Weeks Thirty Three & Thirty Four
Pages: 176-187
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Phase One's completed... The story penciling for SoulExodus Volume One is officially done. While there's definitely some touch ups and a lot of blue lining, and some photography and chapter art to do, the vast majority of the conceptual portion of the book is on the page, and I'm relieved for it. That's the good news. The bad news is that I'm nearly two months behind on my projected path of progress. To say the very least, this project was MUCH harder in the long haul to complete even to the point I'm at than I initially thought. That said, I'm not done yet, and I'm not stopping till I'm done, so I've got quite a lot of catching up to do...starting this Labor Day Weekend, when I plan to ink pages for TWENTY FOUR HOURS STRAIGHT. Stay tuned for the time and details, because you can bet your ass there'll be a feature on it here. Next Week: I lose my frigging mind. |
Week Thirty Two
Pages: 168-175
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The twenty two - or more, haven't decided yet - page climax of our long adventure is almost completely penciled (the equivalent what those in the film business might call "principal photography"). The only significant thing to report this week is that I've switched up my method a little...instead of blue-lining the page immediately after initially penciling it, I'm plowing right through and going back and bluelining several pages at once later on. This is probably even more ass backwards than how I was doing it (I'm told that for most pros, the blue lining usually comes first) but it's enabled me to get more of the story on the page faster. I'm hoping to get the final half of this chapter, meaning the last of this book, completely finished by as early as this weekend. Next Week: (Hopefully) The wrap up. |
Weeks Twenty Eight thru Thirty One (July)
Pages: 154-167
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An extremely lax month of July, I'll have to admit, due in no small part to a week's vacation in Florida. Damn Sunshine State made me lazy. No one to blame but myself - the penciling of the book should be done by now. Instead, as it stands, Chapter seven is complete (granted, all thirty two pages of it, ten more than planned) and Chapter eight is underway as you read this...the denoument is only a heartbeat away now. I would prefer this week for the plethora of photos to speak for themselves. Rest assured, I plan to be back on track quick, fast, and in a hurry. |
Week Twenty Seven
Pages: 148-153
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| I'll keep it short and sweet this week...it was mostly action. We have: a decoy consisting of a truck, a cinder block, and a propane tank, burning demons, a lot of gunplay, and more. Neph sets the stage for the volume's intense climax on a rooftop at the center of a destroyed city. And though it's been said many times, in many ways - nothing will ever be the same. |
Week Twenty Six
Pages: 140-147
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| Another productive week brings the final confrontation that much closer. It's at this point that I realize how big chapter seven is going to be...so big, in fact, that I am now considering splitting it roughly in half. When the artwork for the entire chapter (as I've written it to date) is finished, I'll have a better idea of what I can and will do. There's a scene that I haven't shown here but I particularly like, it involves Neph fighting several attackers at once in a sequence that is about the closest I believe one can come to recreating the feel of a single, continuous camera shot as used in film for varying effects (big ups, of course, to Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men for the spark of inspiration). Things are really rolling now, and though I'm about a month behind my planned schedule, and I'm a bit disappointed by that, I believe I can complete the pencils for this volume by the end of July, if all goes well. Perhaps that's a long shot. I'm not opposed to taking the gamble. |
Week Twenty Five
Pages: 132-139
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I went quite picture heavy this week because I'm pretty excited to have put down eight pages this week, comprising almost the entire first scene in chapter seven. In this seven day, caffene fueled fury that I was in, I channeled everything from film, to friends, to relationships of all kind, past present, and yes, even future, in order to achieve what I hope to be the most powerful part of the entire book - and a bit of writing that I am personally most proud of. While I have tried to remain spoiler-free since I started this project, (and hope to continue) I will say that this ten page flashback sequence, more than any other, nails down the essence of who and what Neph is as a character; as a person. Stan Lee, god bless 'im, would continually hammer home the importance of every heroic character having some potentially fatal flaw, something that made them human and fallable despite their awesome power. In this scene, we see what our hero's greatest weakness is...and it may surprise you. At least I hope it does. |