Cover Process -SEVEN

Today I thought I would show the process of putting together a cover. This is not some new ground breaking process but it is a chance to see the steps. The series is SEVEN, Jim Shooter is the writer, Cynthia Martin is the interior colorist. The cover concept was created by Jim. He emailed me the drawing he did (top left). I did complete pencils and after Jim took a look at it he felt there were a few things to change. Thus, the revised pencils (top right). I think you can make out the differences. Once the revised art was approved, I inked it. No changes needed so I did a color comp to let Jim know where I was going with the colors. I think he had some suggestions to the background color being purple. The characters wear specific colors too. The color comp was approved and I went to the final colors. There were three or four revisions in the color stage. I'm not going to post them because each change was minor.  They came about mostly because it is hard to define a color by name. If you ask 10 people to show you the color "Purple", you just might get 10 different hues. We has some trouble with red, purple, orange, green, you get the idea. But in the end the cover was finished and I think it came out pretty sharp. Now I gotta finish the last few pages of inks.

The Winds of Change - Finished

Well, sort of. There is always a chance there will be some minor alterations. This was done for a group of not-for-profit hospitals. There is a lot of text I added to this, labels, flying pieces of paper with info on them and logos, but left it off for this post. Maybe I will post it at another time with everything intact, or just put it on my site after the client uses it. This was fun to do. Very solid two days of work. This one and the Penguins is for the same client. I have one more much simpler piece to finish tomorrow and if all goes well, I will be done.

Work in progress...

This is a really large piece. It was penciled in sections, scanned, put together and some digital penciling being done right now. It will then be colored in Photoshop. Deadline: Monday. Wish me luck.

If I Only Had A Brain...

Okay, let the jokes and puns begin. Finished? Good.

Yes I know, this is not a very sexy post, but I am trying to show variety. With my work load what it is, it's hard to get time to do the fun and sexy stuff. Instead I'm sure I am boring all of you with the not-as-interesting-but-pays-really-well-stuff. I do find it interesting myself. Every project can have it's fun moments. And every project can have it dull hours. But I wouldn't change my career for a million dollars. Uh, okay, for a million dollars, I would. :) Which just made me think of this: Have you ever heard someone say that a million dollars isn't that much any more. That it can't buy what it used to. My feeling on that is, "Hey, give me the million dollars! I don't care what it used to be able to buy, I'm sure it will buy more than I can buy now with the money I have." After this post I don't think I can ever claim I have linear thoughts. Have a good weekend folks. :)

Penguins!

This is a business piece I just finished today. Penciled, scanned and colored in Photoshop. There are words on the final piece but since it is specific to a client, I thought best not to share. This one went pretty smooth from start to finish. The only things that were changed from the initial concept was the addition of the flip chart in the lower right hand corner and the penguin in the water front and center. The idea for this comes from a book titled "Our Iceberg is Melting: Changing and Succeeding Under Any Conditions" by John Kotter. The final file for this piece is quite large: 40 inches wide at 300 dpi. 

POPX Jungle

Managed to finish out this page today with these last two panels. Now the daunting blank page again for the next one. This issue was going to be a standard 22 pages but we decided to expand it to 26 pages. This give us an opportunity to introduce a very cool villain this issue.

Enough POPX for today. Time to move on to some other work before the night is over...

PERILS ON PLANET X again

Another insane day. Squeezed in another panel of POPX. Wish I had more time to work on it. Anyone know a very wealthy benefactor that would like to finance the book? Florida Lottery is up to 9 million. Maybe I'll buy a ticket. :)

Perils on Planet X art

My workload has been pretty horrific lately. PERILS ON PLANET X has suffered because of my work load. Matter of fact I have been working on one project up until a few minutes ago. Luckily I have laid out the remaining pages in thumbnails. So for the last 5 hours of doing revisions, getting feedback, and doing revisions again via email, I pulled out the POPX page I am working on and penciled the above panel. I just might have to do this more often. And if I draw while eating meals...

Sketchbook Sunday

Just a few poses I am working on in my free time. :) This is the extent of work I am doing today. Only other thing I did was some yard work. Planted a great big White Bird of Paradise in the backyard and spread some mulch. Nice to get outside and do some kind of physical activity in the warm sunshine. I hope everyone has enjoyed the weekend!

I've got the brains, you got the looks...

Here is an area of my career that I haven't shared, doing illustrations for higher education text books. I am working on the art for a book about cognitive neuroscience. This is one piece from the 9th chapter. There are 16 chapters in the book and a lot of work to go. This piece is a work in progress. It is created in Adobe Illustrator 10. I am a few steps behind on the latest version of Illustrator but it still works for me. This particular publisher is W.W. Norton, but I have done work with almost all the big publishers in this field since 1992. If you were in college some time since 1992, there is a good chance you used one of the books I have worked on. : )

It's the weekend!

And she is happy about it. Or about something. We should all have a good chuckle like her now and then. Here is the Laughing Fairy inked and ready for color. Though she will have to wait. Did this while watching ENCHANTED. What a really fun movie. I think the mood of the movie crept into my inking. It has a happy feel to it. This is inked on 11" x 17" bristol board.

FEMME NOIR

It's plug time: PERILS ON PLANET X writer/creator Chris Mills has a new series coming out with artist Joe Staton titled FEMME NOIR. Ape Entertainment is the publisher. I did this pin-up for one of the issues. Check out the book, it's a lot of fun. You can find it in the April edition of Diamond PREVIEWS for a June release. For a taste of the series, check out the official FEMME NOIR website: http://www.femme-noir.com.

Laughing Fairy

Just another quick sketch from the book today. Been too busy to do anything but sketch. No finished pieces in a while but I really need to get some done soon. I drew her face before I knew where I was going with her. I just liked it and tried to do something that fit her expression. :)

Purple Dancer

One from the sketchbook today. I originally thought of her as a dancer as I sketched her but she looks more battle ready with her stance. Drawing a dancing girl can be tricky. Since I can only capture a moment in time in the drawing, I can lose the energy of the movement. I'm sure it would be easier if I drew that sort of thing more often, but I don't. This was done using color pencil in just a few minutes while waiting for a meeting with a client to begin.

With one magic word...

Sometimes I have more art than I can post. I finally scanned this Mary Marvel piece from MegaCon. I did this as a warm up at the show. I didn't have a sketch list yet so I pulled out a piece of paper and sketched this out. I will probably ink it and take it to another show.

Mary is a favorite of mine. Well, Mary from a couple of decades ago. Bob Oskner was drawing some of her backups in SHAZAM when I was younger. His artwork was both cute and sexy in a way that wasn't seen in comics back then. According to things I have read about him, it seems he didn't really like super-hero work. Preferring to draw humor comics. Mary Marvel wasn't just straight super-hero, there was a lot of humor so maybe he enjoyed it a bit. I have an almost complete run of Mary's original series from the forties.  I have her first appearance in CAPTAIN MARVEL #18 and a few issues of WOW COMICS featuring Mary. Fun reads. I did have MARY MARVEL #1 with a double cover at one time but I sold that to Diamond Comics' Steve Geppi a few years back. But not without scanning the comic for reading. :)

My sketch was done in pencil on 11" x 17" bristol board.

Sketchbook Sunday

A few poses I will be finishing up over the next week or so instead of sleeping. :) I hope everyone has had a good weekend!

Whiteboard art

I haven't shared any art from the Labs in a while so here ya go. This was done Thursday for the Science Center of Pinellas County and SPC Leadership. Looking for ways for their partnership to grow and be a benefit to both groups. Both teams are incredible. I have to listen to everything during the course of the event and I was impressed with what they both do. Getting kids to learn that math and science is fun and a benefit for them in life as they grow up is a good cause. This group worked really hard and were very passionate about what they do. Nice to see that sort of conviction. I created a lot more than what is seen on these two boards but I try not to overwhelm the casual observer. Click on the art and see all the details.

Cutie in glasses in color

Here she is all finished. Full day at the Labs today. I have got a ton of work to keep me busy over the weekend and I still won't be caught up. Good place to be really. The alternative being not having work. But it's those times where several jobs overlap for various reasons that can make things real crazy.

Cutie in glasses

Just a finished inked piece today. Half day at the Labs and an afternoon meeting with a new client. Big jobs ahead. But no time to color today. So, about this piece. For some reason I decided she needed the big glasses on her. I have always liked the sexy librarian in glasses look. My wife used to wear glasses like this. :) I will try to color her tomorrow, but I have another full day at the Labs. No rest for the wicked. ;)

Connect the freckles

Here's another finished piece completed from the sketches I posted a few days ago. I thought it might be good to post the inked version along side the finished color piece. The original is inked on 11" x 17" bristol board and then colored in Photoshop.

Is it hot in here or is it just her?

Here is the first finished piece from the sketches I posted yesterday. This one will also be part of the next package for CILM.

Sketchbook Monday

Here are a few quick poses I did this morning as a warm up. All three will be inked and colored sometime real soon. They will be part of my package for CILM. With any luck I will have all 12 pieces done by the end of March. Whew!

MegaCon Sketch - Day Three

Here's another sketch from the Con. Just got home. Now for some dinner and much needed sleep. Hope everyone has enjoyed the sketches. I will be doing the same when I go to Pittsburgh in April. :)

MegaCon Sketches - Day Two

Two more from MegaCon today. First up, a sultry Mantra...
and then a playful Kitty Pride with everyone's favorite dragon, Lockheed. Another fun day at the show. This show has more attendees in costumes than any show I have been to. Most being anime or game related. The detail and time they have put into what they wear is amazing. Well, time for some rest, gotta an early start tomorrow with Day 3 and more sketches.

MegaCon Sketches - Day One

Quick post tonight because I am tired, no, strike that. I am exhausted. Here are two sketches from the first day. Scarlet Witch on the left and my version of Terra from the animated Teen Titans on the right. Both are brush and ink on 11"x17" bristol board. More tomorrow.

Island Girl 03 - Color progress 2

Running a bit late tonight. Spent the day getting ready for MegaCon. Here is my first attempt at a finished piece. I usually like to put the artwork away and come back to it in a couple of days to see what I might have to change. Normally I am the only one who sees it at this stage. So I thought I would share. :)

Island Girl 03 - Color progress

I thought I would post the beginnings of coloring this island girl. So far the colors have been blocked in. These won't be the final though. One of the things I have to do is work in layers in which I have cut out the girl and the tiki from everything else, we will call that the foreground. The background consists of everything else, plants, sand, sky, and Royce the crab. When I finish I will a layer with the background in full color with the black line art and the foreground color with the black line art. When it is done I will post both versions. I know it might sound confusing. :)

Island Girl 04 - Line Art

Here's number four in the series of line art for my next batch for CILM. This is inked on 11"x 17" bristol board. All the pin-ups will be colored in Photoshop sometime soon.

Island Girl 03 - Line Art

Here's another island girl I finished. This one is inked on 11"x17" bristol board. We are in the process of turning our backyard into a tropical oasis, so I'm having fun going out in the backyard to get ideas for the foliage for these pieces. For example, the tallest leaves in the background are from a Traveler Palm. Bird of Paradise on each side of the tiki and other various plants we have are represented here. Just picked up a couple of Elephant Ears, both green and black and a big Philodendron, so you can expect to see those in future Island Girl pin-ups. :)

Black Canary

It's been a long day. Finished the last pencil page of the book I am doing with Jim Shooter. Now I just have to ink the last 7 pages. Whew!

This was a warm up sketch this morning. When you don't know what to draw, draw Black Canary. Green Arrow and Black Canary were two of my favorite characters back in the 70s. They seemed like the only grown up relationship in comics to me. Sure there were married characters but GA and BC loved and fought each other like no one else. They were very cool. Side note: The first time I read a story with her in it I thought her name was "Black CANNery". Hey, I was only 7 and she didn't have a big black bird on her costume.

Island Girl 02 - Line Art

Here is the second island girl. The original rough didn't have the tiki boys finished but here they are. Not very authentic as far as tikis go but you get the idea. I will post the color version as soon as it is done. This one and the Island Girl 01 are inked on 11" x 17" bristol board. And both will be for sale on my site shortly. :)