Sherbet Lock

Most Valued Bastard: Amy Reeder's Finished Sherbet Illustration

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 17:33:59 -0400

Most Valued Bastard: Amy Reeder's Finished Sherbet Illustration:

For those of you following Amy’s progress in her illustration of my comic character Sherbet Lock (if not, you can see her posts; here, here, here & here), this is the moment you’ve been waiting for!

Here’s the finished piece I genuinely couldn’t be happier with the results! She…

amyreeder: Sherbet Lock Process 4 Here’s me finishing up the...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 17:11:16 -0400

amyreeder:

Sherbet Lock Process 4

Here’s me finishing up the illustration of Michael Bramley’s character Sherbet Lock! I finished inking the foreground elements, then penciled/inked the background. The non-ghost, gray-looking areas are just narrow black stripes—I like using this effect if I’m doing something black and white.

Then I went in on that ghost, and darkened it up juuuust slightly, and added some dimension, and a little transparency. I used Copic Sketch Markers N1 and N2. So yeah, really light.

My final step before scanning is corrections, which I do with a white Gelly Roll gel pen. People always swear by certain correction fluid pens and whatnot, but I’ve never found anything that beats a gel pen, especially for small corrections. They get less opaque when they get old, though.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the final scanned product!

Amy applying the finishing touches to her stunning illustration…

amyreeder: Sherbet Lock Process 3 So I decided to render the...

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 15:18:24 -0400

amyreeder:

Sherbet Lock Process 3

So I decided to render the ghost first…first I penciled it out, and lightly erased it all with a rubber eraser so I what I drew was light but still visible. The reason? I’ve found that using markers over pencil sort of locks the pencil lines in—you can’t erase that stuff. I use Copic Sketch Markers—Copic Ciao’s basically the same but cheaper and not refillable—here I used N1, which is very light gray. I planned on rendering it more later, but I knew I wouldn’t know the right amount of rendering until the rest of the art was done.

Next in my foreground-to-background process, I tackled Sherbet herself, face and torso. This was definitely the most fun! I was happy with how her expression turned out. I made her vest black with pinstripes—since this is mostly just pen and ink, I tried to fill some areas with black, for contrast.

Tools: I mostly ink with the Faber-Castell Pitt Pens, size XS. I keep two around—one new, and one old that I’ve marked up as old. This is because the line gets thinner, the more you use one. So I get two sizes out of one size marker. I also keep a size S, mostly for filling small areas, and I use a Pentel Pocket Brushpen for larger areas of black.

I don’t use real brushes or nib pens and I am totally terrified of them!

I erase with a Faber-Castell Dust-Free white eraser, the reason being that it’s less abrasive and doesn’t pick up as much ink…it just rolls the pencil off the page. Also, I should mention I use a french curve sometimes…for instance on the frame around the image. I do NOT have a steady hand! Most of my lines are made up of quick , small strokes but I’m trying to change that.

Check in Monday for more!

I like how she captured the way my eyes pierce womens’ souls…

-SL

amyreeder: Sherbet Lock Process 2 I took my sketch, scanned it,...

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 13:03:20 -0400

amyreeder:

Sherbet Lock Process 2

I took my sketch, scanned it, and dropped it in one of my comics template files, because that’s the dimension Bramley asked for. Then I resized the sketch, zooming in until I felt like the composition looked nice, leaving their faces large enough that I could easily render them. That’s when I placed a perspective grid on it (much like these), and printed the image out on 8.5x11 paper. I decided to work at print size…meaning, I didn’t blow it up or anything.

I taped the paper to my “board”—which is actually just Hammermill Color Copy Cover paper…it’s cardstock. It’s what I prefer to ink on because I have insanely ghetto tastes. And as you can see above, I tape these together so I can lightbox the sketch underneath!

But first I wanted to give it better composition. I added a steampunkish frame (since Sherbet Lock is a bit steampunk). I also added a table in the foreground, to make it look less empty.

I never just pencil and then ink…I do it in stages, from foreground objects to background. So I penciled the frame, then inked it and erased…then penciled the table and inked/erased.

I do this for two reasons—first, I have a little bit of OCD and I get really bothered with pencil smearing, to the point that I can injure my hand by how I hold a pencil to avoid smearing. It’s something I haven’t been able to control and it really hurt my hand/slowed me down when I had to pencil an entire page for an inker.

Second, it’s easier for me to wrap my head around an image if I can do it in steps like this! I can think about one part at a time. And, say I have a complex image where the foreground/background images intersect a lot…if I have the foreground part already inked, it’s WAY easier to map out what’s going on in the background, because I can pencil over the foreground stuff.

But I wouldn’t be able to get away with this technique if I didn’t have a fleshed-out underdrawing with a set plan. Like I can’t just draw the foreground, having no idea what’s in the background. And I wouldn’t recommend anyone trying that, either.

The final image was a rendering test I did on a separate sheet of paper. I wanted to see if I could render the ghost in Copic Marker with everything else in ink. And I had to find out if I should just ink objects straight through the ghost. I decided marker was good, but that I would have to go lighter on the see-through effect or it’d look ugly. Which meant I would have to draw the ghost first.

Stay tuned for more tomorrow! I’ll also talk about tools next time.

More from Amy Reeder. Who else is as excited as I am?

amyreeder: Sherbet Lock Process 1 I’m gonna do a creative...

Wed, 10 Apr 2013 19:56:42 -0400

amyreeder:

Sherbet Lock Process 1

I’m gonna do a creative process thing! You get to see this illustration unfold the way I would.

I don’t normally do commissions for friends, but my pal Michael Vincent Bramley asked me to draw a piece on his character Sherbet Lock. And I happen to like Sherbet Lock! So I thought I’d go for it. Sherbet is a futuristic Sherlock Holmes-type character who investigates the paranormal. She’s a bit smug, and she’s also a lesbian. Bramley’s got a collection of short story webcomics on her, so definitely check them out.

I like the challenge of capturing other people’s characters, so I tried to include as much about her in one image as possible. Here’s the sketch I came up with—I just kept drawing outward and figured I could crop it to comic page dimensions later. The size is around a quarter page. I think you can tell, but that’s a ghost licking her cheek!

I like taking these sorts of opportunities to experiment on rendering. So I was pretty excited but also unsure about rendering that ghost. Stay tuned and I’ll post more tomorrow!

I like where this is going…

Sherbet’s sister, Cayenne Lock, takes her pet for a walk.

Thu, 04 Apr 2013 16:43:09 -0400

Sherbet’s sister, Cayenne Lock, takes her pet for a walk.

The Dead Can Dance

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 13:46:48 -0400

The multi-talented D. Yee provided us with this unique and unsettling, yet beautiful take on the detective of Baker City.

Like it? Good, now read the comic and ask yourself why bad things always happen to good people.

Rob Moran's Sherbet Illustration.

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 13:37:14 -0400

Rob Moran is the king of gritty horror comic book illustrations and we were proud to get him on board for this fantastic Sherbet pin-up.

Now give the actual comic a read, disturbing themes and disgusting twists are a guarantee:

m-v-b: The crazy talented Leila del Luca provided this awesome image of Sherbet for the upcoming...

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 14:29:34 -0500

m-v-b:

The crazy talented Leila del Luca provided this awesome image of Sherbet for the upcoming Sherbet TPB. If you’re not folowing Leila’s work, then you bloody should be!

And if you’ve never read Sherbet, then you need to tell me what part of ‘lesbian Sherlock from the future who solves paranormal mysteries’ doesn’t sound readable to you…

-MVB

IN THE NEXT ISSUE OF SHERBET… http://sherbetlock.com

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 13:46:54 -0500

IN THE NEXT ISSUE OF SHERBET… http://sherbetlock.com

m-v-b: So some friends of mine from back in England made a...

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 15:18:38 -0400

m-v-b:

So some friends of mine from back in England made a quirky, nerdy brit-con based out of my old local comic shop, and they featured my comic Sherbet as the first shot of the opening sequence. Pretty badass!

-MVB

Sherbet Lock: Returning soon with NEW COMICS! (sneaky peek!)

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 15:06:55 -0400

Sherbet Lock: Returning soon with NEW COMICS! (sneaky peek!):

bakerstreetbabes:

sherbetlock:

We’ve been on the down-low lately, but for those of you awaiting new Sherbet material, the long wait is almost over! Everybody’s favourite lesbian Sherlock Holmes pastiche from the future is soon to return to the page in two… (count-‘em) TWO magnificent new adventures, one of which will be over…

I didn’t even know I had a favorite lesbian Sherlock Holmes pastiche from the future!!!

But now that you do, aren’t you glad?

-SL

Returning soon with NEW COMICS! (sneaky peek!)

Thu, 25 Oct 2012 10:11:30 -0400

We’ve been on the down-low lately, but for those of you awaiting new Sherbet material, the long wait is almost over! Everybody’s favourite lesbian Sherlock Holmes pastiche from the future is soon to return to the page in two… (count-‘em) TWO magnificent new adventures, one of which will be over 30 pages long and packed with more mystery than any Sherbet story to date! For instance; why is Sherbet in a mind-reader pose? You’ll have to read the story to find out!

SHERBET 2.0, SEXIER, DRUGGIER AND MORE EXPLOSIVER!

It’s not all fun and games though… for instance, Cayenne doesn’t seem too happy about it…

And then, when you LEAST expect it…

BOOM!

-SL

Temporal adventures + Prizes to be won!

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 11:16:47 -0400

I rarely ever visit London, as it no longer exists in my time period. If I need to visit it, I obviously have to steal a parked TARDIS.

My reasons for visiting was simply curiosity. I had heard that at one time a similar (but sexually inferior) detective to myself had once walked the streets of London. Sherlock Holmes, they called him. And he lived at 221B Baker Street. I, Sherbet Lock, visited to see if this Sherlock Holmes guy was everything he cracked up to be.

He wasn’t in when I arrived, so I sat in Sherlock’s living space, puffed on his pipe and siphoned his secret cocaine supply for my own personal use. I also dressed up that statue of him in his housekeeper’s favourite hat and used his effigy to shamelessly advertize my own adventures as a private detective, as showcased in that spectacular mystery excitement comic seen below.

Having suitably emasculated the world’s greatest detective ever (of the non-paranormal variety), in this brazen display of poor taste, I set about hiding my calling cards and comic books all about 221b Baker Street for future visitors to find.

Did you know that in 2012, a Museum stands at 221b Baker Street in London? If you happen to be visiting, stop by the old house for a snoop around and remember that if you happen to see anything with my name on it, you can claim it as your prize!

Hint;

Before I left, I signed the guestbook. Be the first, second, or third to send a photo of my sign-in to ‘investigations [ at ] sherbetlock [dot] com’ and win another special prize!

-SL

On Sale Soon!

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 13:41:00 -0400

Ever wonder what happened to Cayenne’s Monkey FURIOUS...

Mon, 21 May 2012 16:31:41 -0400

Ever wonder what happened to Cayenne’s Monkey FURIOUS GEORGE? Find out in our upcoming print-only Cayenne story.

Photo

Mon, 21 May 2012 15:43:37 -0400

Now be a good little Christian…

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:55:39 -0400

Now be a good little Christian…

Somebody really should save those whales.

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:16:38 -0400

Somebody really should save those whales.

Did you know that the Sherbet Creative team once worked on this...

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:45:21 -0400

Did you know that the Sherbet Creative team once worked on this comic based on a story by Warren Ellis? No? Well then, enjoy!