Big Dog's Studio

AlphaBeasts - Q is for Queen Alien

2012-02-07T13:59:00.001-08:00

Decided to go the quick & easy route for this magnificent beast! One of the greatest movie villains of all time...ol' Queenie herself. Did the sketch over lunch and then photoshopped the bejeebus out of it to make these playing cards. Hope you dig 'em!

The original art is on the left, then photoshopped variants follow...

AlphaBeasts - Lord of the Rings edition

2012-02-04T09:36:00.001-08:00

N is for Nazgûl - #AlphaBeasts
I did this last night thinking I still had "N" to do...I completely forgot about Nian...d'oh! Ah well, I like this one better (even though I don't like it very much either).

This is from the Lord of the Rings...another name for the Ringwraiths that chase lil' Frodo all over Middle Earth.

O is for Orc - #AlphaBeasts

Another Lord of the Rings creature...this one of the Moria variety. Photo referenced from a Maquette by Jamie Beswarick in the Art of the LOTR book.

http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Moria_Orcs

Wonder Woman

2012-02-03T05:38:00.000-08:00

I did this drawing of Wonder Woman in my spare time, just so I could work on that costume. I don’t hate it as much now, but I still feel like it’s more complicated than it needs to be.

The trickiest part of this for me was retaining her femininity, but weird things happen to your drawing style when you watch a two day marathon of RuPaul’s Drag Race. The shape of the face was reworked, but thankfully, she has black hair, making it an easy fix.

The hands were the trickier part. Knowing that the face still retained some masculine properties, I didn't want to give her man hands. I referenced the hands, and in the process, moved her left hand (her left, not yours)three times to get the placement where I wanted it and where it worked anatomically.

Ghost Rider

2012-01-27T13:21:00.000-08:00

Here's a drawing of Ghost Rider that I started when I saw a neat little drawing Rico did in his sketchbook. I'd spent almost all night fighting with various drawings, including a Scarlet Witch that started off with such promise, and a Jocasta that got ruined in trying to render reflections.

Small Press Creators: Latour, Brunner, Renzi

2012-01-26T11:09:00.000-08:00

Small press or no, Loose Ends is a testament to just how good comics can be. Latour, Brunner, and Renzi all manage to speak their own creative voices without creating a bunch of noise. As a result, there is nothing conventional, cliche, or phoned in about this book. So, if you haven't already, pick up Loose Ends, support small press creators and support good comics.

Jean Grey

2012-01-13T13:52:00.001-08:00

Another Dave Cockrum-designed costume, this timeJean Grey of the X-Men. I did take liberties enlarging the phoenix logo to her later Dark-Phoenix style, but dang it, It works better. I had thought about putting stars in the black area, but if I have my physics right, with all the flaming effect, there'd be no stars visible near it, much like you can't look up at a streetlight and see stars really close to it.

My work is on exhibit

2012-01-05T19:43:00.000-08:00

From Friday, Jan 6, 2012 - Friday, Jan 27, 2012, I'll be part of an exhibit at the Caldwell Arts Council in Lenoir, NC.Lenoir is located in the foothills of North Carolina just about 20 miles south down US Hwy 321 from Boone, about an hour north of Gastonia, NC on the same Hwy 321. Lenoir is about 2 hours at the most from most parts of Charlotte, NC, and Winston-Salem, NC. Visit this link for more on the Caldwell Arts Council. They are open Tuesday-Friday from 9am - 5pm.

The Opening reception is on Friday, Jan 6 from 5pm-7:30 pm. I'll be there schmoozing since I'm a part of the show, so if you can make it, I'll be glad to see you. Here's a preview of some of the work you'll see in the show.

AlphaBeasts - L is for Lylek

2012-01-05T08:25:00.000-08:00

Another late Star Wars entry! :)

I wasn't sure what to do for L and by the time I got a chance to do one there were already so many good Leviathans I decided to go with one that hadn't been tackled yet: Lyleks!I could only find one Lylek to reference (see wiki link below) so I wasn't sure where to take it to keep it fresh. As I was roughing out a sketch it hit me to do a sports t-shirt design.

Hope you guys dig it!

Another 8-1/2 x 11 #70 index with prsimacolor pens.

AlphaBeasts - J is for Jawas

2012-01-03T12:48:00.000-08:00

A catch up post from a few weeks ago...

I'm a sucker for the History Channel's American Pickers and was trying to think of something neat to do with a Jawa, so I combined the two to get: Tatooine Pickers!

Jawas were done with prismacolor pens on #70 index - 7" x 8" - assembled in Photoshop CS2 with background drawings and text.

Designed Only for Killing

2012-01-01T17:26:00.000-08:00

I did this little MODOK drawing a little while ago but only posted it to Twitter in a hurry. Here it is, but I think it needs a background desperately. Maybe I'll redraw it in complete glory sometime in the future, actually using reference for the character.

AlphaBeasts - K is for KONG

2011-12-30T16:54:00.000-08:00

Another entry that fell victim to time. I had high hopes for this piece, but in an effort to get one turned in on time and not fall two weeks behind, I had to scrap a lot of the aspirations I had for it. Maybe it'll be something I revisit down the road.

I was hoping to throw in silhouettes of the jungle and NYC on either side of the bust integrating them into the fur. I also went black happy with my copic wide marker and left little-to-no room for blending via cross hatching, so I feel like I missed a few opportunities here in the name of completion. Ah well, it was fun!

Anyway, here he is...KONG!

Charlotte Comicon sketches.

2011-12-18T15:53:00.000-08:00

I did a couple of sketches today at Charlotte Comicon in between selling stuff. Thanks to Herc, Jonathan, Brandon, and Henry for a fun day.

Charlotte Comicon - Sunday, Dec. 18th 10am - 4pm

2011-12-17T08:37:00.000-08:00

Looking for something to do this weekend? Still have shopping to do before the holidays? Well look no further! The Charlotte Comicon will be held this Sunday at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown Charlotte from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. There will be great deals on comics, books, art, toys, movies, sci-fi & fantasy memorabilia and much more! And if that's not enough, a ton of local artists will be on hand selling their books and art!

Swing by and say hello, I'll be set up with Henry Eudy selling our 11 x 17 Darkwing Duck print (see attached pic) and sketchbooks. Henry will have a selection of his mini comics and I'll have all of the Big Dog's Studio sketchbooks and the Sketch Charlotte Anthology. We'll both have original art for sell and will be sketching at the show.

Along for the ride we'll be sitting next to fellow Sketch Charlotteans Herc Petmezas, Stan Ford and Jonathan Rosenbaum! They'll al have something special for sale along with original art, comics and trading cards!

For more information visit: http://www.charlottecomicon.info/

AlphaBeasts - I is for Ithorians

2011-12-12T05:20:00.000-08:00

Always did like ol' Hammerhead from the original Star Wars trilogy. As I was searching for some references I found some really cool concept art from which I used for the basis of the head (it's about 1/2 down on the SW wiki page).

I went nuts on the hatching at Sketch Charlotte on Thursday night and was going to submit just the head. But the guys talked me into fleshing it out a bit more, so last night I had some extra time and I drew the rest as I watched a movie with my wife.

Copic markers on 70# tab stock - 8 x 10

More about Ithorians:
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ithorian

Let's Get Dangerous!

2011-12-09T05:23:00.000-08:00

This is a piece I was commissioned for a few months back. They wanted a Darkwing Duck/Captain Carrot team up. As the thumbnail stage progressed I started adding characters. Pretty soon I was up to my ears in cartoon characters!The left piece is a bad scan of the pencils and the right side is the finished piece inked beautifully by my incredibly talented friend Henry Eudy! The guy waited a while for it, so I figured why not take it up a notch with Henry's inks? It was so worth the wait! If you haven't seen Henry's work you really owe it to yourself to spend all day looking at all those wonderful little lines he conjurs, not to mention the sense of humor and storytelling ability he posseses...top notch!I hope you enjoy this 1/2 as much as I do! :)

AlphaBeasts Catch Up: F & G

2011-12-01T09:10:00.000-08:00

Time for some #AlphaBeasts catch up! :)

F is for Fomorians - #AlphaBeasts

I was out of town for Thanksgiving so I was unable to get an F in on time, so it stands to reason my G will be late as well! About the Fomorians (from wikipedia of course)In Irish mythology, the Fomoire (or Fomorians) are a semi-divine race said to have inhabited Ireland in ancient times. They may have once been believed to be the beings who preceded the gods, similar to the Greek Titans. It has been suggested[by whom?] that they represent the gods of chaos and wild nature, as opposed to the Tuatha Dé Danann who represent the gods of human civilization. Alternatively, they may represent the gods of a proposed pre-Goidelic population of Ireland.They are sometimes said to have had the body of a man and the head of a goat, according to an 11th century text in Lebor na hUidre (the Book of the Dun Cow), or to have had one eye, one arm and one leg, but some, for example Elatha, the father of Bres, were very beautiful. Bres himself carries the epithet "the Beautiful."

I opted for the goat headed man for this excercise! Done in two parts (the head and the body) then photoshopped together. I added the font and printed out the assembled piece to do some last minute touch ups. I scanned the finished piece in and was going to do more photoshop, but found some really neat half tone dots from scanning a printed piece. I think they go well with this, so I left them in!

Actual piece is 6.5 x 9 - copic pens on 70# tab stock

More info:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fomorians

G is for Gamorrean Guard - #AlphaBeasts

Did this one over lunch yesterday. Only it wasn't detailed at all. Once I had a look at all the outlines it begged for some more lines! So I took it home and did my best Henry Eudy+ impersonation! ;)

The Gamorrean Guard was always one of my favorite figures growing up. Sure I'd play with Vader and Boba Fett, but ol' pighead woudl be right there with them!

Actual piece is 7 x 10 - copic pens on 70# tab stock

More info about the Gamorrean Guards can be found here:http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Gamorrean

Feels good to be all caught up...now onto H! :)

Storm

2011-11-20T15:45:00.000-08:00

I know everyone is doing the Alpha-Beasts but the meme hit at a bad time for me to try and participate. I thought about it, but didn't know if I could find the time, and right now, I am just enjoying drawing people right now, and for some reason, super-heroes, especially super-heroes from the 1970s.

Storm was a unique addition to the X-Men in the 1970s. Regal, a little fetishized with her skimpy black leather outfit, and a propensity to be an excuse for peek-a-boo nudity. A lot of artists have a fondness lately for Storm in her 80s punk days, but being a nut for costumes designed by Dave Cockrum, I have to go 70s.

I do like the look I gave her in the drawing, almost like she just realized her picture was being taken. I'm also working on those shadows underneath the characters' feet. The highlights on her lower abdomen seem a bit weird to me, but I can live with it.

AlphaBeasts: E is for Ents

2011-11-14T15:07:00.000-08:00

Wasn't quite sure what to do with "E" this week, so after a quick google search at lunch I found: Ents! One of my favorite parts of the LOTR trilogy, the Ents seemed like a good fit. So I started sketching away, this time without reference. I'd almost forgotten how fun it is to just draw. I did this over my lunch break with a Bic mechanical pencil. Very little erasing, or planning for that matter! I threw in the Hobbiton font in Photoshop CS2 for good measure.

Pencil on 90# Index. Drawing itself is 5" x 8.5"

You can out more about Ents from the LOTR trilogy (books or movies) or online here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ent

AlphaBeasts - D is for Dai Tengu

2011-11-10T13:59:00.000-08:00

I didn't have a whole lot of time to do a proper entry this week, but I didn't want to miss a week this early in the game. So I just photoshopped the heck out of my original thumbnail (2.5" x 3") I did for this week's entry.

You can find out more about the Dai Tengu here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tengu

Pencil on 8-1/2 x 11 tab stock, Photoshop CS2Edit

AlphaBeasts - C is for Chupacabra

2011-11-02T09:15:00.000-07:00

They say better late than never, but I'll let you guys be the judge of that...here's my #alphabeasts entry for the week: C is for Chupacabra! Did this one on Laurie Williams' recommendation...thanks Laurie! :) 9 x 12 copics on bristol with some photoshoppin for good measure.

Find out more about the Chpacabra here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chupacabra

AlphaBeasts - B is for Baba Yaga

2011-10-25T09:02:00.000-07:00

I went with a straight Mignola interpretation of the Slavic witch. Never really heard of her until then, so I went with what I know! You can find out more here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_Yaga

I actually got the idea for teh Baba Yaga from Henry's wife Jennifer! Henry drew the Baba Yaga for the Hellboy/BPRD Sketchercise.

Copic markers on 8-1/2 x 11 tab stock...

AlphaBeasts - A is for Abominable Snowman

2011-10-17T15:48:00.000-07:00

Seeing Ben Towle's assembled drawings from the previous project made me really want to come up with a motif that could carry on through the entire alphabet. I wasn't sure what to do so I laid out a few thumbnails last week and came up with this on a whim. Trading cards. I thought it'd be a neat project for me to come up with 26 different cards that could be assembled into a set at the end.
While I probably won't produce actual cards I'll most likely do a sketchbook, well, at least I'm hoping to! #AlphaBeasts

Copic pens on 9 x 12 bristol with Photoshop CS2 edits.

Head over and check out all the lil beasties:
http://alphabeasts.tumblr.com/

Tiny Bats

2011-10-10T10:06:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to check back in and try to get things going again. Been a rough month or so drawing wise. I've been out of my zone for quite some time and trying to break in ain't as easy at it may sound!

Here's a Tiny Batman piece I did at the last Sketch Charlotte. Not related to anything, just hope you enjoy it!

I guess you could tie it into Small Press Creators theme

2011-10-02T15:37:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I buy myself this new sketchbook that's really big, probably the biggest I've ever owned. It barely fits in the backpack that I take to Sketch Charlotte. The freedom it grants is that I can not worry about running out of room and then blowing up the sketch on my copier just to piece it together on the lightbox. That's precisely what I had to do with my last Jet-Pack Jenny drawing and more recently, my Wizard of Oz drawing, which will be done as soon as I can get to my lightbox again.

On the topic of Jet-Pack Jenny, I started this drawing at last week's Sketch Charlotte meeting after yet another disastrous start on a Power Girl drawing. I liked it and finished it up over the weekend. I believe it's in the running for the cover of the collected Power of 01.

The second drawing was inked at Sketch Charlotte, but started while I was sitting at HickoryCon last month. The character is planned to be part of my next story Hanamori's Circus. I do believe that I'll be curbing my need to throw a lot of ink down on this one.

Smart Press Creators: Bridget Scheide's Brother Nash

2011-09-13T19:25:00.000-07:00

The plan is to color this but I have too many irons in the fire right now, so I'm posting it with absolutely no Photoshop work. No thresholding, pencil lines still visible, but I did crop it.

I'm looking forward to coloring this because I want to emulate Birdget's color palette for Brother Nash.

Small Press Creators: Stan Ford's Jet-Pack Jenny

2011-09-11T08:05:00.000-07:00

I have a notion deep inside my psyche somewhere that perhaps, someday, I'd like to try my hand at a newspaper style strip. Something action-adventurey, with a 1940's flavor and a lot of tips of the hat to Milton Caniff and Roy Crane. I think about it sometimes and then decide, "No, I still lack the strength of skills to pull something like that off and not look foolish." Yeah, I'm still a little too lily livered to give it a try but you know who's not? My buddy Stan Ford. Stan has been plugging away at "Jet-Pack Jenny and the Factor of 01" since 2006!! I greatly admire his fortitude in cartooning. Jet-Pack Jenny is smart, layered work with one foot in traditional science fiction soap opera and another in astute social commentary. Plus it's fun to read and, even better, it's drawn by a person with enviable skill and ability. Very often there are dense, muscular lines and pools of absorbing black shadows that draw in the eye of the reader with irresistible gravity. Stan moved to Charlotte a little more than a year ago, I believe, and it has been my pleasure to know him and be constantly astonished by the wide array of knowledge he has amassed about comics and cartooning. Give this little link a good click to check out "Jet-Pack Jenny and the Factor of 01" plus several of Stan's essays and observations on comics culture:
http://www.carpaltunnelpress.com/

Small Press Creators: Rich Barrett's Nathan Sorry

2011-09-01T08:15:00.000-07:00

I'm afraid I'm a touch late in contributing to the Small Press Creators sketch topic here at BDS but, with a vacation now over and several small projects done with, I'm pleased to have had some small amount of time to post up a quick illustration of Nathan Sorry, inspired from a flashback sequence in Rich Barrett's graphic novel/webcomic of the same name (http://www.richbarrett.com/nathansorry/ ). I really like and admire Rich's comic, perhaps more than any other by a local creator. Nathan Sorry is so smart and well-constructed that it is always a delight to read. Rich makes a beautiful brushline that is personable and descriptive without being fussy or overdone. He's really learning how to draw a hell of a beard too. If I had stars or thumbs or whatever to give out, I'd give Nathan Sorry as many as I had on hand. For real, you should give it a read. After all, you only live once.

Small Press Creators: Duane Ballenger

2011-08-18T13:40:00.000-07:00

To know Duane is to love Duane. It really is that simple. He's one of those WAP guys who just can't help being good people. He produces some of the funniest mini comics this side of the Atlantic. And his shirts are legendary even if they rarely come in "big boy" sizes! ;)

This drawing is a direct rip off of one of his shirts that I'm waiting to get in a big boy size at hopefully the next Heroes Con. It's a small snapshot of his work, yet speaks volumes of his sense of humor.

Hard to track down on the interwebs, Duane can be found at local cons throughout the Carolinas. Do yourself a favor and stop by his table at the next show. Buy a few minis, get a shirt or two and talk comics with one of the good guys!

Big Dog Down Under!

2011-08-17T10:29:00.000-07:00

Things were starting to get stale around here, so I decided to post a commission I did for a buddy of mine in Australia. Can't believe I haven't posted this one yet, but to knock the dust off the place, here's Batman and Catwoman for Andrew!
Copic pens & markers with white acrylic on 9 x 12 bristol.

I'm hoping to get back on track with the art posts. The current theme (Small Press Creators) is very important to me and there are quite a few people I'd like to showcase.

Happy Birthday Seth!

2011-08-01T07:04:00.000-07:00

Teamed up with Henry Eudy for a birthday present for our buddy Seth Peagler. Seth is a huge Rocketeer fan, so we decided to draw Butch ( a la Dave Stevens) for his birthday! I left the pencils fairly open so Henry could do his thing...and that he did! He really elevated the piece with his rendering while keeping the basis of my pencils intact. Something you can't ask any more of from a team up. Had a lot of fun drawing it, but even more fun seeing where Henry ended up taking it!

Small Press Creators: J Chris Campbell!

2011-07-28T07:26:00.000-07:00

Shouldn't comics be fun? Shouldn't drawing comics be even more fun? That's precisely what J Chris does...he has FUN! And it really shows in his comics. In addition to being a purveyor of fun he's also the publisher of Wide Awake Press (WAP). Home to some really unique creations by some of the nicest, most talented people working in Indy comics today! (Hopefully we'll get around to featuring a few of them in the coming posts!)

This is a sketch I did of a combo of J Chris' Attic Bugs and Neatobots - more fun than I've had in quite some time!

Head over and check out what J Chris
is up to and see what goodies WAP has in store for you!

New Topic: Small Press Creators!

2011-07-25T18:32:00.000-07:00

Shifting gears from the previous topics, this one is aimed at the unsung heroes of comics: the small press creators! To get the ball rolling here are three pieces I had in the hopper...

- Chris Schweizer's Crogan Adventures
Chris has created something truly unique and quite magical. Each book focuses on a member of the Crogan family and their historical place in the Cragan Adventures. The art is whimsical and the action is breathtaking..I cannot recommend this highly enough! If you have kids, are a kid at heart or if you're a fan of historical action this series is well worth your time!

This piece is a warm up study I did of the main character from the first volume: Crogan's Vengeance - Catfoot Crogan

- Andy Runton's Owly
What could I possibly say about Owly (and Andy) that hasn't already been said? An amazing, well executed premise that is heart warming and simply loads of fun!

- Troy Hasbrouck & Jester Press' Night
This piece is a pin up I did for one of Troy's convention books from a few years ago. Night is the brainchild of local creator/LCS (Rebel Base Comics & Toys) owner Troy Hasbrouck. It's an action packed comic that boasts not only vampires & werewolves but zombies and even minotaurs!

Sketchbook for my Son...Little Dog!

2011-07-25T06:09:00.000-07:00

I saw Jeremy's drawing of Big Dog over at his blog announcing his participation over here and just loved it! So I asked if he could do a puppy version in my son's sketchbook. He did me one better and drew Lil' Dog playing with Big Dog...LOVE IT!

Thanks Jeremy! :)

Oz

2011-07-21T19:41:00.000-07:00

Again, not along the lines of any themes, but I needed to do a card for one of my in-laws, and this one jumped out at me tonight as needing to be finished.

Alan Moore Creations: From Hell

2011-07-19T08:07:00.000-07:00

From Hell is a series I hold in incredibly high esteem. It's a very complex and layered story that Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell attempt to tell. They start with stark facts, the history of a series of atrocities, stark and frightening enough on it's own, and they start to ply on ritual, metaphysics, majik, literature, mythology, the highest and lowest of human ideals muddled together in a story that leaps out of the 19th century and binds itself both with the primeval and the the modern states of mankind. I love the footnotes at the end of each issue. Very often they show you very directly how Moore was thinking as he wove along the back alleys of Whitechapel, picking up inference and inspiration from all points in time and culture like an occult magnet.

Eddie Campbell's art pairs so well with the story. I love the kinetic energy in the drawings, with stray lines and messy knots of black clustered around in the muck and the blood and the ash. It suits the time period so well and allows for the beautiful lotus of idea to grow from the festering cesspool by first illustrating the filth and degradation of the place itself. From Hell will probably always amaze me with the depth of its meanings. It is labyrinthine and a reader can run down one of a dozen paths each time the story is read.

Anyway, enough of my rambling on. This drawing here I did of one of my favorite parts in the story, when Sir William had Nedley the carriage driver lead him on an esoteric tour of London. They survey the perverse architecture of the Hawksmoor churches, kneel at William Blake's tomb, ask a blessing from John Merrick and pass by Cleopatra's Needle. All the while speaking of the rites of Dionysus, the old Gods and the world within the world. It's an incredible carriage ride and a great piece of writing that lights up my mind whenever I read it. So, this is my little drawing of the ride. Done with little Prismacolor pens on a piece of sketchbook paper. Not for sale, I'm afraid.

Sketchbook for my Son...part deux

2011-07-15T07:16:00.000-07:00

Had a few new entries to my son's sketchbook from last night's Sketch Charlotte meeting. Jonathan Rosenbaum and Bridgit Scheide added some really amazing pieces. Jonathan was running short on time last night, so he's going to ink his next time around. I'm holding off posting that until the inks are in.
Bridgit stepped up to the plate and knocked hers out of the park! Head over and check out Jonathan & Bridgit's work, you won't be disappointed!

edit - the inks are in! Check out Jonathan Rosenbaum's Radar!

Batwoman

2011-07-14T14:10:00.000-07:00

Brandon made me swear to post this on the blog, so here it is, with no tie to any of current threads...Batwoman.

With this I was trying out my shortcut method of drawing characters that wear mostly black.

LOOSE ENDS #1

2011-07-12T05:56:00.000-07:00

I'm not the one to pimp books, but this is one I believe in. LOOSE ENDS #1 (of 4) comes out tomorrow from 12 Gauge Comics (Diamond order code is MAY11122). Loose Ends is a creator-owned Southern Crime Romance comic from writer Jason Latour and artists Chris Brunner & Rico Renzi. They just all happen to be from Charlotte, so there's another reason why I'm pushing. But if you've seen any of the art from this or were lucky enough to read the ashcan or FCBD offering then you know exactly why I'm posting this. The early reviews from critics and pros alike have been fantastic (see CBR, twitter & devART) And having seen it in various stages of completion, I have to say I agree with them 100%.

Do me a favor. Now I'm not asking you to blindly drop $4 for something you've never seen. All I'm asking is that the next time you're at your LCS, pick it up and just flip through it. In today's landscape of convoluted crossovers it'll be nice having something fresh and original. You can thank me later. :)

And if by chance you live in the greater Charlotte area, there's a release party at Heroes Aren't Hard to Find with an 11 x 17 incentive print (see below) with the purchase of LOOSE ENDS #1! The guys will be there from noon-2:00 pm and again at 5-8:00 pm on Wednesday the 13th.

Sketchbook for my Son...

2011-07-08T06:05:00.000-07:00

I've decided to start a sketchbook for my 16 month old son. I know it's a tad early, but I had this small 5 x 7 sketchbook laying around, so why not!?

We had "sketchbook night" at Sketch Charlotte last night so I took it and got a few new sweet pieces to go along with the two awesome pieces I got last week.

I'm asking for cute animals or superheroes, so if you're an artist and I know you...I WANT YOU IN THIS BOOK! :)

Here's what I have so far...

Krypto the Super Dog by Stan Ford

Stinky/Angry/Cute Hulk by Rico Renzi

Honey Bear by Herc Petmezas

Cute Armadillo by Henry Eudy

Alan Moore Creations - Ozymandias

2011-06-28T14:18:00.001-07:00

I have to confess, I haven't read enough Alan Moore to really latch on to a particular character. However, I have read Watchmen and for whatever reason (the headband), I knew I could have some fun drawing Ozymandias.

Ozy was penciled and inked traditionally, with colors in photoshop. I tweaked a couple of colors on his costume, so I hope the Ozy faithfuls don't get too upset.

Alan Moore Creations - Jack B. Quick

2011-06-28T12:21:00.000-07:00

What kind of Alan Moore topic could we have and not mention Jack B. Quick?! My favorite character created by Moore, Jack B. Quick is one of the most entertaining comics I've ever read. Maybe it played on my Calvin & Hobbes heartstrings longing to be pulled, or maybe it's just the midwestern charm coupled with the scientificly absurd...all I know is that I wish, more than any of his other creations, that we'd see more of ol' Jack.
I referenced a few Nowlan drawing for this, but ended up with my own take...kinda makes him look older than in the book.

Copic pens on 5 x 7 tab stock. FREE with any purchase of and Big Dog's Studio sketchbook.

Animal Alphabet - K is for Kingfisher

2011-06-28T11:11:00.000-07:00

A few weeks late, but I finally got around to inking this one! Not as happy as I was with the Jabiru, but I'll take it! I'm hoping to either catch up or jump to the next letter. These are a ton of fun and a welcomed break from superheroes!

The original was created using Copic markers on 9 x 12 bristol. I moved the title around for this post using Photoshop CS2.

The original is for sale. Interested parties can gmail me at: BigDogsStudio

Alan Moore Creations - Rorschach

2011-06-28T07:25:00.000-07:00

Rorschach blew my 12 year old mind. I'd never seen anything like him in my short time of reading comics. I remember picking it up off the shelf of my LCS way back in the day. I'd heard a lot of people talking about it at the shop so I thought I would give it a shot. I flipped through those issues, but Moore's writing and Gibbons art was wasted on my sensibilities of the time. Yet I gravitated towards the Rorschach character. He seemed like a perverse Batman that did what you thought Batman wouldn't do. While the character was intense and demanded my attention, the story lost me. It was deeper than what I was used to reading and the story felt dirty, so I stopped buying the issues. I didn't read Watchmen as a whole until later in high school and it set my comic book world on its ear. That being said, I don't hold it in as high esteem as most critics do, but I see the importance of it. It'll hold it's place of critical acclaim in just about every discussion relating to comics. But it won't be on my desert island reader's list.

This was done with copic markers on 5 x 7 tab stock - FREE with the purchase of any Big Dog's Studio sketchbook.

Alan Moore Creations - Jeff Smax of Top Ten

2011-06-27T08:39:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite characters from one of my favorite Alan Moore creations: Jeff Smax of Top Ten. First time I've ever tried drawing him. Copic markers on 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 tab stock

Rather than put it up for sale let's try this: FREE with purchase of any Big Dog's Studio sketchbook. Volume 3-5 are still available - $5 each with custom sketch (plus shipping). G-mail me at BigDogsStudio if you're interested...

Printed it out at actual size and did a quick marker pass. Then took it into Photoshop for a quick coat of color...

Alan Moore Creations: Miracleman

2011-06-25T08:47:00.000-07:00

As a teenager, after having read "V for Vendetta" and "Watchmen," I went on a tear to uncover other Alan Moore scripted comics sleeping secretly away in the back issue bins of my local comic book shops. This was in the mid-Nineties and the great glut of product from the independent publishing boom of the late Eighties was still lounging around most shops where you could very often buy full runs for just a very few dollars. Thus it was with me and Miracleman. The comic had been published in the U.S. by the now defunct Eclipse Comics and no one cared much about it since it didn't feature a W.I.L.D.Cat or a Spawn or something of that ilk. But these were little treasures to me. I scoured dollar bins and even less that dollar bins and eventually assembled every issue for my collection.

Miracleman still stands as one of the best things I've ever read in comic book form. It so perfectly takes the bizarre logic and mythology of the Golden Age and turns it around into a modern and very human masterpiece. It's a great series that deserves to be sought out and held up as a great achievement in revisionist superhero comics along side "Watchmen" and "The Dark Knight Returns."

This drawing is on 6x9 sketchbook paper, made with brushpens, india ink, white out and markers. Available for purchase for $5.00 by writing me at hank@ohthehumanatee.com.

Alan Morre Creations: Veni Vidi Vicious

2011-06-25T08:25:00.000-07:00

I was certainly very enthused when I saw our latest sketch topic was to be Alan Moore creations. Moore's work is fundamental to both the person I am as a comics reader and also, just as a person. Maybe nothing effected me more as a youngin' than reading "V for Vendetta" when I was a high school junior. Never in my life had I felt more oppressed, more frustrated with authority and society, and "V" was the perfect outlet for all my angst. This comic actually did expand my mind (as dumb and hippy-dippy as that might sound) and broadened my concept of what comics as legitimate literature could be.

So, anyway, hyperbole aside, this is my sketch of V with a handy dandy Rolling Stones quote to match. Brush pen on 6x9 sketchbook paper. Like all the other drawings I'm posting here, can be bought for $5.00, contact me at hank@ohthehumanatee.com if interested.

Projectra- 70s Legion

2011-06-25T03:59:00.000-07:00

This is just a preliminary, actually gonna work on another drawing a little more evocative and frankly, prettier and in better proportion.

Sketch Topic #2 - Alan Moore Creations

2011-06-23T08:08:00.000-07:00

Terence suggested this one. There's a ton of great stuff to choose from, feel free to post any suggestions as to what you'd like to see. Can't wait to see what the guys come up with!

Commissioner Gordon - Tim Sale style!

2011-06-14T09:12:00.000-07:00

Did this for a friend who commissioned me for a Batman/Catwoman piece (shown in the 2011 sketchbook!). He has our 2009 sketchbook (Terence did a Poison Ivy) and Henry knocked out a piece on the 2011 book, so I thought I'd throw in a 2010 sketch!

I absolutely love the atmosphere Tim Sale created in the Batman books he and Jeph Loeb did, utterly amazing! I used a few shots of Gordon done by Sale as inspiration for this. Thought I'd liven this b&w sketch up a bit using some prismacolor markers. Tatal hack job on my part, but it was a lot of fun!

Animal Alphabet - J is for Jabiru

2011-06-10T05:02:00.000-07:00

Decided to jump in on all the fun! Sketched this out over lunch yesterday and finished it at last night's Sketch Charlotte meeting. Had a ton of fun and I'm hoping to be able to do more of these in the coming weeks!

Copic art pens on 9 x 12 bristol

Heroes Con 2011 - Con Report

2011-06-07T09:19:00.000-07:00

Well that certainly went fast! And for the most part they all have in the past, but this year especially so. This year I represented Big Dog's Studio, the Dollar Bin, Sketch Charlotte and I even moderated and participated in a panel for Heroes. Throw in a visit from my lovely wife Jaimee and our 15 month old son and you can start to see why this one went so fast. This is my first "Con Report" so I'll break the events into days for easier reading enjoyment...I hope!

THURSDAY NIGHT
We kicked things off a day earlier by hosting an "out-of-town" sketch group meet with Sketch Charlotte on Thursday night. For those that made it you could see either the look of relief or panic in their eyes depending upon the amount of prep they had remaining. For the most part it was another relaxed evening at Showmars. We had the usual suspects in place for the event and were joined by a handful of new attendees. John (aka Doctor Fantastic) Schweiker made the trip with his fellow art collecting buddy Chad Garrett. Terence brought Scott Wegener of Atomic Robo fame and Jason brought his pal the super talented Robbi Rodriguez. It was a really fun time, but my night was cut short so that I could get everything ready for the big show!

FRIDAY
I got to the Convention Center early so I could get things in place before setting out to get stuff signed & sketched. I hit up Darwyn Cooke first thing. I'm normally not a commission kind of guy, but this year I looked into possibly getting one, but he wasn't drawing this year. He did have a portfolio of incredible pieces he was selling. Unfortunately they were out of my budget, but thankfully drooling was free! I absolutely LOVE Darwyn's art and his storytelling is top notch as well, but what puts him at the top of my list is how personable he is. When it's your turn in line there's no one else at that convention. He's dialed in to each person as if they were the only one in line. I was able to have a brief, yet involved conversation about the Parker books and it made my convention...on day one! I offered to do a sketch for him on the back of one of our sketchbooks and he asked for the Green Lantern...no pressure!

Next up was Tim Sale. I met him last year and he was incredibly nice and laid back. This year was no exception. I offered him a sketch as well, and he chose Batman. I can draw Bats in my sleep, but this is for friggin' Tim Sale! I knocked it out back at the table figuring the less I thought about drawing Batman the better, but it still took two tries before I was happy enough to give it to Tim.
From there it was back to the booth and back to sketching with my partner in crime Terence Hoskins.

SATURDAY
From previous years’ experience of working a table at Heroes Con on a Saturday I was prepared for things to get busy, but Saturday was ridiculous! To start things off Terence and I manned the table and drew our butts off! The big draws of the day (no pun intended) were Terence’s Thor print and my Steve Zissou print. They brought people up to the table and on occasion we’d seal the deal with a sketch on our sketchbook. We stayed there off and on until about noon.

I got up and nervously delivered Darwyn’s Green Lantern sketch to him and he was not only excited to get it, but he remembered my name! I’m a 37 year old man and that made me giddy…one of my idols actually remembered my name…how cool is that?! :)
I was also excited to deliver a Rocketeer sketch (scan coming soon I hope) to Con workhorse and all around great guy Seth Peagler. You can see the Princess Pinky sketch I did for his blogmate and girlfriend Heather Mckinney here.
Next, I made it up to the Inkwell Awards. I wanted to support the guys that were going to be on my Inking Panel and to do some research for the panel.
From there I went to lunch with my pal Henry Eudy. We ended up running into fellow Sketch Charlotteer Jeremy Brooks on the way. (that was another cool thing...a familiar face just about everywhere you turned!) I had to have my Fuel pizza fix for the weekend. After that it was back to the table to knock out a few more sketches. I was hoping to either swing by the Westin bar or at least attend some of the art auction, but it wasn't meant to be.

SUNDAY
I got there super early to work over my outline for the Inking Panel. I'd gone by and introduced myself to just about everyone at some point in the previous days, so I was ready to go! I was a bit nervous early on, but those guys really stepped up to the plate and made it an interesting, funny and informative panel...despite me! I made a point to have everyone sit close and I stood out of the way behind the audience. At one point I caught myself just staring, thinking about all the talent on that stage. What they've been a part of over the years - Karl Story...Tim Townsend...Bob McLeod...Mark Morales...Scott Hanna...Dexter Vines...Bob Almond...it blows the mind!
The panel went off without a hitch and then I was, you guessed it, back off to the table! I managed to go around and get a few more autographs and sketches and with Vy's help was able to get most of Brian's stuff signed too (thanks Vy!)
Upon my return I saw the placard announcing my panel back at the booth signed by the contributors...thanks to Ted & Andy for pulling that off...meant a lot guys! :)
Time flew by and 4:00 was closing in fast. On the way to meet my wife and son I ran into Doc talking to Kevin Nowlan. I stopped to mention how much I'd admired his work over the years and it turned out he had time for one more head sketch!!! I raced back and grabbed my book and the last 3 Big Dog Sketchbooks and dropped them off on the way to meet Jaimee.
My son is only 15 months old, so I doubt he'll remember much, but he had a ball. (side note: turns out my Dad took me to my first Heroes Con way back in 1986...now 25 years later I was there with my son for his first Heroes Con)
My wife showed up wearing her Big Dog's Studio t-shirt...on her own! That really made their trip that much more special. I walked them around and introduced them to friends and even a few pros. I even took him by Kevin Nowlan's table and showed him my own Jack B Quick! :) What a fantastic way to end another great Heroes Con. But there's even more...

SUNDAY NIGHT: the after party

I decided I was going to swing by, shake hands say hello and congratulations on another fantastic con, but I ended up staying for a few hours. The night started out hanging with Herc, Rich, Bridgit and John...next thing I know I'm talking about comics and family with Roger Langridge! That was pretty amazing. I've always known him to be very personable through brief exchanges on the con floor, but he's as nice a guy as he is a terrific draftsman. Unbelievable. After a few quick conversations I ended up talking SEC football with Steve Epting while waiting for the chicken wings to arrive. Chicken wings and cold beverage in tow, I was finally able to sit down and share a drink with my comrades. A job well done and another Heroes Con in the books....until next year!

With Chris Schweizer - seriously check his stuff out, a must stop for me EVERY show.

The Inking Panel I moderated (Guests were: Karl Story, Tim Townsend, Bob McLeod, Mark Morales, Scott Hanna, Dexter Vines and Bob Almond...a serious gathering of talent to be sure!)

The Sketch Charlotte Panel I was on...seems like I was talking...a lot. Surprised they still have me around! The Panel included SC regulars: Herc Petmezs, Henry Eudy, Bridgit Scheide, Rich Barrett, Jerry Stanford, Jason McLellan as well as a few new members and was moderated by Seth & Heather!

Sketches from the weekend:
Furious Fist of the Drunken Monkey sketch by Rich Stahnke. We sat next to each other at the show and hit it off. He's ultra talented and a nice guy to boot!

Ambrose Chase for my Planetary sketchbook - by Doctor Fantastic!

Two amazing surprises by local artist Jason McLellan - Spider-Man and Poison Ivy!

Catfoot Crogan by Chris Schweizer. Chris has a book of 4 x 6 illustrations that are amazing! I try to get one every time I see him!

Rashy Rabbit by Josh Latta:

Perhaps the grail of my weekend...Jack B. Quick by Kevin Nowlan:

A few of the books I got signed & sketched in...Adam Hughes, Tim Sale & Darwyn Cooke...not too shabby! :)

MIAs:
Missed you guys: Mark Godby, Brian Eison, Tom Davidson, Rob Young, Rob Ullman

THANK YOU'S:
- Shelton Drum, Rico Renzi, Seth Peagler, Heather McKinney, Shelly Drum, Andy Mansell & the rest of the Heroes Crew
- Adam & Shawn Daughhetee; Ted Tarver, Devin, and the entire Dollar Bin crew for having us.
- Terence Hoskins & Henry Eudy for making the sketchbook incredible and just being good peeps!
- Jason McLellan for some really great art..thanks man!
- John "Dr Fantastic" Schweiker for the most positive attitude and excitement about comics and comic art; and the Amrose Chase piece was pretty cool too!
- Herc Petmezas, Rich Barrett, Bridgit Scheide, Jerry Stanford, Jeremy Brooks, Chris Brunner, Jason Latour, Chrissie Zullo, Julian Blake and the rest of the Sketch Charlotte Family
- Karl Story, Tim Townsend, Bob McLeod, Mark Morales, Scott Hanna, Dexter Vines, Bob Almond and Art Thibert for giving their time, sharing their wealth of knowledge and making me look like a better moderator than I actually am!
- Everyone who came by our table and shared their experience with us, let alone those who actually bought something!

CREDITS:
The bulk of the pics in this report were taken by Vy Tran - check out her Flickr site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cynnova/

I'm sure at some point I'll post some of the pics Heather McKinney took as well:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/54091968@N04

Henry Eudy took the Darwyn Cooke pic; Danny Kilpatrick took the Chris Schweizer pic

2011 BDS Sketch: Princess Pinky!

2011-06-02T10:11:00.000-07:00

Here it is, my first sketch on this year's sketchbook - Princess Pinky for my friend Heather. I did a Darth Brain in her sketchbook last year (see below), so I thought it fitting to do another Star Wars take off...

Heroes Cooooooooon!

2011-06-01T09:07:00.000-07:00

The sketchbooks are in and they are fantastic! ...but of course I'm biased ;) Thought I'd throw a sneak peak pic up so you guys could take a look at the incredible inking job Henry did over my pencils...ridiculous!

Volume 5 is 28 pages and includes all new art from Terence Hoskins, Henry Eudy and myself. They'll be available in two places this year at Heroes Con:

- the Dollar Bin Table (AA-542 & AA-543) - Terence & I will be there
- Henry Eudy's table - AA-336

Come by, pick one up and get one of us to sketch on the back!

To commemorate the 5th Big Dog's Studio Sketchbook I'm making copies of ALL 5 available! I'm doing a 2nd printing (25 copies each) of the SOLD OUT 2007 & 2008 versions and will have them at the show, so be sure to get there early!

Can't wait for the show...see you guys soon! :)

Shadow Lass - 70s Legion

2011-05-20T18:29:00.000-07:00

This is a drawing of Shadow Lass, done at this week's Sketch Charlotte. The goal is to draw the entire 70s Legion, At this pace, I'll be done by just after Christmas. :P

Shrinking Violet

2011-05-20T04:13:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's taken so long to get this up, but I really wanted to wait until it was colored to post it. I have a deep fondness for the Legion of Super-Heroes and in my opinion (which cannot be debated, I'm right. Get used to it. :P), the 70's costumes designed by Dave Cockrum are some of the best. This is Shrinking Violet who, from time to time would shrink down small enough to climb around on molecules. In the coloring of this piece, there will be a bit of special effects added to try to make the big round spheres here better reflect the actual nature of molecules.

Shazam! / The Mighty Isis

2011-05-18T18:26:00.000-07:00

If you spend some time digging through any decent pile of crumbling, yellowed 3 for a $1.00 comics, chances are you might stumble across a few issues of DC's attempt to reboot Captain Marvel with it's 70's title SHAZAM! They're interesting comics, throwbacks to the Golden Age that never really find their place in a far less innocent America. Even going as far as employing C.C. Beck in the first ten issues, the comics pretty much just ape the style and substance of the 1940's Captain Marvel line except now they've drawn guys with long hair and fu manchus in the background. I, of course, find this endlessly entertaining.

The Mighty Isis had her start as a backup to a live action SHAZAM! television show in the mid-seventies. I actually have a foggy memory of watching her show as a very small dude. Anyway, that spun off into a short lived comic and then I think she was all but forgotten until fairly recently when, (or so the internet suggests to me), she has had a revival of some kind. At any rate, I chose mostly to make fun of the classic comics tendency to give a character some kind of exotic origin and then just represent them as boring white people.

Both of these sketches are available for purchase for just $5.00 each. Email me at hank@ohthehumanatee if interested.

70's DC - the Demon Etrigan!

2011-05-18T09:49:00.000-07:00

This could also double as a lunch sketch! Everyone's favorie DC hornhead..Etrigan! Had a full body sketch planned but couldn't find my pencils to ink, so I threw this together over my lunch break. Copic markers on 8-1/2 x 5-1/2 90# tab stock.

First $5 bill gets it or if you're going to Heroes Con (I'll be at the Dollar Bin table/booth) and e-mail me to let me know you want one of our sketchbooks (28 pages of all new material; $3 each/$5 with a custom sketch) you can pick this up for free at the show!

gmail - BigDogsStudio

Swamp Thang

2011-05-17T18:05:00.000-07:00

Had a go at ol' Swampy this afternoon. Although, admittedly, I'm way more familiar with the 1980's Alan Moore Saga of Swamp Thing stories, I've read a small handful of the Bernie Wrightson/Len Wein issues from the prescribed decade and always found them enjoyable.

(If you'd like to own this sketch, it is on 6x9 sketchbook paper, drawn with a brush pen and will only set you back a measly $5.00. Contact me at hank@ohthehumanatee if interested.)

Big Barda

2011-05-16T19:33:00.001-07:00

Well, it took me some time but I'm happy to finally have something to contribute for the 70's DC topic. A topic that...all though I sorta suggested it, I don't know a whole heck of a lot about. Heh. Anyway, I'm really intrigued by some of the later work of Jack Kirby (although his stint at DC is, I suppose, more middle period than late) and I thought I might draw one of his New Gods characters that, again, I know nothing about. Still, I thought Big Barda here was pretty cool in her big crazy hat and metal bikini thing. And she's got a space stick. What's not to love about a space stick? So, hey, I did a superhero drawing! Brush pen, marker and watercolor on watercolor paper.

I also noticed Brandon had his sketches up for sale, if anyone is interested in this one, she's just $10, write me at hank@ohthehumanatee if you'd like it. There's two older drawings on the backside of Paul Gauguin and Steve Buscemi.

FCBD @ Borderlands!

2011-05-11T13:53:00.000-07:00

Placeholder post for a FCBD wrap up...

(left to right) BDS friend, fellow Sketch Charlotte member and Con comrade Jerry Stanford, me (grinning like an idiot) and Terence sketching away at last Saturday's FCBD at Borderlands in Greenville, SC. (photo courtesy of Shawn Reynolds)

70's DC - Plastic Man!

2011-05-10T10:33:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay, I was a guest (along with Terence & Jerry) at Borderlands Comic & Games in Greenville, SC for FCBD. And let me tell you, sitting on your butt drawing all afternoon will really wear you out!
Getting back on topic, here's Plastic Man! He's seem to hit a resurgence in popularity over the last several years, but I never was a big fan. The potential for what he could do was always cool, but the character always annoyed me. In any event, here's my latest entry for the 70's DC topic!

First finsky ($5) gets the original! (plus s&h of course) - 7" x 10" copic markers on 90# white index

1970's DC - from the vault!

2011-05-03T09:41:00.000-07:00

Looked around the old "studio" and found a few pieces from previous sketchbooks. Thought it'd be a great (and easy) way to kick off the topic!

Zombie GL/GA #85 - Mark Godby & Brandon Padgett
Mr Miracle - Terence Hoskins
Kid Flash - Brandon Padgett
The Creeper - Mark Godby
Metamorpho - Brandon Padgett
Jonah Hex - Brandon Padgett

Sketch Topic #1 - 1970's DC

2011-05-02T11:10:00.000-07:00

A fun topic to be sure! Henry suggested this one...let's see what we can come up with! Feel free to post any suggestions as to what you'd like to see.

Time to go to and do! :)

With a little help from my friends...

2011-04-28T14:40:00.000-07:00

There's a ton of great comic art sites out there that really entertain me as a fan and get me motivated as an artist. Way too many to list, but a select few have really made me want to get something out there in a similar fashion, so a few of my cronies and I are going to attempt to join together to put out some fun stuff! Stay tuned as we maneuver our way into unfamiliar territory.

So far we have the Big Dog's Studio Sketchbook family, Mark Godby, Terence Hoskins and Henry Eudy.

Topics to come, but it's looking like we'll have a broad topic that will let the artist choose what suits them, their styles and most importantly their time! Don't expect commission level posts, but I'm sure these guys will produce some crazy good stuff! Sit back and prepare to be entertained! :)

btw - please help us spread the word...tell your friends, tweet about anything you may like, post about us on your blogs...whatever it takes! Comments and constructive criticism is always welcome and greatly appreciated!

ANTHOLOGIES!

2011-04-14T09:31:00.000-07:00

I'm making my sequential art debut this Summer with the same story appearing in two different anthologies. The first anthology to see print will be the Sketch Charlotte FCBD Anthology, which I'm also editing. It's a collection of original stories from local creators from the Charlotte, NC area. It's going to end up being about 40 pages and will be available on a very limited basis to a few shops in the Charlotte area. I'll be sketching at Borderlands in Greenvile, SC for FCBD (Sat May 7th) with good buddy and Sketchbook partner Terence Hoskins, so I'm sure I'll have a small stash with me there!
The second one will be for the yearly convention anthology that the guys over at the Dollar Bin put together, the theme was buried treasure. I actually created this story for that anthology and then adjusted the art to fit SC's size requirements.
This almost gave the story a different feel based on layout alone. It's interesting to see the two together, so I thought I'd post both here to not only tease both anthologies, but to show you how different two anthology books can be.

Top: the Dollar Bin piece; bottom: the Sketch Charlotte piece

Preorder your copy today!

2011-04-08T19:46:00.000-07:00

$5.00 each (with custom sketch)
Con't US Shipping & Handling: $1.50
Outside of the US (e-mail for details)

Available beginning June 3rd, 2011
(debuting at 2011 Heroes Con)
BigDogsStudio -at- gmail.com

Check out our deviantART pages for moer art:
Brandon - http://bigdogsstudio.deviantart.com/
Mark- - http://markg72.deviantart.com/
Terence - http://teeminus.deviantart.com/
Henry - http://oh-the-humanatee.deviantart.com/

Lunch Sketch - Batgirl!

2011-03-31T10:33:00.000-07:00

I catch a lot of flack for rarely drawing women characters. Well, I'm never really asked to draw them...guess that could be because people haven't seen my womern! That is something I need to rectify. So I decided today during lunch to try my hand at the Barbara Gordon Batgirl. I've also been kicking around the Bruce Timm style as of late to see if I could find any room to evolve my style, so this is also one of those experiments.

40 minutes - pencil with prismacolor pens & copic markers - 8-1/2 x 11

Lunch Sketch - Demona (colors by Rico!)

2011-03-18T06:41:00.000-07:00

Did this as a quick warm up the other day at lunch. I'd seen Eric Canete's Demona commission a few weeks earlier and that image crawled into my head and nested!
Well, it sat around a week or two unsure of its final destination. So I stuck it in my satchel and pretty much forgot about it. After all it's just a sketch I did for fun, similar to what I'll be doing on the backs of our upcoming sketchbooks.
So I came across it at last night's Sketch Charlotte and I asked the uber talented Rico Renzi if he'd do me the honor of putting some colors to it. That guy colors all day long (and I'm pretty sure in his sleep too) so there's no harm in asking him to color something else in his spare time is there? Okay so I'm inconsiderate, but if I hadn't asked this would have never seen the light of day! (THANKS RICO!) He came late so he didn't have his normal cache of color, so he borrowed a few pens from Henry Eudy & me to crank out this beauty. Hope you like it 1/2 as much as I do!

2011 Sketchbook prep

2011-03-16T11:11:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite times of the year: convention season. I'll spend the next 2-3 months gearing up our annual sketchbook. I'll take scans of commissions, assignments, random drawings and sketch group pieces from the previous year and start cobbling them into what will eventually make their way into the book.

Here's today's example: BPRD's Trevor Bruttenholm

I originally did this one for a Sketchercise over at www.sketchcharlotte.com
It was nice enough, but lacked a certain "oomph" needed to be in the sketchbook. So I set up the dimensions and finished drawing out the piece to fill out the area. I then added the tentacles and the background I had created in photoshop (a take off on the Abe background I used last year).

Here are the before and after pics:

before:

And the after:

Volume 5 will debut at the 2011 Heroes Con (with new artist Henry Eudy!).
Copies of vol 3 and 4 of the Big Dog's Studio sketchbook are still available. Both feature the art of Mark Godby, Terence Hoskins and myself. For more information G-mail me at: BigDogsStudio

Lunch Sketch - FELL

2011-03-09T13:46:00.000-08:00

Decided to trade away my FELL comics last night. It took some doing, but I finally pulled the trigger. I picked up the tpb last Summer and was fortunate enough to have Ben Templesmith sign it for me at last year's Heroes Con. So trading the actual comics was something I was prepared to do...even though I LOVE this story! If you haven't read it yet, do yourself a favor and pick it up.

So while I brooded over the decision today at lunch I decided to do a quick send up of the lead character Detective Richard Fell. I'm not even in the same universe as Templesmith, but I sketched it out anyway! I tried to keep my style (whatever that is) out of the piece and just try to capture the character. So this piece was pretty quick...most of the time was spent in photoshop filling in blacks!

Hope you enjoy it...and go read some FELL! :)

apologies to Ellis & Templesmith...ESPECIALLY Templesmith! ;)

Lunch Sketch - T-Rex close up

2011-03-03T10:11:00.000-08:00

I've been contemplating drawing a Tyrannosaurus Rex in a 2 page story I'm writing, so I decided to take a stab at doing a few quick studies to see if it was something I would end up using.
Enter the neat lil' 5 x 7 sketchbook I got as a Christmas present. Perfect for just this sort of thing. Rather than try and squeeze a lot on a small page I decided to zoom in on an area of interest...the T-Rex's eye.
Did this at lunch with an everyday ordinary pencil...funny thing is that even though I'm pleased with the outcome I may end up not even using it!

Muppet Secret Invasion!

2011-01-28T12:22:00.000-08:00

I've had this comic for quite some time. I never could think of a neat enough idea to do it justice. It's for a good friend afterall, so I wanted it to be nice!

These sketch covers are something else...I feel like I have to wrestle it just to take ink! It looks like Marvel and all the other publishers would just print on standard bristol stock...y'know what comics are usually drawn on?! But no, these things are quite slick! That being said, I decided to just leave the pencile in for the background. I was afraid it would smudge all over, so there you go.

It's always daunting staring at a blank sheet of paper, let alone a sketch cover! Not like you can throw it away and grab a new one if/when you mess up! You just have to push through and finish. (sounds like I'm bracing you guys for a crappy cover huh?)

I typically draw out what I want to do first and then transpose it over to the sketch cover. That's how I did this one at last night's Sketch Charlotte meeting.

So here's the one I did for my buddy Brian Eison of the Dollar Bin. I hope you like it! :)

Sketchercise - Music related art: Roy Orbison - part 4

2011-01-27T07:15:00.000-08:00

Took a week to get through all the steps, scanning and posts, but here it is! I haven't worked like this in awhile. I used to use Photoshop a lot more than I do now,
but I find that the drawings lose some of their life and personality when manipulated digitally. Besides, whatever commission I've gotten havre called for the entire
process to be done on one sheet, so I didn't have the luxury of using Photoshop to help make up for my many imperfections!

I did some light touch ups around the hands and on his hair. I then added the gradient in two steps using all of the markers I have 10% - 90%. Not quite as good as I'd hoped or practiced, but I gotta
keep moving! I also added some greys to his glasses to help build the contrats for the piece (30% & 50% cool greys). I actually liked how that turned out!

step 3.0

I scanned it in this morning at 400 dpi and tweaked the brightness/contrast ever so slightly so as to not disprupt the gradients. I then went in with a burn tool and darkened everything up equally. I trimmed the edges arond the piece and there you have it!

step 3.5 - the final!

For the few who actually stayed with me or this I really appreciate it and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

See you next time!

Sketchercise - Music related art: Roy Orbison - part 3

2011-01-26T12:12:00.000-08:00

Getting close! This is the scan from where I redrew his right hand. I finally got it to where I don't hate it, so I decided to scan it and move on to the next step. These steps are taking anywhere from 10-30 minutes each, usually done over lunch. If not for this process blog I would have stopped or trashed it after the first step, but this has been pretty fun!

step 2.5

I'm going to print this one out and do a few touch ups. I may even re-do the gradient behind him just so that it's crisper. All the scanning & printing have degraded it down quite a bit. Then after that, it's on to the white acrylic splatter!

Sketchercise - Music related art: Roy Orbison - part 2

2011-01-25T08:35:00.000-08:00

Well after tweaking the brightness/contrast in photoshop it came to me that I was a few steps ahead of myself. It wouldn't looks right to go back in on a high contrast piece, so I went back to the original and cut out what I wanted to redraw and left the contrast alone.

step 1.75

I reduced it a bit to fit an 8-1/2" x 11 sheet and printed it out. I then went back in with a 4H pencil and drew the corrections. I used the same tools to ink these changes (Prismacolor pens, faber-castell big brush pen, prismacolor cool grey art markers) I then added a gradient behind his right hand.

step 2.0

I'm still unhappy with the right hand, so instead of adding in the white acrylic splatter I've decided to redraw the right hand first. Once I have it the way I want it I'll assemble it in photoshop, print it out and add the splatter...stay tuned!

Sketchercise - Music related art: Roy Orbison!

2011-01-21T10:41:00.000-08:00

Not sure if that's exactly what Seth chose for the topic, but that's the direction I was going! I decided to go with one of the bigger musical influences of my childhood: the Voice...the incomparable Roy Orbison! This was taken from the album cover art for his triumphant comeback "MYSTERY GIRL." For most people growing up it was the Beatles, Stones or Elvis...but in our house Orbison resonated the years of my childhood. The most amazing thing about it, no matter what age, what time period, his stuff holds up remarkably well!
This is part one of a 3-4 part process. This is the raw inks over my pencils. The next step is to clean it up a bit and add gray tones. And last, I'm going to add some white acrylic splatter to give it some atmosphere. I'll post each piece as they're complete. Hope you like it...now, go listen to some Orbison! :)

Part 1.5
I scanned in the drawing at 300 dpi and took it into Photoshop (CS2). I then proceeded to bump the contrast levels up to get a darker, more solid black. After that I went in and removed the areas I didn't like. Specifically the hands/wrists. I tend to do a bit of contour drawing when I do hands and in this instance it wasn't a good thing. I want the drawing to balance out, and the simplicity of the face was being overwhelmed by the rendering of the hands & writs. I'll print this out and draw in the fixes over the weekend. (stay tuned!)

What should I draw?

2011-01-19T09:46:00.000-08:00

We started prep for the 5th volume of the Big Dog's Studio Presents Sketchbook this week! As mentioned earlier, we've added Henry "Oh the Humanatee" Eudy to the mix and this one promises to be the best and biggest one yet!

Here's where you come in...I hope! I've decided to start doing 20 minute sketches over my lunch break 2-3 times a week. Problem is, I always draw the same things! I was hoping for some creative suggestions to get me back on the sketching saddle...or even better yet, ideas for the book itself! If your suggestion leads to a sketchbook piece you'll get a free sketched copy of the 2011 version* (debuting at the 2011 Heroes Con)! You can post your suggestions here or fire me a gmail: BigDogsStudio. The more creative and unique the better, just please keep 'em clean!

*to be picked up at the show or mailed inside the continental US.

*edit - this post looked way too empty without a sketch...here's a headshot and subsequent marker study I did of Swamp Thing at last week's Sketch Charlotte. Had an Art Adams drawing of ol' Swampy out on the table for reference, inspiration and and intimidation! :)

edit - quick sketch of Brave & the Bold Aquaman...all I had was a super-thick brush pen, so forgive the thickness please! Had fun with this one...I have plans for this style! Thanks B!

LONG way to go...

2011-01-13T07:40:00.000-08:00

I, like most people in the Carolinas, was iced in on Tuesday so I decided to try my hand at some watercolors. Keep in mind that I'm predominantly a black & white artist with minimal color background. (I haven't tried watercolor since I was about 12-13 years old!) I played it safe here with the hopes of something presenting itself in the process. The biggest lesson I learned this go around...your tools have a lot to do with the process. I had a really small brush trying to create large moving imagery that watercolor is known for on a 9 x 12 piece of paper. (mistake #1) Until I can get a few different sized brushes I've since decided to cut the paper down and work much smaller. We'll see how that goes! Until then, here's attempt #1 - Mike Mignola's Hellboy!

A few things...

2011-01-06T09:37:00.001-08:00

I should have posted something sooner, but the $5 art sale is officially over..thanks to everyone who participated! Even though the sale is over, most of the art posted here is for sale or trade. Especially if you have anything on my want list!

The holidays have come and gone and I managed to pick up some cool art supplies during the process, so hopefully there will be more art to share. Keep in mind I'm learning my way through some of this new stuff, so most of the stuff I'll be posting will be roughs, sketches and just plain bad art! :)

Before I go I also want to make a special announcement (made on twitter a few weeks back): Big Dog's Studio is proud to announce that the amazing Henry Eudy will be joining Terence, Mark and me in the 2011 Big Dog's Studio Presents sketchbook! Henry is bringing a tremendous amount of craft and class to the sketchbook and we're all a little giddy to have him aboard! Head over and check him out and welcome him into the fold:
http://ohthehumanatee.com/
oh-the-humanatee.deviantart.com/

Sketchercise: Superhero Fairy Tales

2010-12-21T08:38:00.000-08:00

If I’m not mistaken, this Sketchercise could either be a Superhero reimagined as a Fairy Tale or a Fairy Tale character turned into a Superhero. I opted to make a superhero into a fairy tale. In this case I chose the obvious, the Incredible Hulk as Shrek!

A few more...

2010-11-10T08:15:00.001-08:00

A few more...

- Scott Pilgrim & Romona are 4-1/2 x 6-3/4 on cut to size comic backing board. Copic multiliners with marker gray tones. ($5 each or both for $7.50)

- Metamorpho is on recycled sketchbook paper - 6-1/4 x 10 - microns & sharpie

- Savage Dragon is on 8-1/2 x 11 tab stock - Copic multiliners

- Hellboy sketch is on 8-1/2 x 11 tab stock - pencil (SOLD)

- Liefeld inspired Hulk is two pieces, both on tab stock - Copic multiliners
A digital composite print will accompany these

More $5 art!

2010-11-09T09:51:00.000-08:00

Here are some more pieces that I'll let go for the $5 sale...still more to come! :)

See the post below for full info...

300 - one piece - ink - 8-1/2 x 11 on tab paper (bend on left side of art)
Done for Old Newsarama Art Group

Astro "Big" Boy - one piece - ink - 8-1/2 x 11 on tab paper
Done for Old Newsarama Art Group - anime week

Batman head sketch - pencil - one piece - 8-1/2 x 11 on tab paper (SOLD)

Boba Fett head sketch - ink - 8-1/2 x 11 on typing paper
Done for ASU newspaper article about the Star Wars prequels

Devil Dinosaur - 3 pieces (includes Kirby as DD) - all three - 8-1/2 x 11 on tab paper
Done for Old Newsarama Art Group - Kirby week

Darkwing Duck - 2 pieces (includes left foot patch & digitally enhanced composite print) - 8-1/2 x 11 on tab paper
Done for Old Newsarama Art Group - Darkwing Duck week

Galactus head sketch - ink - 8-1/2 x 11 on tab paper
Done for Old Newsarama Art Group - part of a cover recreation (FF #49)

Hellboy head sketch - ink with gray markers - one piece - 7-1/2 x 11 on tab paper
Done at Sketch Charlotte meeting (11/01/10) - marker practice piece (SOLD)

Howard the Duck - one piece - 8-1/2 x 11 on tab paper
Done for Old Newsarama Art Group - Howard the Duck week

Lockheed - one piece - 8-1/2 x 11 on tab paper

Question - one piece - brush pen - 7 x 10 on tab paper
My first ever use of a brush pen

'Ringo Superman tribute - one piece - 8-1/2 x 11 on tab paper
Done for Old Newsarama Art Group - Mike Wieringo tribute week

Scrap Paper Swamp Thing - copic multiliners and pencil on 2 x 10 felt paper

Skull Mace - one piece - copic multiliners - 8-1/2 x 5-1/2 tab paper

Sleeper - ink on comic backing board - 6.75 x 10.5
Covers the entire backing board

Swamp Thing head shot - ink, microns - 5 x 7 on tab paper

$5 art blowout!

2010-11-06T12:13:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd offer up some various pieces I have laying around the studio for $5 usd each (+$2 s/h per shipment). Most of these are on 8-1/2 x 11 and are inked with copic multiliners & markers. Some are pieced together in photoshop. For any that are digitally finished I'll be glad to provide a print of the finished piece. I can send a raw scan of every piece if anyone needs them. Most of these were done at our weekly Sketch Charlotte meeting. (speaking of which, if you have something in mind that I don't have, I'll be glad to do them over one of our meetings, same price: $5!)

Let's pretend for a second people outside the US may want some of these pieces...heh. We can work out something.

I also have a supply of vol 3 (2009) and vol 4 (2010) Big Dog's Studio sketchbooks that can be custome sketched...$3 each/$5 with custom sketch.

For those interested in sketches or sketchbooks feel free to e-mail me:
gmail: BigDogsStudio

Here are a few of the pieces that are available (more to come!):

Rainbow Brite Extreme & Calvin & Hobbes pieces are SOLD...

Scrap Paper Swamp Thing

2010-11-03T10:21:00.001-07:00

I absolutely love drawing on scrap paper. It’s a lot less imposing than a brand new piece of full size bristol board. If you mess up you just throw it away…no worries about ruining a perfectly good piece of expensive paper!

This was a 2″ x 10″ remnant of 80lb felt from some invitations I printed last week. Very toothy, almost watercolor paper. So naturally I couldn’t throw these gems away!

Did this over my lunch break…Swamp Thing – copic multiliners and marker.

Now what do I do with the other 39 pieces?!

Planetary themed sketchbook - part II

2010-10-22T13:09:00.000-07:00

Landed another sweet sketch for my Planetary sketchbook at last night's Sketch Charlotte meeting! Stan Ford was kind enough to lay this one on me...

I LOVE it when someone hands you you're sketchbook back and tells you to leave it open so it can dry! :) Stan put some work into this and really nailed Drummer...thanks Stan! :)

Sketchercise: Tintin

2010-10-22T13:07:00.000-07:00

A character I’ve always wanted to get into but have never made the time to do so…Herge’s Tintin! Since I know next to nothing about the character I thought I’d do the obvious homage to the “Im with COCO” poster that flooded the internets this past year…hope you enjoy it!

Planetary themed sketchbook

2010-10-18T12:20:00.000-07:00

I finally broke down and started a themed sketchbook. Couldn't think of too many things I'd rather have than sketches from my favorite comic book: Warren Ellis and John Cassaday's Planetary! Here are the first three entries so far, all from Sketch Charlotte members! What a way to start a sketchbook! Another perk of having such a great group of artists on the roster! :)

In order:
Elijah Snow by Henry Eudy
Elijah Snow by Eraklis "Herc" Petmezas
Jakita Wagner by Jason McLellan

Sketchercise: Steve Zissou!

2010-10-08T05:23:00.000-07:00

This particular Sketch Charlotte "assignment" was for the films of Wes Anderson chosen by Henry Eudy. I was thinking about doing something from the Royal Tenenbaums but decided to go with Steve Zissou instead. At the time I had no idea that the Chris Brunner had done an incredible take on the character (colors by one Rico Renzi). I'm glad I saw this AFTER I did mine, otherwise I probably wouldn't have even attempted it!
Long story short, I penciled this piece and was set to ink it at last week's Sketch Charlotte meeting but wused out at the last second only to have the inimitable Henry Eudy step in and graciously ink it. I saw pics from his digital camera along the way, but I finally saw it in person last night and I am blown away...possibly the happiest I've been in a long time with anything my name has been attached to! I hope you guys enjoy it half as much as I do...thanks again Henry!

Sketch Charlotte doodles...

2010-09-29T13:26:00.000-07:00

Haven't had much time to draw as of late, but here are a few sketches/doodles I've done at the last few Sketch Charlotte meetings (www.sketchcharlotte.com)
I usually talk more than I draw at these meetings, and I'm a bit ADD so I bounce from idea to idea. Translation: a lot of my stuff I do at these meetings ends up in the trash! I find I work much better when I'm not surrounded by super-talented, interesting people...less distractions and I know all my stories! ;) It is inspiring to have such a talented roster, so I can't complain too much!

I have a few things I'm working on at the moment, so hopefully I'll have a few new pieces to share....until next time! :)

Sketchercise #3 - Hellboy Universe: Professor Trevor Bruttenholm

2010-09-01T05:17:00.001-07:00

My first take on this theme was Lobster Johnson, but I struggled with his goggles on separate occasions. That slowed my progress to a halt. So the other night I was considering other options, when the good Professor jumped out at me!
I wasn't sure how to illustrate his white hair & beard using just black & white so I just outlined it! I had a happy accident while inking the outline. My Prismacolor .01 pen tip split which gave me some really cool textures. I couldn't have done that with a normal pen if I tried!
Prismacolor & Copic pens on a comic backing board...

(Original artwork available for trade or purchase)

Sketch Charlotte kind of day...

2010-08-31T15:37:00.000-07:00

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

Influence Map

2010-08-25T15:22:00.000-07:00

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.

EGO, the living planet!

2010-08-20T05:20:00.001-07:00

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.

CHUCK - Casey & Morgan

2010-08-16T06:30:00.000-07:00

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.

Sketchercise #2 - characters of Riverdale

2010-08-06T06:52:00.000-07:00

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...

Darkseid - take two!

2010-07-13T05:18:00.001-07:00

After looking at it posted on the internet I felt it was a tad flat, so I went back and added some white acrylic spatter. I was going to put in some black ink spatter too, but I felt that would have been too much, so I decided to step away from it and leave it in this final stage...hope you dig!

Darkseid!

2010-07-12T10:54:00.000-07:00

Finally got around to finishing up the Darkseid commission. The client gave me liberty to draw any Superman-related character for him and since I've already drawn Lex Luthor and Superman for him on two different occasions I went with my favorite DC viallain...DARKSEID! Shown here are the original scanned piece and then the photoshopped piece. Thought I'd show the "raw" one with all the pen marks and lines for all you purists! :)

Week #1 - Favorite Comic Strip Character - CALVIN and HOBBES

2010-06-29T12:57:00.000-07:00

We're about to start a weekly themed sketch project (at this point still unnamed) over at Sketch Charlotte. The first week's topic is favorite comic strip character. I was so pumped about getting back into a weekly sketch group that I went ahead and sketched out my favorite, Calvin & Hobbes! (apologies to Mr Watterson of course!) I usually finish things off with ink, but I really enjoyed knocking this one out with an old beat up school pencil. Maybe it'll see inks at some point...

Now that I have a son the strip is about to take on a whole new meaning for me! It's a weird position to be in, because just a few short years ago I still read it from the Calvin "perspective." Now I look for how his parents respond to his adventures and brace myself for what's surely coming down the pike!

I get the daily strip in my inbox via ucomics.com and I have just about all the paperback collections. I recently picked up the absolute collection for my "library." As soon as Jonathan is ready he will inherit them and hopefully they'll entertain and inspire him as much as they did me!

Monroe Library Mini Con!

2010-06-23T18:27:00.000-07:00

I'll be at guest at this year's Mini Con at the library in downtown Monroe this Saturday from 1:00 pm - 6:30 pm! If you're in the area swing by and check us out! I'll be manning a table with my buddy and partner in crime Terence "Teeminus" Hoskins. We'll have two different sketchbooks, original art, sketch cards and more available...stop by and say hello, we'd love to see you! :)

Monroe Library
316 East Windsor St
Monroe, NC 28112
704-283-8184

Superman vs Superboy Prime

2010-06-18T10:21:00.000-07:00

I stretched outside my usual boundaries for this one. This was done for a guy who has ordered several commissions in the past, so I thought it fair that I step it up a bit, in practice anyway. I jumped up to 11 x 17 bristol board and brought in white acrylic paint to help develop the piece. I'm still new to it, but it's a fun method once you let go a bit! I created the star/universe splatter with it in the background with the ol' toothbrush method....messy but effective! I had to do some touch up after it dried, but it, like the client, was worth the extra effort!

I'm already working on another piece for him and hopefully he'll be as happy with it as he was this one! :)