( me, inking a new comics page )
I am trying to get my latest comic book finally wrapped up. I have the full 24 page book written and pencilled. About half the pages are now inked and about a third of the pages are scanned in and colored. Adding color to this book has really tacked on a lot of time to getting things finished. I have put out some full color prints before, but this is the first time I've attempted to color a whole comic book. All my previous stuff has been in black and white.
At the same time I've come up with a whole new project that I'm also excited about. While pages sit on my hard drive waiting to be colored, I have started pencils on my next project, which is bad for productivity. I need to get one finished before I start on the other, but I find coloring to be such a drag it's hard for me to drum up the enthusiasm to get the colors laid down. I would much rather be drawing new stuff. I hate the coloring process, but I see such a noticeably positive reaction when people see the color work I've committed to giving it a shot for next year's convention season.My goal is to have everything on my table next year be in full color.
A great motivating factor to driving ahead and getting the pages finally finished has been adding a deadline. I've purchased my table for STAPLE, a great indie comics show here in Texas which is like SPX, but on a smaller scale. I want my next two books to be done in time for that show. It's the first weekend in March, so I need to have the books off to the printers by late January if I want the books in hand by early March. That's two months to wrap up the first book, which is about 75% complete, and then to really jump into the second one. Having a deadline now seems to have drummed up the motivation I need to get things done. Can I do it? It's a lot of effort, but I'm going to shoot for it.
