Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Sketch Charlotte kind of day...

So I get home and find that not only are we using the banner I designed
for our site - www.sketchcharlotte.com , but the first part of an interview
we did with Shawn Daughhetee of Heroes Aren't Hard to Find is posted over at their blog - http://www.heroesonline.com/blog/

Head over and check it out and leave 'em a post! And while you're at it have a look at our lil group on DeviantART - http://sketchcharlotte.deviantart.com/ or follow us on twitter - @sketchcharlotte

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Influence Map

I've been seeing a lot of these on deviantART lately, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Before I dive into the who, what & why's of this I want to mention a few of the omissions. First and foremost my parents and teachers are obvious nods, but I seriously doubt any of you would recognize them! So here are the one's that just missed the cut:

Musically: Iron Maiden, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Hans Zimmer, Beethoven, Clifford Brown, TOOL, Bela Fleck
Comics: Dark Knight Returns, Hellboy, Quantum & Woody, JLI and way too many creators to mention
Movies: Dark Knight, Lord of the Rings, Good Fellas, Harry Potter
TV Shows: Justice League Unlimited, G.I. Joe & Transformers cartoons, Seinfeld, Lost, Arrested Development, My Name is Earl

I'm sure I'm leaving some off of that list too!


top left corner: left to right:
- Indiana Jones: this one is a double dipper. Last Crusade is one of my all time favorite movies and the soundtrack by John Williams is on my desert island list.
- Calvin & Hobbes - pretty much THE comic strip from my childhood. So good I bought all the collection books as they came out so I could re-read them endlessly!
- Darth Vader/Star Wars - this one is a triple whammy - movie/character/music - the Empire Strikes Back was where Vader earned his reputation. Truly one of the greatest movie villains of all time (I deny the existence of the prequels!)
- Michelangelo - a huge influence on my art style. My parents had a monster art book of his work and I would redraw everything while sitting ion the floor. We even had a mini bust of David that now sits on my mantle!
- Jim Lee - bball players wanna be like Mike, I grew up wanting to be like Jim Lee.
- G.I. Joe #21: Silent Interlude - words can't do this masterpiece justice (pun intended).
- Albrecht Durer - Another double dipper - a master influence from my art major days at ASU and a symbol of my faith.
- Amazing Spider-Man - up until recently my hands down favorite character and title (thanks a lot OMD!)
- The Andy Griffith Show - one of the first shows I remember watching, helped shape my morality. Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you kinda thing.
- Philo Beddoe from the Clint & Clyde movies - a bare knuckle brawler with a heart of gold! My brother and I have watched these movie countless times and I'm sure we'll keep watching them!
- Humphrey Bogart - the man. I grew up watching his movies with my Grandfather and still count Casablanca as my all-time favorite movie. Just about everything he did was gold.
- Walt Simonson's Thor - one of my all time favorite comic book runs by one of the all-time greats!
- John Byrne's Fantastic Four - How awesome was that run? Galactus (pictured) Dr Doom, the Inhumans...in my opinion the best the FF have ever been.
- Steve Vai - from my guitar playing days, nothing inspired me quite like Passion & Warfare. I still count Steve Vai as one of my favorites and listen to him whenever I need a good spark of creativity.
- The Three Stooges - another childhood favorite that I still cling to today!
- Batman the Animated Series - hands down my favorite cartoon ever. It spawned a run of cartoon dominance at DC that no one has come anywhere near. Oh and the music was pretty outrageous too!
- Planetary - Shown here is the cover to #26 (one of my favorite covers). The book that knocked Amazing Spider-Man off its pedestal for the title of my favorite comic ever!
- Darwyn Cooke - That guy is magic. Hard to determine which he's better at writing or drawing, may as well just call him a master storyteller and be done with it!
- George Perez - One of the industry's legends and what makes George so special: he's a better person than he is an artist. A tall order I know, but seek him out at a show and you'll see what I mean. I was fortunate enough to take a seminar he gave at Heroes Con back in the mid-late 80's. I was too young to really make the most of it, but it has stuck with me as one of the coolest things I've ever done.
- Arthur Adams - One of the few veteran artists who've stayed at the top of their game, Art Adams can turn a cocktail napkin into a masterpiece! I wish he was faster, but not at the expense of his craft, so I'm good just looking at his yearly sketchbooks!
- And last but not least, Dream Theater. Another all-time favorite, I use DT to inspire me artistically, push me musically and drive me when I'm working at the office or at the gym.

Friday, August 20, 2010

EGO, the living planet!


Well, I can honestly say I never thought this would be a topic on my blog! A buddy of mine was hoping to stump me on his sketch request for his copy of the 2010 Big Dog's Studio sketchbook. btw...copies are still available! ;)
I have to say I had a lot of fun with this one! Hope he likes it...copic pens on colored card stock.

Monday, August 16, 2010

CHUCK - Casey & Morgan


I received a request for this commision based on an earlier one I did of Adam Baldwin as Jayne from Firefly. I wasn't familiar with the show (CHUCK), so the person requesting the commission brought me the entire first season on DVD to use as reference...now I'm hooked on the show! :)

As you might imagine I used photo reference for this...copic pens on 11 x 17 bristol.

Friday, August 6, 2010

Sketchercise #2 - characters of Riverdale

Our Sketch Charlotte assignment was to do a piece using Jughead, Betty and Mr Weatherbee from Archie Comics. Yes, that ARCHIE comics...

Anyway, the first thing I thought when Tom Davidson announced the topic was RIVENdell, so I tried to convey that mix-up in this piece.


prismacolor pens on 8-1/2 a 11 bristol...