Dear Ma...

"... A funny thing happened..."

Another image done for the fine Blog Just Saying I Love You.
The details of this one escape me. I just remember it was fun to work on.

Those Damn Beats

Just because - it was in my sketchbook and I kinda liked it so I inked it in and threw some color on. The drawings scale makes the detail suffer but over all it's not bad.

Drawn at 9 x 12 on standard sketchbook paper, pencils and inks took about 2 and a half hours (give or take). Digital finishes/colors took roughly another 2 and a half hours.

The Macabre

This was something I did LATE last night. I got home around 11 pm and began doodling in one of my sketchbooks. Well I liked what came out (much less detailed then this) so I decided to stay up an ink it in.
At 4:30 am (give or take a little) this is where I ended up. For a drawing that is no bigger then 9x11 I (mostly) like how it turned out.

The Self Portrait

Yup - that's me. In the midst of all this retrospective stuff I thought I'd keep it fresh with a self portrait I did recently.
A mix of a little high contrast photography, photoshop and some digital lines, it took a couple hours to do.

LOOK! Up in the Sky!

This one is pretty old as well - from 1999 in fact. I'm posting it in the midst of this series of retrospective posts to illustrate a point. Despite my fairly primitive skills even up to '99, I was capable of a little jem or two. Don't get me wrong - the original of this was pretty poor because of the line quality but with some fresh inks, a few improved details and some rendering the potential of a drawing with poor lines can be seen. This still isn't great but it really isn't that bad now that it has been touched up.

* I beefed up the lines to make them pop a little better.

* I added in the shadows in the underside of Supes cape.
* I added a smidgen of detail to his torso.
* I redrew his facial features and photoshoped them in. I kept them true to the original look - I just cleaned them up a bit.
* I also digitally generated the big Superman "S" and added in the black/white/black background just 'cause I though it would look cool. Well, cooler then it was I guess.

Circa 1993

Both these images are from '93. At this point I was drawing a lot on biology paper. I'm not sure what else it's used for but I drew on it. It was a sort of heavyish kinda paper that absorbed ink really well. I started using it because an art teacher in High School had us use it in class (I can only assume as a cheap alternative to 100 lb. Bristol Board, though it was not as heavy).

The paper itself was 8.5 x 11 had three pre-punched holes so it could be placed in 3 ring binders. In retrospect this factor on top of its limited size made it difficult to do anything good with it, but at the time I loved this stuff.

This is about the time I started inking in my work with the tools I still use to this day. While I experimented with Micron and Tech-Liner graphic pens as well as a few others, the Staedtler Pigment Liners were always, and continue to be the best graphic pen I have ever used.

Anyway my lines here (among many other things - check out that wack-ass left leg on Rob Liefelds character Chapel in the lower image!) clearly need work. I really didn't have any significant understanding yet of varying line weight. When I grew as an artist I learned how to really make figures really pop from and environment or background. While experience was allowing me to learn this (and other) lesson(s) on my own I owe a lot to artist and former instructor Rick Reese for aiding me in getting these concepts and practices to really gel for me.

By the way - can you tell I clearly have a thing for bats at this point? Not unlike my (then) comic book idol Todd McFarlane...

Long Ago (but technically more recent then the previous post)...

More material from my formative years.

Spidey there is circa late 1987 to early 1988. As you can see I graduated from crayons at this point but still didnt have the sense not to draw on lined notebook paper. I apparently "inked" the drawing with a ball point pen and a felt tipped pen.

Captain America there is from about a year later (give or take as I don't remember exactly when these were done). I never inked this in because at the time I thought these were the best pencils I had ever done. I felt like if I put ink on it I would ruin it. The image itself if after Todd McFarlane from one of his Amazing Spider-Man covers where there was a cross over with the Cap.

Long Ago...

Since it's my birthday today I figured I'd add in a couple of those old drawings from my childhood I alluded to in a previous post.

The top "tiger" is from about 1982 or so. I'm not exactly sure when I did it but '82 sounds about right. As most kids do I started out drawing in crayon on that old heavy tan-ish kiddie drawing paper that used to come in those drawing packs.

The second one is from about 1984 or so and is of a spaceship called the SDF-1 from an old cartoon series called Robotech. It was easily my favorite cartoon from that era. It's also on that heavy tan-ish kiddie art paper, thought the scan kinda washed out that texture/color.

I'll be posting a few more drawings from my youth over the next week or so. Mostly because I think it's always kinda cool to look back and see what how I grew as an illustrator and artist in general.

Noms

Super Noms actually. Another piece for Erin Clarks project Just Saying I Love You. Clearly the lioness loves her some zebra.

I thought the idea was pretty funny so I went with it. I recycled the lioness from my Pride of Baghdad homage. I just had to digitally add in the tongue licking the chops in anticipation of the love fest (also know as the feeding frenzy). The zebra I did up just for this.

Something Kinda Old

This one is about five years old now (maybe five and a half) I guess... I'm doing something with my Deviant Art page where I'm going to be uploading some old, un-touched up images to show a "then and now" kinda thing and I decided to post some of those here.

I did it for a foundation 2D art class when I was in college. I ended up not using it though and went with another drawing (Stephen Hawking and Arnold Schwarzenegger) for the playing card project.

Unlike most of the older stuff I will post I've touched this one up a little bit with some fresh inks and some digital finishes.

Drawn at about 11x14 on 100 lb. Vellum Bristol board. I don't remember how long pencils and inks took...

What's Your Element

This was a drawing I did for a friend (who is a graphic designer) for a Honda Element (c) ad on which she was working.

It never got used so I posted the previous version (sans the Honda Element and wolves) somewhere on here just for fun.

Well I decided to post the whole thing as I had originally drawn/envisioned it a couple years ago.

To be honest it isn't exactly like I drew it - I removed an owl in the background I thought was pretty poorly thought out and placed by me...

Drawn on 14 x 17 100 LB. Vellum Bristol Board - I don't remember how long the pencils and inks took...

Female Ruby Crowned Kinglet

This is after a photo by Sooper-Deviant (from Deviant Art) called Kinglets Garden . It can be found at his Deviant Art Page, though I don't know where. I saw it only a week or so ago buy I can't find it on his page now to link you folks over to it.

Anyway it was an excellent photo and I just got out my sketchpad and drew it up, mostly from memory...

I liked how it came out so I threw a little ink on her...

'Tis the Season...

Happy Halloween!

Shadow Man

The black n' white and colored versions of a little thing from my sketchbook. It came out kinda cool so I inked her in.

Shadow Man was a character I thought up way back when I was in Jr. High. He could pass in and out of the shadows, literally.

Here he is, exactly like I imagined him back in the day (except now he gets to carry around an Uzi). Note the face mask and the eyes. Believe it or not I thought of this design idea wayyyyy before Todd McFarlanes Spawn ever came out.

Just sayin'...

The Watchmen

A little homage to Alan Moores The Watchmen. Good ol' Doc Manhattan is front and center and the other major players are in silhouette above him. I took a little liberty with the Nite Owls silhouette as I never really liked how he looked in the comic and his costume from the movie would have made his silhouette look like Batman...

Drawn on standard weight sketchbook paper, pencils and inks took about an hour to an hour and a half total. Digital finishes/colors took another 3 and a half to four...

And of course I "vintaged" it out like I do with most of my comic book covers/homages. Though I don't like how the cup ring looks on this one so I may take that out...

No-Bros

So this seems very BRO-ish but is done mostly in celebration of Halloween which is fastly approaching.

Also I was working on a concept I call "patience with a pen"; being smooth and fluid while traditionally inking geometric designs (something that is not as easy as the pros make it look).

Tell Me About The Rabbits, George...

This is an illustration I did for the blog Just Saying I Love You, run by my friend and fellow artist Erin Clark. It's a fun excursion into the various conditions and states of love. Sometimes serious, sometimes silly, love is exposed in it's many forms here and you're all welcome to come along for the ride!

This is (of course) based on Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. However the real idea for this came from one of the old Looney Tunes cartoons I watched as a kid. They parodied the characters with a notable scene where Lenny goes on and on (and onnnn) about how much he loves the rabbits and how he will "hug them, and kiss them, and love them, and hug them..." until oops! he's managed to smush one of them.

My apologies to Mr. Steinbeck that the scene and characterizations from a cartoon had a greater impact on me and my memories of his story then his actual book (which I quite enjoy, by the way).

Drawn relatively small at about 9 x 12 on standard weight sketch paper, pencils and inks took approximately 3 hours.

The Zombie Apocalypse

Inspired by my friend Erin Clark and her inclusion in a zombie themed group show going on in Los Angeles right now (I was originally going to call this one "Has Anyone Seen My Cat?" in honor of her piece I linked above).

Two versions of the same zombie piece. I originally intended it as it is presented in the first image but I did the second one because part of me felt like it needed a background. However I feel that the "busyness" of the buildings distracts from all the little expressions on the background zombies faces. But the city scape grounds the figures and gives them an appreciable environment.

So I can't decide which version I like better. Give me your feedback and let me know which one you prefer.

Drawn on 11 x 14 100 LB. Vellum Bristol Board, pencils and inks (on the original without the city scape) took about 5 and a half hours (give or take...).

Paradise

I believe I have more to add to this - a little background work I think.

Drawn on 11 x 14 100 LB. Vellum Bristol Board, pencils and inks took about 4 hours (give or take...).

The Ugly American

Infer as you will.

Chunks of different drawings all put together in photoshop.

Queensrÿche - Suite Sister Mary

Another in the series of illustrations I wanna do based on the 80's rock/metal album Operation: mindcrime by the band Queensrÿche.

Drawn on 11 x 14 100 lb. vellum Bristol Board, pencils and inks took about 4 hours total

Bloody Gotham

A little thing I did - based on a story idea I've had floating about my head for some time. I didnt keep track of how long I spent on this. It was a lonnnnng time which is sort of disapointing considering I'm not really fond of where I ended up.

And yeah, the Joker in this image is the same as two images below. This is what I originally drew him for...

Hulk and His Enemies

This is something I had sitting on my hard drive for a looooonngggg time. I just threw a little color on it.

Pictured are Thunderbolt Ross, The Leader, Rick Jones and Betty Ross/Banner. And of course the Hulk.

I started it as a concept piece but could never figure out a color scheme I liked. Finally I got tired of it just sitting there so this is where I ended up...

I'm not sure I like it.

Why So Serious?

There were a TON of images of the Joker with the caption "Why So Serious?" on Deviant Art when The Dark Knight came out a few years ago.
This is my take on it I guess. Better late then never?

Drawn on 11x14 100lb. Vellum Bristol Board, pencils and inks took about two and a half to 3 hours tops. Digital colors took another three hours or so.

Spidey and the Doc

I dig the classic Spider-man villains. I think I'll do whole series with the likes of the Sandman, Vulture, Mysterio and Electro. Too much fun man, too much fun...

Drawn on 11x14 100 lb, Vellum Bristol Board, pencils and inks took about 3 and a half hours total. I lost track of how long the digital finishes took...

Th Four Horsemen

"...behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him."

I've always tended to be one for grim imagery. Death has always been the most romanticized of the four horsemen (if one can call it romantic).
Id like to do something with all four as a bit of a nod to the Albrecht Dürer wood cut The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
This was drawn fairly small at about 9 x 12 on 100 lb. Bristol Board. Pencils and inks for this image took about 4 to 4 and a half hours total.

Scooby-Doo!

The exterior and interior (respectively) of a Scooby-Doo themed birthday card I made for a friend of mine. She loves Shaggy & Scooby. In fact she had expressed at some point that a Scooby-Doo themed wedding could just be right up her alley. Gotta love the enthusiasm.

The exterior of the card features some of the more popular bad guys from the old Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? t.v. show. From left to right, upper row to bottom we have: The Spooky Space Kook, The Mummy of Ankha, The Witch Doctor, Charlie the Robot, The Caveman and The Ghost Diver (a.k.a The Ghost of Captain Cuttler).

The interior of the card features none other then Shaggy and Scooby. Natch...

Pencils and inks for both images combined took about 3 to three and a half hours. Digital finishes took an additional hour and a half to two hours (as it took some playing with to find a design I liked).

The Jovian Shark

There is pretty strong evidence that the Jovian moon Europa has a liquid ocean below its icy surface.

Additionally there is some speculation that because of Europas proximity to Jupiter tidal forces likely result in undersea thermal activity.

Because of the likely presence of heat and water scientist have speculated that Europa may harbor some undersea life (though they are most certainly expecting something more microbial).

Anyway in honor of Shark Week on the Discovery Channel this is my little fantasy; an alien shark, native to the Jovian moon Europa.

Drawn at about 11x14 it took about two and a half to three hours to pencil and ink. Digital finishes took an additional 3 and a half hours.

Vic Fights

"Bathed in blood up to the horses bridal. It's death to retreat, there's no chance of survival."

The band mascot for the speed metal band Megadeth. It's been a long time since I've done a piece based on one of their songs as I don't really like that kind of music anymore (except in very small doses).

This one was sitting around all penciled in so I decided to ink it up.
This is standard 2:3 comic ratio with the top left clear for copy (as I plan on turning this into one of my "vintage" covers one of these days).
Based on the song This Day We Fight, it was drawn at 14 x 17 and took 4 hours or so to pencil in and another 5 to 5 and a half hours to ink.

Dirty Harry

A poster on which I am working for a story idea I had revolving around the Dirty Harry character. The tag line being: "The Case That Made Dirty Harry the Dirtiest".
It revolves around his first case just after making Inspector for the San Francisco Police Department.
I have a whole back story for this but I wont get into that here.
I've been working on this for a loooooong time as I just can't seem to settle on a layout I like.
It's been a work in progress since January.
I know, huh?

Going Native

Just another little thing from my sketchbook.
While wildly inaccurate (what with the mixed and matched cultures and all) it was fun to draw.
At only 9x12 it went fairly quick too.
Pencils and inks took approximately 4 to four and a half hours.

Mind Control

A little something-something from my sketchbook that I thought looked kinda cool. This image is only 9x12 or so as it came right outta my sketchbook as is, so it suffers a little from lack of scale. Larger images allow for smoother lines and better detail.

But like I said I thought it looked kinda cool and since I didn't have time to re-draw it at a larger 14x17 scale I just inked in the image as it was in my sketchbook.

I was thinking about the Bad Religion song 21st Century Digital Boy when I drew it and while thematically this differs from the song I liked the idea.

Total time for pencils and inks was aprox. 3 to three and a half hours.

Life

Well I finally finished drawing the background for this image (I started it and drew the falling fat guy over a month and a half ago).

I haven't drawn much lately as I have been trying to focus on bigger projects (the kind that can hopefully get me hired someplace).

But, like I said I started this a long time ago and really wanted to get it fully drawn, if not also fully colored. That's the next step I suppose.

The background buildings took FOREVER to do. You may figure that a bunch of strait lines with a ruler would go fairly fast, but nooooooo...

Anyway, total time spent on this was about nine and a half to ten hours to pencil and ink.
Image is aprox. 11x14.

Dirty Harry in The Dead Pool

Pencils for a panoramic poster I am working on based on the Dirty Harry franchise with Clint Eastwood. This one is from the movie The Dead Pool.
Pencils took about 5 hours (non-photo blue base and clean pencils over that). Drawn on a 17 x 9 piece of cold press board.

NOTES: the left-most empty rectangular shape is for a Motel Hell poster (the movie Liam Neesons character is working on in the film) and the central empty sign is for The California State Prison at San Quentin.
The image itself has another inch and a half or so on each side - the left will have a San Francisco city-scape photoshopped in and the right space is for copy (movie title and what-not).

Original Lioness Setting

This was the original drawing I did for the lioness appearing at the bottom of my Pride of Baghdad piece.
It was ultimately modified into the lioness and only the upper part of this image (the background "cityscape" behind the banged up wall). I digitally lowered that upper area down to ground level so it functioned better as a background. It just seemed to work better with the image so I went with it.

Colossus: The Colors

So these are the colors for the Colossus image I poster HERE. Also since I went through so many stages of "completion" with the colors I thought I'd post all the points where I though "I'm done..."

All colors are digital.
Total time for colors was in the neighborhood of 7 and a half to 8 hours.

Lioness Detail

Just wanted to post a detail shot of the lioness that appears in my Pride of Baghdad piece.

Pencils and inks took about an hour and a half - digital finishes/colors took about half an hour (it's almost all texture fill).

Pride of Baghdad

Okay, so I must have been living in a cave but I picked up and read "Pride of Baghdad" for the first time about two months ago and LOVED it.

Great story - beautiful art - bitchin colors....

In fact I liked it so much I was inspired to mock up a little tribute cover for it.

If y'all haven't read it yet I highly recommend it.

This whole thing took some time - I lost track of the hours as I edited and re-edited the image a number of times.

If I had to guess at a total number of hours spent on this one I'd say close to 20 hours.

Kung-Fu Fightin'

Okay, so I usually never post videos here, or at least random things not related to my art or art in general but I saw this and had to share it because frankly, it's pretty damn cute.

Colossus

One of my favorite X-Men of all time.

11 x 14 100 lb. vellum Bristol board.
Pencils and inks took about 4 to 4 and a half hours total.
I'll be adding some color to this one soon.

Aliens

"In space no one can hear you scream".
That was the tag line for the first in the series of Alien(s) films and one of the scariest movies of all time.

I'm planning on coloring this one and adding a header.

This was drawn 11 x 14 on 100 lb.vellum Bristol board. Total time for pencils and inks was about 4 and a half hours.

Concept Art

Since I posted the end result of the album art fiasco (seen here) I thought I'd post the concept art.
In reality the line art alone is what I presented. It was in a smaller scale format then the finished drawing (which was on 14 x 17 100 lb. vellum Bristol board).
In fact now that I think about it I don't think they ever got to see this concept piece as even before I showed it to them the idea was being picked apart in discussions.
Anyway I liked the little drawing ( 8 x 12 100 lb. vellum Bristol Board) and decided to ink it in and throw some color on it. I am not to fond of the overall design but I like the figure.
I like how the color in the background balances the image better then the black and white end result. Additionally the inclusion of the damaged "angel wings" drives home the idea MUCH better then the scars alone did.

For Frank

As I wrote earlier, Frank Frazetta died last week at the age of 82.
He was a massively influential figure and played a key role in so many people wanting to be artists when they grew up, including myself.
The voluptuous woman is a hallmark of his work as are the womans association to the beast, in this case the lion.
As they stand of the precipice looking into the void of who knows what the lion dips his head in reverence while the woman, stoic and calm, waits for the inevitable.

This took about 3 hours (give or take a little) to fully pencil and ink. I scaled this one at 2:3 (standard comic scale) and left room for copy at the top . I am going to color it and add a header in honor of the man who, when I was 10, made me believe...

Frank Frazetta: 1928 - 2010

Frank Frazetta, the single greatest sci-fi/fantasy painter/illustrator of all time died this afternoon at a hospital near his home in Florida. He was 82.

Frank was the first fantasy artist I was ever consciously aware of and in my eyes he will always be the best.

Tim Townsend put it best when he said: "All hail, the king is dead. Rest in peace, Frank."