A Christmas Co-inkie-dink

Every year I do a Christmas Card. It started back when I was in art school, and it's taken off to the point where its actually a pretty daunting task to do these days. There are people who tell me they have kept all the ones I've done and look forward to the new year's. It can be a bit of pressure. So, I was in Target looking to see what cards were out there in hopes of inspiration and I found this one.

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Which obviously reminded me of this one I did in 2011.

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These kinds of parallel development happen, I know. How many volcano movies can Hollywood make in one year? I like to think this validates a good idea I had a years ago. And props to this artist for actually drawing the reindeer.

Big Damn Hero Six

I'm looking forward to checking out Big Hero Six. I hear great things about it, and it's a great way to blend Disney and Marvel. Every commercial so far has looked great. Amy pointed out a tweet from Nicole Campos reading: I'm not the only one who keeps saying "Big Damn Hero 6" by mistake, right?  Then Amy said, "You should totally make that happen." And she was right.

So, I present to you Big Damn Hero Six. One of these days I might make a print of it.

Disney Leave Behind: UNCLE SCROOGE

Uncle Scrooge is my favorite of the classic Disney characters. Even when I was a straight superhero reader, I still read Scrooge. The Barks stuff is just brilliant, and yes I’m totally getting the IDW Artist Edition of his work. And Don Rosa, too. He picked up the baton in the most impressive way. Scrooge was quite the explorer, so I left this one in Animal Kingdom. It was at the Shamba-La stand, tucked in the straps on a bicycle. Hope someone found it!

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Your Guardians of the Galaxy

As part of my continuing sketch warm-up/Manga Studio expanding process, I decided to draw the Guardians of the Galaxy… the original Guardians. Well, the 70s versions that I remember. So Starhawk, Yondu, Vance Astro, Charlie-27, Martinex and Nikki. I also tried to expand my drawing techniques in Manga Studio. I tried a few more things with guides and rules, especially on the Charlie-27 rivets on his uniform. I also did a couple of things as separate layers, such as the brush-like highlights on Starhawk which I could just change the color of in Photoshop. I also had a lot of fun figuring out the fastest way to do Martinex's look.

I kept the characters close to their Bronze Age incarnations. I wasn't looking to re-invent them, though I did tweak some gloves and other accessories to help delineate each character.

And want some Bronze Age fun? Check out the first Guardians collection on Amazon or Comixology.

A Secret of Sketchbooks

While I was at San Diego, I was asked to do the inaugural sketch in someone's sketchbook. She was starting an all-Hydra sketchbook. First up, she wanted a piece involving the Hydra Skull/Octopus logo. Let me let you into the mind of an artist. I always look through a sketchbook I'm given. And while I never do a bad piece, at least not intentionally, there's a point when you see a sketchbook will pieces by comics' legends or pieces that should be legendary and you think, "I gotta bring my A-game to this one." We're competitive, we artists, and sketchbooks bring that out.

So when I got this request, I knew I had to start the book out right. I think it's your holy mission as an artist to start a sketchbook off so well that other artists go "Crap! I have to keep up with this one?!" She wanted the skull. I gave her the skull, a Hydra goon, and a bunch of SHIELD agents.  (Also, to heck with all those periods in the title. It's SHIELD to me. I'm not wasting six characters on a tweet on all those dots.)

For more sketchbook insights, Amy Ratcliffe posted an invaluable piece on starting one, too. Check that out here.

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Almost All My Table Commissions from 2013

I went through my photos from 2013 and pulled the images I have from commissions I did at my various artist alley tables. I'm sure it's not complete, but there's a good chunk of them here. Almost 100! I've also included the group shots of my Star Wars: Galactic Files II cards.

Almost All My Commissions from 2013

I've done a lot of commissions this year. Below are all the ones I had on my computer. This doesn't include things I drew at my artist alley tables. One of my New Year's Resolutions is to better capture those and make sure I can display them, too. These are ones that I worked on at my studio and either colored on computer or scanned the original before I sent it out. There are 55 pieces here. That's more than one a week!

Day 31: Fantastic Four #tzadvent

I wanted to do something special for the last one, so I knew I'd do color. More than one character seemed natural, too. The Fantastic Four seemed the perfect fit.

And this was hard. I drew and redrew this one over and over. The Thing was the toughest nut to crack, since I was going for that Kirby/Sinnot/Byrne look. Also I like the classic flaming Human Torch before computer color made things look different. I started following the book shortly after the Negative Zone changed their uniforms and I still think it's a strong look, so I did those costumes.

Ironically, I think I used every technique I picked up on this one. Custom rulers were used to ink Mr. Fantastic's stretching. There were multiple layers, lots of resizing, and a ton of brush work.

Thanks for being part of this project. I'm debating putting these together as a skecthbook, either digital or physical, for the 2013 season. Let me know what you think.

Day 30: Catwoman #tzadvent

I always liked the Seventies Catwoman uniform. It's not the semi-practical cat burglar outfit she currently wears, but this one is just more fun to draw, with the cape and the skirt and the flowing-ness.

I did tweak my settings on this one. I'm learning to modify the Cintiq as well as the Razer. I now can control the brush size from the pen buttons on Manga Studio, something I couldn't do before. And it's similar to how I change brush size in Photoshop. Maybe, in the New Year, I'll share the setup I did settle on. I always dig that process stuff.

Tomorrow is the last day of this Advent project. I may go off the board and pick something on my own, but I want to finish this thing in a big way. It's been fun. I've got an idea to keep it going in January, but I'm not positive I want to do that yet. What do you think?

Day 29: Bat-Mite #tzadvent

Oh, that wacky Silver Age. Everybody had a magical imp character. Batman was no exception. I went with his classic look, rather than his Filmation Great Gazoo look. That was a bit of drawing challenge, trying to do a stylized character in my style. I tweaked the eye shape in Photoshop, rather than Manga Studio. It was a decision I made after seeing the inks. I could have taken it back into MS, but it was just as easy to do it in Photoshop. And while the purpose of this experience is to learn Manga Studio, I also want to make sure I can do touch ups in Photoshop. It's all about getting faster so I can make more cool things.

Tomorrow, another Bat-character.