Last week I was thinking about how I would build a hotrod if I ever were to. I wanted something I hadn’t seen done before. Everyone takes Model T’s and hotrods ‘em or makes them into “T-buckets.” Its kind of old and while there are many that are still quite unique… it feels a bit played out.

My dad has a blue ‘56 Ford F-100 (which is pictured below) and it gave me my idea. I haven’t seen anyone make a “ratrod” (a term I don’t totally care for because it seems like it has come to mean something “not well built” or “unfinished” when in fact, the good ones are built very well) out of an F-100. So here are some process shots of the drawing I did…

The inks are finished and Mike has finished the final dialog. Here’s an update. I’m working on the colors now, then the lettering will be done after that. Once all of that is done, we’ll be submitting it to Zuda Comics!

-Z

Vote for Joe Bowen’s “Model Student” comic strip at Zuda Comics! http://www.zudacomics.com/node/1531

I did, so you should too!

-Z

Bernie’s BOT, the comic strip I am working on with writer Mike Farah (We Make Clouds) is getting closer to being finished. I am currently working on the colors for the 8-page pitch. I hate doing flats, I’m soooo slow at it. Sometimes it takes me longer to flat than to do the actual color work. Since it takes so long, and because it frustrates me so much, I’m getting some help with the flats. My girlfriend who is an artist as well (traditional animator) will be helping out the flats. She can flat a page in about 30 minutes compared to me flatting a page in about an hour and a half. Really, I don’t have any idea why it takes me so long. But I’m glad I have some help. Thanks Olivia!

Just testing out a neat little trick. More info to come.

Well, I was told yesterday that I could share the work I have done so far for my newest comic gig. I don’t think I can quite get into the specifics of the job yet. This job has been pretty fun so far and I can’t wait to do more.

They first wanted a single panel, then a finished page based on a script which the first panel will be a part of. They told me to draw whatever I wanted as long as it was set at a military checkpoint in Afghanistan, so being as its the first panel I decided to go with an establishing shot to set things up.

I met with Mike Farah last night, writer for the comic strip I am drawing called “Bernie’s BOT.” We’re both really excited about the project and the fact that it is moving along. All of the pencils are finished for the initial eight page pitch. There are a few things that may be changed before I go on to ink them and Mike is refining the dialog while I finish the inks and move on to the colors so that I can letter it when I’m done with that.

-Z

… or inspire you.

I’ve been sketching some of my favorite tv characters to warm up before I start drawing comic pages. I need to work on the likenesses a bit, though.

-Z

Hi,

How are you? Its been a while since I last posted. Forgive me. I have been very busy with work. Let me re-introduce myself. I am Zane DeGaine, freelance illustrator, sequential artist, and graphic designer. I sometimes take forever to post on my blog. Hopefully that’ll be changing, but its not like anyone really reads this thing anyways, right? I mean, that is, other than myself when I am writing it.

I’ll have some new work posted very soon. I promise!

-Z

So today was pretty awesome. I got a call from a friend the other day saying that he was taking his art students at a local community college on a tour of McFarlane Toys (apparently one of the students’ father works there). My friend asked me if I wanted to tag along. Of course I said yes! He gave me the address and contact number in case I needed it.

I was shocked to find that McFarlane Toys is located in the next town over from me! One of my friends works just down the street from them and has never noticed it, I’ve never noticed it either. It was a big surprise. It was an even bigger surprise after seeing everything they did there. I thought “Oh maybe its just a factory.” Maannnn, was I wrong…

I pulled into the parking lot where my girlfriend, one of our friends, and I met up with my friend who organized the tour and some of his students. I couldn’t believe I had driven by this place so many times, lived in the next town over from it for going on three years, and never knew it was there. The place is a bit low-key, but they do have a box-van sitting out front with their logo all over it.

When we walked into the first building I realized they did more than assemble toys…

Apparently, I had it in reverse. This wasn’t the factory, that’s in China… duh! This place was where they do the original sculpts! After seeing the sculpting stations we moved throughout the buildings… four of them if I recall. Each building had a different purpose. There were a lot of cool things and I learned a lot about the process involved in making an action figure. The first sculpt costs them around $25k to make, and that’s the first step in a long line of steps. Step two is another $35k.

In one of the buildings, they have a huge 3D full body scanner. It looks like something out of comic books itself. There are only 13 of them in the world, I think Steve said 7 of which belong to government agencies, and McFarlane Toys owns the only one on the east coast. Another interesting tool they use were two 3D printers. Their like inkjet printers that print in 3D. They lay down layer after layer of material, each is a 600th of an inch thick. It takes almost three hours to print a figure’s head but cuts their production time down by two weeks. The 3D scanners and printers don’t replace the sculptor though. After they are done printing the object, a sculptor will touch it up. The majority of their work seems to be sculpted by hand and they bring the 3D stuff in if they are on a strict deadline or feel that it will better suit that specific toy.

After we saw that stuff, Steve took us to AJ’s Pizza just next door and treated us to a couple slices each. I have tried many of the pizza places in my area, and had yet to try AJ’s, and I have to say it is probably my favorite out of all the others in my area.

After pizza, we toured the final building – the paint room. In the paint room they explained the painting process. In the studio they use vinyl cell paint (same as used on animation cells) to paint the figures. Most of the logos, etc. on the pre production figures are done with decals they make there at the studio. Our tour guide, Steve Hamady, told us that part of the final paint process on the production figures is similar to chrome plating, which I have a pretty good understanding of from growing up around hotrods and classic cars.

Thank you Josh for inviting me on this tour. Steve, thanks for the tour, you were an awesome tour guide, and thanks for the pizza! Todd definitely has the right guy in charge of quality control, I was amazed at how much you knew about the process. I’ll be keeping in touch, for sure.

-Z

  I’m working on a new comic project involving robots and its not part of my “Stellar” stories. I’m working with writer Mike Farah on this and we have some cool stuff that we’re working on. Mike’s strip “We Make Clouds” reached second in Zuda Comics’ January competition. We’ll be submitting our comic to Zuda as well. Keep an eye on the blog, I’ll be posting some images for the project to try to build some sort of hype up on it.

-Z