The Wellkeeper II: The Hollow Realm #2 is ON SALE NOW!

It's here! The Wellkeeper II: the Hollow Realm #2!!!

The council of the hollow begin their attack against Zoe to test her worth as the Wellkeeper while Sebastian has a disturbing flashback to a past that isn't his! One of the most action packed issues of the Wellkeeper EVER is here!

The Spectacular SECOND issue can be ordered as a DIGITAL DOWNLOAD or PRINTED ISSUE today from #INDYPLANET

CLICK HERE to GET YOUR HANDS ON ISSUE #2 TODAY!

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And you can get caught up by reading the Fantastic FIRST issue of the Wellkeeper II by clicking the link below!

CLICK HERE to CATCH UP ON THE ADVENTURE WITH ISSUE #1 TODAY!
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And remember that the original series, THE WELLKEEPER is also available as digital downloads, printed issues or as three exciting collected editions from Indy Planet as well! CLICK HERE to see the entire BIG POND COMICS Library of titles!

The Wellkeeper II: The Hollow Realm #1 is ON SALE NOW!

Zoe's adventures as the earth's #Wellkeeper continue as she struggles to learn what it means to protect the balance of life while trying to balance life as a #teenagegirl in the first issue of the hotly awaited #sequel series! This issue is the first in an all new 12 issue series as Zoe must face the mysterious council of the Hollow Realm: Earth spirits that challenge Zoe's rights to the powers she's inherited.

The exciting first issue can be ordered as a DIGITAL DOWNLOAD or PRINTED ISSUE today from #INDYPLANET
CLICK HERE to GET YOUR HANDS ON THE ADVENTURE TODAY!

And remember that the original series, THE WELLKEEPER is also available as digital downloads, printed issues or as three exciting collected editions from Indy Planet as well! CLICK HERE to see the entire BIG POND COMICS Library of titles!

Making a Splash! (page, that is!)

Hey there, comic lovers! My name is Dee Fish. I'm the creator and artist of the indie comic, "The Wellkeeper!" An exciting fantasy/adventure comic centering on a young woman named Zoe who inherits a power that connects her to the life energy of the planet who is stalked by dark forces seeking to destroy her for her gifts!

With that out of the way, we can get on with it! I've shown you all before the steps behind inking a panel for issue #8, but things have changed a little and I've tweaked my techniques a little. As such, I felt like it was a good time to do a NEW blog post detailing just how I go about drawing a splash page for the upcoming 12th and final issue of "The Wellkeeper!"

It was a tricky challenge to pick a page that was generally spoiler free, so I picked the following splash page showing the FINAL stand-off between the villainous Withering Man and our hero, Zoe! (Spoiler... the hero and villain fight in the last issue. lol)

This layout was initially thought up as a potential cover for this issue, but I decided it worked better inside the book as a cool moment when our two characters face off for the last time. As always, I rough out my pencils VERY loosely with a Staedtler Non-Photo Blue pencil.

Yes, this is how loose I pencil when I'm inking myself. If I had to pencil tightly and then ink as tightly I think I would stab myself in the eyes.

Now, while I still occasionally use Faber-Castell PITT pens, I have largely transitioned over to the Pentel Stylo Sketch Penn! I'm in love with this pen. It's tip is designed to replicate the functionality of a traditional crow quill dip pen and offers AMAZING line weight variation without any of the awkwardness of the metal occasionally scraping across the paper that I've had with the crow quill tips, in part because of my being left handed. Plus, it's super easy to take anywhere so I can INK anywhere!

As Zoe is the primary foreground element, I ink in her primary outlines first, leaving the shadowing for later. To help POP foreground elements from the middleground and background, I often will give them a bolder outline to help separate the elements. For this, I use a fairly basic 06 Sakura Pigma Sensi marker. 

Now, because this splash page is designed to have a border and not be a full bleed page and certain elements of the Withering Man will pop OUT of that border, I switch back to the Style to ink those elements.

From here, I go back to my trusty Faber-Castell PITT Brush pen to do the panel border. All the panel borders in the Wellkeeper are inked freehand with a purposely wobbly line.

After inking in the wobbly panel border, I switch back to my Stylo to ink the remainder of the outlines for the character and background elements. In this case, the rocks they're standing on. Basically, anything that will require black spotting. (As such, I tend to ink the clouds in the sky after everything else.)

From here, I pull out my OTHER favorite inking tool: The Pentel Pocket Brush Pen! This beauty is like inking CRACK for me. It gives me beautiful, juicy lines and blacks that can be as fine as a hair or as chunky as any regular brush. It's flippin' MAGIC, peeps! 

Once all the solid blacks are laid down and I have the light and shadows all sussed out on the page, It's back to the trusty Stylo to add in my rendering to soften out the shadows and textures. Another reason that I love this pen, is that just like a real crow quill pen, if you turn the tip onto it's side, you get wonderfully fine lines for cross hatching. Then you can use the tip regularly for juicy feathering just by turning the pen slightly in your hand. GLEE!!!

Now that the remaining, fine line rendering is complete, I switch over to my LAST pen to add white lines, "Halo" lines separating elements or just additional rendering over the solid black areas. For this I use a Sakura Gelly Roll White pen.

From there, it's just a matter of scanning the art in and adding letters and the page is done. Hope you dug this little step-by-step demo of the making of a splash page. Of course, if you want to see how the battle ENDS, you'll have to get your hands on the Entire series of THE WELLKEEPER! ON SALE NOW!

See you in the funny pages!

The Making of "The Wellkeeper" Poster

I recently created a hybrid watercolor/ink piece of art for "The Wellkeeper". This art is for use both as a poster for promotional purposes, and eventually for the cover art of the omnibus collection that will contain all 12 issues of the series.

As I was drawing this piece, I took pictures throughout the process and thought it would be fun to share that process again with you all. Hope you enjoy.

STEP 1: The Idea

All good pieces of art (and most crappy ones too) begin with a couple of rough sketches in a note pad. This piece is no different.

The final design used elements from a few of these combined.

STEP 2: The Rough Pencils

In this case, VERY rough, blue line pencils. I prefer working in light blue, non-repro blue pencils to lay down my roughs even when I will  have to erase them. The light color and less smeary line is easier to work with for me. Partly because of the next steps. Please forgive the TERRIBLE photo as the faint blue lines are very hard to capture well.

Yes, I ink from pencils this loose.

STEP 3: Colored Inking

For colored pieces like this that will be colored with some traditional medium like watercolors, I like to use PRISMACOLOR colored ink pens. They allow me to play to my strengths (rendering and cross hatching) without overwhelming the colors. I discovered a while ago, that once you ink with these, the pencil lines below the inks won't erase. It's another reason why I use the light blue pencils.

At this stage, I ink only the external lines leaving rendering and details for later.

STEP 4: Sepia Inking

Once the PRISMACOLOR lines are down, I use Faber Castell Sepia PITT pens to lay in most of the rendering that doesn't require a specific color. (Like Zoe's Magenta hair.)

And the green for the grass, etc.

STEP 5: Finished Inks

Does this really NEED an explanation. Using both the sepia pens and the PRISMACOLOR pens, I finish up all the details that require inking prior to moving on to paint.

Ta Da!

STEP 6: Watercolors

Now, for the watercolors, I actually prefer working with the cheep stuff. lol. I have a set of Prang Oval-16 that I got at Michael's. I learned using Doc Martin's dyes, but those are a little closely, and as this was largely experimental for me, I decided to start simple and work my way up to the fancy tools. 

I layered about 4 different colors for Zoe's hair.

STEP 7: Watercolors Cont.

Watercolors can be a pain because you can only build color UP. You can't paint LIGHT colors in watercolor over dark colors easily, so you need to plan out your values and try and keep everything clear, a concept I'm still struggling with.

The finished watercolors, lacking necessary depth.

STEP 8: Colored Pencils & White Gel Pens

Once the watercolors are complete, I pull out my handy dandy PRISMACOLOR colored pencils and white gel pen. I touch up areas of fine detail and rendering and use the WHITE to render in the blast lines radiating from Zoe's hands that help push the Withering Man's skull-mask and Grandma Luludja into the background more. 

A Faber Castell white opaque brush pen also helps me rim light Zoe's hair and the Raccoons, Lily and Sebastian.

The white really helps to define the shapes better.

STEP 9: The Finishing Touches

Like most artists, I'm a glutton for punishment and never feel like I've done the best that I can do. As such, this painting was given a SLIGHT touch up in Adobe Photoshop for the final poster/cover.

I blended in some of the colors on Zoe's face and arm better, added a harder drop shadow on the Raccoons to pop them out more and added some colored highlights to them. I manipulated the field of color behind Zoe to plug blues and purples from behind Granny and the Withering Man to separate her a little more and added some hot spots to the white light around her hands.

A few tweaks here and there helped to bring it closer to what I imagined in my head.

That all said, I hope you dig it!