Got Some Sketching Done Tonight

Here are a few sketches I did tonight while listening to DeWayne Feenstra's podcast with David Peterson, creator of Mouse Guard, a super cute comic about lil fantasy mice. Check it out 8)

The first one is a drawing of my buddy, Switchblade Rosie, a roller derby girl that said she needed new kneepads to keep them from exploding during practice.

The other one is just a quick drawing I did of a cowgirl with a futuristic gun. ZZZZAP!!

In Between Projects

I'm kind of in between projects right now and I haven't just drawn in quite some time so I went to Coffee Time today and just drew. I drew people standing around, I drew various people in the shop, I drew some of my favorite supes and I drew a buncha quick "stick figure" poses. It really does help to start off with some sketching to get your artistic/creative juices flowing. I started off with these peeps.


And then I started drawing various people that came in and some faces of my own, trying to capture various poses and emotions.
And then I had to draw Spider-Man. He is still one of my favorite peeps to draw. After scanning this in and looking at it, I wish I would have drawn some crazy ass webbing. But that's the beauty of doing sketches. I can take this sketch, blow it up in Adobe, print it out and lightbox it adding in a ton of detail and then ink it. Any drawing you do can be cleaned up and used at a later date.
Here are some drawings I did of Angel, Gunn, Wesley and a lil demon dude. I'm sure he has a very comical and friendly demeanor, but still evil nonetheless. I did all of these freehand without looking at any reference. I think I have drawn them all enough to capture something close to a likeness. I'll let you be the judge. For those of you out there that know the characters, do they look like them? I love drawing people and attempting to capture a likeness. I hope it works. 8)
And then I drew Supergirl. My fellow OU alum, Sterling Gates, is writing her comic. I hope to someday work with Sterling. He is a great guy 8)
After all that, I drew some more peeps in the shop. Two of which are always in there. The guy on the upper left is always there programing... "something." He usually cusses out his computer a few times a day. It was the first time I had seen the guy on the upper right, but I wanted to capture his features. He was Asian and had an interesting face. The guy on the bottom, Joseph, he is there nearly every time I go and is always helping Emily during shift change. He is always watching things and lets the barista know when people are getting out of hand. I like drawing at Coffee Time, an interesting crowd to say the least.

Now that I have gotten my drawing juices flowing, I am ready to bust out some more pages. I like what one of the professional comic writers I follow on Twitter said once, something about "A writer should never leave their artist with nothing to draw." As of now, I would love to have a consistent amount of work coming in. I work best with a project and a deadline.

Now I am off to sleep so I can do it again. 8)

Adventures in P-Town

Here are some pics from my adventure in Portland the other day. I had stayed the night at a friend's house after a block party the night before. I arrived late so I didn't get too out of control. I did get to sleep in though which was the best way to start an adventure.

I started out by going to see the R. Crumb show at the Portland Art Museum. It has been up for a few months and i finally went to see it on the last day it was up. And I only live three blocks from here!! Pfft. I get so busy in my studio sometimes that I forget there are so many things to see and do around me.

The show was great and packed!! I was surprised to see so many people. There were probably 400+ original drawings, all of which were pretty impressive. It was hard to get close to them because each one was surrounded by 5 or 6 people, to give you an idea of how packed the show was.

I love Crumb's shading. With his crosshatching there is no need for gray tones or washes. It was nice occasionally seeing where he had used some white out. And of course, since he drew them all word for word from the Bible, I can't remember which version, there was a lot of sex. Go figure, eh? I was also impressed with his lettering, both on the pages themselves and the title pages. All done with hand. Not only was I happy that Portland's Art Museum would show someone like Crumb, but also that there were so many people packed in to see his art. Go Art!!

This is the park outside the museum a couple blocks from my house. It's nice having a bit of nature downtown. Of course, the guy on the bike freaked out the old couple walking, but living downtown you get used to bikes and skateboards flying by you.
And the trees are old trees, very tall, very old trees.

Some old buildings down in old town. And I have always loved old 'Vettes. 8)
The sky was pretty rad. Not as beautiful as an Oklahoma sky, but gorgeous nonetheless. You can kind of see how HUGE the river is. I love walking down on the waterfront.
Here are some peeps on paddle boards and a boat flying across the river. It was a busy, busy day on the water.
Corgis!!! I had never seen a Corgi before I moved to Portland, but they are one of the freakin' cutest lil dogs. I'm going to make a photo album of all the unique breeds of dogs I have seen in P-Town. So many breeds I had never seen before.
A shot of Chinatown. Tons of old buildings downtown. I stopped on my adventure to refuel and had some sushi. Sushi in Portland is the best I have ever had. Tasty!! I also stopped by Powell's for bit. I was wanting to sit in the coffee shop and draw people, but it was packed!

When I got back to my studio I had noticed that my Sunflower had finally bloomed. I think it is the runt of the litter. It's only 3 feet tall. Who knows though. Sunflowers can get gigantimous!!

All in all, a pretty good day 8)

Updates and Angel Drawings

It seems it may be awhile before my first comic, Nightmares of the Macabre, is printed. It takes a lil while for a new publisher to get the ball rolling. Hopefully, once the ball does get rolling it will build up like a biggo snowball!!

In the meantime, I am still working on drawing Angel and crew. Here are some of the first drawings I have done using a lightbox to capture and learn the little details. I have some time to build up a pretty nice portfolio to send to Dark Horse. Like I have said many times before, I would love to draw the Angel comic!!


I'm also going to send some pages to C.B., the talent scout for Marvel I talked to last year who liked my work, and see about getting some new scripts to work from. I think it's time for me to start sending Marvel more samples since I have been getting more practice with drawing and inking.

I also have some paintings I need to finish. Geez, Where are those extra days of the week I need?? 8)

Done With My Second Comic, But Still Working

I sent in my last pages for ZFW #1. It's always a weird feeling finishing a project. You spend so much time with these characters and then it's over, leaving a void in your life. Thankfully Josh has sent me the script for issue #2. This one's got some fun scenes to draw in it as well. Zombie parts are gonna fly!! Smashin' Zombies!!

Also, my first comic The Anti-War Museum of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, a story in the anthology Nightmares of the Macabre, has finally been sent to the printer. We are releasing it at the Jet City Comic Con. After my experiences with the Portland Zine Symposium I am looking forward to hanging out at a comic convention and meeting a ton of new people. I also want to prepare a bit more. There are so many things you can do to bring attention to your work. I'll have some of my original art for sell there as well. And maybe some sketchbooks.

I'm finishing up a collaborative painting. About to send it off to have the next person work on it. I love seeing what other people do with my art. It's never what I expect, but so far I have always been pleasantly pleased with what I get back. 8)

I'm drawing a ton of Angel and the rest of his cast. Dark Horse is going to start publishing Angel comics next year with Joss's input and it is going to be part of the canon Buffyverse. Anyone that knows me would tell you that I would LOVE to work on something with Joss and have seen every episode of Angel nearly 20+ times by now. I'm a fan.

I am printing up some more sketchbooks and copies of my 24-hour comic. I opened up an Etsy store. Getting things together to start posting items for your eyeball happiness. I'll post a link when it is ready to burst forth on the world. I also need to find out the laws about selling drawings or sketchbooks with copyrighted characters in them. I've seen a ton of people, even professionals, sell drawings of copyrighted characters both on Etsy and at conventions and even Last Thursday here in P-Town and wondered how they can get by with something like that. If anyone knows how this all works, please let me know.

I'm still trying to find my look for Jinko, my webcomic. I want to keep the line work and colors simple. I need about a week to work on it to find what I am looking for. But I am still making progress. One day I am going to have to just make it, go with it. Someday soon!!! My actual existing comic work gets first priority. 8)

I am also about ready to send in some more samples to Marvel. Working with Creator's Edge and Josh Cantrell has given me a lot more time to hone my skills. I haven't traditionally penciled a page since I stopped sending samples in to Marvel back in March. I think it will be interesting to see what I come up with now that I have two comics under my belt. The same goes for finished ink pin-ups and drawings since I have been inking with a brush for a few months now.

So much to do and such little time!! I told everyone that I would hang out this week since I haven't been able to these past few months, but now I am remembering how much it costs to go out. I need to get back in my studio and lock myself away for awhile. 8)

Talking About What I Am Thinking About Working On

Here are some more drawings I have found going through my stacks and stacks of old drawings. These are going to go into my latest sketchbook. I will soon have my 24 hour comic and my sketchbooks up on Etsy once I get some more copies made.




Almost done with my latest comic for Creator's Edge, ZFW. Zombies. Finishing up the last page today then on to #2. But first I am going to go off and draw a kajillion pictures of Angel, Wesley, Illyria, the entire Angel cast. I am also going to draw a short Angel story to send in. They haven't decided on an artist for the new Angel series at Dark Horse. It's on!!

In the meantime, if there really is any "meantime," I am getting close to start working out how I want to color my Jinko web comic, watercolors, acrylics, digital... Need to work that out.

I have also decided that making art is more important than networking. Too many people talk about what they are thinking about working on rather than actually working on something. Yes. I know I am sitting here right now talking about what I am thinking of working on, but I make this point to express the lack of frequent posts on here.

Gotta get back to work!!