Friday, July 31, 2009

Mary Jane Watson & Phoenix eBay Auctions

Return of The Canson Cuties!

An extra post to kick off the weekend. The two pieces below are heading to eBay tonight. They will be three day auctions. Both pieces are done in mixed media on Canson Mi-Teintes Paper.

Here is the link for MARY JANE WATSON.

And here is the link for PHOENIX.

I hope both will find nice homes. Have a good weekend!

PHOENIX!

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.

Over this weekend I will be finishing the Bumble Bee painting for Vinnie. I will post some progress pictures here and some on my Twitter account. You can either follow me on Twitter at Twitter.com/genegonzales or click on the latest Twitter posts that show up in the right column here on the blog.

Enjoy the weekend folks!

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Thor, Sif and Asgard

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.

Thanks again for the commissions Alex. They were a lot of fun!

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

UP! (Sketchbook Wednesday)

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. :)

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Black Knight & Supergirl

Here is another inked commission I finished this morning. Marvel Comics Black Knight. This is ink on 11" x 17" Strathmore Bristol Board.
And below is a quick piece I did for fun using Prismacolor Cool Grey markers in a 9" x 12" Canson Drawing Pad.


Monday, July 27, 2009

Bumble Bee - Commission Process 1

I'm a little late getting this posted. Our friend Chris is visiting from Canada. I met Chris (and his obsession for Power Girl) at the Pittsburgh ComicCon years ago. Turns out he has vacationed down here every year since he was young. So now we make a point of all of us getting together for dinner when he visits. :)

I have been commissioned by Vinnie to produce a painting of Bumble Bee of the Teen Titans. And he has allowed me to share with everyone as the piece progress. Let's hear it for Vinnie!

I had just finished the Tula painting for him when he threw this idea at me: Bumble Bee with a plastic honey bear filled with honey. Just two days before, I purchased one of these at the grocery store. I haven't had one of these in the house in years. That's just strange. :)
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.

The top piece was done with blue Col-Erase pencil in my sketchbook. The bottom one was done with a H pencil on 11" x 17" copy paper. More tomorrow.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Phantom Lady - Final

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!

This was done using Golden Fluid Acrylics on 11" x 17" Cresent Watercolor Board.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Phantom Lady - Commission Process 1

A few weeks ago I posted a Phantom Lady rough for a commission I am doing for Kevin. It was tightened up, transfered to the final board and then I thought I could do something better for the body language. So I did another sketch and sent it to Kevin. His thought was maybe we didn't need the whole body in the shot. Maybe waist up was what he was thinking. I thought it was a good idea but suggested from the thighs up. He agreed and I cropped the sketch to see how it would look.
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.

Check back tomorrow for the final art.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Cry Havok! And let loose the dogs of war...

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.

Drop by this weekend as I will be posting progress pictures of the Phantom Lady painting I am finishing up for Kevin. He and I made adjustments to the original drawing I posted here and I think it works much better. Should be fun!

Have a good weekend!

Mini MegaCon - Advance Sketch List is Open


ADVANCE SKETCH LIST
Mini-MegaCon in Orlando, Florida is four weeks away and I thought I would open up an advance sketch list for those that are interested. This worked pretty good for HeroesCon back in June for everyone so maybe we can do it again.

Here's the deal: If you are sure you are attending the Mini-MegaCon and would like a sketch from me, send me an email with your request(s) with "Sketch List" in the subject line. My inked sketches start at $50.00 whether they are in your book or on the 11"x17" bristol board I bring with me. Because it is a two day show, I will not be doing color work at the show. But there is a chance of me getting some color requests done before the show and bringing them with me. If you are interested in something in color, let me know and I will get you a price.

The rules are simple: You don't have to send any money in advance, you just have to attend the convention and can pay there. If you are having a friend pick up the art for you, please let me know who it will be and make sure they have the money. That was the only hiccup at HeroesCon. If I am doing your request on my paper, most likely the art will be done before the show so please plan on picking it up the first day of the show. I don't know how many advance requests I will take, it really depends on the type of requests. If you have any questions, you can ask here or in an email.

Thanks! Check back later for the daily art post. :)

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Hourman & the Pussycats!

As strange a team up as you can get. First up another Golden Ager for Leroy. Thanks Leroy for the commission.
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.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Gladiator & Dr. Mid-Nite

This is the last of the eight commissions for one person. And this is the redo. The original request was Gladiator, looking melancholy, holding Elektra's Sais with the Daredevil mask skewered on it. When I printed out the email with all the info, I missed the line as it flowed from one page to the next. Completely my mistake. So I offered a redo and off we went. (Just for the record, he liked the other one as well and purchased both. An "up sale" was not my intention though.) Now it's hard to show melancholy when the subject has a metal mask on so I had to rely on body language. Hopefully, the angle of looking down on him and the way his hands are holding the weapons will at least let you know this is not a battle ready pose.
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.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Iron Man & Captain America!

Two more for today. I had planned on three but I had to do a rough sketch for a potential painted commission that I didn't get to yesterday. Plus other work crept in and paperwork demanded attention. So for today, first up we have Iron Man. This is the first time I have ever drawn Iron Man. I think. :)
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.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Deadpool, Nova, & The Jack of Hearts

Another batch of inked commissions for today. I hope no one is getting tired of these because we still have a total of 4 more to go. :)

First up, Deadpool. Not a character I am real familiar with but had a blast (no pun intended) doing the piece.

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!

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Gladiator, Gambit & Apocalypse Now!

I set aside a big chunk of my day in order to do some inked commission pieces. These are the first three of eight I am doing for one person. And of the requests, only one is a character I have drawn before so there is a bit of excitement on my end that made me want to jump right in as soon as I could. The one that I have done before is Captain America, btw.

First up is Gladiator from the Daredevil comic.
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.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

John Stewart - Green Lantern

Just for fun. Final art is ink and markers on 11" x 17" Strathmore Bristol Board.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Batman!

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.

At HeroesCon I was so impressed with Joe Pekar's ability to just draw it and paint it. Happy accidents can happen that way. Colors move and blend. Water pools up in some places making the color muted. You never know. Joe makes it look like it was all on purpose. :)

So I had a couple of hours to kill and played. It was fun. Hope you enjoy the results. This is ink, watercolor and white acrylic on 10" x 15" Canson Montval cold press watercolor paper.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Sketchbook Thursday!

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!

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Catwoman!

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.

It was fun going through my DIANA PRINCE: WONDER WOMAN trade paperback for the Catwoman costume as it was drawn by Dick Giordano. That story was a fun cross over teaming up Catwoman with the then powerless Wonder Woman. Though this look for Catwoman isn't one of the more popular ones, I tend to like it. :)

This was done in mixed media on an 11" x 17" Canson Mi-Teintes Paper. And strangely this is the first Canson piece I have done since The Superman piece I did for Royce. I wonder what's up with that. :)

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

DR. FATE!

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.

We are heading out this evening for the latest Harry Potter movie. Got tickets for the 12:01am showing. Looking forward to it!

Monday, July 13, 2009

Sketchbook Monday

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.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Kitty and Lockheed - Together again

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!

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Tula - Commission Complete

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!

Friday, July 10, 2009

Let your hair down

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.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Tula - In Progress

So the plan today was to go to Lido Key with our friends. Lido Key is about 1.5 hours south of us. But my Xterra had other plans for us. Just before leaving a belt started squealing and after a quick trip to the dealer, it was confirmed that some work was needed. We packed our friends in our other car and sent them on their way for sun and fun while we waited in the customer lounge for the vehicle to be fixed. Just under 3 hours (45 minutes to assess the problem and 2 hours to fix it) we were out of there. Too drained from sitting there and too late to head down to catch up with our friends, we resigned ourselves to just head home. And then it rained and rained.
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.

Better luck tomorrow I hope.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Sketchbook Wednesday & Revised Phantom Lady

Still enjoying my "kind of" vacation. Spent time on the beach today and then at the Apple Store. But still managed to get a few things done. Below is a page of doodles from my sketchbook. Just playing with a brush pen. No pencils at all.
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. :)

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Sketchbook Tuesday!

Some sketchbook offerings for today. First up is a Silver Surfer sketch I did with a blue Col-Erase pencil in my sketchbook yesterday and added some color and effects in Photoshop today. We have been spending a lot of time at a beach condo our friends rented for the week so there has been some beachy inspiration.
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.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Kingdom Come Superman - Finished

Today I finished up this piece for Emmanuel. He had the job of picking up a couple of pieces for someone else at HeroesCon and liked my work. I don't think he had seen any of my work before. He contacted me after the show and commissioned this piece. Thanks again Emmanuel!
This is ink and markers on 11" x 17" Strathmore Bristol Board.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

And now for something completely different...

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. :)

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Kingdom Come Superman - Commission Rough

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!

Friday, July 3, 2009

Phantom Lady - Commission Rough

A real quick post today. This is a first pass rough for a Phantom Lady commission I am starting on. More to come later.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Tula - Commission Rough

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!

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

PERILS ON PLANET X - PURSUIT!

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.