Happy Chinese New Year! It’s the year of the rat:
A rough pen sketch, cleaned up and colored in Photoshop (2.5 hours total–pretty quick, for me).
Today’s post and the previous one are a bit of simple practice with some new digital painting pointers shown to me by my old crony and guru, Jacob.
I’m surprisingly pleased with how this one turned out. It sure ain’t perfect, but overall, I think it ‘works.’ I purposely made the shading on this one more ‘contrast-y’ for a slightly more dramatic look. Incidentally, I don’t watch sports (at all) and he’s not supposed to resemble anybody or be from any particular team.
GRAAR… BRAINS… REBOUND! GRAAARRRRR!!!
Charles gave me another speed challenge, this time a golem. Drawn in 5 minutes, inked in 5 + 3 minutes (I asked for an extension), and colored and typeset in about an hour. Yeah, I’m a slow colorist. ._.
Anywaaays, you should check out Charles’ blog–he was going to have some Golem-related videos posted sometime today.
6:59:20 AM me: i need a quick subject! (past quick subjects include: sasquatch, viking, platypus)
6:59:32 AM Kevin: Baby With Knife
6:59:36 AM me: NICE
Moments later, I am self congratulatory…
7:30:51 AM me: this baby is awesome
7:31:01 AM me: i’ll show you as soon as i scan it
7:31:13 AM Kevin: AWESOME BABY TIME
7:31:16 AM Kevin: IT’S AWESOME BABY TIME
7:31:18 AM Kevin: WHAT TIME IS IT
7:31:20 AM Kevin: AWESOME BABY TIME
7:31:25 AM Kevin: (that’s the theme to my new show.)
But Kevin could not contain his excitement…
7:45:38 AM Kevin: WHERE MY KNIFEBABY AT
7:46:00 AM me: the question america is asking itself
7:46:19 AM Kevin: WE ALL LOVE YOU KNIFEBABY
7:47:42 AM me: lol… you sir, are on crack
He’s on the east coast, but WTF was I doing up so early??? Oh right, and the result of our conversation:
KNIFEBABY is trademark and copyright Kevin Church and Jason Ho 2007.
Timing me over IM, Charles challenged me to draw Frankenstein’s Monster in 5 minutes, and ink it in another 5. The plan was to color it in another 5, but I didn’t run into him again on IM, so I just went as fast as I could. It took me about 40 minutes to color and typeset this, because apparently, I am a sloth on downers. Oh well, under an hour is still pretty fast… for me.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN, CHARLIE BROWN!
This hardboiled monotreme came together suprisingly well for a last minute dealie. He’s kind of got a Sammo Hung thing going on.
I plan on using the weekend to get ahead on this here blog… we’ll see how that goes. O_O
A few people have requested more pics of my noodly cartoon persona. Since my noodly real-life persona is wildly ego-centric, I’m glad to comply. I actually had the “I would rather jump into a pit full of [BLANK]” idea last week, but I couldn’t think of a fitting animal to plug in. Badgers seemed a good fit. However, dear reader, I don’t want you to think that the sentiment is any less sincere this week rather than last–right now, I would definitely rather jump in a pit full of badgers than deal with… anything.
But I’m all out of badgers.
Supplies used: blue pencil, black Sharpies (fine and extra fine tip), red Magic Marker, two shades of grey Tombo brush pens. Touched up in Photoshop.
This is a straight up pen sketch, with verrry little touch-up. Colored in Photoshop, naturally. I’m not much for drawing portraits or caricatures usually, but every now and then I get an uncharacteristic flash of inspiration–those of you who know Jacob in “RL“, will, I hope, find this to be a pretty decent likeness.
Check out Jacob’s Blog, but only if you like awesome art.
I will be at Comic-Con International in San Diego from July 25-29, You will be able to find me at the Big Boss Comics table in the small press area. Our table number is N10. And please visit our friends, the Tired Girls at table N4.
As promised, I have two illustrations to cover the week’s posts, which simultaneously act as plugs for my convention projects. Convenient and diabolical, yes? Click images for larger view.
The first up is the cover of the sketchbook that I’ll be selling. The lovingly rendered characters on that cover are (from left to right) Mer-Man astride Panthor, Whiplash, and Beastman, as rendered by me when I was about 9-years-old. The guts of the sketchbook, however, contain my modern day work–including a lot of uncolored line art from the sketches that go up on this blog, but also debuting a number of pieces that have yet to appear. The sketchbook, titled Action Figures I Wanted as a Child, & Other Assorted Drawings, is 40 pages, with color cover and black and white interiors, and sells for a mere $5. FYI, the real version of the cover doesn’t have the watermark with the blog URL across the cover.
Next up, is art from both the front and back of a free promotional postcard for my comic-in-progress, The Legend of Cog. For more on the progress and status of Cog, please check out the website (and you can read the first 8 pages for free). I will also be selling copies of the first “issue” of The Legend of Cog, which is basically a black and white ashcan preview that gives you the first 24 pages of the story. The ashcan goes for the neglible price of $1.
In addition to the Cog postcard, I also put together a free promotional postcard to promote this very blog. The art, of course, is taken from this post, which I spruced up with some type and background elements.
Beyond my personal projects, I’ve got some stuff going on with the day job, as well. One of the give-aways at the Bongo Comics booth will be a mini-comic promoting the return of Futurama. I penciled the comic over Bill Morrison’s layouts.
Also, I will be speaking on a panel. Actually, I will probably do everything in my power to not speak, but I will be sitting on the stage, with the other people on the panel. The reason I’m on the panel is that I’m pencilling a 6-page story for this year’s Treehouse of Horror comic, written by none other than the uber-funny Patton Oswalt himself. Patton Oswalt couldn’t make it to the panel, but I’ll be there, and I’m just as funny and talented. BWAHAHAHAHAHA… well, we all had a good laugh about that. Anyways, here’s the info about the panel from Comic-Con’s website:
Thursday, July 26, 2:00-3:00 Bongo Comics Sneak Peek— Bongo Comics offers a mouth-watering preview of upcoming projects featuring The Simpsons and Futurama. Managing editor Terry Delegeane and creative director Bill Morrison host a panel featuring the writers and artists who create the comics and books based on Matt Groening’s phenomenal TV shows. Find out what’s in the future for Futurama Comics and what to expect in Simpsons Comics and Simpsons Super Spectacular. Plus, Thomas Lennon (Reno 911), Tone Rodriguez (Violent Messiahs), and Gerry Duggan (The Last Christmas) will be on hand to talk about their terrifying contributions to this fall’s star-studded issue of Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror! This is a ”must-attend” panel for all fans of The Simpsons and Futurama—and anyone looking for a place to sit down! Room 3
My tablemates from Big Boss Comics have got plenty of goods too. First up is the Big Boss Comics Was Here anthology. For a measly $10, you get 100 whopping pages in black and white, with a gorgeous color cover by Andrew Tunney. The Kid Justice story I mentioned a few posts ago is in there, with a humble “cover” by yours truly, and awesome interior art by Vinny.
Speaking of Vinny, he’ll be selling the latest issue of It’s Ninja Time, a quirky action-packed comic that I dearly love. Vinny will also be selling color sketches, many of which you can see on his blog.
Big Boss is also promoting Josh’s new comic 
Necessary Evil, which is in the August Issue of Previews, and will be on sale in October, published by Desperado Comics. The cover for issue #1 (as seen in the flyer to the right) is by the superb Dustin Nguyen, who’s a pretty big deal over at a little company you might have heard of called… DC comics. O_O
And don’t forget about the Tired Girl Collective. They were quite a hit last year, and they’re back for more. Jodi will be packing buttons and various hamster-related paraphenelia. Sherri will have a book called Johnny Popcorn and a book called Momfight! (Surely, your interest must be piqued by now!) And Ren will be there with clever and surreal cards, nerdcore totebags (see below), shrinky dinks (yes really), and more!
So, in summary. If you are in San Diego this week, go to the convention and visit:
Phew–I’m off to the convention! Back to the normal hi-jinx next Tuesday. Have a great week everyone!
Just a quick little pen sketch, with some Photoshop colors slapped in. Anybody remember this little guy?
Not an obscure 80’s cartoon, not a hoax, and not a fever dream–it’s Cog, the title character of The Legend of Cog, an ashcan comic that I sold at Comic-Con in 2006. Basically the 24-page mini-comic is the lead-in to a much larger story which, theoretically, will see the light of day within the next couple of years. You can read the first eight pages at http://www.legendofcog.com/. Unfortunately, that website has been horribly neglected (as has Cog) for the past year. Again, theoretically, I should be updating that site soon.
There won’t be a new issue of Cog at this year’s convention, but I am pretty busy working on a few other things for the convention–a sketchbook, and two give-away postcards (one of which features Cog himself). I’ll post more about that stuff and talk a little bit about where I’m at on The Legend of Cog as the convention gets closer.
My second entry for the Practice Makes Perfect Art Jam. The subject this time is “The Three Hands of the Dead“:
Yeah, I know there are four hands there–out of all my sketches I was happy with four, so I figured I’d throw in the extra one. I had so much fun with my Sasquatch post, that I basically used the same technique again–sketched in purple pencil (Col-Erase is my brand of choice, in case you were wondering), and outlined with a hot pink Prismacolor marker (yes, the color was actually called hot pink) and an ultra-fine black Sharpie.
As for the hands themselves, I think I did an okay, if bland job of it. Check out the other entries at Practice Makes Perfect.
I needed a last minute emergency post, and asked Hammers what to draw. He said “sasquatch” apparently because of the Tenacious D movie. I haven’t seen it yet, but I came up with this:
The switchblade was my idea, but I still felt it needed some more zing, and Hammers suggested a gleam or a star.
My plumbing problem is fixed and my sewage carpets have been replaced by hardwood laminate. Also, apparently, I’m the only person in the universe who does not like hardwood floors. At any rate, my woes have come to an end (knock on hardwood), and we will be returning shortly to the robust posts of extreme dorkiness that you have come to expect from this blog.
**EDIT**
When I typed up this post, I was a little under the gun and forgot a few things I wanted to mention–the sketching was done in (obviously) blue pencil, the thick outline was done with an orange Sharpie, and the thin outline was done with a black ultra-fine-tip Sharpie. After scanning the sketch, I adjusted the blues and oranges separately to achieve the hues and contrast that I wanted. The natural color of an orange Sharpie is considerably darker.
Ballpoint pen and red sharpie, done in one shot, no preliminary pencils. Minimal Photoshop cleanup:
I don’t show it much on this blog, but I do play around with different styles a lot when I’m sketching. In the midst of my on-going plumbing/garbage-carpet crisis, I have focused on doing simple pen drawings to keep me sane. Doing these minimalist pen drawings without making major mistakes is a zen-like exercise that helps keep me from moidalizin’ everything around me. With this particular comic, I think I was subconsciously swiping/homaging the style of my good friend Annie, of Ape Kabuki. However, her comics are simultaneously better, funnier, and more enigmatic. Stop looking at my crap, and go look at her blog!
This squirrel looks aggravated:
Colored using techniques from an excellent tutorial on Deviant Art. It was nice trying something a little different, and while I don’t think this piece was a complete success, the process did give me an idea of how I might integrate this kind of soft lighting into my normal coloring style (which is not so drastically different to begin with).
