Thursday, December 20, 2007
MY NAME IS BRUCE!
Sunday, December 16, 2007
BLOODSKULL!
In February the talented Anjin Anhut asked me for an art trade. He'd draw one of my characters if I'd draw one of his. It sounded like fun, so I agreed. I was working on my Knucklejelly pitch at the time, but as soon as I finished it, I planned to get right on it. He finished an amazing pin-up of Henry from my Knucklejelly series in a matter of days... A year later, I was still hating on the same drawing of his character Bloodskull that I intended to paint. Here is the sketch:
I tried to paint this bad boy twice never being happy with the direction it was going. It had promise, but it never did anything for me. It finally came down to me not liking how static the pose was, so I started over this month with a more vibrant concept.
Much better! This drawing also gave me a chance to try out some non-repro blue pencil lead that I bought and wanted to experiment with when I moved this sketch over to board... I hated it. I'm glad I bought a 20 pack of these sad suckers, because I got as far as finishing his face in blue when I decided I never wanted to draw with these waxy pencils ever again.
I inked it with a brush, a hunt 108 crow quill dip pen, a .08 and a .01 Micron pen. I'm getting better with the dip pens, although at one point I sprayed ink all over the board when I accidentally held it the wrong way. That's when I moved back into the safety of my Microns to finish the figure and do all of the background.
This is how I planned to color it all along, it made for a semi confusing ink drawing but a fairly simple looking color illustration... Funny how these things work out, since it took me a good combined eight hours or so from start to finish.
Now... back to Filthy Habit.
I tried to paint this bad boy twice never being happy with the direction it was going. It had promise, but it never did anything for me. It finally came down to me not liking how static the pose was, so I started over this month with a more vibrant concept.
Much better! This drawing also gave me a chance to try out some non-repro blue pencil lead that I bought and wanted to experiment with when I moved this sketch over to board... I hated it. I'm glad I bought a 20 pack of these sad suckers, because I got as far as finishing his face in blue when I decided I never wanted to draw with these waxy pencils ever again.
I inked it with a brush, a hunt 108 crow quill dip pen, a .08 and a .01 Micron pen. I'm getting better with the dip pens, although at one point I sprayed ink all over the board when I accidentally held it the wrong way. That's when I moved back into the safety of my Microns to finish the figure and do all of the background.
This is how I planned to color it all along, it made for a semi confusing ink drawing but a fairly simple looking color illustration... Funny how these things work out, since it took me a good combined eight hours or so from start to finish.
Now... back to Filthy Habit.
Labels: new art
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
WHO YOU GONNA CALL?
I was seven when Ghostbusters came out and it completely blew my little mind. No movie has captured my imagination or affected me in the same way as it has.
For two decades I've wanted to strap on a proton pack and blow the hell out of a ballroom... I'll finally get my wish next year.
Here's a buttload of screenshots and concept art.
I have yet to buy a next gen console, but after Christmas I'll be getting one just for this.
For two decades I've wanted to strap on a proton pack and blow the hell out of a ballroom... I'll finally get my wish next year.
Here's a buttload of screenshots and concept art.
I have yet to buy a next gen console, but after Christmas I'll be getting one just for this.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
TOMORROW COMICS: CRIMINAL & ASTRONAUT DAD
I have not read any of the Criminal books, but I've heard good things about them, and the storyline collected in this trade seems like a good one.
Pretty neat, huh?! How they managed to fit so much drama/character/development into one little page, I'll never know.
Also hitting stands tomorrow is Astronaut Dad in which I'm friends with both the the writer and the artist, how cool am I?
Give them a look see at the comic shop.
Pretty neat, huh?! How they managed to fit so much drama/character/development into one little page, I'll never know.
Also hitting stands tomorrow is Astronaut Dad in which I'm friends with both the the writer and the artist, how cool am I?
Give them a look see at the comic shop.
Monday, December 10, 2007
WONTON SOUP!
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
ART TOYS!
I've spent the last week or so, turning my old studio room into a baby room preparing for my son's arrival in February. It's taking me A LOT longer than I thought it would. My wife and I spent all of last weekend going through our enormous comic collection and selling off almost 4 boxes of it to make room in the closet and last night I built the crib. Riveting stuff huh?
Well what I'm getting at is that all this stuff has put me really behind on my comic projects.
Hopefully this will help me catch up.
I just bought this sweet baby and can't wait to give it a go on some comic pages. I currently use a large projector to turn my crap sketches in to less crappy finished drawings, but I have to work on a back-breaking flat table with the projector directly overhead... which is difficult. I'm hoping I can work on the light box at an angle so that I can trace my sketches, and actually add to them, while I'm drawing making for a much better ,and much faster, finished product.
Now to just find the time....
Well what I'm getting at is that all this stuff has put me really behind on my comic projects.
Hopefully this will help me catch up.
I just bought this sweet baby and can't wait to give it a go on some comic pages. I currently use a large projector to turn my crap sketches in to less crappy finished drawings, but I have to work on a back-breaking flat table with the projector directly overhead... which is difficult. I'm hoping I can work on the light box at an angle so that I can trace my sketches, and actually add to them, while I'm drawing making for a much better ,and much faster, finished product.Now to just find the time....
TOMORROW COMICS: ULTIMATES 3
Ultimates 3 #1 hits stands tomorrow... hopefully.
The first Ultimates series was pretty great from the few issues I actually read of it (Having just moved to Las Vegas, I was more concerned about paying my rent at the time, so I only bought a few issues and planned to catch up with the series at some later point... I still need to do that).
Once I heard Joe Mad was going to draw the 3rd story arc of the series I was pretty stoked to have the return of a big fan fave such as him to an already impressive comic series. Little did I know there would be one thing missing from the mix... an inker.
While these images are still amazing, I've always been a fan of Madureira's bombastic line work, which gets kind of lost in these pages. I've tried several times to color over my pencils and it always comes off a little muddy (much in the same way the pages do here, which is why I've largely abandoned it). I think this may come from how comics are colored, to enhance the lineart... unlike how actual paintings are created, with an idea of overall form, light and compostion.
Also, I'm a HUGE ink junkie.
I'm really looking forward to this book, I'm just a little less excited than I was.
Oh well, you can't have everything.
Archives
December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008