Character Sketch for a project...

I'll show bits and pieces of this project as I work on it (it's a big one, so it will be going on for a while).

a panel...

... to one of the projects I'm currently working on. I illustrated it separately from the rest of the page (I was using this guy to help get a feel for the story), and will crop and adjust it as needed to fit it in with the rest of the panels.

A Creative Title Goes Here...

The first step (for me) in creating an acrylic painting. Mostly a contour drawing done with mechanical pencils on watercolor paper.

Thinking about title page layouts...

Today seems to be one of the days that is consistent at the start of every project I've ever worked on. I have a look in my head of what the pages should visually feel like, but I haven't put in the time to develop the style I'm working in yet. That means that the rest of the day/night is to be spent exercising my abilities and sketching/painting till I feel comfortable with what I'm doing.

I realize that I haven't shown any of my own art here in a while. So I'm going to post a bit of different things I have going on (with a lil description when allowed).



This is something that I'm working on at my leisure, and have been for a long time. It's the first page of an adaption from my buddy Devin Hansen's book FROM THE BARSTOOL. Since this is a "do as I find time/for fun" kinda thing, don't expect it completed for a little bit yet.


A trial panel for THE KISS. It's a graphic novel written by the talented Elizabeth Genco, and set to be drawn by me. It currently has a publisher lined up, and I am awaiting word from my editors to go full-steam-ahead on it.


THE ADVENTURES OF MR. SIMIAN lost in the ZUDA competition in July. I'm not bitter about this, especially since there was a lot of talent in that particular month. Currently, I'm awaiting word on one groupl looking at hosting my comic and considering other venues as well.

Brandon Seifert, writer of the comic WITCH DOCTOR, and I are talking about a collaboration on a short comic. The man is busy and so am I so I don't expect to be working on this till next year, but considering his talent and the talent of those that he's worked with I am excited about the prospect.

The comic I'm currently developing my style for is being done with a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and comic pro (we decided to hold off on naming each other until we had a bit more of this in the can). We do already have a couple of publishers interested, which is nice.


A page from a comic I'm doing with writer Josh Hechinger (COMIC BOOK TATTOO, THE GRAVE DOUG FRESHLY, YON KUMA). He wanted to try his hand at a certain online area... I liked the story and can always use extra money for the holidays. Josh writes in a fun way that is very influenced by manga, I feel more influenced by a mix of American and European comics... so we end up with something completely different in the end.

hmmm... other stuff...

I might have a comic in the upcoming POPGUN VOLUME 4. If you don't know how POPGUN works, it's a visual mixed tape. The editors get lots of submissions from various creators they've talked with, and then choose out those they want to give the book the rhythm they desire.

A few personal comics I'm working on (two I've mentioned in earlier posts and one I haven't) will have to wait until I knock out some of the stuff I'm working on for other people). THE DEVIL IN THE GRAPE is a story about a man who had the veil that covers the world lifted by a beverage found in the catacombs of France. NUMBER 5 which I experimented with in one form before is being re-imagined as a horror comic in children's book form (to allow me to play with techniques that wouldn't fit in a normal comic). Finally, MR. SCARY PANTS is about a nice boy with a very scary split personality.

There are other writers I'm in talks with to do work for a bit down the road. They know who they are, and the sooner I figure out a way not to need sleep or food anymore the sooner I will be on those projects.

THE ADVENTURES OF MR. SIMIAN at ZUDA

Hey everyone, THE ADVENTURES OF MR. SIMIAN is now up at ZUDA. Check it out, and if you like what you see, give me your vote.

I appreciate your time in doing this, so thank you very much.

promo development

working on promo stuff for a comic I've developed called Mr. Simian. Here are some of the illustrations, I'll be stamping out the tag lines over the next few days.

High Moon Sketch

I know, I know, long time no post-y. The thing is that I have two immediate things I'm working on (6 things on the calendar, but two looming). One I still can't discuss for a week, and the other I can't talk about or show anything from for at least a month.



So, since I'm feeling guilty, today for a warm up sketch, I did a drawing of the lead character from HIGH MOON. HIGH MOON is published on ZUDA, and was created by the ever-talented duo of David Gallaher and Steve Ellis. I should note that it will be published in graphic novel form in a few months and is currently up for a Harvey Award.

Still Kick'n

Sorry about the lack of updates, but I've been working on a new comic proposal for ZUDA and developing a marketing plan for it as well (honestly the marketing plan is more work than making the comic). I've included some of the roughs for the comic and the promo stuff I've been elbow deep in.

A page of...

a comic I'm now finishing up with Elizabeth Genco.



I'm not sure where it's getting placed yet, but once I know I'll put the word out.

Thumbnails

a posting of thumbnail... because I really like thumbnails. The first six are for my next submission to ZUDA (two finished pages without text are in earlier posts).

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And I've never shown these her before, but here are the thumbs I sent off to Rantz for the Comic Book Tattoo story I did. There is something about the "not caring as much about lil mistakes" that makes me like the feeling of thumbs more than finished art most of the time.

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Gonna be working on finishing up some coloring today, but figured I would post the pencils I did for a section of a cover I'm designing for a proposal.


This part is gonna be painted (not sure what medium I feel like using yet) and cropped a bit. Then the cover will be spilt with the logo, with another part of it being illustrated digitally in the same way that the interior work is going to mainly look.




I've already shown this elsewhere, but this is the Logo I'm looking at using to divide the cover.


Also shown before at P&P, but this is how I was initially thumbing out the cover ideas. I've decided to flip which images will be on top and bottom though. Most likely the combinations will get mixed up too.

Mr. Monkey 002: process

figured I would post a bit of the process going into this page, since I was doing things a bit out of order from my usual steps.

digital pencils


I went in and blocked in basic colors, duplicated the layer, adjusted the colors on the copy and then pushed and pulled what I wanted the colors to be between the two layers.


Did the digital inks, refined colors a little bit.


Slept on it then woke up and did my final touch-ups.


note: at the end of my process, when everything is flattened, I like to add a lil' texture using the noise filter.