coloring live tonight till I crash, working on a page from the official Flobots webcomic, and probably Take a Chance #5.

Watch live video from jembury’s channel on Justin.tv

redesign of the site and blog happened at a good time. I’m swamped right now. Working on editing and designing TWO graphic novels, both over 100 pages long, potentially coloring some interesting new projects, doing a few commissions, and working on my own creator owned project more here. Still, I’m getting a lot done this week, and am scheduling work for June. So if you need a colorist for your comic, a digital painter or concept artist for an upcoming project feel free to get in touch. We’ve been making due here somehow, but it would be nice to line up enough paying gigs for the entire summer, that’s for sure. The search for a day job is going absolutely nowhere right now, so that would be one less thing to worry about.

Can’t wait to start getting actual pages done for the Rift in Time project. The script is really writing itself and I’m having a blast with it. Very fulfilling, and it’s going to be a great all ages kind of project, very visually appealing, fresh and fun I think. A distinct animated kind of Don Bluth look to it all as well.

back to work here, just taking a short break to fill the void with a progress report.

Watch live video from jembury’s channel on Justin.tv

for the next couple hours I’ll be digital painting and coloring comics live via my Justin.tv channel!

Watch live video from jembury’s channel on Justin.tv

catching up here, going to be REALLY interesting to see IF or how long I can keep up daily studies. I’m going to refuse to fail for a while though, if I do get behind a day or two, I’m going to try and make up for them (not including vacation time, that defeats the purpose of vacation if I have to kill myself to do something like this)

40 minutes, PS.

40 minute study of the day in PS. Not thrilled with the atmosphere behind the mountain, but that’s all the time I had today, probably could use another 10 minutes worth of refining to fix a few minor things but these are speed studies and exercises really, not trying to be perfect with everything.

going to ATTEMPT to do 30-60 minute studies the rest of the year, wish me luck!

so with deadlines out of the way on Monday, I took all of Tuesday off for the most part aside from a logo design I had to get done. I took a good portion of yesterday off, started colors on a pinup commission of Jean Grey/Phoenix, watched a bit of a Dylan Cole Gnomon DVD, and tried to get my body back to feeling somewhat normal. Still have a shoulder that is now only KIND OF sore, but I also have a kind of sore neck now, and I pulled something in my ribs of all places, while turning over in bed the other night. Talk about lame. However the upside…there is one I promise, is that I feel almost completely recharged mentally.

On the agenda today, more digital inks on Take a Chance #4, finish up the commission pinup, and get some of the flats for TAC4 pages I have back already dropped into my files for color scheming. I’m still in really good shape here for a somewhat EASY 2 page a day schedule on that book as I’ve set aside time to do NO other comic work for the next 2 weeks really BUT that book. I deserve a small break in my coloring schedule after 2 completely busy and insane months of cranking out pages.

My daughter lost her first bball game yesterday by a large margin, but she was one of the 3 girls who actually scored any points (the team only had 5) and I think…I’m going to leave it at that. It will be a long year for her, there will be a lot of unrest and turmoil within that team, and it won’t change until they all get on the same page and really start to care about the game. *edit* I just typed a bunch of crap about parenting, pride, and respect that I’m going to delete as it contradicted me not leaving it at that.

On to the art related stuff now. Somewhere in the last 2 months, I think it was after I passed 70 pages worth of work just after the New Year, I came to realization. I like to paint more than I like to color. I’ve been trying to paint as much as the comic page will allow, but sometimes pages just don’t make sense for that type of thing. I really got to do a lot of it with the giant sized Grimm Fairy Tales issue in Decemeber, I’ve been getting away with it on some pages for the Take a Chance book, a couple of pages in Herbert West 3, but not many really in Grimm Fairy Tales 35 which is what I wrapped up on Monday here. So as I sat there yesterday, after realizing that I had done almost 120 pages in about 6 weeks (which included some commissions) but basically almost 6 books worth of work, I was feeling an odd mixture of pride and disappointment. Sure that’s a LOT of work. MOST of which I’m proud of. But honestly, I felt more like a machine set to automatic at times than I did any kind of artist. So I started thinking hard about what it is that I enjoy the most in my work, and it’s really the painted elements. When they’re present that is.

So I’m contemplating things here now. Do I see myself as a top tier colorist at Marvel or DC some day? Because really that is probably the only way I can continue this as a career in the future. With the comic industry shrinking, and it was already small, I can’t answer that question really. There are some amazing artists working there already as colorists, and on a GOOD day of mine, I can come close to them. On a consistent, page by page basis though, I fall short. So I wonder if that is a circumstance of my own creation sometimes. Would I be able to aspire to BETTER work if I only did about 44 pages a month? I damn well could come a LOT closer than when I’m doing 90 pages a month, that’s just the truth of the matter. I know I have the drive, and when it comes down to it, the confidence in myself and my abilities to get to that place, but it comes back to the question, is that what I REALLY want? I don’t know many people coloring comics that make a living doing it WITHOUT working for DC or Marvel. The fact that I’ve been able to get by for going on 3 years here doing just that, is still kind of hard to figure out. With the changes to the market that have taken place over the last 3 years, and the changes that are occurring now, it makes me wonder how feasible it’s going to be for me to keep making the kind of money I’m making now WITHOUT moving on in my career.

Without rambling too much more this morning, because I have some things to do today, here’s where I’m at. I’m thinking of really making a push towards matte painting and concept art here. I really think that it’s something I can excel at. Looking at what I’ve done in the last 6 months, I think that I have a much higher upside if I were to focus more of my energy into that, than if I was to continue to sit here and crank out 80-90 pages worth of comic work a month. I’m seriously considering enrolling in some of the Gnomon online workshops that they offer for things like that.

HOWEVER, with the way the economy is right now, the fact that my wife’s job is tied directly to the automotive industry as a 2nd tier supplier, and with so much uncertainty in THAT, I’m not sure that I can justify turning DOWN any work that comes my way. Especially when I can GET that much work, and have smaller publishers willing to pay my page rate, outside of the Big 2 in the comics industry. I offer something that evidently JUSTIFIES my page rate or I wouldn’t keep getting work.

It’s a tough position. It’s hard to find people to talk to really in either industry, that I can relate to. My situation is really, honestly, pretty unique. I’ve talked with a lot of colorists, comic artists, concept artists and designers, and really….just looking around, I sit at home scribbling all day and make money without really working for any BIG name companies. Things just end up working out somehow in the end every time for me. We all take different paths in life. I guess it comes down to which fork you end up taking in the road sometimes. My problem I think is that I’m at a crossroads here now and it feels like there are about 10 different forks in that road of life. Which one do I take?

I think I need more coffee this morning. That’s about the only thing I’m sure of today.

few more hours and I’ll be done with my latest painting and it’ll be available to order as a print. here’s a peek at just a small section of it though. enjoy.