Paging Dr. Fate!

After I posted that The Warlord piece I put up yesterday started out as a Dr. Fate, Little John tweeted (that's what you do on Twitter) that he liked it and he would still love to see Dr. Fate too. Here ya go Little John, hope you enjoy!

This was done with Col-Erase pencils and Copic Markers in my sketchbook. Colors added in Photoshop.

This is Post #724

Travis Morgan, The Warlord

This has been a very interesting day. Filled with lows and highs. All within an 8 hour period. Whew! I can't take too many of these types of days.

Today I only did some sketching. What started out as a rough head shot of Dr. Fate, turned into The Warlord. I was a huge fan of the first appearance of the character when he first appeared in First Issue Special #8. I was already of fan of Mike Grell so this just blew my young mind. Then he gets his own book!!! And then after the second issue comes out...nothing. Back in those days of newspaper stand comic buying, you could miss an issue. I assumed that was the case. After a while I figured it was canceled, but then out of no where, the third issue comes out! Again, happiest kid you could find.

Mike Grell's creations have always pulled in people I know that never read comics. My mom would read Warlord and even named one of her dogs, Travis, after the character. My girlfriend in high school, who never read comics, read my Warlord comics. Jon Sable was a favorite of another girl friend. My wife Deena liked Shaman's Tears. I find it interesting that Grell's characters seem to reach out to a wider audience. Too bad about the Sable TV series though. That could have been great. Seemed to work out for Rene Russo who was part of the cast of that short lived show. Ah well. :)

This is Post #723

Sketchbook Monday

Today I've been busy going through files to put together some sample art for a potential client & working on penciling stage of three commissioned paintings for Vincent. The samples were sent and the penciling went along nicely but all I have to show today is some sketches in my new book. I love a new sketchbook. :)

A couple of other things to mention. I have four auctions running right now on eBay. All of them are Legionnaires I have shown here over the last several days. If anyone is interested you can find them here.

I am still taking inked commissions at this time. So if anyone is interested just send me an email. No paintings though. I am booked up on those until the end of November.

I don't express it enough, but I just want to say thanks to everyone who keeps dropping by here to see what I am up to. I hope everyone is still finding it all interesting or at least a fun time-killer. And thanks for everyone who came out to a convention and said "hi". Convention season is over for me, for the most part, and this year was really great. I had such a blast catching up with everyone and meeting some new people. Good times! Thanks!!!

This is Post #722

Phantom Girl - Legion of Super-Heroes

I like this costume. I really do. One of the earliest Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes I ever bought was issue 203. In that issue Invisible Kid dies. Phantom Girl was in quite a bit of that story and I really liked her hair, the costume, and her personality. And she has her hair in pony tails! C'mon! :)

This is ink on 11" x 17" Strathmore Bristol Board. I will be putting up this one, Wildfire, and Duo Damsel on eBay tonight for anyone interested.

To everyone at the Baltimore Comic Con, have a safe trip home. I hope everyone had a good time!

This is Post #721

Chameleon Boy, Proty II & uh,...Captain America?

This was a fun one, folks. Jordan asked me if I was interested in doing a commission with Chameleon Boy (Legion of Super-Heroes), any version of him I wanted to draw, changing into any hero, villain or anything I want.

So I decided on the classic Chameleon Boy, with his pet Proty II, changing into Captain America. Proty II was added so "Cap" would have a shield to throw. And I left Cham's antennae in place of Cap's "wings" on his head. :) Great fun!

Below is the initial sketch I did in my sketchbook, it is only 3.5" x 3". Pretty small. The final art is ink on 11" x 17" Strathmore Bristol Board. Thanks again Jordan!

This is Post #720

Sketchbook Friday

It has been a crazy and exciting day today. Conference call about an exciting new venture I hope takes off, then talking with two potential new clients and then getting about 90% of the Chameleon Boy commission done. I had planned to be able to share that one today. While I could have finished it, and may still do that tonight, I want to be able to send the image to the person who commissioned it before posting. It would have been a lot later. So instead some more sketchbook material.

The Brainiac 5 on this page was the first one I sketched. Even though it is rough, I still like this figure. I was going to put his force field around him and have gun blasts bouncing off. But then I went with the somber version featuring Computo. Not sure that was the correct choice. The other figures are of Duo Damsel as I was working out her pose.

Have a good weekend everyone!

This is Post #719

Deadman & Rama Kushna

I had planned to put up another Legionnaire today, but the race was between Chameleon Boy and Deadman. Deadman was finished up first. This Deadman piece was commissioned by Steve after he won the Phantom Stranger pin-up on eBay. He also owns a Spectre Canson piece I did, so this makes it into a nice DC mystery trio.

Above is the rough Deadman figure I did in my sketchbook. When working on Canson paper, I really have to work out all the details before transferring the art. It's not a good idea to sketch it out on the paper as it doesn't take much erasing to destroy the tooth of the paper. Once Deadman was worked out, I scanned him in and worked on face of Rama Kushna in Photoshop. I put the two together and positioned them the way I thought worked best and printed it out at full size on a piece of 11" x 17" copy paper.

I was happy I could use the my light table to transfer the drawing to the paper. With dark paper I would normally have to use a transfer paper or a projector. Once the pencils were transfered I went through the process of inking it. I used colored pencils and markers to get the look I wanted for both characters. Once it was done, I scanned it and sent it to Steve, who was very happy with it. And now we share it with everyone else.

Thanks again Steve!

This is Post #718