Fred Lang's Marvel Comics Pencil Test Options

I won't lie to ya. This page hurt my brain. Two days of good hard work. On to page 9, hopefully avoiding an aneurism.



This post has been edited by Fred Lang: May 5 2011, 11:18 AM

As always, you are the master of details, my friend. Page works beautifully.

As always, you are the master of details, my friend. Page works beautifully.

Thanks, Ron. From now on, I'm only working on scripts with one character living in a snow bank. *haha*

Thanks, Ron. From now on, I'm only working on scripts with one character living in a snow bank. *haha*

Aw, I was just going to ask if you wanted to do a crowd scene among a car pileup in an urban environment with extreme background detail required

Yeah, like that rip-off issue of SIN CITY where Miller left whole pages blank save word balloons, telling us his characters were in a white-out. Yeah, right, like the emperor's new clothes.

Looks awesome fred! I love the lighting and guy pointing. intentional or not it takes my eye to the unrest in the background. something to consider, maybe putting police presence in front of the protesters in the first panel, like in panel two, just to help the reader follow where the next shot is at. totally nitpicky and unnecessary, but, just a thought. This s#!+'s awesome, regardless. can't wait to pick a book up of yours! Excited for the next page!!!

Looks awesome fred! I love the lighting and guy pointing. intentional or not it takes my eye to the unrest in the background. something to consider, maybe putting police presence in front of the protesters in the first panel, like in panel two, just to help the reader follow where the next shot is at. totally nitpicky and unnecessary, but, just a thought. This s#!+'s awesome, regardless. can't wait to pick a book up of yours! Excited for the next page!!!

Yeah, I was looking at that today thinking there's room for a police cruiser and some police to prevent the tangent between the party-goers' heads and the sidewalk the protesters are standing on...!!

yeah, i don't think its necessary. Just throwing it out there, really. Those sentinels are totally epic, though

Really like this, think it is amazing work, and I agree with the comments mentioned by everyone else

I have to ask though, in the first panel, bottom right, is the guy having something done to him?
I mean, either the gal behind him is putting things into him, or an unknown 'person' is doing things to him, because that face looks like he is having something done to him, and he's enjoying it.

Love the sulking kid in the second panel, like the battery just died on his iPod, and now he has to put up with the noise of these people shouting.

Fred, your stuff reminds me a bit of Mitch Byrd's stuff. I say that as a compliment, because of the array of body types and personalities.

Really like this, think it is amazing work, and I agree with the comments mentioned by everyone else

I have to ask though, in the first panel, bottom right, is the guy having something done to him?
I mean, either the gal behind him is putting things into him, or an unknown 'person' is doing things to him, because that face looks like he is having something done to him, and he's enjoying it.

Love the sulking kid in the second panel, like the battery just died on his iPod, and now he has to put up with the noise of these people shouting.

Fred, your stuff reminds me a bit of Mitch Byrd's stuff. I say that as a compliment, because of the array of body types and personalities.

Weird! You're the second person who has compared me to Mitch Byrd! I need to go back and take a good look at his stuff, because I know who he is, but I can't call up his style! Off to go look.

And thanks for the compliments. And the guy with the champagne glass (I guess he's the one you're talking about?) is just having a very white "ha ha ha ha haaaaahhhh" moment. I felt that the head tilt shot the view back into the piece instead of just having him stand there. Might have been overthinking it, but at this point I have to consider anything anyone might say editor-wise, so I have to think of this kind of minutiae when I'm drawing. It hurts. So no, no happy endings at the party!!

I'll be inking the last set of pages of a Blood and Roses book over Mitch's pencils (Bob Hickey inked the first set). Mitch has a couple of sketchbooks at Blue Line Art and has done several articles on drawing for Sketch Magazine. He's awesome. And has a Facebook account which he checks in occasionally.

I liked the work Mitch did with Blood and Roses. Now if only these sample pages Fred is doing could get inked...

I liked the work Mitch did with Blood and Roses. Now if only these sample pages Fred is doing could get inked...

yeah....

Excellent work! I love how the people in the background seems so alive. keep it up!

Thanks, all. Under the weather for the last few days. Back to X-Men pages tomorrow. Looking forward to getting back to the drawing board.

Mitch and I actually did a five page horror tale moons ago for a small Maine based independent comic company. What a joy to work with. I do see a little similarity, but honestly not a whole lot. Whereas his stuff has a more exaggerated look then yours. And man, he draws the meanest looking dinosaurs.

I checked him out and I don't see it either, Ron. *shrugs*

Fantastic!

I won't lie to ya. This page hurt my brain. Two days of good hard work. On to page 9, hopefully avoiding an aneurism.

Great Caesar's Ghost!

Pardon me Fred while I get technique geek here.

How did you approach the background? Photo reference? Google Sketchup?

Thanks for your time.

Keep swinging!

Great Caesar's Ghost!

Pardon me Fred while I get technique geek here.

How did you approach the background? Photo reference? Google Sketchup?

Thanks for your time.

Keep swinging!

Sketchup and photo reference. I'm lucky enough to live in San Francisco (where this script occurs, and the X-Men are based), so I just took the bus to the SFMOMA and took lots of pics. I used Sketchup for the MOMA itself and all buildings, leaving them as only "hidden line" models so that I could create all the textures and lighting using reference photos.

I also found a good night photo of the SFMOMA that I used, then took lots of artistic license to make things look "neat" to me as opposed to slavishly copying the reference stuff.

FYI, the buildings behind the MOMA aren't at all the *actual* ones behind the building in real life. I picked more dynamic ones from Sketchup, put them in approximately the same place the actual buildings exist, and tried to make 'em look cool.