How're tricks . . . .

So many reports of scary teenagers showing up for Halloween candy without wearing any costumes . . . .

(Was sick all day -- still sick, actually -- but I had to do something to commemorate the day -- about two hours in Photoshop).

Burning Itch: Who Watches the Watchmen

I think it should be pretty clear how I reacted to the news that DC was, again, moving to do new Watchmen comics without the participation of Alan Moore by reading the above strip.

~R
(It seems blogger recently changed the code so images open in some sort of size-restricted window.  The work-around I use is to right click on the thumbnail and open in a new tab.  Some browsers still reduce the image to fit the screen, but I know Chrome allows me to click on the image and view it full size and scroll around to read it all)

Conan Commission

Conan Commission in warm and cool Copic greys.

10x15" on 11x17" 300 series Strathmore Bristol.

Burning Itch: Tangled Spider-Man

Decided to leave DC alone for a week and took a recently overheard conversation at a comic shop about recent developments in the Ultimate Spider-Man book as inspiration.

Burning Itch: So, How Did the New 52 Affect You?

We're a little over a month in and I thought we could reflect a little on what's transpired.

And yes, there's an homage to the Miller/Lee All Star Batman and Robin in there.

Sometimes Things Aren't Meant to Be

 Cést la vie.

This is a project I think the universe didn't want coming out right now -- it was suspended once already this past summer, but it was put down for good two days ago.  Luckily I was wasn't too deep into it before this happened.

Jenny Greenteeth Pencils

Thought I'd share the pencils for the Jenny Greenteeth piece from yesterday.

Jenny Greenteeth

Stole some time to contribute the the weekly Remake/Remodel over at Whitechapel.

So, my most recent pieces both have green monster-women in them.  It must be October and the countdown to Halloween!

Burning Itch: Voodoo's Fun-Time Striphouse

I liked most of the DC titles I got this week, but this one made a real impression.

Introduction to Proportion and the Mannikin

This blog entry is for my students since I'm home, sick today, but I think there should be some drive by merit  for the regulars.  

Today's class was going to cover two things in some depth: proportion and the Loomis Mannikin.

The Loomis Mannikin as well as a wealth of other drawing information can be found in the recently reprinted Figure Drawing for All it's Worth:

 Being Canadian I would prefer to just list the Chapters.Indigo link, but they're sold out.  Amazon.ca has it in stock here.  For the longest time you either had to pay a small fortune for one of the long out of print editions or download one of the pirate PDFs online.  I'm really happy Titan has brought this and other Loomis books back into print.
One of the class handouts will be a copy of the page below showing the male and female skeleton with a head-height ruler.

Another handout is from another favourite book of mine, Jack Hamm's Drawing the Head and Figure.  It's readily available at most bookstores and online at both Chapters.ca and Amazon.ca.  

This one really gets the whole relationship between the head as a unit of measurement for drawing the figure.  I should see about getting shares in the sales of this book as I go for the hard-sell every time I teach anything from this book as it has a wealth of well presented good information in a small and affordable package. 

 After a discussion and some examples of how the artist can use head measurements to improve their drawings we'd move on to the next part of the class where I'd introduce the student's to using Loomis' mannikin.  Below is another excerpt from the book, but not the first page of the handout I'm giving out for this.

And I'd demonstrate how this works as a good developmental too for constructing the figure as well as show a few other approaches to the mannikin tying in some material I've picked up from Buscema, Reilly and Bridgman.

The homework for the week would build on the previous week's line of action exercises, but involve the students constructing mannikins based on photos.

I'm crawling back to bed to hopefully recover quickly enough to teach tomorrow!

~Richard

Burning Itch: The Bat and the Cat

After wrapping the day drawing comics I felt I had to get this out of my head.

The new DC actually managed to hook me with a few books (which is a few books more than I was reading before this), but their mistakes have been many and the aggressive mishandling of most of their slate of female characters right from the start on the heels of the controversy over having so few female creators involved in the reboot merely reinforces the issue.

~R

Bettie Page Artist Proof 1

One of the perks of this new Bettie Page card set is the sketch card artists getting both regular sized sketch cards (2.5x3.5") as art returns to sell but some over-sized artist proof cards (4.5x6.25").

Above is the first of the four artist proofs I did.  I spent far more time on these than I anticipated and was a little exhausted after finishing the lot.

One of the four is already on hold, but the one above and the next two I'll be sharing (Friday and Monday) are still available for $200 each.

Bettie Page Trading Card

A follow-up to yesterday's posting of the black and white and coloured cards for the Bettie Page set from Versicolor.  I chose to do the second piece in grey tones prior to colouring in Photoshop.

Bettie Page 1

 I did two non-sketch cards in the Bettie Page set from Versicolor.   The first I drew in pen and ink and colored in Photoshop using the usual comics coloring approach.

The original is on 11x14" Bristol board. I'll be putting it up for sale over at comicartfans .

Versicolor was happy enough with my previous work to ask me to do more cards for them.  More Bettie makes me happy, hope it does the same for you!

Hulk Sketch

Found a scan of a Hulk sketch I did at the recent Fanexpo over at comicartfans.com!

The Crimson Clown

Another Remake/Remodel from over at the Whitechapel board.  I didn't get as inspired with this one as with Professor Zomax, mainly because I felt the need to stay away from making him a Robin Hood-like Joker.

~R

Artist Marc Wolf started a sketchbook featuring his son Ronin as a samurai. I was able to do one in the first book he started earlier this year. He had to start a second to allow for multiple contributions over the limited time available at conventions, so I popped a sketch in there as well.

Toronto FanExpo 2011 Wrap

Toronto Fanexpo 2001 is done! I had a great time (again!), but this year was the first time the event was four days long.  

I arrived around 2-2:30 on Thursday and found the entire stretch of table around my spot in Artist Alley was unpopulated.  I knew Dale wasn't going to be in that day -- he had a bunch of work to get done ahead of the show.  I expect that may be a diminishing issue for the next few years of the con;  it's not too difficult to swap a single day out of your work schedule for a can, but two days becomes a good deal more serious for freelancers and harder to prepare for.  As we get used to Fanexpo being a four-day event we, as a group will be better prepared for the amount of time.  I did a quick walk-about and said hi to a few friends before setting up and settling in.  The day started slowly, but eventually the floor grew more crowded.  I forgot my camera so I wasn't able to take pictures of any sketches.  The first day was surprisingly busy compared to what I expected for a Thursday.

Friday morning I remembered to pack my camera, but I noticed the battery was nearly dead so decided to leave it behind and charging as I left.  I picked up Dale and we hit the con floor ON TIME (we usually manage to be an hour or so late, so this was a plus)!  Friday was busy, but didn't feel as crowded as previous years because of the hall we were in this year.  It made Saturday less of a worry.  It was a very good and busy day, made more pleasant by having Dale around and my mini portable fan.  

Saturday started and turned out to be a pretty busy day overall.  Brought my camera, but forgot to take pics of a few sketches. Here are the ones I did grab over the day:

After the day, Dale and I went out with a bunch of friends for a bite, drinks and MMA.  I felt my voice go out while shout-talking -- figured Sunday would be rough.


I was pretty tired and stiff Sunday morning and was prepared for a relaxed and traditionally slower final day.  It was actually quite a bit busier compared to previous years, though I did make the time to do one walk through, spend a little money at the Labyrinth's booth and say hi to a few people.

Here're the commissions I did for the day:

I did a few smaller, quicker sketches I didn't think to take pictures of.

The highlights of the con were actually the highlights of the day.  While decompressing in front of the computer Saturday night I saw James Robinson was a guest at the show.  I had only met him once before in Chicago which led to my drawing an issue of Starman.  I still consider it the best working experience I ever had at either Marvel or DC.  The story was the best I ever had the pleasure of drawing, I was inked by the stellar Wade Von Grawbadger, Chuck Kim was (and still is)  the best assistant editor I have ever dealt with and the book was edited by Archie Goodwin!  I've been saving the first page from that issue to give James ever since and finally had the opportunity.  It was really great to see James again after all those years!

I got to talk with Bill Sienkiewicz more;  he's a real person and a true artist in the mold of all great illustrators of the last and current century.  I wasn't surprised to learn that he and Lance Henriksen had become fast friends after doing a signing for Lance's autobiography NOT BAD FOR A HUMAN.  While I was talking to Bill, Lance came over to talk to him so I went back to my spot, but Bill waved me back over and introduced me.  My hearts was beating pretty fast -- I've been a huge fan of Lance's since his turn as Bishop in ALIENS and only grew in admiration since.  I was a little overwhelmed while shaking his hand and asked if I could hug him and he said yes!  We talked for a bit, he really is as warm and generous as you've heard.  I'm looking forward to seeing his return to a certain role we talked about.  I used to draw Lance from the photos in various SF magazines when I was younger and more than a little envious of the people who contributed art to his biography, but I think I'm just going to do some Lance drawings for myself again soon!

There were a number of great encounters with people over the length of the con and I have to think the addition of a fourth day was a success.  I want to thank everyone; fellow guests, exhibitors, retailers, convention staff, volunteers and all the fans for making this such a wonderful experience.  I'm looking forward to next year already!

~R

Toronto FanExpo 2011

Hi all.

I'll be at the Toronto FanExpo this weekend, set up in artists alley at PO62-A (sitting right next to my pal, Dale Keown as usual!).
Here's a floor plan map:

A close-up of where I am in that whole thing:

These are the prints I know I'm bringing to the con.  I'm working on something else, but I don't want to commit to bringing something I might feel is less than 100%.:

My piece for TRANSMETROPOLITAN: ALL AROUND THE WORLD . . .

 Something from the adaptation of THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH I'm working on. . . .

 The Red Sonja piece I finished yesterday. . . .

 And the alternate cover for Spike:Asylum (seems a favourite so I'm bringing more of them).

The prints are $20 individually, $35 for any two, $50 for three and $60 for all four.  They're printed in six colours on Ilford 290gsm gallery quality paper with a pearl finish.  If you buy something else or commission a drawing I'll probably swing you a deal on prints as well.

I'll have some original art and sketch cards and I'll be drawing as well: $40 for busts $80 for full-figure.  More complicated drawings can be negotiated, I guess.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the convention!

Red Sonja Print for FanExpo

Finally finished this piece in advance of the Toronto FanExpo this weekend.  I'll be selling prints of this and some other works while I'm there.

The work process for this started with a sketch, turned into loose pencils, then inked before being scanned @600dpi.