MEGACON 2010 - Advance Sketch List

It's that time folks! MegaCon in Orlando Florida (March 12-14) is my first convention of 2010. Nice to have that so close to where I live. As I tend to do, I am opening up an advance sketch list. The reason for me to do this is normally for the first couple of hours things can be a bit slow on the first day of the show. Having a list in hand means I don't get bored. :)

Here's the deal:

Inked sketches, single figure, on 11" x 17" Bristol Board: $50.00

Acrylic painted single figure on 12" x 16" (approximate size): 125.00

Canson pieces, single figure on 11" x 17": 125.00.

(Knowing the character requested in advance will allow me to select the right color paper from my files)

I may ask for reference if I don't know the character or I can't find it on the web at the show.

You can email me links to references before the show. I can alway print them out and take them with me.

You must be attending the show. Or at least have someone you trust with your cash to pick up the art, pay me, and give you the art. I'm not responsible if the art doesn't reach you. :)

No advance payment. You can pay for the art when you pick it up. I do request that if you are on my list and are not going to make it, please let me know.

An advantage to getting on the list early gives me some time to think about your request(s), bounce ideas around in my head and maybe even doodle ideas in my sketchbook. But I will not get any pieces done before the convention. My workload is pretty heavy and I do have three commissions that need to be done before I head to the show.

I will be sitting with Joe Pekar in the Black section, table 12. I am really looking forward to this show. There are so many of you that I get to see at MegaCon so it really is like hanging out with friends.

If you have any questions, please ask.

This is Post #864

Catwoman - Canson Cutie

Catwoman and the Bat Signal © 2010 DC Comics

I was hoping I would get the chance to share this one today and I have been told I can. :)

This Catwoman was commissioned by Lisa, aka, Comix Book Gurl. The concept of Catwoman with a sculpture of the Egyptian Feline Goddess, Bast was all hers. And a fun one at that. A few weeks ago I showed the three rough ideas for this piece and it was unanimous that this design was the one to do. More importantly, this was Lisa's favorite. Then as I started this piece, all you-know-what broke loose and I had to put the commissions aside. I continued to work on this a little bit at a time until today when I was able to dedicate the time needed to finish it up. I really appreciate Lisa's patience and enthusiasm for this commission. It was a lot of fun! Thanks Lisa!

This Catwoman piece was done in ink and color pencil on an 11" x 17" sheet of Violet Canson Mi-Teintes paper.

This is Post #863

Captain Action & Dr. Eville - Roughs

For the last several years I have been providing artwork for some of the introductions in the yearly OFFICIAL OVERSTREET COMIC BOOK PRICE GUIDE from Gemstone Publishing. This year Gemstone Publishing is participating in FREE COMIC BOOK DAY with the OVERSTREET GUIDE TO COLLECTING COMICS. I am happy to say that I had been contracted to produce artwork for this book as well. I am doing complete art and lettering duties for my pages.

Here are a couple of roughs from one of the pages. We are using different characters to explain how the comic grading process works and how you can learn it. Captain Action (above) will explain one part while his mortal enemy, Dr Eville (below) will explain another.

There are other characters I will be drawing for one panel shots. It's fun stuff and informative. I hope you will pick up a copy.

This is Post #862

Captain Action and Dr. Eville ©2010 Captain Action Enterprises. All Rights Reserved.

SUPERBOY!

I picked up the newest Previews yesterday but I have been so busy I hadn't even had a chance to open it until this evening. And now I am geeking out! I have made it pretty clear that Superboy and The Legion of Super-Heroes are my favorite characters. The Legion stories have been reprinted but the Superboy stories hadn't. And it looked pretty bleak for a long time that they never would. A few months ago DC issued Superboy: The Greatest Team-Ups Ever Told and that gave me hope. And there on the first page I turn to in the new Previews is...

The Adventures of Superboy Vol. 1 HC.

I am such a geek! :)

Above is my take on Superboy from my sketchbook this evening. And I have got a big smile on my face. :)

This is Post #861

Sketchbook Wednesday - Dr. Daniel Jackson

Another member of Stargate Commands front line team, SG-1. Just a quick sketch of the character of Dr. Daniel Jackson.

This week has turned into a real beast. It's become a perfect storm of projects and sudden request from a couple of clients. In order to take care of everything I had to put aside the commissions. But only until this week is over. Things will be back to normal and then I will get caught up with the commission list. The longest wait has been about 2 weeks right now. If you are waiting for a commission, thank you for your patience. :)

This is Post #860

Sketchbook Tuesday - Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter

Just time for a quick sketch today. I added the Photoshop effects just before posting.

This is Post #859

Yellow - Finished

This is the last of the three "color" themed pieces for my newest batch of art from CILM. I just got her done and have sent all three in. Long day. Tired.

I did take a couple of hours off for a really nice dinner out with friends visiting from Tennessee. It was really nice to see them. It had been over three years. Good food and great company is always a winning combo in my book.

This is Post #858

Teal'c - Stargate SG1

I have had Stargate SG1 playing on my computer while I work for a week or so now. I'm finally on the last season but the 'Gate has entered my subconscious it seems, first with a Stargate image in my sketchbook a couple of days ago, and today, the need to draw my take on one of the principle characters, Teal'c. I know it doesn't look like Christopher Judge, the actor who played Teal'c, but I still like it. :) This is a 30 minute piece done on a scrape piece of Canson paper that I cut down to the trading card size of 2.5" x 3.5".

This is Post #857

Scraps that are lying around

Whew! Before I discuss the artwork above and the title of this post, this is what my day was like:

6:30am - Up and in the studio working by 7am on DC Licensing project.

10:30am - Start getting ready, need to leave by ...

12:00pm - Take Dakota and pick up two other girls of the strings quartet and head to Gibbs High School in St. Petersburg so they can perform "Nearer My God To Thee" in front of a judge. All part of a competition/evaluation performance. Dakota did an arrangement of the music that the judge really liked. (They got a "Superior" mark for their performance, btw. Highest mark they could achieve) While at the school I did answer some work emails on my iPhone.

3:00pm - Take girls home, and we get home by...

3:45pm - Have a sandwich

4:00pm - 5:30- Clean gutters, windows, yard, house, dishes and feed pets.

5:30 - 6:pm - Back in studio to work on Catwoman commission. Cut Canson paper to correct size. Ready to transfer. But decide to "warm up" a bit with a scrap of paper left over from the cutting.

6pm - ??? - Work on Catwoman Canson Cutie Commission.

And there you go. I did the little Catwoman Canson Mini in ink & color pencil on a 3.5" x 8(ish)" of Violet Canson Paper.

And how was your Saturday? :)

This is Post #856

Sketchbook Friday

Busy with work all day and an afternoon business meeting. But the good news is the Canson Paper I had to special order for the Catwoman commission has arrived. I mistakenly thought I had the color needed but after checking I was out. I have a whole rainbow of colors but this one is the right color for the commission. Now I can start transferring the pencil art I did to the final paper. But for today, it's just another Sketchbook Friday.

Have a good weekend!

This is Post #855

Psylocke - Finish

I took a little time at lunch and some more this evening to finish this up. This will be along the lines of what I will be planing on doing at conventions this year. I will still be doing inked sketches too.

This is Post #854

Psylocke - Rough

I have been wanting to develop a way to paint at conventions. I would like to be able to sketch and to work in liquid acrylics. But the way I paint in studio won't work at a convention. And I would like to streamline my process for both locations. To that end I will be doing some paintings in my free time. Okay, stop laughing. I really only need to do a couple to get the approach down. These will come after the workload and the commissions. :)

This rough of Psylocke was done with a Tuscan Red Col-Erase Pencil on a sheet of 200lb Windsor Newton Water Color Paper.

This is Post #853

Green Lantern - Digital Sketch

Busy, busy, busy today. Just time for some digital sketching in Manga Studio. I hope I will have some more interesting pieces to show soon but for the next few days the workload is my first priority.

This is Post #852

Yellow - Progress

I only had time to play with this piece for about 30 minutes. Full day of work and then Dakota's quartet played tonight at the school. As expected, they rocked! And now I have to make up some of the work I didn't finish earlier.

You can see the original sketch here. I hope to have this one done this week and get Magenta done by the next week.

This is Post #851

Cyan - Finish

This is the first of three pin-ups for CILM. The initial sketch was posted a couple of weeks ago. I am just now squeezing in the time to do the finished art. The idea for this piece was first done in my sketch book and scanned. I used the scanned pencil sketch as my guide and this final art was done completely in Photoshop CS3.

This is Post #850

Aquaman - Finished Commission

A few days ago I posted the rough for this commission. Today I present the final art. This piece was done for Vincent. He had requested Aquaman in battle with the fire haired Karla. Since Karla is a favorite character of his, I wanted to showcase her. The composition is a rough circle with Karla framed in the center. In the original rough, Topo the octopus' tentacles were coming in from the bottom right. That wasn't working because it would draw the viewers eye down and off the page, looking for the rest of the octopus. So I made a change to the composition to bring Topo onto the full page. This helps complete the "frame" effect I was working towards.

Thanks to Vincent for this (and many other) commissions! The final art was done with ink on a sheet of 11" x 17" Strathmore Bristol Board.

This is Post #849

775 consecutive days

Catwoman - Canson Cutie Roughs

I am gearing up to work on a new Canson Cutie featuring Catwoman and Egyptian Goddess Bast. These are the rough ideas I worked up for review. With some minor tweaking we are going with "C". All three roughs were done in pencil in my sketchbook.

Have a good weekend everyone!

This is Post #848

Frosty

Just a quick Photoshop painting today. Seemed like appropriate. :)

This is Post #847

Supergirl - Manga Studio Sketch

Just a lunch sketch for today. A bit more poking around in the new program. From rough sketch to color, this piece was done entirely in Manga Studio Debut 4.

This is Post #846

Sally Volt - Manga Studio Practice

I thought I would show some screen grabs of my desktop while running Manga Studio. The program has some really cool features for creating comic book pages. Right now though, I am just learning about the drawing tools and other functions. I figured I would draw Sally for this practice. The tools are really very nice. Some nice brushes, pens, and various pencils. I can get a pretty nice pencil look to the art with this. I do have a feeling that the production side of the program will be the thing that really makes it stand out.

This is Post# 845

Sketchbook Monday

Just a quick drawing in my sketchbook for today's post. I added a bit of Photoshop color to it after scanning it.

This is Post#843

Windy - Progress Again

I only had an hour to play with this piece today. I will continue to refine it but I have to put her aside for a few days while I finish up the Aquaman commission. Windy is coming along nicely. I am still trying to find my way to a digital painting style but that comes with time and practice.

I hope everyone is enjoying Super Bowl Sunday!

This is Post #842

Windy - Progress

I only had time to work on this for a little bit today. Most of my day was filled doing some graphic design work that came to me late Friday. It was one of those projects that slipped through the cracks and the client asked me to help out. I had planned on taking a weekend off but I couldn't leave them hanging. We've had a good relationship for a lot of years so I am happy to do what I can. I should have it done tomorrow morning and then move on to some DC work that needs some polishing up.

I did pick up a couple of commissions to do after the Aquaman piece. I will be doing a Canson Cutie of Catwoman, in the hi-slit dress and plunging neckline and the second one will be Scarlett from G.I. Joe. Both should be a lot of fun.

Back to the piece above, after doing the line drawing I have started adding some color. I played around with three or four hair colors and treatments but came back to my initial plan of black hair. The sun dress went through some color changes as well, until I settled on the color above. Dakota was around to chime in on the choices too. Always nice to get another artists opinion. I will continue to refine this image and then create some background.

Tonight I picked up a copy of Manga Studio program at the Apple Store. No, I'm not going manga on all of you. The program has some real nice natural drawing tools. Better than Photoshop and Painter from what I have read. As part of my plan to move towards a digital workflow, I downloaded a free trial a couple of weeks ago and really liked it. So it was time to take the next step and buy it. I will be playing with it in the weeks to come and will share my results.

This is Post #841

Windy

Just a piece I started today while taking a break. I did the initial sketch on a piece of watercolor paper but decided to scan it and work on it digitally. :)

One of my plans for this year is working more digitally. For a number of reasons it feels like the direction I should be moving in. Most of my commercial work is done digitally so it's not that big of a leap. But I plan to be drawing more and more on my tablet, and it should get even easier if I manage to save up $2,000 for a Wacom Cintiq. Let's see, if I did 20 Canson Cuties...

Have a good weekend everyone!

This is Post #840

La of Opar - Finished

I finished La this afternoon. With "La" in my head, I kept hearing the song from THE SOUND OF MUSIC. You know the one, "Do, a deer, a female deer". Over and over it played. In the song "La" gets no respect. All the other notes have descriptive comparisons. Not "La", it's just "a note to follow 'So'". Sad. It's one of Deena's favorite movies too. That's why I know the movie so well. I have this plan to take her to Austria, charter a helicopter, drop her off on a mountain, then swing back around with video camera in hand filming her while she spins around singing, "The hills are alive with the sound of music...". She would do it too. :)

Sorry, went off topic there. Still hearing the song...

This piece was finished with some more watercolor, to build up some depth and some color pencils to give it some harder lines and details. The final image is 11" x 16" on Arches Hot Pressed 140# watercolor paper.

This is Post #839

Aquaman - Rough

This is the beginning of a commission piece for Vincent. He requested the Silver Age Aquaman in battle with the fire-haired Karla. I believe Karla first appeared in Aquaman #24, but you can see the reprinted story in SHOWCASE PRESENTS: AQUAMAN v3. Karla's has hair that burns even in water and can send blasts of fire with it or even control the shape.

For the commission, I came up with a circular design. Karla attacking Aquaman, as he swims to avoid the flames he is calling for assistance, represented by the tentacles at the bottom right. We can assume they belong to Topo, the octopus. I showed this concept to Vincent, he liked it and we are going with it. This sketch was done in pencil in my sketchbook. The final art will be done in ink on 11" x 17" Bristol Board.

This is Post #838

La of Opar - Progress

After I finished my work for the day, I got a chance to play with this piece. I think I was overly optimistic about my "free time" over the last weekend when I said I would paint during my down time. There was no down time as it turns out.

Above shows just the beginnings of laying down some paint. I have not been working in watercolors in quite some time. Mostly using fluid acrylics these days. But I want to add some pain and frustration into my life so I am using watercolors. The funny thing is that I used to use watercolor all the time and felt very comfortable with them. But working in fluid acrylics have changed my approach and that approach doesn't work so well with watercolors.

The difference is this: With the acrylics, I can lay down a color, let it dry and paint another color over it with out lifting the first color. They won't mix and get muddy. If I lay transparent colors down and go over it with another transparent layer, I get a nice blending of the colors. Building colors is easier. Watercolor tends to lift a bit or a lot when you try to layer colors. So the approach is a bit different. But as I said when I posted this rough sketch, this is all for fun. Yup, fun. :)

This is Post #837

Opal of SOUL BORN

This piece was completed today for writer Kevin James Breaux. I have known Kevin for years and I have done several character studies, promotional items and a book cover for him in the past. This piece features one of the principal characters, Opal, from his latest novel, SOUL BORN. I am also working with him on a map of the world that Opal inhabits. You can find out more about Kevin James Breaux's SOUL BORN novel (to be released in fall of 2010) at www.KevinBreaux.com. Make sure you tell him I sent you. :)

This piece was multi media on 11" x 17" gray Canson Paper.

This is Post #836