Outcast and dA member Aoste sent me a note the other day that my Third Rail Thrills series was featured on Comics Alliance. You can check it out at the link below:

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/12/2 … n-lab-art/

That was a nice surprise! The comments on CA are pretty polarizing, but that’s to be expected with such a large site, but hey, if even a few click through and see the main body of my work, especially the creator-owned TRDL Universe stuff or the Finit-e comic, then any press is good press! But all the same, a great way to end the year!

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum
here!… Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. Third Rail Thrills No. 55 – Deja Vu [Plan B Comics]
2. TRDL Featured in Plan B Pin-Up Book Available Now
3. Eisner Awards FInally Considering Web Comics Media

Before my daughter was born, I had a sweet deal worked out with wifebot(tm). Sundays were mine for drawing. We called them Fini-days. I got up, made a pot of coffee, and worked on the comic until the coffee switched to champagne or martinis, and the day ended around 8pm or so. It was wonderful having that much focused time to work. I can do commissions and other project work in bits and pieces, but the comic requires that I have sustained, uninterrupted time, as I’m writing and drawing at the same time, and it takes me awhile to get into sequential art mode.

Fini-days became extinct once we had Zoe, and I have no complaints about it. I still found time to squeeze my art in, often after hours. Now that my son is here, I’ve had NOTHING resembling consistent art production. That said, I’ve still gotten a lot done, given the circumstances. I drew a piece while in the delivery room. I got more done in the weeks that followed, throwing the baby over my shoulder or in a Bjorn sling (funny, before Zoe was born, Joao sent me photos of same in his house)… it’s been fine.

Sunday I had a brief sampling of the kind of relaxed drawing time I used to take for granted. I had a few solid hours to sketch, while having a light lunch and a mimosa. I couldn’t remember the last time that happened.

I’m looking forward to more routine as Matteo matures a bit and slips out of newborn triage mode. I’m trying to get the TRDL Sourcebooks and site update done, then switch to Finit-e comic work full-time. Wish me luck!

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here!… Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL Resources- Drawing the Human Figure in Proportion BIG!
2. Finit-e Serial: Update
3. TRDL 3:33 2011 Series No. 6 – Live Drawing Nite

TRDL Collaboration – Micevengers

This piece was done for Round 01 of a new Tag-Team Battle Royale on Outcast. my partner in grime is Miguel, who is understanding with my fleeting free time in the approaching presence of my future son. But so far so good! The concept is that there are 5 teams, so we are bracketed so that every team competes with every other team in a series of rounds, and points are amassed based on voting within that forum. Every round and therefore every challenge has a different theme. So Round 01, for us, was the theme ‘MICE’. We were talking about it and I had the concept to re-imagine the classic Avengers No. 1 cover, but with mice and a cat. Actually I think I thought of Loki as a hawk, but Miguel was down with a feline foe. He penciled it, I inked and colored it, and he did the final text and formatting for the cover art. Pretty awesome working with another artist, something I miss from our Picture This! Virtual Studio period.

Voting now:
http://outcaststudios.com/forums/index. … ntry119414
You can see the competition in this link. They did some sort of biker mouse from mars, from a TV show with which I am unfamiliar. Cool pic, though.

Edit: We won. On to the next round…

Process notes below…

:::

Artists, come join us on R3 and submit to the jams! The R3 Illustration Jam offers new characters weekly, but all jams remain open so you can contribute to any that you like, here:
http://www.thirdraildesignlab.com/forum … m.php?f=27
or in the TRDL-R3-WeeklyJam group on DA, here:
http://trdl-r3-weeklyjam.deviantart.com/

:::

PROCESS:

Here’s that familiar cover. I love this pic. Actually pretty technically challenging, fitting all of the characters into that composition with a foe in the foreground.

I’m … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL Collaboration: Locked and Loaded
2. TRDL Collaboration: Appleseed
3. TRDL Collaboration: Runaways as the Pride 2.0

It’s been awhile since I posted an in-depth look at my personal process. My origina post on the topic was over three years ago, and a few things hanged for the better, though my drawing time itself is much more limited due to family responsibilities of children and steaks-in-the-freezer requirements. Anyway, this is not the RIGHT way to do this sort of work, just MY way. I recently was asked a number of questions about my inking style, which was generously referred to as ‘spartan’ (I think of it as streamlined, but compared to proper inkers, it’s not much more than tracing my equally simple pencils and making some judicious lineweight choices. Nonetheless…) so I thought I’d follow up that conversation with a full TRDL Method update. If you are interested in how I do this stuff, read on!

The piece being rendered below can be seen here!

The Tools:

I use Borden and Riley #234 Bristol in 9×12 pads for the paper these days, and I’m very happy with the tooth and the portability of the pad (though the size requires cutting down the stock if I want to print blueline onto it.) I use your old fashioned ‘natural’ finish #2 pencils for the pencil work; not blueline pencils, not mechanicals, not fancy art sticks. Just wood. I ink with pens, not nibs, though I greatly admire nib and brush ink methods. I prefer Microns. I’ve used refillable aluminum cartridge pens, as my partner Joao uses, but I go back to the comfort of the Micron. I used to use India Ink pens but the ink changes color over time. Anyway, I use a number of lineweights: 005, 01, 02, 03, 05 and 08, though I use them in pairs or threes, based on the scale of the … Read on for more awesome…

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1. The TRDL Method: Thom’s Tutorial [Archive]
2. Finit-e Survey!
3. TRDL 2011 Series No. 85 – Enchantress

OK, it was 80% done by May 2009, and it took another 18 months or whatever to get to the finish line, but Scene (Chapter) 4 is now live on http://www.thirdraildesignlab.com or http://www.finit-e.com for your immediate enjoyment. Remember you can use the online comic reader interface or download a PDF or CBR for local copy reading, use on your iPhone or iPad, or printing. I recommend starting from the beginning to get refreshed on what’s going on, but however you choose to read it, when done, give me your comments here in the link below:

viewtopic.php?f=44&t=19775

You can also read the Annotations/ Behind-the-scenes stuff here,
and read the new character dossiers here.

Finit-e is a graphic serial about the nearly-now and the dawn of the supernormal. It’s a comic with equal parts espionage thriller, police procedural and science fiction adventure. It’s also the first comic under the TRDL imprint.

Please enjoy, hell yes!

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum
here!… Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL v2.0 and the Finit-e Graphic Serial are Live!
2. TRDL Update: Finit-e Graphic Serial Scene 03
3. Finit-e Graphic Serial: Scene 03 Now Available!

View a hi-res version of this file here!

:::

Name: Mitchell Klein
Affiliation: Central Intelligence Agency
Classified Designation
Birth: Miami, Florida

Most Recent Surveillance:

Kittering Tower
SoMA, San Francisco, California
UTC/GMT 19:450 [ local: 12:54]

Mitchell Klein is an operative with Classified Designation Status, whose previous assignments were recently sealed as part of an agency-wide stonewalling tactic employed by CIA Acting Chief Montgomery Stephenson, who publicly opposed many of the protocols adopted in the wake of the Global Counter-Terrorism Initiative hearings. Stephenson argued that greater transparency with regards to past and present assignments of field operatives would put sensitive deep cover operations at greater risks internationally, and allow the CIA to become dragged into the political realm domestically. While his actions are being tested in the courts, at the present time all service records for CIA assets are unavailable.

Mitchell Klein was born in Miami, Florida, the third child of a British imports advisor and an American Naval officer. He spent most of his childhood living on military installations throughout the Caribbean, and received his primary education in London and later a degree from Oxford, before returning to the United States and entering the law enforcement field as a Coast Guard officer, before his recruitment to into the Agency. He is fluent in several languages. He was last observed off-duty in the vicinity of Kittering Tower, during a GCTI national security crisis response exercise in the South Marina Downtown District.

:::

As the Finit-e graphic serial progresses, more will be revealed about the characters involved, and as such, their dossiers will be expanded here. Check back after each Scene is published for more information! Or misinformation…

You can read the Finit-e graphic serial on-line, here: Finit-e Graphic Serial Web Reader
And you can download the PDF or CBR files here: … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL Finit-e Graphic Serial: Dossier – [Webb]
2. TRDL Finit-e Graphic Serial: Dossier – [Warrington]
3. TRDL Finit-e Graphic Serial: Dossier – [Bryant]

View a hi-res version of this file here!

:::

Name: Nick Webb
Affiliation: Central Intelligence Agency
Classified Designation
Birth: Des Moines, Iowa

Most Recent Surveillance:

Kittering Tower
SoMA, San Francisco, California
UTC/GMT 19:450 [ local: 12:54]

Nick Webb is a senior operative with Classified Designation Status, whose previous assignments were recently sealed as part of an agency-wide stonewalling tactic employed by CIA Acting Chief Montgomery Stephenson, who publicly opposed many of the protocols adopted in the wake of the Global Counter-Terrorism Initiative hearings. Stephenson argued that greater transparency with regards to past and present assignments of field operatives would put sensitive deep cover operations at greater risks internationally, and allow the CIA to become dragged into the political realm domestically. While his actions are being tested in the courts, at the present time all service records for CIA assets are unavailable.

Nick Webb was a promising young athlete, named one of Iowa’s brightest new football stars at the High School level, going on to play for the Long-Haulers before recruitment into the NFL by the Dallas Cowboys. He played for four seasons, before a neck injury forced him into retirement. He joined the Agency after being recruited from the Chicago Police Academy, where he was nearing graduation. He was last observed off-duty in the vicinity of Kittering Tower, during a GCTI national security crisis response exercise in the South Marina Downtown District.

:::

As the Finit-e graphic serial progresses, more will be revealed about the characters involved, and as such, their dossiers will be expanded here. Check back after each Scene is published for more information! Or misinformation…

You can read the Finit-e graphic serial on-line, here: Finit-e Graphic Serial Web Reader
And you can download the PDF or CBR files here: Finit-e Graphic Serial Download

Follow this topic in … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL Finit-e Graphic Serial: Dossier – [Klein]
2. TRDL Finit-e Graphic Serial: Dossier – [Stranger]
3. TRDL Finit-e Graphic Serial: Dossier – [Warrington]

View a hi-res version of this file here!

:::

Name: Kieran Bryant
Affiliation: National Security Agency
Communication Assets Team
Birth: Providence, Rhode Island

Most Recent Surveillance:

Marina City Towers
Chicago, Illinois
UTC/GMT 21:50 [ local: 15:50]

Kieran Bryant was the seventh child born to a wealthy Rhode Island shipping magnate, but the first to follow a career path outside of the family business, attending Yale University and immediately entering government service after graduation with honors. Naturally athletic, he was recruited by the BI but chose to accept a position with the NSA, first as a signals intelligence analyst, and eventually as part of the Communication Assets Team, an experimental unit involved with extremely sensitive forward technology field-tested before granted widespread implementation agency-wide. He was last observed entering the Marina City Towers residential lobby, building 2.

:::

As the Finit-e graphic serial progresses, more will be revealed about the characters involved, and as such, their dossiers will be expanded here. Check back after each Scene is published for more information! Or misinformation…

You can read the Finit-e graphic serial on-line, here: Finit-e Graphic Serial Web Reader
And you can download the PDF or CBR files here: Finit-e Graphic Serial Download

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum
here!… Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL Finit-e Graphic Serial: Dossier – [Stranger]
2. TRDL Finit-e Graphic Serial: Dossier – [Warrington]
3. TRDL Finit-e Graphic Serial: Dossier – [Nomic]

View a hi-res version of this file here!

:::

Name: Sarah Graves
Affiliation: Office of the Director of National Intelligence
Deputy Director of Inter-Agency Affairs
Birth: Manhattan Island, New York, New York

Most Recent Surveillance:

Marina City Towers
Chicago, Illinois
UTC/GMT 21:50 [ local: 15:50]

Sarah Graves was one of six children who were rescued alive from the Staten Island Ferry disaster, and received national praise for her help in saving the lives of three of their number by helping them stay active in the freezing waters as they awaited assistance from nearby vessels. She received a scholarship to a prestigious private school in upstate New York partially as a result of her notoriety, and went on to study Law at Yale University. She passed the bar and entered private practice with a small civil rights firm in Queens, before becoming Assistant District Attorney in New York, a position she held for only eight months, due to politically and culturally irreconcilable differences with other on staff, including the District Attorney, who was under investigation for inappropriate professional conduct with one of his clerks. She returned to private practice, becoming the youngest partner at Howard, Hurwitz and Graves, a firm specializing in government misconduct cases. To her surprise, and that of the legal and political community both in her home state and Washington, she was tapped as the new Deputy Director of Inter-Agency Affairs, an appointed position created to assist the Joint Intelligence Chief, a position formed as a result of the Global Counter-Terrorism Initiative Protocols. The Joint Intelligence Chief acts as an advisor to the Director of National Intelligence, specializing in coordinating intelligence assets in an increasingly complex agency system. The DD position also serves a dual role as a liaison with similar positions in each of the major intelligence … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL Finit-e Graphic Serial: Dossier – [Royal]
2. TRDL Finit-e Graphic Serial: Dossier – [Bryant]
3. TRDL Finit-e Graphic Serial: Dossier – [Samsel]

Annotations for Finit-e: Scene 04

Scene 04 was a weird one: it took the longest, not for lack of trying, and certainly that helped and hurt the production of the pages, and the story told within them. The pages started out, as with previous chapters, as large storyboard thumbs drawn up when the story was developed over the first few years of the new millennium, from notes and concepts gathered in the late 90s. At one point, and Lung can attest to this having lived next door, I had some 178 pages taped up along a long wall of my loft, which was quite impressive looking but daunting, thinking about the work that would go into getting the project done. And this was just Book ONE of a three book series plotted out. Over time, as you may have read, I began to systematically scale the project back, condensing the events that comprised Book One, and bringing in more of the events from Books Two and Three, in the hopes of just having a chance to complete the project in my lifetime. A lot of the concepts remained, while much of the detail would necessarily be edited out from the original story. While the book Finit-e was originally conceived as swinging back and forth between the action in the field and the messy bureaucracy behind the curtains, it was planned to be doing so in very wide swaths, so Book One was almost entirely talky-talky until the final act, setting up an action filled middle volume. This was due, in part, by my love of procedurals, from law & Order to films like Bourne Identity that dared to show agency types fumbling around, watching their asses as things got messier in the field. But really, the more I condensed it, … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL Finit-e Graphic Serial: Scene 02 Annotations [BONUS]
2. TRDL Finit-e Graphic Serial: Scene 03 Annotations [BONUS]
3. TRDL Finit-e Graphic Serial: Scene 01 Annotations [BONUS]

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