Red Nails

Found this partially inked drawing while prepping for Fanexpo. On a whim I decided to finish inking it. Now I think I should try and colour it before the show. For context, I'm posting this at 2:30AM. . . .

I do like drawing Conan, though. . . .

Conan 39 Cover Reinterpretation

This was a really interesting commission.  The client wanted my reinterpretation of the cover of the first issue of Conan he bought. . . .

It was a bit of a challenge to recreate the logo and trade dress, but I enjoyed the whole process.

~R

Ottawa 2013

Had a blast last weekend at the Ottawa Comic Con last weekend.  Here's a few sketches from the show.  The new smart phone takes pretty good pictures. Actually started a commission just before the show ended, got home, decided I can do better and restarted it. I'll share that later on.

Did get a delayed bout of con crud/flu, though I seem to be recovering already.  Steve Niles's post-con cough turned out to be bronchitis, so send him good vibes for a speedy recovery.

Particularly enjoyed the company of Dale Keown, George Perez, Steve Niles, Ben Templesmith (who gave me a wicked Lovecraft print!), Arthur Suydam, and the great folks from Paradise Comics of Toronto (who treated me to a most excellent steak dinner Saturday night).

Would certain say yes to a return visit to this convention!

~Richard

Conan Sketch

Working on a personal Conan piece when I can.  Finally happy with the main figure.

~R

Toronto Comicon 2013 Day One

Sketches!!!
First day of the 2013 Toronto Comicon has wrapped and I'm off for the second in a few hours.

~R

Another Conan Sketch

Still playing around with the new G-nib fountain pen -- it does tend to dry up a bit if I'm not constantly using it, but that's the only negative so far.  It partners really nicely with the Pentel Pocket Brush so I'm thinking of doing the next few work things with these tools to see if the romance continues.

The last Conan sketch was rather popular and I've been asked to do a few commissions as a result  -- the above is one of the few I accepted.  It's a sketch card on 2.5x3.5" Bristol.

~R

New Pen Conan Head Sketch

Bought a new pen from Jetpens -- it's a Tachigawa fine G-nib fountain pen and I think I'm falling in love with it even before it's fully broken in.  The brushy bits are with a Pentel Pocket Brush.

~R

Wizard World Toronto Conan

Been swamped the last few weeks with work and my computer has been giving me real problems, which is my excuse reason for not updating for a the last little while.

There probably won't be a new Burning Itch this week either, but I do have a pile of drawings and other work I'll be posting, like the in-process Conan sketch above I've been working on at this weekend's WW Toronto convention.  I've managed to forget to take pics of the sketches I've done so far (again), but I'll try to be more on top of things for the last day of the con today!

~R

Panosian's Conan

The Urban Barbarian, Dan Panosian, let me take a stab at coloring one of the pages from his Conan stint!

You can see the original inks here.

Conan Commission

Conan Commission in warm and cool Copic greys.

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

WizardWorld Toronto Sketches

Some people are great at taking photos of their con sketches;  I'm not one of them.  I usually end up never seeing the sketches again, however, at times, I get scans sent to me or end up finishing the work outside of the con hours and can get a scan made before I give it to the fan (like the Green Lantern/Sinestro sketch I posted over the weekend).

I met Marc Wolfe at the Toronto Fan Expo last year. He's a helluva great guy and a damn fine artist -- as you can see here. He started a sketchbook for his very young son, Ronin, and I got to be among the first to contribute to it!

And CONAN!

Did this one in the studio Sunday morning before heading in for the final day.  I think I hit all the usual Conan expectations with this one.

~R

Pitt Crew 5 splash page

I thought I sold this ages ago, but it was in the cache of art I found the other week. If I've shared this previously it was a scan of a photocopy. Here you can see the red shift of some marker I used.

Grrrrr! I learned my lesson in the 90s to never use fugitive materials, so stuff like this wouldn't happen. I had bought some markers labeled "permanent pigment markers" in an art store in Ottawa or Montreal. Never saw the brand before, there was no odor and they drew lovely lines on the test paper in the store, so I assumed they were a competitor to Sakura Pigmas or other such non-fade markers on the market.

I recall inking this page with everything, brush, nib and Pigmas. At some point I grabbed one of the new markers and did a little work. The marker flowed fine and I ended up using them on a few other pages. Ugh.

Anyways - -I wrote and drew this issue of Pitt Crew -- the final issue of the series. I used it as an excuse to riff on Conan (with a splash of Kull).

Conan, What is Best in Life?

Here's the other one -- much less animated than the previous.

~R

Hey, Conan!

A little while ago I accepted a commision to do a couple of Conan sketch cards. I'm not really a fan of the little 2x3" things outside of a convention, so I drew them around 6x8". Sketch post-cards, I guess. . . .

Here's the first one:

When drawing two of anything I try to have some variety -- so this one is the "battle-crazy" look. I'll share the other version tomorrow.

Conan Doodles

I've been warming up to draw something nice with Conan here. . . sometime soon. In the meantime I've been doing some sketchbook doodles along the way, trying to capture the guy at various ages.

Frazetta's first painting of Conan set the look of the character for me for all time. Barry Smith's was too effeminate, Big John Buscema's looked a little too much like an ape unless he got strong inking. Neal Adams' was great (and the time he inked Big John was amazing) and I like Cary Nord's take of the character.

Later,

~Richard

Queen of the Black Coast

Ever have a relationship with someone who was wilder and more sensual than anyone else, pushed you further into dangerous places you may have wanted to go, but not so recklessly?

Robert E. Howard gave Conan that kinda girlfriend; Belit, Queen of the Black Coast.

This girl was something else; she was a Shemitish (read historical Hebrew in Howard's Hyborian analog) captain a pirate vessel manned entirely by blacks native to the jungles of the Southwestern coast near evil, snake worshipping Stygia. Her raid upon a merchant ship ended up with everyone but Conan (an accidental passenger) from the merchant ship dead, many of Belit's crew dead by Conan's hand, and the the Pirate-queen throwing herself at Conan in a bizarre post-battle heat.

Of course, Conan decided this was the woman of his dreams.

It's ends badly, of course, as all literary crazy people relationships usually do, but it was a hell of a ride!
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Artwise, this was fun -- as with any essentially unplanned sketching, I dropped some elements in the composition that I would change -- primarily the placement of the rigging and the horizon, but it's just a sketch, so it's something I would address if I were going to make a finished piece of it. Probably find a way to include some of her crew. I'd also do something with the sky -- some white big clouds rising out of the seascape.
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Health-update: finishing another course of antibiotics for my bronchitis, and I've started rehabbing the right knee. Yogi, my physical therapist, tells me the patella has moved horizontally across the knee and is now grinding away everytime I bend it. Yay!
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Hip deep in other work; freelance work as always, finishing the write-up for my Design and Composition class at Max the Matt in advance of our field trip to see Pan's Labyrinth, and finishing my notes for the first few classes of my Beasts, Hulks and Things: Drawing Monsters of all Shapes and Sizes course starting on the 28th. I might start dropping some of that material here and blogging about that course for a bit, but I do want to do a few more Howard characters (including a certain Cimmerian) soon.

Take care,
~Richard