Post 205

I'm going to do another post with another monkey pic later, but I wanted to talk about this. I have to say I love the Dallas art scene. You could classify it as "comic art" but that would really take away from just how special it is. We're out there, letting the general public view us in a vulnerable state...during the act of creation. If you look at my stuff during the pre-production phases (see Hulk above) you'll notice that I don't have clean guide lines or mapped out thumbnails, I love jumping in and if I screw up finding a way to fix it. That's the beauty of live art, and I've taken it into my standard working procedures since I first tried it at STAPLE! last year.

Last night the Space Gun Kru went to Titan Comics in Dallas for the Hero Foundry's live art auction POW! I have to thank the guys again for such a great time. Good music, great patrons, and fantastic hosts. Jeremy and the Titan Comics crew were really gracious and helpful letting all us wild and crazy artists stomp around in their huge and immaculate store. Seriously, if you live in the area and you've never gone, you're missing out!

The night started off kind of slow, mainly because a lot of the artists went out to eat before the show started (I stayed and talked with folks). But when things got started they really blasted off.

I never really went to these sorts of get togethers until last year because of Jake and Luan, who have been clawing their way into the Dallas art scene for a while more than I have. They're outgoing and have forced me out of my shell, and I can't thank them enough for it, just from the exposure to how thriving our community is becoming.

I started off with a wolverine picture, then snuck in a monkey pic for myself (I'll show it later), then with not much time remaining (I think under 45 minutes left 0f the show) I did a hulk which was the last piece of the night. To let you know how this goes, you work on your piece, hand it in when you're done, then at certain points they auction off the work. I feel that my pieces did really well, and both went to one of my more recent additions to my group of friends Paul Milligan , who also organized this event. There were a few bidding wars, one over a Tara McPherson print, between the owner of Titan and some other folks...I don't think they understood that when he entered the auction they should just bow out...IT'S HIS STORE!!! But it was funny none the less.

On my first two pics I used some cheap Folk Art outdoor acrylics, but I had found some huge tubes of Windsor&Newton acrylics...I've never used high class acrylics before and now I see the difference. It's like painting with liquid platinum. I hardly had to use water because the binder is so high quality. It's really renewed my interest in painting. So even though I was rushing to finish the hulk, I felt as though it was my best work of the night.

But more than anything, it was great getting to talk with people, my friends Gambit and Dan showed up, and I mainly see them at art events and shows, so it was awesome to see them last night unexpectedly! I talked with a lot of people (though it was tough sometimes because the music got loud for the space, the speakers were behind me).

I really can't wait until the next event. I think it's the weekend after I go to Baltimore, but I'll update you on that.

I'm supposed to get my business cards tomorrow...I'M EXCITED!!!

Lastly, if you want to see more pictures, check here, you'll enjoy them.

Post 204

I had come to the realization that the person who inspired these was my watercolor professor in college. She had this midterm assignment when she knew you were going home for Spring Break and forced a reproduction of an artwork she thought your style would naturally go towards. She found artists that you would never think of finding and that way would give you a natural nudge. Some people got what we thought at the time were "easy" ones, but I think she understood that they wouldn't grow even with a kick in the rear. She gave me this extremely abstract one with a skeleton, and I had a "wtf" look on my face I guess, and she said to me, "just make it and we'll talk in a week." I did it, and it forced me WAAAAAAAAAY out of my comfort zone. But just now I'm realizing she was right, and it's really a comfortable style for me.

I'm not doing any layouts or line work for construction, the whole process is a fluid movement. Working on multiples at a time I'm really drawn to this.

Post 203

As you can see, I've done 6 more boards. I prepped a bunch more, but they'll be in a different format. I want to have a decent number to take with me to Baltimore. Pricing to be determined. But I'm having a ton of fun with these, I guess it's the simple things that I really enjoy. I really really love working by painting on matt board, I could do it all day.

Speaking of pricing, I noticed that nobody bought my sketchbook yet, and since that was thankfully the case I was able to edit the price online. You see, it takes a while to change things because you submit the price early on, so it was a while ago that I came up with that price, but I lowered it by 5 dollars to account for shipping and such. I feel more comfortable with that price-point. So $15 now!

Post 202

So, I decided to REALLY diversify my convention portfolio of sales material. I'm utilizing the idea my friend Kristian has done in the past with selling small paintings at conventions. The ones above are a little over 6X13 inches on matt board. I think I'll be doing 10 paintings to bring with me just because of space concerns in flying. If you know you're attending Baltimore and want to buy one e-mail me with what you'd like. It's pretty much going to be a bust painting, and we can talk pricing. BG is an application of printmaking ink to get a nice clean flat color treatment. They're fun for me to do, and a different way to get my voice heard and maybe even make a few extra duckets.

The last two images are my new business card. I still love the old ones, but I love making new business cards. They'll have nice rounded corners though, and the slickness that is the coating from overnightprints.com . I should be getting the cards by the end of the week.

Post 201

I went for some simple color application. The reds are going to make the computer go insane, I know this, but I just felt that this would be a striking image. I might turn it into a poster or something, maybe a new business card.

I was thinking about artist/colorist combos. It's weird how some artists and colorists become a team, and other artists do all the work themselves, and some artists never color a day in their lives, some never even ink their own work. In this day and age though, it's important as an independent creator to be able to do everything. That's not to say that I don't want people to color my work. I just can't have anybody INK my work (I don't do tight pencils so I don't lose fluidity in the figures). I'd LOVE to see what other people can do with my line-work in terms of coloring. I just haven't seen it. The last time somebody colored my work was my friend Ian Bailon in college. He works for Funimation, and he's an awesome designer/illustrator. But that was like 3 years ago. I'm just interested in seeing how someone else would approach my work. I stick to flatter, more graphic application and focus on the color aspect for emotional content more than anything. I've never seen it with really rendered coloring styles, or someone else's take on the color choices. I'm just never in a position where I can see what a colorist would do with my work. As an indy artist I'm usually in situations where the project can't afford anybody but me doing everything. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love coloring, but I've been coloring my work forever. I'd like to see what someone else would bring to the table and learn from the experience.

Post 200!!!

The finished picture from the steps of the last one. I really wish I had one of those screen/video capture programs so I could show you all of the decision making that goes into creating a piece...alas, something for another time.

Post 199

Post 198

I was drawing in a new sketchbook, I keep ones all over the place, but I was taking it for a test drive. I'm used to strathmore 300 70# at this point, but this pad is different, it doesn't take to ink in a normal way. The ink resides on top of the page for extended periods of time. I then tried some gray tones on it...nothing went through the page....I don't know if it's been treated differently, but in some ways it's good, in others not so much. Maybe I just need to carry it around with me and beat it up a while longer. Don't get me wrong, I love the results of the page. The blacks are SUPER black, none of the natural fade that occurs with ink seeping into the paper.

Just odd...when you think you know everything about a paper, the manufacturer throws you a curveball.

Post 197

To answer Matt's question, I don't have a lot of time right now to do the whole print screen and show step by step, but I will show the black and white version to show the difference before the colored version. I inked this with a combination of my kuretake pens and the Pentel brush pen: the Fudegokochi pen for cleaner lines, getting smoother edges on the face, the No. 13 for the majority of the scrappy line work such as at the nozzle of the freeze gun, and the pentel for large fill-ins.

I use col-erase blue for pencils and ink right on top, you may call that lazy if you're one of the folks that light boxes or transfers, but it's not like I'm selling this stuff, and even then, collectors can deal with the extra lines. Personally, I like to see the remains of the prelims sticking out. So anyway, I take the full pic, freshly scanned and change it to CMYK, this way, I can go to the channels in photoshop cs2 and manually delete everything from magenta on until I'm just left with the black channel. I'm sure there's a more scientific, sexy way to do it, but I knows what I knows because nobody ever taught me. Photoshop is all about teaching yourself or learning through viewing people over their shoulder to steal techniques, then getting home and realizing you forgot the majority of it and spending a week trying to get it right, only to get it right doing it a COMPLETELY different way. Again, I digress, at this point I change the file back to grayscale, and perform threshold to about 225. This way I don't have pesky grays that will mess with my magic wand tool. I then select out the white and delete it, leaving a top layer of just the line art. Then, it's just a matter of adding background colors, and selecting the portions of line art with the lasso tool you want to be a different color and using the fill option.

Now that I've said this, you'll all think to yourselves, "It's amazing this caveman can use photoshop, why hasn't he learned how to do things the right way?!?!" Shoot, I don't know, but it gets the job done!

Anyway, maybe sometime I'll do a step by step with pictures tutorial, but as I said, I'm just too lazy tonight. Maybe if you ask me at a con and bring a laptop with photoshop I can show you my methods.

P.S. What do you think of the BG color change? I personally like it, the black was too emo for me, I felt the warmth of the new color scheme represents me a little better. Though that's not to say I won't get tired of it and change it to something else...(my better judgment stopped me from making it blaring pink, but I like you guys, so I didn't do it...not to say I won't someday...).

Post 196

BEHOLD!!! I finally got my sketchbooks from the printer! It's not set up on the online shop yet, but wow am I impressed with it. The quality came out great! 54 pages, perfect bound tpb-style with a glossy cardstock cover. Looks really professional. I'll tell you guys when they go up online, but I'll definitely have copies at Baltimore Comic Con if you're going!

Also, thanks for all the comments you guys posted on yesterday's post, I just did that Mr. Freeze pic and didn't expect any sort of response...so I'm kind of floored by all the encouragement. Thank you Luan, Jake, Craig, Skottie, and Aris!!! You guys are the reason I keep working to get better!

Post 195

Sorry it's been a week! Time flies when you're...well, when you're bored out of your skull time DOESN'T fly! Yeah, I went back to the day job last week, and I was in meetings for a week. In most jobs meetings mean tons of free time to doodle. In mine, they know when to catch you doodling and yell at you. So now that I'm past all the meetings, I'm back to drawing!

Oh, on the sketch page, there are a couple doodles by Mike Lagocki, founder of ArtLoveMagic a very cool live art group. I was letting him try some of my brushes and talking with him at the signing a couple weeks ago for Synesthetic. Mike is somebody I've run into at a bunch of cons, but after talking to him for a couple hours, I found someone who I already can call a friend.

Anyway, I'm supposedly getting my sketchbooks tomorrow, don't know when the online sales page goes up. But I'll keep you updated!

Post 194

Trying something a little different, some more spotted blacks...and I'm enjoying it. It's funny, a year ago, I hated inking, because I couldn't do it. But I committed to getting better, and I've gotten to the point where I can work on it for prolonged periods of time without ripping my hair out. It was all about getting used to the different tools, seeing which ones worked better for different styles. It's really helped with my drawing skills and depictions of volume.

Post 193

Some more sketches and stuff. The guy with the sign is this guy I keep seeing near the mall. There are these laws here where during the week people and companies can't put up signs on the side of the road, so businesses hire people to walk around with them, and if code enforcement comes by they can just walk off to the side. Normally these folks are lackluster in their presentation, but this guy is just fantastic. I don't have the courage to ask him what he's listening to, but he is just ROCKING OUT!!! He does crazy behind the back tricks, treats it like a guitar, he does tosses. He's covered in sweat because it's like nearly 100 or over every day, but he doesn't care, he's all about the presentation. He's probably late 20's, early 30's, but all about the rocking, which makes me think 80's hair metal. Either way, he's my new favorite performer. He needs to be on a show of some sort!

Post 192

Luan sent me a better poster for the signing on Saturday. Also, here are some sketches I did. Threw on a little marker and some water-brush gray tones for some flavor. Plus, I just noticed I'm getting close to post 200. Seems like not long ago I was just getting to 100. Weird how time flies.

Post 191

Okay, so, this seems a long time in the making, but we finally printed up copies (by 'we' I mean not me, but Jake and Luan). The anthology that My friends Jake and Luan put together...I need to be clear about this, they organized it, edited it, designed it, wrote, colored, drew, inked, pimped, printed, lost sleep, put in tons of money, and did anything and everything that they could do to make the best product possible. I talked with Jake about doing an anthology, and when people dropped out on me, Jake and Luan took things over and put together an amazing anthology featuring some of the great storytellers of my home base, the northern part of Texas.

First off, Synesthetic (the anthology) has a new website with some slick design.

Luan best describes the process in an interesting and concise format, and I really suggest you read it. It was stressful, but ultimately rewarding. Between the three of us, we've had a hand in nearly every page of the book. I personally have two stories in it, you can see samples of all the stories on the Synesthetic site (the link here takes you to the previews).

The great thing is that we'll be selling copies, signing, arting (as Cully says), and generally having fun (hopefully) this weekend at Titan comics in Dallas on Saturday August 16th from 12-6 pm. Then I think we're going to the Inwood to check out the late night showing of Big Lebowski.

Either way, if you're in the area, please stop by, we'd enjoy the support. It's been a long time in the works. If you can't, I'll be at Baltimore with Jake and Luan and we'll gladly sell you a copy (or two, or whatever you'd like to buy ;) .

Post 190

Yet another reference to the theatrical Orion release of Fist of the North Star...but it's influenced my art, so why not pay an homage to this material?

Yes, Rick still doesn't have his head, but he's trying to track it down. Leave you guys and gals guessing what will happen next in the follow up.

Rick started off as a random idea, and now he's getting a little too big for this format. I've always had the idea in my mind that I'd like to try different formats with him, so I'm going to pursue one and see if it works out. So don't think that this is the last you're seeing of Rick, if anything, he's got more reason to continue than anyone...I mean, he's got no head!!!

Post 189

I'll post the last one tomorrow, but I want this one to settle in!

Quick explanation, the guy flying in is Super Sam, the first comic character I did, and he is doing the same thing as the last panel. I'll find the original sometime soon, but I'm at my brother's place right now.

Post 188

Felt like drawing a little bit of Debbie Grayson from Invincible. I know it seems like she's moved past the whole "Waiting for Nolan and drinking to go with her tears." But I wanted to capture her in that time of weakness and explore what breakfast would be like for her...I know it's wrong but there's still something funny about it.

Post 187=MURDER!!!!

I listen to a lot of music while I'm on the computer. It gives a soundtrack to what I'm working on. I came to the realization that I no longer enjoy the new N.E.R.D. CD Seeing Sounds. I loved their debut album, and even Neptunes Present, but I am saddened by how trite this new album actually is. I'm all about compelling beats, but the honesty of their music that I loved has been replaced with a "hipper than thou" attitude. Granted, it always lingered there, but it has moved to the forefront where the music disappears. Everyone Nose bothers me a lot, and when I heard Windows, it just became a pattern or word repetition. I'll stick with In Search Of, an album which has actually stood up over years of playing it while painting in college. Thankfully there are bands like Electric Six, which is my fail-safe band for Art-ing to music.

Anyway, went out to get a blizzard at Dairy Queen and the steering column screwed up, so that was lame. Cars in the Texas heat have the need to screw up during summer.

Well, a couple days till more Rick Dangerous, I might have some more sketches to put up, so keep checking here for more stuff!

Post 186

Just felt like doing something quick digitally. I've got a bunch of sketches going, but ever since I turned the sketchbook over to the printer I've been taking a breather. I promise I'll have something concrete for you.

Post 185

So I was just talking with my friend Luan and flipping through the internet. I found these pages I did last year fully digitally. I was on a kick for a month of doing all digital stuff. It really did help with things because I pushed myself to do things I normally wouldn't. It also helped me get of my shell in terms of storytelling.

It can be tough to get out of that comfort zone of doing pin-ups for fun...it's easy, and it lulls you into a false sense of security. I was also talking with Luan about sketchbooks after seeing the post by Eric Canete, except we went even further with the conversation. There are sketchbooks that are a great way to get an insight into the approach of an artist, there are ones that make a statement, and there are ones that are just plain lazy.

Sketchbooks are like a cheeseburger...there's a large variety of types you'll run into, some are lacking on ingredients and volume, but are extremely flavorful. Some are packed with ingredients but they just don't work. Some are the right mix of meat and fix-ins, but then there are those ones you get at a bad picnic that are spartan, overly dry, and tasteless.

Much like the booming anthology business of the past few years, sketchbooks are a resurgent art form. Outside of actually watching an artist go to work in person, a sketchbook for me is like looking at their soul. But I've seen a lot of sketchbooks recently that are just empty white space. Seriously, with most artists charging 25-30, or even more for sketchbooks, you really aren't getting a lot...but you should be!!!

Luan brought up a good point that you really shouldn't be producing work just for the sketchbook, it taints the level of genuine introspection going on in the book. For me, I think that the medium can go further. I love the quality of Japanese artbooks and sketchbooks. My favorites being the ones of Yasuomi Umetsu (infamous director of such films as Mezzo Forte, Kite, and Kite Liberator). There's a lot of thought and design that goes into it. I love to see things that are polished as well as things that are progress sketches. To not have sketches in a sketchbook defeats the purpose...then you have an artbook. I think a lot of people don't understand the difference, and end up failing on both ends of the spectrum.

Luan also brought up the point that free is the new marketing ploy (internet-wise). I've had discussions with my crew about knowing what you're worth as an artist. You have to establish that you can't be stepped on, however, as an up and comer, you have to be willing to put some work up for free, to bring in an audience. It's a fine balance, and it's tough to find the middle ground...it doesn't happen over night. There are some professionals that when I hear how little they charge it makes me feel bad, but then I think of how much they make on their other jobs and I don't feel so bad. But as the little guy, you can't over-charge and alienate your crowd, nor can you charge too little. You also have to get your format right. I did a full color sketchbook in 2006 that I put everything into, and I think I've mentioned it before, but it did horribly. There were multiple places that I went wrong with it. One was that I charged too much for it at the time, the second was that I should have done black and white, third was that I let "friends" walk all over me (I was absolutely green to the business) and get free copies.

I've learned that you really shouldn't give free copies. You can post free artwork on the internet, but don't give free copies of the materials you're trying to sell at a con...unless you're trying to talk to an editor...but the general public...your "friends"...they should respect you enough to buy your work. You should be able to trade off and buy each others work, thats the respectable thing to do. It's like friends that buy things for each other and don't keep a tab, it ends up working out in the end. But you have to feel that your art is worth something, or it's hard for others to see the worth in your art.

I like to know what other artists do, whether they watch movies or tv, or listen to music while they're working...BTW, I'm listening to the Streets of Rage 2 Soundtrack. Don't know if you guys played that on the Genesis back in the day, but I sure did, and I loved the music. Knowledge like that lets you know what kind of approach a person brings to the table, what their background is. You have to feel comfortable as an artist, and know what kind of artist you are. That is where I feel that a sketchbook can make a STATEMENT. It lets others know what kind of intensity you bring to your artwork. You're the one putting it together (read: if someone else is putting it together, it's an artbook!!!!) so you've bled to make it all work. You want people to see it, you're putting your heart out there to be crushed, but you do it for yourself more than anybody (or at least you should). A sketchbook is like convention graffitti, it lets people know where you've been, it's more telling than a print, a portfolio, or a business card.

A sketchbook should go deeper into your personality, and allow the real you to burst forward and take center stage without writers or anyone else but you.

Anyways, I should have some more artwork to put up tomorrow or the next day, so keep posted, and let me know your thoughts on sketchbooks. I always want to know what everyone else thinks!

Post 184

Okay, so this is the last one before the two part season finale!

I decided to do gray tone washes on these last 3. This one with pentel brush, and honestly, the ink is so easy to spread. On the last two I used watered down speedball super black in an aqua flo water brush.

Also, update on the sketchbook...it's sent out to the printer, waiting to hear whether I need to revise file names...I really hate the confusion with naming conventions these places have. You can read different things in multiple places on the sites.

Anyway, I think it looks good, Color cover, tpb format (think old DC prestige), 54 pages black and white inside with a lot of variety from actual sequentials, to what kind of materials I use, to sketches, to...I don't want to ruin any surprises. I'm going to try and get it set up on the online sales portion of the printer's site, that way you guys and gals can get it online. Honestly, I'd be extremely appreciative, and if you get it online and bring it to me at a con I'll gladly sketch in it!

I'll keep you all updated on that. Once I get word on the readiness of the print, I'll put up a preview of the cover. So keep checking. I can't tell you how much work goes into doing your own sketchbook that isn't just a kinkos quicky. I put a lot of thought and work into this.

I don't think I tell you all enough, but thank you to those of you who read this, especially Craig, Sam, Aris, Jake, Luan, Alexis and even you lurkers! This really keeps me motivated to keep working to get better.

Post 183

I better tell you guys this now, but after this there is only one more Rick Dangerous episode, and then a two-part "season" finale. This is something I started on a whim because Zablo egged me on, and really enjoy doing, but pretty soon I head back to my day job, and I'm working on two projects big projects right now. Ones that will hopefully move me up in the world...at least enough to be able to pitch something like a Rick Dangerous ongoing.

I'm also putting together a sketchbook/artbook which should be ready in time for Baltimore. It'll contain the whole first season of Rick Dangerous (21 pages), as well as a ton of other stuff. I'm putting the final touches on it this week, and I'm really excited...also exhausted. Trying to put together over 50 pages of material (scanning, cropping, formatting) as well as a new cover and new material is really a lot for one person. I really don't want to put out a sub-standard product.

I just don't want to get stressed out and put out an inferior product with Rick. Aside from one other character, he's my "baby" and I ultimately want to do an ongoing, so I'm saving some characters and info for that format. But after the last episodes "air" I'm going to take a little break from this, and re-charge. You wouldn't believe how tough it is to figure out a way to tell these stories mid-point, have closure, and make you care about entirely new characters.

Post 182

Well, I'm back from California, and I've got some pics. Stuck mainly within the Southern California area, aside from a whirlwind trip to Vegas that Saturday. I had my flight cancelled on Friday and nearly didn't make it to the Hellboy showing with Guillermo del Toro. I'll tell you, heads would have rolled if I wouldn't have made it, let alone because of a stupid air conditioner on the plane going out.

Anyway, new Rick, so enjoy! I didn't get a chance to draw too much, but I should be putting up some sketches in a day or two. I'm still adjusting to the time zone difference.