The Life and Times of a Fledgling Comic Artist

2009-02-03T13:58:00.003-06:00

Holy cow, I'm not gone!

I know I say that every time I post, but hey, I've been busy!

Posting from the tablet, so I'll have to keep it short. Here's a fun little painting I did on a whim yesterday and today. The first pic is my initial pencil sketch, followed by the final painting.

This was done, start to finish, in Corel Painter IX. No sheets of paper were harmed in the creation of this image. :-)

The Dark Knight

2008-08-08T07:32:00.002-06:00

So yeah, I saw The Dark Knight, like 90% of this country.

WOW.

That's all I'll say. Well . . . that and . . . it inspired this:

I'm still alive.

2008-07-09T19:45:00.002-06:00

Just thought I'd throw out a quick post to let people know that I AM still alive and I'll be tossing some sketches up there. Eventually. Just have to get my scanner working in linux.

Shouldn't be this hard . . . seriously.

So much for that . . .

2008-03-04T13:57:00.004-06:00

Yeah . . . wow . . . it's March already and I still haven't posted something new. Hooray for insane schedules!

So I've been trying to do what I could lately in the realm of artwork, but for the most part have been absurdly busy and unable to do much. The one character that I find I can sketch with relative ease is actually Spider-Man, so here are a couple of pieces that I'm working on.

The first is an ink for one I sketched yesterday, the second is the color for a piece that still lacks a background. I'll get one done eventually. Come summer, hopefully, I'll have the time to sit down and work on this sort of stuff. Until then, don't expect too much out of me.

Quick Update

2008-01-23T21:19:00.000-06:00

I'm still alive!

Things are kinda crazy, I'll try to have a piece or two up this weekend.

CRAZY!!!

2008-01-06T23:33:00.000-06:00

Hey guys, just a quick post to let you know I'm not dead.

I actually was fired from my job at the bank on December 4, and I start teaching drama and computer at a local private school tomorrow! It's been ridiculously busy and crazy getting prepared for all of this - but it'll be a blast.

Here's a little treat - a friend of mine (a very talented artist named Ginny) inked and colored the batman/joker piece I did below. ENJOY!

Quick Pencil

2007-10-25T11:29:00.000-06:00

This is a quick sketch that I did between classes this morning.

I'm still not a huge fan of sketching on the tablet, but I can't deny that it's a great time waster when I need it.

Sure . . . NOW Inspiration Hits.

2007-10-15T20:40:00.001-06:00

Okay, I'm gonna take a minute to rant.

I'm so sick of college. So very ready to be finished. I've been wondering whether I'll ever be able to do what I want to. (The whole comic art thing . . . yeah, if you don't know that, and you're reading this blog . . . you need . . . help). I look at some of the greats like Jim Lee and I'm just amazed by how far I have to go.

Who knows? I just want to get there.

Anywho, the title of this post refers to the fact that yesterday I couldn't figure out what to do and today I was hit with some GREAT inspiration and such.

Here's the pencil. Warning: it's BIG.

I'm gonna try my hand at inking it now.

Moonlit Hero

2007-10-14T15:53:00.000-06:00

Here's a quick doodle - because I'm bored and avoiding homework/studying for an exam.

:-P

Two in a Row

2007-09-28T22:04:00.000-06:00

Here's a digital ink and color of the previous sketch.

I still hate digital inking.

Holy Blog Post, Batman!

2007-09-28T18:54:00.000-06:00

Holy . . . crap . . . this semester is REALLY kicking my butt.

I haven't had too much time to do anything, but I did manage to do this little piece.

The Gaudiest Suit Imaginable

2007-08-29T12:53:00.000-06:00

Well, I finally got around to finishing the Joker picture. Classes have started, and this should be an interesting semester. I'm still going to try to get a few pencil sketches each month up on this blog.

Here's Joker.

MWAHAHAHAHA!

2007-08-14T13:31:00.001-06:00

Here's the ink that I mentioned. This one also only took about 20 minutes. I hope coloring goes just as fast!

The Clown Prince of Crime

2007-08-14T12:40:00.000-06:00

This one is for my friend Brian.

He has frequently said that I need to draw someone other than heroes (and more specifically, someone other than Superman). Alright then.

Here's a pencil I did this morning. This was a quick one - happened in about 20 minutes. I plan on inking this one by hand and coloring it soon.

I am Iron Man!

2007-07-23T13:08:00.000-06:00

More wonderful, lineless, Marvel goodness.

Not much to say right now. I'm pretty happy about this one.

It's a bird! It's a plane!

2007-07-20T10:36:00.000-06:00

I decided to try a new style on this latest Superman sketch. I very much prefer inking by hand because it just tends to look better, and I didn't have time (or the heart) to ink this beautiful sketch, so I decided to attempt the image with no lineart - just color. Take a look at how it turned out.

Personally, I like it. I have an idea for a background - now it's just a matter of working it out and painting it. I'll post the final product once I get it finished.

More Superman Pencils

2007-07-10T12:23:00.000-06:00

I haven't yet inked that previous pencil. It kind of fell to the wayside. Oh well - I did pull off another one (which will be posted as soon as I can do the background for it). I also penciled one of my best Superman sketches yet. This is by far my favorite.

Enjoy!

Superman pencils

2007-07-05T17:53:00.000-06:00

Hey guys!

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted anything. It's been really really really busy for me. I haven't had much time to do some research and come up with new poses and such for pics. Anywho - I managed to get some great reference models lately and I figured I'd give you a peek at the pencils for my next project.

Hope you like it! I've been getting better at superhero anatomy.

A Familiar Pose

2007-06-10T14:39:00.001-06:00

Here's the Nightcrawler I talked about in the last post. Not much else to say.

Arachnophobia

2007-06-09T19:19:00.000-06:00

Okay, this one was a pure accident. Well, maybe not, but it wasn't intended to be as good as it turned out. I saw a poster of Spidey at a local pizza place and thought "I could duplicate that".

Well, I was bored at work today and happened to have my laptop.

So I did.

This was COMPLETELY done in Painter and Photoshop. No pencil/ink work to it.

I'm pleased - in fact, I'm doing another one almost identical to it with Nightcrawler.

Nightcrawling

2007-06-04T09:30:00.001-06:00

I sat down and chatted with a few friends the other night to get ideas for my next pic. They all suggested Kurt Wagner. So here we go!

I'm getting better at painting starfields and planets and such. :-)

Enjoy!!

Man of Steel

2007-05-30T20:12:00.000-06:00

Well, I'm married!

It's been great, but at the same time a little limiting on time to do artwork. So don't expect a tremendous outflow of artistic creativity from me. Anyway, this next piece is born of my frustration at being terrible at backgrounds. I sat down and did a great Superman at my drafting table and it sat in the ink stage for a few weeks. I finally decided to color it and took one look at it and knew that it deserved something more than the flat white background.

So I spent a good long time creating the following piece. Enjoy!

A return to the basics

2007-05-04T00:56:00.000-06:00

Well, two finals down, two to go.

Also, only 8 days until I'm no longer single!

Anywho, on to the actual post. I recently purchased a couple of bristol boards (best paper ever!) in order to do the work for the actual Requiem for Innocence comic strip (which will return from its hiatus as soon as I get married), and I happened to purchase a new technical pen and a brush. I've never inked with a brush before.

I like it!

I can see why the greats still do all their work on paper. Coloring is great on the computer, but nothing beats a steady hand and a healthy supply of India Ink.

Here's the first piece I did. I've got another Superman in the works and then I need to kinda refresh after all these heroes. Might try another mythology piece.

Another Nod to the Great Miller

2007-04-30T11:32:00.000-06:00

Wow . . . two weeks since my last post. Sorry about that. Things have been extremely busy.

I'm in the new place (still getting everything moved over, but it's definitely moving along quickly), and it's only 12 days until the wedding!

Nerves . . . shot.

Anyway - I'm sitting in the Student Union between meaningless final exam reviews (I hate the last day of class, it's so pointless) and I decided to do a piece of work that is reminiscent of Frank Miller's "The Dark Knight Returns" cover. Those of you who are fans of Batman will recognize this.

Anywho, enjoy. I've got a Spanish final (not review - test!) in 1.5 hours. Pray!

Allow me to suggest the character of this dramatis personae

2007-04-16T11:58:00.000-06:00

Voila! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance, a vendetta held as a votive not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose. So let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you, and you may call me V.

Holy Shiny Suit, Batman!

2007-04-06T14:20:00.000-06:00

One of the big trends in superhero artwork is the idea of a reflective suit. Since the stuff is made of spandex, that's not really accurate, but it makes for a NICE looking effect. So here you go.

Now it's on to the Nightcrawler I posted last time!

Rough Sketch - work in progress

2007-04-02T19:14:00.000-06:00

Hooray for not getting anything done for far too long. This is a scan of a half completed sketch I did at work today. I'll post the pencils when I'm done with them, and then the inks, and then the colors.

Oh, I should also have a Batman pic for you guys soon enough.

"Mother" is the Name for God . . .

2007-03-22T21:59:00.000-06:00

This one is for my sister. Playing with more of the whole negative space stuff. I'm getting hooked on it.

An Homage to Frank Miller

2007-03-06T21:17:00.000-06:00

With 300 releasing this weekend, I decided to try some inks in Miller's unique negative space style. I've gotta say . . . I dig it! I can see why this master of comics uses this style.

Making a name for itself

2007-02-27T21:27:00.000-06:00

I know that I've frequently mentioned Corel Painter IX in the past, but I've got to bring it up again. I'm getting very close to swearing off Photoshop for artwork. Not for the comic mind you, but for plain old artwork. I worked for months to get the right settings on Photoshop to simulate pencils the way I wanted them. This is what the PRESET pencil in Painter did for me:

That's awesome! As an added treat, here's that first drawing painted:

A Classic Color Scheme

2007-02-23T01:26:00.000-06:00

Another Batman drawing. I have another one in the works, along with a Nightcrawler and a Superman. I'm finally on the tail end of whatever crazy illness I've had. Well, big test tomorrow, I just had to do some work on Bats here in order to relax. Enjoy!

The Dark Knight

2007-02-17T17:14:00.000-06:00

Well, it's been a crazy week. I've been sick for four days, and I've gotta do some catching up in my classes, but everything's going to be okay. I finally figured out how to draw Batman's cape (the bane of all of my Dark Knight sketches. So I decided to sketch it, ink it and color it. So . . . here you go:

Warrior of Darkness . . . Fighting for the Light

2007-02-09T13:43:00.000-06:00

Well, I was going to save this until I've finished coloring it, but this semester in conjunction with planning my wedding has basically precluded me from getting ANYTHING done. So here's the pencil sketch.

I dig Spawn.

Want some candy?

2007-01-23T21:44:00.000-06:00

Okay, I've been having a really bad day. I don't really feel like talking about it too much right now. Although, you can check out my other blog in the sidebar and read about it if you wish.

However, I AM working on a "I wanna feel better" drawing that I'm fixing to go paint.

Here's the pencil/ink:

Productivity is up . . .

2007-01-17T00:05:00.000-06:00

Wow . . . two posts within a few hours of one another. I've been nice and productive tonight. I decided to sit down and paint the detective picture that I inked. Thought you might want to see the finished product.

Angelic works

2007-01-16T21:39:00.000-06:00

My sister actually commissioned this piece a long while ago, and I just got around to penciling it. I think you guys will like where this is going.

Enjoy!

This is the city . . .

2007-01-11T20:29:00.000-06:00

Hey guys, just thought I'd drop a line and show you something I'm working on. I'm hoping to land a freelance job as illustrator for a novel a friend of mine is writing, he needs a pic for my "audition" so I tossed together a doodle of his main character, a detective. It only took me eight months to figure out, but I've FINALLY worked out how to ink properly in photoshop. Hooray!

Enjoy!

I love it. It's still got a long way to go, I need to get rid of the pencil lines and then start coloring. Oh well. Oh, by the way - classes started, and so long as I buckle down and work hard this semester, this should be fun!

2007-01-09T22:39:00.000-06:00

Finished coloring Batman. Take a look.

Still Kicking

2007-01-07T23:15:00.000-06:00

Wow . . . that was perhaps the busiest and craziest set of holidays I've gone through in years. Sorry that I haven't posted anything in two weeks. I finally finished the specialized portion of my job training and I begin my normal hours tomorrow. Huzzah!! Now I don't have to get up at 7:00 AM in order to get to work on time.

Anyway . . .

I decided I was in a sketching mood tonight. I've got a couple of doodles for an two upcoming superhero projects (one of Nightwing and another of my two favorite Marvel superheroes - Spider-man and Nightcrawler). Well, in addition to those doodles, I fell upon a great pose for the Dark Knight himself and decided to pencil a character sketch. I think I did a pretty good job and I'm gonna start inking this one (both digitally and physically) as soon as possible.

Take a look:

Adam West, eat your heart out.

Christmas time rules!

2006-12-25T23:44:00.000-06:00

Hey guys! I hope everyone is having a great Christmas. I got some awesome stuff this year, but that's not really the point.

I did want to make a quick post to show you guys one thing I got that IS relevant to this blog.

I got a drawing table!!!

Sorry for the crummy quality pic, I only have a cheap Wal-Mart webcam with which to capture this beautiful piece of furniture. It's solid walnut, and one of the most beautiful and sturdy tables I've seen. I've also been secretly obsessing over this thing for about a year and a half now. My wonderful fiancee tipped off my parents that I wanted it, and I was surprised with this thing today.

After a somewhat embarrassing scavenger hunt. But we won't go into that.

Feliz Navidad!

2006-12-24T01:46:00.000-06:00

Hey, Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

Just thought I'd drop a line and show you guys the colored Minotaur. This is the photoshop version. I'm gonna paint the same picture in painter to see which I like better. It should be interesting to say the least.

Enjoy!

Going Greek

2006-12-22T00:07:00.000-06:00

Heh, no I'm not joining a fraternity.

I'm FINALLY getting off my superhero kick. I still love to create superhero works of art, but I think it's about time they took a hike for a while. I needed something fresh and fun, and (after putting the sketchbook and tablet away for a while) I decided to do some reading.

On a side note, I read the book Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz in less than a day this week . . . I highly recommend this book to anyone who's into supernatural thrillers. Very good.

However, also on my list of reading was some mythology. The Iliad to be specific. So this has had me in a somewhat creative mood for the last couple of days. Well, I thought to myself: "self . . . maybe you should do some mythological creatures."

Hmmmmm . . . that's not a bad idea.

So anyway, here is the pencil sketch for the first of my mythological creatures artwork: The Minotaur.

I'm having fun with this one. I'm also taking my time. The flatting portion of coloring (which is only the first third) is about half done. So I'm about one sixth of the way done with coloring this image (if you wanna be technical).

I'll post the finished product when it's done.

In other news: I love my new job, Merry Christmas, and Unbreakable is M. Night Shyamalan's most overlooked movie (just watched it again tonight . . . BRILLIANT!!).

A sadness and a happiness

2006-12-14T23:41:00.000-06:00

Okay . . . prayers. Definitely.

Yeah, the semester is finally over and this was one that just royally killed me. I need to pray and think about where exactly I want to be and also (yes, I'll say it) where exactly God wants me. This is going to be a time of tremendous change for me. I'd appreciate any prayers/well wishes/whatever. Sympathy, I don't need.

In brighter news, I got both my new PC and the tablet notebook that has been attempting to journey down here from New York. They both rule. I actually did a superman doodle on the tablet (I'm going to have to get used to using this thing), but since my wireless is fried and I have no flash drive at the moment, I can't get online to post it. Don't worry though, as soon as I can, I'll do so.

Oh, and I think I got my fiancee hooked on Corel Painter IX.

Contemplating a life without technology

2006-12-12T15:58:00.000-06:00

Not really, just wanted to air my recent frustrations with computers and the like. Anywho. I'm on hiatus from the comic work (and ironically enough, from artwork in general thanks to my PC frying on me), and I just wanted to post a little something to assure anyone who may happen to stumble onto this blog (I don't kid myself, I don't have regular readers . . . yet) that I am indeed alive.

Allow me to fill you in on the ordeal this last week has been.

First my computer fries (yippee! that was fun), then my fiancee calls me in a panic because a floppy disk with her term paper has just corrupted. Yeah . . . no back up copies of the term paper anywhere. So after several hours (and a late night) of work with two of the most incredible computer geeks ever, we FINALLY managed to retreive her data. Well, in the process of finding some stuff to retrieve the data, I managed to pick up a virus. Not really sure where. I don't use warez, and I don't look at smut . . . so I'm kinda stumped as to where it came from.

Thus begins the three day virus war.

I fought with that stupid thing for three days and never managed to eradicate it from my machine. So I grabbed all my important files from my Windows partition . . . moved them into Linux, flipped Bill Gates the bird (not really, but it would have felt great), and promptly deleted my Windows partition. So now I'm on a half broken laptop with only Linux.

Hurray.

I'm just glad that my classes ended before this all happened because my school work would have been ridiculously difficult to work on.

So now, here I sit waiting for my new PC to be delivered (goodbye money . . . you will be missed), and trying not to shoot someone over the fiascos regarding the tablet pc that I'm supposed to be getting from Chris (my writer at the comic strip - check out his blog in the sidebar). It started last week when he went to ship this thing to me (now, bear in mind that at THAT time it was already late). The post office up there claimed that the person who does priority shipping wasn't present so they couldn't take the package.

Uh huh, I buy that. NOT.

I know full well that they can take it and let it sit overnight until the priority shipping guy shows up the next morning. Then when he finally gets it to them, they proceed to key in the wrong address, causing it to be returned "undeliverable" and they deposit it on his doorstep, in horrendous condition. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO QUALITY CONTROL?!?!? When I was working in a movie store, if I had dropped a box of movies, or even stored a box that was as banged up as the parcel that the post office left sitting on his doorstep, I'd have been fired! As a federal institution, you think there would be some sort of repurcussion when someone does something like screw up an address. I'll grant that most postal employees are hard working and under-appreciated; however, for a small town post office, these guys really seem to be slacking off.

The thing that really irks me is that even though they'll reship it for him for free (as well they should), I'M the one that got screwed. And recompense is a long time coming.

So yeah. Technology isn't exactly my best friend right now. I'm sure it will be in a couple of hours when I have the new PC and can play counter-strike again. But for now, I'm contemplating going out to the parking lot of my apartment, burning an old tire, making hot chocolate the way people used to, and toasting a jumbo sized bag of marshmallows on a coat hanger with a homeless guy.

Actually, that sounds kinda fun.

That's not a pleasant sound

2006-12-02T00:04:00.000-06:00

Wow.

So I'm sitting at my computer deciding whether to play a game or start a sketch when I hear a "SNAPweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrmmmmmm".

My computer is toast.

I now have only a laptop. And since I do 99.999999999999999% of my work on the desktop computer, that means that my artwork is toast too. I'm pretty sure the hard drive is salvageable, but the rest is either fried or too out of date to be worth much. So basically, my work is still there, but I can't get to it.

On the plus side of things, I have a Toshiba tablet notebook in the mail and should receive it sometime next week. This way I can keep doing artwork.

UGH. If you pray, pray for me. If you don't, then at least wish me well as I attempt to scrimp and save AND pay off debt elsewhere. God willing, I'll make enough to get a new computer before I get married. If not . . . well . . . we'll figure it out.

I think I'm in love . . .

2006-11-28T01:57:00.000-06:00

Okay, so I got a copy of Corel Painter IX, and I've been playing around with it. This is a really powerful program, and if you're in the field of digital art, I would suggest taking the time to learn this program. It mimics paint accurately and beautifully.

Anyway, I started thinking and realized that since Photoshop has been giving me a hard time mimicking ink, I should try inking a comic frame/character on Painter. After all, most inkers use brush and ink.

So I did . . .

I've gotta say, I'm impressed. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not about to get rid of all my sketchpads, and I still say art on paper is the way to go, but for the purposes of creating a weekly webcomic, I'm thinking of moving to pure digital. Photoshop for pencils, Painter for inks, and back to Photoshop for color.

More Ink Work

2006-11-27T01:21:00.000-06:00

Well, I've recently been receiving a little instruction compliments of our friendly neighborhood publishing company, DC Comics. No, I haven't been taking a class with one of their artists, I'm utilizing some resources from them that were recommended to me, and I decided to add something to the webcomic that's been missing. SHADOWS!!!

Anyway, here's a peek at the ink for this week's installment of Requiem for Innocence.

Fun, Huh? I'll have the colored version up on the comic site ASAP.

Inks

2006-11-26T23:37:00.000-06:00

Hey guys, here is the ink that I promised, sorry I took so long. I'll probably have a cool Superman sketch or something later. I start a new job this week, so craziness will ensue.

Spider-Man Pencils

2006-11-24T00:34:00.000-06:00

Well, let's start this off with a bang shall we? I've been working on teaching photoshop to do what I want it to do. (Since teaching myself would just be too hard) ;-)

Recently I got it to properly simulate pencil strokes and so I decided to do a little superhero doodle. I'm big into superheroes, you'll discover that. So here's the result. Just a simulated pencil work, I'll post the ink and the color versions later.