mum on this for now, except that 1) this'll be my first project where I'll be handling script and art, 2) it's sci-fi-based and 3) it's complete lunacy. More on this later.

5. Children's Book



This one's been a fun little break. Written by local writer Theresa Singleton, this is my first real foray into children's books, which I've thought of trying for a while. This was a great experiment with a really clean, simplified look. I'll be finishing art on this in the next couple days. After that, I'll post any info as I get it.

Also, expect a site and gallery update in the next couple months. It's time to dust off the cobwebs...

And that's it for now. Now that the New Year's blitzkrieg has settled, I'm gonna try to get back into the habit of posting new art on a weekly basis.

Fingers crossed...

Peace,
Rob!

Muzak.

Side B Anthology Self Portrait, yo.

Wow. Has it really been over a month since my last post? Damn. Time does fly...

I'll be posting a peek at my 2009 work sometime in the next week, so check back for some goodies. It'll be worth it. I promise.

Peace,
Rob!

Duo.

Couple more panels from CHEW #1. The first issue's wrapped, so I'll be starting the next this week. Progress!



Peace,
Rob!

Medium Rare.

Random panel from CHEW.

-Rob!

Back that Thang Up.

A peek at some of my process for St. Spooky's.

-Rob!

Chewy Pieces.

A layer from what will be a double page spread from CHEW.

-Rob!

"Just the Beets, please."

-Rob!

Absentee Landlord.

Sorry for the slow flow of updates, peeps. I've been really busy these days working on a bunch of stuff that I can't really show off yet. But things are good, so stay tuned for the real fun.

Above is a page from a new project that kinda fell in my lap a bit before Comicon. This one's written by the awesome John Layman. More of this to follow. But for now, I've got pages to ink!

Peace,
Rob!

Shortbussin'.

-Rob!

Hells Yeah.

Yeah....It's still in development.

And it will still rock your socks.

-Rob!