I continue from Part 1 of my Thumbnail Art Section

In this section, I’ll be demonstrating gathering references for creating my comic story, Incident at the Game Store! If you’re up to having a signed physical book for yourself, you can stop by my Etsy store and grab a copy!

Since the story takes place in GameStop or a legally distinct version of it, I gathered references of the store chain.

Here’s some research how I want the Fedorable Man (That’s my name for him) to look. It’s a funny thing to design a stereotypical “Neckbeard” nerd character. There are many ways to tackle it, and there’s no one way to make any character.

I grabbed a few refs of fat people and how fat works. I got some refs of baby hands, as they seem the fattest of the hands.

When I think about the horror he turns into, I imagine a fat, bloated nightmare. Examples like The Boomer zombie enemy from Left 4 Dead or Nurgle the Plague God from Warhammer come to mind.

Reference hunting gives me an excuse to find anatomy references (These are the safe for work refs I’ll show you ;P). Don’t spend too much time, you only need the references that are relevant to your project. It helps to keep a large folder of past references to save from internet searching.

There’s minor fighting actions, so looked for punching and choking references. This is the best time to restudy drawing hands and fists.

Some refs for the crazy fluid attack on page five! It was inspired by this hilarious Rocket Jump video called The Milkman! I remembered the part where he punishes the criminal by spraying milk out of his mouth like a firehouse, drowning him.

Finally, when I can’t find a specific picture to use as a reference, I take my own pictures as references! Sure, I look like a dope, but this is what happens when you make your own references. Never feel bad about using your own body as reference for a pose.

I made sketches of the characters to keep them consistent in the pages. I don’t think I made any new sketches of the Girlfriend, which sucks! It’s not perfect, and I should’ve made more refined art to save the hassle.

I gather more references as I work on the comic pages, Now it’s time to start drawing the comic pages!