Did You Ever Have to Make Up Your Mind?

If all goes according to plan, I'm well on my way to Charlotte and HeroesCon by the time this post appears. I've got it set to appear automagically by using the telepathic uplink feature of the iPhone 3.0 software.

I'm just kidding. The iPhone doesn't have a telepathic connection. AT&T won't allow it.

Anyway, I did finished this commission last night. The commissioner wanted Mary Jane Watson and Gwen Stacy. He suggested Gwen be in a similar post to that classic "Face it, tiger, you just hit the jackpot" pose. (And say what you will about Kirsten Dunst's performance, when she called him 'tiger', it worked, and that's a hard line to sell.) That gave me the idea to have them mirror each other, and about to knock on Peter's door just flowed from that.

This is a great time to remind everyone that I still have nine spots left for Powerful Women #3, and I'd like to have that filled up and ready for San Diego. Hopefully I'll have more than a few commissions coming out of Charlotte, but still, if there's anyone you want to see, go ahead and let me know.

Dax What I'm Talking About

The third Powerful Women sketchbook continues to fill up with some interesting requests. Here's a recent one for Jadzia Dax from the awesome Trials and Tribbeations episode of the criminally underrated Deep Space Nine. Man, those old uniforms and the Enterprise bridge are fun to draw.

There are only about ten spaces left in the new sketchbook, so be sure to get your commission requests in!

Here Little Piggy

It's been almost a commission a day since I announced the St. Patrick's Day special. One of the more fun ones I got was this one asking for Zatanna and Wonder Pig from the great Justice League Unlimited episode This Little Piggy. It was a lot of fun.

I brightened up Zatanna's costume a little bit, so it was different than the last Zee I drew. And I added a tiara to Wonder Pig, which she didn't have in the actual episode, but I thought it looked funnier.

She Can Do Magic

While I was drawing some commissions, I went ahead and did this Zatanna image, which will also serve as the cover image for Powerful Women #3. There are only a few spots left, and I'd really like to get this filled up so that I can have it done for Heroes Con in Charlotte. So, if you have some requests, get them in soon.

And hey, the sale is still going on.

We're So Glad You're On Our Side

As part of my Saint Patrick's Day Sale (still going on), I received a request to do a Wonder Woman commission. I thought back on a couple of the other times I've drawn Diana, and decided that I really wanted to do something with her lasso. I'd used the bracelets as a design element a couple of times, but didn't really work with the golden lariat at all.

I decided to use it as a light source, and set about a design that showcased that. I like her tough expression here, and I haven't done a lot of back views of these characters, and thought it could really work. It's a little thing, but I really like the rendering on the lasso, with the little chain links visible. And then I Photoshopped the dickens out of it to get all the lighting in the foreground and the background.

The guy who ordered it was pleased as well. So keep those commissions coming. I think I might do a Zatanna next.

Well, Her Cape is Green

I had a little time to play around today, and I've wanted to mess with this Catwoman drawing for a while. It's based on a tracing paper rough from Baltimore Comicon 2008, I think. The last two Catwoman images I did were done in Illustrator, and I wanted to try something completely different. Textures are handled by some new brushes I downloaded for Photoshop, and they worked really well.

One of these days I will do a picture of Selina in her current tight catsuit number. I just dig drawing and coloring this purple and green one too much, I guess.

Ah, the Crisis. Good Times, Good Times.

Shag over at the oh-so-fun Firestorm blog had me do a commission of Firestorm's sometimes lady love, Firehawk. This was a blast to do, being a Firestorm fan myself. Have I mentioned that before? I'm sure I have once or twice.

If you'd like to see the piece, click here or on the image to be taken to the Firestorm blog to see the image and a lot of kind words.

And as a reminder, I've got sixteen spaces left for the next edition of Powerful Women. I'd like to have it done for Charlotte, so start sending in your orders for who I should draw next.

Stop a Bullet Cold, Fight a War With Love

While I was sitting at my table at MegaCon, I did a couple of warm-up/sample commissions. At the very least, these help me fill out the next edition of Powerful Women, which I hope will be out for my trip to Heroes Con.

I haven't done a proper Wonder Woman image in any of the books. There's one with her and Wonder Girl, and another with her and Power Girl, but I wanted one that was her by herself. This is still a little different, compositionally, than most of my other pieces, but I think it works well.

Because If You're Gonna Build a Robot, It Might as Well Look Good, Right?

I got a commission request to draw Cameron from Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which happens to be one of my favorite TV shows. (Please don't cancel it, Fox. Please. Don't you have enough blood on your hands already, killer of Firefly, John Doe, Lone Gunmen and who can remember what else?) Anyway, I had to draw Summer Glau.

Summer's got a really exotic face. I drew her years ago for the program book for the first Flanvention. I was having a hard time with her likeness, and I got lucky in that she was a guest at that year's WizardWorld convention and I got to meet her and actually see her face in three dimensions. Still, it wasn't an easy likeness to achieve.

Here, I needed to mesh that caricature quality with the stylized cartooning that I use for my Powerful Women books. I think they blended together fairly well. As much as the face, I think I got the cold, intense stare as well as the pose.

Oddly, my favorite part is the rifle she's carrying. I did the reference on it, it's an LR-300, I think. It's getting those little details accurate that I dig. And it strikes the right chord between cartoony and realistic.

The Difference... Timing!

With just a couple days to spare, the second Powerful Women collection has arrived! I was blessed with some overruns, so I can send out the orders I've received before I leave, and still have the stock that I need to have. Yay, Jones Printing!

Don't forget, the special goes away on Sunday, so be sure to order yours before the prices go up.