XTIN: The Dragon's Dreamworld (comic)

[Jack the R]

PaintMyBrain - I looked at your sketchbook, it seems like you've got your line art under control. Just keep doing it.

[PaintMyBrain]

u know I always tell u but I really like this comic, I like its darkness alot and thanks, I am trying so hard!

[Jack the R]

The positive comments always help, thanks.

Are you drawing from photos? How are you at constructing anatomy on your own?

Maybe you could try doing your own comic. Even if it only runs a few pages, you'll learn from it.

[PaintMyBrain]

I have only used refs almost, cant really get down my imagination on paper im afraid. Need to start practicing that. I am not that good I believe, but I have almost never tried it.

Would love to make my own comic, but as you see above I lack whats probably most important. But with practice maybe I can someday. Any tips for this day?

[Jack the R]

I've been noticing these strange burned-skin looking areas on my fingertips lately. The skin's splitting and it's kinda alarming. I thought I'd burned myself on the wood stove, but I just realized the one's on the right hand are from holding a stylus, and the one on my left thumb is from the keyboard.



How can I work around this? I'm wearing holes in my skin!

PaintMyBrain - I usually (usually) don't draw from a photo. You'll probably develop a better sense of how objects work in space without the photos. It's too easy to draw/paint the 2D image of the photo, rather than the 3D reality the photo was taken from.

[Pierce9]

Sick, sick, sick. It makes me squirm just from reading it. Good job.

[Jack the R]

If you're squirming you know you're still alive.

It's not all that dark compared to real life. People are acting like Jared Lee Loughton is abnormal, but he's every guy I know. Armed and teetering on the edge. I've got the terrible feeling we've come as far from the jungle as we're going to, and we'll snap back there before long. I may have made a mistake, making a statement against racism.

[Izi]

neat-o it has some real elements

XTIN is this an exotic form of Tetragrammaton? Sort of reminds me of the song "The Hunting Machine" by Fictional after reading one of the poems on "The Lord of Teeth" on your website.

[Jack the R]

There's a mash up of elements from various religions. The reason why will become apparent later.

XTIN resembles XTIAN, but I didn't notice this myself until I'd used the XTIN title for years.
It's not a reference to the tetragrammaton, but Rau is a mixture of the Old Testament God and the Devil.

I hadn't encountered the band "Fictional" yet - looking at the lyrics to "Hunting Machine," I can see why you'd make the connection. I like it, but we've arrived at similiar places independently of each other. It happens a lot. In 2001 IIRC I did a few pages of XTIN, the part of the story that would have been the next book. Then this movie called "Avatar" came along that maybe has too many of the same elements. No connection, just thinking about the same things.

[Izi]

I'm afraid I've given you the wrong impression. I find the work very original, the song is quite obscure. You just don't see a lot of this caliber of work going on in the world. Aeon Flux had the same current going on, the level of weirdness was completely maxed out, yet managed to stay quite lucid and disturbing - you could follow it without running into walls like in other stories where artists are just not even trying to keep a plot together. But this is quite a different story. I love the references the the yugas, and the skipping between eons. To tell you the truth the black and white seems to fit well with the story ambiance, and I've always loved that kind of work, I love Bradstreet's work in this style. I'll definately pass it around as it's a really unique work, you should be thrilled.

[Jack the R]

I'm glad you liked it. I usually get the complete opposite of what you wrote - story makes no sense, jumps around too much, can't figure out who the characters are . . . overall it seems like people aren't going for it. It wasn't written to be pop but I figured there would be a bigger audience for it than has been the case so far.

[Izi]

welcome to the opinion of the general population - it's in poor taste and they can take cutting edge only in small doses.

I'd expose it to a more alternative set, the gothic industrial crowd or metalheads, they would understand it.

I had a chance to see Pain Tribe in Memphis - they basically do all of this stuff, hanging by meathooks, spinning them, brutal stuff. The crowd that showed up was quite large so there is an audience but it's underground.

[Jack the R]

I'm going to have to take a break while I finish up a pay job. I thought I could handle both at the same time, but then I decided to go back to painting XTIN. I can draw XTIN and have time left over, but I sure can't paint like this and have time left over. Yet

I hope no one minds another switch in art direction too much. I felt like I'd run out of growing room with my line art style, and not being in color was hurting the comic's growth. I felt like the next few pages could be really top notch horror, and I wanted a more cinematic look for them. So I figured out a way to do it. I'm pretty excited about this style. It's not as time consuming as the earlier painted pages, it's tighter, and I've got a few ideas about how I can make it better and faster. And it just looks right for once

BTW I started posting XTIN on Smackjeeves, which has gotta be boy love manga central. Holy crap, it's humbling and disturbing to see so many boy love mangas, and they'll get a hundred fans by the third page. I've got 11 after posting 12 pages. Yikes.

I had a chance to see Pain Tribe in Memphis - they basically do all of this stuff, hanging by meathooks, spinning them, brutal stuff.

Well, basically, but from what I can tell, there's a big difference between what Pain Tribe does, and the Mandan O'keepa. Pain Tribe appears to be a group of people who experience pleasure from pain, pleasuring themselves. There may have been Mandan who also experienced pleasure from pain, but most Mandan going through the O'keepa would have experienced torture the normal, not-very-nice way.

The pleasure-pain thing is interesting on it's own, and will play a role later in the story.

[Quigleyer]

BTW I started posting XTIN on Smackjeeves, which has gotta be boy love manga central. Holy crap, it's humbling and disturbing to see so many boy love mangas, and they'll get a hundred fans by the third page. I've got 11 after posting 12 pages. Yikes.

Yeah, but that's not you- that's them. I've seen what the "fan crazy" people of Deviantart can do, I can only imagine it gets MUCH MUCH sillier in a place dominated by one genre.

I honestly like your black and white stuff quite a bit, but I understand your reasoning for changing it. I think the painting works well, it just sucks you have to kill yourself to achieve the results. One time I did 8 pages for a half-a-semester assignment. I thought I'd be suave and fully paint them. I did it, but damn was it annoying.

If I might offer some suggestions to you, for continuing your painted works?

You draw well, but you don't seem to draw much with your painted stuff (at least that's what I saw in the crit/WIP section when you were doing it earlier on). You kind of sketch in and start painting quickly, no?

But painting goes much faster the stronger the drawing is. You might benefit from drawing your images, noting where light hits and where shadow hits. REALLY figure out the form, because figuring it out while you're painting takes twice as long, at least in my experience.

Either way it's food for thought. I hope you keep going with this. Drive is most of the battle- and you've got a bunch of that.

[Jack the R]

Yeah, but that's not you- that's them. I've seen what the "fan crazy" people of Deviantart can do, I can only imagine it gets MUCH MUCH sillier in a place dominated by one genre.

I hope you keep going with this. Drive is most of the battle- and you've got a bunch of that.

Well, I've been showing this for over a year and the numbers are bad. If there's any growth, it's too small to be noticeable.

I honestly like your black and white stuff quite a bit, but I understand your reasoning for changing it. I think the painting works well, it just sucks you have to kill yourself to achieve the results. One time I did 8 pages for a half-a-semester assignment. I thought I'd be suave and fully paint them. I did it, but damn was it annoying.

The line art is just about as time consuming as painting - I can see the painting actually becoming easier. The computer is not a good tool for tight line work, unless you zoom in real close, at which point it becomes hard not to waste time making the lines tighter than they need to be.

You draw well, but you don't seem to draw much with your painted stuff (at least that's what I saw in the crit/WIP section when you were doing it earlier on). You kind of sketch in and start painting quickly, no?

On those pages. I'm doing more as you say now.

[Jack the R]

Back to line art, painting taking too long again. Meh. The line art looks good too.

[Jack the R]

[Jack the R]

[Jack the R]

One more page and the O'keepa will be over, then a few more and this scene will be done.

[Jack the R]

I've started running old concept art as a vote incentive, so if you want to see it click the button -



Anyway that brings the O'keepa to an end. Poor High Priestess, looks like she did it for nothing.

[Jack the R]

New vote incentive if you're interested . . .

[Jack the R]

One more page and this scene is finished.

New vote incentive -

[Jack the R]

Changed hosts, now I'm back SmackJeeves has helped a ton with the readership situation, and so did advertising through Project Wonderful. I'm not as worried as I used to be. Still small timin' it but things are going much better. I even got this nifty review on bloody-disgusting.com - Link

[Jack the R]

Please vote for me -

[Jack the R]

Please vote!

[Pierce9]

Voted, I'm not a big gore or horror guy but your designs are outstanding and I keep coming back to see how the story plays out.

If you're in Southern California around September there's a small independent comic convention hosted by the publisher I work for. Your stuff would fit right in.

[Jack the R]

The gore and the horror are story driven. You'll eventually find out why these guys are who they are. The clock is ticking down.

I'm glad you like the designs but they're kinda half-assed. I'm mostly making this stuff up on the fly. The illustration part eats up most of my time, and I've been pretty busy with work. If this goes anywhere I'd love to spend more time on the designs.

It's hard for me to hit cons, I don't live close to anything. I'm not sure I'd even consider flying anymore. No desire to be molested or irradiated.

[Jack the R]

[Jack the R]

[Jack the R]

Skipping pg 31, it is a little too gruesome. XTIN.NET if you want to see it.