My FAVORITE cover ... ever!!!

LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT

I got to draw ROBIN and BATMAN again last year. I just thought that you might like to see a bit of it.

LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT (digital only) - Issues 63, 64 and 65

PONT du GARD - Four Years Later

The picture that I have on FB of Sue and me is from PONT DU GARD in France from back in 2010. These photos are from 2014. Damn, Sue is going backwards. She looks even younger. 

We had such beautiful skies around there. The clouds were a painting in an of themselves.

I'm in love (with SUE and with FRANCE!)

SO WHAT'S WITH THIS GUY AND FRANCE?

I do think that I have a possibly unhealthy attraction to France. I love it there. I enjoy visiting. I think that I could be very comfortable living there. Who knows?

Well, my blog has sure been dormant for quite some time. Sorry about that. I had enough trouble staying on top of my art deadlines. I penciled and inked a 30 page LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT story last year for DC Comics Digital First Line and it took me six months and a lot of late nights (and a fairly upset spouse -- I can't blame her) to do that.

At the end of the year, I made an attempt to draw (pencil, ink, letter and color) a strip of PELLUCIDAR, the Edgar Rice Burroughs material, working with Chuck Dixon for the first time in 21 years and the deadlines on that became prohibitive and destructive so I had to withdraw. It was fun while it lasted.

So, now that I'm teaching for SCAD in France again for a quarter, part of my mission is to work on new digital art creation skills and techniques. I will be exploring the use of ProCREATE and SketchbookPRO on an iPad with an Adonit Jot Touch pressure-sensitive stylus and posting those painful efforts on the blog here.

But for now ... I'm prepping for classes on Monday with my 24 Sequential Art students from the USA. The most overheard comment from yesterday when they all arrived, "Wow. The pictures don't even come close to letting you know what it's really like to be here!"

Onward all.

#SCAD_Lacoste

Well ... I Already Let the Cat Out of the BAG!!

Here:
http://www.facebook.com/tom.lyle.77/posts/10200423751340301?notif_t=like

Some idiot scooped his own blog by posting it on Facebook last night.
However, I'm still excited. I'm going to get to draw BATMAN again. For the first time in 20 years. Nice.

I mentioned one other project for sure yesterday.

I'll be working with the SUPER-TALENTED Cyril Guichard (spouse of the super terrific SCAD Professor and ever nice person, Celeste Guichard) to develop a video game. I'll be doing concept and storytelling work for him in the spring and summer. I won't release details until he says I can.

So, all the people who know me are thinking, "Tom? Doing a video game? He HATES video games!"

No. I don't. I resent the time that they take away from your life. VERY different.

And the third project? The potential one. It's a writing gig. I won't tell you anything yet. The proposal is in. They're looking at it. They'll let me know soon and I'll be screaming from the mountain top.

All three are worth some screaming.

I'll post some BATMAN pencils as soon as I can. I can only put up some panels, but I'll definitely do that.

More to come.

Tom

Where Do I Go? Why Do I Have Trouble Blogging?

Hey-
I've been gone off my Blog-o-sphere since summer and it's a pretty long layoff. I just am not one of those people who thinks that you should hear EVERYTHING I think ... or do ... or where I go to eat. Come on.

I'm not on Twitter. Probably won't ever be. (Never say never, but I have a HUGE aversion to it at this time.)

I have a forum in my classrooms to pontificate and be a raconteur so my need to entertain here is less pressing.

By the way, the photo above is from my whirlwind trip to Madrid, Spain (what a lovely trip and a great convention) and it offers a hint of something from below.

HOWEVER:
I've got two projects (and maybe a third ... and it will be a huge step in my career) that I'll want to be promoting for this next year. Two of the potential three will be a surprise and be new territory. The other is revisiting an old friend -- but what a friend.

I'm going to be drawing thirty pages for DC Digital First of ...

oh, I've got to have SOMETHING to put up next time as I try to actually keep a blog.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas and good luck for the New Year -- everyone.


Tom

WAITING FOR MY COMPUTER!!

I've had a loaner computer from SCAD since the end of Spring Quarter. My hard drive crashed.

I have an older MacBook Pro here and it's not got a whole bunch of software on it that I was determined to work with over the summer. So, I'm just biding my time.

I DO want to learn to paint in Photoshop, but also in Painter. I haven't got Painter on this one.

But, in the mean time, I got a book on digital painting in Photoshop and started messing around on a drawing that I did in Paris in the spring of 2011. Here's the results so far (far from finished.)

So, it's okay so far. A bit more Impressionistic than I hoped, but I won't fight that.

I've got to set this aside and work on some story pages next week. I'm going to have to tell you all about those later.

HEROES CON was AWESOME, by the way. Come next year if you didn't make it this year. SCAD's Sequential Workshops were worth the price of admission.

Take care.

HEROES CON!!

Hi all-
I'll be at HEROES CON this year for the first time in three years. I missed 2010 because of eye surgery (no, not lasik.) I missed 2011 because of Sue's MFA graduation. So, I'll be on hand this year.

I'm still working on sorting out what to do for my style of finishes, but I'm about to change again. I'm still trying stuff. I tried a single weight "brush" that had no thick or thin (my face ... yet again) and ignored the night time for now thinking of tones or colors for the future. And then I tried a more traditional style with a thicker brush so that I can't get all detailed. I'm "keeping it simple, stupid."

Feedback?? This is the all one weight line drawing.

I want to figure this stuff out. It may be that I take a student's advice: "Just draw it and by page 100 you'll have it all figured out."

So true.

Wisdom from others. It happens sometimes!

Tom

INKS! (Well, Digital Inks!)

There's something really cool and really "off" about working digitally. I miss the feeling of the paper. I am still working out how to "see" the correct size so that I don't zoom in and do too much rendering. Also, I'm working on layers to accommodate whatever means of "toning" or "coloring" that I head towards. So, there's a foreground, midground and background layer on every page.

This is page six in progress. I started on page three.  I'm still working on being messier with my line work. I can't help myself. I try to clean up my lines too much.

I have been looking at some line illustrations by Frank Godwin as an influence for some looser line work and it's been a bit of a help.

I think the tones or colors will make or break these pages. As usual, I'm proud of and confident in my storytelling, but I'm always working on my "finished" look.

Feedback would be appreciated. Where am I making good changes? Where am I not changing enough? Where am I making bad changes?

Your opinions, please.

Thanks-   Tom

OPTIONS!!

Hi-
I'm going to go with the newer inking style even though there were some people voting for the older one. I'm okay with that.

HOWEVER ... I'd sure love your feedback on three options for the book:
1) All black with gray tones
2) Black line art with sepia tones and sepia half tones
3) Black line art with a shade of blue for tone and blue half tones

Any of these float your boat more than the other?

I'm listening. I SWEAR!

Here they all are!
I need feedback and discussion.

Tom

Before I Go Any Farther...

Here's two versions of the same three panels on Page Three of the graphic novel. I'm bored with Tom Lyle, so the first version is very traditional (and a bit heavy-handed) work by myself over my pencils.

It's serviceable, but I'm just not feeling any real "guts" to this style. It seems safe.

So, in class on Thursday I started trying some other things. My fellow classmate (odd to say that, since he's also a former student and teaching assistant) Phillip Sevy and I talked quite a bit about options that are different, but not TOO different.


Thus, the next version.


It's done with a much smaller "brush" and a scruffier rendering style that I think adds some energy to the piece.

Am I correct? Am I nuts? Did I not push far enough?

Let me know what you think.

I'm really trying to do something a bit different.

Now, just to tell you: gray tones will be added to this page eventually, so the pages are "inked" on layers and some of the background will be all dot screen.

It looks kind of cool. I'm also going to make all of the gray tones (when they get converted to halftone screens) into a sepia tone and the original foreground elements will stay black.

I have a very rough sample of what that might look like here.

This was done using the older version of the "inks", so it would be different on the final.

Also, on panel one I did NOT finish doing the layers that I wanted, so it would NOT be all sepia after the branch in the foreground.

I only took two hours to produce this. It's an exercise for class and it DID convince me that I should seriously consider making this a two-color project. It could work.

FEEDBACK???

Don't hold back (but don't be mean.)




Tom

Last four Thumbnail pages for now!

I've thumbnailed the first 20 pages of my story, but it's time to do some finished art, so here are the next four pages (and last I'll post of the thumbs) for your perusal. We're setting up the hike and the event that is the catalyst for everything that happens. Let me know what you think.

I spent about 2 to 3 hours (or more) on each page. They're more like loose tight roughs, but I wanted to be very clear where I was heading,

I'm having fun working with my writer ... ME!
He listens to all my suggestions and agrees with most of them.

What a guy!


Tom

These are THUMBNAILS

Hi-
I wanted to make it clear that the pages I am posting are just thumbnails at this point. I am not trying to get faces correct or totally get the bodies correct. It's just setting up the story.

I am hoping to start some finished pencils next week.

I'm attaching pages 2 and three to this post. On page 2, the flashback story ends and then we come back to the present day and it is a scene around the campfire where I have just told this story.

By the way, my class did a critique of all of my pages on Tuesday and it was really hard for them to try and criticize my work. So I started it for them. After that, all went well.

Let me know what you think.

Tom

Still Alive (and about to be here regularly!!)

Okay-
So, starting this quarter I'm officially an MFA student at SCAD in Illustration. I'll get me degree in about 5 years (only one class per quarter while I'm still teaching full time.)

For my first class I'm taking an elective where I'm working on the thumbnails for a graphic novel project that I've been talking about for 6 years (yeah, that one!)

I'll be posting some of the thumbnails, pencils, inks, and tones/letters as I do them.
I'm trying to do 8 pages this quarter so that I can have samples to show to a publisher in France.

Let me know what you think.

The opening scene is a flashback to my youth, playing catch with my older brother.
I'm terrified. I'm not worrying any about consistent faces or characters yet. I'm just trying to get the story down.

Here's the thumbnails to page one:


Feedback/questions are appreciated.


Thanks.


Tom

COMMISSIONS!! Your Time is Here!

COMMISSIONS:
So ... the first five people to contact me and send me payment will get a great Christmas present -- and even on time for Christmas if you send the payment fast enough.
I'm taking on FIVE COMMISSSIONS (11" x 14" bristol board - full pencil - single character - simple, but decent background behind - nothing rude, please) for $120.00 each (includes shipping - but not RUSH shipping).
Contact me!

Email me at tlyle49@comcast.net

LACOSTE - Highlights

I'm working backwards from the ending of the trip. This is from week 8 and 9 of the trip with Sue still there. It was great. We had rented a car to get around and that was very handy.

TARASCON, FRANCE - A very cool castle.




Saignon, France -- just outside of Apt. What a cool village with a great chateau/castle at the top. Very neat to be among all that history.


Sue and I in ITALY on the Mediterranean. Pretty cool. Only four hours from Lacoste by car. Not bad. That's like driving to Atlanta from here ... only much cooler.

LAVENDER!!!!
It was just starting to bloom in this one field near Goult in Provence.

Final projects and the critique for TRAVEL PORTFOLIO - a great class to teach because of the results that come from it with the students. They really surprise me with the art they produce.



Sue and I in OPPEDE LE VIEUX which is about 20 minutes away from Lacoste. There's the ruins of a cool chateau/sort of castle at the top of the village on the side of a mountain. Sue's looking good here ... as usual.



Final Critiques for VISUAL STORYTELLING 1 and 2. Don't I look like I know what I'm doing?



Here's the photo we took at the party after Vernissage. This is most of the students (a couple are missing) that were in Lacoste for Spring 2011.

Aren't We Cute?

Here's my girl and me at a cafe in France. She's awesome. But ...

I miss her. She's already back in the USA.
I'll be there in two days.

France is AWESOME!!!

Lacoste - WEEK 4 - 2011

Just a quick play-by-play for you. I can't go into too much detail as I would wax poetic forever.


THE CHATEAU DE SADE!!!

I've now officially been inside of it. With visiting artist James Casebere (picture above or to the left) here in Lacoste, he gave his guest lecture inside the chateau. Something new for me. We didn't get to see all of the interior spaces, but it was an experience being inside there nonetheless.


The pool of water at the top of Fontaine de Vaucluse was so much lower this year (see the first two pictures above) than last year ( I think that this is the same tree in the foreground of the third photo - which is from last year ... and, btw, check out the size of the people down at the water's edge in the second photo) and it was actually somber and creepy instead of awe-inspiring. It was so quiet. You didn't hear the rushing water. It is still feeding the river, but from some underground tunnels that come out further down the hill. Very weird.


The first two photos above are also from last year. The second photo shows the rocks and trees that are in the first photo from this year ... and how high the water was last year. The other one is from this year. As you can see from the attire, it was MUCH warmer this year.

All my witty little charges waiting to leave Fontaine.



For Travel Portfolio on Wednesday, we went sketching around Lacoste. The first photo is from just outside the Portal de Chevre (the Goat Gate) and the flower shot is what they were looking out on to for their sketching. But ... I had them drawing cars. Also, the last photo is of Maison Basse and the students went down there and did some drawing as well.

More to come.

I still have ARLES from Friday and the Abbey de Sananque from Saturday. I got to hear singing Monks. It was awesome.

France is pretty cool, folks.

I'M ALL DIGITAL NOW!!

Never thought I say this, but I'm doing my art completely digitally now.

I'm doing finished pencils, but I'm using a "pencil" brush in photoshop on my cintiq.

It's great for my eyes. I love that I can get such cool detail in there again.

Wow.

Very weird, but interesting.

Here's the latest two pages ... and thanks to fellow sequential Mark Brooks for the link to the brushes. It's a big deal!!

Becoming a 21st Century Creator!

All right -
Those of your who know me well (hello fellow students and faculty) with my current rants and all are aware that I am skeptical and scared of the digital revolution going on. I refuse to even consider giving any of my writing and art away for free.

So far.

I'm so aware of the results of digital piracy. I'm guilty (in the past - not currently) of it.

All of my students have a very cavalier attitude about it.

Why shouldn't I be scared and skeptical? How do you make money when:
a) it's priced cheap as crap (like giving it away anyway, and b) 5,000 people could own it when only one bought it?

What's new technology-wise that should convince me to change my mind? Why should I (with bills and a mortgage to pay) give ANY of my work away when I'm a known commodity, not a start-up business like my students would be?

So, talk to me.

Convince me to change my attitude. Agree with me. Talk to me. I want to know.

The publishing world is going to change more and I don't want to be left in the dust.

Help make me a 21st Century Creator!!