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).

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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.

BOOM! and POW!

Let's face it, sound effects are the reason comics are cool. I haven't added my own SFX much in comics but I love when I get the opportunity to. With my own book, that was one of the things that I was most looking forward to. Between the war and horror elements, sound becomes a major player. A small "creak" down a dark hallway can do more to scare you then a big shot of a monster. The deafening sounds of war is a big part of what makes it so intense (the threat of death helps too). So here are a couple of recent panels in which I tried to capture some of the sounds of our story.

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Fixed

I just realized today that some of the recent post didn't have clickable images. I fixed them so they all open up to a larger view. Sorry 'bout that.

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Drawing From Life

It's been quite a few years since I've been to a life drawing session and last night I made my way over to one. I didn't realize how much I missed it. It's been said before but there really is nothing that compares. The place was great and the model was terrific. I had alot of rust to knock off so I'm not sure it's great to look at but here are some of the results. They consist of 30 second, one minute, five minute and a couple of ten minutes poses. I actually brought along some ink and a brush for the longer poses. I can't wait to go again and I think I'm going to drag a couple of people with me next time.

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Rush Job

I did a quick two pages this weekend for an upcoming Spider-Girl issue. It was tight so I didn't have any pencils to scan (just roughed it in and went to inks). It was fun. Probably not my best work but not bad for the speed I did it in. Here are a couple of panels that I didn't hate.

I think my favorite bit is the guys right arm in the first panel. The thick ink line. Thanks to Matthew Southworth (the actual artist on the issue) for doing his Spider-Girl in silhouette. Made my job easier.

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Mondongo for everyone!

I started a short job (12 pages) and I'll probably post some process stuff next. In the meantime, I thought I'd just throw up some bits from different things.

This is a quick I sketch I did while half-heartedly looking in my little mirror. So it half-heartedly looks like me. It actually gave me the idea for the new header up top so I guess it was useful after all.

Who doesn't love dog eating innards? I know I do. I haven't drawn many dogs so this one was fun in that "how the hell do I do this?" kind of way? When I get more into my book I may have to do a montage of things eating other things.

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Two for Tuesday!

I have a couple of things that are keeping me busy these days but the one I'm most excited about is my creator owned book with Mark Sable. We haven't worked together in years and it's fun to come back together with what we've learned since way back when. Technically our reunion was What If Spiderman? that came out recently but getting to work on our own book from the ground up is where the real fun is.

I don't want to tip our hat too early but I can say it's not like anything you've seen before from either of us. Here are couple more bits that might give a hint to the genre of the story. (It rhymes with "klombie")

Self Fulfilling Prophecy

I knew I shouldn't have named this blog the way I did. It was only a matter of time before I abandoned it for laying on the couch, watching DVDs, or staring at the wall.

So here is my attempt at restarting this blog and hopefully keep it up to date. I make no promises. Also, so this new post is worth the wait (has it really been over 3 years?!) I added a little art from my current project. More soon....

More POTTER'S FIELD!

Here's an interview with the illustrious creators of POTTER'S FIELD.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=10961

And, so the post's not too boring, I slapped together the three covers I did for the series. I scanned and colored them all seperately so they don't fit perfectly but you get the idea. It wasn't my fault I swear.

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Update!

Still recovering from the Philly show this past weekend but here's what's new. JOHN DOE is finally solicited but under a new name (I guess JOHN DOE was too common) POTTER'S FIELD. So that means the first issue should hit in August and Mark and I are starting to beat the drums. Heres a newsarama article that went up recently.

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=116264


Next is BPRD.... Well Im well into #2 and it's just getting more fun by the page. Can't wait to get to #3 because theres some crazy stuff coming up.


Lastly, I did a pin-up for a friend. Rafael Albuquerque is hot young artist whose work you might know from BLUE BEETLE (published by DC). I've met him a couple of times now and he's really one of the nicest people I've had the pleasure to talk to at a convention. His creator owned book is called CRIMELAND and it's really stunning. I knew I wasn't the only one doing a pin-up and since it was a crime book, I was sure everyone would do some cool nior pieces. So I decided to try something different and out of my comfort zone. I'm pretty happy with it and it was fun to do.

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----edit----
Just saw this new review for POTTER'S FIELD. check it out!
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/33067#1

Almost final cover

Here's the colored version. I still have some tweaks but I'm leaving it like this for the solicitation. I figure I'll get a bit of distance from it and hopefully improve it later. Sorry no steps but my "process" was such a meddled mess that I wasn't sure how best to show it. Suffice it to say that it was alot of layers, channel play, hue messin', saturation fixing, and all around craziness to get this. I have to get into coloring more so it won't be so trial and error.

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The Process...

Here's a cover I've worked up for JOHN DOE. It's actually cover one of three and the all connect. A throw back to the Jim Lee days of crazy covers. Actually, I just wanted to do collage type covers and I figured why not take it a step further and do one big collage. This here is the thumbnail idea. I kept it vague with just the main elements I wanted prominent. They'll be dense but I'm gonna color it myself so I can knock out linework and fade things back and all that fun stuff.

Here's the rough of the first cover with a bit of ink. AS you can see it's not tight at all as I'm always impatient to get to the inking.

Next is the main elements fleshed out. The rest is really detailed "clutter" so I was focusing on getting these three figures finished first.

And here is the final inks. as you can see it's a bit dense but that'll be fixed in the coloring. I didn't want to do things on different layers because I wanted to have the whole three part piece stand on it's own. Some of the elements will spill over onto the next cover (buildings and names) but the main thing is the map. As you can see from the thumbnail I wanted the main unifying thing to be a map of the area this all takes place with the island taking a more upfront spot on the final cover. Hopefully this will turn out at least semi cool and I don't ruin the the whole thing with my lousy colors.

I'll post the color steps and the final soon. BACK TO WORK!

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My "office"

I've seen other people post a "Whats on my desk today" and lacking all originality I decided to do the same. So here it is. On my desk is a mish-mash of my current projects... layouts, penciled pages, a favor for a friend, and lots of character sketches for BPRD.

Also on my desk... Remnants of Lasagna. Sometimes I'm lucky I remember to eat. I'll post cooler things soon I promise.

***** Fixed first pic. Now it's clickable!

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Busy Busy Busy

Since I started working professionally I never seem to have just one project going at a time. That's pretty much the norm in the comic industry but I always make a point to have at least a couple of things going at once. Being able to jump back and forth from different stories really helps me keep my excitement (not that BPRD needs any help in that department) going from day to day.

Here are some select panels from both books I'm working on now. Both of them are horror books so I get to really amp up the darkness of it all. I really can't wait till I get further along in these books because, as any horror-lover knows, it only gets darker, creepier, and more fun as the story unfolds. The ending to both the stories are so great (in different ways too) that I almost wish I could skip to the end now. I'll try to be patient.

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Fun sketch

I did this today as a break from penciling. I really think inking is the most fun part in making comics. At least for me it is. I do most of the work in that stage and it's always fun to be messy when you are creating. Sometimes I miss it while I get the next batch of pencils ready to go.

I chose a samurai because eventually I really want to do something set in Feudal Japan (maybe a Iron Fist one shot... Marvel? Are you listening?) Let's face it Samurai are awesome and everyone likes a good sword fight. I also want to do other period pieces sometime down the line. Maybe I'll just do a series of them or something.... Food for thought.

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Fun with the Harbinger of DOOM!

Here's the only shot of Hellboy I actually got to draw so far. The book Im doing is actually focused on Prof. Broome and Hellboy isn't but 2 years old or so. Actually none of the regular cast is in it really... I dont mind though because it actually saves me the trouble of pitting my versions of the crew against Mignola's. So I hope to get a scene with more hellboy later but he's pretty much not in the book. Im almost done with the first issue and I wish I could post more but I dont want to spoil anything (trust me its worth it).

Fun with characters!

I know I posted about "making characters unique" before and how I'm always trying to push that as much as possible. One of my favorite things about Alex Toth is how he would have such exaggerated characters without crossing the line into "cartoon". They always held up to realism even when he pushed things. I'm always trying to find that middle ground. Here are some soldier characters from BPRD. I tried to give each one a distinct look and hopefully a distinct personality when it comes to the pages. Also heres a Prof. Bruttenholm with a hat. I've never seen Mignola draw him with a hat but I think it fits him and Im gonna throw it in where I can (Yes.. these are the silly things that I occupy my mind with).

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