Teen Titans GO!

I was commissioned a while back to create the a Teen Titans Go! illustration but with the faces of the friends of the person who commissioned me in the place of the originals. Seeing the opportunity to have this piece as a good illustration in my portfolio,  I drew the originals, saved the pencils in Photoshop and then drew the commission as it was requested. When I inked the piece, I scanned that, deleted the faces, and digitally inked over the older pencils. I now had a piece of art that satisfied the younger people in my audience to go along with the original Titan's piece I have as well.

When I saw how much space I left in the art, I realized I could make the piece more dynamic by tilting it and cropping the piece around the key figures. I have the artist Gabriel Picolo to thank for that. He's done some AMAZING Titan's inspired art and it's inspired me to do more slice of life pieces like this!

Email me at thelearningcurv@gmail.com if you'd like your very own custom commission!

Steven Universe

When I saw so many children and adults alike wearing Steven Universe cosplay and tshirts, I had to find out what this show was about. The compassion and fun that this show exudes is pretty infectious and I can't get enough, so much so that I had to create an illustration celebrating him. Whats great is he's not the only one worth focusing on. The supporting cast is one of the best in the the history of pop culture. Having loved ones around him, as well as people who appreciate and respect him for who he is is very refreshing and heart warming. All of that happens and there's still room for action, adventure and surprisingly enough, romance. 

When I showcased this at New York Comic Con, it received as great a response as my Dr. Luigi piece. Both pieces are quite involved and have a lot of reference going into the piece. With the Dr. Luigi Illo, I made sure to have a mixture of the most current Mario game backgrounds referenced for where the characters would be. One thing I enjoy about drawing backgrounds is making the viewer feel as though they can walk around and be a part of the environment. I did the same here. I wanted you to feel as though you could be with Steven and his friends, enjoying the last barbecue of the Summer. The friends that Steven makes outside of his normal circle remind me of Scooby Doo and the gang, so I wanted to make them be as loose as possible.

Doing the research, reading about each character and their motivations helped to bring a bit more life to the piece as well. Below, you can see my process, from drawing area piece by piece. I literally drew the foreground, middle ground and background on separate pages in my sketchbook as I traveled to different conventions in order to keep working on new illustrations while I finish my book. I wish I did it all on one page together, but the inked version of this image is done one a page with the printed blueline of all of the art collected together, so there is some original art of everything pieced together. 

I hope you enjoy the beach party I created. Email me at thelearningcurv@gmail.com if you'd like to talk more about this piece=] 

TeenTitans

DC Comics has done an amazing job with it's animated incarnations of it's properties. When the Teen Titans animated show began running on Cartoon Network, it was a hit of fans young and old! Sadly they decided to take that model and use it to focus on the younger age market. As much as I do enjoy the silliness of the new one, I miss the original series. The absence of that incarnation brought me to want to do a tribute to them as they would be now, as a adults. Here's to George Perez and Marv Wolfman, who originally created this group we have come to love! 

Goku FTW!

In my travels across the country, there were many who enjoyed and debated the question... who wins between Goku and Superman?  I've always looked at it as a battle that would take 5 episodes. The end result would have the two being extremely exhausted and deciding it'd be best to go out for pizza, with a splash image of them trying to out eat each other with Chichi and Lois heading the cheering section of supporting cast members. 

That said, most fans feel Goku would win... so this is for them.

Inks done hand, edited in photoshop

Completed in my Sketchbook

MATHEMATICAL!

I am meeting deadlines left and right, this is so fun =] So here is my Adventure Time Illustration. This wasn't an easy illustration for me to create.  As an artist you need to know when to let something go and move on to the next project and i have reached that point here and am moving on.  I am happy with the outcome but would love to see how this may look a few years down the line when I've grown some more.

Adventure Time is the new Sponge Bob in my eyes.  I won't let my nephews watch this show but this is a great show for teenagers who understand the jokes better and know what to take seriously and what to laugh at. This show can be very freeing and fun to watch when you simply just let your mind go and allow yourself the adventures.  They even may spark imagination to run wild in your own mind... I enjoyed my studies that were undertaken in order to come up with this. I hope you like the final result=]

This was done just in time for Boston Comic Con and will be available for that show and for C2E2! See you there=]

DBZ style!

Nappa and Vegeta, two characters from the Dragon Ball Z universe who struck fear in their fellow characters and viewers alike!  When i first saw Nappa and what he could do, I felt overcome with a feeling of seeing someone who was like Superman and the Hulk combined! When Vegeta destroyed him because he felt he was an embarrassment to the Saiyan race, he sparked even more fear in all!  Someone so small had so much power. It made for very dramatic, violent cartooning and we all loved it!  

Here are the inks for the illustration.  It was nice doing a drawing that didn't need much rendering, I love when the color can do it for me=]