Darth Maul

I've just finished a batch of summertime commissions that I'll be posting here as soon as their respective clients have seen the originals:

Here's the first of two Star Wars sketch covers I worked on this month. I forgot to do my usual scans, so there's no work-in-progress animation for this one.

The reference photo I used was from a statue, since I thought it'd be a little more interesting to show that Darth Maul's tattoos are a full-body affair.

Con Schedule 2013

The weather is finally starting to warm up, which means that con season will soon be upon us! I'm looking forward to it for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that there are a number of amazing people in my life who I only ever see when I'm on the road. When you have friends who live hundreds of miles away from you, it's hard to hang out on a regular basis.

Green = I will have my own table, so (if it's a con) look for me in Artist's Alley.
Orange = I'll be in attendance and might even be selling my work, but I won't have my own table. Look for me at the Stormwatch Comics booth.
Red = I'm attending, but not exhibiting. Chances are I'll be running around on the main floor, pestering publishers and persuading them to peruse my portfolio.

I am certain that there will be additions and alterations as the year goes on.

I'll keep you posted if anything changes.

KICKSTARTER!

The Kickstarter campaign for Roadkill Du Jour is now underway!

We're currently at 12% funding with 31 days to go, so it's off to a good start.

Please consider becoming a backer for this project! Even if all you can give is a few dollars, it would be a great help! Click here to see the full Kickstarter page

Roadkill Du Jour is the story of a biker in the bayou who once ran afoul of a voodoo priestess, with devastating consequences. After killing both his family and his gang, the voodoo witch placed a curse on him- Now he can only eat things that have died on the road and when he does, his body transforms to take on some of the physical features of whatever he's consumed. Understandably, he's out for revenge, but his enemies won't be going down without a fight. In book #1, you'll see lovely tormented ghosts, monstrous half-crocodile men, mysterious black magic rituals, and more motorcycles than you can shake a stick at!

I've done all the coloring for this book (with the exception of the cover) and I've really proud of how it's turned out. This was my first digital coloring endeavor, as well as my first time using Kickstarter to fund a project. We're doing good so far, but I won't really be able to relax until we've met our goal number.

*fingers crossed*

March Update

It's been a while since my last blog post, so let me bring you guys up to speed.

Cover artwork was colored
by Shawn Harbin, not me.

Around Christmas time, I landed a digital coloring job for an indie comic called Roadkill Du Jour. The artist (Shawn Harbin) was a fellow Shakespeare Shaken contributor and when it came time to pick a colorist, he requested me specifically. Both Shawn and the author Kevin LaPorte have been a joy to work with and I consider myself extremely lucky to be a part of the RDJ team.

This has been my first time coloring someone else's artwork with a tablet, so it's definitely been a learning experience. I'm a million times better now than I was when I started, but I'm still averaging 10 hours a page, which is way too slow.

Book #1 is almost ready for print, so we'll be posting up a Kickstarter campaign for that project sometime soon. I'll let you know when that happens.

Anyway, I've taken a short break in between books to catch my breath and work on some portraiture assignments. I'm pleased to report that my drawing muscles haven't atrophied! This portrait was finished in record time! In the past, it's taken me over 20 hours to complete a double portrait- This one took less than 6.

This was created for a friend of the
family who wanted to give to his
grandparents something special
for their 50th wedding anniversary.

The photograph I was given to work with was fifty years old and it definitely showed it's age. It was somewhat grainy and unfocused, which made their facial features a bit hard to make out, but I pulled out the likenesses as best I could and I feel good about the finished product.

(The process animation shown below doesn't have as many steps in it as usual. I forgot to scan this piece until it was already halfway done. My apologies to all you fans of moving pictures.)

Upcoming Events:

Amazicon is coming up soon! It's a pop culture show that'll be taking place in The Clarion Hotel in Essington, PA from April 5 - 7th. There's going to be a Star Wars Cantina party after the show on Saturday, so definitely check your calendars!

The Punk Rock Flea Market is back in town! If you've never been to this event before, I highly recommend checking it out. I'll be setting up my table on Saturday, May 18th in the "Punk Rock Flea Market Dome", which is a fancy way of saying "the old FedEx Warehouse across the street from The Starlight Ballroom". The building is in Philadelphia at 461 N. 9th Street and the event will be open to the public from 10 am to 5 pm. Popular demand has forced them to extend the event into Sunday as well, but I will only there on Saturday (as far as I know).

Digital Coloring Exercise

Today in the studio, I spent some time brushing up on my digital coloring skills.

Although I use Photoshop religiously, I almost never paint with it.
In fact, the last time I colored anything 100% digitally was 2010.

So, to break my digital dry spell, I found an inked image from a comic book (the cover of Uncanny X-Men #514 by Terry Dodson) and spent an afternoon filling in the color via Photoshop. It took me three hours, which is not half bad when I consider how long it's been since the last time I saw a swatch palette. I definitely want to make that go faster though and I'm certain that a few more exercises like this one will help me get back into the swing of things.

Adventure Time: Marceline - pt. 2

The Marceline piece is finally finished. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, but I'll post it here and see what people think.

I'd also like to give some long overdue praise to Marcus Ranum. I don't always have the time to stage my own photo shoots and Mr. Ranum's gorgeous stock photography has been an invaluable resource to me.

Any artists looking for a reliable source of free-to-use reference images should check out this link. You can thank me later.

Adventure Time: Marceline - pt. 1

After running into some extremely frustrating technical difficulties, I've decided to put the Cloud Atlas image aside for a little while. Until I resume working on it, (or can get started on any of the paid assignments that are sitting in my own personal queue) I'm going to devote my time to putting out a long-overdue Adventure Time themed image!

Marceline the vampire queen is one of my favorite characters from that show. Rather than feasting on blood like traditional vampires do, she eats shades of red- hence the strawberries.

Color Study

Planning out the image was more frustrating than I'd been expecting, but I feel like I've finally worked out enough of the kinks to take it to final. As of right now, the plan is to complete this image in watercolors with only a little bit of colored pencil detail work.

I've been in a bit of a creative rut recently and I'm hoping that this image will finally get me out of it.
So far, so good!