Sketchbook Art: Chernabog

Chernabog is one of my favorite Disney villians. He's got such a cool design, and he's in one of my favorite Disney films. I just wish he were on more merchandise (and likewise, that the Villian Shop at Hollywood Studios hadn't become essentially a candy shop) because I would eat it up.

More Chernabog and more Hades, that's what I'd like to see.

This is a commission from DragonCon, and it was a ton of fun to do.

Thor Tattoo!

I was commissioned to draw a Thor piece a while back. (Look! It's a Thor: The Dark World tie-in!) The interesting thing is that I was told that this would be turned into a tattoo as well.

That just blows my mind. I've famously said that I would never get a tattoo* since I'd feel obligated to get some of my own artwork, and I can't stand anything I've drawn that's over six months old. That's part of the nature of being an artist if you're doing it right, though.You should keep improving.

So when someone says they want to affix some of my art to their person forever, that's amazing. The art I did was flipped to make it work better on the designated location, but i's definitely my art. Incredible!

(* The only exception being if Paul Storrie and I ever become hunters and need an anti-possession tattoo.)

SKetchbook Art: The 7th Doctor

This is another Jesse Jackson sketchbook piece. This one is Sylvester McCoy, the Seventh Doctor. I've done a lot of Doctor Who art over the last couple years, but this is one of my favorites. The visual gag of the universe being inside his umbrella, and "bigger on the inside" really pop. This is one of the very few sketches that turned out better than it did in my mind.

Sketchbook Art: The 5th Doctor

This Saturday is the big Day of the Doctor worldwide simulcast, so I'm digging some of Doctor Who art out of the archives. This piece is one I did for my friend Jesse Jackson's DW sketchbook. He does a very cool thing where he has the actors sign sketches of them. This picture of the Fifth Doctor was signed by Peter Davidson at DragonCon.

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.

Akron Comic-Con recap!

This past weekend I was a guest at the Akron Comic-Con. It was my first time at the show, and I came away impressed. It's a small, one day show, but it had a great collection of guests, vendors and fans. I think there are a few too many shows that either start out too big or don't have their heart in the right place. That's not Akron. It's creating a solid base for a great comic book show. I'm sure it will only get bigger and better.

The crowds and fans were great, too. I was impressed especially at the cosplay. I wouldn't have thought that a smaller show would have brought out things like this awesome Juggernaut, or this Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham. I shouldn't underestimate the passion of fandom, I suppose. It's great to see.

Heck, look at this phenomenally awesome Green Lantern sweater, hand knit for this gentleman by his wife. He is stylin' to be sure, and a very lucky man. Also, this sweater was better than the silly CGI uniforms of the big screen GL movie, but that's another matter altogether.

Huh. I wonder how hard it would be to get a Firestorm sweater…

The show was great. I recommend you consider adding it to your schedule. And I'll be back next year!

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.

Get Hooked Up logo

I've been going through some of my older files trying to archive them in preparation for getting a new computer before the end of the year. As a result, I've seen more than a few projects I've forgotten about. Here was a logo for a towing company, "All Hooked Up." Generally, I'm not a fan of drawing cars, so I'm pretty happy with how I handled these.

Illegitimates and their Logo

One of my first jobs in comics was lettering, and I still do a bunch of it. I letter Deadbeats for Claypool, Skyward for Action Lab, and now I'm lettering Illegitimates for IDW. The book is by Taran Killiam and Marc Andreykoand involves a cool spin on the James Bond archetype.

I also designed the logo for the book. Here it is…

I thought maybe you'd like to see some of the process of the creating that logo. The basic starting point I was given was to turn the double-L's into guns. I tried a few different variations on that before we locked in the final. I think they've all got some cool aspects to them. Click to see them embiggened.