Haunted Fire Studio :: Benjamin Hall :: Illustrator and Comic Book Artist

Since the last post, I have gotten a ton of work done with my new working method.  Drawing digitally on the couch feels right to me, it's relaxing and non-stressed.  I hope this continues because I've just strapped a whole new workload on my back.  I've agreed to do a new 4 issue series for Bluewater Productions and recently Viper Comics contacted me about throwing in my hat for some possible contract work.

I've got about five pages of Filthy Habit left to do and intend to get back to Knucklejelly very, very soon, as well as my second project with Filthy Habit writer extraordinaire Dave Justus.  After such a long stretch of inactiveness, it feels good, albeit a bit stressful, to be so productive.

ON THE WEB

Brian Eno and David Byrne release their web only album "Everything that Happens Will Happen Today"  If my blog was a better width, I would post a flash player of their album... this is something I will be fixing soon.

ON THE SHELF

Here's some cool stuff coming out today.

Things are going really well with my digital drawing now. I had a mini breakthrough over the holiday weekend that has made things A LOT easier on me.

I was having trouble drawing smooth long lines on my Cintiq... I thought it was because I was drawing on my couch with the tablet on my lap, so I tried placing my wacom on a tv tray that pulled up to my couch. That table proved to have a bit of wiggle to it as well, so I moved everything up to a small space on my rolling computer desk and sat in an uncomfortable metal folding chair.

This set up worked, but I felt really cramped and uncomfortable. My new drawing space affected me in such a way that drawing was becoming a chore.... a chore I did not look forward too.

Then I read a short piece somewhere on the web that mentioned how speeding up the motion settings of your mouse can lead to choppy drawing.... Which is a setting I had recently screwed with.

So I set my mouse settings back to a speed that is similar to the speed of my hand and, low and behold, my lines went back to being straight and smooth like I wanted.

Guess who's drawing on the couch again and knocking out pages like mad?

This guy!

ON THE WEB

Want to read and/or sell your comics on the ipod?

J. Scott Campbell offers a pin-up step-by-step.

Scambaiting as a hobby? Holy crap... sounds like more trouble than it's worth, but an interesting idea.

Monkey Journey to the West comes out on the states on the 23rd. I can't wait.