STRANGE (PARTY) MIX

So I've been neglecting my baby blog and now to quickly catch her up to the present day, a soup of stuff that's showed up out of my mind of late:

STRESSFUL SKETCH COVERS

The phenomenon of "sketch covers" primarily coming from Marvel Comics these days present quite a few problems for anyone doing the "sketching"...



First there's the size issue. Everyone may not know this but the average modern age comic book art page is 11 inches by 17 inches and many grow accustom to drawing at a much larger size than your typical comic book. So you have to plan ahead so that your figures aren't too big for the page. Luckily, I go for the wraparound effect as most sketch covers have a blank sketch area on the back page.





Secondly, there's the logo and barcode and pricing trade dress to deal with. It's tricky, but not a show-stopper and can even be used in the sketch.



Thirdly, there's the "I better not screw this guy/gal's comic up" fear. It's not as bad for me, as I work in a comic shop and can at least reorder a book if such a problem arises, but even that's not a full-proof thing.



Then there's the usual stress when dealing with drawing something for someone and that's all performance, which, it turns out, is the least troublesome. Usually, whatever crap we "drawers" turn out tends to be appreciated if for nothing else, the effort.





The above are examples of the trials and tribulations of doing a sketch cover... it ain't all smoke and mirrors. To enlarge a view on any of the above images, simply click on the image in question.

DIGITAL SKETCH DERBY

Threw the above Kato sketch down in under 20 minutes, tried to portray the kinetic energy Bruce Lee brought to the fight scenes of THE GREEN HORNET.


Tried to do a bit of the grittiness and style of the artist of this series (McMahon) into my sketch of "The Last American" above.


For every success there are epic failures such as the very eh pose DD is in for the sketch up there.


Gabriel the Devil Hunter is a character I wasn't familiar with--he's trying to be both Nick Fury and Jason Blood all rolled into one--just a lot of shtick to deal with his striped hair and eye patch!


As Doom has declared, there shall be no digital sketch derby without DOOM!


And, finally, a combination Arthur from CAMELOT 3000 and the film, EXCALIBUR. My favorite take on the Arthurian legend.

LOONEY TUNES' MARC ANTONY AND PUSSYFOOT

Sketch of, probably, the first work of fiction to make me tear up (I was all of 6 or so) as I felt so bad for poor Marc Antony for thinking his newfound friend Pussyfoot (or Cleo) had been baked into the cookies his owner had made. Easily one of my favorite all-time shorts. It can be found, well, here:

HEADS WILL ROLL

Some digitally painted faces:

Bad likeness of Jessica Alba...

Hulk of HULK comics...

Agent ? of 100 Bullets

NIGHT OF THE NIGHT-RAVEN

I'd forgotten about the Night-Raven, but it was an easy thing to do considering I'd only bought a prestige format book by David Lloyd and Jamie Delano a few years back (and had never gotten around to reading it).



This very Rorschach, very The Question looking fedora wearing crime-fighter wasn't completely new to me, then, when the guys over at Outcast wanted him as the subject of one of the sketch challenges.


He's fun to draw, this Marvel UK creation, but now I wonder if I can find that comic I bought and get around to see how fun he is to read about? We may see...

THE BEAUTY OF BALLPOINT

Three sketches using blue ballpoint pen...

This is Skurge the Executioner, long-time partner/lover of the Enchantress


Here we have Alice of the movie series RESIDENT EVIL.


Finally, an unfinished take on a classic Green Lantern (Hal Jordan)...

DIRTY DOZEN DIGITAL DAILY SKETCHES

So I'd fallen behind on blogging up my work with the Daily Sketch Challenges over at DeviantArt.com and I noticed that among the many entries, I hadn't posted a dozen of the sketches that were drawn digitally in my increasing attempts to improve my hand at this newfangled stuff. And so, July begins with a dozen that kind of catch me up to where I'm supposed to be.

(As always, click an image to make it easier to see.)