Life Drawing

I'm greedy. I don't just want to color comics. I want to write, pencil, ink, color, and letter them. I want to do it all. Did I mention I'm greedy? So to break off the considerable drawing rust I began going to life drawing sessions. These go from the oldest sketches, so you can really see how poorly I began, to the newest from just last night. So pleased with my progress and cannot wait to improve more! Also started working on synopses and scripts so when I feel I'm ready to start working on pages (composition composition composition) I'll have something to draw from. Baby steps.

Spider-Man

Today's palate-cleanser is brought to you by your friendly-neighborhood-Spider-Man! As drawn and colored by me. Can't wait until this summer when I'll have more time to draw and not just color!

Happy Star Wars Day

Drew this awhile back but updated the color ever so slightly. Have a good one!

Dick Grayson as Batman

Can't believe it's been two years since I drew this but I'm still pretty happy with it. Considering the hours I've been putting in since January I needed just one to do something for myself so I finally colored it. It's what I envisioned Dick Grayson would look like as Batman back when he was taking over the cowl. Superficially he's still scary but the details really contrast the darkness Bruce Wayne embodied. Also tried some different methods of making selections for soft cuts without using the lasso to speed things up. Thought it turned out pretty well.

Fake Cover for "Irredeemable"

One of the classes I'm teaching this quarter is a graduate level course on digital design and processes for comics. Their first job was to create a cover for a comic or comic anthology whether an original book or otherwise. It's primarily so I can gauge each student's skill level and start them out learning how to use Photoshop. I found myself with time in class while students worked and didn't need my guidance so created this fake cover for "Irredeemable", one of the titles I color monthly. This took about six hours all together. It's been far too long since I've drawn rather than just colored so this was primarily an exercise in brushing off a thick layer of rust. Overall, pretty happy with it even if it's not the most original of concepts.

Peter Krause's Batman

About a month ago Peter Krause tweeted this sketch and I just had to color it. Finally found the time late last night to play with it and here are the results. Hope everyone, especially Peter, enjoys it!

Roll over for original sketch by Peter Krause!

Constantine and Epiphany...

... sitting in a tree. S-M-O-K-I-N-G.

A student of mine recently asked me if I could draw as well as color. My initial reaction was insult but within milliseconds realized they couldn't be blamed for asking since it has been forever since I'd drawn anything. So I took it as a sign it was time to dust off the pencils and inks and now am thankful the student asked me.

Last night I drew Constantine with Epi, his new bride, from "Hellblazer". I'm a long time reader (since '95) and really am enjoying the title's current direction. I SOOO WANT TO COLOR "HELLBLAZER"! MAKE THIS HAPPEN, INTERNET! And I'm hoping they actually take a large amount of time to explore their relationship in the title. It's a huge opportunity to give Constantine depth as he's been rather same-ol' for awhile and Epi is, so far, rather interesting in her own right. I'd like to see more of both for years to come. No flash in the pan, 'celeb' marriage here, please!

I really need to email Shelly Bond, bad.

Declan Shalvey's "X-Force"

Been a long while since I've been able to do some coloring purely for fun and am really lucky to be able to say I had a chance to recently on an amazing X-Force piece by gentleman artist Declan Shalvey. I'm very happy with the way this turned out and hope for more chances in the future to have such fun!

Rollover the image for Declan's amazing, original inks which you can own now to help support the Delarosa Family here!

HAPPY STAR WARS DAY

Star Wars: Rise of the Bounty Hunters

TOPPS has a new "Clone Wars" trading card series coming out in October. I had thought I'd be too busy to do these again but got lucky with a slow week of just doing some flats in prep for the next issue of "Farscape: Scorpius". Had some fun doing 50 (+3 returns) sketch cards for "Star Wars: Clone Wars: Rise of the Bounty Hunters". These should be out in October and I'll be selling my returns from the last three series in December at Wizard Atlanta.

June Brigman's Wonder Woman

I'm lucky enough to work with some amazing artists. June Brigman is a fellow professor at SCAD-Atlanta in the SEQA department. When she posted this sketch I knew I wanted to color it. She was kind enough to send me a high res scan of it so I could do just that.

Pencils by June Brigman. Color by me.

Captain America

Been sitting on this one for awhile. I designed this Captain America uniform almost a year ago basing it off of Marine Corp BDUs they currently employ. I figured if it was good enough for our boys Cap would figure it good enough for him! He is after all a symbol and morale booster, not just a super-soldier. Anyway, coincidentally the scale mail signature armor of Cap's is actually almost exactly like the real-life armor called Dragon Skin so I happily kept it. Then I pulled other design elements: modular straps and belt, (modified) Enhanced Combat Helmet, and desert color the US military has become known for. It still feels very "superhero" but more updated and practical. I had hoped they'd think in the same direction for the movie design (if for nothing else but to respectfully nod to our hard working troops) but sadly they went the clichéd, cheap, made-in-China plastic look you see in every superhero movie now (including Thor). Anyway, finally colored it and played around with some other techniques. Pretty happy.



And here's Gunnery Sergeant R. Lee Ermey checking out how it's made then shooting more than twenty AK-47 rounds and over 150 9mm MP5 Navy rounds into the above mentioned Dragon Skin armor. It can take a serious pounding and who doesn't like watching Ermey in his element. OOHRAH!



PS - It doesn't need to be a holiday for you to thank a serviceman. They bleed so you won't have to. Looking in your direction pacifists.

Darth Maul cyborg

Ever since the Star Wars Visionaries one-shot came out featuring a very much alive but cyborg Darth Maul hunting down Obi-Wan Kenobi on Tatooine I've wanted to draw this version of him. If you've not read it it also contains General Grievous' back story. Very cool comic. Pretty happy with it and feel like there's something new in my inks for some reason. Now can't wait to color it.

Wonder Woman

With the recent redesign of Wonder Woman's outfit, which is nicely polished but lacks her character, I thought I'd do a sketch. I prefer the design that nods to the classic but adds more Greek/Amazonian flavor.

Lady Deadpool sketch

Been rather a long time since I've posted up one of my sketches. Hoping to do more of them for Wizard Atlanta. Planning on offering sketchbooks full of them for sale. There are a bunch of other ones in my ORIGINAL FUN slideshow on the right. Take a gander!



mmmmm bacon

Ghost in the Modern World

Been needing to draw more and I'd like to have a sketchbook for conventions next year. Going to try and do a full-color sketch each week (or more during the summer) to cover both. This one is a little dense but I've some new Zebra pens and am giving them a run. So far, I love them!

This is Major Mokoto Kusangi from Ghost in the Shell. Usually people play up her sex appeal. I decided I wanted to play up her yearning for peace in a modern world. This is also my attempt to make her look Japanese because, well, she's Japanese yet never looks it. Gonna have fun coloring this!

Mike Thor on Homes

My wife got us into watching Holmes on Homes. For those of you not familiar with it, it's a Canuck production that's been running for years and is just now showing up in America on HGTV. He goes to people who have had horrible problems with their homes from bad renovations to inspectors being jerks to reoccurring issues and more. More or less, he guts what he needs to and rebuilds the part of the home needing attention. His catch phrase is "MAKE IT RIGHT".

Anyway, Laura Martin recently mentioned in jest he should play Thor in the upcoming Marvel movie. This became talk of doing a sketch amongst some people, including the amazing Pat Bollin (who I can't wait to see what he does for this). I thought why not get in on this action since we love the guy too! So, I present you Mike Thor and his DeWALT Mjolnir.

ESB Sketch Cards

TOPPS has been good to me so I've been trying to be good to them. In May they are releasing a line of 3D widescreen cards to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of Empire Strikes Back. This time around I did 106 sketch cards! Check them out!



When I receive my returns back from this set I'll have 12 cards to sell and will be posting them on here and Scoundrel Art.

busy busy busy

Long time, no post!

This spring quarter I am teaching three new courses pushing my total number of courses I have now taught to twenty-two. That means I have averaged two new courses each quarter I have taught over the past three years. It's alot of material!

Coloring for BOOM Studios on the monthly title Farsape: Scorpius has been fantastic and my editor, Ian Brill, continues to be a great guy to work with. I hope to be able to share with you a sneak peek of the next issue shortly!

Been able to touch on the graphic novel for Oni too. The planning takes forever but is so worth it in the end. The pages this summer should fly with all this preliminary work getting done.

And I've been busting out 100+6 new sketch cards for TOPPS' release of Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back trading cards. Let me tell you, between Scorpius and Star Wars I'm in geek heaven! Check out my next post to see the final cards!

Star Wars Galaxy Five sell sheet

One of my sketch cards made the TOPPS sell sheet for the Star Wars Galaxy Five line!