Tonight's Work

Another Panera meet up tonight with my art friends. Dinner then discussing with my cohort Callie about APE, the BASA group, our anthology, and more, then getting down to some art when more people arrived. Tonight's work was inking this title page to yet another sketchbook. It was chilly outside after Panera shut down at 9pm so we finished up the night at La Scala until midnight.

American Eskimo

Tonight's homework drawing: Draw your first pet. We had a dog named O.J. who was an American Eskimo. I only have a few memories of that dog but the next dog we got was also the same breed.

Aye Aye, Cap'n!

Posting more homework drawings. Draw an advertising character: Cap'n Crunch

Custom Brushes

Well, this is a weird feeling. I'm so use to posting my artwork on here be it rough pencils to finished works and, even with previous classes, it was always a decent drawing effort on my part. But not this and the other Illustrator post the other day, which doesn't feel right. Like I'm posting my beginner experiments to recognize I did it in class. Does that make sense?

Anyway, I guess this blog will be a mix of that for a few months with my creative stuff and then class assignments, which really doesn't make sense since it always was that way before. Tonight, it was learning how to make custom brushes, even using your own artwork. Actually, nifty stuff that I could not do with illustrator back in the 90s. Will I have to be learning all this stuff ten years from now again? I learned even back in the 90s that is was a constant game of keeping up with these programs so I'm thinking my drawing skills might be a better thing to push that will not become obsolete in 2015 when "drawing 2.0" comes out.

A New Sketchbook

A new semester! A new class! This time, I'm brushing up on my Adobe Illustrator which is under Digital Illustration. And, other than the tones, this drawing was done by hand and not digital. Confused yet?

Anyway, I always start a new sketchbook with a cover page and this one was my lame attempt to swap out Olivia Newton-John's "Physical" with "Digital".

The Invasioneers

Finally! Done! Unless I have any corrections! Looks good though and I'll have to add some of these to my portfolio since the Comic Art section of it is painfully lacking in anything sequential.

So next I put on my Editor and Pre-Press hat as I prep and paginate everyone else's files for the printer as they role in.

Illustrator Throw Up!

 No animation classes this semester but I am taking a Digital Illustration class (aka Adobe Illustrator). I use to regularly use Illustrator with my old job but my skills need some updating. So the class will be useful. And here, per the instructor, an upload of our first tinkering with the program.

5 Down & 1 to Go

One and a half more pages down. One more for gray tones before I switch to being a word balloon monkey. Deadline looming. I can do it!!

BTW, high energy dance music makes for great work music but now I have to go to sleep. Ugh! 

Anyway, here is a sample from tonight's work with a tip of the hat to the cover of AVENGERS #4.

Late Night Working

I'm a night owl by nature, as my brother reminded me today. I've been that way since high school, which was always hell trying to adjust to 8am classes. But one of the things I like about the night, when the rest of the world sleeps, I have my ME time to work on art without any distractions. And, better yet, when I get into a work groove, I can put on my headphones and run iTunes in the background while I work on the computer.

Tonight's work was to continue putting some gray tones on my six-paged anthology story. Two more pages gray-toned tonight. Three more to go before I have to switch over to word balloons and wrap it all up by Friday. Deadlines! Deadlines! But without them, artists would never finish anything.

Time to call it a night and get some sleep but here is a panel from one of tonight's pages.

Going A.P.E.!

Good news! Some friends and I have been accepted to exhibit at San Francisco's Alternative Press Expo in October. We've been planning this for 6 months and working each week on our art. Our next goal is to wrap up our anthology project in the next two weeks to sell at the expo. If all goes well, it should be an 80-page trade paperback including my 6-page parody. Here is a sample.....

The Invasioneers-Pencils Part II

More pencil close ups from THE INVASIONEERS parody.

What are they looking at?

Something is driving them nuts!

Someone's chipper!

The kid sidekicks get a laugh.

Determined in battle.

But what are they looking at?

The Invasioneers-Pencils Part I

I'm hard at work (and slightly behind) on a story I'm doing for an anthology book that my friends and I are putting together. Our goal is to have it ready for sale at the Alternative Press Expo in October. My story is a parody of Marvel Comics' THE INVADERS. Only six pages but here are some pencil close ups before I go into inking mode.

Above: The group is introduced.

Above: What are these two arguing about?

More surprises from the group.

And the usual two heroes butting heads.

More Birthday Card Art

Another birthday card made for Mary Ann on her 17th birthday.

Birthday Card Art

A birthday card I made for my friend Tim.

Last Minute Addition

Figuring out the pagination for my sketchbook, I realized I was short some drawings. So I wrapped this one up for one final monster drawing.

Count Drac Final

Another finished drawing for the sketchbook. i've run this before but I finally worked up the pencils and this should be one of the few non-inked works in the book.

A.P.E. Sketchbook Cover Mock Up

It is just a mock up but the cover should look pretty close to this for my Monster Sketchbook that I'll have to sell at the Alternative Press Expo in October. I'm wrapping up the last of the drawings this week and will be paginating it soon for the printer. This might be one of those few times where I have an image in my head of what I want and the final product matches it.