this is a page from my upcoming Witchblade Annual #1

go grab some popcorn cause this is prob gonna be a long one.. (on a side note, i ask that no one post this anywhere online as the book is not out yet..just send them here if u think they wanna waste time looking...thanks )

i havent drawn a book in awhile so i was really excited to get the script for this book.. and i love witchblade to boot. when i read it i was a lil disappointed and i forgot that she is a detective and sits at her desk a lot..lame.. granted the book starts off with a model in lingerie on a windy roof top...sweetness..but there is a lot of sitting and talking in the book...and im thinking man, i gotta dust off my ruler and practice drawing straight lines...as its a pet peeve of mine. dont like to draw NY and all those damn sky scrapers. but i always welcome a challenge..

so, i alway say, when u got the pencil, u got the power of god..and i remember saying in the past that i try and make up as much shit as i can get away with..i mean its damn fun playing god..even if its with these fake comic ppl.. when approaching a pg this boring (litterally nothing happens here) i try and get the hard parts over with so its down hill after that..in this case its panel one and three..i had to draw a police bull pen (or so i thought, my editor later tells me they f#cked up and i wasnt suppose to draw this setting...their office is in the damn basement...so all the background u see here will never see print, and i have to redraw it...its good to be me) so it means a lot of desks, ppl, files and crap..and i dont like doing this sort of thing..but i like playing god..so the cool thing is i get to make everything up...a lot of artist rely heavily on photo ref and i think thats a good idea..but i dont like the fact that i have to use a photo when its more fun to make it up..what i think is a good balance is to make up the environment and use photos for what goes IN the environment...like the TV's mounted on the pillars, staplers, desk fans(which i 4got to put in) and things like that...lighting is also good to have photos ref for..a room of this capacity i find is a pain in my groin to try and do.. especially when ever the ceiling is in the pic. i thought to myself what do i want to have in the room??? well, i like spiral stares, upstairs meeting rooms, trash on the floor from when men throwing trash and are too lazy to go and place it in the bin.i add all that in the layout stage. but all that comes in "last". cause composition and story telling are most important and easily screwed up..

panel one called for a woman walking in and telling something to two detective partners at their desk.. so as much as i would like to have spiral stairs, i have to make sure it will fit in the panel without losing the composition. so partners have their desks together normally or at least i made it that way...and the focus is the two detectives. i was taught to have the focus in the "middle" of the panel, which they are. and we have the chief coming in from the bottom left.. so once i got that down, the rest is god playing time...

after the foundation is laid out, i had drawn all the lines in. i try and keep the light source in mind the whole time, but it ultimately comes in last...lighting a person is a piece of pie, but a room with all this crap?? not easy sometimes..like the dudes desk to the right of the panel and how his desk was going to cast that shadow?? well sometimes its trial and error. again, the background in this panel wont see the light of day..so all that effort for nothing. the most important thing ive learned in designing anything, is to make sure its not stiff and stagnant. like flat walls...or a person standing with "both" their arms to their side.. here, i made sure to NOT have any wall go from end to end..boring, but its more work. so which is more important to u?? a good example is in panel 3, the wall that has the TV mounted stops half way down the panel and turns..makes it more interesting to look at.

in this boring pg i needed some eye candy and i stress how important eye candy is..and here its the full length girl in panel two and panel four...a pg needs to have something fun to look at..and some might disagree that its not necessary. but in print, in color, panels one and three are ultimately boring to look at..in B and W they look cool. but not in the end..for example, when trying to sell a pg like this its always harder because ppl like to frame splashy art...and it decreases in value when not done. this in NOT why eye candy is done, i dont like selling my shit..its just a good rule of thumb when it comes to giving the fans what they want to see.

i like my men looking lazy in my books..so i had the guys hands up on his head in panel 3. not caring that his boss is up their asses..also having everyday items, like the coffe, and water bottles on their desks. i tried to light the wall on the left with the TV, but it was too hard and i erased it and gave up.

panel two's layout, was a trick i learned from a guy named billy tan. great page designer. its fun to look at and pops out.. something marvel doesnt like doing.

camera angles are important in boring pages. its almost the only tool u have to change it up.. panel one: higher, panel 2:straight on.... panel 3: lower than panel 1..panel 4: almost on the floor....panel5: above..panel 6: on the desk..
some artist approach these kinda pgs as "cheat" pgs..as in i can finish this in half a day.. nothings happens...so, lets have straight on shots in all panels and make everybody really small so i have to draw less..again, inspiration for stuff like this is always brian hitch.

panel 5 called for sara holding two files in hand and reaching for another..

6 called for her partner coming over to her desk to show him what she figured out... i really wanted to show him "sitting" on her desk...when i was laying out the panel, i realized that it wasnt possible cause if u look in the panel above it... i clearly show..a pile of folders and a phone in the way, so theres no way he can be sitting there...u know what i decided to do??? i said f#ck it!! nobody will even notice...playing god again..bad eric

lastly, when i was rendering the folders in panel 4, i drew one set of lines going up and down...then proceeded to draw a second set in the old image style of "crosshatching"...FAIL!! what i wound up doing was making the folders look round, when everybody knows paper is indeed flat...so i tried again and kept all the lines flat and did a horizontal and vertical. and faded out..

this was my attempt at making a boring page interesting, just for u.

GO ASS!!!