SHOOTERS is now available in bookstores and comic shops.
A veteran of the Persian Gulf war returns home to a broken life after a tragic friendly fire incident, only to return to Iraq for a last shot at redemption as a private military contractor. SHOOTERS is available now in comic shops and bookstores. 130 pages, hardcover, published by DC Vertigo.
For more about Shooters, go to the unofficial website SteelRiverSecurity.com You can also order an autographed copy direct from me via Periscope Studio’s Etsy store.
Wally Wood’s 22 panels That Always Work have been passed around like cartoonist samizdat for decades now, and this is a good thing. But keep in mind, they aren’t a lesson in how to make good comics, they’re something to keep handy in case of emergency. The emergency in question is when a writer has handed you a non-visual script. (Read this letter from David Mamet to his writing staff for more about such things.)
Comics are a visual medium, and work best when they use pictures to advance and enrich the narrative. Sometimes a script doesn’t do that, but an artist still needs to communicate the impression that there is something dramatic taking place. Tv and film have sound and movement to help accomplish this goal. In comics, we’ve got variations in gesture, lighting, and composition.
At six or seven panels a page, you can run through a lot of clever shots very quickly trying to keep the reader’s eye engaged. When you’re all out of good ideas, that’s when you need to break the glass and deploy some of Wood’s 22.
Via ryansara, sometimes the cat is just only a head.
Sara and I are huge fans of Girl Talk’s ALL DAY. When we found out about the GIRL WALK/ALL DAY video project, we fell in love and watched it over and over.
The director Jacob Krupnick has been traveling across the country putting on live screenings of GIRL WALK with dance parties. Tonight they came to Portland, and I had to attend. (Sara was eager to go too, but a nasty cold kept her at home.) I’m pretty sure I was the oldest person in the room- certainly the oldest person dancing. And if this picture is to be believed, I was also the tallest. Of course I pulled out my sketchbook. It’s never easy nailing the gestures of dancers- they aren’t exactly holding still- but if you stare hard enough, you can spot some patterns (at the risk of creeping them out while you’re at it.) The picture above assembles some of the night’s more intelligible doodles. I had a great time. Big, big thanks to everyone involved.
Ghost.
I spent a few moments today walking with the ghost of my old life drawing teacher Ben Ruiz. He asked me a question. “In a line drawing Steve, when describing form—that’s form, not light, texture, or pattern— what are the three reasons for using a line?”
It’s been a while since anyone has asked me a question like that, so I had to pause. I thought for a moment, then replied. “An inside plane break, an outside plane break, and the horizon of the form.”
Ben’s ghost grunted to indicate that my answer was correct, then he nodded and we stopped and the world washed back into the space his absence had occupied. I opened the door of Periscope Studio and sat back down at the drawing board.
More life drawing. Periscope had its monthly live session, and I made room in my schedule so I could attend. For me, the goal of life drawing isn’t to produce nice looking art. It’s to to keep my eye for light, form, and anatomy sharp and sensitive. If the actual drawings come out okay, that’s a just a nice bonus.
I drew this a few years back for a Dave Cockrum benefit book and auction. Cockrum’s design was great, and I loved the challenge of drawing all that water.
allshadesofme:
awyeahcomics:
Storm by Steve Lieber
Mistress of the Weather!
Terrible weather won’t stop me from getting to life drawing. Click through to see more.
One of my resolutions for 2012 is to do more life drawing. 
