SNIPER_commission

No time to talk. Busy with new stuff. I'll post some of it later. Sorry that I'm a week behind with posts. Apologies for not being more regular. See you all later!

Oh, wait - when you get a free minute, check out how awesome this Harley Quinn is that Lauren did. Ooooh, cool. Okay, bye!

JUNK FOOD

Aw...I feel terrible, my poor little blog. I haven't updated you in a week! I'll try to do better this week. So these aren't new images - I'm posting 'em because I feel awfuly guilty for not making more of an effort in posting daily. True, I'm busy with actual work, but still - 90 minutes isn't that much time and I should have tried harder. So like a parent who neglects his child and tries to make up for it by buying them candy, you guys get junk food! Yay!

Anyway, from time to time people are kind enough to ask me to help them develop properties that are in...um...development for new animated shows. Some get made, some (if not most) don't, and end up as my portfolio fillers. Or more often than not, they have me take a pass, realize I'm totally the wrong guy to do development for happy/saccharine kid's shows and have some other ultra-talented artist take a pass at my drawings. But the silver lining is I get to know some amazing people from different companies and establish relationships with them. Can't beat that with a stick.

Okay, the first few are from development for a cartoon based on the 'The Lost Boys' movie. Yeah...*that* The Lost Boys movie. Updated of course, though I don't know why since the original is such a masculine Joel Schumacher opus, but it wasn't my call. I watched that movie for inspiration when I was making a go at this stuff. What was my favorite part, you ask? Well, I'll tell you: beach party scene in Act 1, saxophone player wearing leather and studs, lion-mane hair. Mmmmm....crap-tastic. These two are Michael (played in the movie by Jason Patric) and David (played by '24' star Kiefer Sutherland).

The last two are from when they were trying to do with something with Transformers. And yeah...*that* Transformers. These are my pass at Bumblebee. They didn't use them. Cool.

WORK, WORK, WORK...

Remember when I said, I'd post more images because I needed to have a regular regiment and because I missed posting earlier in the week and because blah, blah, blah...?

I lied.

Work-work has been taking up all my time and as Short Round said to Indiana, "No time for love, Dr. Jones." Anyway, here's more. And remember: 'More' doesn't mean 'better' - it just means 'more'. That's my excuse because I messed up the devil-looking thing and I'm probably going to do it over again; the same way I'm probably going to post more images because I need to have a regular regiment and because I missed posting earlier in the week, and because blah, blah, blah.

POISON IVY

I'll post another image (hmmm...maybe several images) later due to the fact that I missed putting one up on Wednesday. I've got to maintain some sort of discipline and regiment, yeah? But for now...

CATWOMAN_90 minutes

Uh-oh. I missed a post on Wednesday. I feel bad. Here's something:

"You know what I, like, hate? Like, when people, like, instead of, like, pausing and, like, saying nothing before, like, saying whatever they're, like, going to say next? They end up, like, saying some, like, really annoying word, like, in its place? Like, oh...I dunno, like, some word that, like, comes off like an uncontrollable epileptic tick in, like, a conversation and , like, has somehow, like, sneaked its way into our, like, modern lexicon? That's like, really, like, lame, you know?"

I took a break tonight and went to dinner with friends in a crowded restaurant. All the surrounding tables' patrons (at least those with a younger, contemporary roster) spoke in this fashion. It's rekindled my pet peeve. It's my pet peeve redeux. You international folks should be glad you never have to labor through a conversation with a person who can't help themselves from doing this. You guys are, like, so lucky.

THOR_90 minutes

First off, thank you all for the kind words regarding my inability to draw animals. I'm going to try, at for future 90 minutes sketches I do, to draw more wildlife and I'll put them up here so we can all laugh at them together. I'm an advocate of drawing outside my 'comfort zone' - that way I'll try my hand at something I know I need to better at; and I definitely need to get better at drawing dogs, horses, birds, cats, lizards, bears, humans, bugs...you get the idea.

Next, someone mentioned something in an earlier comment about Claire Wendling (who I've become a huge fan of after Lauren pointed her out to me and said, "Her...you'll draw women better of you pay attention to her. No, you know what? Just copy her - you don't know how to pay attention.") and her ability to draw animals, to which I say - I absolutely agree. The woman is a monster when it comes to everything and anything she draws. It would do me a great deal to continuously check out what she's doing. And like I said, I'll try to do more, get better and hopefully with time, I'll actually be able to do it without having such apprehensive reaction to drawing them. Hopefully.

On that note: Thor. So, yeah...he's not an animal. "I'll save that for later," I told myself. Let's see if I'm lying.

PHOENIX_90 minutes

See what I mean when I say I have no business drawing birds? For the record, I drew this image before I drew the Eagle Girl one. Reference helps. A lot.

You want to know who can draw animals really well? I just found Gabriele Pennacchioli's blog. Oh, he can storytell too; it's his job! Dang! Check out the link and marvel at his skill. Then don't bother coming back to look at this image because it just pales in comparison.

LEGION OF SUPERHEROES_backgrounds

At one point, I thought I could draw backgrounds and managed to convince people at Warner Bros to let me do it for them. Crazy.

Here then, are the handful of development images I generated early last year for the new 'Legion of Superheroes' show. There actually wasn't all that much time to get a feel for the show - to have all the designers get on the same page in regards to specific shape theory, a visual vocabulary that represented the show, even something as basic as a consistent color palette - we had to hit ground running two weeks into the schedule. But I think it turned out to be a fine looking show.

The funny thing is, I did so many concept images that covered how the structures would look on this future Earth, only to realize the characters didn't stay on Earth very much! I mean, after the first episode, they went everywhere but Earth! Haha! I still had so much fun doing it as it was an extremely challenging, creative process.

**Note: The first four images/pages were concepts for the Legion's home base - for those of you who aren't as LOSH savvy - is an actually member of the team. I mean, the structure that's supposed to look like a crash landed rocket ship is an actual living organism that is a card carrying (well, in this case a 'ring bearing') member of the crew. That's just weird; he's got the Legion guys walking around in his guts. Ah, those kooky DC Comics writers.

EAGLE BIRD_90 minutes

Whoa - almost went a day without posting a new image! I'm slipping in my old age.

Truth be told, this isn't really all that new of an image. I did something similar to this image as a commission when I attended the Wizard Word: Chicago convention last summer (with comic book rockstar Dustin Nguyen). Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to take a snap shot of the image before I handed it off to the person who commissioned it from me. However, this time around, I actually managed to do a decent job of drawing the bird right. Sort of.

The problem was when I drew the first version I really *did* think I could draw a giant eagle. Then it came time to actually draw the thing and it became embarrassingly obvious I had no business drawing that animal. Not to say I have any more right to do so now than I did then, but at least this time it actually looks like an eagle (sort of) and not some lame buzzard from the old-school Warner Bros. cartoon. Man, I feel terrible for the guy who I sold that lame duck to. Haha! Get it? Eagle? Bird? Lame duck! Haha! I also feel terrible for saying that obviously lame pun. Enjoy.

SAVAGE DRAGON_90minutes

"Why does Erik Larsen's The Dragon have an axe and is chopping through another dragon that closely resembles (at least by my recollection) the dragon from Disney's Sleeping Beauty?" Good question. I have no idea.

The better question would be: "Does Erik Larsen's The Dragon, by hacking at the dragon coiled around him, know that he's killing his own dragon-kind?" Or even better: "Is Erik Larsen's The Dragon really a dragon? Dragon?"

Hmmm...one wonders. I also used the word 'dragon' in that commentary an awful lot. Though that second-to-last one was just thrown in there for kicks.

CHESHIRE

I did a quick sketch of this for my cousin's daughter over the holidays and liked it so much that I decided to redraw the whole thing and use some color on it. Same materials as before - blue pencil, COPIC markers, and because I'm still not 100% comfortable with coloring anything without the usual 'holding' line around the image, I finished it off with some watercolor brush pens that Staedtler/Mars makes called 'Graphic Duo 3000' (expensive for a pen that runs out of ink quite quickly - so I'll be sure to use them sparingly).

I think I did a decent job with the cat, but I completely jacked Alice up. I'm not too happy with her face or her hair or her everything (Haha!), but that's the whole process of these exercises for me: to get better with every image. Also, I'm not too proficient with markers as I haven't been using them as long as, let's say...um, actually I'm not proficient with *any* other art tool than pen and paper. I suck. You want to see someone who doesn't suck at using markers? Check out Ms. Brianne Drouhard's masterpieces on her blog. She's an amazing talent - I think she's designing on Class of 3000 for Cartoon Network at the moment. She's cool. She's so cool you should go to her blog, check out her work, and tell her so. Yeah!

ACHERON_90 minutes

I don't know what prompted this image - maybe I was vibing off of the colored image I did with a girl in a similar (identical?) dress. Who knows.

I *do* know that I didn't do enough research on the ferry (it should have been a bit more decrepit and seemingly on its last legs or maybe something that actually looks like a ferry?), I should have made the 'souls' in the river a bit more morbid and evil looking, and I should have done a better job on the composition of the image all together.

"Shoulda', coulda', woulda'," as my friend always says. The 90 minute limit is an unrelenting, unforgiving mistress. It also makes for one hell of an excuse when I do a terrible drawing. Whoo-hoo!

**Note: Someone asked if this was going to be a '...daily thing' with me posting one new image a day and such. To that I say, "Yes! It'll be just like before only it's 2007! And sometimes in color even!" But technically, since I've posted about seven some-odd images since the beginning of the year, I'm ahead by a week with this new post, right? Heh. That's just me giving myself an out just in case I'm too lazy to post anything later, man. Thanks for coming back.

CHOCOLATIER

Playing around with the COPIC markers again. The saving grace about this particular marker set is the fact that they're refillable. Well, come to think of it, so are TRIA Design markers, but their colors are less vibrant than their Japanese counterpart.

I'm going to run out of these colored sketches soon so it's going to be back to the 90 minute B&W versions next time.

NEW YEAR OVERLOAD

Let's get the week's worth of images out of the way, shall we?

Here are some images I've done while I was away - toying around with the COPIC markers, some colored pencils and a tiny bit of PS/CS2. I just wanted to play with actual media again, yeah? That way I appreciate how much of a convenience PS truly is. Once you commit something to paper by way of markers, there's very little you can do to adjust or change the terrible, terrible color decisions you have made. I say this because I have personal, intimate knowledge of such decisions.

I must have done that Black Bolt and Medusa image four times (I really *do* appreciate PS a whole lot more now - when you have no idea how to use color, it's a life saver). The image of the girl on the Vespa was for a birthday present for a dear friend of mine - we call that her 'superhero' costume. Okay, more later.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

So there goes the old 2006,making way for the new 2007! Awesome!

And as promised (to those who are actually *still* paying attention to this blog) I'm back to regular blogging; 90 minute sketches, junk food, the whole bit.

Okay, so here's the first. More to come. Oh, and some news - but that's for later. Hope you've all recovered from a hard night's worth of celebrating. Thank you very much for coming back.