[milkshadowbooks]

Small cover segment preview of Jase Harper’s Awkwood. We’ll be bringing this out soon, and trust us, you’ll want it in your collection… #australiancomics #australianbooks #comics #comix #jaseharper #jaseharperart #awkwood #australiangraphicnovels #graphicnovels #milkshadowbooks #msb #comiccovers #previews #music #aloneinwoods

[awk-wood]

To celebrate finishing the inking of my book this week I've released a limited edition screen print featuring art from the book.

2 colour A4, limited to 50, signed and numbered.

You'll be able to grab one of these this Sunday at the Home cooked comic festival.  I'll be at the Milk Shadow table.

or you can buy them online here

[awk-wood]

Bit of a milestone reached today, I've inked the last page of my graphic novel Awkwood.  Still got a bunch of touch ups to do before I hand in to the publisher for final edit and approval, but the biggest hurdle is done.

Awkwood will be out later this year through Milkshadow books #comic #graphicnovel #Awkwood #milkshadowbooks

[awk-wood]

Slowly but surely the pages are stacking up, onto the home stretch now.

[jaseharper]

Finally finished inking this A2 double page crowd scene. #comic

[awk-wood]

Judging by how many brush pens I'm burning through the last couple of weeks, I'm starting to get in to an inking groove. Just got to keep focused.

[awk-wood]

I recently sent out the pencilled version of my comic to a few writer/comic people that I respect. I got back some well thought out and extensive notes.

This is the first comic project I've ever work-shopped and has been a surprisingly pleasant  experience. It was particularly great to see three peoples different (and the same) perspective on it. 

I'll be making a bunch of edits on the fly referencing their notes, and I truly believe the book is going to be so much stronger because of their help and input.

Now back to the inking!

[awk-wood]

Slowly but steadily working through inking the book. Really need to pull finger out to get this done before the end of the year. 

[awk-wood]

Time for an update on the book!

As of this week I’ve finished penciling the whole book and have scanned all the roughs. Over the next week or so I’ll be laying out all the text and speech bubbles,The text and bubbles will be hand drawn but I’ll do them digitally for now. I’ll then make some final adjustments on the art and script before I move onto inking the whole thing.

I was hoping to be further along in the process by now but I’ve been grabbing a fair bit of freelance while it’s available and it hasn’t left as much free time as I hoped. I’ve been talking to my potential publisher (more on that closer to when it’s finished) and I’m now aiming to have it released early to mid next year rather than the end of this year as was initially planned. I’m hoping this will give me the time to make this the polished book I want it to be.

[awk-wood]

Took a break from pencils on the weekend to ink up a couple of pages and hopefully get a better idea of how the final pages are going to look.

[awk-wood]

pages 51-52 rough pencils

[awk-wood]

Day 2 in at Squishface studios working on the book. Nailed a double page spread/crowd scene today. Not looking forward to inking it.

[awk-wood]

For a few weeks starting May I'll be fulltime in Squishface studios soaking up the comic inspiration held within and getting some serious pages done of my book. Be sure to stop in and say hi!

309 Victoria st, Brunswick, Melbourne, Australia.

[awk-wood]

I've been steadily working on the book in between freelance jobs and starting to make some real progress. I've know managed to move onto my second folder of pencils, 40 pages all up. Looking at my schedule I'm a couple of pages behind target, really need to get well ahead so I can spend more time on inking.

[awk-wood]

Here's a shot of my desk as I prepare for a day of penciling. Don't worry It only looks this neat for the first 5 mins of the day, then it's back to it's usual messy self.

[awk-wood]

I decided to send my script off to two writers to get their opinion and advice on the story,and make sure it works as a whole.

I'm happy to say I got some very positive feedback and a bunch of notes on how I can tighten it up from the talented Jen Breach and Jason Franks, both who I respect for their professionalism and their skills as writers.

So now it's time to stop the penciling for a day or two and do the final draft based on these notes. It also may mean going back to some of the already completed pencils and making some necessary adjustments, but I think in the end it will be a stronger piece of storytelling.

[awk-wood]

I'll be posting bits and pieces over the next week or so to catch up to where I'm at in the project, then hopefully settle down to a regular pace.

First up is my design sheets for the main characters. As I progress through the pencilling stage I'll most probably go back and do minor tweaks before I set them in stone in the inking stage.

The lead character Liam is pretty much a refined version of my Guh! character. No coincidence as this project begun as a longer version of the strip and quickly evolved into something much more.

I'm deliberately trying not to get give away too much of the story but you'll hopefully pick up hints throughout the various concept art I'll be posting.