Marvel Legacies

My intent with drawing this piece was to spotlight some characters that were underrepresented in comics. I focused on ethnicities and genders that aren't usually given the same love as our male friends, especially those who are of European descent. It allowed me to challenge myself yet again and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

One thing I realized while drawing this piece is that I've never drawn a Korean person. I've never drawn someone who is Muslim or Native American. I rarely draw Latino characters and I almost never draw anyone who is Black or of African descent. I want to change that. Everyone else can draw and will continue to draw male European characters. That's the status quo and it's an easy thing to do in this day and age. I believe I have an obligation to bring something to the table that has yet to be seen, or at least support things that don't get the support they need in my community, in real life and in comics. I'm not tryin to do anything easy anymore. "Be the change you want to see." My career has taken me on the path to this journey.

SHAZAM

I've loved Captain Marvel since I saw a cartoon with him and his family back in the 80's. I always found the idea of a kid becoming something so powerful and being responsible enough to wield that power very amazing and inspiring.

I try to draw correlations between characters and drawing them and did so with Thor and the good Captain and as much as I enjoyed drawing it, I didn't like the outcome. I did it on two sheets within my sketchbook and felt the piece could be more dynamic. The bug was in me to draw Marvel again and so I did throughout my time at Awesome Con while it was slow.

In between projects I got to color this bad boy and get it show ready. I loved playing with the colors and hope to do the Thor/Shazam crossover again soon=]

The Hunt

With my book about to be on Kickstarter, I have been able to knock out some commissions. I rarely draw night scenes so this was interesting. I did my best to differentiate Black Panther from the night time colors.
Balancing extreme light vs dark is no easy task. Who do you think would win between Black Panther and Moon Knight?

The original point of this drawing was to marker it up and I realized I never did a piece with either character and wanted to have it in my portfolio. This will go out to the commissioner tomorrow with a big thank you for allowing me to take it home and digitize it... This took a total of 6 hours from sketch to markers.

 

Secret Wars

10 years ago I began playing a game called Vs. System in which characters from the Marvel Universe & DC

Universe were illustrated in trading card form. These cards would be used as a method to take from the 50 points you and your opponent started out with until there were no points left. The beauty of this game was that you were able to put together a deck of cards that included your favorite characters and/or favorite teams and use them to play a game anywhere at any time.  You didn't need a gaming console or figurines like you did as a kid (even though HeroClix seems to still be played at tournaments). It was a game of chess with your favorite comic book heroes and villains.


I fell in love with this game because of the art.  Upper Deck had done a great job of commissioning veteran artists as well as up and comers to create artwork specifically for the games art. Each card you saw was a brand new piece of art that had never been seen before and as the game continued on, the art got better.
I wanted to be an artist for this game so bad.

As a artist who wanted to make comics, I felt this would be a great starting point. If I could get my art into the comic community through this medium, I would feel fulfilled and excited to be able to play the game I loved with art that I produced.

I had an affinity for teaming up characters that I loved as apposed to using the teams that were already set up in the game. As I got into the game more, I tried to be more inventive. I threw caution to the wind and I would use teams that others felt weren't strong enough, or create combinations that were just fun to use. I had some success in tournaments but nothing on a grand scale but I enjoyed playing regardless.
This art is a collection of characters from Marvel Comics that at one time were brought together in what was called the Secret Wars back in the 80's. It is where we first saw Spider-man in the black suit (which would later be known as Venom) and where we first saw all of these characters fighting together. I wanted to create a team up in the game that would support these characters. New team up cards were being created in the game along with puzzle cards which when placed next to each other would make a larger image. I wanted to make those cards and this is the product of that desire.

I am about to send my book out to a few printers to get proofs.  This is a huge momentous time for me. Creating art is something I have done for 25 years so to be at this point is an amazing feat for me.  I always knew it would happen, but to be here is pretty surreal. I look back at this art and see how far i have come and am proud that I never let any of the pitfalls keep me from being the man that I am. I appreciate all of you who have ever given me a compliment, bought art from me or commissioned me to create new art. I wanted to share this story with you because I wanted to bring you along with me during my journey and hopefully it is something that will inspire you to keep pushing forward.

"A Reason To Smile" is about seeing what we have and knowing we will be okay if we keep a positive outlook and continue to push forward. I am a living example of that, and I hope that you all can experience that as well!

Hulk will NOT Smash for you...

As I finished the inking of this piece, I realized it wasn't enough. I came up with the rational for the defeated Avengers from the AvX storyline and figured it'd be a nice quick fix to make it stand out even more. My childhood full of fun what if's helped inspire me. 

My Upper Deck Sketch cards

Upper Deck is producing sketch cards when Thor: The Dark World is released and I was able to contribute to that set! Here is what I produced! 79 out of 81 cards approved... I like those numbers!

My approach to these cards was Thor's Mythology. I have been a fan of his since I first saw his first appearance on the cover of Journey into Mystery no.83. I always wanted a hammer like that so it automatically caught my attention. The stories or characters I depicted are those that I have the closest connection to. I have depicted his first appearance when Donald Blake finds the walking stick that is Mjolnir (imagine a Thor movie done like Lord of the Rings?! WOW!), all the way to fighting his uncle in Fear Itself. I wish I had more cards to depict some other classic stories of his, but I hope this was enough for you=]

All cards are 2.5 x 3.5 and are done with a 01 Prismacolor tech pen and Prismacolor markers... oh, and the AP of Thor on the horizontal piece is already sold!

Below are the cards I have available for sale outside of eBay or being lucky enough to get one within a pack. Send me an e-mail at thelearningcurv@gmail.com to purchase them! 

We find Galactus, Devourer of Worlds, among a galaxy that has a plethora of planets... he no longer hungers... Pencils and inks done in 2009, colors done today!

I remember being scared to color this for a long time.  I didn't feel I had the skills to accurately pull this off
and stayed away from it for a long time.  I've been on this journey for a while now and my new adventures have taken me into space with a good number of illustrations I have created. Thankfully the practice on this lead me to this image being created.

I am becoming much more comfortable in who I am as an artist and am loving this journey.  Thank you to all of you who have been there along with me and have supported my travels as an artist!

C2E2 here I come!

Nova Prime

For a long time I've enjoyed the art of Mahmud Asrar mahmudasrar.deviantart.com, Yildiray Cinar http://cinar.deviantart.com/, Chris Stevens http://christopherstevens.deviantart.com/ and others who have created beautifully rendered images with markers.  I've always been inspired and finally have been able to afford the markers and am now am trying to get myself to another stage in my work. I hope you enjoy this piece, I knocked it out in a few hours with the distractions of the day and hope to do many many more like this!

Magneto Vs Phoenix

I have begun the process of doing more artwork by hand as apposed to relying on the computer for my coloring and this is another example of that.  is is a piece I did on two sketch cards, each sized at 2.5 x 3.5 for a total of 3.5 x 5.

As I look at this I wonder what it may look like as a digitally edited 11x17 print.  I may end up touching this up ;-) Stay tuned!

Impending Doom!

The king of Latveria is rarely seen protecting his land, for he would not sully his hands with such an activity. His genius provides for that with Doom Bots and other such creations. We have found Doom in a rare occassion of practicing his magics in the open air in a courtyard within his castle grounds. Doom's magics rival those of the Sorcerer Supreme and are to be reckoned with. Do not cross Doom, for you will be forever in regret....hehehe

The Red Skull!

The main villain in the Captain America movie was the Red Skull.  I've always refrained from ever wanting to draw him simply because I had a problem recreating a character that came from so much hate (he was suppose to be a large player in the Nazi party). I was finally able to get over it and enjoyed the fact that he was going to get his face punched out.  The design for the Hydra leader of World World 2 was extremely well done.  He finally felt imposing and less of a joke to me and I enjoyed recreating him with a dramatic exaltation to attaining the Cosmic Cube (the tesseract from the movies). 

It would be interesting to see the Red Skull be the minor villain to lead up to Thanos in part 2 of Avengers.

pencils     |     inks      |     colors 

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=] 

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=]