P. Dalkner » In Progress

Sneak Peek

admin — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 19:15:32 +0000

Last week I got a test print of the upcoming Birthday Street Vol. 1 book! That’s right! A BOOK! It’s a collection of the first one hundred comics as well as some sketches, bonus comics, alternate versions of comics that didn’t make it online, aaaand a couple of games thrown in for good measure. I’ll keep you abreast of the progress, but for now here’s what the cover looks like:

Comical Ideas

admin — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 15:18:19 +0000

Comics start out in a variety of ways.
Here’s the doodle that was the beginning for ‘Survivors’. I wasn’t too sure how to end it when I started the sketch so I just committed to drawing it out in the hopes that the ending would develop naturally.

This was the sketch for ‘Dirt Nap’. I actually drew this one all the way out!

‘Floaty Shades’ was a comic I did on a flight home while paging through SkyMall. I LOVE SKYMALL! I wish it was an actual mall you could walk around in.

Suppertime: Then and Now

admin — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 17:47:25 +0000

Working at an animation studio, Matt Sutter and I found ourselves with pockets of downtime. We were freelancing and that never meant steady employment, only working project to project (granted that was still months at a time). To keep ourselves productive we dabbled in putting together a pitch package for an Adult Swim style series based on an early short Sutter had made. It was a goofy inside joke, and frankly not terribly good. But it was dear to us and we expanded on the idea and did a lot of the ground work. The closest we ever got to animating anything was the title montage, but before we ever got to sink our teeth into it, both of us found steady work and the ambition died. Every once and a while I would brush the dust off and chip away at finishing it. Recently, Matt helped out with the final push and, well, a couple of years later… here we are. The title sequence is done.

I thought it would be interesting to give a little bit of insight into how the process works. First things start out with a moving storyboard called an “animatic”. It’s mainly a crude animation using stick figures and scribbled background art. Then that file is the framework that you work within and expand upon to make the finished animation.
Here’s both the animatic and animation laid out for you to compare. Often times the animatic has more spirit and energy because it’s made more spontaneously. I think that was definitely true here.

Animatic…

Animation…

Lame Duck

admin — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 19:32:32 +0000

Usually I’m not blessed with an abundance of ideas. If I have more than one idea for a comic it’s not too common for me to put enough energy into actually drawing the options. Maybe I’ll write out some of the dialog but for some reason stuff doesn’t get meshed with images unless it’s “the idea”.

It’s a new year so it’s time to turn over a new leaf. I was given a bunch of little “Field Notes” pads as a late Christmas present. Now there’s not many excuses left for me to not jot down whims and fancies. Here’s a regretable/groanable comic that was superseded by the Ghostbusters 2 T-shirt comic in the previous post. Part of my reason for not using this idea was because it hinged on the premise of people seeing the movie and recognizing the character named Janine.

Khyber Show Preview

admin — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 17:43:45 +0000

Here’s a peek at the first pages of a short comic I did about going to see music at the Khyber. For some reason I may never finish this…