Happy Holidays!

This time of year, with Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years, I really appreciate the opportunity to take some time off, and reflect. I can have the time to regroup and think about how the next year needs to be handled, as well as spending some time with people I don't always get a chance to see. 

Hopefully this holiday season, you've been able to find what you've needed, even if it was right in front of your face, or if it took a journey for you to get what you need.  Happy holidays!

Bleez Vs. Morrigan

I love mash ups!  I think it all started when I use to see the Superfriends, and how excited I was seeing all of my favorite superheroes together at one time.  From there I'd hear collaborations between hip-hop artists and that'd get me even more hype to draw or write my own rhymes and it just continued from there. 

I have been trying to do things different and working with traditional media is one of those different things.  Below is the full painting I did with watercolors after applying a greytone to the image. Above is the finished product taken straight from the inks, brought into Photoshop CS5 and colored that way.

And here we have the inks straight from my sketchbook

King Arthur

I grew up with the Superfriends, and always related to the jokes about Aquaman.  Until the mid/late 90's he was never relevant to me. And then Grant Morrison and Howard Porter remade the JLA with a different looking/acting Aquaman.  The Justice League cartoon had a great episode that introduced him and then LA fell into the ocean and I began to respect the man a bit more. 

And then Ivan Reis and Geoff Johns revamped Aquaman in the New 52 and made him a real character. Most comics are regurgitating things now, but the new storyline focusing on Atlantis is LONG overdue and I can't wait!

Aquaman Inks

Sketch Cards

As I try to venture into new directions with the comic art, I have tried my hand at the Sketch Card format. I just recently bought some Prismacolor markers, so I will be coloring these bad boys soon enough.  This was definitely challenging simply because I've never done them before.  Coming up with new poses seems easy enough but with application comes the actual problem.  I don't generally draw this small for finished work (usually only thumbnails are sized this size at 2.5 by 3.5, everything else i draw is either 9x12 or 11x17) so it was nice to see that I can do it, though I can see places where I need work.

I hope to be Rittenhouse bound ;-)

Who is your favorite villian?

experimentations.... pt1

So here we have Deadpool, inked with colored prismacolor tech pens.  I've never done the colored ink thing before except with  this image below:

the man without Fear.... Daredevil....

I am feeling a bit stagnant as an artist, so this is another step in doing something unfamiliar to grow... I am looking forward to stretching more artistic muscles=] 

Baby Looney Tunes

This image was created to be a banner behind a family who will be cutting a cake for their child. They also wanted the individual characters to be spread out around the party as well so the banner was made from the individual images supplied below. In all honesty, Lola Bunny was the funnest to draw, with Sylvester a close second. Who is your favorite? 

Lady & Hoots

Continuing in the cartoony vain, here is Lady & Hoots, a commission created for a client who wanted his little cousins turned into superhero types on a comic styled cover. The nicknames of the children are in the title and I was asked to create their looks in the theme of their nicknames.

I had so much fun designing the boys costume that I had to do some more drawings of it, in a slightly different way to separate it from the look of the commission so that it was my own.  I tried to make it simpler  and easier to replicate, giving the original commissioned piece more detail and more bang for the buck.

Below is the final color version next to the original inked piece.

Tink runnin wit los Loco's=]

I was commissioned to create an illustration with Tinkerbell being an engineer, with the conductors suit and the Steam Engine being the two other things in the mix that needed to be there. The client told me the man that she was giving this to took down his favorite picture in his office and replaced it with this=] I was very honored to hear that!

Sometimes I almost wish I only had to do pencil drawings with regards to commissions, they hold so much life in them.  I will always enjoy doing illustrations though, I can't help but be happy seeing the end result, knowing that my mind and body was able to begin a concept and see it through to create this final product!

Father Vs. Son

I hear that these two are going to go at it in the funny pages, so it was nice to be able to handle my rendition of it.  I am still having a hard time creating images with a good bright color even when dealing with dark characters or situations.  I am trying to do what i do and then after flattening it changing the highlights/shadows in the Image section of Photoshop, but I would like to be able to start out that way rather than have to edit my own image after it's "done".  Thankfully that option is there to help salvage what I create, and thankfully i am able to continue to create to learn from.... 


So in case you don't know of these characters, the one on the left is the newest version of Venom and the one on the right is Carnage.  Carnage spawned from Venom's first incarnation  (with Eddie Brock) and has been his and Spider-man's worst enemy from the get go.  I honestly don't even remember how they ever were able to beat him which makes me want to go buy some old trade paperbacks=] (I own them all but they're in storage and i doubt finding a few books out of 27 long boxes will be easy/possible).  

check out the inks and pencils from this piece=] 

New York Comic Con!

This year was my first year as an artist in the Artist Alley of the New York Comic Con! I was excited, nervous and all around happy the entire weekend from all of the love shown by fans, friends and family that stopped by the table and gave their support!  I was especially thrown back by all of those who were wondering what comic I worked on and wondered why I wasn't making comics yet.... that will change very soon everyone, be on the look out, comic pages are on their way! Thank you to everyone who came by and I hope you enjoyed the show as much as I did.... now enjoy some cool images I took from the con! 

Hipster Juggernaut

random ninja turtle