I Hated To Color When I Was A Kid

The title says it all. I hated have crayolas in my hand and coloring pictures all throughout elementary school. I had even gotten poor grades on assignments that required coloring. I just didn't like it. The only art activity I tolerated during elementary school was sketching. We had a real good art teacher to think for that.

During middle school I doodled in on my class notes but avoided coloring like the plague.

This isn't adding up, right? It wasn't until high school that I got into graphic design class. And even then it was a bit afterward that I discovered using Photoshop to color. I was more interested in editing photos and making cool designs. Coloring wasn't taught within the class, but I completed assignments quickly, so my teacher allowed me to do research over elements that I was interested in.

I'm mostly self-taught in coloring. I found a tutorial during high school that gave me the basics, but I didn't really catch on for another year or so. My early comics on The Duck and works of art I did on the side look like cave paintings to me in comparison to what I can do now. I was able to fill in a portion with color but I lacked an effective way to shade. It took me way to long to color because I made separate line art and separate color for each element of picture. I didn't know how use the "multiply" blend option or "clipping masks" and I couldn't use levels effectively. This all started to change with pastel. I saw some of her coloring before and asked her how it was done. Instead of just telling me, she also sent me a picture she had colored in Photoshop document. I could see what techniques she had used and even reverse engineer into my own style. I still keep the pictures for reference.

Since then, I learned new techniques and gained more confidence. I even started coloring for free during the summer to hone my skills and became quite well known for it. There were several people that wanted me to color their comics for them, but I didn't feel like doing something that long term.

Look at me now. Not only am I coloring full comic, but I 'm also inking it as well (something I would never dream of doing in the past).  It is my goal to make it the best superhero comic on The Duck. And I can't wait to unveil it in two weeks. Even if all that will be seen will be the cover.

I have also stopped coloring people's line art for free because of the time consuming nature of school and inking and coloring a comic. I offer my services on Fiverr instead.

Project Status:
Pages 1-6: Complete
Page 7: In Coloring Phase
Page 8: Inked
Page 9: With Me
Pages 10 - 13: With RPG
Page 14: Drafted but not sent

Why Ice Pick?

My best friend commented that the name of the comic (and the blog) sounds like some mobster's name.

When my husband was part of the World Martial Arts club at his University, the club members gave each other fighting names. During my husband's second sparing session he was pitted against someone dubbed Mammoth. My husband noticed that Mammoth was much bigger, so he focused his attack on his legs. When he had Mammoth on the run, my husband dropped his elbow into the front of his head. After the fight was over, other club members commented on his finishing move saying it looked like he was driving in an icepick. From then on his fighting name at the club was Icepick.

My husband thought that the name was a good descriptor for his fighting style and also would make a good name for a superhero like character. So this name was given over to the title character of the comic. However, this is not why the character was called Ice Pick, himself. Read the comic when it comes out in a month to see where it comes from.

First Fight Scene Concept Pictures

Yesterday, my family had a gathering to celebrate joint birthdays. My husband wanted to take some pictures of himself performing martial arts moves for RPGgrenade in pages 9-11.

My brother was persuaded to be a stand in for the thug that Ice Pick will be fighting in Chapter 1. My husband acted as Ice Pick in the pictures.

I would like to mention that no body was harmed during these photos and they were staged. My brother had only  one request from us in exchange for the pictures; he wants to be worked into the comic. We don't have a specific role for him yet. But keep an eye out. You may see someone that looks like him in the future.

The fighting style that you see in these pictures is a mix of Karate, Muay Thai, Kung Fu, and Kali.

Project Status:
Pages 1-5: Complete
Pages 6-8: With Me
Pages 9-11: With RPGgrenade

Project Darklight

Because Ozoneocean, one of The Duck admins, had been complaining of having too much on his plate, I was one of the few people that offered to help in whatever way I could. The result was that I got to right the post for the 3/1 feature comic, Project Darklight. This is what I wrote:


The world is a scary place, right? It is filled with things that are things that are human and less than human planning the end of the world or something to that song and dance. Luckily for us there is the Project Darklight! The comic follows the adventures of Girl, a creepy girl with a creepier talking teddy bear, and Amaru, the end result of a cult trying to bring a god into the world. These two partners have disappeared, spirited away by peoples with less than benevolent intents. Now it is up to Banshee to track them down before the world goes poof. This horror comic has dark lines, but pastel colours for the art which sets that tone for the story. The result is that many of the pages look like they were painted.
By Rashi, rated M.

Read Project Darklight .