Post 402

I'll be honest, this is a warm up sketch that got away from me. But I had to see it through. I had a LOT to do today, but I still felt the need to finish this properly.

Post 401=Bonus!!!

Like I said, I have an extra sketch for you guys since I made it to 400!

Post 400!

I'll be back later to add on a blog only drawing for those of you who have been following this blog! 400, geez, that's a TON!

Post 399

These are my warm-ups from the past couple days. It's always tough getting back in the swing of things following a convention I find. You have that initial energy, then you feel kind of floored from all the awesomeness you just saw, then you have to start back from square one. These helped me get back to normal...better than normal actually!

Post 398

I'm going to go exercise, then get back to pages, but to explain what it says on the sketch. I tried blowing up thumbnails. Which was fine for the first few pages, but when I got a few more in, I realized I needed to go back in a lot and really tweak things, but I couldn't erase things, so it got distracting, and ultimately annoying. Maybe it's something I'll try again later, but for now, once I get these two pages done, I'm back to just printing off the panel borders and drawing it in the old fashioned way. Especially since I got some new .5 leads that have me excited about using mechanical pencil again (what I used on this, the sketch took 2 minutes).

Post 397

Back to working, here's a warm up sketch...can't talk...

Post 396

Here is my Flickr gallery of my Heroes 2009 convention experience.

So, back from Heroes, and all is well with the world. I'll break this down into days, that way it'll help me put down words easier...

Day 1 (Friday)-Woke up at 4 a.m. and got to the airport early. The line was insanely long to get checked through because captains and first class passengers kept butting through. When I got on the flight I was seated between some people a lot bigger than me. This was a first, and usually the other way around. The stewardess got me a seat with another woman on a row of 3 so we could all have more space. I didn't have to use a seatbelt extender, and didn't have to put up the armrest. It's truly amazing. I liked having the extra space around as well, it was a much better experience! I know you guys didn't need to know this info, but it's the small things that are crazy to me. Life has changed for me in losing weight, and it has motivated me to push and get the rest gone until I get to my ideal weight!

Once I got to Charlotte, I hit the ground running, hopped in a cab, and got to the Westin. Once there, I was about to check in, but saw Doug Wagner heading out, so I ran up to him on the street and walked beside him. I didn't say anything, then he looked over, and did a double-take! I'll tell you now, I got the same look at least 30 or 40 times at the convention. He walked me up to get my badge, and then I headed down the escalator to the heart of the convention center. Upon arrival I got over to my table, said hi to Paul Maybury, Jason Horn, and Dean Trippe, who were my table-mates...by table mates...I mean we EACH had a table. We were a whole row...it was IN-SANE!!! Especially for our positioning, we were right underneath the Indie Island sign, it was outstanding!

Once I had my stuff all situated, I went for a lap around the convention floor to get acclimated. I first went over to my boys Mike Getty and Andy Black, who were in the very back corner of the convention center. I could empathize since that's where I was at Baltimore. After that I went over to the Studio Revolver table and talked with Tom Feister and Casey Edwards! Both of them are such class acts. We all grew up on either the Gaijin Board or Jolly Rogers messageboard. They were like upper classmen if the messageboards were school, so it was cool to get to hang with them and talk shop.

I'll tell you, it's been a couple years since I last went to Heroes, so I was using that as my benchmark. This was NOTHING like that!!! I used to always be "kaiser from the Gaijin messageboard" everybody's little brother. That was not now I was treated this year. I was treated with so much respect, I've finally found what I've always wanted. I always used the mantra "no respect" to push myself, because I never felt it completely. This year, I've found what I've been searching for, and I love it!

I went over to the Gaijin table, and the first person there to recognize me was Phil Noto!!! He even said my name! I've known Phil for years now, the first time meeting him at the first Wizard World Texas with my buddy Ian Bailon. I knew he recognized me, but was never sure he knew me by name, so when he said that, it really meant a lot! I got to talk with Cully, Phil, and mah boy Karl Story for quite a while...theeeeeeeeeeeeeen I finally got back to my table.

At that point, people started to come by, and I got some commissions. The first was a Death from Sandman. It was really a great way to start things off, the guy who bought it was really cool! That's something I loved at this show, the fans were SOOOOOOOOOOOO nice! They were all really well educated in a large variety of topics, but especially they knew their artists.

At this point I'm going to take a paragraph and talk about Craig Zablo. Craig came up to my table, and we had unknowingly met before years ago at the last Heroes I went to. But it was amazing to get to hang out with him during the weekend. I did a Stallone in Expendables picture for Craig, and channeled my best Ryoichi Ikegami style because of the tattoos. Craig gave me some portfolios, and a sketchbook. I can't ever say enough nice things about Craig! He's kept me motivated to get better, and keep putting out information on my blog and everything. It was great to get to tell him that this weekend!

After I got some more stuff done, Mike Denniston, my other favorite fan with Craig. Mike is all sorts of awesome, especially the sketchbooks his girlfriend makes for him. The Bizarro book is my favorite of all. One side is the normal heroes, then you flip the book upside down to reveal the Bizarro versions. I've done two in it now, a Batman, and now a Superman. I also did one in his new book, the Lost book. I had to break out some Mr. Echo!

This was pretty much the end of the day, it was a whirlwind. So we needed to get some food. We stopped by the hotel room. Then made the long trek to Mert's Heart & Soul, the best soul-food restaurant I've ever been to. Unfortunately...or fortunately for them, more people have begun to understand the 'win' of this restaurant. We went with Jason Levesque (Stuntkid) and his fiancee Elizabeth. I got to talk with Elizabeth, and she's really cool. I didn't know she was on the Drawing Board too. It's great whenever I meet people from the Drawing Board in real life because it's like a family there.

When your spirits are down after a long day, Mert's food brings you back! I had blackened pork chops, potato salad, and mac & cheese. It was so insanely delicious! I felt much better afterwards. Then we made the walk back and hung out in the lobby until about 2 a.m. at the Westin.

Day 2 (Saturday)-Woke up at 6:40, and then got a call from Sam Ellis. He drove in with a couple friends, one of which was Alan Hawley. I've known Alan for years online only, and was excited to meet him. So we went to Ember, the in-hotel restaurant, and paid 18.95 for breakfast! Yikes...

My Aunt Gloria came in, and and I got to hang out with her, introduce her to my world, and a lot of friends. It was really nice to have a family member see what I'm doing now, if it would have been a couple years ago, I would have probably been embarrassed. But I'm so proud of what I'm doing right now I want to (and sometimes do) scream it from the rooftops!

Had lunch pizza courtesy of Sam over at Fuel with Doug Wagner and Vito Delsante. Vito's good peeps, we both made it out of the massacre that was Speakeasy. So I've always found a kinship with people still working in the industry after all that!

Shared half of my table with Sam for Saturday. He was great table company and was hillarious as always. His sarcasm is legendary!

Near the end of the day, I went over and bought a bunch of Andrew Robinson sketchbooks...suffice it to say a bunch of studying is already going down!

Craig also brought over a friend with an INSANELY GORGEOUS PORTFOLIO of commissioned artwork from guys like Hughes. It was disturbingly outstanding. So I did a painting for him. Did most of it in the evening since most people were at the auction, and it was running really long. So after the first 30 minutes I ducked out and worked on it. The issue...I left this gorgeous sumi-brush Tommy Smith gave me in the convention center. I borrowed a pad of watercolors from Mike Getty. It had this tiny brush in it, so I painted the vast majority with my fingers by spreading water and mixing it. Then I did details with the brush and colored pencils into wet paper. It ended up coming out really beautiful in my opinion.

I went back down to the lobby for a bit and ran into J.D. Mettler, who I've known for about 4 or so years. Stood RIGHT in front of him, and he didn't recognize me. Tony Shasteen laughed, and then he freaked out! It made me so happy! J.D. is one of my favorite people in the industry, as well as colorists, so even though we only hung out for a bit, it was fantastic!

We went back to the room, and Dragonball came on the television...oh...wow...was it awful! I was disturbed by it and have nightmares during the day from it. We missed the beginning, and I'm half tempted if it's on tv to watch the beginning....wow...

Day 3 (Sunday)-Woke up and headed downstairs. Had a light breakfast with Tom Feister and we talked with Latour a bit. I need to hang out with them more often!

I spent most of the day finishing commissions. Got to talk with Mike Denniston for a while. It was really nice, he's so polite that it's tough to talk with him when people but in. He's so lucky because he sees Kirkman at his comic shop! I'm so jealous!

Before I began my multi-hour farewell tour, I went over to Eric Canete's table and got to talk with him a bit...it was amazing!!! Sometimes you go to meet one of your idols and you worry they won't meet your expectations...this was absolutely NOT that case! He was even COOLER than I imagined! He even had one of his portfolios that he made, and I jumped on the opportunity! It is so sleek. A plastic case/cover, 2 dvds, and 2 art books of the highest quality production value within! My brother is coming over JUST for the purpose of viewing this! But honestly, I told him about how I show my students his work as an example of how to show dynamic poses, storytelling...EVERYTHING! It was...gah...it meant so much to me!

As I was packing up, a couple of girls walked up to my table and I brought back out my portfolio. They really enjoyed my art, and that was so cool to me. For the longest time only guys would look at my art, but more and more I'm developing a female fan base, and that makes me happy!

After this I headed out to the airport and got on the plane. As I was getting situated, I noticed Mark Waid was on my flight...so I used twitter, and upon arrival he called me out! It was funny!

I can't explain how good this con was. I received professional respect. That is one of the most rewarding things I've ever recevied in my life!

Now to get back to work and make more art!

Post 395

Some warm up sketches, getting ready for if people actually decide they want con sketches. I'll tell you, it's been a while since I've really had a lot of con sketches. The Texas con scene is more about prints and picking up books to support creators than actual collection of original sketches. Kind of jarring when I go to an out of state convention. Baltimore I did, a ton of sketches...but for one person...Mike, who will be at Heroes!

Cons are interesting, they each have their own personality as to what the fans want. This one I'm going up against the biggest names in the industry, so I'm focusing on prints primarily. I feel like it's a good way to go on this one. Especially with the quaility I've put into them.

Oh well, my flight leaves at 7 a.m., I'm about as prepared as I can be, so I'll just get to bed early and get to the airport quickly. Thank goodness I've got an iPhone now, it really makes the time pass by a LOT faster!

Post 394

I made this to take with me. Since I'm offering a wide variety of 11X17 prints, I'll be running out of certain ones. So you can order any prints you want from me directly, I can print to order, just e-mail me at evan.kaiser@gmail.com

Post 393

New print I did this evening, one of the one's I'm bringing to Heroes! Almost ready!!!

Post 392

Okay, so I guess I have a table to myself? Rock and Roll?!?!

I'll be at Table 421 next to Dean Trippe! Behind me will be Kelly Yates, and Robert Atkins...so some good company to say the least!

I went and got some more inks before the ones from Amazon arrive (they'll be late, so I'll use them for the DCC prints). As soon as the paper arrives tomorrow I'm back into full print mode!

I have nearly everything else prepared. I don't have that many sketchbooks, one saved for Craig, so if you want one, try and hit me up early. Same goes for prints, I'll have about 10 of the first episode of President Awesome, which a lot of people have been asking me to do. I'll have about 2 of most of the others, 3 or 4 of this one. Also this one. I'll be doing sketches on Strathmore Bristol, one character for $20, any further details and I'll negotiate! I am also willing to sell the originals I have with me (except the first episode of President Awesome, I've promised that to my mom). I know if you asked me the past few cons if you could buy one of my pages I said, wait til it goes to the art dealer. But I'll be selling these ones if you want, I really don't want to miss out on a sale!

Anyway, back to getting ready, but I'm excited for Heroes!!!

Post 391

I was altering some col-erase leads to fit my lead holders (aka "architect drafting pencils"). I need to work on the whole 'blowing up thumbnails' technique now that I have the tabloid scanner. The thumbnails were a little too blurry and great for thumbnail purposes, but I can just draw it out better and in just as much time ultimately because then I don't have to invent features on the fly. So I spent a bit on preparing leads so that I wouldn't have to worry about the pencil being too short, this way I get consistent feel for the pencil, thus consistent results. Plus, I got one of those nifty alvin lead sharpeners for a buck at office depot, and rapidographs for a buck!!!

Also, been printing a bunch of...well, PRINTS!!! They look fantastic, so it's a steal at 20 bucks. Plus, they serve as a good portfolio, so bonus!

I need to get my print carrying cardboard tube from a friend who's had it way too long. It stinks normally when you have to ask somebody to give something back, but in this case it's an excuse to hang out with a friend...rawk!

I'm about as ready as I can be for Heroes. So I'll be getting things packed, and working up until I go on sequential pages. That way I can get ahead AND use things to show any editors! It's all about maximizing time investment. If you have to re-do something, that's just poor management!

Post 390

I used a tagger marker (Burner marker to be precise), and I went to town on a canvas. I loved the feeling of it! My friend Kat is so talented, we were painting last night and it's awesome, she didn't know that doing good, believable portraits in watercolor is one of the hardest things for painting, but she's REALLY awesome at it!

Also, big news, I'll actually be sharing table with some peeps at Heroes. Dean Trippe makes things happen! So he, Jason Horn, Paul Maybury and I should be sharing tables on Indie Island. At least that's how it's listed on the Heroes Convention page!! I'm going to try and get some ashcans made of my one story, we'll see how it goes. But at the very least I'll have prints and sketchbooks.

IF YOU WANT A SPECIFIC PRINT, AND KNOW YOU'LL BE AT HEROES, TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT AND I'LL PRINT IT!!! I have a nice new tabloid format Epson printer, and they'll be on high quality glossy Epson paper. $20 for each print. E-mail me at evan.kaiser@gmail.com for that!

Post 389

Ah, the sweet relief of lidocaine/aloe gel! The sunburn is now kicking in and killing me, should be a fun night ahead!!! Had lots of fun relaxing at the pool, but that country sun is pretty brutal! Tomorrow will be a day full of fun...to call it work strips it of the same appeal...though work-ing will be accomplished...in a FUN way!!! See what I did there?

Post 388

Graduation today, so I'm going to be getting ready, and then helping line up students in the 'holding area'...that doesn't sound good at all, does it?! But that's their wording...not mine!

Either way, it will be a day of seeing them off into the world, getting to meet some of their parents for the first time...the parents of most Art II students don't show up to open house...I had maybe 3 parents show up this semester for Art II?

Either way, after this summer actually begins! BBQ tomorrow with the Space Gun guys, and then getting to hang out with a friends this week. Should be good stuff to cool down and then get back into work mode!

Post 387

Just having some fun here on a relaxed Sunday. Saw UP today, and it's an insanely beautiful movie. From the Trailer I didn't have ANY expectations, it seemed so standard fair. The movie itself is totally different, great, great film! Better than Wall-E in my opinion!

Post 386

I challenged myself on this one. I looked in the mirror for 30 seconds and then went back to sketch my visage. Sure, there's things that need correcting, such as the left eye, bugs me now. But I enjoyed the exercise, and think I did well with the shading. I'm shaking off the kinks of finals week. But I'm on the right track for getting back into the art swing of things!

Post 385

First off, to clarify, I saw those really cool things that Paul Pope draws and thought I'd try my own (out of my head as always).

So, to explain the paper, it's the for fun survey that I gave this semester for my final. I've been grading exams like crazy, but these make it all worth it. This one is from a cheerleader, but I have to admire how well she's able to take such a ridiculous question and give it such an honest answer. This is brilliant in my opinion!

P.S. Yeah, I really did ask my classes this...and I know they think I'm crazy. But the point is FUN!!! Only one more day and then I'm into summer mode! I have to work until 8:30 tomorrow night so I don't have to come in on Saturday. Then Monday's graduation, I'm working line-up and fully plan on tearing like a big baby as I usher my students to their future! Then the week starts my need to get full on working out, and working on the sequential project/mini series! Plus, there's plans to go swimming at my friend Matt's pool, which he recently cleaned. Good times, good plans...much better than last year where I avoided the light of day...

Post 384

Did a tattoo design for a friend, the mock-up is above, though he'll be getting it in black along his ribs. Also, I've got my new Campus 2's as the crown jewel of the collection! They're black velour/suede...rockin' right??!! I've got a really amazing outfit planned for tomorrow! I think the kids will go crazy!

My idea behind going all out on dressing up this week is two-fold in reasoning: 1)I'm proud because of all the work I've done this year, I mean, I'm down 16 pants sizes since September. 2)I'm showing I'm putting the time into appearance while other people (who shall remain nameless) are drifting as the final week closes out. I'm sending them the message that, "I'm not giving up on you even though you're graduating, so give me these last few days of effort!"

So far the plan is working...I'm going to be wearing the sport-coats more next year I think. Ask me in August!!!

BTW, if I had to color this...or even flat this...I'd want to die about 4 hours in...seriously, it's insanely gorgeous...but they might as well leave it in black and white. I mean, broken edges of lines, you can't exactly use a flatting plug-in to even attempt this, it would make Photoshop CS2 or 3 go to a screen that just says "I give up!!!!" There's really no way that they're going to pay enough for a colorist to do this justice...or the colorist is just THAT devoted. I know that I'd just quit and move on to the next project. Sorry, that's just my view on this. It's too pretty...we don't have the technology to make this viable for a monthly.

Post 383

Some more cards to trade with my students! The Dhalsim was funny because that's what I saw when I wiped away the shaving cream! Sometimes that's what happens, I'll see shapes in these, so I'll just respond to the nature of the card.