Witchy and blushing friend

Here is the finished line art for another Halloween image. When colored, the pumpkin will have blushing cheeks. Just a wee bit embarrassed, he is. This was done in ink on 11" x 17" Cason Bristol Board.

In other news, I have looked at my schedule for the month of September and I believe I will be doing more Conventionless, Convention Sketches. I will know for sure on Monday afternoon. This time I will take on the same amount of 20 (or less if no one is interested) but they will be completed over the month of September. I will offer them here first, and if I don't hit 20, I will put up an auction on eBay for the balance. More info tomorrow. But if anyone would like to chime in early and post if they will be interested, (don't send money) that would be cool. Thanks!

Who's Your Mummy? - Finished

Here she is completed. Added the papyrus background and some extra texture to the bandages, the ground and the background. All done in an effort to make the Mummy's smooth skin and line art stand out. I think it worked. The color was done in Photoshop CS3.

Who's Your Mummy? - Inked

Today I refined the drawing, transfered it to the final board and inked it. I changed a few things, nothing major though. I added the jack-o-lantern filled with candy and the background shape that will be a screen of papyrus when I color it.

This is done in ink on 11" x 17" Canson Bristol Board.

Who's Your Mummy?

What would Halloween be with out a mummy? Here's another sketch for the Halloweeen themed pieces for CILM. This was done in pencil in my sketchbook.

Tomorrow starts the long Labor Day weekend here in the US of A. I hope everyone has a fun and safe holiday weekend. Enjoy yourselves, I will be here when you get back. :)

I See Paris...

Just a sketch today folks. The sketch today is done with a 2H pencil on 11" x 17" Canson Bristol Board.

Hot Stuff - Line Art

This is the next in the series of Halloween themed pieces for CILM. This is ink on 11" x 17" Canson bristol board. Her top was drawn in digitally. :)

Witch-ay Woman - Complete

Here is the second finished Halloween pin-up for my next offering from CILM. I'm quite pleased with this one. Colors done in Photoshop CS3.

Witch-ay Woman - Progress

Just a quick update on the latest Halloween piece. Inks on the left, done on 11" x 17" Canson bristol board using a Faber-Castell PITT brush pen and some Micron pens for small details. On the right, the blocked in flat colors done in Photoshop.

Witch-ay Woman

Just a sketch for my next Halloween themed pin-up. Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Halloween in August - Final

Here is the final piece. There is a "R" rated version in which her breast are bare like in the original sketch. The reason for two versions? Honestly it's marketing. Some people buy the

R- rated versions and some people buy the PG versions. By always having just PG rated art, I may be missing out on sales. Don't know for sure but it was explained to me that there is a market for it. An easy fix and I don't have a problem with nudity. :)

The original art is ink on 10" x 15" Canson Cold Press Watercolor Paper. Colors and effects in Photoshop. I plan to paint the original artwork in watercolors. And she will be topless. :)

Halloween in August - Continued

Just had time to ink and block in some color. Tomorrow I will go into more detail and finish it up. Thanks for stopping by.

Halloween in August

I was reminded in a recent CILM newsletter that Halloween is coming up and new Halloween images need to be in by September 25th. I'm normally aware of holiday images and getting them done in a timely fashion, but for some reason I didn't even think of it this time. So the images that I was working on will be put aside in order to concentrate on 6 new Halloween themed images. First up is a little S & M cutie with her Jack-O-Lantern. This was sketched out in 2H pencil and blue Col-Erase pencil on 11" x 17" copy paper. If you think it's too early for Halloween, just wait, I will be starting the Christmas images next. :)

Look! Up in the sky!

Just a little Supergirl piece I did this afternoon for fun. I needed a break from working on the computer today. This was done in ink and watercolor on Strathmore 4-ply bristol board.

PERILS ON PLANET X - Docks

Managed to squeeze in a page of inks today on PERILS ON PLANET X. Our hero, Donovan Hawke is having a conversation with Aeon, his teacher/guide on this strange world. The area they are in are the docks. A section in the lower levels of the floating city of Nymbis Freehold

For this scene I wanted to establish they are in the air by showing the ground below. Our foreground are the tubes and pipes, our middle ground Hawke and the dock area and our extreme background is the terrain below. If this was a black and white book I would have done more to establish the depth here in the inks. Since the book will be in color, the only thing I did was vary the line thickness (line art is thicker in the foreground and get thinner as things are farther away) and will leave notes for the colorist to punch it up with color. Because I have worked on so many black and white books, I tend to try to do everything in ink, I have to remind myself to let the colorist handle some of it as well. Especially if it will make it look better. In a book like this, with a scene in the bright day,  the colorist can bring a lot to the page. I just have to get out of the way. :)

Tiki Logo

Last week I finalized the art for a logo I was hired to create. The client had seen one of my Tiki Girls and wanted to purchase it and the rights for exclusive use. Since that particular image is already licensed out to two different companies for different products, I agreed to design a new one that has a similar look and feel for them. While I can't show the final artwork right now, I can show you the three designs I did for them to chose from. It was a fun job to do and I thank Chris and Tiki Trading Company, LLC for coming to me with their project. All three roughs were done with pencils and markers on copy paper.

Slap Shot!

This is something different. A client of mine is the sponsor and a player on a hockey team. They are getting new jerseys and he asked if I would take a stab at the new team logo. I thought it would be fun so I agreed to give it a shot. Above are two of the designs I came up with. I tried to stay away from what I saw of other logos. Since most of what I have seen make the mascot look cuddly, I went with a more aggressive and angular look. Hornets are not cute and I'm pretty sure you don't want to cuddle with one. Mostly because they bring their friends. The design on the left is the one we will be developing. These were done in my sketchbook, scanned and tweaked in Photoshop.

Wide Brim Hat - Revisited

I posted a sketch of this girl a while back. I always knew I would do a finished piece featuring her on a Vespa-type scooter. Just finally got around to it. This will be painted in watercolors over the weekend. This is done with a No. 2 pencil (Office Depot brand) on 4-ply 11" x 17" Strathmore Bristol Board. Happy Friday everyone!

Island Girl 05 - Pencil

Just a quick note today. I'm exhausted. I did 17 spot illustrations today and then finished this piece from a sketch. This is ready to be painted. If not tomorrow than it will be over the weekend. This will be another piece I will submit to CILM when completed. This is done in pencil on 11" x 17" illustration board.

Tiki Concepts

My next project for fun (and profit maybe) will be series of painting with south pacific/island girl/tiki themes. Posted here are three ideas I am developing. The painting will be done in acrylic on 12" wide by 48" tall stretched canvas. I plan to make these very rich in color. Very bold. Should be fun. I just need to get a final design done and then find time in my schedule to paint them. Piece of cake. :) These drawings were done in color pencil and ink on copy paper.

...You can chase right up and touch the sky.

This is a tight pencil version of yesterdays sketch. I will transfer it to 10" x  15" Canson Cold Press Watercolor paper for painting. This was done in pencil on 11" x 17" copy paper.

Them summer days, those summer days

Under a couple of deadlines this week. Took on some extra responsibility on a big job so I have that deadline as well as the art end of it. Two days of Lab gigs this week. Plus I am doing some new artwork for the next edition of the OVERSTREET COMIC BOOK PRICE GUIDE. For the last several years I've been doing the artwork for introductions to the articles about the different eras of comic history. You know, Platinum, Gold, Silver, and so on. The scripts are written by J.C. Vaughn, Executive Editor and Associate Publisher of Gemstone Publishing. I will share more as I work on it. Also I quoted a rather large illustration job over a week ago that I am still waiting to hear back about. Around 45 illustrations in just the first chapter. The clock is ticking on that one because it was a tight deadline when I quoted it. Tick, tock.

And I need to start on a new batch of pin-ups for CILM. Todays post is a sketchy idea. Does anyone know where I got title for today's post? Anyone? Bueller? This is done in pencil on 11" x 17" copy paper.

Sketchbook Sunday

Spent the day painting the Tiki Room and finished it. So today is a sketchbook day. I've had the Legion of Super-Heroes on my mind lately. I just read the Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes HC by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank. Brilliant! I felt like I saw some old friends again. Even though time has past and they are older than the last time I saw them, they are still the Legion I remember before the multiple reboots. I hope we will see them again when all this Identity Infinite Final Crisis stuff is over.

Tiki Room progress 3

A quick update on the Tiki Room in our house. Also known as the mural that will never be finished. Well, that's gonna change this weekend. Today one more section was finished and the plan for tomorrow is to finish the last section. The picture here shows one corner I started and finished today. This is my version of a Banyan tree. We see them all over down here and they are really cool. The type of tree I wish I had in my backyard when I was growing up. Vines from the branches make their way back to the ground and root. Over time they become trunks themselves. They must be great to climb on.

While I said the room would be finished tomorrow, that really means the big sweeping version of it. There will be details like parrots, crabs, other birds, lizards and so on that I will be adding as the muse strikes. Then there are the artificial plants that will attached to the walls to add some real dimension to the scene. So that's it for today. I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.

WORLD OF THE TIKI GODS - Inky goodness

I was up really late last night. Or really early, depending on where 3:30am fits for you. Insomnia is my friend. It helps when there is a lot of work to do and a short time to do it. BUT that wasn't the case last night, so I just draw and ink. I pulled out the above piece and inked it. Got about 80% done before going to bed. Finished it this morning at 7:30am. I like how it came out but I am not committed to the black with stars background. That's why I did the background in Photoshop. If I color the piece, I will change the black. And my options are still open on the original art. I included the pencil version for comparison and so no one has to search past posts for it. Ink on 11" x 17" Canson Bristol Board.

On a personal note, 16 years ago today, Deena and I got married. So this is an important day for us. I still do cards for her for different occasions. She has stacks of them. Deena gave me the okay to share the card she woke up to this morning. I won't subject all of you to the mushy stuff on the inside though. Deena always reads my posts so: Happy Anniversary Baby! And to everyone else, have a good weekend.

SHADOW LASS

Mr. Steve Saaf, son of the great comic artist, Art Saaf contacted me a couple of days ago. He thanked me for mentioning his dad in a Supergirl post. Mr. Saaf has a website dedicated to his father's life and work. Here is the link: www.artsaaf.com. Go check it out, I'll wait here.

Pretty cool, huh? We had exchanged emails a couple of years ago and I offered to scan any pages I have of his fathers work for his site. Then I moved. And things didn't get done. Well, today I dug in there and found a page from NEW ROMANCE. The publisher was Standard. This is a beauty of a page. Twice up on some really thick board. When I scan it I will share. I have sent a digital image to Mr. Saaf to find out what story it is from. Hopefully he will know.

What does this have to do with todays post, you may ask. Well, while digging I came across some Canson charcoal paper I bought with some intention to use on something. I don't remember what. But I pulled that paper out too. After drawing a couple of Legionnaires a week or so ago, I decided to revisit the Legion. So we have Shadow Lass, ink and white Prismacolor pencil on 11" x 17" Canson Steel Gray charcoal paper.

Jeannie!

Today is a sexy Jeannie for your viewing pleasure. Thanks to Terry for this commission! As always, this is inked on 11" x 17" Canson Bristol Board. A byproduct of doing this piece is that I am probably going to get the first season of I DREAM OF JEANNIE on DVD or from iTunes. Can't get the theme song out of my head.

And so this is the 20th sketch from the Conventionless, Convention Sketch Auction. Actually there is a 21st piece. I did the above artwork for Terry and the next day I wasn't sure if it was the kind of "sexy" he wanted. So I did a second one and gave him a choice. Turned out I shouldn't have second guessed myself. He liked the first. Both will be in my CAF gallery if you are interested in seeing the second one.

Thanks again to everyone who commissioned a sketch. All were fun to do and seems everyone is happy with the results. I've been asked when I might put up another sketch auction and looking at my schedule, there might be room for one in mid to late September. I don't know if I will do it through eBay or just do it though this blog. Guess it depends on how comfortable everyone feels about dealing directly with me. :) We will see. Happy Wednesday!

Sketchbook Tuesday!

I thought I would be posting the last sketch today, but I have to wait. Instead, it time for stuff from my sketchbook. To try to make up for the missing last sketch, I am posting two pages.

On the first page we have a couple of curvy fairies. And a little underwear humor. On page 2, a couple slim girls. Which made me think of something that happened at MegaCon this year...

A woman was looking through my artwork. I greeted her in a very friendly manner. Smiled. Polite. When she finished looking through everything, she started to walk away, looked over her shoulder at me and said, "So you're a tit-man." It wasn't a question, more of a statement. I looked up at her and said that most of these pieces are past commissions and reflect the characters as they appear in the comics. I finished with "Personally, I'm a 'whole package' kinda guy, not just tits or legs or butts or skinny or curvy or any other ONE thing." She gave me a funny look then walked away. This kind of thing happens at cons from time to time. Most of the time I am just asked why I draw women with these fantastic figures and looks. That real women don't look that way. I point out I don't have the body of a Batman or a Superman either. They normally don't think of that. No biggie though, makes for some interesting conversations sometimes. Funnier though is how I have to cover the nipples on a drawing because there are kids present but a drawing of a disemboweled person or rotting zombie, or a severed head is good clean fun for the kids. Hmmmmm.

Josie - In Concert

Josie in concert with a long tail and ears for a hat. Ink on 11" x 17 " Canson Bristol Board. Thanks for the commission Gary!

Pussycat on the beach

Josie and the Pussycats must be on tour in some far away european country where sunbathing topless is no big deal at all. And so in keeping with the "no big deal at all" approach to this blog, I present Josie on the beach. This is number 18 of 20 for the auction sketches. Getting down to the end. This was done in ink on 11" x 17" Canson Bristol Board. Thanks Gary for the request!

Whiteboard Jungle - The Sequel

This is from the Lab event a couple of days ago. For anyone that has not seen my white board artwork or understand what it's about, click on the tags to see past posts and explanations.

This was one of the hardest working groups I have ever seen. All were first timers and once the concept of the process was explained they really dove in and made it work. It's always a pleasure to work with people take the process and really work it.

Kitty -Pryde of the X-Men

Back to the sketches! Here we have Kitty Pryde of the X-Men. I've said before that she is a favorite of mine but I'll say it again: Kitty is a favorite of mine. There. Thank you to Carlos for this commission! This is done in ink on 11" x 17" Canson Bristol Board. Three more to go, collect them all! Have a good weekend everyone!