It's Valentine's Day! Win Love and Capes prizes!

It's Valentine's Day, and Comixology is running a sale on the digital versions of the entire Love and Capes catalog. If my math is right, you can get 24 (25 if you count the double-sized wedding issue as two) issues of my favorite superhero romantic comedy for $25.00! That's crazy.

To help promote this, I'm running a contest on Twitter and Facebook. Here's how it works:

On Twitter: Tweet (or retweet) this link to the Comixology page, http://bit.ly/lncvalsale with the hashtag #lncsale and just like that, you're entered. You don't even have to buy them, though I would appreciate it if you would.

May I suggest:

Valentine Sale! The entire Love & Capes catalog is on sale @comixology today only! http://bit.ly/lncvalsale #lncsale RT to win a t-shirt & art!

But anything with the link and the hashtag will be entered.

On Facebook: Like the Love and Capes page and like and/or share the link to the Comixology sale.

I'll pick one random winner from each service. You'll win:

• One of the new Love and Capes t-shirts. If you already ordered one, your money will be refunded.
• An original 9x12 one-character commission of your choice.

I'm blessed with some of the best fans in comics. Thanks for supporting the book, and I hope you have a great Valentine's Day.

Couples Commission: Cyclops and Phoenix

Today's couple commission is Cyclops and Phoenix (light version). Cyclops is my favorite X-Man, and I was always disappointed that when I started reading the book he got married and left. That didn't work out well for him, unfortunately.

X-Men benefits from a solid core character and Cyke was certainly that. I also think, for as little as he was on camera in the X-Men movies, James Marsden was fantastic. You try acting with your eyes and eyebrows covered. And "If I had to tell you that, she wouldn't be my girl" is still one of my favorite lines in that movie.

I'm sure I've gone on about how much I love Phoenix in other posts. It was fun to draw them together and actually happy. The mirrored "hands to the temple" thing cracks me up, too.

Couples Commission: Flash and Dale (and Aura)

Not DC or Marvel this time (though I think they've been published by both) it's Flash Gorden and Dale Arden… and Princess Aura.

I know it's not a great film, but I really love the 1980 Flash Gordon, complete with Queen soundtrack. There's a lot of earnest goofyness to it, and I still quote chunks of it. "Hah! Tricked ya, Barin!" And, of course, anything Brian Blessed says.

The designs here are largely based on the Filmation series, which was also pretty good… until they added that pink dragon character, but that's a story for another time.

This time out, I did digital roughs, a tight pencil pass, transferred via lightbox to bristol and Copic marker color. I did the lightbox to make sure I could erase everything that wasn't ink, and nothing would be reactivated by the alcohol markers.

Process Post: Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld

This was the last Kickstarter reward I had on my list: An Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld commission. I decided to go all in and add her pegasus/unicorn.

Like previous pieces, I started out digitally and did an extremely rough sketch. I wanted to give her a strong, confident pose, the kind of note she might have struck at the end of the original miniseries. I worked and which I tightened up.

I printed that out and did a final pass with pencil on a sheet of tracing paper. I'm still learning the Cintiq, and I haven't hit a comfort level where I can do things to the level I want. I hope to get there soon, and that's why I keep pushing.

I then scanned in the tight tracing paper art and printed it out as a blueline on a sheet of bristol which I inked with brush and a little bit of Micron in the detail. Then I scanned that in and colored it. I tried converting the ink lines to color, too, but not getting too carried away with it. I think it softened the image, but not too much.

Love and Capes Boston Print Process

If you've been following me on Twitter or Facebook (and if you're not, you should be) you know that I've been trying to do three extra con prints for cities that I'm not really doing shows in to pad out my forthcoming con print postcard set that will debut at Emerald City Comic Con. I got the third done today, so now I have prints for Boston, Las Vegas and Cleveland should I ever do shows there and an even twenty postcards in each package to boot. So this is my Boston print. People have asked me to share more process stuff, so here's how these happen. Click on any thumbnail to see a bigger version.

First, I ask around to see what local landmark I should do. I stay away from things with logos or copyrighted images trying to keep with things that are in the public domain. Asking locals and travelers gives me a good idea for what they would like to see featured. So, I was worried about doing the Space Needle for the first Seattle print because everyone does the Space Needle. But, that's what they recommended. My very first one, Charlotte, was inspired by a friend telling me about the Queen Charlotte statue at the airport. And I wouldn't have known to do the Saturn V rocket (or that it was no longer exposed to the elements) without asking for local Houston advice.

Here, Lora Innes, historian and the talent behind The Dreamer , said "Do the Paul Revere Statue in front of the Old North Church." It seemed a better fit than the Zakim bridge or anything else. So I started Google searching for photos until I found enough reference to start.

Once I find one, I start doing the rough. I often do the tracing paper and pencil thing, but I want to learn how to use my Cintiq better, so I roughed it out on there. I wanted to ink it on the Cintiq too, but I wasn't happy with the results. So I kept with the pencils. I made them into a non-repoducing blue color, so that I could print them out on good board and ink them.

I took those bluelines and placed them in the Adobe Illustrator document that has the frame of the print. Then I inked the technical stuff in Illustrator. One of the conceits of the style of Love and Capes is that most things are inked with a French curve instead of a ruler, giving things an off-kilter cartoony look. Doing this part in Illustrator allows me to make exactly the large curves that would take a couple passes and some effort with the curve.

Super techie stuff now: I expand all the lines to become editable shapes, and I tweak the shapes with the direct selection tool. This lets me get a little more character into the mechanical ink lines and emulate a hand drawn look where I could change pressure on my pen and get some "pop" to it. This is also where I do a lot of lettering.

On this, I inked the statue base, but not the church itself. The church's lines were small enough that it would be easier to do those with the French curve.

I print this hybrid out onto a piece of Canson Smooth Bristol using my Brother 11x17 Multi Function Printer/Scanner . The statue base and the frame print in black. Everything else is in non-repro blue.

I ink most of the piece with a Raphael #2 brush . For this one in particular, I called up a lot of Bill Waterston's Calvin and Hobbes art to see the brilliant way he handled foresty background. I used him as a guide for inking the trees and leaves.

The church was inked with the aforementioned curve and a variety of Microns . I really like these pens. They have a hard felt tip, and I can vary my pressure and get an interesting line. They're also cheaper and travel much better than the rapidiographs that they replaced in my artbin. (Or, in my case, Superman lunch box.)

With everything now black and white, I scan it back into the computer. The non-repro blue lines don't scan, and I adjust the grays and blacks until I get a clean black and white image.

I don't use a flatter or do the traditional system of coloring the background first. A lot of Love and Capes is from a preexisting pallett of colors. The red and gold in Mark's uniform is always the same color, same for Abby's hair and skin and so on. I use an insane number of layers until I get the piece mostly where I want it. I'll adjust hue and saturation to test some colors, like with the sky or Abby's outfit, until I find what makes the image pop.

From there, I create a shadow layer set to multiply and use a transparent deep brown to create the darker tones. And then I create what I call a "patch" layer on top of all the colors (but below the inks) and I zoom into to "actual pixels" and then I sample the colors and patch any places where I've gone too far outside the lines.

I select the black lines and make them a rich black, and with those selected I start coloring some of those black lines for added depth. So, Mark and Abby and the statue are the rich black, the trees and backgrounds are a deep brown, and the church is purple to really throw it back.

The last thing is, before I go to print, I'll add a copyright notice with my website. I save a flat version so it's smaller and easier to send. And done!

Simple, right?

Postcards from the Edge

For the last year and a half, I've been doing these local con prints with my Love and Capes characters in the city hosting the show I'm at. Each is limited to only 25 pieces, signed and numbered, and they've been pretty popular. For those of you who wonder such things, the best sellers among the sixteen existing ones have been the Columbus and Seattle ones. Seattle was, in fact, so popular that I'll be doing a new print for them this year. I'll also be adding Denver for my appearance at the Denver Comic Con this June.

This year, I'll be introducing a set of postcards that include each of these prints. I haven't come up with a price yet, but when I do, I'll let you know. But seventeen seems like such an odd number. (Well, it is… and prime to boot.) Eighteen would be a little better. Maybe I'll do a chase card only available in the set.

Any suggestions for where?

Abby's Bookstore [minor spoilers for #6]

I don't know why it took so long, but I've created coffee mugs for Abby's bookstore that are now available through CafePress.

You can get a mug with the original bookstore logo.

Or, if you're current with the book, you know the store changes it's name. Unfortunately, I couldn't work this logo into the text of the comic, but it's the logo for the store post-What to Expect.

My 1st My Little Pony Commission

Next month, my issue of the My Little Pony micro series makes it's debut. I've written and drawn the inaugural story featuring Twilight Sparkle. I think it's a good one, and I hope you do, too.

This means, of course, that I'm officially a Pony artist and I've started taking Pony commissions. Here's the first one that I did featuring Nightmare Moon.

I'll also be offering the original art from my issue, as well as the cover, for sale at conventions and online.

The Sky's the Limit

As part of my New Year's Resolution to blog more, here's a little more behind the scenes stuff on Love and Capes. I was working on the cover of the fourth collection and needed a sky. I'd thoughtabout sunset, but given the impending birth, I wanted something more of the sunrise variety. But how to capture it. I'd browsed through Google Image Search for some inspiration.

But one morning I got up early to go to Panera before starting to work and I saw this, which I captured with my iPhone's camera. Yeah, you might not think the sprawling vista of a strip mall is the most exciting thing, but that sky was exactly what I was looking for, and the inspiration for the sky on the cover.

By the way, if you haven't already ordered it from your local comic shop, the fourth trade is available from Amazon.

These Rhinos are Done Bowling

Here it is, the last of my Kickstarter rewards, this being a Stephanie Brown Batgirl piece. Stephanie Brown seems to have been terminated with prejudice from the DC Universe. I always thought she was kind of cool, and certainly an interesting character design. So here she is. As usual, click for biggimization!

Now, everyone reading this should have recieved their Kickstarter reward (with the exception of my Aunt, who told me I could deliver it personally the next time I see her). So, if I've missed you, let me know.

I loved my Kickstarter experience, not counting the hell that was dealing with Active Images media. More on that some other time. I've got a couple other ideas in my head for what to do next, so expect me to Kickstart something else soon.