BATGIRL - Inked

I had taken the same approach to this piece as I have with some other recent pin-ups, using a single line weight. But it didn't look right. So I mixed things up a bit. I used the fattest Micron pen, (1) and tried to treat it like a brush. The toughest part was doing the lighter line weight because it does not have a fine tip but the more I used it the more comfortable I became with it. Batgirl was outlined with it and her rope was drawn with it. I also used it to increase the up shadows around her belt. I did end up pulling out a brush for the solid black areas and for some feathering. Microns were used for the cross hatching on the roof top. All in all it was a fun mash up to do. This is ink on 11" x 17" Canson Bristol Board.

Since I shared all my Halloween images before Halloween, I've got nothing to say other than Happy Halloween! The Halloween images I have available for prints on ImageKind.com will be removed tomorrow afternoon. So if you have a need for a Halloween print from me, now is the time to get it. :) Have a safe and fun Trick or Treating everyone!

BATGIRL

Looooong day. I only had time to sketch this while I ate my lunch. Scanned it and did some gray tones in Photoshop just for fun. The original is done in pencil on 11" x 17" Canson Bristol Board. Another piece that I will ink at some point. 

SUPERGIRL & The Bottle City of Kandor

Three spot illustrations and two client meetings today. Whew! So I decided to do something for fun this evening. And Supergirl is always fun to draw.

This is ink on 11" x 17" Canson Bristol Board. It can be found on eBay right here.

The Captain

This is a late sketch from the Conventionless Convention Sketch list. This is one half of a larger piece. Thanks to Andy for the commission.

Today was a half day event at the Labs. A half day is actually twice as tough as a full day event. Everything is compressed into a 4 hour period. It leaves very little time to get the big final image done. So I got done with it in the 5th hour and was very tired. Whew!

Space Ghost! - Trials and Errors

I've never drawn Space Ghost before so at this point in the process I am just trying to get a feel for the character. So I just doodle some faces, figures, and the main pose trying to solidify my approach. Sometimes the simplest designs are the hardest to pull off. I believe Alex Toth designed SG, and he was a master of making simple yet strong designs. Tough act to follow. Onward!

Space Ghost! - Ideas

Today is a quick post. These are two ideas for a Space Ghost commissioned painting I am starting. The one on the right was selected to go to final. As I work on it I will post the image. The final will be 16" x 20" in full color. Most likely mixed media. Stay tuned!

Also, the Black Widow painting I recently finished is posted in my Comic Art Fans gallery and is for sale. You can view it here. I forgot to put a price on it but if anyone is interested just contact me.

Christmas Cutie with Lights

As I am dealing with another bout with insomnia, I try to get work done that needs to be done. Since I still need to get my Chrismas images done, I went back to this image.

Here it is in progress. I tried to remember to take digital shots as I worked. I had started with a rough that I transfered to the watercolor paper with Col-Erase color pencils. From there I have just continued to work all over and build up color. The painting isn't done yet, as you can see I still have to add the string of lights. I will also be tweaking a few things with the Cutie too. 

This is done in color pencil, ink, watercolor and some acrylic. Hopefully I will post the final tomorrow.

SHAZAM, baby!

Just a little Mary Marvel today. A combination of her classic appearance and the way Bob Oksner drew her in the SHAZAM back up stories in the 1970. He drew her so darn cute. but then he drew every girl cute. Which reminds me, I should do an ANGEL AND THE APE pin-up sometime. Hmmmm.

This piece is done in ink (with pencil outlines for the lightning) on 12" x 18" Strathmore 400 series 140# watercolor paper, to be painting in watercolor later.

Black Widow - dismount

Okay, everyone's got to be sick of this image by now, but it is finally finished.

As to the process, it was really a building up of layers of color to get it where I wanted it. Then using water, a clean brush and a paper towel, I picked out the highlights on her hair, skin and suit. With a little bit of water on a brush, I dab the area I want to lift the paint from. Going back over the same area until I get the amount of highlight I want. In the hair is was only a little bit of color picked up, with the sleek body suit, I scrubbed until I got back down to the paper in some places. Then I used a little bit of white Prismacolor in a few areas too. This was done in ink and watercolor on 12" x 18" Strathmore 140# 400 series watercolor paper.

Black Widow (progress again) and Logo Design

Today was a crazy day. I had just finished up some work and decided to take a lunch break. While my food was cooking, I started working on Black Widow again (Left side) About 15 minutes into it, I got a call from the Labs. Seems they didn't have an illustrator for the half day event that just started. This was about 1:10pm. I said give me 30 minutes and I will be there. My usual work attire is shorts and a t-shirt. Add to that, 3-4 days of beard growth and you get an idea of the mess I was. But 30 minutes later I was at the Labs, in my Rockports, slacks and Labs polo shirt getting my white board thang on.

Naturally that means the work I was going to do this afternoon has to be done this evening. I did manage to do a bit more work done on Black Widow (right side) since I got home. Maybe another 20 minutes. But hey, it's progress. Hope you enjoy. Sorry again for the digital camera shots. Both times the paint was wet and I don't want to put it on the scanner wet.

Since it was a surprise about me doing annual report work, I thought I would throw out another project I did earlier this year that might surprise everyone. I did a logo for a world wide company based in Tampa. I worked closely with them to develop their logo over a couple of months and I think we have a classic on our hands. They just put up a placeholder on the web so now I can share. The company is GlobeThink and their site and logo is here. I have also done some artwork for a Branding seminar/workshop they did in Helsinki back in the Spring. I will see if I can share those at a later date.

Back to work. :)

Black Widow (progress) and Business Illustration

I didn't have much time today to work on the Black Widow painting. I am in the middle of a project and the deadline is looming. More on that in a moment. Forgive the digital picture I took of the painting. Not as good as scanning  I know, but I didn't have time to scan. Here you can see I am just laying down some colors. Mostly the mid-range. I will be going in and adding darks and picking out the lights as I go. Still a good start.
This is one of 9+ illustrations I am doing this week. They are for an annual report. As you can see this is along the same line of style I do for business illustration on whiteboards, but here it is more refined and in full color. I am doing pencil roughs based on a list of things they want illustrated. So far 3 have been approved. The other 6 have gone to second roughs. Once the client saw the first proofs, they thought they might have sent me down the wrong direction so we are revising those six. Not a problem. They are a nice group to be working for and I think we are creating some nice images for their annual report. This is inked with pens and then colored in Photoshop CS3.

Black Widow - inked

Here she is inked. I didn't fill in the blacks on her costume because I will do that digitally. As for the original...there are actually two. After inking the one on bristol board, I decided to transfer that to 12" x 18" Strathmore watercolor paper to paint traditionally as well. This piece is ink on watercolor paper.

Black Widow - Rough

It's been a while since I shared some rough stuff. I thought I would to a Black Widow piece to ink with pens, much in the same way I did the Ivy piece from a couple of days ago. I still have some refining to do but here is the first stage. This is 2B and H pencil on 11" x 17" Cason Bristol Board.

Poison Ivy - In Living Color

Decided to add some color to Ivy. And I did it differently than I normally do. For this piece I layered the colors and didn't blend them. No gradients and no airbrush effects. For example, there are three different values for her tights: Dark, medium and light green is used. Same with the skin tones. And then some white for the "hot" spots. But used sparingly.

The background is where I played with a watercolor brush set with a low opacity. This allowed a transparency to the colors. Colors bleed into each other and could be seen through each other. The idea was to have a softer background to add contrast to the hard edges your eyes have to blend on Ivy's coloring. All the colors were done in Photoshop CS3.

Poison Ivy

Today I am finishing a few spot illustrations for a job. But in order to warm up I thought I would ink this Poison Ivy pin-up I penciled yesterday. This was done entirely with Micron Pens. Mostly an 08 nib. I was playing with using a "dead weight" line. Meaning there isn't any variation in the line weight. No "thick and thins". There are several artists who use this style and I really admire it. It's harder than you would think. Somehow they still manage to breathe some life into the drawing in spite of one line weight and, most of the time, no black areas. This is the first attempt I have been pleased with in trying this style. Most of the time I end up going back with a brush and beefing it up.

This ink on 10" x 17" Strathmore 500 series Bristol Board. If anyone is interested, I will be posting it on eBay tonight. My seller name is gene_gonzales. Happy Friday everyone!

Valerie!

This is the last pin-up of the third Conventionless Convention Sketch sale. And this is the third member of Josie and the Pussycats that I have done for Gary. All with a beach theme. Thanks again Gary! This ink on 11" x 17" Canson Bristol Board.

I still have two more from the second Sketch sale to do in the next few days and I will post them when they are done.

I've had a few folks ask if I am doing another Conventionless Convention Sketch anytime soon. I don't see doing another for a while. I've gotten pretty booked up with work and the holidays are coming. I am taking commissions but only one a month right now. These are pricier than the sketches. I also can do color. Right now I have a painting on my list for October. Nothing after that. I don't have a price list. I price them based on the request. If anyone is interested in this, drop me an email. I will post if any other months fill up. 

Elastigirl & The Fatal Five

Today we have Elastigirl, before she married Mr. Incredible. This is the first time I have drawn one of the Incredibles. Since it is one of my favorite movies of all time, it was a treat. Even had the movie running while I worked on it. Thanks to Lud for this second commission! This is ink on 11" x 17" Canson Bristol Board.
The Fatal Five. I did this piece as a gift to Tom when we finished the Legion pieces. Gotta have the villains. They are what define the heroes. This is ink and gouache on 11" x 17" illustration board.

I hope everyone enjoyed the trip through my commissioned Legion paintings. It was fun for me. I might continue to show some older material in addition to new art from time to time through the rest of the year if there's an interest. Thanks and Happy Wednesday!

Wonder Girl

Today we have Wonder Girl, in Titans Animated outfit. Thanks to Lud for the commission. This is ink on 11" x 17" Canson Bristol Board.
Our last Legionnaire is Chemical King. His power was a bit confusing to quite a few writers. But if he was featured prominently in the story, you can bet his power was used correctly. He was a human catalyst who could speed up or slow down chemical reactions. King could control the metabolism in a person. Or cause metal to rust. Some writers would use his powers more like Element Lads, controlling and changing one element to another. Chemical King never had a girlfriend in the series and he died preventing World War VII. The background is Shanghalla, "the cemetery satellite where rests the mortal remains of scores of super-heroes from all over the cosmos...".

A bonus Legion related painting tomorrow.

Weightless

This is a PG-13 version of an adult Yue, from Avatar. I am not familiar with the characters from the series but it was fun drawing them. Thanks again to Lukacs for the commission! This is ink on 11" x 17" Canson Bristol Board.
We have officially run out of Legion Couples. But we have not run out of the Legion pieces I did for this series of commissions. As we got to the end there were a few characters that never had a significant other. Today we have Chameleon Boy. There was a story where he met and fell in love with a princess from another dimension, and another story where he met a girl that was her double in his own dimension, but that was it. So he got the solo treatment with the original Legion Clubhouse in the background. This was done in ink and gouache on 11" x 17" illustration board. Can anyone guess who the last solo Legionnaire is?

Christmas Cutie with Bear - Finished

I am starting a very busy week tomorrow. First off, I have a few more sketches to do in order to finish up by the 15th as promised. A few more roughs due tomorrow for some spot illustrations I am doing for an annual report. And a few more projects in the works. Today was filled with spot illustration roughs and finishing another Christmas Cutie. This was done in watercolor, color pencil and some acrylic on 10" x 15" 140lb. Canson watercolor paper.
Today's Legion Couple is Element Lad (Jan Arrah) and Science Police Officer/Legion Liaison Shvaughn Erin. The background is Jan's home world, Trom. Jan is the sole survivor of his race. A race of beings that had the ability to change one element to another. The Trommites were all killed by the space pirate Roxxas and his crew when they refused to do his bidding. Even as a kid I thought that was a bad plan. The crystals are "tombstones" for each fallen Trommite.

Christmas Cutie and Prints For Sale!

Another rough for a Christmas Cutie today. And big announcement...

SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION!!! Over to the right hand side of the blog you will see a new gizmo advertising prints of my artwork for sale. I am selling prints through ImageKind.com. I know a couple of other artists that use the service and it seems to work well for them. Just to be on the safe side, I ordered a print of my Island Girl with the two tikis. I ordered the least expensive paper and it arrived yesterday in a nice secure tube. All I can say is "wow". The quality is great, the colors vibrant, and the image is sharp.

After the test run, I uploaded several pin-ups. Right now there are a few Halloween girls, a couple of Island Girls, a Mermaid, and a whole lot of Christmas Cuties. The Halloween Girls will be removed on November 1st, to make way for others. All images can be printed on a wide variety of paper and canvas. You can even have it framed! And all images are available on greeting cards. I hope everyone will take a look at the many options. Even if you don't buy something, it's pretty cool to run though the paper options, framing options, even simulate the color of the wall you would put in up on. :) Thanks!

Katara - Waterbending Master

Just a really quick post tonight folks. I just got in from Orlando after a particularly tiring day. But I will answer yesterdays comments tomorrow AND I have a cool announcement too. In the meantime...

Above is the grown-up, PG version of Katara, the Waterbending Master from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Thanks to Lukacs for the commission! This is ink on 11" x 17" Canson Bristol Board.

Swinging Christmas - Finished

A lot had to be done today. I'm heading for Orlando on business in the hour and won't be back until tomorrow night. So most of the things I do on a Friday had to be squeezed in today with the other work. Whew! Here is the second finished Christmas Cutie for CILM. The background was created in Photoshop. 
And today's Legion Couple is Sun Boy (Dirk Morgna) and Science Police Officer Gigi Cusimano. The helmet of Dr. Zaxton Regulus is the background for this one. Dr. Regulus is the one responsible for Sun Boy's powers. When Dr. Regulus left Dirk to die in an atomic reactor, Dirk survived and developed the ability to create heat and fire. Atomic reactors are known for that kind of thing. Just like radioactive spiders. ;)

Black Canary and friend

I found the rough to this piece while looking for something else. After doing two pin-ups I can't show here, I thought I would finish this one and share. I will be slapping it up on eBay tonight. This is ink on 11" x 17" Canson Bristol Board.
Today's Legion Couple is Colossal Boy (Gim Allon) and Shrinking Violet (Salu Digby). Colossal Boy is from Earth and gained his powers from a meteor that crashed near him while vacationing on Mars. Shrinking Violet is from the planet Imsk, where all the inhabitants can shrink. They were a couple, and yet, they were not. Anybody remember the reason? Non-Legion nerds are excused from this. :) This was done in ink, watercolor and gouache on 11"x 17" illustration board.

Nevermore

Todays sketch is Raven of the Teen Titans. A variation on her outfit but this would be the original Raven from the 1980s Titans. Thanks to Lukacs for the commission! This is ink on 11" x 17" Canson Bristol Board.
Today's Legion Couple is Invisible Kid (Lyle Norg) and his ghostly girlfriend Myla. Invisible Kid is one of the male Legionnaires who never had a steady girlfriend. In Mike Grell's first Legion story he got to draw both the happiest moment of Invisible Kid's life and his death. Seems when Invisible Kid used his power of invisibility, he could see another world. He met Myla there and fell in love. But unfortunately, this "invisible" world was really a spirit world and Myla was a ghost. There was no way for them to be together. In that same story, Validus killed Invisible Kid, so he and Myla ended up together after all. The background is taken from the story at the point where Invisible Kid is crushing the electronic brain that is controlling Validus, who in turn is crushing the life out of him. This issue was the very first Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes comic I bought and I must have read this story a hundred times. :)

From the ashes

Very productive day. Got done with the important things I didn't do yesterday. So that means two more sketches that can't be seen here are finished and a few other things are done that I mentioned yesterday. So while waiting for my lunch to cool down I did the above piece for fun. I penciled the figure, scanned her, colored her and the background, then cheated and used a photo of a flame for the extreme background. Once I did some color adjustments the subtle stuff I did disappeared and the flames took over. Ah well, it was just for fun anyway.
Today's Legion Couple is Dream Girl (Nura Nal) and Star Boy (Thom Kallor). Star Boy started off as a Superboy/Mon-El type hero with superpowers much like theirs. But then some writer or editor decided he needed to be a bit different I guess and he developed the ability to temporarily increase the mass of people and objects. Dream Girl could see the future. Not accurately, mind you. Her main ability seemed to be the power to turn men's heads. In later years we learned she was incredibly smart, a skilled leader and fighter and not one to mess with.

The Best-Laid Plans of Mice and Men...

I had a full agenda today: Finish two sketches, work on quote for a new client that contacted me on Thursday, sketch out another Christmas Cutie, and sketch a couple of Space Ghost ideas for a commissioned painting. But I went to Home Depot to return something and they had a sale on palm trees. $16.99 for a wide variety of palm trees that are at least 5' tall. So, 2 palm trees, 5 pygmy date palms, and 11 white birds of paradise later, plus planting and watering, we have only a Christmas Cutie. Still need to get the quote done but now the outside of our lanai around the pool looks pretty great! And now it's raining, making anymore gardening interruptions impossible.

This Cutie has gotten herself tangled up in the lights. The background will be a bare tree. This piece will give the taggers a chance to animate the lights so it should be a popular piece. I hope. This was done on 11" x 17" copy paper.
Today's Legion couple is Supergirl (Kara Zor-El/Linda Danvers) and Brainiac 5 (Querl Dox). I always think of their relationship as a crush more than anything else. Most of the relationship was during the Adventure Comics run of the Legion and I can't even recall them kissing. Supergirl did join the Legion for a while during the Levitz/Giffen run and that was fun. The creepiest story though was when Brainy, missing Kara so much, made a Supergirl android while sleepwalking and planned to run away with it, believing it was the real Supergirl. Ugh! Explains a lot about his mental instability that came up later, doesn't it? :)

North Pole Dancer (rough)

Goofing off today. Yesterday was a full day of Lab work and more work when I got home. I am just a bit tired today and don't feel like doing much. But I did rough out the next Christmas Cutie. This was done on 11" x 17" copy paper using color pencils. I call it a rough but it is a pretty tight drawing. I will light table this image right on to the watercolor paper. Because using an eraser damages the tooth of the watercolor paper, I want the initial drawing tight enough to avoid erasing when I transfer.
And today's Legion Couple is none other than Superboy (Clark Kent/Kal-El) and the Insect Queen (Lana Lang). Lana is a Legion Reservist. She couldn't become a full member because her ability to change into various insects comes from her Bio Ring. A gift from an alien she helped. Lana did join in on a couple of Legion adventures and also became the Insect Queen in Smallville from time to time. Superboy, well, we all know who the real Superboy is. Raised by the kindly Kents in Smallville. Had adventures as SuperBaby and grew up to be Superman, as drawn by Curt Swan. :)

The background is 1950s Smallville at the bottom and 30th century Metropolis at the top. You can even see the Legion Headquarters on the right, just under Lana's arm. The blending of the two is because 30th century Metropolis has expanded to include what was known as Smallville. The art is ink, watercolor and gouache on 11" x 17" illustration board.

Candy Cane Girl

Another Chrismas cutie today. On the left is a scan of the original painting. Watercolor and some color pencil on 10" x 15" Canson Cold Press Watercolor paper. On the right is the finished version I did for my next CILM release. The background is done digitally and can easily be removed from the foreground. Something that is very important for signature groups that buy the images.
And today's Legion couple is Timber Wolf (Brin Londo) and Light Lass (Ayla Ranzz) They had been a couple since Brins first appearance in the Legion, back when he was called Lone Wolf. But he didn't become a member until years later. Dave Cockrum designed Wolf's look here. And it was before Wolverine. This version of both characters is my favorite.

Lastly, I have a couple of original color pieces on eBay right now. Check them out here.

Have a swingin' Christmas! (In October???)

I know it's only October, but I have started on Christmas images for CILM and another outlet. I can't say anything until next week because I am still setting things up and doing a quality check but if all goes well, you will be able to order prints of a lot of my work. Island Girls anyone??? This piece was done in watercolor and some color pencil on 10" x 15" Canson Cold Press 140lb Watercolor paper. I am going to add a digital background for the final piece. Tomorrow I will show the before and after on another piece I am working on. Also the Christmas images could be available for Christmas cards if all goes well. More later.

Christmas came early because some of the Conventionless Convention Sketches are not going to be posted. The requests were a little too risque for posting without an adults-only tag and I don't want to do that. I still have a nice Valerie from Josie and the Pussycats coming up that I will post when finished. :)

I've also started on a 12" x 48" painting on canvas. Island Girl/Tiki themed. I think I posted the roughs a few months ago here on the blog. I will photograph the progress on that and share when I get farther along. Also going to be starting on a 16" x 20" Space Ghost and crew painted commission. That will be fun! 
Today's Legion couple is Wildfire (Drake Burroughs) and Dawnstar. The background reflects the story that Dawnstar first appeared in and features the Resource Raiders space ships. Wildfire was extremely popular as soon as he first appeared. If they did things back then like they do now, he would have guest stared in every comic DC publishes and had at least two series of his own. He would have been DC's Wolverine. Dawny was introduced as the Legion's first Native American but she was from another planet. See, all the Native Americans left Earth at some point and colonized Starhaven. And because she was of Native American decent, she was a tracker. :) Both characters are favorites of mine. This piece was done in ink, watercolor, and gouache on 11" x 17" illustration board.

Let me slip into something more comfortable...

Here we have a very happy and not at all shy co-ed changing her top. I really like how she came out. I will probably use her in a future CILM package. In color of course. Thanks Terry for the commission. This is ink on 11" x 17" Canson Bristol Board. 
The latest Legion Couple (Threesome?) is Bouncing Boy (Chuck Taine) and Duo Damsel (Luornu Durgo). Luornu had previously been able to split into three individuals but one of them was killed in battle with Computo, leaving her a duo. Chuck and Luornu were the first Legion couple to get married. For real. There were other stories where some Legionnaires got married as part of a ruse. But this one took place and stuck. This scene takes place in the Legion HQ courtyard. A variation on a scene that took place in Superboy and The Legion of Super-Heroes #200. In the same issue they were married. This is done in ink, watercolor, and gouache on 11"x 17" illustration board.