Penguins vs. Flyers
Digital. 15”x20”
Just in time to rally the Penguins to a game seven victory! I’m not super excited about my coloring but I do feel I’m getting a better grasp on it and I like what I’m doing with the values. It’s a little more involved than my previous attempts on other pieces and it’s hitting me well. It was fun to play with multiple figures and I think the next step I’m going to take is to include more interaction. Chris Kunitz and Jaromir Jagr should have maybe dug their shoulders into each other or get the sticks involved (especially with how the series has gone) and I could have moved the time a little further so Evgeni Malkin and Claude Giroux were set up at the faceoff circle more to get their interaction.
Space Octopus
I did a lot of problem solving and experimentation on these two pieces. I’ve always colored fairly graphically but never as graphic as that. I was influenced by what Dave Stewart was doing in Way and Bá’s The Umbrella Academy. I like where it was going and I really like how that rocket ship turned out (even though it looks a tad like a sticker), but it’s something I would need to play with a lot more. Also on the sequential page I used way more blacks than I ever have. It was different to say the least but I think I got some nice panels out of it, like two, three, and six (and maybe five?).
Murder by the Dead
This was actually a lot of fun to work on. As someone who doesn’t do a lot of high contrast, black and white pieces like this nor a lot of crime noir, hard-boiled stuff, it was entertaining to me. I even had fun at the conceptual level and as you’ll see in my preliminary work was working with a Question kind of character. Also, I think I finally got the hang of Manga Studio EX4 with this piece, although the ruler and ellipse tools are still a tad confusing and I didn’t enjoy having a billion layers for my brick guides but oh well.
I haven’t done a dark piece in awhile with all my Cowboy Mummy work as well as with my new project: Captain Cushing and His Pirate Crew (Which you should see later today), but it was pretty fun and easy. It’s amazing what a texture can do for you as it pretty much brings the whole piece together (as you can see below in my preliminaries). I had another project in my Comic Book Illustration class that had us ink two pieces (The Hulk by Kevin Nowlan and Hellboy by David Finch). I tackled The Hulk in a loose style similar to a favorite of mine, Jeff Lemire, and was really happy with how it turned out and wanted to experiment more with loose brush work. I figured this was the perfect project to try it.
A “commission” piece done in my Comic Book Illustration class. He wanted to see what could be done in around 45 minutes and in a commission type drawing. I scanned in black in white, the real one is in sepia. Perhaps I will replace it one day.
The sketch cards started out as warm-ups I would do before I started my freelance work over the summer. I used them to explore different techniques and to just have fun drawing before I started work. As with the Promo, I would like to revisit these with updated designs and create a cohesive set. But they’re quick fun so that idea isn’t too far-fetched. One day there will be an entire Cowboy Mummy character set of sketch cards.
I always enjoy Ragged Rider pieces and this was no exception. Looking at Drew Struzan for inspiration on collage work was super condescending. He’s too sweet. I love the aesthetics, they’re just really hard to put together. It also doesn’t help Struzan has a much more painterly touch to his collages so he can blend characters into the background, whereas I enjoy that linework. I tried giving the lines color but it wasn’t hitting me as well. The black lines are just too nice and crisp for me. This was also my first foray into what a Ragged Rider logo should look like, and Andrew and I are pretty happy with it, though it will probably go through a couple tweaks before it’s finalized. This would be fun to revisit again with updated designs and a better layout.
3-Page Story: Page 2 (Pencil. 11”x17”)
My final project for Comic Book Illustration. My teacher, Uko Smith, had written a small outline of the three page story and we had to do layouts, character designs, and then pencil each page.
The subject matter isn’t something I was all too invested in which affected my artwork on the project but it was nice to work on three consecutive story pages and the flow through them. This was the first time I really did sequential work without a script and only using stage direction. It gave the project a focus on the storytelling aspect of the art.
3-Page Story: Page 3 (Pencil. 11”x17”)
My final project for Comic Book Illustration. My teacher, Uko Smith, had written a small outline of the three page story and we had to do layouts, character designs, and then pencil each page.
The subject matter isn’t something I was all too invested in which affected my artwork on the project but it was nice to work on three consecutive story pages and the flow through them. This was the first time I really did sequential work without a script and only using stage direction. It gave the project a focus on the storytelling aspect of the art.
3-Page Story: Page 1 (Pencil. 11”x17”)
My final project for Comic Book Illustration. My teacher, Uko Smith, had written a small outline of the three page story and we had to do layouts, character designs, and then pencil each page.
The subject matter isn’t something I was all too invested in which affected my artwork on the project but it was nice to work on three consecutive story pages and the flow through them. This was the first time I really did sequential work without a script and only using stage direction. It gave the project a focus on the storytelling aspect of the art.
