Tag Archive: art preview

The next flashback

Brock Beauchamp
March 2, 2012

Yep, another silent film style flashback is coming… This time, it’s only 3/4 of a page (a full page if you include the previous 1/4 of a page), and shows Karter a few years after the first flashback (brining us to 1994 for those of you counting at home). At this point, he’s wheelchair-bound. Why? Well, it has to do with the police grenades in 1991. It’s not so much that his legs don’t work as it is the respirator system you see mounted to the back of his chair. Anyway, this is the last flashback of this issue, though... View Article

Notes on inking

Brock Beauchamp
February 24, 2012

Early in the week, I started drafting up an article on various inking techniques I use to draw and why I use them. It started out as a modest piece before ballooning to 2 1/2 pages, with at least one more page to go til completion. It explains how I use quills, brushes, Rapidograph pens, and disposable pens to complete each page. I never really noticed just how many tools I use to ink a page until I had to write them all down. It seems as though there is a different tool for every task. Expect to see that... View Article

Drawing superheroes

Brock Beauchamp
February 16, 2012

Oddly enough, Variables is about superhumans but after drawing roughly 50 pages of the comic, I haven’t been given the chance to draw many “superheroes”. Karter is halfway there with his hybrid SWAT/amateur paintballer costume but it’s still not really “costume-y”. A few weeks ago, I realized that convention season isn’t that far away and I haven’t drawn many superhero-types in the past year or more. When it comes to indy publishing in comics, a lot of a creator’s money isn’t made by actually selling copies of his or her books but instead comes through commissioned artwork. Unless your comic... View Article

Dialogue pages are FUN

Brock Beauchamp
February 2, 2012

At least they better be or I’d drive myself insane doing this comic. There are bursts of action in Variables (and this story is probably the most action-ish I’ll do until the grand finale of the comic, if/when that ever comes) but most of the stories revolve around exploring situations that might actually occur if people like this existed. The comic isn’t set up for action-heavy sequences, from neither a story nor a character perspective. In Variables, if two Sui Generis (meta-humans) fight, one of them will probably leave the fight dead or critically injured. Batman has had enough rounds... View Article

New art preview setup

Brock Beauchamp
January 23, 2012

I have never been entirely satisfied with the art preview setup I’ve used for Variables. While I think it’s cool to show the inks for an upcoming page, I wasn’t sold on showing the entire page and revealing what happens next in the comic. So I’m going to change it up for awhile and see how it goes. Instead of showing the entire page of inks, I’m going to show part of the page, fully colored, with no text bubbles in place. So there you go. I’m really enjoying this new coloring method I’m using, though the tiered nature of... View Article

Pow! Bang! Ker-thunk!

Brock Beauchamp
December 19, 2011

One of the reasons I wanted to start this story was that it finally allowed me to consistently draw action scenes. Variables will never be like a typical Spider-Man or Superman book with the amount of action it contains per issue but the first 30 pages of the 1992 arc were almost completely devoid of it, which kinda gets boring to draw after awhile. Plus, while intrigue is fun to read, it should be broken up now and again with action sequences. It’s one of the reasons I decided to re-write the second half of the 1992 storyline. Anyway, before... View Article