Nick Davis's Blog, page 14

Drawing Outside Your Comfortzone – Into The Spiderverse

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Into the Spiderverse, is the most visually stunning movie I have seen in many year, and is the best superhero movie I have ever seen. Not taking anything away from the joy of the MCU, but Spiderverse is a pure comic book movie, so much so, it is like having a comic book explode in your face. Simply stunning.

I am so enamored with this movie, I set myself a challenge to draw all the main Spiderverse characters from the movie. That’s right, Miles Morales, Gwen Stacey, Peter B Parker, Noir and Peter Porker. Each one has a unique style, from cartoon, to manga, each one would take me straight out of my comfortzone.

The Spiderverse Gallery

Oddly the two hardest to draw out of the set of Spiderverse heroes was Peter B Parker and Peni & Sp\dr, both of which had very different styles. Mecha and human form have, and always will be a challenge to me. But the good thing about drawing out of your comfortzone is it forces you to learn. Oh, if anyone is keeping score the easiest to draw was Peter Porker – I guess because Spider-Ham is the closest to my style.

All the Spiderverse illustrations were drawn and colored using the Procreate App, on an Apple iPad using an Apple Pencil.

Timelapse Videos

Using the unique feature on Procreate, I downloaded the recording of the Spiderverse heroes being drawn.

View the Videos
Miles Morales – Spider-man

Peter B Parker – Spider-man

Gwen Stacey – Spider-man, Spider-Gwen, Ghost Spider?

Peter Parker – Spider-man Noir

Peni Parker & Sp//dr

Peter Porker, Spider-Ham

Drawing Outside Your Comfortzone – My Art Of 2018

[image error]As the last days of 2018 tick away, it is time for my annual tradition of sharing my art of 2018, all the pieces I created throughout the year as I struggle with style, color, and the new medium of digital drawing in the Procreate App. What follows is another journey, this time via the art I created. Enjoy.

January






February







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April
















May







June







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August







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November



















December








Sum It All Up

Another year gone, 126 pieces of art created and my year-long journey into digital art is complete, as an artist I’ve grown over the last year. There has been missteps, stumbles and a loss confidence along the way, but I picked myself up and kept going.  You never stop learning to draw and as I always tell those who seek advice from me, drawing is like a muscle – keep training, keep practicing and you will get stronger and stronger. I’m still on this road with much to learn and while I will always see myself as writer first. I am getting increasingly confident in my ability to convey a story with my art.

Thank you for hanging with me throughout 2018, we have an entire year ahead of us, which means one thing… Adventures ahead!

My 2018 Trip Around The Sun, Been A Wild Ride

[image error]Well, as the final days of 2018 click away, it is time for my annual look back at my 2018 trip around the sun. What a year this has been, for many of us it has been a rough experience and 2019 already looks like it isn’t promising all that much. However, I am getting ahead of myself, so lets turn back the clock and travel back in time in the retrospective hot tub time machine.

Before I continue, did you know this past year we have all traveled 583 millions miles through space at an average speed of 67,000mph, meaning even if you didn’t leave home you were traveler. Pretty mind-blowing, eh?

The year, like all years started with the promise of good things, I was gifted an iPad Pro and finally had access to the mythical procreate app – promising a year of exploring the techniques of digital drawing and a chance for me to swing at a few comic ideas I had – all drawn by me!

Not a bad start to the year with an exciting personal creation project.

Journey Into The Tempest

In January I watched my first play outside of school, it was the Tempest by the Baltimore Shakespeare Company and I enjoyed the play, and the company immensely – vowing to see more live productions throughout the year (little did I know what was coming) Creatively I enjoyed myself and the year was opening up into a lot of possibilities.

Outside My Comfortzone

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In February I finally got comfortable enough with the Procreate App, and digital drawing to release a new Unconditional Hugs cartoon strip onto Webtoons. The idea being I would release a handful of strips this year and build into a bigger story. Creatively I was feeling great and although the Winter was dragging with rain, rain and more rain. The year was shaping up nicely for me.

The month of February stretched on and I finally released the final part to the Out Of The Attic series featuring the Cuddly Defenders, finishing the arc of stories that started way back in A Teddy Bear Tale. A sense of completion came over me and I could look to the future with an interesting reboot of my teddy bear adventure in mind.

Taking Stock Of My Dream

March was the first real gut punch of the year for me, I was forced into a position to look at my storytelling dreams and make drastic changes. My finances were cut in half, and I had no choice, but to look at my families survival, which sadly meant I had to scale back my dream. It hurt a lot, and I knew it was going to cost me a lot of momentum that I had built up, but the decision was forced upon me and the whole experience shook my confidence. Maybe, I simply wasn’t that good after all certainly I was mocked this month for having a dream and that will stay with me for a long time.

A Parenting Nightmare

The hits in march kept coming, my Daughter got caught up in a school shooting at Great Mills High taking the life of a teenage girl. My Daughter was literally down the hall from the shooter and I got a terrified phone call around 8am from my baby girl. Powerless to help, all I could do was tell her to lay on the floor and hide behind a table. Her frantic pleas over the phone will never leave me and I know the entire incident still haunts my daughter too. Never think a school shooting won’t happen to your kid, it happened to mine and the problem is only growing. Gun safety is a discussion that is long overdue here in the USA and how much longer will it be before enough is enough? For the sake of our children we have to look at this.

We Became A Military Family

[image error]While 2018 had delivered some hard hits, we had a bright spot, my son joined the Coastguard and headed off to basic training. In one fell swoop we became a Military family and entered a world we knew little about. Words cannot describe how proud I am of my boy and watching him leave to become something bigger than him was a life experience.

Repackaging Awakenings

[image error]I spent part of the month of April and May reorganizing the resource I had for publishing and repackaged many of my stories to get them up on Amazon

About this time direct links to my work on Amazon were placed on the website and I started to break my sprawling website down, so it would be more user friendly. This was an important step for me to figure out what I wanted to do with the work I was creating. Before this I had ambled about, working on projects at a whim and may have spread myself too thin.

Bonus start to June, we travel up to Cape May and watch my son graduated Boot camp and now was a Coastguard Fireman Apprentice. One of the proudest moments of my life.

Hero Ted Launches

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My first full digital comic strip, written and drawn by me launched on Webtoons – Hero Ted was back in a whole new adventure and was my first journey into a complete digital comic. It was a lot of hard work, I learned a lot of things from its creation and told, what I hoped was a good little story.

Finally Figure Out Dee

[image error]After exercising my artistic muscle on the digital medium I finally sat down and figured out how to finally drawn Team-D. A small hero team I had been wanting to introduce to the Teddy Bear Tale books, but couldn’t quite get them to click. Dee had gone from a ditsy, like her namesake from Dexter Laboratory, to a Kim Possible look a like, until a moment of inspiration hit me and I de-aged her all the way to an eight year old. I had finally found this elusive characters face and I believe my adventures in digital art had finally brought her out.

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Team-D, the awesome adventures of Dee & Duo, and their Little Big Adventure will be coming some time in 2019.

Moving Quickly

[image error]The year started to speed up, Mr Button got reviewed on an Australian Comic Book Podcast, I attempted to run a Kickstarter to make, and sell Teddy Bear action figures which blew up in spectacular fashion when the supplier disappeared off the radar. Then we hit a roadblock.

Jean fell foul of a really bad infection, so bad it put her into hospital and had be scared so bad I thought I was going to lose her. After a couple of rough days, she recovers and was discharged after 10 days of sitting in the infection ward. Really rough time for us all.

The Power Of Words

I learned the power  of words when I was contacted by the mother of a child who died of cancer. I know not the most Hollywood type of story, but she thanked me for the comfort my Teddy Bear stories brought her child. Now at this point I was at a low point, and was struggling to justify continuing my work, I had a rough child support court experience and had everything I created and dreamed about mocked by my ex-wife’s attorney, and I was questioning everything about myself. Then I was told Nathaniel’s story and dedicated the entire Childhood cancer month to fundraising, by donating my Teddy Bear Tales book royalties to cancer research. This got picked up by a couple of local papers and we made $50 for children’s cancer research… Maybe next year we can go bigger?

A New Direction

Learning of the power my words had, I set off on my new direction for A Teddy Bear Tale and launched a new Kickstarter to get the book made, and after a struggle, a relaunch we landed the money need to get the job done, and I hope sometime in March 2019 we will have a new Teddy Bear Tale book to add to the growing universe.

[image error]I bounced through Inktober 2019, using the digital medium and helped craft my abilities with the Apple Pencil and Procreate, pulling myself out of another rut as I discovered the joy I had been missing from most of the year in my work. It felt good to be back.

Near Death

Jean once again fell ill, and after a nightmare 18 hours in the Franklin Square ER she found herself admitted to the hospital, this time it was really serious. They had to drain fluid from her, and the Hospital was clueless on how to treat her. It got so bad I made initial plans for her funeral and two weeks later she was released from the hospital, losing a good 15 pounds. But, the fluid drain actually helped her. This marked the third time in the last two years I thought was going to lose Jean. It really does do a number on you.

Concept

[image error]A couple of months go by and I attempt a new digital comic, this time a sequential story that is told in motion, with no dialog, or sound effects. Just a pure storytelling using my new character Rokkit Bunny, it turned into an interesting experience and I am quite proud with the way it turned out.

Then another gut punch, we lost Stan Lee on November 12, the comic book titan had died of old age. It was sad news, Stan was one of those people you thought would live forever, in a funny way I think he will. His legacy will stretch on wards and I hope I can contribute to this with new stories of my own. Thank you Stan, you will forever be the man!

Sum Up

And that was my year around the sun, work is going well, we as a family suffered a couple of bad financial blows, I almost lost my wife twice, had a bad scare where I thought I was going to lose my daughter and creatively I bottomed out and fought through a bought of depression. It was tough to say the least. But, there were highlights.

My son became a Coastguard and is now Fireman (E2), my Daughter has got all woke and is up in State Delegate faces about gun safety, my wife is alive, I grew as an artist and through scaling back may have a creative way forward. There are aspects of 2018 that have affected us all and may cast a shadow into 2019, I think you will all agree there is a general unease in the air.

With only four days left of 2018, I can breathe a sigh of relief knowing I have survived another trip around the sun. I don’t know what 2019 will bring, odd years historically have never been kind, but we will endure because that is what families do!

Oh, yeah… This happened…

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My son buys me Lego Voltron for Christmas, not a bad way to end the year.

Now let’s see what 2019 brings, it may be a little bumpy, but together we will make it. Onwards!

Drawing Outside Your Comfortzone – Inspired By Into The Spiderverse Miles Morales Spider-Man

[image error]Before I begin this Drawing Outside Your Episode blog, let me say this. You need to watch Into The Spiderverse, it really is like a comic book has exploded in your face and it is amazing! Everything you ever wanted from a comic book superhero movie is in this love letter to the industry. And this weeks illustration was inspired by this stunning movie.

The main character of this animated movie, is Miles Morales, the Spider-man from the Ultimate Universe and it is his origin story, helped along from a scattering of Spider-folk from other realities and a fantastic take on 616 Peter B. Parker. And the subject of my Drawing Outside The Comfortzone is Miles.



Miles was drawn in the Procreate App on an iPad Pro, using the Apple Pencil. I took all my older techniques of pencil, ink, color and threw them out. Drawing Spider-man, and painting directly over the pencil, before using various brushes to add texture and definition. The look, is well, something very different from what you expect from me. Inspired directly by the Spiderverse movie, this illustration is closest I’ve come to actually producing what I feel is a piece of art – as you can tell, I am quite proud.

The purpose of Drawing Outside Your Comfortzone, is just that, finding a way to challenge yourself, to push yourself to try something different and to learn from it. My digital art piece, Miles Morales, Spider-man is a perfect rendition of what this blog is all about. It is a leap of faith.

Now, get out there and create! Don’t be afraid to fall, because that teaches us how to get up again!

Onwards.

A Four Page Preview Of Team-D – the story of a girl and her teddy bear

[image error]Team-D is an adventure comic book following the adventures of Dee, a young girl, and her grumpy old Teddy Bear named Duo, and their little big adventure across the multi-realms of the Teddy Bear Universe. After the jump you can read a Five Page preview of this all-ages comic and find out how you can make this new book happen.

Team-D Preview

Team-D is drawn by Teddyverse artist Veronica Smith and is written by Nick Davis (me).

Team-D is a stretch-goal for the A Teddy Bear Tale Kickstarter project, and you can make this book happen, by helping A Teddy Bear Tale which its funding and help Team-D reach its goal. Enjoy the book, click the link below to visit A Teddy Bear Tale on Kickstarter.

A Teddy Bear Tale Kickstarter

Dan Dan Dah! Rokkit Bunny!

[image error]Here comes Rokkit Bunny! Hero, Bunny and Cuddly Toy with a jetpack! The following comic strip is something a little different, it is an experiment  in storytelling using panel pacing and movement. Drawn and plotted by me using Procreate on an Apple iPad & Pencil. You can view the two page story after the jump and please let me know what you think.

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The Day I Pushed Stan Lee Out Of The Way

[image error]On Monday November 12 we all received sad news, we had lost a comic book titan, Stan Lee, one of the founding lights of Marvel comics died aged 95*. His work revolutionized the comic book turning them from tales of fancy, to stories with true narrative and consequence. Superheros with real world problems, issues and flaws, sounds simple, right? But it changed the landscape and helped build Marvel in to the powerhouse it is today. Now, a lot of creatives know Stan Lee a lot better than me, but I do have my very own special story involving ‘The Man’. Read all about it after the jump.

The Day I Shoved Stan Lee Out Of The Way

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A few years ago I was at Baltimore Comic Con, I was in the Artist Alley under the Alt World Studios banner and was solo tabling. One of the perils of solo tabling is the pee break, with no one to really watch you table and a high amount of grab items, you really don’t dilly dally when you take a bathroom break.

I was on my way back from the bathroom and almost at my table, I could see someone there looking at my books, so I  was really pushing through the crowds to get back. In front of me was this white haired old man, dressed in khakis navigating the crowd, and just happened to be in my way. I sort of half pushed, half slide past him with a grumpy excuse me and got to my table just in time to see the potential customer walk away.

It wasn’t until later, after looking at photos from the convention (see right) did I realize I had shoved Stan Lee out-of-the-way! I had touched greatness in the most impolite way possible.

So ends my Stan Lee story, thank you Sir for all the Marvel you have seen and for sharing it with us all. You will be dearly missed and I will do all that I can to carry your legacy forwards.  Y’all be careful with the Earth now…

Excelsior!

*Source – BBC News: How Stan Lee’s Superheros Helped Change The World

Drawing Outside Your Comfortzone – Thirty One Days Of Inktober

[image error]The annual event of Inktober has passed, 31 days of October dedicated to the illustrative art of the black line, and this is my fourth year of taking part. However, this year I broke with tradition of using paper and pen, and used the Procreate App and Apple Pencil – still working within the guidelines of keeping everything black line. Are you curious to see how  did? Find out after the jump.

31 Days Of Inktober 2018

All illustrations have been created in Procreate on an iPad Pro using an Apple Pencil – the illustration area was set to 6″ x 4″.

Inktober Color Gallery

Using the Procreate App, I took the opportunity to color several of my inktober sketches, it is good practice as I continue to explore how to digital color.

The Utter Importance Of Creating

October was a tough month for me, I had hit a creative down low, the Kickstarter had failed, I couldn’t get me words to flow and illustration wise my drive had just dried up. You can see that in the beginning of my Inktober this year, you can see my struggling to get the lines out and it shows. But also as the month goes on you see a change, the lines flow, the pose is less awkward, a flow returns to the process as I remember why I draw, I write, I create… The joy is back.

Many years ago, I was up against the wall, I lost my state job, the USCIS where looking to deport me because they refused to convert my status as my wife was divorcing me. At that time I picked up a pencil and started to draw, through the power of art I pulled myself out of depression, it enabled me to pull my life back together.

I started to write, draw, A Teddy Bear Tales and Altworld Studios was born and life started an upswing. The utter importance of creating is it lights you up, it moves you forward, it lifts you up.

Onwards!

Writing Without Fear – Tag Your It A Teddy Bear Tale Synopsis

[image error]Over the last couple of years I have written many mini-synopsis and then put them into my archive to look at later, sometimes adapt, many times to pillage for a new story I am working on. These story summaries are very important in getting a story out of my head and onto the page before they are lost and I urge anyone who writes to do this. Tag Your It is one such synopsis, an idea for an illustrated Teddy Bear Tale. That may, or may not be written sometime in the future. The story begins after the jump.

Tag Your It – A Teddy Bear Tale Synopsis

The Cuddly Defenders fight the Monsters from the Purple Lagoon (a many tentacled thing) who has broken through the Barrier separating Realm of Wonder from the Land Of Lost Night. The Defenders are fighting around a lake, that water has been turned purple by the Monster. Archer is dragged into the water, and is rescued by Tristan – Archer emerges coughing as he has swallowed some of the water. Wilma and Fernando use the Golden Goose to drive the Monster back behind the Barrier wall by leaving a trail of Marshmallows for it to follow. Leaving the Teddy Bear Guard to seal the gap with a new piece of extra-strong cardboard, and double-sided sticky tape for speed, they leave for Safe Harbor.

Archer is feeling okay, just a little sick from swallowing the water and once the Defenders arrive in Safe Harbor they go their separate ways to run errands. Archer takes part in a Tag game, during the game he doubles up coughing, and then turns into a Meanie (purple) tagging his players, and the opposite team who all turn purple, who then turn the spectators. Soon all the Teddy Bears of Safe Harbor are being turned and gather around the Tower of Wonder, which is defended by the remaining few Teddy Bear Guard, Captain Olaf and the Cuddly Defenders.

Up in a Lab, Fernando is working with Magic O’Hare to find a cure, the barricades fall and the remaining Defenders are tagged (turning purple). Wilma races ahead of the Meanies and warns Fernando and Magic O’Hare. The Hare declares he can cast a magic barrier that will stop the Meanies long enough to find a cure.

Magic casts the barrier, but has to stay close by to keep it up leaving Fernando to find a cure. The Mouse Lion figures out that the cure to meanness is happiness, and distills tears of joy from Towers Reservoir into a small water pistol (big tap in the lab called Tears of joy), he just needs to test it. Little does he know that Wilma was half-tagged as she went to warn them and she turns mean tagging Magic.

The magical barrier falls and Fernando barricades himself into the Lab, but the door isn’t strong enough and it breaks. Some of meanies rush in led by Wilma, Fernando squirts her with the water pistol and she begins to change, but not before she tags Fernando. The little Mouse Lion see’s the change in his beloved and changes into Fernando the Lion, whose last act before turning mean is to break the joy of tears water pipe, soaking the meanies in the room, and causing a flood of joy to rush out of the Tower curing all the Meanies.

Life in Safe Harbor returns to normal and Magic congratulates Fernando on saving them, but also warns that it used up their supply of tears of joy leaving the realm with one less defense against the growing darkness.

Battling The Fugg

[image error]It all started in March, I found myself in Child Support Court, not because I wasn’t paying it, but because my ex-wife had decided I was not paying enough, thinking for some reason my convention work was some how making money. As I faced a barrage of questions over my finances from her free Attorney I faced a question that really touched me deeper than I thought.

I was asked by the Attorney, who was taking a lot of enjoyment at badgering me,” If you don’t make any money out of your books, why do you do it, what is the point?”

My reply was simple and I actually choked when I said it, “Because it makes a difference to the child who reads my book, and makes me feel… like I matter.” I found myself actually fighting tears at this point, and asked for a recess to regain my composure.

By the end of a long court session, I had managed to convince the Judge that I don’t make any money from my work, but it didn’t stop my Child Support from going up to the point my wife, and I are hanging on by our fingertips. But, vagaries of Child Support Court aside, the Attorney’s question got to me.

The point she was trying to make was I was wasting my time on something that has no material gain, that it was pointless to devote energy to a project that brings nothing of monetary value. It was mocking and the words haunted me, and still do… Creatively I went into a tailspin and my storytelling work this past year has been subpar to say the least. I was battling the Fugg, the Black Dog, an abyss of depression, and I reached the point I was ready to throw it all in.

Then this happened.

I heard from the mother of Nathaniel, and the bittersweetness of the joy my silly Teddy Bear Story had brought their child, this book mocked by an Attorney for not making any money, and therefore not worth any value, had brought value to this family. It make me pause and think… That perhaps I am doing something right. You can read their full story here.

But, I still fought a creative fugg, nothing I was doing was connecting in my head, writing, art, everything felt hollow and pointless. Words are dangerous, and as a writer I should know their power, and I was still tail-spinning because of what this Attorney had said.

I launched a Kickstarter for Awakenings Act Two which as I write this is failing, while the art and story are solid, my pitch wasn’t as clever as others I have made, and because of that it is suffering from the very real possibility of not reaching its funding goal. Because of my fugg, I have done some harm to my story credibility of getting it done and wont be able to give my artists a payday they deserve.

It got worse though I started my inktober journey and unlike the last other events, I had to force myself to draw, to create and my work was suffering because of it. For the first twelve days of this event I can only say my illustrations are below my usually standard, frankly they suck.

Then it finally clicked in my head. My words, my illustrations have helped, have made a difference and that is more important than any biting words from an Attorney. I stopped trying to force my work, and started to let it flow… The result you can see below.

I remembered the joy,.. Peace.

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