Convention Season

Above is a convention sketch I did at HeroesCon in Charlotte, NC. Convention season has started. My first show will be MegaCon in Orlando, Fl. I've never attended that show so I am looking forward to it. The full list (so far) of shows I am doing is here on the blog.

I enjoy doing shows and I enjoy doing sketches. One year I thought maybe I was missing something, sketching at my table all day long. So at one show I took only a couple of commissions and when I finished, I got up and wandered around. For an hour it was good. But then I just went back to my table and started drawing again. Being at my table allows me to chat with people wandering by and catch up with those that I see every year, once a year. Always a good time. If you plan on attending a show I am at, stop by and say "HI!"

Long tails and ears for hats.

Another warm up sketch. 15 minutes this time. Inked with a Faber-Castell Pitt artist pen/brush. I have always liked Josie and the Pussycats. Some of the first comics I read were the Archie books. Then came the Pussycats cartoon. Does anyone else remember when the band was in outer space? Who came up with that?

I'm probably in the minority of those that liked the live action movie of Josie and the Pussycats. I thought the casting was terrific for the girls and the villians. And the boy band, Dujour was hilarious. The whole plot of the movie of having subliminal messages in music creating the trends and fads was genius especially since the entire movie was one big product placement. The songs were great. I still listen to the soundtrack. My daughter was at the right age for the movie to be the big thing for her. It was because of her I watched it and listened to the music in the car back then. Now I do both because it's good stuff. One of the funniest lines in the movie is when the girls are on the private jet and someone asks Alexandra, who hate the girls but who's brother is their manager, why she is there. Her reply: "I was in the comic".

Isabel's Story

This is a great example of comics used for education and in this case, health education. These are two pages from a project I did that was used by the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services. ISABEL'S STORY is a bilingual booklet about osteoporosis. A important health issue for women. The book is a flip book that is in Spanish as well as English. The hope is to explain the disease to Spanish speaking women and the precautions they can take to minimize the dangers. I did the black and white line art, others handled the colors, lettering and production. You can actually order this booklet or download the pdf version for free here. Get a copy for all the women in your life. (Little side note, the part of the pug on the first page was performed by our own Coco the pug. So far the stardom has not gone to her head.)

Aquaman

This one started off as a pencil sketch in my book but once I scanned it, I started playing with the color in Photoshop. About 30 minutes of drawing and 20 of color. Aquaman was the second job I got at DC. I only had to do the first nine pages of the book and when I was given the script, I was told to get the job done by the next week. For the next 8-9 days I worked on those nine pages and got them in on time. When I asked about more jobs I found the editor wasn't too impressed with my work. He thought it looked rushed and I could have had more time if I needed it. Yeeesh! I met the series artist a couple of months after that and found out he hadn't even started the issue at the time I turned my pages in.

Looking back on my copies of the pencils, they are not tooooo bad. Newbie mistakes, as can be expected. The regular penciller and I had two different looks. His was more angular and mine was rounded, more organic. We shared the same inker and the inker leaned much closer to the angular style. He is a solid inker (and artist) but it didn't help my stuff at all. Strangely enough though, when I was pencilling MAZE AGENCY for Caliber Press, Ande Parks inked me on one issue. Ande's inks are bold, angular and sharp. Just look at the work he does with Phil Hester and you will see what I mean. I thought his inks on my pencils were great. Hmmmm.

Sue and Reed

A quick little sketch of Sue and that guy she married. Color pencil in my sketchbook.

A Princess of Mars

Today's 30 minute quick sketch is of Dejah Thoris. If someone ever gets the rights to do a John Carter series, I want to draw it. This is done in my sketchbook using color pencils with a touch of white acrylic paint for some highlights.

PERILS ON PLANET X part 2

Two days of Lab events and business illustrations have wiped me out. So instead of whiteboard dry erase art, I thought I would show a couple of panels from the first issue of PERILS ON PLANET X. This is part of a seduction scene between our hero, Donovan Hawke and the lovely Pirate Queen Valkia. As you can see, it's not our hero doing the seducing. Writer Chris Mills has a blog about the making of the series. Check it out: http://perilsonplanetx.blogspot.com/