Secret Project - pt. 5

After a long time away from this project, I'm picking it up again with renewed enthusiasm! I had a breakthrough after watching Brave (which was excellent and you should definitely go see) and it's made a big difference in terms of how I'm going to approach this assignment. I've made some more progress with the character designs for some of the supporting roles. I'm determined to have at least one page fully inked and colored by September.

Post Show Recap: X-Con

X-Con was... an interesting experience.
There were really great parts and really terrible parts and not a whole lot in between.

Let's get something out of the way-
X-Con was, hands down, the most poorly organized convention I've ever attended. There were a myriad of issues that made it incredibly difficult to do business.

For example:
On Sunday, the organizers decided to hold a concert on the show floor, which made it literally impossible to speak to customers. Even if they were standing directly in front of us and we were shouting. I shouldn't have to explain to anyone, let alone an event organizer, how unreasonable it is to expect someone to conduct business via pantomime.

Despite all that nonsense, I had the pleasure of meeting a lot of really great people while I was down in Myrtle Beach. And I got to spend a lot of time with Enrica Jang from Red Stylo Media which is always fun!

I started up a conversation with a group of knights (if you walk past my booth in full plate armor, there is no way on earth I'm not going to bring it up in conversation) and learned all about The Society for Creative Anachronism! From what I understand, it's like the Renaissance Faire, but with no spectators, only participants. 

After a delightful chat, I got to sit back and watch them beat the hell out of each other with four-foot poles. And I don't mean they acted out a choreographed fight. I mean they went on stage in full armor, got some heavy wooden poles, and started whaling on each other. That's not something you get to see every day.

...Or maybe it is. I don't know how you live your life.

Our booth was right next to Giorgio Tsoukalos from Ancient Aliens, who is apparently SUPER popular. He had a line of fans waiting for him every day.
He seemed pretty nice and even came over to check out our stuff at one point.

On the other side of our booth was a guy selling a device that turns any object into a speaker. Which means he spent the whole weekend turning stuff into speakers… Speakers that played about 10 different songs (half of which were country) over and over all weekend long. Words cannot describe how fun that was… Oh wait, did I say "fun"? I meant "excruciatingly annoying".

I never want to hear any of these songs ever ever again:

Dido - Life For Rent

Sheryl Crow - The Picture (feat. Kid Rock)

Zac Brown Band - As She's Walking Away

Zac Brown Band - Toes

I only did one show sketch, capturing the softer side of Wonder Woman. It looked terrible when I first started working on it, so seeing it blossom into something lovely by the end was even more satisfying than usual.

One of the best parts of X-Con was sharing a table with Ben Fraizer, who is an extremely talented young artist and a major contributor to several Red Stylo projects. He was the artist for The After Party story in Poe Twisted anthology and is the new penciller for Azteca!

In addition to having a case of "The Madness" that makes my own creative obsessions look like a touch of the sniffles, he's an incredibly fascinating person and one of the kindest people I've ever met. I really enjoyed hanging out with him and I'm looking forward to the next time our con schedules overlap!

When the show was over and it was time to go home, Ben Fraizer and I hopped in the car for a good ol' fashioned road trip to the airport… Which is to say we got horribly lost and spent several hours cussing out other drivers while driving in the opposite direction from our desired destination. It was just that kind of week.

In the end, everyone ended up getting home safely, which is what really matters.

Fast forward to the present! I took some time off to shake the nasty cold that'd been plaguing me all month, and I'm finally back in the studio! I'm currently working on a Daredevil commission, as well as some character designs for my semi-secret comic project. There's also a chance you'll be seeing a Hit Girl sketch cover in the near future as well. I'll post updates as often as I can.

Post Show Recap: Wizard World Philly

I have my post show recap for X-Con ready to go, but I'm still waiting on some photographs 

before I can publish it... So, while we're waiting for that- Here's what happened in Philly!

I had less than a week after X-Con (just enough time to complete that Luna commission and catch a nasty head cold) to get my stuff together for Wizard World. It was the first time I've ever had an Artist's Alley table all to myself and it ended up being the most financially successful con I've ever attended!

I had a great spot in Artist's Alley, right across from Red Stylo Media and down the aisle from my friends Ken Haeser (of Living Corpse fame) and Mike Capprotti (cover artist extraordinaire).

Rough Sketch Studios was there in force as well, with Steve, Brielle, and Andy all taking up residence just one aisle away.




Directly across from my table was a talented young artist I've never seen before. Her name is Sasha Yosselani and her work is incredible. Take a moment to check out her website, you'll be glad you did.

I also had the pleasure of running into Alex Saviuk!
I'd been looking forward to showing him my work ever since meeting him in Chicago, but I wasn't expecting to see him in Philly! He did me the honor of looking through my portfolio and was a joy to chat with. I'm looking forward to the next time we cross paths.

I was assisted by my own personal booth babe, Thomas Mitchell. He spent the weekend dressed as Doctor Strange and was, dare I say it, the belle of the ball. If Tom hadn't taken time off from work to help me run the booth, there's no way I would've made it through the weekend. He is the best show partner anyone could ask for, and I suspect he likes to rave about my artwork even more than I do.

Having Tom nearby to take care of customers also freed me up to work on more show sketches than I would've otherwise been able to do. Almost a third of my income from Wizard World this year came from show sketches. I've never done so many at a single event... They haven't gotten easier or quicker, but they have gotten a little bit better.

<-- The first was Black Widow for a
customer who liked Marvel redheads.

The guy who gave
me a tiny zebra print
sketch book in Chicago
made an appearance!
His name is Chris
apparently and he was the recipient of this
(somewhat mannish)
Wonder Woman.

                                                                                                                                                                             Emma Frost as The White Queen of The Hellfire Club, complete with condescending bitch face.

This Octopus Mermaid is my personal favorite from the show! I LOVE how she turned out! I'm planning on coloring her sometime in the future. It's fortuitous that this sketch turned out so awesome, since the customer is planning on getting this tattooed on his body!

And last, but not least, is this drawing of Wonder Woman having a tea party with X-23.
I get the feeling it's some kind of inside joke between the customer and a friend, but she was absolutely delighted when she saw the finished piece and announced that I'd "made at least two people very happy"

Those four days sapped a LOT of energy out of me... I definitely learned how exhausting it is to work a convention when you're sick. I returned home on Monday with a bone-deep weariness that I have yet to fully recover from and had to keep on truckin' since the RAW cosplay fashion show was only a few days away... I'll blog about that eventually when they post the photos/video.

Now, if you guys don't mind, I'm going to go collapse in a corner for a few days.

What is The Madness?

I'm posting this here so I won't need to add footnotes to future blog entries 

that reference this phrase... Anyway, here y'go. The Madness defined:

The Madness   [thuh mad-nis]

"The Madness” is what makes you want to get out of bed and draw.
And then when you are done drawing, draw some more.
It makes you miss meals, because you are too busy painting.
It's an irresistible, incurable compulsion to create things, and I've got it BAD.

Luna Lovegood - Pt. 2

I managed to get this piece in the mail right before Philly Wizard World came to town. It was a rush job, but I'm still very pleased with how it turned out.

The client who commissioned it
was delighted when he saw it!

I'm really enjoying this new watercolor/colored pencil technique I've been working with lately, so don't be surprised if you see a lot more of it in the future!

The outfit Luna is wearing is from the movie, specifically Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows: Pt. 1, during Bill & Fleur's wedding.

(Click here to read more about 
the inspiration for this piece)

Good Press

Ken from Heroic Times just featured a glowing review of my artwork on his blog! I can't begin to describe how gratifying it is whenever a total stranger sings my praises online.

Click here to read 

it for yourself!

(scroll down, towards 

the bottom of the page)