Here is the link for MARY JANE WATSON.
Another commission completed today. This one is a take on the classic Dave Cockrum X-Men cover. Thanks Paul for the commission. I'm sure Phoenix will be happy next to Iron Man in your collection. :) This is ink on 11" x 17" Strathmore Bristol Board.
This one took a little while. :) This was the last of the commissions done for Alex. All of the pieces I did he gave as gifts to friends. But he saved one request for himself. This is done in ink on 11" x 17" Strathmore Bristol Board.
Just a little something from the sketchbook today. I did finish the pencils for a Thor/Sif/Asgard commission, but didn't get the inks finished. Got side tracked with some other pressing work. But I should have it for tomorrow's post. In the meantime, I give you my version of "UP". Probably wouldn't make it as a Disney/Pixar movie though. :)
And below is a quick piece I did for fun using Prismacolor Cool Grey markers in a 9" x 12" Canson Drawing Pad.
Above is my first sketched out idea for Vinnie to consider. I put this together to give him an idea of how I would work out all the elements he asked for. I also added the rest of the kitchen. He gave me the go ahead after seeing this.
From that initial sketch, I sized it up and made some modifications. You can see the differences without me going into them. The one thing that you might not notice is how it is cropped. I did the pencil sketch, scanned it and in Photoshop cropped it tighter and enlarged it. What happened is Bumble Bee and the honey bear got larger and became more of the focal point. This is similar to what I did with the Phantom Lady painting last weekend. It's always good to be open to different ways of looking at the project. I think this really helped the composition.
Above is the completed commission for Kevin. Kevin came up with the dialog for Phantom Lady and I set the type and balloon, printed it, cut it out and used spray adhesive to stick it on a acetate overlay. For the record, I did my research and found an example of the 1953 Honeywell thermostat that is on the wall behind her. Thanks again to Kevin who always comes up with fun commissions for me to do. Always a pleasure!
The background elements would have to be moved around and the word balloon placement adjusted but I think this works much better. This also enables be to focus on the main parts of the illustration that make the joke: Her expression and her breasts.
On the left is the beginnings of the painting process. I have outlined everything in acrylic paint. I am using fluid acrylics for this piece. I treat them just like I would watercolors, thinning them down and building up from light to dark. On the right is the progress of Phantom Lady today. She is almost to a finished point. Then I will paint the background. At that point I will probably do some minor touches to Phantom Lady and she will be done.
Today's post is the X-Men Havok, in his original costume. I believe Neal Adams designed this costume. I could be wrong though. This is ink on 11" x 17" Canson Bristol Board.
And a little sketch I did in my sketchbook that I will be expanding to a full inked illustration. Just doing this one for fun.
Hourman is done in ink on 11"x 17" Canson Bristol Board. And Josie and the Pussycats is done in blue ColErase pencil in my sketchbook.
Next up, Dr. Mid-Nite and his owl. I used a black Primacolor pencil for the smoke effect here. I was afraid the inking the smoke would make the good doctor blend into the background too much. Good for crime fighting, not really for a pin-up. Thanks to Leroy for the Dr. Mid-Nite commission.
Tomorrow we will have a visit from the Golden Age Hourman.
Next up, a classic Captain America. Cap is one of those characters you have to do just right. I would say that Batman is like that too. With Cap, you have to have the right build on him. Not too big but more dynamic than normal folks. Or maybe it's just me. Certain characters can intimidate me when I have to draw them. Batman can do that and so can Captain America.
Both pieces were done with ink on 11" x 17" Canson Bristol Board. Tomorrow we will have a redo of one of the pieces shown here in the last couple of days. And we will switch over the the DC side of comics for a couple of Golden Age JSAers.
Next up, Frankie Ray as Nova, herald of Galactus. Yup, I did read the story way back when of Frankie leaving Earth to be the herald of the consumer of worlds. That doesn't sound right...kinda like Galactus goes shopping for worlds at the local WalMart.
And last but not least, The Jack of Hearts. Along with the other two here today, a first time request. Very detailed costume that seems to change with every reference I looked at. Seems like each artist just did a variation of the design. Still, this was another fun one to do.
More tomorrow folks!
Next up is an X-Men favorite, Gambit.
And lastly, the X-Men villain Apocalypse.
All pieces were done in ink on 11" x 17" Strathmore Bristol Board.
Just for fun. Final art is ink and markers on 11" x 17" Strathmore Bristol Board.
It's not too often that I just start sketching on watercolor paper and run with it. Normally I take the time to layout the idea on one piece of paper and transfer the line art, do a color study, then paint the final. Not with this piece. :) I had the idea in my head and I just sketched it, inked it and started in with the watercolors. I let paint run, scrubbed the color to pick some of it up, and even through some salt on it to get some textures going.
I had a full day of multiple projects that kept me from doing the fun stuff. So today I present another page from my sketchbook. Just some poses for future use. Almost time to get a new sketchbook too. I started this one some time in the end of May which means I burned through almost 100 pages in less than 2 months. Whew!
Today's post is a commission I finished yesterday, but it is being given as a gift and I wanted to make sure that recipient wouldn't be visiting this blog. I was assured that he/she wouldn't and I could post. But to be extra careful, I will not mention the name of the person who commissioned it. :) Before anyone else says it, yes, this is a variation of sorts of a previous Catwoman piece in that it features Catwoman stealing something. But I think enough of it is different to keep each piece unique.
I am doing some sketches for a color Dr. Fate piece. This is a rough idea of the pose I will be using. The final art will be done on Canson paper. Hopefully I will get to it next week. This was done in my sketch book and colored in Photoshop.
Just a quick post of some sketches done this morning as a warm-up. I had a lot of work to get through today and it proved to be a struggle. More tomorrow.
Today's post was a piece I did for Joe on the opening page of his KITTY PRYDE & WOLVERINE hardcover. The blue end paper was perfect for Kitty's Excalibur costume. And you can never go wrong with drawing Lockheed the Dragon. This was done using ink and color pencil. Thanks Joe for another endpaper commission!
Here is the final art for the Tula commission. The was done in acrylic with some color pencils on an 11" x 17" sheet of Cresent Cold Press Illustration Board. Thanks to Vinnie for this fun commission request!
Here's a sketch I am going to paint in the next few days. This will be another one for CILM. This is Col-Erase Pencil on 12" x 16" 140# Arches Hot Press Watercolor Block.
But the upside is I worked on Tula. I had already transfered the sketch to the final board and after a little revision and tightening, I started painting. The pencils are on the left and the beginnings of color are on the right.
Then a slight revision to Phantom Lady. Kevin, who is commissioning the painting, asked that she be more front forward. I was happy to make the change and it was a good one. Working with Kevin on his commissions has always been fun. I think we have established a good rapport so when he mentions a change, it's a good call. :)
Next up is a page from this morning. Just sitting on the balcony watching people on the beach inspired these sketches. This page was drawn with markers and pencils.
This is ink and markers on 11" x 17" Strathmore Bristol Board.
I haven't been terribly productive the last few days. The reason is we have some friends from out of state visiting us. They rented a condo on Indian Rocks Beach and we have been there almost as much as them. But I have taken my work with me and have been doing work on and off everyday. Meanwhile, Deena is taking this vacation seriously. :) Here are a few digital sketches of some of the neighbors we see everyday at the beach. This gave me a reason to try out some different texture brushes in Photoshop. So see, still working and learning. :)
Happy July 4th to everyone! Just a quick post of some Kingdom Come Superman poses I sketched in my sketchbook. I hope everyone who is celebrating Independence Day has a fun and safe day and evening. Off to the beach to enjoy the fireworks!
A real quick post today. This is a first pass rough for a Phantom Lady commission I am starting on. More to come later.
I hope no one is offended by a bare bottom. :) One of the commissions I am working on is one of Tula. She was Aqualad's girlfriend way back in the good old days. This is a first pass at the idea that was submitted. I'm happy with the playfulness of it, hopefully the person commissioning will like it too. But we are in the early stages and I expect there could be changes. Stay tuned!
I spent the morning inking a page of Perils on Planet X #2. I can't wait to see this page in color. I am down to 7 pages to ink plus two pages we added to the middle of the story that still has to be drawn and inked. When I get the script for the third and last issue I will be digging into that as well.
