Hulk

This has been purely digital so far with these past few pictures. I'm going to try a picture today where I sketch in pencil and then use this technique to finish it. If I do that I might be able to do full pages this way. I really like the effect.

Long time, new post...

So, I'm fresh off of a 10 page anthology story that I did with some friends. I haven't done that much sequential work. However, each time I do a story, right after I finish I will usually have some new techniques to test out. I like to really experiment and test my limits. I did these tonight. Used painter for the lines, photoshop for the colors. Some of you may be relieved that I didn't add any glow. This style really doesn't need it. I'm super happy with it and I'll see if I can use it for a story. More experimentation to come.

Also, sorry for the lapse in postings...life happens sometimes.

Some new art...

I got to do some art over the weekend. First weekend in a while that I haven't been completely swamped.

Team Achilles

More Turtle fun...

I've been playing some more with lighting, and just having fun with this stuff. I'm also figuring out ways to get cleaner pencils and finishes. Not inking is really working to my advantage I think.

TMNT...

I think it explains itself!

Starman for the people...

I started reading Starman when I was in high school. My family used to go to the Borders down by the mall, and I would sit and read graphic novels while I waited for my parents shopping. One time I picked up Starman...the art, the writing, that's when things clicked together. I used to buy books primarily for the art, but everything about the book was beyond great. It's always going to have a special place in my heart, and that's why I'm always going to be drawing pictures based on it.

Friday fun!

I'm still working on the whole pencil to color thing, and I have to say, it's getting easier to do. It's crazy, because for years I've been working on trying to gain an identity with my art using thin pen lines and relying primarily on color. With pencil I'm getting more line variation and it's pretty easy to clean up at this point. I just keep erasing any extra lines as I go.

Psylocke

This was a lot of fun. I'm continuing to work on the pencils, and I think my pieces overall are becoming much more successful.

A couple new ones!

I'm really trying to push working with just pencils. For years I've been struggling with finding a decent way of inking. By doing all my own work, I've had to become a jack of all trades so to speak, although I've never really enjoyed inking. I love coloring, and of course pencilling, but the finality of inking is such a put-off to me. For the longest time I would do relatively loose pencils and go straight to inking so I could get to coloring. I spent a lot of time finishing forms in ink, thus loosing volume and line quality as well as movement of form in the inking process. I'm really feeling connected again by using just pencil in these recent pictures. Experimentation is a fantastic thing, particularly when it works out.

That's Strange...hmmm ;)

I think it pretty much explains itself. Dr. Strange goes on a date...

Been busy....

Things have been crazy, but I'm still trying to find time to get some drawing time in.

Wolvie...

I was looking through the storeroom this morning trying to find some white sulphite paper for kids and ran into this stuff. So I did this during the couple moments I was free.

BTW, bringing out white paint at the time wasn't an option, so I did the white areas digitally.

New pics...

Here are a couple new pics I did this weekend.

More robo pics...

More new pics...

I don't know what it is, I'm tired every night, but I'm feeling inspired again. I'm feeling flow in my work, and I'm feeling some major growth. It's a great feeling...

Something odd...

This was what I saw yesterday when I was taking a test. A crazy dust storm caused by heavy winds, but there was this weird bit of light that peaked through and caused this hazy bluish/purplish light on the car windows in front of me. Kind of scary...

Here's a couple other pieces I've done lately...

Starship Troopers

Just felt like doing a picture inspired by Starship Troopers...more the novel than anything. My father and I are huge fans, and really dug the heck out of the animated series. My friend Chris DiBari is doing a mini-series of the book right now, and it's going to be awesome. So, if anything, I guess his pictures have inspired me to do one. I've gone back to a much more comfortable style, and I think it shows in this piece!

P.S. Happy Valentine's day...and for once, I mean it. Usually this time of year is depressing for me, but today, it was actually pretty good. Still don't have a special lady to share it with, but I've found there are alternative ways to find meaning in this otherwise commercial holiday.

Stuck in the house...

I've got the second cold in as many weeks, this time with severe coughing. So basically I'm just resting and getting some drawing in...

Smokin' Aces...

People either love the movie or hate it. I loved it. For me, it lived up to the hype from those great advertisements. I wish it was longer, just to see more about each of the characters, but I guess that's a good thing that I'm at that level of engagement with the film.

Anyhoo, here's some pics I did...I wanted to play around with the skin of the characters, which was a lot of fun. The other was just a quick character study I ended up coloring.

Posting tomorrow's stuff early...

Well, Tomorrow I've got a ton on my plate. I won't be getting back until pretty late and I'll be extremely tired, so I wanted to make sure and put something up. The first I did with the batch from Sunday, but I colored it this afternoon. Look for the Umetsu reference, it's pretty obvious for those "in the know."

The second I did a while ago and realized that I hadn't put it up. The actual drawing is actually about 2 inches tall. I'm trying to move my drawings up in size again. But it was really fun to try and put as much as I could into this smaller picture. I was happy with the finished results. I even played around with the border a bit to add a touch of gradation to the colors to change the presentation.

I can't exactly remember when I started doing that kind of border, but I feel it adds something special to quickly identify one of my pieces of art. The images stand alone, but It is like fine-art mounting a photograph to a black piece of matteboard, it is classy and focuses the image. If that makes any sense. But I like it, so I'm sticking with it.

Spidey

I don't know why, but it's really fun to draw Spidey. I've been doing it since I was a kid, and he's a character I don't get tired of drawing. Maybe it's because he's able to pull off so many poses since he's so flexible. Maybe it's because you can get away with a lot of foreshortening. Possibly it is because you can always get better at drawing him. Either way, fun stuff!

New Art...

I'm sorry for how long it's taken to get some new art up. I've been busy with family stuff, and adjusting to some other things that have my daily schedule completely out of whack. But I'm starting to get things back in order. There's really no story behind this, but more to come tomorrow!

THE COLTS WON!!!

Sorry about not having a real art post, but today I did get some art done. I still need to color it, but I'll post some tomorrow! The reason I'm not posting it is that I spent the day worrying about the Colts vs. the Pats. FINALLY the team I've loved since I was a child in Indianapolis is making it to the Super Bowl...

I'm hoping they can close it out and win Peyton a Super Bowl and secure his spot in the Hall of Fame!!!

What more can I say?

One of my favorite anime films is the Casshan OAV by Yasuomi Umetsu. Like many films, there's a lot of clothes being torn. I just wanted to poke fun at that!

More sequentials...

Seriously, people are always bugging me to see more sequentials, so I'm using my normal sketch time to do some quick sequential pages. I'm mainly trying to have fun with it and just get faster.

BTW, this would be a great TV series...

Also, tomorrow...a story about robots...

A sequential sketchpage...

I was just playing around a bit in my sketchbook and felt like doing something quick with sequentials. Here was my level of excitement throughout the process:
1. Pencils-excited
2. Inks-disappointed (I really do not like to use spot blacks, they just seem wonky to me)
3. zip-tones-eh, but needed more. Originally I was going to try the whole thing that way.
4. painter/watercolor-just started out with the main figures in a paynes gray type color.
5. Watercolor the BG-started bringing in some various colors, for my photoshop approach it's best to have multiple colors to play off of.
6. Photoshop effects-I use some brush effects and custom brushes to take out some zip-tones and add highlights, burn in some colors.

Ultimately, I ended up loving the final product. It just shows how fickle I am during the process, but I love to work at something until I enjoy the final outcome.

However, next time, I'm sticking with open lines, no spotted black areas.

TV day...

Today was the first quiet day alone in the house. So I was catching up on a lot of shows, and I watched the movie High Tension. Fun stuff. Usually I end up hating a lot of horror films because of annoying characters, or a crappy ending, but I really dug this film.

First new picture of the year...

Last of 2006!

I just made it in time, it's around 11:30 my time, so it still counts. I just wanted to get in one last drawing before it turns 2007. I was talking to Tom Feister this afternoon, and he said he'd like to see a Nightwing pic done by me. So here it is. I really like how the final product came out.

So, now that the need for fine motor skills for the night is complete, I've got a bottle of Jack Daniels with my name on it. If I'm still coherent enough, I'll try and see if I can draw something. But anyways, I've gotta' say Happy New Years to everyone, and let's hope 2007 is much better than 2006 was!

I like doing lightning-effects...

Post-Christmas Drawing

Now that the Christmas stress has finally passed, I'm getting back to doing some art. The car and the girl are separate drawings that I put together, both of them pretty small. Started off in Painter, then went to Photoshop, changed the colors and added some background elements. I really liked the kind of velvet-like effects that came out in certain areas, like when you use vaseline on a camera lens. Anyhoo, I'm going to do some shopping today, but hopefully a few more drawings.

Here's Wakum Waddle...

Lets just call this a teaser for a character I am working on. All I'm going to say is that I came up with him a couple years ago, and it's been fun coming up with a story for him. So get ready to see more of him in the future.

Here are a couple new things: