How many people does it take?

Many jobs, that’s what I have. Many roles, that’s what I juggle. Like a jester throwing knives in the air, shuffling them above his head with the hopes that his skills won’t falter and he'll be triumphant in catching the knife only to swing it back up into the air to start the process all over again. Woah, that was a mouthful, but you get the idea.

The many hats I wear

As it is with this juggling buffoon who does it only to beguile the crowd and tell the story of how amazing his dexterity is, so is my life. I juggle many jobs in my day to day existence. I also juggle many positions as I create this book. Not only am I the writer, but I am also the character designer, the penciller, inker, colorist, and letterer. I also serve as hype-man and marketing guru, because who else would promote my book if not me? I bet you didn’t know there were so many steps, or people behind each step (or maybe you did).

Step by step

The step you see before you is what I like to call a “Rough” and it is usually done by the “Penciller”, which I am at this stage. This is where I lay down all the important elements that I will later polish. This step, at least for me, comes right after all the thumbnails are done. In my opinion, this is one of the most tedious parts because this is practically the foundation for the whole page. Let me know your thoughts down in the comments.

Until next time, #drawwatuwant.

-Haro

One-Man Band

A one-man show is almost always a hard thing to tackle, but people all over have accomplished it. As I work on turning my thumbnails into what the industry calls roughs, or what I like to call "cleaner versions of my scribbles", I can already see the end result. That sometimes scares the crap out of me, mostly because I am only a few pages in. But hey, if this guy can do it all by himself, why can't I? 

Until next time, #drawwatuwant.

-Haro

Eve, The First Woman

Out of all the characters that I have created, this bunch has been the most fun. This is in part because they were all mine. As far as I can remember, they were in my mind's eye and I am super excited to finally be bringing them to life. So, back to this one. Her file says she emits electricity from her those coils you see coming out of her wrists. Yup! That's right, she does. As with all the other designs that I have updated, these guys will be true to their original designs I created back in 1998. (I think that's the right year).

Until next time, draw what you want.

-Haro

And We Shall Call Him "Neko"

One of the greatest things for an artist is to keep his old sketchbooks and not discard them just because some for the art in it is outdated. I've learned that there is a treasure trove of goodness in some of my old notebooks. Such is the case with this character, Neko. He is an amalgamation of a couple of characters I drew. The main idea was centered on Antonio Bandera's character in Desperado. At the time I called him Felino De La Mancha. 👈(Click on that name to see what became of that name.) Born from the blending of two ideas, Neko became one of the characters from Ghosts comic that I love to draw and you will see him briefly in the first issue that I am working on now.

Until next time, draw what you want.

-Haro

The Other Ones Lying on the Shelves

It has been an extremely busy 2 weeks for me and I was not able to post this last week. Anyway, I'm still here, still alive and little by little working on my Ghosts comic. I've been finding these old pages that I definitely want to redo. This is to show you just how far I got into this project the first time around. I'm having Probably about the same amount of fun as I did the first time around, if not more. I am getting reacquainted with the characters like old friends. So, let's move on with this story.

This page was done in pencils on comic board. For those wishing to know what else I used for this, you can leave me a comment. For those who don't care, that's fine too. You can leave a comment too. 

Until next time, draw what you want.

-Haro

Another Reject Ghosts Page

You know those times when you are on a roll and nothing can stop you, not even the back end of an airplane crashing through your roof? Well, that's not what's happening here.

Almost a decade ago I was determined to get this book out of my head and on to paper. I almost did it too. I had the script, which I still have, and I had the characters ready for prime time. But then, The Show comic happened and I stopped production of this project to start on that one. It was my decision to put Ghosts on the back burner back then, as it is now my decision to finally see it through to the end.

For the next couple of blog posts, I will show you some of the pages that I chose to rework. The reason behind this was simply because I want the book to look the same way all throughout. Already my style has changed since I drew the page above, and  I would like to keep things consistent. 

I am really excited to finally be putting this book together. I hope you guys share my excitement as well.

Until next time, draw what you want.

-Haro

When Things Don't Always Go As Planned

There are times when something you draw seems to go really well, the stars are aligned, the universe smiles upon you, and you start to fart rainbows. And then there are times when you finish a drawing and then realize that it won't work. This was the case with this page. It was done because I wanted to move away from the spread I drew before. When I started work on this again, I decided to keep a little bit of the original flow in it so this page will unfortunately NOT be used.

This is what the page spread was supposed to look like. I am keeping the concept in tact for the new version.

As sad as it is to not use this finished page, I am happy with the decision because I am finally moving forward and en route to finishing this book that has been sitting on my creative shelf for far too long. 

Until next time, draw what you want.

-Haro

One Page At A Time

So like I said before on one of my previous posts, (dont ask me which one cause I can't remember) this project has been sitting around longer than a biblical man's beard. I decided I was fed up with letting it sit on the shelf. Thanks to @vion4444 who just fell in love with one of the characters, I decided to bring it back to life and make it breathe.

Insanity with a pencil

Two posts ago I showed you how my first page came out in 2007. If I am not suffering from memory loss, collecting reference and laying it out took me most of the time. I think that's how I remember it. Filling out the lines with pencils and darkening those dark spots like a madman took me less time than I expected. I think I finished this page in about 6 to 8 hours (not all in one sitting). Just so you know, there was a first attempt at this page. That original pencil art is with our good buddy Sean Beck, of Invincible Comics, but onward.

Keep It Simple Stupid (K.I.S.S.)

Here is the finished first page. This is after all the tweaks and refinements. That girl you see in the panels is non-other than my little angel, Argus (click here to see who I'm talking about.) I was happy with the simplification of the characters and effects. I'm always amazed at how working digital allows you to do so much more.

Anyway, feel free to let me know what you think about this page below in the comments.

Until next time, sketch me a glass a water, cause I sho is thirsty.

-Haro