Brock Beauchamp

Return to 1992

Brock Beauchamp
December 14, 2011

Before I had finished too many pages of the 2002 arc and completely changed both my drawing and coloring style, I wanted to return to the 1992 arc for a page or two so that the disconnect between pages nine and ten of the second issue didn’t become worse than it was already going to be. So here is the first preview of the 1992 arc since I posted page nine over three months ago. As you can see, my use of black is going to alter how the rest of the book reads a lot. In previous pages, I... View Article

Agent Orange

Brock Beauchamp
December 13, 2011

Yeah… there’s a lot of orange on this page. I wanted to brighten it a bit to make the action standout but by the time I was finished, yikes. Still, I’m happy with the page and it was fun to draw something outside of people talking or an enormous background. The page even has a punching sound effect, whoo! I’m already pencilling the next page so expect to see that preview tomorrow or Thursday. I’m gonna keep it short and sweet so that’s it for this morning. As always, click through the image below to jump to the entire issue... View Article

And… Action! Again!

Brock Beauchamp
December 12, 2011

One of the great things about this story (and the reason I started it in place of the 1992 story) is that it’s full of action. Shooting, jumping, punching, blah blah blah, there’s a bunch of it. Every few pages, something else is happening to Karter that forces him to physically react to the situation. Considering how little action I’ve been able to draw in Variables (almost none since the first page of 1992), it’s cool to get to draw something so comic-booky. Speaking of the 1992 arc, I will probably return to drawing it this week and will post... View Article

Jumping on rooftops

Brock Beauchamp
December 5, 2011

Here is the completed page. Once it has been colored, I think it flows better with the text placed in it. I ended up re-writing this page (and the following four pages) as I’m still not entirely happy with the script for the 2002 arc. I think it continues to improve, though. One thing I’m really happy with is my coloring. It continues to improve page-by-page and recently, I’ve started adding more highlights to objects in the background, which helps eliminate the flat feeling some of my older pages had in them. I still have a long way to go... View Article

More panel wonkiness

Brock Beauchamp
December 2, 2011

As I’m getting more comfortable with the comic, my art, and how to tell this story, I’m starting to explore new and interesting ways of telling that story visually. When I first started Variables, my panels were pretty consistent. They were all square/rectangle with one large panel highlighting the page. I prioritized all panels into 1,2, or 3 categories with 1 being a primary panel and 3 being a small, less important panel. I still use that (somewhat) but lately, I’ve started dabbling with different ways in how comic books can deal with the lapse of time. I may write... View Article

Some opinions on comic book covers

Brock Beauchamp
November 30, 2011

Lately, I’ve been pouring through hundreds of print comics to catch up on stories, both old and new, that I feel I should read. While paging through these stories, I’ve seen a breadth of cover quality – everything from stuff that makes me stop and stare at the cover for a few minutes in awe to stuff that makes me stop and stare at the cover for minutes in horror. As I saw more and more covers, I started noticing a few trends in what made me think a cover was good versus what made me think it was terrible... View Article