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 55: a little bit more color.

Like I said yesterday  just one of those days. Almost there with the fan art piece. 

If you still need your fix of  Jon Pay or Gus MacDugal, there are three comics available on ComiXology. 

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

Day 54: ...a little of this...

Apologies. Been a bit emotional here the last few days, and I fear we have a few more coming. As a result, I had no chance to post yesterday. 

I'm also keeping myself distracted, so yesterday I worked more on the pirates. 

And I was really trying to finish coloring my fan-art for today. I came up short, but hopefully tomorrow.  Here's a small part that's done. 

If you still need your fix of  Jon Pay or Gus MacDugal, there are three comics available on ComiXology. 

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

Day 53: Another distraction...

Okey, so another thing came up... I wonder if I'm on to one of the reasons this is taking so long. I was asked to do Apple Order Nummer character sketches for a story. The sketches escalated a little... I can show one or two close ups as these faces are gonna change again. And I don't know if I'll be able to show the finished piece for a while. 

Anyway, here they are. 

If you still need your fix of  Jon Pay or Gus MacDugal, there are three comics available on ComiXology. 

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

Day 51: ...and now for something completely different...

A little late and a little different. Needed a little break from inking. I did this black and white fan art piece of Ciaran Marcantonio's A ClockWork Universe  almost exactly a year ago. I know because another event ended up taking place later that day, which was not as nice. As such I thought it would be a good way to commemorate both by improving (hopefully) one of these memories for the anniversary. As such, I started coloring the piece. For those of you who know me, I don't consider myself a colorist by any measure of the term. I'll do it in a pinch, and on occasion I do enjoy it. But there are far superior colorists out there whom I prefer to work with, talented people like Frank M. Cuonzo and Chris O'Halloran. Anyway, here are the flats. Will attempt to finish it by the anniversary, but we'll see...

Now back to inking....

If you still need your fix of  Jon Pay or Gus MacDugal, there are three comics available on ComiXology. 

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

Day 50: This is done, right?

I blame USS Callister!! Without its existence, I would have gotten more done and been able to mark Day 50 better... then again, those fifty days have not been as consecutive as I would have liked, so maybe I'll save the bells and whistles for day 75 or day 100. Unfortunately, not all the blog-"reports" can be as cool as yesterday's or Day 43 or even 23. 

Anyway, this is done, right?

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 46: what happened?

I'm here! Sorry. This week knocked the wind out of my sails. A bit more than I expected. Trying to get back in to it. 

So here's the panel I've been dipping in and out of. This page features mostly Jon and his secretary, Plentance Hills, fondly referred to by her friends as Plenty. Another supporting character will show up in a few panels, but we'll get back to him then. 

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 44: here we go!

Here is the post I promised yesterday  Yes, it was one of those days and this was all I got. However (in danger of coming across too philosophical) this is a great symbol for 2018 for me: a blank page, full of endless possibilities and opportunities.

Happy New Years, everybody and all the best for 2018. (And as for you 2017... you can shove it up your rear!!)

If you want to learn more about Jon Pay or Gus MacDugal, there are three comics available on ComiXology (for a very reasonable price if I do say so myself... and I'm a cheapscape...)

(Jon Pay, PI and All supporting characters ™ & ©, C. A. Aabø, 2017.)

Day 42: ...seriously?!?

Seriously?!? I'm not done with this panel yet?!? SERIOUSLY??!!??

In the words of the great FMCuonzo "hooboy!!!"

If you want to learn more about Jon Pay or Gus MacDugal, there are three comics available on ComiXology (for a very reasonable price if I do say so myself... and I'm a cheapscape...)

(Jon Pay, PI and All supporting characters ™ & ©, C. A. Aabø, 2017.)

Day 41: Wwwwwhhhyyyyy!?!?

I love these kinds of backgrounds, but they are SOOOOO much work. They are also one of many reasons "doing a panel a day" is actually a challenge...

If you want to learn more about Jon Pay or Gus MacDugal, there are three comics available on ComiXology (for a very reasonable price if I do say so myself... and I'm a cheapscape...)

(Jon Pay, PI and All supporting characters ™ & ©, C. A. Aabø, 2017.)