Day 03: Superwoman #tzadvent

Day three: Superwoman, Earth-3 evil flavored.

I picked this one because I wanted to draw a woman after drawing two men. I did it as a profile because that's not my normal way of attacking a figure. I concentrated on making a feminine profile, not as angular and pronounced as a male one. I also wanted to try inking hair and making that sawtooth pattern on the black bodysuit areas. Inking those on the Cintiq/Manga Studio is the reverse of inking on board. With a brush, I go thick to thin, to do these digital lines, I went thin to thick with kind of a flicking motion. It seemed to work well.

I also started assigning commands to my Nostromo to control Manga Studio. With the keypad, I can switch tools, zoom, undo, and use the eyedropper tool. I added undo to my Photoshop commands, too. I'm seeing that I might want to have two set of presets for the Photoshop keys, one for drawing/coloring, and one for more of the cutting/pasting/channel control that's necessary to do some of my final process stuff. We'll see on that.

I did manage to keep my pencil layer separate this time. Click to embiggen either, and feel free to suggest some characters to me. Use the hashtag #tzadvent.

My December Project

For November, I tried to do a drawing a day. I managed to make that threshold. So, I think I want to come up with a Drawing-A-Day project for December. Adding to this is that I just got a new Mac. So. Much. Faster. So I now I feel like I can really start playing with Manga Studio and learning that program. So, I want to have a project that will be done solely on that system so that I can force myself to use that program and really become comfortable in it.

What I want to do is this: I want to draw a different super hero or villain every day. I'm going to keep them black and white, and possibly collect them as a sketchbook. We'll see about that. One character a day is the right amount of work is to play in Manga Studio and still keep my workload going.

I'll post them as they get done. I may take a day off here and there. After all, Christmas is December. But, what I'll do is either work ahead or get caught up. So, if you don't see one every day, you'll know why.

Here's where you come in: I need suggestions for this kinda-Advent Calendar of characters. Give me a shout on Twitter with the hashtag #tzadvent and I'll pick and choose whatever moves me from the list.

Two Color Art

Here's another of my "Every Day a Drawing" pieces. I'm trying to use them as a place to experiment, so this one is in color. A duotone, actually. I'm messing around with some ideas for how to handle color on a future project. We'll see where it goes.

I'll Make My Own Shogun Warrior

Here's another one of my "Every Day a Drawing" pieces. I got i in my head I wanted to draw a Shogun Warrior, probably inspired in part by the Dragun that my cousin Jamie got me for my birthday years ago and stands guard over my studio.

This is an example of using this as an opportunity to try some things, too. I inked this all in Micron, keeping a relatively dead line and using a thicker outline to define the contour. I like the way it turned out.

A Month of Sketches Begins (last week, technically)

So this month is NaNoWriMo and, yeah, I'm not doin' that. I'm kind of tempted, honestly, but my plate is a little full. But, I like the idea of a Month Of Something, so I had this idea: I'd draw a new illustration every day. I put some rules on it: They'd be small. They'd be black and white. And, they wouldn't be licensed characters.

My thought is, if this goes okay, I might like to make a little book of the artwork. Black and white is cheaper to produce, and no licensed characters means that I'm clear to print and sell however I want.

Yes, today's the eighth. I've already done seven of these. I'm not going to necessarily show every one here. Some I'll save for the book, if I do it. And while I'm trying to post a lot more her, I think once a day is enough. So if I have a better story or something, I'll probably post that instead.

I think it's good to force yourself to try new things. So I'm using this as license to experiment. Some of these I'll do completely on computer. Some of these will me be trying new things with my brush, or new techniques or new styles. Who knows? But I think it'll be fun. Let's see.

"Rimbatmn!" That's Christian Bale for "I'm Batman!"

This was a commission for a friend of mine at Wizard Ohio. I don't draw a ton of Batman art, with most of my world being My Little Pony these days. It was fun to get into the harsher lines and stylized design of the Dark Knight.

Heroes Hanging Out, Drinking Coffee

One of the more interesting New York Comic Con commissions I had was this one: Draw Power Girl and 80's Disco Collared Nightwing hanging out the way Crusader and Darkblade do in Love and Capes. It was a lot of fun to figure out the staging. Power Girl, for instance, wouldn't hover or have the same standard pose as Crusader does.

A lot of you know that Love and Capes is on a break right now. I'm trying to get some new stuff out into the world this year. But there's something about this piece that makes me think "Wouldn't a Darkblade and Amazonia series be pretty cool?"

In Brightest Day

A quick one today: Green Lantern! This was done at the New York Comic-Con and I had fun stylizing the linework and the pose. I wanted to make it cool and graphic. I also used some Copics to shade, but used them sparingly.

Happy Halloween with a Ghost Hunter Commission!

I've had a couple people come up to commission me at shows to draw an actor or actress who is appearing at the show and have them sign the art. They're certainly more unique than just the standard publicity shot. And it's been a blast for me, too. I got to meet Ian McNiece, who played Winston Churchill on Doctor Who because of it. At Wizard Ohio, I drew Ghost Hunter Grant Wilson hunting a different kind of ghost. Mariann, who commissioned it, loved it, and so did Grant.

Happy Halloween!

Pinkie Pie! Enemy of the Republic!

I was at New York Comic Con, and a gentlemen came up with his very Star Wars son in a stroller. I think he saw my Han and Leia piece in my display portfolio. He said that his son loved both Star Wars and My Little Pony and wanted a drawing. Immediately, my artist brain starting thinking of ponies with lightsabers and so on. "Who's your favorite Pony?" he asked his son. Pinkie Pie. "And who's your favorite Star Wars character?" General Greivous. He then turned to me. "Can you do a combination of Pinkie Pie and General Grievous?

Suddenly, the cute little Jedi ponies I had in my mind exploded. Pinkie Pie? Grevious? That's not a chocolate and peanut butter moment, that's a chocolate and wood varnish moment. How do those go together? But, I like drawing and I like money, so I said "Yes, I can do that."

What happened was not the drawing I expected, but it might be my favorite drawing of the show. When you get things thrown at you like that, the creative solution is something original and something you weren't capable of just a few minutes ago. So I figured out how to combine everyone's favorite party-obsessed wacky Pony with a killer four-armed droid with a breathing issue. And I loved it.

So did the boy. Look at how happy he looks!