natsch's comics and sketchbook

**natsch** · April 25th, 2006, 01:25 AM

bout time I made one of these

an appropriate one to start things off with. This is Leah, one of the main characters in the comic I'm working on right now. I think it's going to be called Optimum, or Optimum Consumption.

more Leah

This is Rich Brunelle, Economics Professor at Colombia and our protagonist.

more of Rich with the bike

ooh and this is fun:

for a comic I'm working on with a couple therapists. Basically we're adapting a self help book one of them wrote to make it accessible to teenagers.

here's a piece that went in my gallery, Ironworks, for our recent Spring Show:

**natsch** · April 25th, 2006, 01:28 AM

and here's the first page, done, from Optimum Consumption (from here on known as The OC)

and here's some pencils for page 2, hopefully I'll put up the inks tomorrow

**bhanu** · April 25th, 2006, 01:42 AM

Hey natsh,
Nice start.THe girl in the first post has been drawn nicely but the the elbow of the guys with bike is not aligned properly.Reall good sequentials.But in the first panel a page 2 the guy is too small for the street compared to other panels.
keep up the good work.
LAter.

**natsch** · April 25th, 2006, 10:00 AM

thanks bhanu - i was trying to work that elbow out, think i'll get some better references.

**AmishCommy** · April 25th, 2006, 11:55 PM

you suck dude, why do you even bother?

OC looking good. reading pretty well (but then again i know what it's supposed to be).
it maybe too late for page one. but when you run into a panel that is close up, eye level or worms-eye view (what ever comes first) throw in some details like an old shoe with a hole in the sole or some broken coke bottles. I'm sure you already thought of this, but you never know.

also, for the character studies of Rich, the 3/4 zombie view. eventhough he has that blank, hypnotized expresion, pay close attention to the eyes. have the pupils facing the same way. i know it's subtle, but right now it looks off.

good start so far. keep it up boyo!!!

**natsch** · April 26th, 2006, 07:17 PM

haha thanks Amish - yeah it always seems like such an easy thing but sometimes my pupils just don't align and I need someone else to point it out. Any tricks? I guess the mirror would help....
oh yeah page 2 is inked...

**EKU_11** · April 26th, 2006, 09:49 PM

Nice work.

**Halos Chain** · April 26th, 2006, 09:56 PM

great job! those panels flow smoothly, Leah is really cool looking, *I cant wait* to see see optimum, with your style im sure it's gonna be arsome possom.

**natsch** · April 26th, 2006, 10:19 PM

Halos and Eku,Thanks for the kind words! Hopefully page 3 is inked by Friday!

**ze french tickler** · April 26th, 2006, 10:40 PM

The two pages of optimum consumption look really cool. Right off the bat I wanted to keep reading and see what the story was about.

It would even work nicely as a live scene.

**natsch** · April 26th, 2006, 10:42 PM

hahaha - your name cracks me up man. Thanks for the kind words

**natsch** · April 28th, 2006, 02:18 AM

nice to get some figure drawing in! It's definitely been a while...

these were done at Haven Arts - they have free figure drawing on the last Thursday of the month.

**ganaa** · April 28th, 2006, 02:39 AM

nice work i like comic

**LordSpewbarfer** · April 29th, 2006, 10:50 AM

just dropping by to say wonderful sketchbook thread. im really loving the comic work.. solid slide work each one doesnt fail to grab my intrest.
The lifedrawing also looks pretty good, simple and strong.. what are you using? prismas? watercolors? either way looking good.

**natsch** · May 1st, 2006, 01:41 PM

Appreciate the comments LSB. For the comics I'm using rapidographs and a windsor series 7 #2 with Koh-I-Noor Ink. The figure drawings are non-waterproof ink wash.

Here's the third page:

Not thrilled with the way the shadows came out in the fourth panel, but it's going to take some serious OCD-regression for me to tackle that shit again. This page took way too long and if I'm going to finish 20 of these (+ a cover) by August I'm going to have to get quicker.

**AmishCommy** · May 1st, 2006, 02:05 PM

you got some whacky perspective in panel 3. Perspective guides done you wrong

would be kinda cool to see him climbing the heaps of garbage from the POV of the store

**natsch** · May 1st, 2006, 02:13 PM

yeah i was workin from a photograph on the third one. Its kind of a weird entrance, but yeah my perspective doesn't really give you the sense of the idiosyncratic architecture. Next time I'll just try and keep it simple.

Yeah I'm always trying to push things and make it more dramatic - I'll keep that suggestion in mind for pages 4 and 5

**arya** · May 2nd, 2006, 03:07 PM

Wow.....cool sketchbook....very confident lines... Like the comic ....great brush work in those figures as well as comics.....really love those figues....wanna see more from u....

**natsch** · May 4th, 2006, 12:00 AM

not too satisfied with how this one came out - i'm tempted to do the whole fifth panel over again. But, I gotta try and get 20 pages (+ a cover) done by the end of July, so I think my mentality is to just keep moving and focus on the next page. If things are locked down by mid-July, I imagine I'll be doing a lot of retouches.

I like the second panel tho - inked with a toothpick, method courtesy of Arkady.

**bhanu** · May 4th, 2006, 12:33 AM

Inked with a toothbrush?
HOw do you do that?Last panel looks the weakest.The others look so cool.
Keep up the good work mate.

**Smitherines** · May 4th, 2006, 12:54 AM

Your comic looks like it is coming along very nicely. I can see why you arent happy with the newest page, it isnt up to the level as the previous ones. One reason, the newer panels look like it's done in a different style, looks more like a comp or a sketch rather than a finished page. The compositions aren't as interesting or as dynamic as the other ones...I like how the story seems to be unfolding in the previous pages.

**poise** · May 4th, 2006, 12:56 AM

Hey Nate, I didn't know you had a sketchbook going. you have some really great stuff on here.Especially your comics. I'm glad your finally posting work.

-T

**natsch** · May 5th, 2006, 09:16 PM

haha bhanu - toothpick, not toothbrush. Funny tho, a lot of inkers use toothbrushes for splatter effects - just dip it in ink and flick (after you cover all the other artwork up with artists tape or something similar).

Smitherines, I hope that switching up the styles doesn't put you off too much - i know its inconsistent, but that particular panel is pretty much a character just talking to himself, so i wanted something a little more impressionistic to go along with the characters mood. I'll put dialogue on the first five pages (...the prologue....) soon enough!

And Tiff, always nice for you to drop your sweet ass in and say hello. Don't worry about me making more comics, thats all I do these days.

This is isn't a perfect solution, but I'm happy enough with it to move on:

now its less poor man's Goseki Kojima and more natsch, (if such a style even exists!)

I'll post an inked page 5 sometime by the end of Sunday...

**Halos Chain** · May 5th, 2006, 11:52 PM

whoahh dude! nice updates! really like the job you did with the perpective on panel 4, thats nice..gives a feeling of..being uncomfortable, with a low ceiling like that. now page four is insane cool, I dont really know whats going on but..its trippy hah, those two prongs like..match his eyes or something, is that what you were going for? its lookin good!

keep rockin and a rollin.

**AmishCommy** · May 6th, 2006, 12:30 AM

nate, a major rule of comics storytelling is to be able to tell the story in pictures. the dialogue is extra. PAge 4 is obviouslly hard to readwhen you do get a chanse to go back to it, think of a better way to get your point across.

and what the hell happened to you Wednesday? I had a free ticket for you for the Blue Sky lecture.

**bhanu** · May 6th, 2006, 12:41 AM

Okay, then how do you ink with toothpick?If you did it the way I thought you did ,it must have taken you darn long.

**AmishCommy** · May 6th, 2006, 12:49 AM

you dip it in ink and then drag it along the paper

if yoy use the side of the tooth pick and wipe some of the ink on a scrap iece of paper you can get some neet dry brush effects. some of the resistance the toothpick provides creates great grime and dirt effects

**natsch** · May 6th, 2006, 10:30 AM

Sorry I couldn't make it to the lecture! I have been tied up.

I agree that my storytelling in the fourth page needs work - but I disagree that the dialogue is "just extra." they're codependent - you can certainly have work that's more image dependent (or more dialogue driven) but that's up to the creator...

**Snowsfall** · May 6th, 2006, 03:52 PM

Nate my man these are looking solid solid, hell last time I saw you the OC comic was just a hazy idea. Great to see you working your ass off.
shit now I'm all inspired to work out a comic page.

**natsch** · May 8th, 2006, 06:36 PM

Thanks Cam - yeah make some comics son! Remember that comics show is in august....

Ok before I post the fifth page i gotta tell you that I finished all the dialogue too! Check it out at http://www.nathanschreiber.com