|
Arsenic Lullaby
NFTs
The
wonders of blockchain technology
meets your beloved dark humor
powerhouse. Trade your Eth for
limited edition works of A.L.
Featured on these fine sites...
(if you didn't understand
any of that...I'm not the one to
explain it you you.)
SUPERRARE
MAKERSPLACE
RARIBLE
|
|
BEHIND THE SCENES AND PREVIEWS
POCF part 1
A friend of mine from the comic book industry, Josh Blaylock,
writer and illustrator and publisher of Devil's Due Publishing
has begun making his way in the NFT world and asked me to get on
board with a big combined NFT launch. To which I said "of
course". Josh and I both begun independent comic publishing
about the same time, and have both found ourselves to be the tip
of the spear, sort of speak, of comics entering the world of
NFT's.
That's not a big suprise. If a year and a half ago someone told
you there would be a new medium of visual art based on advance
technology and you had to bet money of which of the established
comic book pros would be among the pioneers...you might first
consider whoever passes for a household name, but then factor in
who's most willing, able and always looking to take a risk, and
then you'd pick either me or Josh.
He's talented, very
much gives a damn about putting out good work and...much like
myself, he's a very cunning "keep an eye on the future" forward
thinking person...so aside from the comradery, it was a no
brainier to get on board with his upcoming project
His parameters for the piece was "...just pretend someone came
up to you for a commission and said I want something involving
cryptocurrency and space".
So...it''s a theme, but a vague theme.
Sigh...
You know what I like? Either no theme or something specific.
This halfway stuff drives me nuts. I'm mostly alone in that
regard. Do I think he, who has known me some time, gave me a
half way subject just to torture me? No...but then again...he
does know me well enough to know that when I'm vexed, I end up
doing some of my best work. And he is cunning.
Anyways...I kicked around a few ideas...looked at what he did
and had from people so far...mulled over some more ideas.
Decided on this one (which at this stage is just a bunch of
scribbles, symbolizing the picture in my head).
A little space accountant of sorts with a jet pack, skimming
through a planet/moon of crypto hoarding aliens. I have some
ideas on effects I've been wanting to try that I'll get into
next time. For now though, that base image needs to be refined
and drawn and inked. I envisioned the buildings being giant
crypto mining units, with some others flying overhead in the
distance.
All those little arrows lead to the different vanishing points.
In this piece there are many. Because while it is an
open question as to whether or no Josh likes to torture me...I
clearly like to torture myself.
To give the composition some energy I had the buildings/units on
the right angled slightly differently than the left. and to give
the units flying over head some implied movement, I had each one
tilted just a bit differently than the others. (each having a
left and right vanishing point a bit shifter from the other but
always on the same horizin line)
That's confusing...lemme give you a closer look...
That's still confusing, I know I was confused for about
half an hour. This may all seem unnecessary, but if they all had
the same two vanishing points it would be a very boring
composition, with no life to it.
Then again...at this point I started to second guess whether
or not I'll even add those things. There's going to be a
title across the top like and old sci-fi pulp magazine, and that
is a key element.
Having these units up there along with the title might just
make it too visually complicated. By "might" I mean almost
definatly. BUT...even if I don't use them for this, I
might be able to use them on something else later on.
Onto the final piece...
Those are some damn fine looking circuit boards on those crypto
buildings...I'm gonna regret that when its time to ink. Those
and the little spaceman ( which I haven't at this point even
drawn in all they way) I'll probably tackle last, after I've
built up some confidence.
at this point here...I've inked as much as I'm comfortable
taking on...and screwed up the circuit boards, and a few other
things. That's what white out is for ( or...I guess the delete
button if I was bright enough to just be doing this on a
computer LOL). And as you can see below, a couple or mistakes
got whited out and redone and whited out several times. That
coin here had like a 3mm thick skin of white out from all the
failed attempts.
Eventually I got it though.
So...it's onto drawing some stuff on another piece of paper to
be scanned in and added, either because that was the plan all
along, or in the case of the circuit boards, I screwed them up
and have to try again.
The flying crypto units, were always going to be on a different
layer because I wasn't sure if I'd want to change their position
in the sky once the words/title was added ( that lettering I'll
explain/show you next time) or really began to doubt if I'd use
them at all.
That is a lot of word, but it's also good practice. You
try inking something like that for awhile and suddenly
everything else seems easy to do by comparision.
and THAT is all I'll show you for now. The remaining lines to be
inked are scaring the crap out of me. We've got some long
curves (the aliens left arm, the top caps of the crypto units)
and the little guy is such a vital part that even though the
lines would normally be stress free, they are making me tense.
Also his helmet...that's something that will test my skill with
a brush.
I could use a compass, but that
would give me a line so percise it might stand out too much and
getting the thickness of the line with any other tool to match
how thin I can get a brush line would be harder than just doing
it with a brush. And...I CAN do that with a brush...I just
need my mind right.
All that and the lettering of the title will take up a whole
other blog... The lettering is a tragic story, really. It's a
story of a man who, for once, actually used the computer to make
his life easier and forgot to save the file and ended up having
to do it the hard way after all.
ARSENIC LULLABY NFT HOMEPAGE
ARSENIC LULLABY COMICS
HOMEPAGE
____________________________
 |
Sign up for the A.L. Email updates
Get a weekly email
from the writer illustrator of Arsenic Lullaby.
Some week's it's a sneak preview, or a long
rant, or news about new projects before we tell
anyone else, or a discount code.
HERE |
|
|
