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I've mailed off a chunk of the commissions I took a couple of weeks ago. I still have three left to do, but seven should have, by now, reached their owners, so I'm throwing them up here. All of them were drawn at 5 x 7" and for some of 'em I used gray markers, which I almost never do on brush drawings. I liked how they turned out!
One of the requests was a self-portrait. I haven't done one of these in a while, and I was never good about making them look like me. This one, I think, looks like me, so that's good.
I was also asked to draw Stan Sakai with his comic creation Usagi Yojimbo. I did a few sketches of Stan during his visit to Atlanta a few months ago, and looked at these to do the drawing - I never actually looked at a photo!
I thought him holding a real rabbit DRESSED like Usagi would create a more interesting drawing than him standing with the character, so here you go.
Here's Strong Guy from X-Factor. I had an action figure of him in sixth grade, and I really liked it.
I got another request for "Something Usagi," so I did a picture of Usagi and Jotaro in 1632, 30ish years after the events in Usagi Yojimbo take place. I love drawing established characters old; I can see why all of Allan Moore's books are about what they're about.
A picture of Michael May's Daniel Baboone fighting a Cephalopod. There was a Daniel Baboone story in an Activate comic, which I really dug: http://www.act-i-vate.com/114-28-1.comic
Grimjack, who was commissioned by the guy who ran the comic shop in my hometown where I probably bought the aforementioned Strong Guy figure back in sixth grade.
And, lastly, Shipwreck and Beachhead from G.I. Joe.
Just a reminder, there is a sketchbook release/signing on Thursday! I'll have my new book - though the retail is $20, at this signing it'll be $15 to the public and $5 to anyone with a valid SCAD ID or Crogan Adventure Society agent card. Thursday, May 26, from 5-8pm at SCAD Atlanta, right next to the front doors (Gallery 1600). SCAD's address is 1600 Peachtree ST NE, Atlanta, GA 30309. Hope to see you there!
As some of you might know, Richard Thompson's Cul de Sac is without question my favorite comic strip from the last decade. It does a better job of capturing the essence of children than just about any other narrative I've ever encountered. It's phenomenal. I can't recommend it highly enough. If you're a fan of Calvin and Hobbes or Peanuts, you should be picking up these collections. I'm lucky enough to have an original hanging on my wall, and it's one of my most prized possessions.
Last year, Richard announced that he has been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, a deginerative nervous system disorder that often manifests itself in uncontrollable tremors and shaking, which is terrible for anyone but is especially horrifying for someone whose job and passion is to have pretty much infallible control over his or her hands. Luckily, he seems to be doing well and is still perfectly capable of making some of the most wonderful comics ever produced.
I got to join Richard and a few friends for dinner last year in Charlotte, and with us was Chris Sparks, one of Richard's friends and the fella in charge of his web page. Chris has since taken on the task of preparing a benefit for Richard called Team Cul de Sac. Cartoonists of all stripes are doing their take on characters from Richard's strip. Some of the art will be collected into a book being published by Andrews McNeel, and all of it will go to auction. The money will be used for Parkinson's Disease research through the Michael J Fox Foundation, whose stated mission is to cure the disease.
Here is my piece:
As soon as I find out details about the auction, I'll post them. There will be a lot of great stuff on there. I do want to note that, in order to ensure that the piece raises as much money at auction as is able, this will be the only Cul de Sac drawing I will ever do, or at least the only one that will ever be available for sale. Again, I'll be sure to let everyone know details about the book and auction as soon as I know them. One note - the drawing is actually in gray marker wash; I added the hues digitally, after seeing that many other contributing artists had done the same.
If any cartoonists wish to contribute and have not yet done so, fret not; the deadline has been extended to June 18th.
The Dollar Bin is putting out an anthology at HeroesCon called "Buried Treasure," and asked if I'd do a story. I said yes.
Here are the pencils for the first page:
To get a sense of the foliage. I bought the Crusoe TV series. I was going to go to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, but it cost almost twice as much, and as I wasn't sure that they'd have what I needed I opted for the cheaper avenue. It really bothers me that nothing in Atlanta, ostensibly a legit metropolis, is free to the public. The zoo, the aquarium, the museums, the gardens, etc... all are fairly expensive (usually near twenty bucks for a ticket, sometimes substantially more).
Though it's a pirate story, there won't be any ships or ocean. But it does set the scene for the next book with Catfoot in it.
For this week's Silhouette Sundays installment, I present Alexander Dumas' The Three Musketeers, along with a couple of their foes, Milady and Rochefort. I know I should have included D'Artagnon, but man, I tried him like eight times and couldn't get it. And since this isn't for anything (meaning future projects) I can't really devote a lot of time to nailing one that's trouble. Maybe he'll end up in a future installment.
* note * Comissions are now closed.
This is a guy I drew 90% of a few months ago, but never finished, so he didn't make it into the sketchbook. I finished him this morning, and colored him while my students were taking a school survey, and here he is. He was a study for one of a trio of expatriate White Russian mercenaries who have since been edited out of the story for Crogan's Escape. That armband would display a Warlord's emblem, but I haven't designed it yet.
Sculpted one of the Crogan brothers from Crogan's Loyalty as a demo in maquette-building for one of my character design classes. Teaching the students how to build maquettes is not something on which an inordinate amount of time should be spent; it's helpful to wrap one's head about the three dimensionality of a design, and representational sculpting will DEFINITELY improve your drawing, just by making you address how one part influences another. But I've known a few people who have fallen into the cyclical pit of feeling like they need to make a maquette for every character that they do, and never get any pages done. So what's even the point? We're not maquettists, guys, we're storytellers.
I spend a LOT of time on preproduction, but it's a means to an end. Never, ever, ever let it be the end. It's self-indulgent, and benefits you nothing. ALWAYS make sure your concept work is leading to stories. Otherwise you're just playing with yourself.
This week's Silhouette Sundays piece is a few of the characters from H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines, which I've mentioned is a project I'd like to adapt.
From left to right: Umbopa, Captain Good (bottom), Allan Quatermain (top), Sir Henry Curtis, and Twalla
Also, I was the guest columnist for Comic Book Recourses/Robot 6's "What Are You Reading?" feature this week.
The sketchbook files are all finally done! I have to put them in order with the proper amount of space for spine allowances, but hey, the hard part's finished! It goes to press on Wednesday, I think.
My colleague and all-around amazing artist Nolan Woodard colored the covers, and got 'em back to me, despite the fact that I just gave him the files and he's in the middle of a move into a new house with his pregnant wife. He's a great colorist - works regularly for Boom, does stuff for Marvel... he's also a great comic artist, doing Star Wars cards for Topps as well as commissions when time allows. Check him out!
Here's the front:
and here's the back: Click images for full-sized versions
I'll be making the book for sale through Amazon and, hopefully, Diamond. Some details: 184 page softcover, $19.95, 8.5"x11."
Now, here's a special deal for any paid Crogan Adventure Society agents (limited to those who purchased their membership before April of 2011): If you are going to HeroesCon, you can pick up the book from me directly. Show me your membership card, and you get the book for FIVE DOLLARS. That's a seventy-five percent discount. See? I told you there'd be perks! If you're an agent but can't make it to Heroes, I'll be sending out copies around the same weekend, also signed, for TEN DOLLARS. You'll pay no shipping (that's where the price discrepancy comes in) if you live in the states; international may require additional shipping. I hope you'll consider the discount a thanks for supporting the Crogan Adventures through your membership.
For everyone else, the book will be available at the regular $19.95 price - around the price you'll pay for most sketchbooks, but much, much longer than the average, I'd reckon. Maybe not as good, but bigger.
More details to come. I should've gone to bed three hours ago. Maybe I'll pull an all-nighter. Woof.
Just to make sure I keep up with posting, I thought I'd start a new thing - Silhouette Sundays (it was gonna be Saturdays, but I forgot yesterday). Each Sunday I'll post some silhouettes of how I'd tackle various characters. Most will probably come from books, but who knows?
This week: Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin from Patrick O'Brian's naval series. I only just read the first of these books (there are 20, 21 if you include the unfinished final tome), and have started the second. They're just as good as everyone says. I made sure to give Stephen clunky, lead-lined boots.
In response to Marvel's announcement that they'd be changing Black Panther to "American Panther," a bunch of my students did their versions of various heroes and villains, replacing a color in their name with "American." I did Black Bolt (pictured above) as American Bolt. Note the Kirby dots replaced with stars, USA! USA!
Anyway, check out the whole collection - there are like twenty, and it'll give you a peak at some students who are going to blow your mind in the next few years.
I did the pencils, digitally, for the back cover illustration for the sketchbook. Though not a scene from it, it incorporates some design elements for a kind of adaptation/reinterpretation I've been working on for H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines.
Click the image for a full-sized version
I still have to letter the vast majority of pages for the sketchbook - I'm doing the text by hand - and juggling it, my school prep, teaching, and getting enough time with Liz and Penny has been a trudging process. Liz is going to visit my sister for a couple of days, though, so I'm gonna buckle down, work round the clock (when I'm not teaching, and I've already done next week's prep in advance), and see if I can knock most of it out. I have to have the files off to the printer by April 17th in order to make sure I have the book well in time for HeroesCon.
I tried to start lettering the sketchbook today, but I kept nodding off again and again at the drawing board - a rare unpleasant side effect of having a little one (specifically, one who desires company in the wee hours... though in fairness offering such company is heartwarming enterprise).
I did get my cover illustration inked, however. It took a few passes, as I kept tossing out attempts. I thank everyone who suggested the thumbnail for this one, but it was not an easy drawing. I may have been harder on it for the weight it has to carry, but I'm pleased enough in the end.
Click the image for a full-sized version
Today, I've got a drawing I did of one of my very favorite comics - Belladone, a french book drawn by former Disney animator Pierre Alary. It's an adventure story set in France in 1680, and is full of some of the best comic art I've ever seen. Alary does what I'd like to do with my art, but much, much better.
Click the image for a full-sized version
I so love Alary's approach to the swashbuckling subject matter and the masterful way that he conveys both movement in his characters and sense of place with his environments that I have twice committed against him the cardinal sin of comic art: swiping.
Now, neither instance is a direct copy, but in both I took directly from him, which I have not done elsewhere and which still makes me feel a little sick to my stomach. Each artist conveys visual information in his or her own unique way, and in these instances mine were not unique. They were variations on what Alary had already done.
The first such instance is from Crogan's Vengeance. I wanted to show after the fact that Catfoot had dived from the ship into the water, and Alary had conveyed this with such clarity that I simply incorporated the same technique. I did not look at his panel when doing this, but had it clearly in mind. His use of air escaping from Marie's mouth or nose in the form of bubbles is a beautiful stroke, and one I didn't think to incorporate.
The second is from Crogan's March. In Alary's Sinbad book, he handles the metal inlay of designs atop the domed roofs of Islamic architecture in a very specific and very aesthetically appealing way. He employs shadow, texture, and weathering on the earthen buildings, and leaves the designs atop them free of such effects. This gives it a noticeably different texture, inferring metal. On the stonework itself he uses the occasional white line to infer scratches and weathering on top of shadow.
I consciously employed both of these methods on my foreground buildings in an establishing shot of Tazifet in March, again, not looking at the original but keeping those principles in mind. Had I looked at the original, I'd have seen how similar in design my tower is to his, and how the angle of the shots is far too similar. Were I to have another go at it, I would very my composition considerably so as to better distance it from its inspiration.
The tower I used as the model for mine, and the model for the design of the cupola.
My choice to avoid looking at the panels so consciously influencing my own was well-meant, but foolish. An idea of the panels I was using as "inspiration" was clearly fixed in my mind, making it unlikely that I would stray far from them in my own compositions, and resulting in not one but two art swipes. As I try to do service to the medium by always striving to do my best, I feel especially rotten about this, and hope that my readers, and Alary's, will forgive me such blatant transgressions.
I use this as an object lesson for any future such intentions - should one of Monsieur Alary's wonderfully executed panels again tempt me with its perfection to try and employ a similar thought process, I'll do my best to abstain, and, should my resolve fail me, I'll at least look at it the next time around to ensure a striking difference.
It's NPR pledge time again, which leads me to posting the first of many pages that have been excised from the upcoming sketchbook because of space.
Presenting: This American Life Contributors Explore the Arctic
(Click the image for a full-sized version)
A while back, while my students were working on the sketchbook-theme assignment for my mini-comics class, I toyed with the idea of doing a theme one myself. Though I'm in a position where I can now financially contribute, for years I had no such extra dough, and would do my bit to support NPR through answering phones during the pledge drives. I still like this idea of service, putting in time for something you feel strongly about, and no program on NPR carries more weight with me than This American Life, a show that basically compiles a series of excellent essays, reports, and memoirs about the theme of the week. There are hundreds of episodes at this point, and I listen to them while working on my books (the penciling and inking stages, not the writing or thumbnails).
My idea was that I'd do a This American Life-themed mini, something with nice production values and a screen-printed cover, featuring funny illustrations of a dozen or so of TAL's more prominent contributors, sell 'em at shows, and give 100% of the proceeds to the program, hopefully putting more money into it than I usually do on my own. I did a few preliminary sketches of some of the folks with whose visages I'm somewhat familiar... and had to stop. Radio, it seems, doesn't do the best job of helping one remember faces, and maybe I'm lousy at internet searches but I had a devil of a time trying to find photos of the folks for whom I was looking. If anyone can point me in the right direction (and not the show's staff page - many of those are candids from a distance, and of little use for reference), I may take it up again. Who knows, I might do a print instead of a mini. Either way, it's my little fan attempt to show how much the show means to me. That, and a chance to draw Sarah Koenig punching a walrus in the face.
You can support This American Life here.
Also, I'll post a report of my trip to the OSU Cartoon Research Library in a day or two, so check back!
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