Art update

It's been a couple of weeks since I posted the last strip, and I'm here with an update on strip #165, which will be a large color strip. I've penciled it out, and am in the process of inking it, after which I'll be adding colors. I'm going to go back to markers this time for color instead of doing computer colors like the last color strip. Here's a look at the strip with the panels all lined out:

This is an 11x17 inch sheet of "official comic book paper" with 14 panels on it. The blank space in the lower left corner is a panel as well, it just won't have a border around it. I'm hoping to get it finished before my "pre-semester starting work exhaustion" kicks in. I don't want this to take 3 months like the last color strip, however, I'm finding it difficult to focus on the strip when there are Olympics on tv. That's it for now I guess. I hope you're all doing well.

 - Eli

Update...

You may know this about me already, but I'm a big fan of comic books. I tend to follow my favorite artists from book to book, rather than being loyal to particular characters, and I'm pretty picky about the artists I like. In most cases, comic books are supposed to come out once a month, meaning that the artists must draw 22 pages of story and in most cases a cover each month. I get excited about the comics that are scheduled to come out and become really bummed out when those artists announce delays to the books they're drawing. Due to the "high in-demand" nature of most of my favorite comic book artists, and the meticulous nature of their artwork, compounded by the fact that usually just drawing comics won't pay the bills for these guys and they have to take outside work as well, I often suffer through huge delays from my favorite artists.

I say all this because I want you to know that I always have that on my mind when there are delays in this comic strip. I'm currently trying to develop a specific look for some of the story panels of our upcoming story arc, but am having some trouble because it's unlike anything I've really done before and, while it's stretching me in a good way, it's taking some time to really get it to look like what I sort of see in my head.

I'm also trying to work towards developing an illustration portfolio, and that's taking up time as well. If you're interested, you can see some of the work I've been doing recently at: www.elimoody.com. I just finished moving my site over to a Wordpress based site so that I can easily update things, and have a blog. If you're interested, you can read some little stories that my Search and Research co-writer, Jason Watts, and I have collaborated on too. Thanks for hanging in there with me!

 - Eli