Fanexpo 2010 Day Three (a day late)

Got up way too early to get cracking on the pile of work I have to do this week and I found this in my e-mail in-box:

This pic of one of a Conan piece I forgot to take a photo of at the con! Awesome start to the day!

Thanks again, David!

I had a great time at the convention, even though I (and reportedly so many others) had issues getting back into the MTCC if they left. The gentleman who originally commissioned the above Conan e-mailed me yesterday telling me the re-entry line-up put him past his alloted time to be at the show.

I chalk it up to growing pains for the con and expect that problems had this year will not repeat next year.

The next con I'm planning on attending is the October 8-10 NYCC, though I'm really using that as an excuse to visit NY again since I haven't gone in nearly ten years.

Fanexpo 2010 Day Two

Alright -- typing this at three in the ay-em.

Yawn!~

Today was hot, busy and exhausting! Never seen a Fanexpo so packed with people. I suspect, for a number of reasons, that the overcrowding may backlash a bit; people had to wait to reenter after the staff were told the building was at capacity and I saw that it was quite difficult for people to move in the aisles which may have hurt sales for some of the booths. I've no idea what could be done to remedy this but I expect some changes may be in the offing. This is the first time in a while it was held at the Front Street half of the MTCC -- if it's actually a smaller venue I think it'll have to move the southern hall (which always felt larger).

I don't think I'd be surprised to see Fanexpo become a three-and-a-half or four-day event if it's popularity maintains or increases.

Anyway -- still a great day. Had a great lunch and a later panel with the Dream Detective people. Got to see more of the old faces I missed and meet cool new people too.

Last day in a few hours (11am - 6pm, IIRC).

The Kitty and Lockheed sketch above is unclaimed -- so anyone interested and willing to cover the sketch fee, swing by my table!

Did more drawings, but forgot to take pictures again!

Fanexpo 2010 Day One

The first day was surprisingly busy from the start. I brought my camera, as usual, but I think this is the first time I actually remembered to take pictures.

First sketch of the day was "draw something badass from Marvel".

I didn't want to start the day with something too traditional -- it would seem a waste of how wide open the commission was if gave him something too easy. Opted for X-23. I struggled to recall her costume a bit. As I finished, the ever-awesome Dale Keown, sitting right next to me, was asked to draw this character and was given reference. The lady asking for the drawing was in the line for dale the whole time I was drawing this. Hah!

These two delightful young women were from a high school comic club in Montreal (hope I heard that right, there was some cross chatter when we were first talking). I did a pencil Kitty and Lockheed they seemed pretty happy with.

I got to see some people I haven't seen in too long and hope to see more of them the rest of the weekend.

Oh, and I ended up inking a Billy Tan Marvel Project cover sketch -- that was a blast and fun! Of course I forgot to take a photo of that (and a few other things I drew today!

I'm exhausted, so I'm off to bed. Hopefully i can do another update tomorrow night.

Dino Detail

For a moment there it looked like I'd have the time to finish something to use as a print for the Toronto FANEXPO this weekend, but an iffy thing went definite and looks to fill up the week with more hours of work than I have hours.

The piece is really close to being finished, so it really hurts to put this aside at this point, but I thought I'd share a peak with all of you.

Longshot 1995

Taking a short break from drawing away and thought I should post something.

Longshot drawing from 1995. I probably drew it to garner some attention from the X-office at Marvel.

Mike Wieringo

It's been three years since Mike passed away. I still miss him very much. Talking to him over the phone was always the highlight of the day and sometimes the week. The times we hung out together at conventions are among my most special memories.

I had another loss recently, so I'm already in a sad place. Seeing some of the posted remembrances at various places earlier brought tears. To work through that I felt I had to do something, so I took the time to draw the piece with Mike's Tellos characters.

Nosferatu page 27

And we're done.

Kinda fun and occasionally embarrassing sharing these nearly 20-year old pages.

Opening the envelope holding all these pages after so much time passed hit me with a rush of emotions as I realised I'm nearly twice the age of the person who drew them and that person had very different expectations for what his life was going to be like.

~Richard

Nosferatu page 26

Second last page -- who knew all that fighting and falling was just a few yards from a busy street that looks a little like the Danforth area of Toronto.

Nosferatu double-spread pp24-25

The first double-spread splash I did is a borderline swipe of Frank Miller's RONIN and predicts the advent of Pornface!

Well, not really, but it was fun typing that!

The problem with being allowed to finish off the series was figuring out how to finish off the series when the original writer told me he really hadn't thought it through when he handed it over. After the series established they couldn't kill each other, I went for the obvious answer and decided that they could only die at the same time. I know I could come up with a number of better and more interesting solutions today.

I do like some of the brushwork I got into on this spread.

Two more pages before this is all done!

Bad Planet

I dunno if I mentioned I was pretty whacked out by pain killers and, well, pain last week and weekend -- if I didn't, guess what?

Anyway, I tried to work through it and produced a bunch of nonsensical layouts that I ended up being unable to use in any fashion. I also tried to read my minty-fresh and gorgeous trade collection of Bad Planet from the fine folks at RAW Studios. I was pretty dopey and the 3-D bits were too much for handle at the time, so I put it aside.

Today, I took a break from the page I was penciling and decided to sift through all the drawings I did while doped up and came across the above sketch. I don't recall doing it very well, but it's nice to have something more recent than the 20-year old Nosferatu pages while I'm scribbling away on two projects bound by NDAs.

Nosferatu page 23

Who saw the statue of the Angel with the sword on the first page and not see this coming?

Nosferatu page 22

Always with the choking and the rolling in the burning rubble. . . .

Nosferatu pages 20& 21

Got swamped making up for last week's dental pain issues and managed to forget to post yesterday's page, so here's two of them!

I think i hit a serious groove here on in -- my drawing limitations were just that, but I think I was learning and producing while producing on these pages.

Gotta love that injury-to-the-eye motif! That's, like, three in this issue alone!

***

Ghost Rider hasn't been forgotten, but the second installment has turned into something quite large and has grown into something about choosing shapes and physical types. I think I might end up letting it run in that direction and use my Ghost Rider redevelopment be the example rather than the whole point.

Nosferatu page 19

Decided I really liked drawing thick gloves by this point since they were so much easier to get "right" than bare hands for me at the time. This is another page where my execution was well below my layout abilities -- not that my layout ability was that great, it was just better developed at the time.

Nosferatu page 18

Here's a two-page sequence from Pitt: In the Blood:

I extrapolated a bit from what had already occurred in the comic and gave Pitt a psychic power of a sort -- or at least a really aggressive psychic defense.

I'm still a little proud at how clear the nine-panel page reads while still having a flashy big-ish panel.

Nosferatu page 17

Minions are flammable -- they should come with those stickers.

I feel like popping in a word balloon for the rat in the bottom right corner saying "Well, that's something you don't see every day."

Nosferatu page 16

Boy, today flew by.

Almost forgot to post another page from this old. . . gem?

I actually had a strong memory of laying down the frisket and cutting out the letters to splatter ink with a toothbrush for the "AAAAH!" there.

Anyway -- only 11 more days of this.

Nosferatu page 15

At some point dream logic took over this story; she climbs up the wall and enters through a hole in a wall (what happened to the stairs?) and enters through the door of the room she fell through the floor of a few pages earlier with no new minions popping out.

Few things I'm actually liking here, though; the lighting as she climbs through the hole, how much action is revealed in the area of the dead minion in panel 3, and the perspective on the spear through Longsword's back.

Nosferatu page 14

The bad guy knows he's in trouble when the rats get pissy and start biting him.

Just over half-way though this issue. I think I was only asked to do 22-24 pages, but got approval to go to 27. Can't recall if I was paid for the extra pages or if I was stupid enough to do them gratis because the story needed ' em.