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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Believe it or not...

A lunch time sketch.
Que Bonnie Tyler