07.06.18. ...and almost a week went by...

So I did my “normal” thing (he says after only two weeks of posts...) and did not post on Friday and Saturday. Then we had a busy Monday with a hospital visit (partly planned) followed by a busy Tuesday as my son turned 4. Don’t know where Wednesday went, but here we are. 

Work has continued. I’ve lettered page 2 and 3. 

I do my lettering in Illustrator and then import it to Photoshop (usually with my son sitting on my lap watching something on my computer...). Special lettering, like sound effects and signs, I do in Photoshop. I find the text/image manipulation better there than in Illustrator, where as the continuous editing of text is way better in Illustrator. 

I have started laying out page 4-6 ( or chapter 2, page 1-3, if you wish) bit at this stage, even I am having trouble telling what’s what. When they look a little clearer, I’ll post them. 

Have a great day. (And as always, you wanna let me know how I’m doing, please post below.)

If you want to learn more about Jon Pay or Gus MacDugal, there are three comics available on ComiXology. 

(Jon Pay, PI and All supporting characters ™ & ©, C. A. Aabø, 2018. Ghost Sails, ™ & ©, Emmet O'Brien &C. A. Aabø, 2018. )

31.05.18. I’m in shock...

This was one of those pages I never thought I’d finish. Can’t show you everything, but a few detail-shots I guess would be ok.

See?!? I’m not the only one who’s shocked...

   

Ominous, isn’t it...?

The story is called Ghost Sails, remember?

If you want to learn more about Jon Pay or Gus MacDugal, there are three comics available on ComiXology. 

(Jon Pay, PI and All supporting characters ™ & ©, C. A. Aabø, 2018. Ghost Sails, ™ & ©, Emmet O'Brien &C. A. Aabø, 2018. )

30.05.18. Panel-borders?!? Where we’re going, we don’t need panel-borders...

I’ll just leave this here and let you ponder what else is out there...

If you want to learn more about Jon Pay or Gus MacDugal, there are three comics available on ComiXology. 

(Jon Pay, PI and All supporting characters ™ & ©, C. A. Aabø, 2018. Ghost Sails, ™ & ©, Emmet O'Brien &C. A. Aabø, 2018. )

29.05.18. A little magic did happen today as well.

Somehow moving at a bit of a “steady” pace. Don’t tell anyone... already shown her, but this is Felicia. Say hi everyone...or she may curse you...

If you want to learn more about Jon Pay or Gus MacDugal, there are three comics available on ComiXology. 

(Jon Pay, PI and All supporting characters ™ & ©, C. A. Aabø, 2018. Ghost Sails, ™ & ©, Emmet O'Brien &C. A. Aabø, 2018. )

28.05.18. One down, a lot to go...

Finished page 2 earlier and am in to page 3. I’ll take some feedback on this panel if you have any. 

If you want to learn more about Jon Pay or Gus MacDugal, there are three comics available on ComiXology. 

(Jon Pay, PI and All supporting characters ™ & ©, C. A. Aabø, 2018. Ghost Sails, ™ & ©, Emmet O'Brien &C. A. Aabø, 2018. )

27.05.18. “You did what?!?”

I did do work but between one thing and another, it was posting or sleeping the last two nights. I am enjoying doing some actual inking as oppose to just ruling backgrounds. 

Works continuing, that’s what’s important. 

If you want to learn more about Jon Pay or Gus MacDugal, there are three comics available on ComiXology. 

(Jon Pay, PI and All supporting characters ™ & ©, C. A. Aabø, 2018. Ghost Sails, ™ & ©, Emmet O'Brien &C. A. Aabø, 2018. )

24.05.18. Why...

I sometimes wonder why art takes me so long. Then I decide to do a panel like this... 

...and it all becomes clear. 

That being said, I really enjoyed this panel. 

If you want to learn more about Jon Pay or Gus MacDugal, there are three comics available on ComiXology. 

(Jon Pay, PI and All supporting characters ™ & ©, C. A. Aabø, 2018. Ghost Sails, ™ & ©, Emmet O'Brien &C. A. Aabø, 2018. )

23.05.18. Not much, but something

Another day of dealing with our situation, so not much headspace for art. I managed to finish the missing details from yesterday. Tomorrow is another day, let's see what that will bring. Maybe treasure will rain from the sky for us too... I doubt it, but it could happen...

If you want to learn more about Jon Pay or Gus MacDugal, there are three comics available on ComiXology. 

(Jon Pay, PI and All supporting characters ™ & ©, C. A. Aabø, 2018. Ghost Sails, ™ & ©, Emmet O'Brien &C. A. Aabø, 2018. )

22.05.18. Pennies from heaven

...and that is a good description of how much work I got done today. Well, when your "art time" starts at 23:00 after a very long day, it is difficult to get motivated. Progress was made and that is how I will look at it.

This is a little looser than I normally go. I am trying to do some of my "tight pencils" in the inking. I am quite satisfied with the result. Still a little work left. 

If you want to learn more about Jon Pay or Gus MacDugal, there are three comics available on ComiXology. 

(Jon Pay, PI and All supporting characters ™ & ©, C. A. Aabø, 2018. Ghost Sails, ™ & ©, Emmet O'Brien &C. A. Aabø, 2018. )

21.05.18. Crap day, but work got done.

Hadn't thought it but I did get some work done. And better yet, I decided to screen capture it. So below is today's work report. I decided to take a break form background inking on page 3. Someday I might show you why I needed this break. Anyway, I decided it was time to starting inking characters, so here is Page 2, panel 1. If you pay attention, I let slip some of my favorite tricks/cheats. 

As always, any questions or comments, please fire away.

If you want to learn more about Jon Pay or Gus MacDugal, there are three comics available on ComiXology. 

(Jon Pay, PI and All supporting characters ™ & ©, C. A. Aabø, 2018. Ghost Sails, ™ & ©, Emmet O'Brien &C. A. Aabø, 2018. )

20.05.18. Trying again

Yeah, so I fell of the face of the earth again... sorry about that. Between some family issues, personal illness, returning to my day-job and a change of projects, I kind of lost my way back here. 

With all of the above (and I'll probably go into sons of it in some detail at some point) I think the "A panel a day" experiment is done for now. I am going back to having this blog simply be a progress-report for myself and if any of you find this interesting, all the better. And as always please let me know. 

(Where I've stopped work on Jon Pay, PI: Prizefighters & Knickerbockers for now...)

So, Jon Pay, PI: Prizefighters & Knickerbockers has yet again been put back on the shelves. An opportunity came along thanks to my friend, Emmet O'Brien. Emmet is a writer of comics and creator of movies. We have done a few projects together here in Ireland. He wrote a story, Ghost Sails, which was pitched to Aces Weekly. I am doing the art and lettering and it will becolored by another local boy, Joe Griffin. 

(Promo piece done for Ghost Sails. Linework by me and colors by Joe Griffin.)

I will be posting some WIP, but can most likely not show full pages. I am also trying to work in a slightly different way and adopting what I've dubbed the Keane-Method,  after the talented Kevin Keane (who in all fairness probably stole...eh...adopted it from someone else.). Anyway, Kevin will layout the entire book, the rough out every page, the pencil every page, then ink the background and finally ink every character. (As oppose to going panel by panel, page by page). He swears this is faster. This is similar to how I did work when I had more time on my hands, but times changed and especially when it came to inking, I would go panel by panel. 

Now with Ghost Sails, we go pay three-page chapters and so I am testing Kevin's method chapter by chapter (well, in all honesty, I'm still on chapter one....you'll see why...). 

(Panel 1 of Ghost Sails, written by Emmet O'Brien, lines and lettering my me, and soon to be colored by Joe Griffin)

Anyway, there you have it. I am hoping to be back to more or less daily entries. Some days will be tougher than others to get stuff in, since we still have some time left of my son's treatment, but I'll deal with this when it is an issue. 

If you want to learn more about Jon Pay or Gus MacDugal, there are three comics available on ComiXology. 

(Jon Pay, PI and All supporting characters ™ & ©, C. A. Aabø, 2018. Ghost Sails, ™ & ©, Emmet O'Brien &C. A. Aabø, 2018. )

Day 69: Tiny an Everest

After yesterday's more elaborate post, it's back to a slightly simpler one today. The supporting characters  Tiny and Everest are back. I like these guys. 

If you want to learn more about Jon Pay or Gus MacDugal, there are three comics available on ComiXology. 

(Jon Pay, PI and All supporting characters ™ & ©, C. A. Aabø, 2018.)

Day 68: word on the street

Change of scene and of course, introducing more characters  (Anybody keeping count of the supporting cast  If you have, let me know how many I'm up to, cause I'm afraid to count.) These two handsome fellows are Tiny and Everest (after the mountain, not the pup...who is also named after the mountain, I think...)

Now, I did not have a chance to post yesterday, so I figured I'd better make this a little interesting. As such, here's a little bit of an explanation of how I ink. I have posted a few videos showing different panels (here, here, here and this one expands on the previous one. And this is a slightly longer one (5min) with a voiceover), but here I'll try to explain it. 

Below you see how I first "rule" all the background. I don't worry so much about keeping it clean or exact. It's more about getting all the lines in and doing my best to keep the perspective correct (always a challenge). I also make sure I use thicker lines closer to the reader and thinner lines further back. 

I then clean up the lines and add some details. Most of the detail work is done freehand to counteract the hard ruled lines. I always feel like calling it quits at this stage. I mean, who needs characters...really...?!? 

That being said, at the time of pencilling this page, I asked for some advice on whether or not I needed the background buildings, especially as there is a lot of dialog in this panel. A good friend of mine, (whose name, in an attempt to avoid sounding like I'm name-dropping, I will leave out (Mike Collins, whose list of credits is WAY too long include)...) pointed out that everything always looks better with backgrounds. 

Now that I have established the scene and made sure the background works, it's time for the characters. I always try to do the outlines of the characters first, again to make sure you can clearly see which character is in front of which and that they stand out from the background. After that is the fun part of  filling all the details and presto, panel is done. (Minus lettering and coloring, of course...)

Any questions or comments regarding my process, please let me know. 

If you want to learn more about Jon Pay or Gus MacDugal, there are three comics available on ComiXology. 

(Jon Pay, PI and All supporting characters ™ & ©, C. A. Aabø, 2018.)

Day 67: Here we go!!

Anybody else have Monday great you like this?

And what I needed was more supporting characters...

Anyway, apologies. I had to choose between continuing getting work done or posting updates this weekend. So this is me leaving the weekend behind. 

If you want to learn more about Jon Pay or Gus MacDugal, there are three comics available on ComiXology. 

(Jon Pay, PI and All supporting characters ™ & ©, C. A. Aabø, 2018.)

Day 66: one of those days...

Here's yet ANOTHER supporting character  This Jon's landlady. She doesn't have too big of a role this time around but I believe she will pop up again. 

Jon is glad it Friday!! Ain't we all?

If you want to learn more about Jon Pay or Gus MacDugal, there are three comics available on ComiXology. 

(Jon Pay, PI and All supporting characters ™ & ©, C. A. Aabø, 2018.)

Day 65: Here we go!!

Jon is off for the next page (now that page18 is done.)

If you want to learn more about Jon Pay or Gus MacDugal, there are three comics available on ComiXology. 

(Jon Pay, PI and All supporting characters ™ & ©, C. A. Aabø, 2018.)

Day 64: who'd have guessed?!?

Lot of waiting around today, so I got a chance to post after all. So just to finish off the month properly, here is all of page 18!! Yep, one more in the can!! Both Tommy and Miss. Hills are present and they will both return later. Now it's time to introduce more supporting characters and a new location which will play a good part of the rest of the story. 

As always, any thoughts, comments and:or feedback is more than welcome. 

If you want to learn more about Jon Pay or Gus MacDugal, there are three comics available on ComiXology. 

(Jon Pay, PI and All supporting characters ™ & ©, C. A. Aabø, 2018.)

Day 63: Now listen up.

Jon passing some knowledge on to Tommy the Kid. 

No update for the next few days (most likely) as it's treatment time for my son again. Promise to be back with a vengeance as soon as I can. 

If you want to learn more about Jon Pay or Gus MacDugal, there are three comics available on ComiXology. 

(Jon Pay, PI and All supporting characters ™ & ©, C. A. Aabø, 2018.)

Day 62: Two days in a row?!?

Don't tell anyone but I think I'm back on schedule!! I probably just jinxed it... oh, well...

And look, here's another character come to yell at me... I told you Tommy "the Kid" Bambino would be back....or I think I did...

If you want to learn more about Jon Pay or Gus MacDugal, there are three comics available on ComiXology. 

(Jon Pay, PI and All supporting characters ™ & ©, C. A. Aabø, 2018.)

Day 61: learn the calendar

"This is not how to read a calender!?! Get on with it!"

Yeah, family and wedding (not mine!!) weekend...

If you want to learn more about Jon Pay or Gus MacDugal, there are three comics available on ComiXology. 

(Jon Pay, PI and All supporting characters ™ & ©, C. A. Aabø, 2018.)