Coloring Eric Canete's "Amazing Spider-Man"

I do too much when I color. This is something I'm currently fighting. Sure, the results are really nice and I love the way it looks but I believe I can make pages look just as good without rendering to this degree. Alot of it is ten years of retouching where you'd spend days on a single image, sometimes more, so you fiddled alot. Alot of it is my anal retentiveness and extreme attention to detail. It's just something I need to get over and I will over the next few months as I concentrate on my color portfolio like I've never done before. Expect to see streamline color from me for pages but until then here's a few pages from Eric Canete's Amazing Spider-Man featuring Deadpool clubbing.

Christmas Card for You

Sweaters = Borrowed from Parents, $0
Backdrop = Sears inspired Cloud Filter, $0
Pleading Cats = scuffs and scratches, $0
Lame Smiles = If you didn't know we're dorks by now, $0
Wishing you a Happy Holiday = Priceless!



I wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy New Year, and whatever else you may be celebrating this season.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have so so much to be thankful for it's rather ridiculous. A lovely, intelligent, silly, supportive, and understanding wife. Far off friends, who despite the distance, have remained close and dear. Local friends who support, inspire, and help me in my personal goals. Parents who taught me responsibility, work ethic, and the difference between right and wrong. Brothers who help define "blood is thicker than water". Family that gets me and enriches my life. Cats who bring joy to me daily. A roof. A job(s). A working car. I could go on and on but I may be jinxing myself here. However, I do have one more specific. Since I'm looking to expand my career as a professional colorist in comics I am very thankful to the friendly and talented professionals that I have met who are currently helping me in that endeavor. Some by passing my name on to editors and others who give me pages to color to use in my portfolio. Matt Wilson, Shawn Crystal, Sean Murphy, and Eric Canete, I am thankful for your helping hands! (Edit: Add Chris Brunner to that list! Thanks!) Below is my color on one of the many sketches and pages just Canete has sent me. There will be more to come! I hope you enjoy, have just as much to be thankful for, and have a great Thanksgiving!

Ted.com: Ken Robinson

Been watching Ted.com alot recently and came across this one. It really hit home with me. Amazing.

Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity | Video on TED.com

Star Wars: The Clone Wars DVD/Bluray release

With the release of Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Season One on DVD and Bluray, my sketchcards are now out there somewhere in the world. Sadly, the chances of you getting one of mine are slim; something like one out of every 1,000 decks. So I've posted them up in their entirety on my portfolio. Go to my Illustrations page and click on the thumbnail with Captain Rex!

Fullmetal Alchemist

During life model sessions in one of the courses I'm teaching this quarter I allow music and sometimes play what students bring in. One student had us listening to lots of music from anime shows. Most of it is pretty horrendous. No surprise there. However, it did remind me of Fullmetal Alchemist. It's a strange balance of kiddie and mature. Leave it up to the Japanese! Anyway, I needed to draw something for myself so took the opportunity to do the Elric brothers from the show.

Class Demo

This is from a class demo on achieving a James Jean appearance (it's a demo so not particularly pretty) but making the file editable rather than destructive with some retouching tricks thrown in for good measure. The first image is the original drawing I did and the second is the digital processed one. Approximately two hours including explaining each step in detail for this. Needs lots of polishing but not bad for it being so quick.

Vamp

Between the Star Wars: Clone Wars sketchcards and my home computer dying I've not been able to do much digitally lately. This has been good for me! Anyone that becomes to reliant on anything is one who welcomes weakness to breed in themselves. I'm happy to see my old, old marker skills aren't completely gone. For years growing up this is all I would use to draw and it's been a nice revisit to the medium.

For October the Temple of Cartoon Mojo is doing all Halloween themed sketch challenges. Here's my vampire! Not my usual monstrous version but a '50s, well-to-do, housewife vamp. The combination works rather well I feel.

Star Wars Sketchcards

It's been a long time since I've been this happy about any work I've done, large or small, client or personal. And I am so freakin' happy! I hope I get to do more. This has also solidified my decision to go after a Star Wars comic title and see what happens.

Star Wars Sketchcards

The fall quarter at SCAD-ATL started up this past week so that's kept me busy but I also received materials for a little freelance job. I'm doing "Star Wars: Clone Wars" sketchcards for Topps! Specifically, it's tied into the release of "Clone Wars" season one on DVD and Bluray in widescreen format so the cards are also widescreen, which is pretty damn cool. This also makes me an official Lucas Arts artist and a little dream come true. Here's just a hint at a few but no details for you! Go buy the cards if you want a chance to own one.



A coworker, Roy Richardson, asked me if I had ever considered doing Star Wars comics. Initially I said no but I'm having so much fun with these maybe I will indeed throw my hat in that ring once "Lion of Rora" is done. Would you read a SW comic drawn by yours truly?