As mentioned a few months ago, my ongoing illustration work with Pine Cove Christian Camps yielded some cool fruit this year: the opportunity to do comic pages. Here are the finished single-page stories I did for their Base Camps Bible Studies. (You can see the rough drafts here— most of which are pretty different from the final versions!)
I recently updated the “Portfolio” section of the site. Click on over for a look at some of my professional work from the past 6 months, including some pages I haven’t yet posted to the blog!
Filed under Comics
I first met Robby Mayne when I was a gangly, myopic high school freshman attending the Pine Cove Shores camp. Anyone in college qualified as “coolest thing ever” in my book, and Robby especially had one of those unique combinations of dry wit and spiritual enthusiasm that made him an exceptional counselor. The only thing I couldn’t parse was his weird obsession with LSU (These sorts of things don’t compute for a native Texas boy).
But the cool thing about Robby is, he wasn’t content to just stay “cool.” Instead of making a career out of working at the High School camp, he made a lateral move to Pine Cove’s Towers camp for grade schoolers. As its current director, he’s inspiring a whole new generation of kids, and in the process, he’s showing a remarkable gift for writing compelling Bible Studies that have definite all-ages appeal.
It’s always a joy to illustrate his work, and this year was no exception– Robby’s study focused on Scriptural characters who lived like God was everything to them. The stories he picked and retold reminded me of the great rewards found in our faith, and offered some cool opportunities to depict a lot of drama and emotion in some dynamic settings.
Pine Cove Towers 2012 Bible Study Illustrations:
Caleb entering his part of the Promised Land, from Judges.
Jonathan and his armor-bearer climbing to a Philistine camp, from 1 Samuel.
Stephen, seeing Christ just prior to his stoning, from Acts.
Paul surviving a shipwreck, from Acts.
Jesus heals a blind man while John looks on, from the Gospel of John.
I’ve enjoyed a fruitful relationship with Pine Cove Christian Camps for over a decade now. I started going as a camper in 2000, came on summer staff in 2004, and even spent 8 months after graduating college in their discipleship program, The Forge. They’re a ministry that values excellence, and they have a very clear sense of mission that’s molded the way I approach my work.
They’ve also contracted me to do Bible study illustrations since 2009. At this point, I do covers and single-page illustrations for up to four studies a year, so they’ve become responsible for a large part of my professional catalog. But one thing I’d like to produce more of is comics. And wouldn’t you know: this year, one of the Bible studies called for comic pages.
What?! Well, I’m on board with that!
Below is my first round of sketches. The challenge was to depict five separate sequences from the Gospels (each individual page had to correspond with a different passage of Scripture) and still make them feel like installments of a single, continuous story. I’ll let you judge if I hit the mark:
More to come on this front…
Filed under Cartoons, Comics, Sketchbook
I’ve never read Metamorphosis… but I expect I should someday.
Various Ways of Coping With An Unexpected Animal Body
Filed under Cartoons, Comics, Sketchbook
Still hacking away at a big ‘ol comics project! Here’re some rough drafts (blue first, then pencil scribble).
(More about what this is here and here).
If you’re interested in seeing more pages, Chapter 1 is up on my Google Plus page. Come check it out!
Filed under Cartoons, Comics, Sketchbook
(The result of getting distracted in staff meetings...)
He will most certainly steal your gifts.
Filed under Comics, Sketchbook
When it comes to freelancing, sometimes it rains, and sometimes it drizzles. And sometimes, the weather’s just really, really pleasant.
These past few months have definitely been the last one. Some good freelance opportunities have come down the pike lately, and Christin and I have been in a great place to balance those, the day job, our marriage, and adjusting to our new home.
Perfect weather.
Here, then, is a sampler of some projects I’ve been dabbling in since the summer:
First, a former employer of mine is expanding its facilities (and it’s a wise move for them). As they were assembling informational material, they contacted me to turn a series of 3D architectural renderings into 2D perspective drawings. Here’s one of a new outdoor building they’re putting up:
Later, it was decided to focus attention solely on the building, so the people were removed. Then, their graphic designer, Andrea, added some eye-popping color.
Here’s the final product:
In the meantime, I’ve been working with an author from my hometown (Brownwood) on a children’s book pitch. She’s written a really clever story about a boy who counts sheep at night, and I’m in the process of roughing out the pages. Here’s a preliminary sketch of the boy and his uncle:
And a sketch of the kind of sheep I’m drawing:
Finally, I’ve mentioned the graphic novel that I’ve been working on with Houston-based author, Kirk Blackard (see some behind the scenes material here and an interview about the process here, starting on pg. 106). I shot him some fresh layouts yesterday; seeing them, you can get a sense of how rough the pages look before they get inked:
Sadly, it’s going to get worse for our protagonist before it gets better. But there’s light at the end of his tunnel.
Which is still many chapters away.
(Sorry, Tony.)
Filed under Comics, Sketchbook
Ben Humeniuk 