Vyper Force, 2020
I don’t have a ton to say about this project from a creative standpoint. It definitely wasn’t being prepped as a pitch, and it’s barely an idea.
What it is though, is a new beginning. And because of that it’s significant.
My entire studio was packed in storage and I had no way to draw. I was working a new job, my wife was home recovering, and we were, once again, a whole family. All the while, the world around us busied itself by descending into paranoia, rashness, lunacy, and instability.
So, I bought an ipad and started drawing.
But working digitally took some getting used to. It’d been almost seven months since I’d picked up a pencil, and these images were a way for me to put Procreate to the test. I was reluctant at first, but it wasn’t long before it started to click. I discovered RetroSupply Co. and True Grit Texture Supply and that changed everything. I suddenly had access to tools that were unavailable to me in the real world, and the freedom to experiment without fear of destroying the original line work. I could use gauche textures, zip-a-tone patterns, whatever I wanted.
At this time, I was reading a lot of manga like Alita, No. 5, Star Wars: The Manga, and Neon Genesis. Alongside those titles, I was diving back into the comics that brought me joy as a kid. Namely, the late 80s/early 90s Marvel and Image titles. There’s even a dash of Metal Gear seasoning thrown in the pot for good measure.
So, this X-Men/Force-like team done in a Japanese style was largely an exercise in how to work digitally, and in the end produced interesting results.
The final thing worth mentioning is that I spent a ton of time curating my brush sets.
I needed my digital output to look like it was done manually. That was non-negotiable. I only use a handful of digital brushes for inking, another handful for coloring, and a few for tones, texture, etc. Making sure the line weights were consistent with their analogue counterparts was another point of emphasis.
I’d open Procreate, drop an image of mine drawn by hand, or I’d swipe a page of comics from the internet, and build my line weights at the proper dpi in page templates I built. This way, I never allow myself to get too microscopic by zooming, zooming, zooming into a drawing, fussing over details I’d never consider in real life.