Secret Project (Shhhh!!!)

Who is this guy? and...more importantly...would you let him watch your kids and pet turtle?
More details soon..

Shazam!

This weeks post is more of a long form post for a piece that I plan on completing over the weekend. The process is basically going to be a combination of both traditional and digital process.
Since this character has been drawn by so many other artists, I basically tried to put my own spin on it (like every artist does). So I did a bunch of roughs of Marvel flying, and in a bunch of different poses (below)

I finally decided on a version of him amidst smoke and having just transformed after uttering the words "Shazam"..(below). Of all the poses I like this one the best..

I have basically started to pencil this out and work up the layout. I am starting with blue pencils to get the placement right, then pencil over the drawing, then inks, and then painting., (initial sketch below)

 

I then went over the blue pencils with a 6B pencil...

 

Then scanned the drawing and brought it into Painter 11..and added values..

 

Then laid down basic colors....

 

Then added the lightning effects.... 

 

and..voila!!!! done!!!!

Who Doesn't Love Snake Eyes?

Over on the covered blog http://www.coveredblog.blogspot.com/ , illustrators can submit their versions of famous comic book covers done in their own style.
One of my favorite comic book issues is GI-Joe #21 (the silent issue)..which is the story of Scarlett's rescue from Cobra by Snake Eyes (the issue has no dialogue at all....so good!)
This is my version of that cover... (original below)

1) Since this is pretty much a cover of another existing cover, there wasn't much concepting that I had to do. I only did a couple of sketches to try and get the feel of the layout and the cover style. Once I felt that I had it down I started to lay down the pencils on 8.5x11 paper (I think that next time though I will use bristol board because the 8.5x11 paper picks up a lot of dirt and it makes it harder to clean up (below)

2) Then as always I move on to the values/tone...and I decided to basically create the same tone of the original cover, not a lot of light, same grey tones (below)

 

3) Added more tones, colored in the foreground and background

 

4) I then copied the "GI JOE" comic font cover. I couldn't copy the cover directly from the original cover, because the layout of the original cover is slightly different than the layout of the drawing that I came up with. I hand wrote the "Real American Hero" subtitle to give the cover somewhat of a homemade feel (and just not an exact cover of the original). At this stage I also added the lighting effects from the muzzle flash and tried to reflect that on Snake Eye's visor and surrounding areas.

5) As a final step I added the barcode, the tagline starburst, and the marvel brand in the cover. and Voila! GI-Joe#21..(GI-Joe is of course the property of Hasbro Inc.)

Skater Piece (Colored)

Just some color practice for a skater piece that I recently completed.

Pose Maniacs

 For me drawing the human body is always a challenge in general (only to be surpassed by drawing hands which is equally hard). So this week I wanted to share with you a great site that I found that will help with quick figure drawing, and practicing the human anatomy.

1) Go to http://www.posemaniacs.com/blog/ (below) This site is a really great resource for quick figure practice. You will note that there are a bunch of different widgets and options that you can use but the one that I use the most is the 30 second drawing tool. It's the one I use every day to warm up before sitting down to do work, or even just to get in a quick 20 minutes of practice. The point is that you can use it as a tool to draw for at least 20 minutes when you want to get some practice in. (below)

2) click on 90 second drawing at the top of the page, and then set your options accordingly (30, 45 60 seconds, feel free to play with the other settings as well, and then click on the "click to start" black bar to begin*** note that if nothing happens for a time, simply reload the page and try again. There seems to be a glitch in the page that causes a hiccup when the pose viewer starts.  (below)

3) Once you click "start to begin" the pose viewer will load, and the figure models will appear for the amount of time that you selected. I like to use the 90 second option as it really gives me time to at least get the full sketch of the figure in. As a tip....instead of trying to get the full figure in, I will just work on a part of the anatomy like the arms and shoulders. (below)

4) Some quick sketches. Hopefully with a little practice you will see yourself improve over time, or you can use this site as a quick warm up for longer drawing and work. (below)

Skater Piece

This week's post is a self initiated piece that I thought up. The purpose being to try and work on painting a little bit more and adding shadows. I wanted to do a skateboarder piece that conveyed a sense on motion, and that had lighting as a big component as well.

1) I started with a couple of ideas in my sketchbook using different angles to see what worked the best (see below)

2) I have been trying to experiment with which works best, and I think that in the end, starting with pen and pencil is best, and then moving to digital. So, start with pencil, then ink the drawing, clean up the drawing. Ultimately I think that I am going to go with the good old pen and pencil tactic. I like the way that it feels...and gives a more natural result. (see below)

3) Once scanned I start with the tones. In this case I started with the sky. In the beginning I was setting the layer to multiply and then setting the opacity at 79%. I'm not sure why I was doing that. There are so many different options in programs like Painter and Photoshop, that each method/push of a button can result in a different end product. Now I think I am just going to set it all at 100%.
I first started with the sky and the background. (see below)

4) From there I moved to the background, the sidewalk, the road and the actual skater himself. There are a ton of brushes and effects that you can use in Painter. However I pretty much only stick to one brush/technique to give consistency between all of the work that I do. (seebelow)

5) Lastly, I added lighting using the digital airbrush in Painter. I like the hazy effect that it provides that makes it look like real lighting. I also added a blur effect to give the sense of motion. (see below)

I really liked the way that this one came out. I think that next time I am gonna try color and see if I can get that going.

Apollo Creed

This week's piece is one of the great unsung heroes of the Rocky Movies..Apollo Creed!
Aside from the fact that he was a great supporting character and mentor..Apollo Creed was just bad-ass...So I decided to do something of him standing in the ring...nothing too out of the ordinary.

1. I decided that this time around to try drawing this one traditionally and then inking it.
It took a couple of tries..because each time I wasn't happy with the result.
I love the dynamic lines that sometimes happen spontaneously when sketching..and I felt like I was losing that when I would try and apply inks digitally. So getting the drawing to look the way that I want is a work in progress. However I finally got it the way that I wanted it to look. It's all about experimenting of course. (below)

2. I then scanned the drawing and found that there was a lot of grain and artifacting that would get picked up in the scan...so next time I need to find a way to clean up the drawing before I scan it. Below I start to apply the values to the background and the apply the tone to the ring and the background in Painter by creating a new layer and setting it to "Multiply"...and then taking the opacity down so that itit would not completely blot out the drawing. (below)

3.  Last I apply the lighting and the tone to Apollo himself which takes the longest time.
As the final step I apply some bulb flashes the the crowd, and then also add some lights to the ceiling.
Voila! the Master of Disaster! The King of Sting!