Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Trying to get the best out of a big #2


I am trying to learn more and more about inking from the greats. This is a piece from Kevin Nowlan doing Green Lantern. I tried to really get to know my #2 Winsor & Newton series 7 brush with this one. I usually stick to the #0 or the #1 W/N as I find the control over the line is tighter and a little more to my liking. But with this one I used the #2 and really tried to get at what I wanted. Not easy with going over the amazing detail in Kevin Nowlans work. But it's all just practice in the end. Hopefully it didn't go to astray.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Moonstone to the Maximum!




I recently did some sketch cards for the Moonstone Maximum series produced by 5Finity. I can't exactly tell you how many I did but it wasn't a large amount. I posted up my only two Artist Exclusive (AE) on ebay for whom ever wins them. But I am willing to add that if you buy the cards and message me about seeing this post on my blog in the payment stage. I will add in a little bonus sketch of the character. For those of you who actually read this stuff!
If your interested in the cards please leave a comment.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Just a few Things.


Just an experiment on working with different textures with in the same character.I decided to do a line up of all the different forms Ben Grimm has taken on while with the FF. I love the classic "lumpy oatmeal" version. I know they were going for a type of smooth rock, but unfortunately it looks like, well, a pile of lumpy oatmeal. The second more traditional look is a staple of great looks. Very tried and true. The final "spikey" version was fun too. But he always seems, to me, to be an evil version of himself. That would be a great story, a Thing throw down!

Friday, December 11, 2009

"Look out! Here comes the Spider-Man!"


I have been really liking what Ransom Getty has been doing on his deviant art account. I like to keep an eye out for new or great inkers working in the biz. Mostly to glean what I can from them and to know what I can do to get better myself. So here is my practice inks over Ransoms pencil sketch of Spider-Man.

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

Holy Moley!


I managed to get a quick head shot of Mole Man done on lunch the yesterday. Mole Man was always one of my favorite FF villains. He is angry, short, fat, repulsive, and pathetic hiding away from the world. Until the pain becomes too much and then he needs to lash out at the world above. But even though he is none too attractive, he is still charismatic enough to convince the creatures of the underworld to follow his over zealous goals. That... is character!

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Being per-snikt-ety!


Been really busy with ink work lately. Have a lot of irons in the fire right now and hope to see some of them come to fruition. But for the mean time I am working on the Moonstone cards and doing a little ink studying. Here is an experiment with splatter effects. I need to get the spray pattern down to a science with out getting it all over the walls. Might have to pull a Dexter and put up some trash bags....

Saturday, October 24, 2009

You came and you gave without taking...


Last month I was contacted by 5Finity to do some sketch cards for a few sets. The first was for Dean Yeagles Mandy character. Now I love Deans stuff and I have four of his sketchbooks that he releases every year at SDCC. So need less to say I was very excited to take a shot and doing my version of the character. I don't know how successful they were but here they are non the less. I had a good time doing these and playing with markers and color pencils was so very nice to get back to. Hopefully I didn't shame Deans work too badly. You can probably check with 5Finity on how to get one of the sketch cards from me or some of the other great artists involve. You might even get lucky and get one from the great Mr. Yeagle himself.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Cat's got my tongue!


Took a some time off to work on a few things and get past a rather nasty addiction ( ahem*ebay*ahem) so that explains any lapse in posting. That's not to say I haven't been working on a few things. Cause truth be known, I have. I have several things on the table staring me in the face. A few of them are some sketch card sets, a sketchbook for a museum, and a few pages that will hopefully turn into an ongoing gig. So I have been busy. Just not much in the way of posting. But I will make amends. Just gimme a second (or fifth) chance. And I will try my best to get past that nasty habit.....sooner or later...
Oh, and the above image is of my inks over Phil Jimenez's pencil work on Beast.

Monday, August 31, 2009

"I have inside me blood of kings"


This will be my last Invincible piece for a bit. I have been in an inking slump for a bit and did this panel by Ryan Ottley just to get me back up and running. August always seems to do that to be. I think it's probably the AZ is so unbearable then that it just drains the life out of me. So I will be working on different artists as well as working on a couple of contracted things. Stay tuned.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

In-alien-able


Another quick head study of Alan the alien from Invincible. All the characters from that book are just fun to draw. I find I can just sit down, quick sketch a head and it works. Fun character designs. Fun read. Good times!
Oh yeah. Just got another contract for a bunch of sketch cards. I'll tell you all more about it later.

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Head trip


I thought I would post up another head shot since it has been a while and I need the practice drawing again. The good thing about inking is that I get better and better at lines, and get to study from people who are really great at drawing and cartooning. The bad part is that I don't get to draw as much.
This one is of Invincible. Probably one of the best superhero books on the market in my own opinion. This might not have all the punch I wanted in it, as I always seen to ink myself worse than when I do other people. I guess I take my pencils for granted and just slap ink on them. I should probably do more of this so I can try and work out those kinks.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Astronomical fun!


To switch up the inking styles I did this piece from Francisco Herrera's 3rd sketch book. I can't say I was ever into Astro Boy, but I do love Francisco's take on the character. I think Francisco has so much fun when he is drawing that it never looks over labored and care free. The fun he has with his drawings pores through in the drawing and comes out to the reader. Inking this one came easy and felt natural with the brush. I always worry when the drawings are smooth swooping lines that end in sharp angles that a pen might be better tool. But the brush gave me every ounce of control I wanted and still brought the sharpness to the angles. I may do more of this work as it was so much fun to do.

Friday, August 07, 2009

In the Inking maze


I took a shot at inking the always amazing Claire Wendling and her minotaur from the Desk book. This was really fun to have a go at. Because she draws with so much passion and energy. Every line was fun and intimidating to do, but I think I did alright in trying to keep that energy in the piece. I have been trying my inks out on some different pencils lately and have really been flying through them. I am learning so much and having a blast trying new things. Hopefully I can keep it up.

Saturday, August 01, 2009

Process no recess


Well SDCC gas come and gone for this year. I can't tell you how great it was to speak to professionals and to see all my good friends all at once. This year didn't have us at a booth signing, but we did manage to shanghai a little time at a table to do some sketch cards for just a few people. I did managed to get an impromptu portfolio review with legendary inker Randy Emberlin and another with the great Sandra Hope. Randy spent a good 30-40 minutes with me and went through every single panel of my nine pages and talk to me about them all. He pointed out the good and the bad, but then went and told me exactly how to fix the bad. It was a great chance and I value every ounce of his critic, as well as the time I had with Sandra. I also did a portfolio review with a company named Stone Arch which went very nicely. But most importantly I had a great time seeing everything. Now I am back and trying to apply all that I learned and testing out new materials. Now it's back to the table and back to black fingers.

Oh, this is a sample from John Buscema and my process inking him. Planning to do even more of these, I personally get a lot out of them.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Powering up.


Been spending a lot of time at work lately and have been a little short on the time to ink. Not a good thing if I am going to be ready to show samples at the con. I have 95% of the work done. It just comes down to cleaning up the pages and assembling the packets. Hope to get a lot of good feed back and some tips on better inking.

Saturday, July 04, 2009

Knock, knock!


Here is a little sneak peek at a panel from my samples for this years SDCC. I have really been working on my brush work and like how this panel turned out. I used straight pen work for the background and all brush work on the foreground character. Just a few weeks left and still a lot to do.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Classic and Classy


Here is some practice I managed to squeeze in this week. Scanned a couple of images from the classic How To Draw Comics the Marvel Way. Mostly because I wanted a go at some John Buscema stuff and this was a great starter for me. I won't gush about how amazing his work is , but I will say I had a great sense of energy inking these. It was fun and I wouldn't be surprised to see more of it popping up from time to time.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Smoke'em if you got'em!


Another western panel. I wasn't all that pleased with these as just inked pieces. But with the addition of the tone I think they are coming out better than I thought.
Well, back to the ink well.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Stand off...


I was working on some samples for my SDCC inking portfolio and I did some pages from the book Lawless by Vertigo. I was inking over Marcelo Fusin and unfortunately I realized after I had done the four pages that it just wasn't gong to work for me as a a whole. But I do like how the work came out in small chunks. So I will be posting them up here with a little zip-a-tone to add to the story elements. The good news is that this inspired a story that my best friend and I are going to do. But more about that later.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

In a masters shadows


I decided to try my hand with inks over someone I greatly admire. This panel is penciled by Kevin Nowlan and inked by me. I had to see if by doing a piece over his pencils if I could learn some of his magic. I don't know if it worked or not but I had a fun time trying something new.
And at the end of the day, I guess that's all this whole blog is about.

Saturday, June 06, 2009

Archie and the babes


So last week I was contacted by my good friend Matt Hebb to help him out with some sketch cards he was doing for March of dimes. This was a collaboration with Archie comics and part of an ongoing charity drive to earn money to help keep babies healthy and safe. I loved the idea and the fact that I got to try my hand at some Archie characters was great too. So I did a couple of warm ups (the top image of Jughead is my first shot at it) and then started on the cards. I did 8 originally but in a failed coloring attempt I only ended up with these 7. But I had a good time doing these and hopefully I will get a chance to help again in the future. To find out more about the Archie sketch cards go here

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Shady character


I've been working on my inking portfolio for the SDCC again. This time I am going to try something a little different in how I set it up. But I will elaborate on that as I get closer to the show. This is a panel from one of the sample pages I have been working on. I added the zip-a-tone to give it the more finished look I had in mind when inking it. I guess in a more finished version you could easily go with color to do the same effect. But you know me and my love for the zip.

Saturday, May 09, 2009

yo ho, yo ho,... a viking life for me?


Another skull for fun. I decided to go with our marauding friends of the northern seas this time. Not too many differences between pirates and vikings, except the accessories. Both love beards, swords, ships, bad teeth, pillaging, and mayhem. Can't go wrong with that.

Friday, May 01, 2009

Birds of a feather


Yesterday I did this falcon for a demo at work. I had a great time sitting out at a table just inking away and answering questions about what I was doing or what supplies I was using. I started this sketch with a Tombo H pencil for layouts. I then used with a Pentel brush pen for most of the ink work. Then I used a Sharpee-like marker by Steadtler to do all the fills. And to finish it off I used a ball point pen with a Copic warm gray marker for the light feathers. All in all I think this took about 3 hrs with a lot of breaks to talk with students. A great way to spend a day at work.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Creeping along


I have definitely been sketching a lot lately. But with very little to report. I have been trying out some different things and seeing where that leads me. Plus it's that time of year were I get started for the SDCC. So I have been trying to get that going as well. I will do my best to keep stuff coming at least once a week. I think thats a schedule we can all live with.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Believe it or not...



A lunch time sketch.
Que Bonnie Tyler

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Comparing apples too.....apples


First try.

Second try.

It seems like I work more in the traditional style of illustration more than my fare share lately. I have been meaning to get back to doing colors in PS. So I did these apples a couple of days apart. The first I had limited photo reference. The second I did with an actual apple for reference. I guess this proves the thought that painting from life is always better than a photo. I'll keep trying to work with PS painting for a bit and see if I can get back into doing more colorful work. But I do love black and white ink work, so we will see if I can resist the temptation.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Working out my demons


I know it's been a bit since the last post, but I have been working on a few things off blog on my own and for other people. I have a few things coming up that will keep me busy for a while. But with luck it will set up SDCC for a better showing this year.
This is Etrigan the Demon from the DC universe.I am always a fan of the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde types, and Etrigan is their version of that. I guess I love the duality of types in each of us. What we hope to be and what we fear we are, all in one. Makes for great character development and a fantastic story.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Power Man to the people!


Here is the other half of the Heroes for Hire duo, Luke Cage aka Power Man. Luke Cage is one of the coolest cats in comics. He is continued to grow as a character since his creation. He has progressed in story line, evolved in his costumes, and developed in his personality. But I prefer his 70's Dolemite look. He just looks bad ass and feels like he would put you in your place if you give him back talk. So watch what you say about his metal headband...
Sweet Christmas!

Monday, January 12, 2009

Move like silk, strike like iron!


Happy New Year all. I hope you all had a great holiday and are looking forward to the new year. I am planning on doing more sketches and getting back on track artistically. Hopefully these head shots will help me out with that. This one is of Iron Fist. Just one of the duo in Heroes for Hire that are a lot of fun. This guy has a very 70's ridiculous outfit which harkens back to the days of Karate and Kung fu action movies. The costumes color doesn't help out either, since it is green and yellow. Not very stealthy if your trying to catch the bad guys at night. But who needs to worry about that when you have to put the hammer down on some jive ass turkeys!
Solid!