An Orca and a Dolphin in Amity.

Because as you know, Amity means friendship.


The above is a left over commission from this year's Boston Comic Con, featuring Aquaman's one time lady-friend and superhero in her own right, Dolphin. I didn't even know this character existed until recently. She might have the most casual superhero costume of all time.

Copic markers, pen and ink on bristol board, 2011.


Happy Memorial Day, everybody!

Photobooth Fridays, No. 30

Memorial Day Weekend slack-off edition!


No big reference post this Friday. No, instead an unveiling of my very first sketchbook! 'Yield For Snails' is a small 36-page collection of my pin-ups, commissions, sketches and illustration work over recent memory, featuring 18 full color pages!
These will eventually be available online, but for the time being are going to be sold solely at upcoming convention appearances, the first of which will be next weekend at Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC.

Here's some more pictures of Maris and I goofing around with our copies:





On a side note, please take the time to head on over to 5 Minute Marvels, a blog where a dad and his two daughters make quick, adorable drawings in response to ones submitted to them by professional comic artists. They're all really great, but today I was flattered to see that I was the inspiration for some mighty fine Harley Quinn drawings. Great work, guys!

Hawkeye

Watercolor, gouache, pen and ink on bristol board. From Boston Comic Con, 2011.

MeCaf, MeSaw, MeDrewSomeStuff

Well Portland's Maine Comics Convention has come and gone, and I miss it already (tear). I had a great time at the con this past Sunday. Big thanks to Rick from Casablanca Comics for having me, and to everyone who took the time to stop by my table. It was much appreciated.

Commissions weren't really the name of the game at this convention, but I did get one request:


Sheriff Bart from Blazing Saddles!

I don't normally get drawing requests that have so little to do with comics, so I was really excited about this one. I should probably see this movie finally, as the fella who got this sketch was really talking it up. To Netflix!

Photobooth Fridays, No. 29

Phantastic Phoar edition!

As I mentioned in my last post, this illustration represents my first traditionally painted comic cover. As I knew I was going to be painting the cover, I wanted to achieve an extra layer of realism here, and so looked to have some of my good friends pose as the fantastic quartet.


I cast friends that I thought resembled somewhat the comic counterparts I'd had them posing as. Although I of course altered their features so that they aren't just straight portraits of my friends, and are instead portrayals of these characters.

Here's a look at the initial thumbnail ideas for the cover, as well as the proceeding pencils, then inks:


And the following painted steps, from initial tonal treatment in watercolor, to painted rendering in gouache, and final inked linework:


Hope you like!

Outside of all that, a reminder! This Sunday, May 22nd, I will be attending the Maine Comics Festival in Portland, ME. There I'll be drawing sketches, selling prints and t-shirts, and will have some original art on display. If you're in the area, please do stop by!

Have a great weekend.

*Yes I realize this post is dated as having been published on Saturday, rather than Friday. So sue me.

The Fantastic Four -- Featuring...

She-Hulk!


The above illustration is a variant cover for issue 16 of X-men, coming out this August. It's one of a series of Fantastic Four themed covers Marvel is putting out this year in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the famous superhero family. This particular cover is meant to harken back to the John Byrne era of the series (in the early 80's), in which She-Hulk temporarily replaced The Thing. It's also my very first painted cover! True.

The Adventures of Pete and Petunia

Above is my first entry for a new online sketch group called 'Bristol Whip.' The group, started by awesome-sauce artist Joel Carroll, showcases a set of drawings every couple weeks based around a common theme. Those themes are decided on a rotation of the blog's members and are entirely up to their own discretion. This one here is for the theme 'tattoo,' as chosen by comicbook power hitter, Ming Doyle. Being a child of the 80's/90's (and being a big nerd), my first thoughts went to little Pete's dancing tattoo Petunia, from the 1990's Nickelodeon show, 'The Adventures of Pete and Pete'.

I ran with it.

Dance, señorita, dance!

Annnd here's a look at the original tonal treatment:



Copic markers and pen and ink on bristol board.

Be sure to visit Bristol Whip to check all of the awesome entries that are up on the site. Currently there are some new posts up by Jemma Salume and Paul Maybury for this week's theme, Captain America. Woo!

Photobooth Fridays, No. 28

Complete with photobombing!

And upcoming cover art teasing!


Have a great weekend, everybody.

Shaak Attaak

That's a terrible pun. I'm sorry.


Shaak Ti, from Boston Comic Con, 2011. Watercolor, pen and ink on 9"x12" board.

Photobooth Fridays, no. 27

Today we'll be looking at the first cover of Star Wars: Knight Errant, series 2, starring none other than the jade saber wielding Jedi, Kerra Holt.


Or is that Maris Wicks? It is! Thankfully Ms. Wicks was once again gracious enough to model for me - this time with props!


Above you can see a comparison of my initial thumbnail sketch for the cover, as well as it's proceeding finished inks. Looking at the final cover, you'll notice there weren't really any major changes from its initial composition, save for minor tweaks in the pose, anatomical correcting, detailing, etc. Lucasfilm did however think that Kerra's smile looked a bit goofy in the thumbnail, and asked me to get rid of it altogether. Having intended the piece to be a bit of a throwback to 1940's WWII propaganda art, I thought it essential that it be as blindly optimistic as possible. I toned down Kerra's smile hoping they would let me keep it, which they thankfully did.

Here's a pencilled drafting of those pearly whites:


Which you can compare against the final finished cover here.

And as a final bonus, here's a look at the two unused concepts for this cover:


Have a good weekend!

Boston Comic Con: LLA ENOD!

I swear I'll stop soon with the backwards Zatanna posts. YLSUOIRES.

I did have good reason though, on account of this here sketch I did at the con:


It's a bit of a callback to this drawing I did at April's Emerald City con. Zatanna's basically gloating now, having snatched away Harry's prized Firebolt. And yes, that's the levitation spell she's speaking in reverse there. NEEEERRRRDDDYYYYY.

This was one of several sketches I did at the con which I'll be posting in the coming weeks. YATS DENUT.

And speaking of the convention, I had a really great time over the weekend. Thanks so much to every one who stopped by my table. I really appreciated it. It was really exciting to finally meet and/or hang out with some of my favorite artists as well, including Adam Hughes, Dave Johnson, J. Bone, Darwyn Cooke and Stéphane Roux! They're all EXCEEDINGLY brilliant as artists, but also just swell guys to talk to and be around.

Well that's all for now everybody, I'll -- OOOF!



OW!! GEEZ. Oh, Ming! Yes! Of course! How could I forget the amazingly talented comic artist and part time superhero, Ming Doyle? Apparently not without incurring the wrath of Thor...
Seriously though, great seeing her as well. I was really happy to go home with this gorgeous print she was selling over the weekend. So good!

Ok. Now I'm off for reals. See you soon, dear readers.