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.

Sketch Card for May 11 - Star Trek 2/5

Yeoman Rand may have been one of my first childhood TV crushes, despite the strange hair! It was either her or the Orion dancer, and I mentioned how pointless doing a green skinned girl in B&W marker would be.

For the record, I would have done the Yvonne Craig Orion, because I think Batgirl made a pretty damn hot Orion girl!

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Just a not, the eBay auctions I put up last week are ending within 18 hours as of this writing -- only one set has been bid on, so these might go really cheap!

See them here: cards

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I was pretty crushed after learning Frank Frazetta passed away yesterday. Several other people, mostly artists, have already written some very beautiful tributes to this legendary artist. I still haven't wrapped my head around the loss.

~R

Sketch Card for May 6 - Vampirella 4/5

Tried for a pin-up style pose, and managed to flip the armband and forearm bands she wears -- oops! Good thing this isn't in panel to panel continuity.

Did a quick search through my blog history and found that I have talked about the cancelled Vampirella mini series I worked on.

Sketch Card for May 5 - Vampirella 3/5

Only two more days to go.

I could do a Vampirella month, I'm enjoying this so much.

Sketch Card for May 3 - Vampirella 1/5

Back after an unexpected and unwanted week off.

We're having a pretty severe allergy season up here and it literally put me on my back at the beginning of last week. I made attempts to do the sketch cards, but was pretty disappointed with the results and I was barely able to meet the schedule for my other assignments.

So, I decided to put aside my theme for last week for some other time and go to something a little easier on my still-itchy eyes! Vampirella. Love the character and I'd love to do something with her at some point in the future. I developed an interest beyond drawing her back in the 90s when Harris Comics tapped me to write and draw a 4-issue mini series. I think I might have described what happened on the blog before.

Sketch Card for April 23- Buffy Week 5/5

And Buffy wraps the week!

With seven seasons and so many cool-looking bad guys and new cast members added over time, I would bet there's gonna be more Buffy weeks i the future!

~R

Sketch Card for April 22- Buffy Week 4/5

Willow. I think I manged to NOT overwork this one.

Hard to believe she was 22 when Buffy started.

Sketch Card for April 21- Buffy Week 3/5

Good old Giles. Someone sure did mangle those glasses of his!

I actually "lost" the pencils as I built the values and should have redrawn them in before drawing the frames.

Copic Ciao & Multiliner markers on 2.5x3.5" smooth Strathmore Bristol.

~R

Sketch Cards for April 15 & 16 - The Batman 4 & 5/5

I should have mentioned I was going to do something different for the last two Batman sketch cards this week. I was going to post some of the doodles and sketches from this past Monday's Dr. Sketchy's event and mention just that, but I was under the weather yesterday (and still am today) and just never got 'round to scanning the Sketchy's sketches.

So, anyway -- here's 4/5, guest-starring Two-Face. . .

And here's 5/5, also guest-starring Two-Face!

And here's the reason why I posted both today:

I did few like these for the various Marvel Masterworks sketch cards -- was careful to make sure any given card would have something for the person opening them. I've heard them called puzzle cards, which works for me.

No idea what I'm doing for next week's sketch cards. I'll probably post the Sketchy's stuff later today or Monday.

Sketch Card for April 14 - The batman 3/5

Holy five-o'clock shadow!

I always figured Bruce would often forget to shave while working on a case, and, since most of his work would be at night, that stubble would be pretty advanced for such a testosterone-powered superhero.

Not sure Alfred could stop Master Bruce from leaving without a quick shave. . . .

Sketch Card for April 13 - The batman 2/5

Trying for a more painterly approach. I thought it apropos for Batman in the rain. Still falls short of the sort of rain John Romita jr. draws.

Sketch Card for April 12 - The batman 1/5

Starting off with a pretty vanilla batman portrait. Kinda fun to cut loose with sketchy comic-style rendering after the really careful tonal studies of the Beatles last week. Might try something like that with Bats this week.

Sketch Card for April 9 - Beatles 4/4

While Ringo was my favorite Beatle as a kid, George is my favorite as an adult.

Sketch Card for April 8 - Beatles 3/4

Ringo.

He was my favourite Beatle as a kid; probably because of HELP. Always been a bit of a sucker for the hapless hero/victim story and he was the perfect choice to play that in that goofy little film.

Sketch Card for April 7 - Beatles 2/4

Paul. Based on the Richard Avedon series again. This is the second attempt -- the first one came across too much like a caricature as I drew the eyes too large.

These ones are all drawn on 2.5x3.5" Strathmore Plate Bristol, using pencil, Copic Markers and a Uniball ballpoint. I make such large scans because I like to see all my mistakes really BIG!

Next: Ringo!

The Last 3 Invincible Cards

Copics got fully loaded and the last three Invincible cards got scribbled upon. . .

Invincible. . .

Atom Eve. . .

. . .and Battle Beast

The characters from Robert's world have been lucky to have had a similar visual treatment through their lives. It feels odd to draw them without trying to ape the styles of the two primary artists from the series. I feel my second take on Mark is better -- and would get better with more practice. Eve looks a too old here. Battle Beast was just fun - -the helmet was a last second addition since he looked too much like a lion with braids as it was.

Yeah, I could dig drawing some fight-crazed lion-man comics. . . .

Sketch Card for April 2 - Alien 5/5

Captain Dallas has one of the best beards in SF! Tom Skerrit was one of my favorite actors after this. I wouldn't be surprised if this is one of the reasons I wanted to grow a beard even before I developed fuzz on my upper lip.

The past week using all this photo reference was fun and I loved flipping through that old Alien photonovel. I'm thinking I'll come back to this later and get around to Kane, Lambert, The Alien Pilot, the alien itself and. . . Jonesy? Well, the cat would make five.

Next Monday I'll be posting the three Invincible sketchcards from last week. I decided to take a bit of a break and take the Monday off. The rest of the week will be a series of four cards.

Sketch Card for April 1 - Alien 4/5

Ripley!

Sketch Card for March 31- Alien 3/5

Ash -- played by the always brilliant Ian Holm. I was so freaked out by his reveal as an android the first time I saw the movie. Until they said what he was I thought he was another sort of alien.

Yesterday and most of today were essentially lost as far as touching the sketchcards, luckily the long weekend is coming and I. . . hang on! I'm a freelancer, I don't get long weekends. . . .

Sketch Card for March 29- Alien 1/5

Was about to go to bed when I realized I hadn't posted today's (ahem -- yesterday's) sketch card.

I didn't want to start a series for this week and have a materials issue interrupt the flow like the copic problem last week (got the refills today, so I'll likely post the remaining Invincible cards tomorrow). So I decided to draw everything in pen. I decided to use the pen (Uni-ball Vision Elite) fellow artist, Guy Dorian gave me this past weekend.

It's a very nice pen. Nice ink and flow on the bristol.

The subject this week is the 70s Alien film. I don't know that I'll even draw the creature since the characters are all so amazing. I decided to lean heavily on the reference for these as well.

Here's an in-progress shot.

When I was a kid, the Alien photonovel was one of my most treasured possessions. I loved the movie - I think I saw it over a dozen times in the theater. Even today, if I'm channel-surfing and stumble across a broadcast of the film I usually start watching regardless of whatever else may be on.

Even though I loved drawing as a kid and this was frequently close at hand, I never drew from it. I should have -- I think I would have learned a great deal about lighting.

Sadly, this is a replacement for my lost original. I've no idea what happened to it -- it just disappeared at some point.

Hope you guys like this series of cards and won't mind my essentially "swiping" from stills for this -- I guess I'm just making up for something the 12-year old me should have done.