Monday, December 17, 2012

Revenge


This started in my sketchbook and then took over my brain for a week. The first three panels are Pitt pens on crappy sketchbook paper, the rest is (mostly) sumi ink on Bristol board. This may or may not be autobiographical.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Revenge panel 3 WIP



This is a panel from a comic I'm working on (I hope to finish it tomorrow or Tuesday). This is still a work in progress so I haven't bothered to drop out the col-erase pencils in Photoshop. I'm particularly pleased with how this is turning out, so I wanted to share it. It almost looks like I know what I'm doing.

I'm hoping to coax the rest of this from my failing Pitt brush pens. I need new ones. This isn't going to be as filthy as this panel suggests it will get. I would post this on Facebook, but I suspect it violates their terms of service, so I guess not.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Nazgul



I've been letting this blog lie a little bit fallow lately. That's bad, methinks, so here's a piece I did for my failed Fantastic Fest fundraiser. The client wanted a horse but left it up to me to determine what else I would draw, so here you go. Pitt pens and Copic markers on Bristol board. It turned out pretty well, all in all.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

More concepting




This is another character for The Transsexuals. The character is a kind of steampunk wizard type, whose powers fuse magic and retro technology. Lots of room for fun gadgets and weird magical artifcats. This is still a work in progress with still kinda sketchy anatomy, which is par for the course for me. Pencil on crappy sketchbook paper.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Transsexuals Cover WIP


This is a work in progress cover for the comic I'm doing with Natalie Reed. Kinda bare right now. There will be three other figures in this. Totally Silver Age Marvel. I made a Kirby Crackle symbol in Illustrator that turned out really cool. Adobe Illustrator over pencil sketch.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Warm Up Sketch (Moonrise Kingdom Edition)


This is a warm-up sketch, drawn from a still from the movie, Moonrise Kingdom. Mechanical pencil on crappy sketchbook paper.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Francoise Dorleac


I posted this in my Etsy shop a couple of days ago but neglected to post it here. How do I ever expect to sell things if I'm so half-assed about promoting myself? Yeesh.

Anyway...

This is a small portrait of Francoise Dorleac (who was the sister of Catherine Deneuve, killed in a car crash at the age of 25). It's acrylic on bristol board. It's approximately 6"x4.5". It's been a long, long time since I made pictures with acrylic paint. I'm seriously rusty. This knocks some of that rust off, I hope.


As I say, this is for sale in my Etsy store.

Friday, July 27, 2012

Another Comics Character Design




This is another character concept sketch for The Transsexuals, the comic I'm going to be drawing in the coming weeks and months. The first version I drew of this character was a bit wrong, so this one is shorter and chunkier. The description Natalie gave me for this character calls for a somewhat heavy trans woman of color who appears to be cis, but who isn't particularly beautiful. I don't know if I managed this

A lot of designing characters is costume design, and this drawing is working a lot of that out, particularly given that a lot of heavier women I know dress themselves in ways that disguises their shape. I don't know if I'm communicating that or not. Probably not.

This is also purely digital, drawn entirely within Photoshop out of my head. I haven't worked like this a lot in the past, but I've got a newish Wacom tablet, so I might as well use it...

Monday, July 23, 2012

Captain Marvel vs. The Super Skrull


I've been meaning to draw the new version of Captain Marvel ever since I saw the re-designed costume. This is brush and ink on bristol board, colored with prismacolor markers.

I kinda wish I hadn't colored this. I think I like the black and white version better.




This is for sale in my Etsy store.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Jess Model Sheet




This is a character model sheet. I'll eventually do 20 or thirty of these drawings for each of the characters in the comic I'll be drawing in a few weeks. Doing the grunt work early before I actually have to produce pages. This is Pitt brush pen over pencil on crappy Caslon sketchbook paper.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Luchador vs. Snake


Another commissioned drawing for an RPG. A luchador vs. a giant snake. Fun. Brush and ink on Bristol board. One more drawing for this project and I'm done.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Mr. Punch


Another commissioned RPG drawing. The brief on this is for a killer doll, with a suggestion of a traditional jester. Basically Mr. Punch. This was pretty fun to draw. Brush and ink on Bristol Board.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Scarecrow


This is another RPG illustration for commission. This was fun, actually, once I figured out how to approach it. The first version I drew was awful. I'm pretty happy with this version, though. It appeals to the horror geek in me. Brush and ink on Bristol Board.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Possessed Tree




This is another RPG illustration. The brief on this was "Possessed Tree: a large tree ripping a man apart." The game centers on luchadors, so it had to be a luchador as the victim. This tickles the adolescent sadist gorehound I used to be as a teenager. Fun to draw. Brush and ink on bristol board.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Johnny Cash


Taking a break from commission work today. I decided to draw Johnny Cash. I've been meaning to draw The Man In Black for a while, now. This turned out better than I expected. This is Pitt brush pen and Copic marker on bristol board with some scratchboard technique on the guitar. This is 7.5 x 4 inches.

This is for sale in my Etsy store, by the way, so if you have some loose change and want a picture of Johnny Cash (and who wouldn't? The Man in Black is cool, right?), you can buy him here.

Friday, July 6, 2012

Redneck Cannibal Patriarch


This is another RPG illo. Brush and ink on bristol board with some touch ups with a Pitt pen. The brief on this called for a family of "deformed inbred cannibal mutants". So I immediately think: The Sawyer Family from Texas Chainsaw, which led me back to Ed Gein. This isn't anyone in particular, by the way. I'm just offering my thought process. I was really happy with this until I realized that I omitted the "deformed mutant" part of the equation, so I went back in and put a radiation burn on his face. Fortunately, the client liked it.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Cat Burglar




Another illustration. Mostly brush and ink on bristol board with some touch-ups with a Pitt Pen.

This photo reffed from a stock photo by photographer Marcus Ranum.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Luchador Hunter


This is another illustration for a role playing game. The brief on this called for a "Most Dangerous Game" character, a big game hunter who isn't satisfied with animals. The game itself tries to recreate Mexican wrestling horror movies, hence the luchador. This is almost entirely brush and sumi-e ink on Bristol board. (I did use a pen to rule the barrel of the gun, but that's about it). I'm getting more confident with the brush. A pretty fun drawing.

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Eurayale



This is another illustration for a roleplaying game that I've been commissioned to illustrate. In the game, this is Medusa, but I stick with the idea that Medusa was slain by Perseus. I've named her Eurayale, who was one of Medusa's two immortal sisters (Medusa was the only mortal gorgon, the other sister was Stheno). This is brush and ink and Pitt pens on Bristol board, with some corrections in Photoshop.

There's prints and magnets and mugs and such available in my Deviant Art print shop if you might like to own this image.

Friday, June 29, 2012

Gillman


This is another drawing for commission. Your standard gillman a la The Creature from the Black Lagoon. Mostly brush and ink on Bristol Board, with the tone added with a can of spray paint after I masked the main figure (mostly) with frisket. The frisket lifted some of the ink, unfortunately, so I had to go back in and do a bunch of touch ups. Live and learn, I guess.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Hockey Goon





This is a commissioned illustration for a role playing game. I'll probably be posting a bunch of these over the next few weeks. The description I was given was "hockey goon." So here it is. I'm pretty pleased with this. Hopefully, my client will be equally pleased.

Pitt pens and brush and sumi-e ink on bristol board.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Luchador 1




This is a work in progress for a commission job I got this week. Of all the things I ever expected to draw, a luchador in an Elmer Fudd hat is not one of them. Ah, the glorious life of an illustrator...

Pitt pen over red col-erase Prismacolor.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Kate Kane



So I'm trying to decide if I want to draw my upcoming comic digitally or on paper. I'm leaning toward paper. This is a test to see how comfortable I am drawing in Adobe Illustrator with my tablet. I'm not used to using a tablet, and I need to force myself to use it. This is basically a doodle.

Anyway, this is Kate Kane, of course. I love Batwoman.

(crossposted from my Deviant Art account)

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Still More Character Concepting



Another preliminary sketch for “The Transsexuals” This is was drawn with Pitt pens in my sketchbook. As I've said before, I’m trying REALLY hard to make my characters individuals. Nothing bothers me more than seeing an otherwise well drawn comic with characters who all have the same face. Seriously, where’s the fun in that? This is a first run through and my final character designs probably won’t look anything like this. Anyway, I’ll start drawing the comic proper next month when the first script comes in. I’m really looking forward to this

Sunday, June 10, 2012

More Character Concepting


This is another concept for the comics project I've taken on. This was drawn in Photoshop with my spanking new Wacom tablet, so it looks a little rough. I'm still not used to the tablet. Give me time. I'm probably drawing the comic itself with pen and ink, so it'll be a LOT cleaner when I actually draw it in the book. This is mainly to get the idea down on, er,  paper. The pose is very consciously John Buscema-ish.

Basically, the idea behind this is that this is a knight of mirrors, who reflects your weakest secret self back at you, whatever that may be. So Batman would see a ten year old boy crying over his murdered parents, for one example. The way Natalie described him to me was interesting, but I couldn't get the image of a guy dressed up like a disco ball out of my head. I've tried to avoid that. Instead, I wanted something jagged and weird. Probably hard to draw long term, but I'll burn that bridge after I cross it.


This is another of the lead characters. Headshot. Not fully developed, yet. Pitt pen over red col-erase pencil. I've been looking at a lot of Ross Campbell's stuff lately and it's seeping into the way I draw women. I feel like a piece of silly putty, taking impressions. It still looks like my work, but the influence seems obvious to me. Ah well.

I'm bound and determined to avoid the kind of same-face look that even some amazing artists indulge in. My characters will be individuals. This means models sheets, which means lots of work before I even draw a page of cartoon (and I even know what the first page looks like already, but I need to be scrupulous about this and not dive into drawing it yet). Anyway, I'm excited about the project.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

A Comics Prelim


So I've been having a conversation about drawing a comic with skeptic and trans blogger Natalie Reed about a group of transsexual superheroes. This is the first character concept drawing for that project, which seriously looks as if it is going to happen (I'll keep you posted). Anyway, this is our lead character, Jess, a geeky trans girl with a secret life.

Pitt pen over red col-erase pencils in my sketchbook.

Edit: Revised to include a revision of her face. She looks too confident in the first go. This is also a bit more femme, which I was trying to avoid.



Monday, June 4, 2012

Gini's Big Date WIP



This is for Tenebrous Kate. What I'm working on in process. This is the first page of a long narrative (probably about forty pages). A graphic novella, as it were. This is a vector created with Adobe Illustrator. This will be color when I'm done. I'm being slow with this, actually.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Black Canary


I woke up this morning with a desire to draw Black Canary. This is the pre-New 52 version, though not the classic version. I might do the classic version down the line. Anyway, this pen and ink and art marker on a 5"x3" piece of Bristol board. It was fun to draw.

Temporarily available in my Etsy store.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Two Models


This drawing is based on a photo I saw in an online archive of Vogue photographs. It originally appeared in UK Vogue sometime in 1966. The photographer is probably Helmut Newton, but I'm not sure. In any event, I thought it would be a fun challenge to draw this in ink. This is a combo of pen and brush. I'm trying to improve my hand with a brush. It takes more discipline than I normally have, but I like the results. Anyway, I'm going to add color with markers or watercolor and then put it in my Etsy shop sometime in the next day or two. I'll post the color version then.


Monday, May 7, 2012

I'm in Drawn Out

I got an acceptance email from Kate Leth and Megan Rosalarian Gedris today telling me that I made the cut for their Drawn Out comics anthology! Woohoo! I thought's I'd share my proposal, since I drew my proposal as a comic:



This is going to be fun to draw.

Friday, May 4, 2012

J. Edgar Hoover



I drew this one day last year over lunch. Had an urge to draw J. Edgar Hoover. Not sure where that came from. Enjoy.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Ms. 45, first proof

Okay. Here's the finished version of Ms.45. This is a proof, but I'm done working the block, so this is what the edition will look like. The image area is 8x6 inches and it's printed on Kozu paper.


Anyway, this is basically a get my feet wet sort of piece to get me used to working on linoleum. Not great, but I'm not embarrassed by it, either. My next piece will be more ambitious and hopefully more confident.

The edition will go onto my Etsy shop on Friday.

Edit: it's live.

Monday, April 30, 2012

Ms.45 Linocut, Take 2

Okay, so I'm progressing on this. Here's a video I made this morning:



I hope to have prints in the Etsy store by the end of the week. Wish me luck.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Ms.45 Linocut WIP

So, I have a bunch of linoleum blocks right now. I don't have much experience with linocut--I specialized in intaglio printmaking when I was in art school--but I don't need a press to pull linocut prints and I need something substantial to put in my Etsy store. Over the weekend, I made a drawing based on a still from the movie, Ms.45, and transferred it to a block yesterday:


Today, I carved the block:


Unfortunately, I don't have any good paper for relief printing. I ordered some Rives lightweight paper from Blick this morning and now I'm waiting. I suppose I could pull a print with some cheap sketchbook paper, but I hate the idea of wasting the ink on that. I guess I'm waiting on the mail now. In the mean time, I downloaded plans for a relief printing press made from some two by fours and a hydraulic jack. I think I have a project for the summer.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Phoenix


This is a piece of a larger illustration. It's a vector, created in Adobe Illustrator. This was fun to make.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Drums and Guitars

Here are a couple of vectors that I did as part of a larger piece. I'm not happy with the larger piece, but the components are just fine.

Here's a drum:



Here's a Fender Bass and a Gibson Les Paul:



These are vectors, made with Adobe Illustrator. There are no raster effects in either of these. There are, however, a few custom art brushes.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Some concepts for Womanthology: Space

So the first spin-off project from Womanthology is Womanthology: Space. I don't know if I'm going to be in it yet, but I'm going to proceed as if I am. So here's some concept art for the story I want to do.

The premise: Marla is a girl from a high-gravity planet who is traveling to the inner systems to go to school. Aboard her ship, she's the only high-gravity native, which is painfully obvious to everyone because it makes her short, stocky, and generally much stronger than everyone around her. The other kids on the ship are only interested in her when they want a ringer for sports. Otherwise, they treat her as a freak. Marla hates sports.

This is what Marla will look like aboard ship:



After a particularly humiliating session of bullying, the Captain approaches her. It seems a nearby scientific expedition has discovered life on a gas giant. No one in the expedition can stand the gravity on the planet, and Marla is the only person from high gravity within ten light years. They ask her to suit up in a special rig to make first contact with the aliens. The suit has a big balloon attached to it so that she can float in the atmosphere. There are attitude jets so she can maneuver. So Marla suits up and goes out to meet the aliens. Here's a sketch of the suit.



The aliens are basically a cross between jellyfish and balloons, floating high in the atmosphere in the narrow (relatively) anthropic zone of the planet. The intelligent aliens are descended from a predator species, though, like the prey species with whom they share a common ancestor, they are equipped with feeder tentacles. The prey species, or the "drifters", float in the sky in great herds trailing feeder tentacles that take nutrients from the air like orchids. The "shepherds" tend these herds, protecting them from larger predators. It's the "shepherds" who are intelligent. This is what I imagine the shepherds will look like:



Anyway, a fun way to inaugurate my art blog, eh?