FCBD 2010!

I will be doing sketches at Atomic Comics in the Phoenix Metro location this Saturday. I along with a long list of great guys and gals will be donating our time and sketches to help out HERO Initiative. HERO is a great charity and one my best friend Gerrad has been donating his time to on FCBD for the past three years. So when he recommended that I throw my hat in the ring I had to say yes. So if you would like you can come by one of the official "Kick Ass" locations in AZ and get a sketch by any of these great artist. There might even be incentive to get something from each store!

AE I.O.U's

These are recent Sketch cards I did for 5Finity. I don't usually do a whole lot of these so I can try and improve my skill and have work I am proud of. I usually do a lot more inking, so I get a little flustered when doing these cards because I get real picky about them and want them to look good for whomever gets them. But these last two series of Voltron and Dead@17 have been really fun and I like how they came out. So here are a couple of the Artist Exclusives and I will have more cards in the next few weeks and months as well. So as soon as I can I will post those too. Thanks again for checking in.

it is, what it is...

OK so the reason for a Popeye sketch is thin. Other than I have always liked the character and he has a very Zen philosophy about him that draws me in. " I am, what I am, and that's all that I am."
That's deep.
But none the less, I thought I would post this for some random goodness. Enjoy!

Time of the season for... Zombies!?

So I know I haven't posted in a while but I have been kept busy with a bundle of sketch cards and up coming work. This is a cover I did for the up coming Zombies vs Cheerleaders comic by Moonstone. You may remember that I did some cards for the Moonstone sketch series by 5Finity. Now they are coming out with a comics based on another of their hit sketch card sets. I wasn't able to work on ZVC when the set came out and really hate that I missed the opportunity. However I guess I made good with being on one of four covers for the comic. Check out the Newsarama article here.
So make sure you tell your comic shop to order it. There is even a spot for sketches on the backs of the book. So a... hint, hint.

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.

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.

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!

"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.

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!

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....

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.