Sketchbook Wednesday - The Flash

I had this image in my mind today as we raced home from Sanibel Island. This was done in my sketchbook with a red Col-Erase pencil and some Photoshop colors. What can I say, this one was a real fast one. ;)

This is Post #896

Digital Study - White Tiger

Another quickie today. This was a 20 minute sketch. White fur is a tricky thing to paint. So I thought I would work from the series of white tiger photos I took. I just wanted a simple face to concentrate on the color. So that's the reason for the straight on head shot. This has a long way to go to look good, but as a study, I've taken it as far as I plan to. :)

This was done entirely in Photoshop CS3.

This is Post #895

Digital Study - Chimp

We went to the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa today and had a great time. The chimp face is done based on a number of photos I took today. I used them as my starting point and digitally sketched the face. I left the construction lines in this image so you can see where I started. When I started in with the color, I only used one particular brush. I varied the size, the spacing, the opacity and the flow but not the brush itself. I just wanted to see what I could do without the custom brushes or any of the standard ones. I'm happy with the results and encouraged to continue to practice digitally.

This image took about 30-45 minutes and was done entirely in Photoshop CS3.

This is Post #894

Digital Study - Sunday

Just another digital paint study for today. I haven't worked too much over the last few days since my mom got here, but luckily I get up rather early everyday. That give me some time to get things done while everyone is just beginning to get up. This morning I had about 40 minutes and I squeezed this in.

I hope everyone had a good weekend. See you tomorrow.

This is Post #893

Digital Study

Just a little Photoshop painting from this morning as I was waiting for everyone to get ready to go to an art show in Tarpon Springs. My mom is visiting for a week and we are spending time out and about in the beautiful warm weather we are having.

For this post I thought I would show the sketch as it progress. Each image shows the progress of adding a new working layer. The progress is slow because I am experimenting with different brushes to see what they can do. Since this is a study and not something I am working towards finishing, that's not a problem. I would say I spent an hour working on this.

This is Post #892

"And We're Back"

Before we get to the art I want to say I believe I made a rash decision to move my blog. What made a few things easier on me, made it a lot harder for a lot of you. And since the goal of this blog to share my work and continue to have this great community that has grown here, I am going to keep the ongoing blog right here where it belongs.

I will leave "The Blog So Far" on my GonzoArtStudio.com site and I just might update it every few months by bringing over the contents from here. Sort of an archive. If Google ever does something I don't like, my blog will still be intact over there.

I hope I didn't cause too much trouble with links and bookmarks and the extra confusion. Thanks to everyone for the feedback. Next time I make any big change I will ask for feedback first. :)

Above is the third and last piece for CILM this month. I am really happy with this. I think I am moving in the right direction. Still a lot to learn but this is encouraging. The original sketch is from a 2008 sketchbook. This is one of the reasons to have a sketchbook, too many ideas and not enough time to do them all. So put the idea down on paper and maybe you might get back to them.

Thanks everyone, for sticking around.

This is Post #891

Dread Baby - Finished

This is the final art that I am submitting to CILM. Overall I am pleased with it. I learned a lot and will be applying that knowledge to the next one. I could have easily fiddled with this piece forever, but you have to know when to stop and move on. And move on, I have. I will have another piece for tomorrow's post. :)

After that I will be catching up on my commissions. I have one for Brian in the works and two for Joe. I will be looking at what I can do at the Pittsburgh ComicCon next month. Bringing supplies is tricky since I am limited to what I can bring on the plane. But either way I will be opening an advance sketch list in the next week or two, after I figure out what I can bring.

This image was done in Photoshop CS3.

This is Post #890

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

Neil Sedaka said it best: Breaking up is hard to do.

I have been posting here for more than 2 years, every day of the week. And I felt a little strange seeing this blog without a post. I'm getting cold feet and it's only been a little over 24 hours.

So, what should I do...

This is Post #889

Packed up and Moved! - Never Mind

I've moved!

My daily art blog will now be at my pin-up/comic book art site:

www.GonzoArtStudio.com

or to go directly to the blog:

www.GonzoArtStudio.com/sketchblog

I hope all of you will continue to follow this blog in it's new home.

Gene Gonzales

This is Post #888

Dread Baby - Even More Progress

I think we have one more day of this piece. Part of the reason it has gone so long, besides my workload, is because I am still trying to work out digital painting. I am a self taught painter and it has taken quite a long time to get comfortable with traditional tools. Attempting to paint digital is still very new by comparison. And I don't have the time to spend a day or two just working on one piece. If I did I am sure there would be faster progress. But only having a hour or so each day means I try to pick up the thoughts I had from the day before. Not easy. Heck, I don't even remember the thoughts I had when I started to write this post. ;)

This is Post #887

Dread Baby - More Progress

Just more progress on Dreadbaby. I only had about 30 minutes to play with the image today. To be continued...

This is Post #886

Dread Baby - Progress

Another busy day in the studio. After going out for breakfast I finished up the color work on a weekend job for DC. Then I spent a hour working on Dreadbaby.

Above I have posted two screen shots to show what I am doing. The only difference between them is I am showing the pencil underdrawing layer on the left image. I thought it would be interesting to show the how the color looks without the that distraction on the right image. Still more work to do on this one.

This is Post #885

Digital Study

I worked for almost 10 hours today and just got around to doing this. I had it in my mind all day and it took a lot of discipline not to just quit working and play with this. Discipline is something that comes up quite a bit as a freelance artist. There can be so many distractions at home but I have learned to stay focused. I keep fairly regular business hours, making myself available to my clients when they are working is important to me. It seems to keep my clients happy. Sometimes working on weekends is necessary to help a project along or to help the client out in a pinch. Recently a person who works at Starbucks asked me what I do for a living. I told her I work at home as a freelance artist. She is a photographer and said she could never work at home and stay focused. I replied that a mortgage and having a family can keep you very focused. It certainly works for me.

The piece above was done in Photoshop. I am working on a character design to yesterdays sketch.

This is Post #884

Sketchbook Friday

Just a little teaser of something I am working on with writer J.C. Vaughn.

Have a good weekend everyone!

This is Post #883

Last MegaCon 2010 Sketches

I have these last two to share from last weekend. I forgot to take pictures of the finished pieces but luckily I have scans that were either sent to me or I got from the CAF site.

The image above was for Dave. He wanted to have a jam piece of the entire Sinister Six on one page of his sketchbook and he asked if I would start it off. And if I would lay it out, providing the groundwork for the next batch of artists. This would make the jam piece have some kind of cohesiveness. So instead of just the six characters standing around I thought up a couple of ideas and this is the one Dave liked. When finished it will be a take off of the classic Giant Size X-Men #1. The scan isn't too clear but the layout has Spidey at the top with his Spidey Sense on overdrive. The villains are ripping through the paper coming at the viewer. After laying out the whole thing, I penciled and inked the Sandman in the foreground. Thanks Dave! I can't wait to see the whole thing completed!

And below is the finished Alice piece I did for Lan. I added a little extra for making him wait. If you remember I posted the image in progress, and left the original on the scanner. Thanks again Lan!

This is Post #882

Hula Baby! - Finished

I kind of got on a roll this evening with this piece and didn't stop. Here she is all finished with Gidget the English Bulldog by her side. This will be part of the April package from me through CILM. I had really wanted to do a Saint Patrick's Day piece for today's post, but the work side won out. Happy Saint Patrick's Day to all anyway!

This is Post #881

Dread Baby

Another flashback. This was originally done in 2008. It was going to be traditionally painted and used for CILM. But I never finished it. So it lives again as a digital painting. I am working on three at the same time. Each in various stages. I will continue to share the progress of each one but this way it won't be the same image everyday.

This is Post #880

No Rest For The Wicked

As most of us had to do today, I had to jump right back into work. Unpacking, cleaning up and putting things away were also on the agenda. But mostly, I was just trying to keep my eyes open and stop yawning. Still, time waits for no one, and neither do deadlines.

In addition to my work for clients, I need to get three pieces done for this months CILM package. The nice thing about having a sketchbook is having all these ideas that are ready to go when needed. I have shared a lot of pin-up poses and girls here that have never been finished. So at times like these, with the clock ticking, and I need some ideas, I can pull from my sketchbooks. The piece above is a good example. I originally posted this sketch in 2008. It was just a pencil sketch but now I am going to finish it as a digital painting. Pretty nifty, huh? The first step was cleaning the original scan. Getting rid of stray pencil lines and things picked up by the scanner. Then I started arranging the art on some layers in Photoshop. Getting rid of the white background is important. It's hard to color something on a bright white background. Having a neutral color for a background helps. At this point, what I have posted above, I am blocking in some base colors and some shadows. More will need to be done of course, but I only had about an hour to work on it. More tomorrow.

This is Post #879

Megacon 2010 - Sunday

MegaCon 2010 is officially over but there is so much to share. I managed to get away from my table for a visit with Tommy Castillo. As always his paintings blow me away. Then I saw the graphite art he is doing on parchment paper: Wow! I will have to steal that idea. Thanks for the stack of goodies Tommy. And Dakota loves her Alice print!

Artist Rick Tucker dropped off his first ever sketchbook yesterday. Today was the first time I was able to rest and take it in. Really nice work. If you see Rick at a convention, make sure you pick up the book. Thanks again Rick!

I'm afraid Joe Pekar and I got a bit punchy with exhaustion today. We were joking around so much that at one point I couldn't stop laughing. I laughed so hard tears were running down my face. Finally got some composure back and got to work.

First up is Lucy in the Sky from The Runaways. (If I got the name wrong, I'm sorry. I wasn't familiar with the character) I really liked the look of the character in the refs I was given. The tricky part was creating something that looks like the Photoshop effect and colors used in the book, but using ink and fluid acrylics. Jon commissioned this and he seemed happy with the final piece so I think I pulled it off. :) Thanks again Jon. I really enjoyed meeting you and chatting.

Next up for Leonard is Katchoo from Strangers in Paradise. This was done in his book with ink and color pencils. The book is dedicated to Katchoo and it is almost full. There are some tough acts to follow in there. So I went for something completely different. Francine and Katchoo are living happily ever after in the southwest. So I thought we would get a peek at their photo album and the time they visited Chaco Canyon in New Mexico. It's is a real place that we visited years ago. It has some of the oldest native ruins in the country. It's remote, wild and has a spiritual vibe to it. I think Francine and Katchoo would have enjoyed it. Thanks Leonard for the commission!

This is the finished Magik commission for Jon. (Yep, same Jon as above. And not his last visit in this post.) This is a companion piece to a Magik Canson Cutie on yellow paper that he owns. (You can see the two together on CAF. Just do a search of my name and they should show up in his gallery)

Jon also picked up the inked witch pin-up below. And he took it to colorist Laura Martin. I'm sure I don't need to introduce her to anyone here who reads comics. Laura has colored another pin-up I did for Lan last year and now she was commissioned for this piece. Laura colored the original art with Copic Markers and just look at the results! My response: SWEET! Thanks again Jon!

I did a commission of the X-Men's, Pixie last June. Once again age is getting playing a factor in me not remember the name of who commissioned her. Oy! I apologize. He brought it with him and commissioned Laura Martin to color the art. I didn't know about it until he brought it over and showed it to me. Wow, just look at the results below.

I introduced myself to Laura and she mentioned she has enjoyed coloring the pin-ups I have done. I got the impression that Pixie was a favorite character and she really enjoyed this piece.

So that's it. I'm exhausted and need some rest before digging back into work tomorrow. I want to say thanks to everyone who came by the table. Special thanks to Joe Pekar for being such a great person to sit by over a long weekend. We had a lot of laughs. And it's always so cool to watch him work. If you have been wanting to get a painting from him, don't wait! I think he is taking commissions right now. Tell him I sent you. :) I had a great time at MegaCon 2010 and it has got me in the mood for the Pittsburgh ComicCon next month! And then HeroesCon in June!

This is Post #878

MegaCon 2010 - Saturday

Busy, busy, busy. But more important: Fun! Fun! Fun! I have been having a blast sitting with Joe Pekar at MegaCon 2010. He's great company and he has been turning out some incredible commissions. I keep looking over at the commissions as he works on them and I am blown away. Those of you that got them know what I am talking about!

I stayed busy through most of the day. Brothers Kevin and Wes were kind enough to commission the pieces below. The first up is Mystique for Wes.

And then for Kevin, Supergirl.

Sorry for just photos of the pieces. Since these were finished at the show I didn't have a chance to scan them. But the Bros. have said they will provide me with scans. Thanks again to the both of them for the fun commissions to do at the show!

My Homer Simpson moment: D'oH! In my tired state last night, I left Lan's Alice commission (featured here yesterday) on the scanner. Well, I have it again and I will be finishing that up tomorrow morning. Thanks for your patience Lan!

Another exciting moment, other than the privilege of sitting with Joe, talking shop with Big John Beatty and chatting with Craig Zablo, was meeting Playboy cartoonist Doug Sneyd and his wife. They were both so warm and wonderful to chat with. I have been a fan of Doug's art long before I was even allowed to look at Playboy magazine. His cartooning style is beautiful. I picked up a book of his unpublished cartoons for Playboy and he was kind enough to do a little sketch in the book when he personalized it to me. We took a picture together that he said will be posted on his website, probably in April. In the meantime you can see his work on his blog and on his website.

More tomorrow.

This is Post #877

Alice in Progress

Busy day at MegaCon today. In someways it felt like a Saturday. The crowd was big and the was artwork to do. I kept extremely busy today working on Canson Cuties, one of Magik in her demon form and a Mystique. Picked up another Canson Cutie for tomorrow of Supergirl. And I did a layout in a sketchbook for a jam piece featuring the Sinister Six. Think Giant Size X-Men #1, replace the background figures with Spidey and the six villains bursting forth and you get the idea. I layout out the entire image and finished the Sandman figure. Now it's up to other artists to complete. Meanwhile here is a work in progress of my take on Alice and her favorite stuffed animal. This is being done for Lan.

More tomorrow!

This is Post #876

YO, JOE!

Tim commissioned this Scarlett Canson Cutie. He had a specific pose in mind as my starting point and I think it worked out really well. The stars and stripes in the background were done a little different. Instead of filling in areas with color, I used lines of color giving the background a different texture than the foreground. This was done with ink, color pencil, marker, and acrylic paint on an 11" x 17" sheet of Canson Mi-Teintes paper. Thanks Tim!

Tomorrow morning I am Orlando bound. MegaCon 2010 opens it's doors at 1pm and I will be set up and ready to go. If you are attending the show, look for me in artist alley. I am sharing a table with artist Joe Pekar and we are in Section Black, Table 12. I will be posting shots of the sketches I do either from the show or later in the evening. Either way, check here for convention sketches and maybe a few stories.

G.I. Joe side note: I was too old for the smaller Joe figures when they came out. For me, G.I. Joe was just one guy, and he stood quite a bit taller than the later action figures. So my knowledge of JOE lore is pretty limited. Especially if all I have is the recent movie. So when looking up Scarlett to make sure she has two "T"s in her name, I came across her real name: Shana O'Hara. As in Scarlett O'Hara? Oy. :)

This is Post #875

800 Days & Judomaster

So we have hit another milestone. But first, here is the second piece commissioned by Kevin, Judomaster. I have less than a passing familiarity with Judomaster. I know he was in the Charlton Comics and I remember him showing up in Crisis on Infinite Earths but that's it. While I don't know the back story, I do know the visual. This was a fun piece to do in that it was a character I have never drawn. Thus when looking at references I think I subconsciously channeled Dick Giordano and Frank McLaughlin, the artists whose work I was looking at. Something I didn't notice until Kevin pointed it out. It was something he liked, thank goodness. Thanks again to Kevin for the two commissions. This was done in ink on a 11" x 17" sheet of Strathmore Bristol Board.

So what is the milestone:

800 consecutive days of posting since January 1, 2008 (The official start date of this blog)

This is Post #874

Star Brand & Jack of Hearts - Commission

Just finished this piece this morning for Kevin. These are two of his favorite characters and he wanted to see them together. This was done in ink on an 11" x 17" sheet of Strathmore Bristol Board. Thanks again to Kevin for this commission! And there is a really good chance we will have another one for Kevin tomorrow evening. :)

This is Post #873

Zatara The Magician!

According to the 1976 DC SUPER CALENDAR, today is Zatara's birthday! We have no idea how old he is though. I don't think his daughter Zatanna even knows. But we will all wish him a Happy Birthday anyway. Or he will turn us all into toads. This piece was done on a 9" x 12" sheet of gray Canson paper.

I am at full speed on commissions right now. I have a really cool inked one featuring Star Brand and Jack of Hearts I am finishing up. About 90% done with the inks. I will be moving on to a Judomaster and others.

MegaCon starts Friday and I am still taking requests for the Advance Sketchlist. I already have some really cool requests. A few inked pieces and a couple of Canson Cuties! Contact me at gene_gonzales@mac.com if you are going to be at MegaCon and would like to get on the list.

This is Post #872

Green Arrow - Canson Card

Just a quickie today. I did this piece early this morning before getting in a couple of hours of work. It is ink, marker and color pencils on a trading card size piece of Canson paper that I cut down. I have been revisiting the O'Neil/Adams Green Lantern/Green Arrow run from the 1970s. That run impacted me as an 10 year old. I discovered them late when a friend of mine had the two issues that showed Green Arrow's ward, Speedy as a heroin junkie. I don't think I had much of a social conscious at that point in my life. Who does at 10? But after discovering and reading the run back then, I developed one. My early drawings from back then were bad imitations of Neal Adams versions of Green Lantern and Green Arrow fighting drug dealers. Now looking at those issues, I think they are just as strong. Sure it's dated by some of the references and slang, but there is still something there. And the art is still incredible.

Spent most of the day at Brighthouse field watching the Tampa Bay Ray beat the Phillies, 5 to 3 in 10 innings in the Phillies home field, so it was a good day! Hamburgers, hot dogs, beer, peanuts, CrackerJacks and baseball on a Sunday afternoon. Hard to beat that. Now it's time for some dinner and then a few more hours of work. I hope everyone had a good weekend!

This is Post #871

Happy Birthday Aqualad!

According to the 1977 SUPER DC CALENDAR, today is Aqualad's birthday! I went to Ramona Fradons version of Aqualad for this little sketch. This is back when Aqualad had freckles and brown hair. Pre-perm days. This was done on a 3.5" x 5" scrap of Canson paper.

This piece was done in 20 minutes. Start to finish while my poor computer was crunching a bajillion shapes into one big shape. I just started drawing this and finished before the progress bar finished. Big file.

My day has been filled with work, work, work. But the end of this particular 3-part project is almost over with: I finished one early this morning, I am finishing the second one right now, and the third will be done by tomorrow night. I have been living with these files for over two weeks now and I will be glad when they are done. Whew.

I did take a break today for a couple of hours to hang out with the Suncoast Inkslingers. Comic artist Jim Fern lives near me and he organizes a meet up every month of comic/fantasy/scifi/ artists and fans. We take over a section of a restaurant or coffee house and share art, books, stories, etc. I have only gone the last two months and it's fun. Nice conversations, nice folks and food.

Tomorrow I will have a big break in the middle of my day. We are going to see a spring training game between the Tampa Bay Rays and the Phillies. So make sure you follow me on Twitter (@genegonzales) for live pictures and commentary. Both of the game and the beer!

Enjoy your evening!

This is Post #870

Sherlock Dome - FCBD

Today was filled with work I can't show. And while I did some sketching in my sketchbook, that was done for a commissions and I can' show those either. So it's another panel from the FCBD book I worked on. :)

We went to see the midnight show of Alice in Wonderland in IMAX 3D. While not a great story, it was still quite good. The visuals were incredible and the casting was outstanding. It's movie I wouldn't mind seeing again in the same format. So that is a pretty good recommendation. :)

Have a good weekend everyone!

This is Post # 869

Little Canson Cutie - Harley Quinn

I am still working but I made time to scan this and post it. This was done earlier in stages as I waited for an extraordinary file to save. Big file. This was done with ink and color pencils on a scrape piece of Canson paper. The size is roughly 7" x 3.5".

I did finish one job today. That would be the FCBD Overstreet Guide to Collecting Comics. I have shown a couple of the panels featuring Captain Action and Dr. Eville. The book looks sharp and I am looking forward to seeing the printed book. Make sure you pick one up. It's FREE! :)

This is Post #868

Dr. Eville - Finished panel

Here is the finished panel of Dr. Eville that I did today. Actually I colored and lettered the entire page. Also digitally penciled and inked another page and lettered it. I still need to color it but I am wiped out. I am running on about 2.5 hours of sleep. And not a quality 2.5 hours. And I will be up to work again tomorrow at 6am. Tomorrow will be a full day of coloring and corrections for the FCBD Guide to Collecting Comics and getting files prepared for upload for three DC projects. But for now, I think I will just collapse. Good night all!

This is Post #867

Dr. Eville

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

I think I used up my quota of words for the week yesterday. I will keep it short today. I have a BIG deadline looming and no sleep in sight tonight, so I will just say that this is Dr. Eville, villain to the heroic Captain Action. This panel was drawn in Manga Studio.

This is Post #866

Digital Dilemmas - Capt. Action

I thought I would show something that causes me a great deal of indecision. I work in both Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop pretty extensively. Both programs are great for what they do. But they are different.

Photoshop is a pixel based program. Pixels are squares or rectangles that are black, white, gray or color. Reducing and enlarging art made with pixels can cause problems. If you make a 200 x 200 pixel image in PS and need to make it a 1200 x 1200 pixel image you will have a fuzzy image when it is enlarged. That's because you only have 200 pixels, or dots to work with, not 1200. The program looks at the pixels and tries to duplicate them to make the change. Which is fuzzy. It's like a digital camera. You have a optical zoom which uses a the lens to zoom in, and an digital zoom, which uses software to guess what color pixels are needed to make the image larger. Reducing a PS image is easier as you can imagine.

When using a raster program to digitally ink, there are many things you have to think about. Like traditional art, you want to work larger than print or at least a higher resolution. Though you can use the pen tool and other tools for clean smooth lines, for the most part PS is very free form. Much like traditional inking with a brush. Below is a partially inked panel of Captain Action. I did this in PS, using my rough sketch as my guide. Much like pencils are the guide for inks on paper. There is some unevenness that happens with the lines, much like traditional inks. Zooming in to work can be a problem in that everything can get a little fuzzy or jagged. Like ink bleeding on paper. Not a crisp line, but fuzzy as the ink seeps into the tooth of the paper. Zoom back out, and it looks good. Everything but the brim of the hat was done with a brush in PS. The brim was done using a pen tool which allows me to make a bezier curve and assign a stroke to it. It's a flat weight line when finished. If I do this job right, you would assume that this image was done traditionally.

Captain Action ©2010 Captain Action Enterprises. All Rights Reserved.

On the flip side, Illustrator is a vector program where the elements are mathematically defined. Enlarging and reducing a vector image does not affect it's quality. Inking in Illustrator requires shapes to be made and filled in with color. (Color=black/white/red/blue/gray/etc) Unlike PS where I can just draw, in Illustrator I have to plan things a bit differently. The image below is Captain Action partially inked in Illustrator. The shape of the hat is done with a pen tool making bezier curves. You will notice the line is flat. There are a dozen ways to make it have the thick and thin lines of a brush stroke, but I can't just draw it and have the control I have in PS or with a brush. But look at the eyes. Crisp. Sharp. Very "graphic" looking. They were done using the pen tool to click and create points to make a shape and fill with black. I like the sharpness of the eyes here. The shape of his face was made with custom brushes. The brushes were made to have that tapered look you get from a brush. But you don't have much control. The widest part of the stroke will always be in the middle. Unless you make a custom brush that has the widest part somewhere else. But it will always be in that spot. Not much you can do. The nose and mouth were done with a pencil tool. With it I make a shape in a free hand fashion and filled it with black. Again, a different approach to digital inking. If this were finished, it might look computer generated. It might come off a little "cold".

Captain Action ©2010 Captain Action Enterprises. All Rights Reserved.

Personally I don't think one program is better than the other. They both have some qualities I like. I can make a final image in Illustrator look like a traditionally inked job. I do that everyday. You would be hard pressed to tell the difference if you held up what I recreate in Illustrator to the original printed art. But it's a longer, more precise process to get that natural look.

I haven't worked in Manga Studio enough to form a strong opinion about it and what it can do. So far I am impressed but I have created anything of substance using the program. When I do I'm sure I will see the strength and weakness of it. And then I will have a third program to add to my dilemma of digital inking. :)

This is Post#865