Illustration dump-type thing

So the top illustration is about health care and how some folks without health insurance still get health care at the expense of increased rates for those who already have health care.  Some people are stepping out into the rain to consider and/or purchase their own umbrella...er...healthcare.  Whatever. 

and then...

"Are you trying ot seduce me, Mrs. Robinson?"  Feel free to subsitute "Mrs. Robinson" with any Annne Bancroft-esque Hogwarts instructor...if such an instructor exists.  This was a quick spot illustration from back in the day when I actually drew the spot illustrations instead of working in vector or with digital photo collages.  The subject was Harry Potter fan fiction or more specifically, Harry Potter porn.  Sad.  I know.  It was titled "Dirty Harry".

Class Act

Hey gang!  Here's a little illustration about the lower class learning the secrets of the middle class so as to elevate themselves to said middle class.  That's about it.  All vector except for the gradients...which are all photoshop.  Because I hate vector gradients.  It's nothing personal, but it just feels less intuitive and fun making them there than it does in Photoshop.

It occurs to me...

...or well, it OCCURRED (past tense) to me that I never updated the Advent Calendar image for you guys.  By you guys I mostly mean me.  Not because I'm selfish, mind you, but because I'm not sure how many folks actually check in to see what's NOT going on and I can't blame you because there hasn't been anything going on for a long LONG time.  I'll remedy that soon.  I sware.  In the meantime enjoy some post Holiday sweetness.  (makes a sighing sound and swoons a little)

Of Mice and...Owls?

It's that time of year again, kids. My 6th holiday Advent calendar rolled off the presses, onto trucks and into your shrubs during the wee hours this morning. I think this one might just be my favorite...and no...no, I don't say that every year. Contrary to popular belief I'm not THAT full of myself. I give to you in all its belabored splendor, that thing I was talking about like 10 seconds ago, the 2010 Advent Calendar.
Beginning tomorrow ( Wednesday ) a little calendar panel with the date in the top left corner will print at the top of the M section every day. Cut those dudes out and paste them onto the calendar in their respective spots and a little story unfolds in which a tiny, gift-bearing mouse traverses a forest path on a cold, moonlit night. Much to his surprise/dismay/something else probably, he encounters a big ol' owl! This is important because owls eat mice. It is very seldom the other way around. Probably almost never. What's going to happen? I can't tell you or I'd have to kill you...unless you're one of my students and you saw me working on it during class one day. I generally like MOST of you guys and I don't think it would be in either of our best interests if either of us killed the other so we'll just move forward from this point.

Sir Richard Rider

A.K.A. Nova, that guy who's a planet or a sun or something...or he gets his powers from the sun or some planet like a sun. I don't know. Ask Alex. Anyway, this is my Nova as he might have appeared had that dying alien chap popped up in any random point in Celtic Ireland or Wales (maybe in the 1000's A.D.) and bumped into Sir Richard Rider, the reluctant fellow who becomes a space cop/knight-guy.

I know. I know. He's late. But in my defense I've got this pesky, full-time Illustrator thing going over at the newspaper and sometimes I spend my free time trying to teach illustration to semi-interested college students. :)

Stormy Weather

Well, she's done. She's late, but she's done. I really had a lot of fun with Storm and there are a few other drawings of her that I'd be interested in inking and coloring as well. Maybe I'll revist them someday when there's more than 24 hours in a day.

The reflected light sources are ok, but I would have liked to have spent more time on them. If I do that, though, I'll just keep skipping the gym and before you know it I'll weigh somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 pounds. "Boy, that fat guy sure draws well!" No thanks.

I got sidelined with some headache/neck ache isssues on this one and had to just stop for a while and then pace myself. I'll spare you the medical diagnosis, but I will say that it is not, in fact, a tumor and I'm going to live.

I have to admit I didn't know much about storm outside of the rare bits I'd picked up from the year I collected X-Men comics during Joe Madureira's run and whatever else I scraped together for the movies. It was fun to do a little research and learn of her African Priestess origins and the time she spent in Cairo. I tried to throw little bits of that into her costume. Good times.

And now it's time to rest for a while. :)

Storm on the horizon

I'm feverishly working to finish my Storm today, but I thought I'd post a little preview sketch. I'll not say which pose or look I chose so there's at least a little surprise...assuming, of course, that you care. :)

Cartoon Scholarship!!!

Hey kids, check out this info on the Jay Kennedy Scholarship for Cartooning. Good times and $5000 smackaroos. More about it over at the MCA Illustration blog.

Skeletor!

I really wanted to revisit Ghostrider's costume and motorcycle, but next up on the docket was Skeletor. So...I decided to give him a motorcycle and make him a road warrior kinda sorcerer. That train of thought quickly derailed and I thought about people who travel a lot and how they're "Road Scholars". See, it's funny because when you say Road Scholar it sounds just like Rhodes Scholar. I wonder if I'm the first to think of that or if someone else already has?

Back on track. I gave Skeletor a sweet bike to ride aroud and do his Skeletoring on. I happen to be a big fan of motorcycles so I know how they're put together and what their working components are well enough to just sorta roughly sketch one out...which is what I did. I had a really clear mental image of how I wanted Skeletor to look so I didn't have to spend too much time sketching him. I was also REALLY pressed for time. So I scanned my small sketch, created a basic vector frame and elipses for the wheels on top of it in Illustrator, printed it at a much larger size, traced it, inked it and then colored it. That'sa my process...sometimes!

He should be up at Superhero Cocoa pretty soon so you should head over and check out all the other awesome designs! I haven't seen any of them yet, but I'm excited about them! Woo!

Captain America

He's a bit late for Project Rooftop, but I tried. I'm going to send him anyway and see what happens. I would have liked to have spent more time developing a sweet action pose, but alas, time did not permit me to...spend more...um...time. I didn't have any great ideas or concepts so I just toned down the red, white and blue theme and gave him a more portable laser forcefieldy shield.

Final final colors.

I just can't let good advice sit around and get old and moldy so I took Elliot's advice to heart and put some love on the coloring. Now, if only I could convince Kayla to substitute the current Daredevils with this one...

Daring FEETS...ehem...

DONE!

It's like a little sketchy cast

I don't know...how's this?

Two right feet

So I'll admit to having noticed the left leg looked more like a right leg after I inked it and I was willing to let it slide, but I've been called on it. I tried getting rid of the little line as per Marie's suggestion, but part of the problem is the folds in the pants and even the shape of the boot and turn of the foot itself. The diagnosis is wrong foot syndrome and the cure is me drawing that part over again. In the meantime I offer you this daredevil sans little knee line.

Almost done!

I have details to add to the coloring and I may or may not add more detail to the line art colors, but the flats are done and I like where they're heading. Any suggestions? I'm open! Oh...and don't worry, Joel, I'm working on something blue as we speak. :)

Daredevil in the old west

I thought about doing Caveman Daredvil, but Kayla said she had hoped someone would do a gunslinger Daredevil and well, that just sounded more fun than Caveman Daredevil. Plus, I loved Johnny Depp in the last 10 minutes of Once Upon a Time in Mexico as the blind gunslinger that used his ears. That was the best part of an otherwise disappointing movie and I hope he revisits that character sometime.

Some Dragon Realm things

Only I won't be calling it Dragon Realm anymore because some dude already wrote a book called The Dragon Realm. I'm back at square one as far as names go. I got really excited about "Dragon Gate" and then I realized it's like Watergate or Stargate and it all had to do with the word gate. So Gate had to go and I pretty much only have Dragon at the moment. Maybe I'll scrap dragon all together and just call it "big flying monsters that can fuck your shit up with fire what shoots out of their mouths". Anyway, this is just the result of me screwing around in my sketchbook.

Final Pirate Catwoman. Arghh.

Um...yeah. Here she is.

Inked with excruciating slowness...

During and distracted by Pirates of the Caribbean; At World's End. I should also note that this was the first thing I inked with my brand new Series 7 #4 and it performed beautifully. I think this is the first time I've bought one and it behaved right off the bat. No getting used to weird characteristics or wild hairs or anything. NICE! This is also the first time I used Sumi ink. While I don't get the dark black blacks that I do so love, I must say the viscosity is perfect and it just glides super smoothly across the paper. So I should have her all colored and emailed by sometime Friday. Good times.

I should probably just stop...

But Pirate Catwoman is so much fun to draw! I'm totally going to do the contemporary, high-tech burglar one with the backpack kitty, but I'm also going to do this one. Until I nail down a pose I don't think I'm going to be happy. On the one hand I like the crouching, action pose because it's very cat-like. On the other I like one where she's standing because you can see more details in the clothing. Decisions. Decisions. Le sigh.