Convention Season

Above is a convention sketch I did at HeroesCon in Charlotte, NC. Convention season has started. My first show will be MegaCon in Orlando, Fl. I've never attended that show so I am looking forward to it. The full list (so far) of shows I am doing is here on the blog.

I enjoy doing shows and I enjoy doing sketches. One year I thought maybe I was missing something, sketching at my table all day long. So at one show I took only a couple of commissions and when I finished, I got up and wandered around. For an hour it was good. But then I just went back to my table and started drawing again. Being at my table allows me to chat with people wandering by and catch up with those that I see every year, once a year. Always a good time. If you plan on attending a show I am at, stop by and say "HI!"

Long tails and ears for hats.

Another warm up sketch. 15 minutes this time. Inked with a Faber-Castell Pitt artist pen/brush. I have always liked Josie and the Pussycats. Some of the first comics I read were the Archie books. Then came the Pussycats cartoon. Does anyone else remember when the band was in outer space? Who came up with that?

I'm probably in the minority of those that liked the live action movie of Josie and the Pussycats. I thought the casting was terrific for the girls and the villians. And the boy band, Dujour was hilarious. The whole plot of the movie of having subliminal messages in music creating the trends and fads was genius especially since the entire movie was one big product placement. The songs were great. I still listen to the soundtrack. My daughter was at the right age for the movie to be the big thing for her. It was because of her I watched it and listened to the music in the car back then. Now I do both because it's good stuff. One of the funniest lines in the movie is when the girls are on the private jet and someone asks Alexandra, who hate the girls but who's brother is their manager, why she is there. Her reply: "I was in the comic".

Isabel's Story

This is a great example of comics used for education and in this case, health education. These are two pages from a project I did that was used by the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services. ISABEL'S STORY is a bilingual booklet about osteoporosis. A important health issue for women. The book is a flip book that is in Spanish as well as English. The hope is to explain the disease to Spanish speaking women and the precautions they can take to minimize the dangers. I did the black and white line art, others handled the colors, lettering and production. You can actually order this booklet or download the pdf version for free here. Get a copy for all the women in your life. (Little side note, the part of the pug on the first page was performed by our own Coco the pug. So far the stardom has not gone to her head.)

Aquaman

This one started off as a pencil sketch in my book but once I scanned it, I started playing with the color in Photoshop. About 30 minutes of drawing and 20 of color. Aquaman was the second job I got at DC. I only had to do the first nine pages of the book and when I was given the script, I was told to get the job done by the next week. For the next 8-9 days I worked on those nine pages and got them in on time. When I asked about more jobs I found the editor wasn't too impressed with my work. He thought it looked rushed and I could have had more time if I needed it. Yeeesh! I met the series artist a couple of months after that and found out he hadn't even started the issue at the time I turned my pages in.

Looking back on my copies of the pencils, they are not tooooo bad. Newbie mistakes, as can be expected. The regular penciller and I had two different looks. His was more angular and mine was rounded, more organic. We shared the same inker and the inker leaned much closer to the angular style. He is a solid inker (and artist) but it didn't help my stuff at all. Strangely enough though, when I was pencilling MAZE AGENCY for Caliber Press, Ande Parks inked me on one issue. Ande's inks are bold, angular and sharp. Just look at the work he does with Phil Hester and you will see what I mean. I thought his inks on my pencils were great. Hmmmm.

Sue and Reed

A quick little sketch of Sue and that guy she married. Color pencil in my sketchbook.

A Princess of Mars

Today's 30 minute quick sketch is of Dejah Thoris. If someone ever gets the rights to do a John Carter series, I want to draw it. This is done in my sketchbook using color pencils with a touch of white acrylic paint for some highlights.

PERILS ON PLANET X part 2

Two days of Lab events and business illustrations have wiped me out. So instead of whiteboard dry erase art, I thought I would show a couple of panels from the first issue of PERILS ON PLANET X. This is part of a seduction scene between our hero, Donovan Hawke and the lovely Pirate Queen Valkia. As you can see, it's not our hero doing the seducing. Writer Chris Mills has a blog about the making of the series. Check it out: http://perilsonplanetx.blogspot.com/

PERILS ON PLANET X

Perils On Planet X – is a three-issue, full-color comic book series coming from Ape Entertainment in 2008, written by Christopher Mills and illustrated by me. High adventure and fun for all. We've got action, suspense, rocket back packs, romance and flying vampire apes! What more could you want? Oh yeah, we also have beautiful, exotic women too. Above is page 9 of second issue featuring our hero Donovan Hawke. My partner in crime on POPX, Christopher Mills has a production blog for the series, http://perilsonplanetx.blogspot.com/. He will be posting the development of the series. From time to time I will post more artwork here to remind everyone to check Chris' blog. There is already some fun stuff there. Take a look, I'll be here tomorrow.

And yet more sketches

These sketches are for a web comic that I am developing with writer J.C. Vaughn. As it is a creator owned project, I have no idea when it will be finished. But I thought I would share anyway.

Even More Sketches

I am on the last 7 pages of penciling and inking a 28 page comic I am doing with writer Jim Shooter (Yes, that Jim Shooter) and can't slow down. It's been a fun project and I have enjoyed working with Jim and I've learned a lot so I hope it continues. So more sketchbook goodies for today. I hope they continue to entertain everyone.

More Sketches

Here's another look into my sketchbook. Hope you enjoy.

Dark Angel

I was doing some back-ups and came across this piece from early last year. I forgot about it and never have posted it on my site. This was commission I did of Dark Angel. I know, it doesn't look like Jessica Alba. The request was for me to do my take on Max in my style. I was pleased with it and so was the client. This one went all the way to Australia. The piece was ink on 11" x 17" Strathmore Vellum Bristol Board.

Sketches

Just some pieces from my sketchbook. I sketch a lot. In my sketchbook or on any piece of paper lying around, it doesn't matter. Just sketch, sketch, sketch.

Business Illustration

Today was a Collaborative Labs day. And the client was the Tampa Bay Partnership. They are like a Chamber of Commerce, but on steroids. It was a whos-who of the Tampa Bay area business leaders. Above are 3 of the 7 or 8 boards I filled up. The first one is a greeting board, something that shows what the goals are for the event. In this case, planning for the next 3 years. The middle image represents a round of brainstorming done by the various teams and the last one represents the unified vision of the future for the Tampa Bay area. I have two more events over the weekend. It's very unusual to have a weekend event, but there you go.

I know these are not as exciting as pin-ups of pretty girls, but I hope they can give everyone an understanding of the wide variety of work that is out there for a freelance artist. AND the ability to network with all the major players is a side benefit. The Labs have no problem with me giving out my business card to those who request it. Today was no exception, I gave out a few. Today's participants were the CEOs, CFOs, Presidents, and Publishers of businesses both local, national and worldwide. And I get to show what I can do for a day. Better than a cold call.

Aloha, Talofa, Bula, Hello!

Because I'm not sure which island she calls home, I figure saying "Hello" in a few different island languages would be good. This is another quick idea sketched while enjoying lunch outside with the dogs. I added some quick color in Photoshop just for fun.

We're going to a Hukilau...

I did this little sketch while eating my lunch. The palms are modeled after the trio in my backyard, right outside my studio window.

Summer Glau

We watched the two episode premiere of TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES ©, and in spite of the clunky title, we liked it. The show has made our DVR list. Main reason to watch was to see River Tam, er, Summer Glau. Summer's background as a dancer really shows through in her fight scenes. Especially the bar fight in the movie SERENITY. She has a look that is very interesting. Very pretty but not conventional. I think it was some great casting to make her a Terminator. The other actors are good too, though I feel bad for the actress that has to play Sarah Connor. Stepping into the role that Linda Hamilton originated had to be tough. Above is my attempt at capturing Summer's likeness. 30 minute sketch using Prismacolor pencil on Canson Pastel paper with digital touches.

In The Jungle, The Mighty Jungle...

Just a little warm up sketch today. Got a big to do list that is screaming for my attention.

Valentine's Day - Final

Here are the color versions of the Valentine's Day pieces I have been working on for CILM.com. All six should be on sale soon. If you are not familiar with CILM, check them out here.

Valentine's Day - Part 6

This is the last of the Valentine's Day pieces. These have been fun to do. I will be posting the color versions tomorrow. I think I'm going to do a batch of island girl themed pieces before doing 12 pieces for July 4th.

Valentine's Day - Part 5

This is number 5 of 6 of the Valentine's Day images I am doing for CILM.com.

Valentine's Day - Part 4

And yet another Valentine image. Under the gun for the next two and coloring them by Sunday night. Ah, the life of a freelancer.

Valentine's Day - Part 3

Here is the third of six images for CILM.com. Inked with a brush on 11" x 17" Canson Vellum Bristol Board.

Valentine's Day - Part 2

Here is the second of six images I am doing for Creative Image Licensing and Management. I wasn't sure I was going to use cherubs in the pieces but they have crept into three of them so I might as well let them stay. This piece was inked with a brush on 11" x 17" Canson Vellum Bristol Board.

Valentine's Day - Part 1

While it's a bit early to think of Valentines Day for most, for me it's getting close to being too late. A great deal of my pin-up work is available through CILM.com. They represent my work to signature groups. I try to have new pieces on a regular basis but when it comes down to it, I have to keep my main clients happy and the pin-ups come after everything else. But I am working on 6 new images that I hope to be done with by Sunday. This is the first one. The final image will be in color but I thought the line art would be fun to show. This piece was inked with a brush on 11" x 17" Canson Vellum Bristol Board.

McCandless & Company

McCANDLESS & CO. is the brain child of writer J.C. Vaughn. The series of stories follow a two women detective agency and their male assistant. While other artists have worked on the characters with J.C., I have actually drawn more pages. One 48 page story we did is INSECURITIES. Though we did a cover for it a while back, we decided a new cover was needed for a pitch to a publisher. I started with some quick sketches. The above are the three final roughs.The middle one (#2) was chosen and I went about doing a few color comps. All this involved was taking the pencil rough and adding color to it in Photoshop. After a few tries, the above is what we agreed on.The next stage is doing a complete underdrawing. This is where I will establish the lights and darks of the piece. This is done on Strathmore illustration board using a 2b pencil. When I was happy with the values I established, I scanned it and colored in Photoshop. I tried not to make it too "slick", wanting the pencils to show through. I was inspired by movie posters of the 1930s and 1940s.
Afterwards I added the copy to add to the movie poster/teaser effect. And there you go. The pitch went well and the publisher picked it up. I will post more information when the publisher makes the official announcement.

Galaxy Girl and Typhoon Girl save the day!

Galaxy Girl and Typhoon Girl are the creations of two very talented young ladies. Both are well on their way to becoming top comic book creators. They both write and draw. A double threat in comics!
These two pages were written by their uncle, an acclaimed comic book writer who I have worked with on a number of projects and who happens to be a close friend of mine. He asked me to do these for the girls for a Christmas present and I was more than happy to do it. I worked from the character designs the girls had created. They loved the gifts and last I heard they are both working on new adventures of Galaxy Girl and Typhoon Girl. I know I am looking forward to it. I wonder if they would consider me for the series artist?

Performance Art

As a freelance commercial artist, I get to be involved in a wide variety of jobs. And I find new business avenues all the time. For example, one of the jobs I get contracted to do a few times a month is that of a live business illustrator.
This is how it works: A company that is interested in creating or refining a plan gets all the principle stakeholders together in a collaborative venture with a facilitator, a documenter and me. My job is to sit in on this meeting and create artwork based on the live discussions and planning. Sounds easy right?
Wrong. The group can be 10 to 300 or more people. While they are working on various exercises I am listening and drawing on a giant rolling white board. It is about 6' x 4' of drawing surface. I will fill up 5-7 of these in an 8 hour session. And every event brings in a different set of goals. Sometimes it is a large corporation, or a small company, or a college or university, sometimes it is a non-profit. Each group needing something different. This work is created for state and local government, local and national businesses, non-profits and back in October of 2007, I was flown to Washington DC to work a 3 day Job Corps event with over 800 people participating from all over the U.S. That was exhausting.
As the artist, I have to draw quick. White boards are not the best medium and there is no time to rough out something and not one piece can be precious. When I am drawing one thing I am already thinking about the next thing I hear and the one after it. It's challenging and fun too. I do this in a state of the art facility. When I am not working on the rolling boards, I can work on the boards surrounding the meeting room. There are three large rooms. At the end of the day, I have to present my work to the clients. I try to make the whole thing fun and amusing because these people are tired from working hard all day on their end of the project. I usually create one big piece that fills up a 6' x 4' board at the end. They have seen everything I have done during the course of the day, so I try to keep this one under wraps until the big reveal at the end. The piece will encompass the entire day, both the work and some of the silly jokes and things said. This is usually the piece that gets everyone excited. Most of the time they request posters of it, which the facilitator does provide. The artwork shown here was created today at a half day event for a local college and university who are putting together a partnership to supply international help. The top people from both schools were there. About 20 people total. This is only a small sample of what I completed. These pictures were taken with my iPhone, no flash, and to get an idea of size, the top image with the boat is 6' wide.

Wonder Girl

Here is a later, more grown up version of Wonder Girl. This costume was introduced in 1969, shortly before I started reading the Teen Titans in 1971. I have always liked this costume. This piece was done for the fun of it and was inked with a brush on 11" x 17" Canson Smooth Bristol Board.

Teen Titan

Here's another recent piece for fun, Wonder Girl in a slight variation of her original costume. This piece is inked on 11" x 17" Canson Smooth Bristol Board.

The Girl of Steel

The first official art for 2008. Supergirl has always been one of my favorite characters. Really the whole line of Superman family books were my favorite when I was younger. The Legion of Super-Heroes being at the top. This image was done for fun. It was inked with a brush on 11" x 17" Canson Smooth Bristol Board.