Sketchercise: Superhero Fairy Tales

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...

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!

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!

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

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

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

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

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!

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...

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

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...

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

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!

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

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

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!

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!

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

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!

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

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! :)

Snake Eyes!

One of my all time favorite characters...in any genre. Was asked to do this in a sketchbook and was not only intimidated to do a drawing following the legendary Sergio Aragones, but drawing Snake Eyes always puts me on edge. Along with Batman I feel like I can't do either of them justice. There's always room for improvement...they can never live up to my expectations of the character.

I was actually pleased with how this turned out...almost didn't want to send it back! :) Now I have the confidence to do more Snake Eyes drawings!

microns & sharpies in a 8-1/2 x 11 sketchbook