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Mr. Media Interviews

Posted by Einar in Blogs, Comic Strips (September 30, 2007 at 7:57 pm)

Mr, Media, Interviews
Mr. Media’s (Bob Andelman) site is a really useful place for those interested in in-depth, quality interviews, both written and audio, with people in the media. It also includes people involved with comics, such as cartoonist Mark Tatulli of the previously mentioned comic strip Lio and his editor, Lee Salem, of Universal Press Syndicate. I, personally, also very much enjoyed the interview with Seinfeld’s “Soup Nazi”, Larry Thomas.

So, I highly recommend Mr. Media’s blog and podcasts; it’s a place where you could easily spend most of your work day…

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The Phantom by Lee Falk

Posted by Einar in Comic Strips, Art, Comics (September 29, 2007 at 9:05 pm)

Phantomgohsindia, comics, The Phantom, Lee Falk, super, hero, comic, comic books, strip, books, Scandinavia, Norwegian, version, Fantomet, guest, appearances, The Spirit, Will Eisner, stories, art, artists, issues, South America, Kari Läppänen, Sy Barry, Hans Lindahl, prolific, cover, artist, Rolf Gohs, teachers, Joe, Kubert, School, of, Cartoon, and, Graphic, Art, Joe, F., Naprstek, covers, American, edition, Moonstone
I came across this blog post today, which got me thinking about one of my favorite comics growing up, The Phantom by Lee Falk. It is just about the only super hero comic I ever read.

I never read The Phantom comic strip much, but I was addicted to the comic books in the late 80s and early 90s. I’m talking about those great bi-weekly books that were so popular in Scandinavia at the time. I read the Norwegian version, Fantomet, which also had a lot of guest appearances from other comics. For example, it was my first exposure to The Spirit by Will Eisner.

The stories were generally solid, but what really impressed me was the art. There were artists from all over the world working on the various issues, but Scandinavia and South America seemed to be heavily represented.

Some of my favorite artists included Kari Läppänen, Sy Barry, Hans Lindahl and the prolific cover artist Rolf Gohs.

I’d also like to take the chance to mention one of my teachers from The Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art, Joel F. Naprstek, who did some excellent covers for the American edition from Moonstone.

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Wall-E Pixar Movie Poster Revealed

Posted by Einar in Movies (September 28, 2007 at 12:34 pm)

Wall-e, teaser, trailer, poster, revealed, next, movie, concept

Pixar has revealed the teaser poster for their next movie, WALL•E. It looks like another interesting concept. View the teaser trailer here.

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Pogo Special Birthday Special Cartoon

Posted by Einar in Comic Strips, Art, Comics (September 27, 2007 at 12:14 pm)


1969, Pogo, cartoon, special, by, Walt, Kelly, and, Chuck, Jones, comic strip all-time favorite, original, watch, animated, voices, Pogo
I’m posting this because some might find it interesting. It’s a 1969 Pogo cartoon special by Walt Kelly and Chuck Jones. Read more about it and watch it here.

Honestly, I didn’t last more than a few minutes myself. The comic strip is my all-time favorite (I have an original on my wall) and it was just too painful to watch it animated with voices that sounded nothing like what I imagined. What was UP with Pogo having a woman’s voice?? Good lord! Anyway, take a look at it, if you dare…

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How I Work - A Step by Step Tutorial

Posted by Einar in Corel Painter, Painting, Tutorial, Books, Digital Art, Comics, Graphic Novels, Art, Illustrations (September 26, 2007 at 8:00 pm)

This is a cover I did just last week. It’s for the current graphic novel I’m working on, which I also wrote. It features a nine year-old boy who has to help some animals hunt down a big, scary, bullying lion.

I decided I’d try to put together a step-by-step tutorial of how it was created, from the initial sketch to the end result. It’s fairly representative of how I do these kinds of paintings and illustrations.

Step, By, Step, Tutorial, 1-1, small, color, thumbnail, general, shapes, and, colors, layout, positioning, characters, ideas, sketch, story, cover, stage, staple, brush, in, Corel, Painter, Wet, Gouache, Round, in, the, Gouache, brush, category1. I started out with a very small color thumbnail, with just general shapes and colors to get a feel for the layout and positioning of the characters. At this point, it was just one of several ideas and I actually didn’t think I’d go ahead with this particular sketch at the time. At some point, however, I started feeling that it was the best situation to represent the story on the cover, so I went ahead and played some more with it.

For this stage I used my staple brush in Corel Painter, the Wet Gouache Round in the Gouache brush category.

Step, By, Step, Tutorial, 2-1, canvas, 150%, print, size, 300, dpi, copied, new, layer, opacity, draw, initial, sketch, lines, pencil, brush, Corel, Painter, cover, pencil, pencil, category, color, sketch, backgrounds, create, depth, ledge, ground2. I went on to blow up the canvas to about 150% of the print size at 300 dpi and copied it onto a new layer so that I could bring down the opacity to about 45%. As you can see in the second version, that makes the colors faded and enables me to draw over the initial sketch and see the lines clearly.

So, on another new layer, above the sketch, I used a pencil brush in Corel Painter (”the cover pencil” in the pencil category) to draw a much more detailed sketch over the color sketch. I also added some backgrounds to create a bit more depth and to show that the ledge is very high up above the ground.

Step, By, Step, Tutorial, 3-1, layer, pencil, sketch, color, sketch, blocking, colors, Simple, Water, brush, Digital, Watercolors, brush, category, block, general, lighting, rough
3. On a new layer, under the pencil sketch but over the color sketch (getting too complicated?) I started blocking in new colors using the Simple Water brush from the Digital Watercolors brush category. I’ve found recently that this brush is very useful for this kind of work.

I block in some general lighting, but everything is still pretty rough.

Step, By, Step, Tutorial, 4-1, stage, process, punch, up, dark, areas, lines, crisper, boy's, face, eyes, mouth, Wet, Gouache, Round, brush, pencil, lines, create, illustration, image, collapsed, layers, painting, lines, incorporating, pencil, drawing, illustration, paint, traditionally, acrylics, painting, lighter, areas, enhancing, lighting, tightening, real, painting, starts, decent, job, basis, underpainting, enjoyable, part
4. At this stage of the process, I tried to punch up the dark areas and make the lines a little crisper (note especially the lines in the boy’s face — eyes, mouth, etc.). From this point on I used the Wet Gouache Round brush again. A lot of people like to get rid of the pencil lines to create a neater look for the illustration, but I don’t do that. In this fourth image, I’ve collapsed all the layers and started painting over the lines, incorporating the pencil drawing into the illustration. I like doing it this way because it’s a lot closer to the way I used to do paint traditionally with acrylics.

You might also be able to tell that I’ve started painting into the lighter areas, enhancing the lighting and generally tightening things up a bit. This is where the real painting starts, and if I’ve done a decent job on the basis (I guess it’s a sort of underpainting…), this is often the most enjoyable part.

Step, By, Step, Tutorial, 5-1, stage, tightened, details, speed, lines, paw, picture, shadow, blended, snowy, ground, background, painted, clouds, characters, final, highlight5. This shows the last stage. Here, things are tightened and the last few details are added, such as the speed lines on the paw coming into the picture from the right. The shadow in the front has been blended into the snowy ground. You can also see that the background has been painted more clearly with clouds and all.

I’ve worked all the way up to the lightest areas on the characters and added the final highlights.

6. Below are a few close-ups from the finished illustration, where you can see some of the brush strokes and details (you can still see some of the pencil lines here, especially on the edge of his left cheek and on the outline of his ear):
Step, By, Step, Tutorial, cu, 1-1, close-ups, finished, illustration, brush, strokes, and, details, pencil, lines, edge, cheek, outline, ear, comic, book, tutorial, graphic novel, cover, illustration, illustrations, step-by-step, einar, lunden, children's, book, books Step By Step Tutorial, cu,2-1, close-ups, finished, illustration, brush, strokes, and, details, pencil, lines, edge, cheek, outline, ear, comic, book, tutorial, graphic novel, cover, illustration, illustrations, step-by-step, einar, lunden, children's, book, books
Step By Step Tutorial cu 3-1, close-ups, finished, illustration, brush, strokes, and, details, pencil, lines, edge, cheek, outline, ear, comic, book, tutorial, graphic novel, cover, illustration, illustrations, step-by-step, einar, lunden, children's, book, books Step By Step Tutorial cu 4-1, close-ups, finished, illustration, brush, strokes, and, details, pencil, lines, edge, cheek, outline, ear, comic, book, tutorial, graphic novel, cover, illustration, illustrations, step-by-step, einar, lunden, children's, book, books
Step By Step Tutorial 6-1, finished, cover, logos, text, parts, illustrations, frame, block, dark blue, contrast, orange, giraffe, frame, paw, Adobe Illustrator, cover7. And here’s the finished cover, with the logos and text put on top of it! I thought that, with all the white parts in the illustrations, it might be nice to frame it with a block of dark blue (to contrast the orange i the giraffe) all the way around it. I decided to let a few parts “stick out” into the frame, especially the paw, hoping that might show it coming at them from outside better.

I made the logos in Adobe Illustrator. You can click on it for a larger view of the cover.

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Teacher Resigns Over Graphic Novel

Posted by Einar in Politics, Books, Graphic Novels, Comics (September 25, 2007 at 12:03 pm)

Here’s a very good article from The New Haven Register talking about graphic novels in the wake of a high school teacher resigning after parents complained about him recommending a graphic novel to a student. Teacher Nate Fisher was first suspended and then resigned after his recommendation of Daniel Clowes’ Eightball #22 was deemed inappropriate.

It’s disturbing how uninformed some parents are about the literature children find interesting. For example, here is a quote from the article:

“It’s definitely the hottest thing going in high school libraries,” said Stephanie Shteirman, the library media specialist for New Haven’s High School in the Community. “It’s because as librarians, we’re looking for any type of access point into our collection. We want kids to read; that’s the bottom line.”

The preconceived notions about what comics are, that a lot of people carry around with them, are not a good basis for informed decisions about what’s appropriate for kids to read. The teacher in question was suspended based on the complaints from one set of parents, about one particular book.

Get informed about what these genres of literature are about! Comics and graphic novels are NOT inherently violent, pornographic or in other ways inappropriate!

Bottomline (quote in the article, again from Stephanie Shteirman):

“I could see that there are inappropriate graphic novels — there’s no question there are graphic novels that I wouldn’t give to a 13-year-old — but you can’t condemn the genre. It definitely has a place in a library.”

Amen!

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A Graphic Novel Panel

Posted by Einar in Books, Art, Graphic Novels, Comics (September 24, 2007 at 12:48 pm)
Graphic Novel Panel
This is a panel from the book I’m currently working on…

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Digital Inking “Pepsi Challenge”, Part Deux

Posted by Einar in Comic Strips, Digital Art, Art, Cartoons, Comics (September 23, 2007 at 4:25 pm)
Digital Inking Challenge1 Digital Inking Challenge2 images inked digitally inked on paper Bristol board Raphaël Series 8404 sable brush Black Magic ink Wacom Cintiq UX21 Corel Painter X

Digital Inking Challenge2 images inked digitally inked on paper Bristol board Raphaël Series 8404 sable brush Black Magic ink Wacom Cintiq UX21 Corel Painter X

Which one is inked digitally and which one is inked on paper? One was done on Bristol board, using a Raphaël Series 8404 sable brush and Black Magic ink and one was done on a Wacom Cintiq UX21, using Corel Painter X.

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How Do Dinosaurs…?

Posted by Einar in Books (September 22, 2007 at 10:16 pm)

how do Dinosaurs children's book series jane yolen mark teague
Here’s an excellent recommendation for a fun series of children’s books by Jane Yolan They come highly recommended by my 3 1/2 year-old and the illustrations by Mark Teague are especially impressive and funny.

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Lio by Mark Tatulli

Posted by Einar in Comic Strips, Cartoons, Comics (September 21, 2007 at 9:14 pm)

lio exceptional funny comic strip syndication syndicated newspaper imaginative well-drawn creator Q&A Mark Tatulli
Lio is an exceptional syndicated newspaper comic strip, one of the best to come along in many, many years. It’s a wonderfully imaginative, funny and very well-drawn pantomime strip. Take a look at it and read a Q&A with its creator, the very talented Mark Tatulli, here.

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