For those of you who don’t know yet,  reMIND is een graphic novel by Jason Brubaker. Jason managed to raise enough funds for his project that he is now able to print it as a nice hardcover, clothbound graphic novel.

Besides a 136 pages of story there will be a few pin-ups by different artists including Sam Keith. And Jason reserved a spot for anyone who’s submission wins the reMIND pin-up contest. I couldn’t let this opportunity pass by so I too submitted a pin-up.

I chose the scene right after the hero-shot of page 76-77, here the main character Victuals dives off the lighthouse into the water on his way to meet the Lizard King who banished him.

Don’t forget to take a look at the other submissions in the pin-up gallery, there are a lot of very good illustrations in there.

Have fun!

I’ve just returned from a two week vacation with my family in the German Eiffel area. And I can only say: what a beautiful area it is! Lots of nature, nice towns and good food! I’ve made a few very nice pictures I’ll try to post any time soon.

In my vacation the work on page 19 of Semmie the Forest Gnome continued of course. Like the previous page was an imported one story wise because Sem and Bear both went their own way, is this an important page art wise. On this page it becomes dark and starts to rain, and dark it will be for almost the entire length off the final part off the story. So I tried very hard to make the transition from light to dark a graduate one but still in a way that I can maintain for the rest of the “Dark Pages”.

Like I said Sem and Bear lost track off each other and thunderclouds come rolling into the story. And while it starts to rain Sem realizes he doesn’t like being in the forest anymore.

Have fun with page 19!

PS. I submitted an illustration for Jason Brubaker’s reMIND PIN-UP Contest, the winner of this contest is printed in the grahic novell. I’ll post my illustration here on the website in the next couple of days so keep checking back!

I always try to use any lost minute to make as much sketches as possible, the idea for  this one just came out of nowhere.

It is an advantage to sketch in a limited timeframe because I don’t have any time to think about what I will be drawing. When I start to think it can take hours before I draw the first line but when I have to start immediately the most interesting scene’ s appear.

This sketch just happened like that, I have no idea why this medieval figure came out of my pencil or why it is thinking if it can load all those sacks of flour on to the cart all at once. Thing is that this could be a scene from a story where you immediately find yourself asking questions like who is this figure, where those sacks of flour need to go or if that poor horse needs to pull that cart all by himself. A good drawing always has a story to tell.

This might be a good idea for a next project. I already feel a bit sorry for the horse though .

(click for full-size)

Bear explains it all so clearly and yet Sem doesn’t quite understand what he’s talking about. Sem should know better, the mushroom isn’t his real home, the house off the doll maker is. There will be some tea and maybe cookies and Bear know it.

This is an important point in the story. From here the overall tone will become a bit grimmer, Bear and Sem lose sight of one another and Sem will re…
Sorry, I’ve said too much already!

In any case have fun with page 18!

I like to take the time to promote a web comic made by fellow comic artist Mathieu Moyen. This week’s post on the 6-commando website is the final page for chapter one, I want to congratulate Mathieu with reaching this milestone. Because chapter one can now be read online in his entirety, this would be the best time to read the whole story from the beginning and get drawn into the conflict between the UNA (United Nations Alliance) and the FSR (Federative Socialist Republic).

For the few people who haven’t heard of 6-commando yet, here’s a little summary. The story takes place in 1997 in an alternate history, which has only seen one big world war and left the world with 3 major super powers, being UNA, FSR and a collaboration of the South American Coalition and the Arab League. In this setting we follow the lives of the people assigned to the 6-commando unit from UNA located in Kinshasa, Africa.

One of these people is actually a supersized robotic tank named Mike-1-Echo (see the picture on the right). When one of his colleagues, the lovely Major Sarah Bronniford is kidnapped by FSR soldiers, Mike goes in pursuit to rescue her, ignoring all other commands.

I have followed this story from the beginning and I loved it ever since. So I suggest you all go over to the website of 6-commando and be submerged in this thrilling war story with some of the most amazing art of this moment.

It will take a little time before the first pages of chapter two will be finished, but until then the artist has promised to post artwork on the regular schedule so don’t forget to return every Monday to read the latest installment.

Enjoy!

Joost.

START HERE

]]> http://www.joosthaakman.com/2010/07/6-comando-end-of-chapter-one/feed/langswitch_lang/en/ 0 http://www.joosthaakman.com/2010/06/page-17-strawberries/ http://www.joosthaakman.com/2010/06/page-17-strawberries/#comments Thu, 17 Jun 2010 20:07:50 +0000 Joost http://www.joosthaakman.com/?p=533 Strawberries!

Is it that Sem and Bear are so small or are these strawberries so big? I guess these strawberries are just big, this is after all a forest where the puppet gnomes wander freely and the bears talk in pictures. It just can’t be something else than mega large strawberries!

This page worked out soooooo good, I’m really pleased with it! Especially panel 3 and 6 are my favorite, I finally succeeded in showing the depth of a scene the way I wanted. In particular panel 3, where the objects in the foreground are placed in the shadow and the background in less saturated colors (atmospheric perspective for the artists among us), very pleased indeed.

Have fun with page 17!

Bear and Sem are completely lost in their game, Bear jumping over Sem and in turn Sem is jumping over Bear. Pretty soon they are panting for air from al the exertion and from al that exercise you will get hungry…

I am very pleased with this page, the action is good, the colors look good (on my monitor) and I like Bear’s “iconspeech” more and more with each page.
The sound effects on this page are drawn/written by hand instead of the typed effects from the previous pages and those add another something special. All and all a very successful page.

Have fun with page 16!

Semmie and Bear are watchfully circling each other, you never know what you can expect. But as soon as the introductions are over the conversation moves to a more important subject:  What fun things can we do? I am curious as to what they come up with.

From the very first beginning it has been my intention to let Bear speak in little icons instead of words, it seems like a nice deviation from the standard dialog you usually find in comics. I have to say it has a positive effect to the whole look and feel of this page.
I would love to hear from you readers if it is clear what words these icons represent, suggestions are always welcome!

Have fun with page 15!

With the eye of a true connoisseur Semmie the Forest gnome inspects this truly beautifull mushroom. He has only just arrived in the forest and already found two very important elements for survival in the wilderness, being food and shelter. Thus far this is a very good start of the second part of his adventure.

De people who visit the Flight Forum will recognize this page. This happens to be the first page I colored some 9 months ago and posted on the forum. Then it didn’t have any text and the color palet was a bit different. Because the colors of page 13 turned out so good I decided to recolor this entire page in the same way I did page 13.

Have fun with page 14!

Finally, there’s the forest! Semmie is looking a bit overwhelmed at winding path that’s disappearing between the trees. After all his efforts he is finally there, this is the beginning of his dream…

This is the first page where the forest will be shown and because this is a key element in the story, I wanted to take at least half a page to show it. This provided a nice challenge because my coloring style proved too be to tight for coloring the leafy canopy. After a few failed attempts to make it more painterly I found a nice mix (if I say so myself) between a tight and more loose style of coloring.

Have fun with page 13!