John

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drawing mood

I haven't been in a drawing mood since I got back from school mid-May. I'm just gonna have to force myself to warm up and stuff.

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Hoshen #1

Finished the first issue of Hoshen, working on getting it printed locally. Such a rewarding feeling, holding the first test copy in my hands. It feels so legit.

You can read it online at controlshiftblack.com/hoshen

Two months... countless hours of pushing myself to make this happen. Feels good man. I mean, it's only a tiny, tiny piece of something much bigger, but I've finally finished something.



Can't get over how cool it is to hold a quality print of a story of mine.
You guys that have dreams of getting stuff accomplished, putting stuff out there and telling your story... I can't say it's easy. I can't say it's not hard. I can say that it's possible - you just have to put the time and dedication into it to make it happen.

You don't have to wait on the big guys to allow you to create and publish your work, either. Marvel and DC have no say over what I do with this comic. If you have something that you know is your calling, there is no one that can stop you from creating something with the means that are available to you. You want to write a book? Write it. Borders doesn't want it? Print it yourself and sell it to your friends. Don't stop just because you can't play the big boys' game of commercialized art. Don't be too proud to stoop to self-publishing and missing out on the "fame". It's not as great as it sounds.

John w/ Markers

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John Aether

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Control Shift Black

The site is up and running. As in, actually has some content now. Check out the portfolio and Hoshen sub-site.

I've switched up my approach to Hoshen over the last few weeks. I talked to a lot of webcomic artists at Katsucon, decided to treat it as a webcomic and release three pages a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 7pm EST. It's going pretty well so far, up to page 4.

Hoshen

Hoshen has begun.

Er, sort of. I'm still organizing the script and rearranging a bunch of panels. But it is now "in production," starting with Book 1, which focuses on John Aether.


I'm pretty busy over at the Hoshen blog, trying to update daily as I slave away on this thing.

Oh yeah and if I didn't mention it already Hoshen is the new name for that project known as The Twelve. Same story, same characters, same everything, just a new name.

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The Twelve - Movie Poster

This was so much fun. I probably about 20-25 hours on this. It just feels really rewarding to sink a lot of time into photo-based projects like this. Makes me wonder if I should seek out more work in this kind of field. If you need a poster for an indie film, definitely drop me a line. I'm actually kind of sad that it's finished, I want so badly to keep working on something like it...

This was a very multi-faceted project. I did it for a Visual Communication assignment, a Digital Imaging class where one of the projects was to make a movie poster for a mock sci-fi flick. I took my graphic novel project The Twelve and re-imagined it as a film (which, to be honest, I've already been doing for months, just never this substantially). But I knew that I could make this so much more than just an assignment, so I approached it as a personal project as well, something that I could look to for a tangible reference point as I work on the comic. I really wanted to aim high with this.

The process was pretty straightforward, if not very ambitious for someone with my assets - but it definitely worked out awesomely, as I was able to bump into some awesome people who were happy to contribute. I found a friend of a friend, David Sherret, who lives on the floor below my dorm and was willing to lend us his camera, work it during the photoshoot, and even model as a character. He was also able to borrow his brother Oliver's studio lights, who just happens to be a high-end professional photographer often doing work for Relevant Magazine. So, I had David and Ike Lacey working the lights and camera. Then my classmate Daniel Johnstone called to offer his green screen, which he keeps around for his ministry with Greyvangelism. Couldn't have had more perfect timing.

So legit.

And so, we now had a team of photographers and designers, and a well-equipped studio to work in (the RA's room). Once we had a steady stream of models to work with, the rest worked itself out pretty well, with a considerable amount of labor from Ike and David for which I am eternally grateful.


I considered the piece done when I had enough photos to compose the poster using the faces of the models, but still kept is as a "first draft"...


...since the project was to focus on the science fiction aspect of the movie pitch, I added in materials from stock.xchng to symbolize the elemental powers at work in the story. I had expected them to look horribly cheesy, but I'm pleased with the look of it.

Overall, I'm just so thankful for all the people who volunteered to contribute. I couldn't pay anybody, and yet I lacked nothing in the process of making this piece. It was great to see people take interest in the project, enough to give of their time to help make it happen.

Mae

just how far can you go

John

John

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Marcus

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The Twelve

Concept sketches for some guys from a comic series I've been brewing up for a while...