Emerald City Con Week: Part One

Little People--

In lieu of not posting frequent enough I'm going to post something everyday for the next four days until I leave for Seattle and the Emerald City Con. Graveyard of Empires promotion starts there and we hope to get the word out in every way possible. I'll have more about that later. In the meantime....

Amazingly, my favorite bits from other artists always ends up being the small stuff. I'm a big believer in Alex Toth's principles of "keep it simple". So when the task comes along to draw people in the distance or a crowd or even a wide street shot, I'm always looking for two things: How do I simplify this and how do I inject some energy into it? That's the other side to it. I'm always in awe when an artist can make a little blob or scribble look like a person. It really takes a strong foundation to be that free. It's something I strive for and still feel like I fail at. Below are some examples of that very thing coming into play for me. I'll see if I can post the inks later on.

More Life...

Been a few days but I was caught up finishing a Captain America short for Marvel (see last post). Anyway, I've been making my way over to life drawing sessions and these are what came out of it. I've been trying to keep it all loose and have fun with them. I made a small pact with myself to try a different approach every time I go. Hopefully some of this finds it's way into my comic pages. I'm back to working on Graveyard of Empires and I'll have some updates soon (including when it'll be in stores).

P.

Home stretch....

I'm working on finishing the Cap short this week and then back to Graveyard. I'm a little daunted by the amount of work I have for the rest of the year but I can't wait to get into it.

I've also been thinking more and more about color as I draw. The great Matt Wilson is lending his talents to this short and I definitely have notes. It's something that can really help tell the story and I'm actually surprised how many don't take full advantage of that. I also believe simple is always better. A bold color can do just as much to shock the reader as a sound effect or splash page.

More soon...

People of Earth.....

How are you?

Any Stern fans? Anyway, I got a little backed up with work but I'm not going to let this much time pass between posts again. Speaking of work, I'm in the middle of a Captain America short for the anniversary issue. I'm excited because not only is it a cool story written by Mr. Frank Tieri, but the other creators on the issue are really great. My good friend and super terrific artist extraordinaire Jason Latour is also doing a short in it too. Hopefully I don't bring the party down. This cropped bit is from a splash in the story. Frank called for a bit of a stylistic change and it was fun doing something a bit different. I thought of doing an actual Black and white watercolor but, with the little time I had, in the end I just went for some grey washes. If I could find the right project I may do something like that for the whole story. It always seems time is against me. I also accepted a job for right after Graveyard of Empires (my creator owned book) and I can not wait to get to it. It's a genre I haven't drawn yet (at least professionally) and it's gonna be a real chance to play. 2011 is shaping up to be a really fun year for me in comics.