Blog

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

Seven days late, but here it is…

Brock Beauchamp
November 29, 2011

Initially, this page was going to be four panels and should have taken just a day or two to finish. Instead, I ended up redrafting the the layout about ten times and the page ended up getting completely out of hand. The end product is okay once I was able to add greyscale to separate the portions of the page I wanted to highlight/recede but overall, it’s still just too much crap fighting for space. I wanted the page to (silently) convey panic and in some ways it succeeded while sacrificing readability. I definitely learned a lot from this page,... View Article

#OccupyVariables

Brock Beauchamp
November 28, 2011

I didn’t really notice that this scene felt very Occupy-ish until I started laying it out. The fact that the protagonist was a protester and faced the cops back in the day was a very organic decision that came about given this character’s background, where he goes in the future, and the state of early 1990s Greece. I ended up reading a fair amount about recent Greek history before I started this arc (a necessity, given my extremely limited knowledge of the country) and damn, the word of the day over there is “unrest”. The Greeks love a good protest... View Article

Don’t stop me now

Brock Beauchamp
November 18, 2011

Because I’m on a roll. Here is page two of Variables. Expect to see page three’s preview early next week, maybe even on Monday. I’m pretty happy with this page, though I got a little “halo happy” with a lot of the objects and next time I draw a cityscape like this, I need to use a ruler (or maybe at least get a more reliable set of Rapidograph pens that will actually draw a consistent line on paper (grrrr). Using a quill is great for humans and close objects, since a lot of line variation is wanted for organic... View Article

Perspective from hell

Brock Beauchamp
November 17, 2011

It may be hard to see it but this is the most difficult page I’ve drawn for Variables… by a long shot, actually. In it, we have a wide shot of Athens and a crowd gathering at the Polytechnic University. The Athens cityscape was obnoxious and once it has been finished, you can’t even tell why. Because of the mish-mash of streets that is Athens without the aid of modern city planning agencies, nothing is on a grid. It goes in every direction. It seems as if you can’t find a street that goes in one direction for more than... View Article

Variables 2002, page one

Brock Beauchamp
November 15, 2011

Here’s the first page of the 2002 story arc. I’ve changed my inking style and coloring technique (again). I keep playing with different ideas to see what I like best. Instead of using gradients for shadows and highlights, I used gradients in the backgrounds with solid highlights and shadows. I’m not entirely sold on the style but I’ll need more practice before I figure out if I really like it or not. Another big difference between this arc and 1992 is that this story will rely heavily on journal entries by the main characters (or, basically, a narrator) while the... View Article

Preview of Variables 2002

Brock Beauchamp
November 10, 2011

Here’s the first sample page of my new inking/drawing style and while I’m a fan of how these pages are turning out, I’m not a fan of the 1-2 hours of additional time it takes to ink each one of these pages. In the end I think the effect make it worth while but it’d be nice if I found ways to decrease the amount of time I spend on each page, not increase it. Well, I always knew that I could pump out 2-3 pages of Variables every week if I copped out on the art but I decided... View Article

Variables 2002 Cover

Brock Beauchamp
November 9, 2011

I posted the inked cover yesterday and initially, I planned on starting work on page one before I colored this piece. After getting frustrated with some perspective issues on the first page, I decided to color the cover and this is the result. It’s one of my more adventurous coloring jobs; I went for a feel as if he’s under an amber street light instead of a more typical white light, which keeps the colors true. Also, since it’s a new series, I was able to redesign where the logo goes, use different fonts, and all that stuff. So, there... View Article

Black black black, add more black

Brock Beauchamp
November 8, 2011

One of the best parts of switching gears mid-issue is that it allows me to explore different artistic styles. I always want to evolve the Variables look but I’m not crazy about the idea of doing it mid-issue. So, with the 2002 story arc, I was allowed a freedom to change the art to better fit the story. In this case, it involves a lot of black (as you can probably see already). The main character is a vigilante, which automatically evokes Batman, the quintessential vigilante hero (or anti-hero, depending on your viewpoint). Vigilantes generally wear dark clothing, prowl around... View Article

Don’t call it a relaunch

Brock Beauchamp
November 7, 2011

But that’s kind of exactly what it is. Over the past few months, the 1992 arc of Variables has been dragging me down. Too much exposition, too much explaining, too little action. So I decided to quit… for now. I will return to the 1992 story and I will even continue to occasionally post a page to keep it moving along, albeit at a snail’s pace. Instead, I’m moving to another story that takes place in 2002 Athens. It’s merely a coincidence that the story is almost exactly ten years later. It involves new characters, a new setting (obviously), and... View Article

Another phone ringing

Brock Beauchamp
October 4, 2011

There are a lot of phones in Variables. I started adding up the amount of times people are on phones and the number was surprisingly high. Oh well… This is the last page I have done of Variables #2 so I better get my ass in gear. I have to finish the pencils and inks of page 10 before Thursday so I can post them in the morning. Wish me luck. This move and a lot of side hassles has put me way behind in my production schedule but hopefully it will sort itself out in the coming weeks as... View Article

More explanations

Brock Beauchamp
September 29, 2011

In today’s page preview, we see White explain more of the situation to Blake’s parents. I’ve been trying to use more interesting angles in these past few pages because visually, there just isn’t a lot happening with the story. Making it interesting to draw people talking around a table can be quite a challenge and given the ~30 or so pages I’ve done of Variables 1992 so far, it’s a challenge I’ve faced a lot. I’ve said it before but the first 80 or so pages where I lay out the groundwork for the Variable universe can get a little... View Article