Halloween Greetings and such.

Hey there sports fans Al here with the latest: 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! 

 This is one of those days that I wish was a national holiday but these is some just to pagan about it that USA would never do it.  But I can keep wishing.

In one of those many stories that I have floating around in that thing called a brain there is a world where it is Halloween year round kinda like "The Nightmare Before Christmas"  'cept maybe just a bit more adult like Nocturnals comic book title created by artist Dan Brereton.

At least, that's my dream/nightmare at work.

GALLERY WORK :
As of last weekend all the pieces for the BIG 300 were completed. But as for the art now comes the varnishing and mounting the work onto the ten wooden tiles that the gallery had handed out to artists to be worked on.
Wood glue and clamps are the key now.  Just like last year the scratchboard will mounted.  This process takes about four days in total. 

WITH THAT BEING SAID....
CTS #2 under going the color transition.  I have felt that black and white could carry off a story without color.  In fact if you look at a lot of work that was originally presented as black and white some times the color could detract you from the story.
So there is always a precarious balance that needs to be maintained.
I am hoping to have this book done in the next month or so.

HOWEVER
The potential ideas of commissions has possibly raised it's head again.  And I'm not going to say "no" just yet.   Nothing is definite yet but there is, lets just say, some people sniffing around right now.

UNFORTUNATELY
That situation has a tendency to put comic book work on the back burner.  I know that a lot of artists that do this.  It's not personal validation at this point it's a matter of financial survival.  When your only source of income comes from artwork alone you have to hustle your work and yourself out there. 
Again this is that hard learned fact.

BUT AS ALWAYS...
When there isn't any commission work or gallery work the comics are the standby to keep you working artistically.
So I guess in one way or the other,  comics will always be my standby.

A WORD ABOUT COLORING...
I'm sure that a lot of people aren't quite aware of this relationship to art.   They only know that they like it but do they realize the time and effort that goes into doing it?
  Probably not.
For me the hardest part of doing color is what I call the basic FLAT CHARACTER COLOR and BACKGROUND COLOR.  The other aspects of coloring are only highlights and shadows to give the  color form that complements the black and white line.
This goes back to what I was talking about before with the illustration. 
I'll give ya a few examples with one panel out of issue #2 (just enough to whet your appetite for the book).

Fig.1 Is of the black and white line illustration.  This gives you, the reader the idea of where the light source is coming from.

Fig. 2 is of the flat character color and basic background color.  You have to have both.  You could tell a story without but then your story would look very odd.  There would be no flow going on.

Fig. 3 is of the inner shadowed color of the figure.

Fig. 4 is of the inner high lighted color of the figure.

Fig. 5 both shadowed and highlighted color layers are compressed together (generally speaking of course).  This is where it begins to come together by using the inked multiplied layer I start cutting away parts of the shadowed areas that are the less heavily inked and delete them. 

Fig. 6  the final color layers compressed together with the line illustration overlay. The overall image takes shape.

Fig. 7 compressed color and line illustration with a red overlay of the highlighted layer.  This is a mood setting light.  Some of the color will be lost but it sets the panel with a feeling that all is not right with Outpost 10 and Corrax is cautious with his blaster drawn.

And there you go.  It's a simplified version but that's basically how it breaks down for each panel on any given page when I'm working on comics colored pages.

NEWS FLASH MORE GALLERY WORK:

"Pygmalion Modern"  9"x12" Scratchboard
2012 copyright Alan Bennett and BBVA

Well in another surprise and rush I was hit up today for another gallery show over on the. As of the first of Next week I will have one image in a show called the "New Brow" art show here in Portland at the Portland Center for the Performing Arts (or PCPA).  1111 Southwest Broadway, Portland, OR 97205

(503) 248-4335

I will be entering "Pygmalion Modern".  Funny thing is that I concider this piece to be an "old" bit of work.   My friend Dax had reminded me that the work might be old to me but it is new to other people.
He was right about that so we will see how it is received at this late going show.