Marvel Try-Out

About two months ago Axel Alonso gave me a coloring try-out for "Deadpool: Wade Wilson's War" #1 over Jason Pearson. This was all because of Shawn Crystal who I, again, can never repay enough for believing in me and network help. I was on cloud nine! Sadly, the same day they sent me files, Paul Mounts, a contracted colorist, came up available for the job so he got it. Can't fault that. Especially since Axel was as good as his word and still allowed me to try-out as a colorist at Marvel with the same pages. Once again, cloud nine... only I've not left this time! They really liked what I did on my try-out pages and wanted to give me a coloring job. (I just found out what comic earlier this week *giddy* but you'll have to wait for a future post on that.) For now, I'm posting my try-out pages for you to enjoy because I'm really happy with them. "Deadpool: Wade Wilson's War" #1 came out this week so if you pick it up and see this post, give me some feedback and let me know how you feel I did!

Scorpius #2

Out today is Scorpius #2 from BOOM! Studios, colors by me! Go get you one!

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.

Scorpius #1

Scorpius #1 from BOOM! Studios will be out this Wednesday so go pick yourselves up a copy! You can read more here. Here's some sneak peaks minus dialog.

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!

Outlaw Territory: Wild One

So I was surfing some other comic artists' websites and ran across a blog about the western anthology I worked on last summer with Val Mayerik and Mike Baron. To my surprise, what is at the top of the blog but one of the pages I colored from our short "Wild One"!

Val is a big western fan so we wanted to make sure it felt like it belonged in the era when western art was popular and using a palette influenced by that very art felt very right. Between his brush work and my color I think we succeeded. This will be in "Outlaw Territory" Volume Two!

Star Wars Galaxy Five sell sheet

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

Scorpius #0

This is my first foray into coloring fulltime and it's on the ongoing title Farscape: Scorpius for BOOM!Studios! It was my favorite show back in the day and Scorpius my favorite character. According to my editor, this is the first time he's ever seen The Henson Company, who owns Farscape, approve color right away. Not a bad place to start a career as a colorist! I learned alot about simplifying work flow and brevity of application. As a retoucher in advertising I had days to work on a single photo. As a colorist I only have hours (or less) to work on an entire page. That changes alot and I can already see the ebb and flow of success over these colors but knowing it's all uphill from here is really an amazing feeling.

I'd like to thank Shawn Crystal for introducing me to Matt Wilson who in turn introduced me to BOOM!Studios. I'd also like to thank my editor there, Ian Brill, for making the process so easy and supporting me in my new career path. It comes out April 14th so pick yourself up a copy at your local comic shop! The official press release is here.

Oh, and don't think this doesn't mean I'm not also busy teaching while working on a graphic novel and more sketch cards. My plate is full... of variety!