The Journey to 100 Pages

Pencilling the first 30 pages of I Am Māui

Kia ora koutou,

I keep something Richard Friend, comic inker/youtuber, said once in the back of my mind. Long lost are the exact words, but he mentioned something along the lines of “you don’t really get your stride with comics until you get to about 100 pages” I took that to mean a mix of having skills and confidence to get the pages done to a reasonable standard as well as settling into a style you can be happy with while also being timely with deadlines.

Well these 30 pages take me to 71 total (including the 2 I still have to do this week) And these 30 definitely feel different to the first 30. The content is different for sure, no longer in the bush or on the beach, I’m now in a modern town. But my approach is getting stronger as I develop. I still get anxiety at the start of a page, but now I dive into it with a little more confidence, knowing if I can just make it look cool, I can fudge some of the way there. With Kairākau I leant on the video reference often, which is fine, but now I don’t have that luxury. So quickly snapping a photo of myself or my kids I create the reference I need. To be honest, I probably should do it more, as the stronger poses probably came that way. Also, my confidence has grown to attempt drawing from memory/imagination if reference is to hard to create. Years of study has helped me prepare for that and a skill I hope will get stronger in time as it is much quicker, and sometimes more interesting, than drawing from reference. Photo reference from your phone doesn’t always give you the correct lens you need for the shot in your imagination also.

So I look forward to the next 30 pages which will take me to the 100 milestone. I will be able to reflect on my weaknesses once I complete this run to keep improving.

Anyway, enjoy a few behind the scenes shots from the pencil stage and Ill be bringing you some inked images soon.

A victim is bound with a hood on his head while his captor takes a ciggy break.

Stricken with fear, the victim is taunted by his captor.

Julian supplied me with some great reference of a particular bridge in the town we model our fictional town from. Drawing it from different angles proved a challenge.

Wairere is our first character we meet. She is practicing her poi before school.

I used a notorious boys home for reference. NZ has some terrible history when it comes to looking after our most vulnerable.

I think this is only my 2nd full page spread. You could probably tell. :) I will be pushing for more as well as some double page spreads.

This is one of my fave shots of the bridge, but some I really cringe at the bad perspective. This book is will be embarrassing to look back at once I get better at perspective.

After the bridge challenge came the classroom. My perspective knowledge was tested.

Please help me regrow my instagram. After my account with 1000+ followers got hacked I only have 10 followers now.

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