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Captain's Rant #11 – Kodi the Starfish Art & Story Update – Page 7 Finished (finally!)

derrickutz

Well,
Thar she blows, the final page be found!

My goodness all, it is finally here! The last page of the first Kodi the Starfish short story! It has been quite an adventure to get here and I thank all of those that have traveled with me on his first journey! I have one correction to make to the shape of the daddy Starfish and then it will be dunski!

Alright me Maties!! I will post soon with new information and links to to purchase this short story and the entire 8 In Spaaace! Anthology by Illopond.com!
I will also be posting some new news on my career day presentation for my son’s school and new posts with inspirations and tutorials so keeps yer aye’s peeled!
May the winds be at your backs and friends be at your sides. Blessed be your journeys.
Captain Dutz

Captain's Blog #6 – March Sketch Dump!

derrickutz

Well, Thar yee bee!

Me long lost sketches I tell ya!!!! (Waving fists like a crazy pirate…well, wow..fairly accurate, Ha!)

Ahoy me crew and visitors! This is my first sketch dump to The Captain’s Blog and I wanted to come in with a  Boom (better than a BANG) shot from the bow of me sketchbooks n’ loose parchments.

Below are some recent doodles and finished drawings that are not really current project related but still part of my creative exercises. Each list the content, credits and context so enjoy and please let me know if you have any questions or drop a comment if you’d like!

Pencil Sketches

Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon, Property of DreamWorks Animation LLC.

As a character, I love the details and ideas built into the way they shaped him. Everything from his expressionful “ears” to his deep color and the fact that his fire is practically lightning. His many pieces build a big story behind him. The pencil art was made as a gift for my brother-in-law’s family and their 2 year old son. He is obsessed with the movie and simply dragons in general. It is a blast to see how he lights up when seeing this kind of art.

Ghost Rider from Marvel Comics

Ghost Rider is probably the first anti-hero I faced when I was younger. I did not understand why he was the way he was but I knew he fought evil and that, to a degree, made him good. Visually, he has a stunning presence that is a perfect representation of the “show of character.” At the very least, when you see him you are stricken with fear. That is one of his character’s basic purposes; to his targets, he is to be feared. Great design executed well.

Birthday Drawing for Chris Oatley!

This is the man running from a T-Rex! Silly man, I guess he doesn’t realize that the Rex is pre-occupied with the Triceratops. Well, eventually hell get it, he’s bright!

This is a sketch I did for Chris’ birthday in december of this last year. He is one of the two talented hosts ( Lora Innes is the other ) of my favorite comics and storytelling podcast, Paper Wings Podcast and a great character designer for Disney!! Check his site here if you want to be in awe of his art and teachings, yeah…I guess you could say I’m a fanboy! 
Pen Sketch
SteamPunkD Guard

This is just a quick doodle I did in my sketch book recently while waiting on a photoshop file to save ( yeah, it was a big one). I love to draw with a loose ballpoint pen when I can because I can let go of the perfectionism of erasing and just concentrate on the shape and overall look and feel. I worked up the logo for fun before I posted this. He would have been a fun character for the new Steampunk anthology #2 out of the Illopond if I would have had time but for now, he will wait in my “lightning box” until his next attack on my mind.

Alrighty me Maties!

I think that will do if for now! I will try to keep my doodle rants collected through the month and post one of these once a month just so you can see what goes on outside of the big projects on my desks.

Thank you all for visiting and check back soon! I will be posting the finished last page for the first short story of Kodi the Starfish!

Until then, May the winds be at your backs and friends be at your sides. Blessed be your journeys.

Captain Dutz

Captain's Blog #5 – 8 In Spaaace!!! Book #1 Advertisement

derrickutz
Avast me Maties!
Your Captain here and I just wanted to pass on some awesome news to yee!!!

Our project lead, Paul Caggegi and one of the other contributors, Lee Wiley, designed this advertisement for the “Illopond.com 8 in Spaaace!” book #1 anthology! 
It looks Awesome! 
And look, Yer Cap’n’s name is there in the listing, soooo cooooolll!

I just wanted to spread the excitement and tell you thank you for checking! I will update the BLOG with more art and news as I finish project stuff this weekend!
Yo’ Ho’!
Captain Dutz

Captain's Rant #10 – Kodi the Starfish Art & Story Update – Page 6 Finished (mostly!)

derrickutz

Avast!

Quick update! I have been trying to slam down these last pages of Kodi’s story for the first 8 in Spaaace Anthology with illopond.com. So, here is the finished page 6 aside from corrections that I may get from the community there on the anthology site. ( I will also add in the soft glow around Kodi that we saw in page 5, Captain’s Rant post #9 ).

Thank you for checking in and until next time my friends, best wishes for happy journeys!





Captain Dutz


Update!!!!

Finished Page 6!

Thanks for looking in!

Yer Captain Dutz!

Captain's Blog #4 – Big Spaaace News!!!

derrickutz

Avast me visitors and Maties!

I have awesome news to pass on and update you with. But first, a little set-up. As many of you may know, I am a professional graphic designer by day and I create my illustrations and extra designs on what extra time I can put together. This has lead to an awesome amount of learning on my side alongside excellent opportunities to meet amazing people in this vast sea of talent online. This has made me a better artist and has improved my abilities to aid and work with others in both a learning environment and a project one. I have even made friends with an amazing Disney artist in Chris Oatley and a wise and talented independent comic writer and artist named Lora Innes of the comic “The Dreamer“. Both of whom host the Paper Wings Podcast site and who I have been great teachers to me. Visit their site and you will know what I mean!

Well, through the community in their blog I learned of and met the artists of the illopond.com site. That is the group I am working with for my Kodi the Starfish short story. While building, drawing and digitally painting the story, I have also been helping where I can with the book’s layout and design. That is the common type of work I do daily so it was pretty easy for me to add that kind of work into the mix. The project lead, Paul Caggegi, has been great to work with and I have truly been enjoying helping out with such a big project.

After the recent delay due to the loss of two contributors, the Paul re-opened the book to the illopond community and additionally to his local area of Australia (yeah, Australia!!!! I am working with an artist on the other side of the world from myself here in Texas!! How awesome is the internet!!).
Following this opening, Paul was faced with a great amount of submissions and interest from both sources! We now officially have illopond member, Lee Wiley, taking a spot and an Australian local, Michael Patrick Monaghan filling the 8th to round out the spots needed to have the full book.

What to do with the rest of the submissions you ask? Well, after discussing things with community members and my wife (I cannot take on such a task without her brilliant support), I have taken the position as lead on a second space-themed anthology book!!! Man, that is crazy- awesome!

Now, I am still working with my writer on my other comic submission and I am dedicated to ensuring that is exercised to its proper ends to see if we can get picked up with either Image Comics or Dark Horse Comics!!!! That would ROCK!! So, while we finish out the submission (the goal is the end of this coming week) I am only taking on the task of project lead with this second space book. I am looking forward to the type of experience that it will bring me and I would love to put a project like this into my resume! If things change, then I will also add a story to the anthology with a second tale for Kodi the Starfish! ( since I have like 7 waiting in my file, it would be pretty easy to pull one out!)

I will continue to update you as I finish my last 2 pages for the first space book and I will get back to regular posts of inspiration, tutorials and rants so no worries! Below is the new project’s logo and here is the link to the new anthology’s main discussion thread and it is also linked in the NEW TABS under my header art at the top of the Captain’ BLOG page! These things are awesome and I am hoping to build them in a way so that I can link all of the tutorial posts to one and inspiration posts to another. Thats is for the near future though. Follow the link to discover why I named the project “The Gemini Project!” ( aside from the obvious fact that it is the 2nd book with that same theme). Also, if you are an experienced artist and want to throw your hat into the ring and submit a potential story and its art to the anthology, go to this link and click on the post titled, “Across Spaaace…Again!”. It will have instructions about the project and a link to the starter kit I developed so contributors could hit the ground running!

(See, it just screams spaaace awesomeness!!!)

Either way, thank you all for visiting along with this journey and please check back often as I will try to post more crazy fun stuff soon!

Captain's Rant #9 – Kodi the Starfish Art & Story Update – Page 5 Finished (mostly!)

derrickutz
Avast!
Welcome to another Kodi the Starfish – Home Again Update!
Below is the mostly finished page 5 from the story and that just leaves me pages 6-7 to get finished soon.
The original deadline of the book had to be delayed because another contributor (that would be #7 of the 8 needed) had to drop out. Now, this is a normal situation with collaborations that consist of a good sized group. We had a creative way to add an 8th story ourselves when the 8th person dropped out but having another was just too many out to meet deadline with a quality product. The project lead, Paul Gaggegi from Australia, opened the contribution offerings to the millpond.com community again and there locally in Australia and got an overwhelming response! That lead to some great news that I will post later today here on the Captain’s BLOG!
But now, onward to page 5!

Captain's Rant #8 – Kodi the Starfish Art & Story Update – Half Way, Yeah!

derrickutz

Ahoy All!!

Below is the progress for my Kodi Short Story! Whew, I was a hermit this weekend and never knew I could paint so fast! I am really relieved because with page 8 being finished early on and now pages 1-4 being completed, that leaves only 3 pages left to paint and I can put this one in the books!
Here is the downside. The Illopond puts out these awesome anthologies and as a branding protocol they contain 8 main stories from contributors. We hit a hiccup when one of the contributors went off the grid but the awesome team came up with a creative solution. We were going to turn the 8th story into a special  story and then.. we had another person that popped up with issues and we haven’t heard from them. That leaves 6 out of 8 still on and strong but that does not give us the 8 that is common to the Illopond brand. So, the solution is simple. We will delay the book for about a month and a half and pull two more from the pool of talent at the pond and get the book ready for the SuperNova expo in Australia (where the project lead is). This still gives us a chance for the exposure we want, just delayed to ensure that we have a quality product. This is the best way to hit the market. This also gives us the opportunity to plan a stronger, heavier hitting marketing plan including a youtube video!
So, I will hopeful be able to finish this short story up by the end of the week and still keep to the old deadline just so I can get back to other projects. I still need to spend time with my writer to get the final touches process for the comic submission and I need to  get back into working freelance gigs. Also, I would like to get back to creating quality content full of epic awesomeness and learning for you, my great shipmates and visitors!
Without further a-due, here are the cover and first 4 pages of the short story, Kodi the Starfish, Home Again!
Cover
Page 1
Page 2 
 Page 3
Page 4

I will check in soon with new art and info and I will be back on with another Rant in a few days posting some sketches because I have pulled out my sketchbook again! Oh, another thing that is exciting is that I will be doing 3 speaking events at my son’s elementary school at the beginning of the month for career day! This is the first time that I have gotten an opportunity like this and I am hoping to get some student excited about the future that they could have as professional commercial artists. I will make a special post when I near this date with parts of the presentation and the handout that I will make for these 4th and 5th graders!
Till then, Best be to ya and I wish you the greatest of journeys!
Captain Dutz!

Captain's Rant #7 – Kodi the Starfish Art & Story Update – Page progress

derrickutz

Ahoy my dear Shipmates and Visitors!

This is just an update to post the progress of the full 8 pages of the Kodi Art.

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments!

Cover:
Pages 1-2 Spread:
Pages 3-4 Spread:
Pages 5-6 Spread:
Pages 7-8 Spread:
Bio Page Layout:
Al’righty me Scallywag! Remember, these are still not finished and I have some line work and lots of painting left. Only page 8 is finished but I am moving pretty fast now so keep yeer aye’s peeled!!
Till then, best wishes for happy (and exciting!) journeys!
Captain Dutz