Kris Black Digital Studio

Orchard Grove Webcomic Coming Soon

krisblack@gmail.com (Kris Black) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:00:00 +0000

It is with great pleasure that I announce that my Web comic, Orchard Grove, will finally be published on the Internet. After years of research (self-doubt) and pre-production of art (doodles) I’ve become confident in my story I want to tell.

Orchard Grove is a story about guy that moves his family to a small, American town in a beautiful valley nestled among an endless landscape of tree-topped mountains. The town of Orchard Grove is a hot spot for vacationing Internet and computer superstars. If you find yourself in the downtown area doing some shopping don’t be surprised if you see Larry Page, Leo Laporte or even the famous Steve Jobs.

Subscribe to the RSS feed or bookmark this Web site to keep up with development of my story.

Heroes Con 2008 Wrap-up

krisblack@gmail.com (Kris Black) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 15:53:54 +0000

Last weekend at Heroes Con was, I think, a successful trip for networking with industry professionals. I presented my portfolio to several people, some of them are really big in the comic industry. My lettering idol, John Workman, was in attendance sitting with Tommy Lee Edwards at theBLVD Studio tables. We caught each other up with the happenings over the last few months and he gave me some great tips on hand lettering.

Afterwards, I spoke with Tommy Lee Edwards about his charity print he did for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation back in May. I told him how much I loved the print and that it is now hanging in my son’s room over his crib.

Tommy was delighted to hear about his art hanging over my son’s crib and then gave me a little inside scoop on his idea for the 2009 print. I’d share his idea on my site but I don’t know if he’s officially announced it. I don’t want to be the one to speak out of turn and spoil the news for everyone. Besides, he could change his mind about his concept. I will say this, he plans on sticking with bike themes for these prints for as long as he continues to create them.

I did a ton of photography for the Dollar Bin which you can view on the Dollar Bin Flickr account or the photo section of theDollarBin.net. We gave away about half our stock of the sketchbook we assembled featuring bios and artwork from Indie Island creators we love so much.

I would have to say that the highlight of my weekend was having Erik Larsen review my portfolio. He gave a great review and pointed out a couple of minor elements to correct in my lettering. This was the third time I had the opportunity to show Mr. Larsen my portfolio: Heroes Con 2007 and Baltimore Comic-Con 2007 were the first two opportunities. He’s such a legend in the comic industry, that it took me a year to muster up the courage to approach him. I’m such a fool though, because he has to be one of the nicest guys in the industry I’ve ever met.

To be honest, everyone I spoke to was super nice. I love attending Heroes Con. It’s the best experience I can have at a comic book convention.

Morbid Myths Halloween Special 2007

krisblack@gmail.com (Kris Black) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:13:27 +0000

Last year I lettered the 2007 Halloween Special of Morbid Myths. With 36 pages of spooky and creepy tales you are sure to be entertained from cover to cover. Now you are probably thinking I’m wanting you to rush out to your favorite comic book shop to pick this up but I’m not. Oh, no. I want you to download it for FREE! Seriously, I’m not kidding. To make this even better you can do it legally and not feel guilty about stealing it .

“How is this possible,” you ask? Wowio is Web site that is helping to bridge the gap between readers, sponsors and publishers. You can download all of the available books on their Web site for free. This is possible through the use of subtle, strategically placed advertisements.

Morbid Myths is only one of many available digital comics you can get on Wowio. They have a huge inventory of comics and graphic novels to choose from. Including the famous Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Head on over to Wowio, download the Morbid Myths 2007 Halloween Special and comment on what you think about the book and my lettering. You can also sample other projects and pages of my lettering on the right in the yellow Portfolio stickie.

Hi Fructose: Under the Counter Culture Magazine (Volume 7)

krisblack@gmail.com (Kris Black) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 02:21:23 +0000

Hi Fructose Issue 7I dropped in Barnes and Noble the other day to look over the latest design ‘zines and books. While looking I found this magazine titled Hi Fructose and was totally blown away by the art and illustrations inside the book. I was sure it was one of those European magazines that was going to cost $15.00, but to my surprise it’s cover cost is $6.95, a steal if you ask me.

The magazine features a lot of interviews of talented artists and illustrators. Just a few that I’ve read about so far are:

The magizine is also littered with tons of advertisements for upcoming gallery shows and exhibitions. You’d think that a lot of advertisements would be a downside but in this magazine they are not because they feature awesome art.

If you happen to be in Barnes and Noble find this magazine and flip through it. Better yet, buy it.

Flatting Plugin for Photoshop

krisblack@gmail.com (Kris Black) — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 12:55:44 +0000

I was reading one of Dean Trippe’s Livejournal entries about how he and Jason Horn are working on the colors a new comic mini-series, currently titled The Division for Arcana written by Ed Brisson and penciled and inked by Damian Couceiro.

Sometimes a colorist will do what’s called flatting. This is where you quickly lay in flat color over the inked art. Then you go back and start adding the shading and details. Flatting is a great technique to help you work out color combinations and lighting. You can think of it as being somewhat equal to sketching or penciling prior to the finished inked art.

Dean mentioned that they were using a Photoshop plug-in to help them do the flatting. Of course, you are relying on a computer to pick colors so this is just a tool in your toolbox to help speed up the grunt work of flatting.

Leave a comment about how you may be using other tools and techniques to help you with flatting.

Twitter

krisblack@gmail.com (Kris Black) — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 18:00:00 +0000

A month or two ago, I decided to check out Twitter. I’ve known about Twitter since its inception from the fine folks at Obvious, who were also known in the “podcast-o-sphere” as the creators of Odeo before they sold it to SonicMountain.

Twitter has always remained a mystery to me in terms of why it’s become so popular until I created an account and started using it. It’s simple, it’s addictive and most importantly it’s fun. Being able to “follow” your friends or in my case, people I admire in the Web design and Mac community, helps me feel as if I’m in their heads.

Maybe it’s the same feeling people have using social sites like Facebook and MySpace. What I like best about Twitter is that they don’t devalue the word “friend” but instead refer to everyone as someone you follow. That’s important to me because I reserve calling people friends who are actually my friend and not just a random stranger across the ether.

Check out my Twitter page and add me as one of the people you follow. I’ll return the favor and follow you.

It's a Boy!

krisblack@gmail.com (Kris Black) — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 21:53:50 +0000

Last Thursday, December 20, 2007, my wife and I found out we were having a boy. After 20 weeks of waiting we finally knew. How awesome is that?!

Our daughter was the first person we told, and then we let her tell her grandmothers, Mimi (my mom) and Gramma (Stacey’s mom). She is so excited about her little brother. My wife and I took her to Target that night to let her be the first person to buy her little brother a gift. She got him two cute little onesies. One with aliens in ships and another with sail boat.

Our little guy is due May 18, 2008.

Comicraft's Never-To-Be-Repeated Font Sale

krisblack@gmail.com (Kris Black) — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 20:05:28 +0000

The fine font designers and letterers at Comicraft have their Annual Never-To-Be-Repeated Sale coming up next week on January 1st, 2008. The sale starts at midnight on December 31, 2007 and ends at midnight on January 1, 2008. For 24 hours, all fonts will be on sale for $20.08

Do you get it? Next year is 2008 and the sale price of the fonts are $20.08. This sale is never going to be repeated just like last year’s sale of all fonts at $20.07 wasn’t repeated this year. Those guys are so clever.

37signals' Backpack for the iPhone (sorta)

krisblack@gmail.com (Kris Black) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 21:09:07 +0000

Justin Michael as created some CSS to help restyle your Backpack pages for use on the iPhone. It’s simple enough to implement. Just create a divider element on your backpack page and copy and paste his CSS code in it. That’s it. Done. For those of you who don’t have a Backpack account you need to get one. 37signals, the creators of Backpack, have pricing plans ranging from Free to $14 per month. It’s a great way to organize and collect information that is accessible from any Internet connected computer or device, including Apple’s iPhone. Now if only I had an iPhone.

Extended Live Archives for Wordpress 2.3

krisblack@gmail.com (Kris Black) — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 19:05:56 +0000

I installed a new plugin on the Dollar Bin’s site called Extended Live Archives or ELA for short. It’s been around for a while and it hasn’t been updated for the new release of WordPress, version 2.3. After installing ELA I searched in the plugin’s forum on Flickr I found a discussion about the lack of compatibility with WordPress 2.3. In the discussion was a link to an updated version of the plugin.

Now that the archives work I will be updating this site with the new plugin. I’m not sure when but it’ll be in the near future.