Insect Queen - Canson Cutie Finish

Insect Queen © DC Comics

Here is the finished Canson Cutie featuring Lana Lang as The Insect Queen. I love using this color for characters with red hair. It's such a nice base. This is number three of five Canson Cuties I am doing for Michael featuring female members of the Legion of Super-Heroes from the 1960s Curt Swan/Adventure Comics era. If you haven't seen the other two that I completed, here is The White Witch and here is Dream Girl.

Thanks again to Michael for these fun commissions!

This was done in ink, color pencil and some fluid acrylics on a sheet of 11" x 17" Canson Mi-Teintes paper.

This is Post #1189

Insect Queen - Canson Cutie Process 2

Insect Queen © DC Comics

I didn't get as far as I would have liked today on this piece, but I'm also not going to rush it. I knew in advance what color paper I wanted to use but when I got the chance to begin transferring the image, I didn't have the paper in stock. So I had to make a trip to the art store for more paper. To make the trip really worth it, I looked at the paper I do have and what colors I want for the next two Legion Canson Cuties. So I did get paper for one more of the pieces in addition to this one. Transferred the image via my light table and inked. Since the ink is still a bit wet, I didn't want to erase pencil lines or put it on the scanner so I used my camera to take the shot above.

Final art tomorrow.

This is Post #1188

Insect Queen - Canson Cutie Process

I am working on another Canson Cutie for Michael. This is Lana Lang, The Insect Queen. If you know your DC Silver Age of comics, you know that Lana was Superboy's girlfriend and that she was given the Bio-Ring by an alien she saved. This ring allows her to take on the shape (bottom half of her body mostly) and abilities of any insect. The catch, and not much of one, is that each form can only be used once a day. Not really a problem when you consider how many insects there are in the world. Lana tried out for the Legion but since she depends on a device for her powers she was rejected. She did gain Reservist status when she saved Superboy and the Legion later in the same story.

My take on Lana is playful. Above are the three ideas I submitted to Michael for his consideration. He liked "C" the best. Having Lana showing off her Bio-Ring in a playful manner worked for him.

Lana Lang/Insect Queen © DC Comics

I took that rough sketch and tightened it up in Photoshop and printed it out on 11" x 17" copy paper. Next I will transfer the drawing to the Canson Paper and tighten it up even further as I go along. More to come.

This is Post #1187

Black Widow

Black Widow © Marvel Entertainment

This is just a little something I did for fun today. I worked on it off and on while getting files ready to go to the printer, on phone calls, and any other chance I got today. I was also going to do some roughs for the next Legion Canson Cutie, but I never got a moment to really think about it and develop some ideas for poses. I will do that first thing tomorrow morning. :)

This was done in ink on an 11" x 17" sheet of bristol board.

This is Post #1186

Dream Girl - Canson Cutie

Dream Girl © DC Comics

Here is the finished artwork for Michael. I will be doing three more for him over the next few weeks. They will be Princess Projectra, Insect Queen, and Shadow Lass. All done in the costumes from the Curt Swan/Adventure Comics era. Thanks again Michael, I'm glad you like her.

This was done using ink, color pencils and fluid acrylic on a sheet of 11" x 17" Canson Mi-Teintes paper.

This is Post #1185

Dream Girl - Canson Cutie Process

This is one I worked on today. I knew I wouldn't finish it but I planned ahead to take some photos of the process.

Below left is the selected pose for Dream Girl. I took that rough sketch as my starting point, and tightened it up in Photoshop CS5. Using a hard brush I sketched out the figure in one color, then refined it in another color. Much like using a blue pencil for structure and graphite pencil for final line art. During the drawing process I would flip the image horizontally back and forth to make sure the figure is correct. If I was drawing this traditionally, I would use a mirror to see the reversed image.

After I got the figure done, I changed it to a black line and printed it out on my Epson Stylus Photo 2200 color printer. Below is the image printed on a sheet of 11" x 17" copy paper. The paper to the right is what I am going to transfer the image to using the light table underneath. (Side note: That paper color isn't accurate. Photos were taken with my iPhone under warm lights.)

Below is the transferred image that I have started inking with a Pentel Pocket Brush Pen.

Dream Girl © DC Comics

More tomorrow!

This is Post #1184

Happy New Year!

Artwork © 2011 Gene Gonzales

Happiness is a warm silencer.

Happy New Year! I hope everyone has recovered. We had a quiet evening ourselves. Stayed up for the ball to drop and then went to bed. I was up at 6:30 to finish up the job I have been working on for the last few weeks. Got it done by noon today and then ran all around town with my lovely wife. I felt a great deal of relief finishing that work and beating the deadline by a couple of days.

So here we are again with another year gone. What was once my experiment to see if I could post for one year, every day, is now entering it's fourth year. I haven't added up the days yet but it's a lot. I had hoped to do something special or at least something of a finished piece to mark this 3 year anniversary, but my workload would only permit sketchy stuff with some color tossed in. It's tough because I have completed a great deal of work and I cannot share it. At least not for a while. But I will try to have some finished pieces done soon. I still have 4 more Canson Cuties on my list, and I will be starting one tomorrow and finishing the rest during this month.

I have some fun stuff that I am working on in my spare time. Yeah, my spare time. When I have enough "in the can", I will announce something. Probably sometime in February. Convention season is coming up and that means con sketches and maybe some Conventionless Convention Sketches. Also I am working on a new sketchbook for 2011. Like I said, fun stuff.

Thanks again everyone. For all the support, kind words and bad puns (you know who you are). I couldn't continue to do this blog without you. Happy 2011!

This is Post # 1183