Blog Archives - Page 2 of 16 - Schlock Works : Schlock Works

Wizard World Minneapolis – May 1-3

Brock Beauchamp
April 30, 2015

Hey all, I’ll be at Wizard World Minneapolis from May 1-3 at the Minneapolis Convention Center. You can find me at a block of booths with my fellow Twin Cities Comic Collective members (tables C35-C45), peddling my wares and chatting up the legions of geeks in attendance. I’m only at the halfway point of Duplicity so while I won’t be selling hard copies of that book, I’ll have copies of the jam comic Alpha X on sale. As usual, I’ll also have a slew of new prints to offer, including the prints shown below. The show hours for Wizard World Minneapolis... View Article

Wacom Cintiq Companion Hybrid review: buggy, expensive, but compelling

Brock Beauchamp
December 17, 2014

I have owned my latest toy – the 16GB Wacom Cintiq Companion Hybrid – for roughly six weeks now so I can give a pretty good impression of the device: its warts, its strengths, and its oddities. The device in itself is somewhat perplexing at first glance. When plugged into a computer, it operates as a Cintiq 13HD with touch capabilities. Unplug it from the computer and it turns into a 13.3″ Android tablet running Jellybean 4.2. The two-headed nature of this device is what piqued my curiosity in the first place but ultimately, I’ve found myself using the device very... View Article

Using a Cintiq Companion Hybrid

Brock Beauchamp
November 12, 2014

It has been a looooong time since I posted any art. If you listen to the podcast, you know that I’ve been very busy for a very long time. Things have calmed down in recent weeks and I took advantage of that break to purchase a Cintiq Companion Hybrid and start drawing again, mostly as I relax in bed and watch television (yay for portability). I may write up a lengthy review of the Companion Hybrid in the future but in a nutshell, it’s a pretty solid device. It’s not quite as fast as it should be, its software isn’t... View Article

More concept art

Brock Beauchamp
March 31, 2014

Due to scheduling conflicts, there will not be a podcast this week. Instead, I’ll post another sample of the concept comic book art I’ve been working on for my upcoming project. The comic draws heavily on film noir themes, with a slight sci-fi twist. It’s a short story, clocking in between 50 and 70 pages. It features a female lead character and… uh… other stuff. I can’t really say more than that right now. I’m still working out many of the visual details of the book, though the script itself is nearly complete and only needs some fine-tuning. The next... View Article

Facebook new algorithm and you

Brock Beauchamp
March 26, 2014

A lot has been said about Facebook’s new algorithm – mostly bad. I’m not going to spend an hour waxing nostalgic on the “good ol’ days of the platform” and I’m not going to defend Facebook’s new algorithm (though I think the page owner dismay has gotten a bit out of hand in recent weeks). Instead, I’m going to talk about my own experiences, both good and bad. You see, I own and operate two sites that consume the majority of my non-day job hours. One has suffered mightily under the rule of the new algorithm while the other has... View Article

Concept art – upcoming project

Brock Beauchamp
March 26, 2014

I’ve spent the past several months writing projects, shelving them, and starting newer, smaller projects. Due to time constraints, I haven’t felt comfortable starting a 150+ page project and wanted to dip my toe in the water with smaller, more manageable projects while I position myself financially to work on longer projects in the future. Of course, once I get into a story concept, it’s really hard not to expand upon the idea until it’s a full-fledged story. Originally, this latest project was intended to be a 16 page short story that I could get in and out of in... View Article

Daenerys Targaryen Watercolor

Brock Beauchamp
February 10, 2014

I haven’t had a ton of time to draw or paint lately, as I’ve been overwhelmed with website development work that has kept me away from the art table, digital or analog. I’m also working on a *very* short story concept that I hope to begin drawing in the next few weeks… I figure that even I can continue working on a project long enough to complete a meager 24 page story. While I work out the kinks on my 160+ page story, I’ll work on that to get back into a workflow and drawing sequential art, which is very... View Article

Protecting WordPress and your website

Brock Beauchamp
February 9, 2014

It has come to my attention that WordPress is currently under the largest brute force attack in its history. What is a brute force attack? Well, it’s pretty simple… It’s when a botnet is created that uses thousands of computers that repeatedly try password and username combinations to gain access to your WordPress control panel and, therefore, your entire website. Once they have access to your site, they can do pretty much anything they want with it, including the addition of malware (the most common goal) or simply breaking/deleting your site. I’ll get right down to it. Here are a... View Article

Early Concept Art

Brock Beauchamp
December 9, 2013

It has been a few weeks since I last posted. I’ve been working on a new script idea, something that I could finish in a reasonable amount of time (1-2 years). A true “graphic novel”, a story with a beginning, middle, and end that can be read in a single (albeit long) sitting. Initially, I had another idea I was going to run with and even went so far as to write a 25+ page outline with 5+ pages of semi-finished script. Ultimately, the project became too unwieldy and a bit directionless and I abandoned it for the time being.... View Article

Katniss Everdeen Watercolor

Brock Beauchamp
November 20, 2013

More watercolor! Again, I’m playing with messy styles and seeing what works and what doesn’t. One of the things I like is the paint spatter effect I’ve used with varying success in the past few paintings. One thing I need to work on is color vibrancy. I have a tendency to work in too low an opacity with the paint, which means the colors de-saturate more than I’d like in the finalized piece. I’m going to continue playing around with different brushes and opacity levels to see if I can up the saturation and speed up how quickly I can... View Article

Stormtrooper Watercolor

Brock Beauchamp
November 18, 2013

More art! In place of a podcast this week, I’ll be posting several pieces of art instead. Expect to see the podcast return next Monday… This is my favorite piece in awhile… I wanted to play around with composition and different brushes in Corel Painter and a (mostly) black and white image of a Stormtrooper seemed like good subject matter. Given my *adoration* of Star Wars, it’s a bit surprising that I don’t draw more material from George Lucas’ opus. With the comic idea I’m tossing around in my head (and Google Docs) lately, I continue to consider a loose,... View Article

Black Widow Avengers Watercolor

Brock Beauchamp and the completed X-Men versus a Sentinel, inspired by the Day of Future Past storyline.

Brock Beauchamp
November 15, 2013

The art just keeps rolling. Now that I have the Yiynova, I’m chomping at the bit to try new techniques and so far, the results have been pleasing. This piece is based on some movie promotional material for Joss Whedon’s Marvel’s The Avengers. I’ve been wanting to work with Corel Painter’s watercolor features for some time now and this display has been the perfect opportunity to do just that. I’m considering this style of painting for my next comic and need to get some practice under my belt to see how long it takes to complete a typical piece, how... View Article

X-Men vs Sentinel Colored

Days of Future Past X-Men Fighting Sentinel

Brock Beauchamp
November 14, 2013

After receiving my Yiynova MVP22U a few days ago, I finally had the device I wanted to test a few coloring tricks and methods. This classic X-Men piece seemed like the perfect place to start. As with my comic Aurorae, this is an experiment in color using the program Corel Painter. Like the comic, I’m using oil paints to achieve this effect, along with touch-up work in Photoshop. I feel as if I may have lost control of the background a bit and despite about an hour of trying different effects, it’s not quite where I want it to be... View Article

Display Review: Yiynova MVP22U v2

Brock Beauchamp
November 12, 2013

I’ve been looking to upgrade my Intuos 4 to a drawing screen/tablet for quite some time but I haven’t been able to get over the hurdle of Wacom’s (insane) pricing schema to take the plunge into the world of drawing on-screen. After months of near-purchases and vacillating over the decision, I finally jumped into the modern world with Yiynova’s latest flagship model, the MVP22U+IPS (or the MVP22U v2, as it’s referred to on Amazon.com). Yiynova has slowly been gaining traction in the art community, as many artists are in a similar situation to me, where they cannot or will not... View Article