The making of a "bit and run"

Like I mentioned in my debut post; So what happens to you if you're me and you're embroiled in the midst of an enormous three month long project? 15 - 17 hours days, 7 days a week, give or take?

Here's what happens --

Your life fragments into two distinct pieces -- work and decompression/Nintendo

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For the last three months on this massive animation project I'd work like mad all day and crash in the early hours of the morning. But not before decompressing with a little Mario. Mario 2 and Mario 3, mostly.

I had to have some kind of in between time before sleep because if I just went to bed my brains would be buzzing with all that I needed to do and I couldn't sleep. So, Mario.

The result of this mix; delirious work schedule, little sleep, and Nintendo resulted in some of the silliest ideas I've ever had.

When I found tiny chunks of time in between the cracks of this enormous project I jotted those ideas down. I quickly amassed several pages of quickly scrawled jokes and notes of Nintendo related humor. Pretty specific, nerd humor. Like, if you haven't played level 4 of Mario 2 you're not likely to know what the crap is going on.

So, some of my energies I channeled into a series of Nintendo themed desktops that I released through GoNintendo, my favorite Nintendo blog. Kevin Cassidy, the guy behind it, is a stand-up fellow, fun to read, and very kind.

Now, what to do with the other ideas? They became my next personal project --


Once again I've partnered with Kevin and GoNintendo to release my work.

But how is bit and run made? I'm very glad you asked.

It all starts with this folder :

Occasionally I misplace the folder around my office. I usually find it later.


Inside you can see all of the quickly scrawled ideas spreading across a dozen sheets of paper.


Every comic, more or less begins looking something like this. A couple doodles and the idea written out.


From there I'll typically make a little more finished rough, at least a layout, like above, so I can get an idea about how it all plays.

Now, on to the digital future!

Here is my Nintendo folder. Pretty great, right? I took a picture of the screen.


So the first thing I do is make sure I've got my reference for the piece. I want to try and make sure I stick as close to the original colors as I can. I do make some exceptions. And in this case I wanted a refresher on all of the zillions of items to be had.


After that, I start drawing.

These comics are a little different than my typical work, they're more Little Golden book, I think. In a way. While my media is all digital I'm looking for a gouache-type painting approach.



As you can see with this exploded view, I make make everything on layers in Photoshop so...


...I can rearrange them as needed.

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The drawing is pretty straightforward after all that.

Below you can see a little demo of the brush I most often use for these pieces.


So there you have it -- start to finish, pretty much. A few hours.

These are incredibly fun to make, I get a lot of enjoyment out of making them and I hope you gain some small measure of enjoyment out of reading them.