Whoops...

... almost forgot to post today! Here's a quick one, just testing out some new paper.

Moon Boots!

Just an odd little alien out of an old sketchbook while I try to work up somethin' new for the blog.

From the Files: Batman & Robin

I just found this the other day while flipping through an old portfolio. I'm pretty sure I haven't posted it up here on the ol' blog, but forgive me if you've already seen it.

This was done almost exactly five years ago, back in February of 2003, so that's my excuse for any and all of the things that are wrong with it.

I remember being so proud of this at the time... I shudder to think how the stuff I'm doing now will look to me in another five years.

Cerebus...in Technicolor!

Here it is all finished up. Colors were done with a set of 24 Prismacolors and an old white colored pencil. This is the by far the biggest thing I've done in color in a long, long time but I'm actually pretty happy with how it turned out.

Cerebus: inks

And here are the finished inks...I think I stayed pretty true to my pencils but inking seems like a series of happy accidents most days so quite a few things are just slightly different.

A few thin lines were done with a .08 Zig Millennium but for the most part this was inked with a Pentel Color Brush (since it seemed to be the the black ink that stayed the boldest after erasing and bleeds the least when colored over) if you're into art tools and junk.

Stay tuned tomorrow for the final piece, in Technicolor!

Cerebus: pencils

Aaaand here are the final pencils. As you can see I've tweaked a few things from the rough to hopefully move your eye around the piece a bit more.
Next comes the fun part, INKIN'!

Cerebus: rough/ DD solicit

Since I was planning on coloring this piece I wanted to make sure everything was perfect. So I wouldn't end up trying to color over some pencil groove in the paper I did this full size "rough" before the final pencils. Giving me one more chance to get the composition and poses just right. That's what the little arrows are for. They're little notes to self that I need to move somethin'. At this stage I also realized that I couldn't quite fit the extra couple of characters I added on left side(seen on the thumbnail) and that Jaka (the one standing) wasn't getting enough room. Be sure to check out the final pencils tomorrow to see how these things get fixed.

Also, my Daredevil issue's solicitation has been posted up on Newsarama, so I guess it'll be in the February issue of Previews. Be sure to ask your local comic shop to save you a copy, okay?
Here's all the official solicit text, and the cover:)
DAREDEVIL: BLOOD OF THE TARANTULA

Written by ED BRUBAKER & ANDE PARKS

Penciled by CHRIS SAMNEE

Cover by MARKO DJURDJEVIC

"Blood of the Tarantula" Carlos LaMuerto, a.k.a. Black Tarantula, is finally doing something good with his life. Well, at least it ain't all bad. Lying low after getting out of prison and wiping out an entire gang, Carlos has become a low-key Robin Hood -- cleaning up the neighborhood he used to run as a gang lord. But he's about to discover that leaving his past behind isn't as simple as a change of attitude�as ghosts from his former life haunt him, Carlos turns to his friend/adversary, Matt Murdock. Now Black Tarantula and Daredevil must work together to save the streets of Hell's Kitchen from a powerful new gang from Carlos' homeland.

48 PGS./Rated T+ $3.99

Cerebus: thumbnails

It's been a while since I've done a commission, and this one has been a long time in the making. I just finished the colors last night, so we'll go step by step this week until we get to the final piece.

I was asked to use the cast of characters you see above from Dave Sim's Cerebus in a composition similar to Da Vinci's Last Supper (also shown above, in case you'd like to compare and contrast:). I cropped the composition quite a bit but I think you still get the gist.

Trying to do something on par with the Last Supper was a bit daunting to say the least so, instead of just copying poses and whatnot, I decided to lighten the tone a bit by having Cerebus hording all of the food and drink and letting out a huge burp in the middle of dinner. Classy, right?

Anyway, check back tomorrow for the finished pencils.

Toth JQ

Man, nothin' gives me a kick in the pants more than Toth! I saw this model sheet for Jonny Quest (probably my favorite show of all time!) a long long time ago and still find myself thinking of it sometimes when I'm trying imagine heights of a cast of characters in whichever comic I'm working on at the time.
I poked around a bit this morning to see if it still matched up with the image in my head. Of course, it was even better than I remembered.

Pimpin'

Checkmate #22 hits stands today, with pencils and inks by yours truly!

While you're at the comic shop buying multiple copies of Checkmate, be sure to tell the fine folks behind the counter to put a copy of Rough Stuff#7 on your pull list. It's on sale January 23rd from TwoMorrows Publishing!

There's also a bit of behind-the-scenes type stuff that didn't fit in the mag here on Bob McLeod's blog. Just scroll down a bit to the list of amazing comic artists...and me!

Gal Friday

Who Dat Ninja?!

There's an interview with me up at the Pulse here.

There are a bunch of scans of my pencilled pages and B&W line art, like what you see above, there as well.

Boids

I'm working on several different things right now, but after flipping through all of my latest sketches and whatnot, the only thing I could find that wouldn't give too much away was this page of bird studies. Obviously not going for composition here, just trying to fill up the page.

Whatever Wednesday:

1min: HULK

GRRRAAAHHHH!!!! HULK SMASH FRIDAY!!!

Is it the end of the week already?!

1min: Spidey

This is a pretty rubbish drawing, but hopefully my love for John Romita Sr's Spidey still comes through in the web design. Steve Ditko did an amazing job designing one of the most perfect costumes in comics but it was Romita that really got it down to the essentials.
You can actually see the bottom of the 1minute Batman at the top, although I think he has it in for ol' Peter Parker since his Spidey sense is goin' off.
I'll try to have something less nerdy to say tomorrow... no promises, though.

1min: Nexus

Since Laura surprised me with a late X-Mas gift in Steve Rude: Artist in Motion, I figured I'd do a quick Nexus this morning.

If you're a fan of the Dude, like me, this is a must own. Flesk Publications has put together an absolutely beautifully designed book here. I can't imagine a better looking book for your money... of course I haven't ordered all the rest of their books yet:) I'm really looking forward to checking out the James Bama, the two volumes of Joseph Clement Coll and the three Mark Schultz art books.

If you do manage to go to any of the links above, be sure to do yourself a favor and check out the galleries. Okay?

1min:Batman

Since I promised 1 minute sketch week a while back, and managed to completely forget about, how about we round out the rest of this week with some quickies?

Happy New Year/ POST #300!!

So, I really wanted to do something special for post 300 but just haven't had the time to devote to sketches not related to my comics work... well, that I can post anyway. So here's another batch of Checkmate sketchbook pages. The top two were done for Checkmate#17 and the bottom two are for #21& 22.

Hope you're all havin' a great New Year, everybody. Take care.