Tangled - Inktober 2

Inktober
Second of 31 ink drawings for the month.  Decided to add a few other elements to it; I’m going to try limiting myself to scrap paper from around the studio (I’ve a significant amount of high quality papers of various sorts laying about) and everything has to have an October/Halloween feel to it.

ink on 5x7” hot press Arches watercolour paper.

Pumpkin Girl Inktober 1

Late to start Inktober, but I like the idea so much I'm going to try and catch up.

It's 31 ink drawings for the month.  Decided to add a few other elements to it; I'm going to try limiting myself to scrap paper from around the studio (I'm a significant amount of high quality papers of various sorts laying about) and everything has to have an October/Halloween feel to it.

ink on 5x7" hot press Arches watercolour paper.

~R

imagineNATIVE film festival

So, the imagineNATIVE film festival put up a video and its PDF catalogue which both contain my artwork and character designs.   It's certainly a cool thing to be a part of, but there was a good deal of work that went into this, much of it wouldn't be readily apparent from just seeing the end result.

I was approached by Terry Lau of Beehive Design on behalf of the imagineNATIVE board to design and illustrate three characters that would evoke the Batman/Superman/Wonder Woman trio as much as aboriginal Canadian culture.  Below is Terry's mock-up of the three covers as one image.

The first meeting covered the basics and I left with the direction to draw powwow superheroes.  The plan was to avoid clichéd native representations while utilizing real cultural imagery as much as possible. So, the result I went for was powwow costumes that would feel appropriate for Batman. Superman and Wonder Woman.

This turned out to be a dead end, but served well in helping the board get closer to what they really wanted.  Sometimes a client doesn't really know what they want until they see the result of what they ask for. The direction shifted from powwow heroics to characters clearly in the superhero mode.  Wonder Woman became Skywoman, Superman became Nanabush, and Batman became Raven.

So, we were making progress, but more revisions were made - -here are a few of them:

Which got us to the point on final versions in ink.

 

Then it was time to colour.

 Raven was too much of a silhouette and had to be redone from the inking.

We were mostly there by this point and it was time to do the background.

Being this close to the final triggered off another round of revisions and the initial layout/approach was put aside.

And Skywoman, which I approached as a Canadian flag with a touch of green, wasn't working, so:

Which didn't work either, but then it was decided the belts weren't working either. 

And we going to move everything toward this design:

Which entailed some new background drawings as well as some other small revisions along the way.  The number of revisions are typical of commercial work and Terry made everything flow seamlessly even as another assignment complicated the deadline. 

The festival starts on the 16th and I should be able to see all three covers printed then.  I'll update this entry with a pic of them as a group when I do.

~Richard

October Life Drawing

Wow -- I skipped posting all of September!

I was actually quite busy between the college semester starting and my overcommiting to a few things that I didn't think would conflict as much as they did.

Anyway, more stuff coming in the weeks ahead, but I'm going to start off with a few quick drawings from the open studio sessions I'm running at Durham College. here.

~R

Northern Barbarians

I was working on some oil paintings for a charity art show/party/event/thing called Insert Adventure Here, but that ended disastrously as I left the paintings out to dry in the sun and didn't notice when a storm blew in. . . .

I buckled down and did four replacement drawings, essentially over night. Above is the fourth of them - -directly inspired by the show name and how the funds were being raised for Sick Kids Hospital.

coloured pencil on 11x22" watercolor paper

~R
(thought I'd already posted this, but the Fan Expo prep kicked everything else off the table)

Fan Expo 2013 postgame

Exhausted and fighting off a little bit of con crud.  Certainly worth it for seeing and talking with all the great fans and fellow pros you only get to see at conventions.

The change in venue made things less crowded and overheated, though the lighting was rather abysmal in my area.  Seemed to be an overall improvement for all involved, though.

Managed to forget to take pics of some of the con sketches (again).

~R

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. . . .

Poison Ivy Commission

Recently finished private commission.

~R

20th Anniversary Hellboy!

Wow -- it's been 20 years.

I remember getting all excited when I saw the weird red guy with the goggles (yeah, I thought the horns were goggles)  in a tiny preview in a Dark Horse comic way back when.

Congratulations to Mike Mignola, his family and Dark Horse Comics for two decades while still going strong!

~R

Cal McDonald

Steve Niles (of 30 Days of Night fame) is coming up to the Fanexpo this week!  Been a long-time fan of his work and I met him face-to-face at the Ottawa comicon a few months back and he's a helluva nice guy!

Above are a pair of fan art sketches of his signature character, Cal McDonald.  Of the two, I think I got closer with the second sketch.  Was tempted to pop a crowd of glowing eyes behind him. . . .

Cal appears in numerous comics and prose works, most frequently under the Criminal Macabre title.  It's pulp/horror run rough through the view of a self-destructive American PI.  It's the book Vertigo should have been publishing in the 90s instead of their fetishizing everything with a British, Scots, or Irish accent.

Right now Steve is offering a "Name Your Price" deal on his Cal McDonald novel, SAVAGE MEMBRANE.  Check it out!

~R

Space Commandos

I was working on some oil paintings for a charity art show/party/event/thing called Insert Adventure Here, but that ended disastrously as I left the paintings out to dry in the sun and didn't notice when a storm blew in. . . .

I buckled down and did four replacement drawings, essentially over night. Above is the third of them - -directly inspired by the show name and how the funds were being raised for Sick Kids Hospital.

coloured pencil on 11x22" watercolor paper

~R

Elven Wizards

I was working on some oil paintings for a charity art show/party/event/thing called Insert Adventure Here, but that ended disastrously as I left the paintings out to dry in the sun and didn't notice when a storm blew in. . . .

I buckled down and did four replacement drawings, essentially over night. Above is the second of them - -directly inspired by the show name and how the funds were being raised for Sick Kids Hospital.

coloured pencil on 11x22" watercolor paper

~R

Steam Captains

I was working on some oil paintings for a charity art show/party/event/thing called Insert Adventure Here, but that ended disastrously as I left them out to dry in the sun and didn't notice when a storm blew in. . . .

I buckled down and did four replacement drawings, essentially over night.  Above is the first of them - -directly inspired by the show name and how the funds were being raised for Sick Kids Hospital.

coloured pencil on 11x22" watercolor paper

~R

Mike Wieringo

I can't really believe it's been six years.

Decided to ink one of Mike's sketches.

~R

Fanexpo 2013 P51

Just found out where you'll be able to find me at this year's Toronto Fanexpo!

I'll be selling original art, prints, and taking commissions as usual.

~R

(PS: Dale Keown's sitting at P50)

What's My Name

Heisenberg.

The beginning of the end of Breaking Bad tomorrow. . . .

~R

Frank's Boy v.2

The earlier post was a graphite drawing on bond I ran through Photoshop.  I liked it enough to give it a second pass, but with coloured pencils and white paint on Canson pastel paper.

It may be narcissistic, but I occasionally like my sketches on crappy paper and probably should do better quality copies like this more often.

~R

Frank's Boy

A quick sketch between work periods today. . .

Actually drew this in pencil on bond.  Added colour and paper texture in Pshop.

~R