The Green Lama

Another pulp character remodel suggested by Warren Ellis at his The Engine. The Green Lama was an American who gained mystic powers after spending ten years in Tibet. He also drinks a potion of radioactive salts to give him lightning powers. I thought a cancer-ridden, 110 year old mystic would be the logical result of that.

Didn't have time to do anything with this until today (I think he started this one on Monday), but I was sick as a dog today and started playing with this instead of doing more serious work. This is still essentially a sketch since there's piles of errors and sloppy work, so I think it's fair game for the sketch-blog. That's the Emaciated Bhudda in the background - -thought it was an appropriate element for my take on this character.

Still sick, so I'm off to bed!

Thursday Nude

I belong to a yahoogroup, pinup_heaven, and every Thursday is Sketch day. I get to see quite a lot of really nice art.

The above is what I did for today's sketch day.

~Richard

Warhammer

Did the above as a sample for Boom Studio's upcoming Warhammer comics series. I decided not to do any more on this for various situational reasons, but thought it'd be nice to share it. This was pencilled for reproduction, so it's way, way darker than I'd draw for an inker. This isn't even actually finished, since this would be a licensed project and revisions could be expected I didn't do some of the finishing elements like rain falling in the foreground and splashing off the armour. For that I would have gotten busy with my electric eraser much in the same way I would have used white paint over a traditionally inked comics page.
~R

Miss Masque

Latest redesign prompt from The Engine (http://www.the-engine.net/forum/messages.php?webtag=ENGINE&msg=8147.1 for the full info).

I essentially ended up with Catwoman Red here. The original character had a weird sideways MM motif on her costume, so i decided to pop them on her sleeves and on the (unseen) fasteners along the front of her. . .um, pants?. Nice side benefit: when she gives somebody the finger her sleeve Ms become Ws -- latex fetish Wonder Woman!

~Richard

Swordguy!

Another thing from my sketchbook:

Graphite (fancy artist-speak fer pencil) and black watercolour pencil crayon. I guess it could be labelled a Fafhrd drawing, but I wasn't really thinking of any specific character when doing this.

I had a meeting with the lovely and talented Goran Delic ( http://delatoon.blogspot.com/ ) last week about some Max the Mutt business and we touched on using watercolour pencil crayons during a digression. I hadn't used them in years, even though I actually have a few sets laying around the studio. Started drawing this on Saturday in the book, realised I wanted to play with the black pencil crayon I packed up with my sketching gear. After scribbling a bit more I realised I didn't pack a brush.

Gah!

So I swooshed the colour around with a napkin dipped in water. Was fun, but I dunno if I can recommend the technique!

Red Sonja auction update:

I got a few off-ebay questions, but the offers made that way had to be declined -- sorry! There's just over a day left before it's over! Remember, you're not just getting a nice drawing out of this, but you're helping to alleviate my overwhelming desire to own every art tool I see!

Sketch Dump 1

Been doing a pile of drawing that's client-based, so the more time-consuming sketches I've done previously haven't coming out of my hands as much as before, but I have been hitting my sketchbook as hard. If you evet meet one of my students, you can ask them how important I think keeping a sketchbook is.

Here's a few things I decided to scan from the book:

This was actually a quick sketch during my Beginning Life Drawing class at Max the Mutt. The students were about to spend two hours over two classes doing one study, so we'd need more than just the student's work to make sure that the model could take the same pose, so I did a few really quick doodles of her, focusing on her placement on the stage.

Of course, I've also spent some time on my recent Red Sonja addiction:

I did the above while thinking about what I'd want to do with a more finished piece of RS art -- I ended up with the Red Sonja/Lizardmen drawing posted a little while back.

This are little more than warm-up doodles - -I do things like this every day before starting work -- more often than not they are on scrap paper from around my drawing table and end up in the recycle bin. My sketch book was at hand that morning, so I actually have a few to share.

Hulk -- it's fun to draw the big guys. I should probably do a Pitt again -- THAT was a fun character to draw.

I got the new collection of Chaykin and Mignola's adaptations of Lieber's Fafhrd and Grey Mouser stories from Dark Horse -- I really loved those comics when they came out so I'm really happy to have them in a new book. The only original artwork by someone else hanging in my studio is a Mignola page from the first issue of that series.

Random creepy sorcerer.

Drew this from a newspaper photo of a mine rescuer in Russia, the look on the man's worn face was just something I had to try to capture -- the doodle below was a quick sketch at turning the head in space from the photo.

Hope you all liked the peek into the broader range of what I do in my sketchbook.

Holmes

This week, Warren called for a new model Sherlock Holmes.

I ended up with a near-future version: here he's either directly stimulating his brain's pleasure centers or some VR-supported detective work. I decided Watson would be a biomechanical construct within Holmes to maintain his health and sanity -- kinda like a real imaginary friend.

~R

Scanning for Red!

I saw a new scanner the other day -- a nice 11x17" Mustek.

I've always wanted an 11x17" scanner, since using my 8.5x11" scanner is a pain to use when trying to input oversized art to my computer. Comics pages are 11x17", so you can see the immediate gratification to be had by swapping for one of this bigger puppies.

I almost made it an impulse buy; it's reasonably priced and the place is more than willing to ship to Canada, but, I really don't need an 11x17" scanner at this particular moment.

That doesn't stop me from still wanting it now!

So, instead of trying to justify the expense I thought I'd try to do something directly related to paying for this new scanner. I thought about just doing an open call for commissions, but there are some characters I'd rather not draw or are actually too much effort to add on top of my current workload. SO I decided to do this:

This is a sketch of another Red Sonja piece I was planning to do reasonably soon. I've decided to do an auction for the finished version of this drawing. It'll be completed on 11x17" 2-ply bristol board (see , I tied that plus-size scanner measurement into this!)

Here's the Ebay listing:

(Auction is over, so I deleted the link)

More details on payment and shipping and scheduling can be found at that link. If this works out, I'll make this weekly thing -- so feel free to make suggestions for other sketch-to-final art auctions.

And - -just for the heck of it, here's a quick funky colour version of the sketch:

The Sonora Kid

Damon Sasser asked me to do a Sonora Kid sketch for an upcoming issue of one of his REH fanzines (look at http://www.rehtwogunraconteur.com/).

Now, I read one of the REH collections that had Sonora Kid stories in it years ago, but wasn't able to find it, so Damon kindly passed along the tale Knife, Bullet and Noose. It's a typical Howard yarn; smart, tough guy in the wrong sort of situation -- a real good read, but it didn't really give me a hook into the character. So I ended up doing a bunch of other things to get inspired: watched Once Upon a Time in the West again, flipped through my Frank Schoonover and Time/Life Old West books.

At the end, I realised that I had to play towards what I didn't feel with the character. Hence the heavy shadows, vague features and fluttering duster.

Hope y'all like it despite my limitations. . . .

Black and White and Red

More Red Sonja.

What's not to love about a bikini made out of quarters? I wanted to do something more elaborate with Sonja since my last coloured sketch of her, so this is a tighter drawing on 11x17" plate bristol (DC Comics paper), done as if it were a cover by leaving room for logo, trade dress and credits. I've been doing non-comics stuff for so long it felt great doing something along these lines again. I'll prolly colour it when I get a spare few hours.

Next up will probably be another Howard character I've been fiddling with for a little while.

~Richard

Witchblade

I know it doesn't look like it, but I've been drawing like mad, but none of it either allowable to show yet or blog-worthy (that's a concept, isn't it?).

Did get inspired to divert my attentions to something else by a thread on redoing (as opposed to re-imagining, I guess) other characters. Warren Ellis started this at his forum, The Engine http://www.the-engine.net/forum/index.php?webtag=ENGINE&msg=7803.1 .

This is my attempt -- thought her armour and weapons would essentially be the same thing -- all blades - -and they would erupt to varying sizes as needed. I started sketching in wings, but decided that it was starting to become too much like work.

~Richard

Out of Commission

Did this as a comission a while back, had to hold off posting until I actually heard that the client liked it. It was really fun to do - -a break from my other, more serious work.

I used to do tons of comissions back in the 90s, but then I had a series of them go really bad on me: some were damaged in transit despite very secure packaging, one never arrived (as far as I can tell), and another was essentially stolen. I did a three-page wide Hulk/Pitt/Thing/Abomination/couple-other-big-guys-I-forget for a what was supposed to be a considerable amount of money. I got the advance very fast, did the piece and sent it out (via a trackable shipping method). The piece went missing after it was delivered. He claimed he wasn't the one who signed for the package.

Sigh. . .

A few months later it shows up on eBay and the contact info tracks back to him. EBay pulled the auction immediately after I complained, but it never was resolved to my satisfaction. That kinda soured me on comissions.

Now I do them digitally and get paid all in advance. Nothing gets lost in the mail.

~Richard

Tentacular!

Don't know where this one came from.
Maybe the China Mieville stuff I've been reading has dredged up some Lovecraftian imagery.
. . . Or maybe I just like drawing tentacles.
~Richard

Remade

Been a while -- sorry! Was waiting for a response from a person I did a piece for to post it here, and time kinda got away from me and I still haven't heard back.

So -- here's something from the sketchbook:

It's inspired China Mieville's New Crobuzon books; Perdido Street Station, The Scar, and Iron Council. In these books, criminals -- both political and otherwise -- are punished by being remade in the punishment factories. These poor sods have bits from other creatures, people or even machines grafted into or onto their bodies, creating a permanent slave class.

The guy above is probably not a good example of the sort of remade you'd typically see in the books, but just shows where my mind wandered to after reading these most excellent books.

I read the above three books and his short story collection, Looking for Jake, in quite a short period of time. These fantasy books are overflowing with imagination owing far more to Lovecraft and Steinbeck than Tolkien. The short story, The Tain, is a remarkable modern fantasy-post-apocalyptic tale and probably my favourite thing the guy's written.

~Richard

Squid-Head

Wanted to do something more horror-oriented, which I did, but I ended up too busy to get to put it up until now. I had to make a choice between a commission I finished last week and this, decided I'd rather start off March with a more polished bit of art than finish of February with it, even though the other was done first ( it's more obviously a fantasy-thing, which also pushed this ahead, since, like I said, I wanted something more horror-oriented).

It's a Mind-Flayer, also called an Illithid, I've called 'em squid-heads -- they're a Dungeons and Dragons critter that enjoys a diet of brains!

Really, what's not to love?

Yah, I know that brings it back to fantasy, but the 'flayers are so obviously a tip of the hat to Lovecraft and the popular image of Cthulhu that it really counts as a horror image.

Well, at least I think it does.

More tomorrow!

~Richard

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

HELLBOY!

I got the new Hellboy animated DVD this past week; Sword of Storms. Loved every second of it.
Of course, I've loved Hellboy since it first showed up wayyyy back when Legends started up. I've always been a fan of how Mike Mignola draws, even though it's so different from how I approach it. His work is essentially page design as theatre -- he doesn't do perspective, really, and he's boiled down his work to a form of shorthand hieroglyphics that are a wonder to see.
He's also a helluva great guy.
I layed flat colour over the sketch, and decided to not render or model it at all as a tip of the hat to the beautiful flat colour Dave Stewart applies to Hellboy.
. . . . .
Man, I really want to back in there -- local colour drives me nuts!

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!
~~~~~~~~~~
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.
~~~~~~~~~~
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!
~~~~~~~~~~
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

By My Lungs, Betrayed!!!

Cough-cough.

Yeah -- this is the other thing that hit me in January; Bronchitis.

I've had it before, so it shouldn't have been a big deal to deal with it yet again. I've heard that once you get bronchitis, you're prone to get it again, so I'm resigned to this happen every year or two, but this last bout really took me down hard.

At first I thought I was just getting a cold on top of my messed-up leg. I had to cancel the Monday night course I teach, but I did trek in to Toronto to run the morning Life Drawing class: limping and coughing while going over Hale and Bridgman. I figured I'd be right as rain come Wednesday after collapsing into bed for a full day on Tuesday.

Nope. I was much, much worse.

I'm feeling mostly recovered over ten days later. Considering it usually only dragged me down for a few days in the past, this was a nightmare for me. I guess I'm getting too old to just to expect to shrug everything off.

Something genre-related in my next post - -promise! I'm sure two goofy self-portraits is more than enough for anyone to look at.

~Richard

Paging Dr. House

I've not had the best January of my life. The eight entries had more to do with health problems than laziness. Two major things started up last month -- this post will deal with the first.

Over three weeks ago I was walking my dog -- it was icy out, but not too icy; the treads on my shoes were up to the task of walking through the park and back. Easy-peasy.

So, I was watching my aged pooch gambole about the park when my right foot did a 80-degree turn of its volition. Nothing major there, but that the bones of my lower leg decided to go along for the ride. My knee made a strange sound - -like someone popping and ripping bubble-wrap at the same time. Nice.

I hobbled back home, thinking it was yet another knee sprain of some sort -- they've been common from the days I used to play football -- and that I'd have to be off it for a few days.

Well, it's still not healed over 20 days later. At one point I actually had to use one of my late Pepere's canes to get around at the art school. No fun trying to painfully hobble around an array of easels and students while trying to help them with their life drawing. I felt miserable -- I made a few grumpy Doctor House jokes on the day -- but I hope I wasn't too unpleasant to be around

I have seen my doctor and did visit one joke of sports medicine facility. I'm trying out another, well-recommended sports med center this Tuesday, so I'm hopeful. I'm also still icing the damn thing.

I'm just getting over the other thing - -but I'll go on about that next entry.

~Richard