Kim Ku / Inverted Love

I’m nearing the end of Hearts & Holes, so in an attempt to remain spoiler-less…

I’m using these….

…to turn pages like this…

…into this…

Brought to you by:

2 brush pens (one for the trees, one for the outlines)
4 rapidograph pens, (2 for outlining the small images, 1 for making sand texture and one for the text)
1 pencil
1 eraser
1 White out pen
1 White out bottle
1 sadly dry brush for white out that I forgot to wash out

There are about 16 pages to go and I average 1 page a night… so hopefully this step in the process will be done in 2 weeks. I’m going to keep truckin’!

It’s almost been 1.5 years since I’ve started working on Hearts & Holes — It started on scrap paper with stick figures and slowly found itself on better paper, penciled and inked.

I didn’t know if I’d ever finish but with a little luck, I’ll finish penciling the 60th and last page of the comic by the end of this week. Then the editing begins along with inking 40 or so pages.

2012 will be the year that I finish!!!

Sorry sorry! It may seem like Hearts & Holes is on a backburner somewhere but it certainly isn’t! It’s just being juggled with 2 or 3 other projects…

So far, Hearts & Holes is 58 pages strong.

It's heavy too.

I was drawing and inking the comic in parts thinking that it’d be a three part run, but part three turned into part four.

Hello stick figures

That’s how much I have leftto draw. The story is done for now– I just have to turn those silly stick figures into something real. It was hard to keep drawing and writing the story together especially since the end was so fragile– I had to make sure I did it right.

More updates soon!

MIA– drawing always makes me MIA. I’m having too much fun drawing the final pencils (they’re my favorite part) that I lose track of the blog… but not today!

If I had to rank from my favorite parts of making comics to my least favorite, it’d be like this:

1. Penciling
2. Inking
3. Script
4. Thumbnails
5. Revised Thumbnails
6. Revised Revised Thumbnails (it doesn’t always need this)

Ugh, revised thumbnails feels like busy work but I know it’s necessary.

This is what I’ve been doing. Turning these dreaded revised thumbnails:

Into:

That’s right. My thumbnails are pretty much stick figures depending on how lazy I am. It’s the idea that counts right? As I’m penciling more, I’ll update more here!

The script for the last part of Hearts & Holes has been shaping up. I’ve been writing it in google docs so I can edit it on my phone, work on it on my breaks at my job, when I watch TV, when I walk home, when I’m on the subway and especially when I don’t want to look at it anymore.

The yellow lines are approximately where the page will break into another. After a few pages of script, I’ve started thumbnailing:

I’ll edit the script a few more times before I start on the good paper.

Let’s do it!

Rejoice! Part 2 of Hearts & Holes is complete!

I’ve decided that I’m not going to make a mini for this and rather just start on Part 3 (the final part). I do love making books and it would have been a good break for me from drawing but I think it’s for the best. The home stretch is often the worst stretch for me.

In other news, here’s a random record player:

Here’s how I ink my panels. Still trucking.

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1. Outline the boxes. Contain the mess.

2. Write the text with a rapidograph. Using the brush pen could lead to uneven lettering.

3. Use the brush pen to make the speech bubble. Give the text enough room to breathe. Badly fitted text is the worst.

4. This part is my favorite. I get to take flat pencil lines and give them some weight.

5. The dry brush pen was good for the trees-- different textures!

6. Erasing is usually the most boring part... but it's the end. At least for this panel

I’ve just started inking the second part of Hearts & Holes again after months of nothing. I can blame my hiatus on a lot of things but I really just lost steam and a little confidence. I know how I am. I start a lot of things but I finish very few.

It’s a tough mental battle but I’m fighting so here are a few inked panels I just finished inking:

Hearts & Holes is my fun hobby so I don’t need to finish it by any certain day, but I’d like to finish it. Let’s keep going!!!!

I’ve set up shop for selling Hearts & Holes and whatever else I’ll be making. It’s a one item shop right now but I’ll put more up soon, I promise!

Every copy is handmade and has a custom heart stamped onto it. To make it truly special, I’ll draw you guys a cute/creepy sketch. Hearts & Holes can be yours now for $4.00(+$1.00 s/h): http://kimku.bigcartel.com

I feel like I’m getting sick again so I’m gonna chug away as much as I can till I’m bed ridden. Part 2 of Hearts & Holes has become a longer time investment than I thought only because I’ve added so much more detail and so many more trees. Backgrounds are important though so I’m trying to stay patient.

It’ll look better when the page is clean and erased, but enjoy the raw dirty version for now.

I’m planning to have another process drawing done by midweek so watch out! It’ll be a nice break from random snippets of Hearts & Holes.