Web Comic

I've started working on a web comic that I'll be launching this fall. I am really enjoying working in a horizontal frame, as opposed to a standard comic book page. I've been re-drooling over the Calvin and Hobbes Sunday strips and have taken those wonderful images as my inspiration. The entire comic will be done in watercolor and ink, I'll letter on the computer, but for the most part this will be a hand made comic.

My goal is to have at least a 3 month supply of pages before launching the comic, I'm a third of the way there.

Penciled page from my sketchbook

Finished page, watercolor and ink

Other Worlds cover for Comics Forge

I was asked to do a new cover for a limited edition comic from Comics Forge collecting three of Justin Zimmerman's Other World's stories (one of which I drew). The comic is the first in a series of books coming out called Comics Forge Presents that showcase indy comic book types like Justin and me. The art direction was pretty simple: "sexy space lady fighting a  monster". This is what I came up with.

My initial thumbnail

The inked drawing

11x17, watercolor and colored pencil on Arches hot press

sold

And finally, the painted image. This was painted with watercolor with a little bit of colored pencil for highlights. I don't have a title for it...so I've been calling it: 

SEXY SPACE SIREN TRIUMPHS OVER INTERGALACTIC CEPHALOPOD!!

Its fun to take a break from my kid comic stuff to do some high brow art like this.

The Tour

Here's the process behind my latest painting, "The Tour".

The initial sketch. To get the composition right I used Photoshop to help me with the layout.

Inked with with a crow quill pen (good ol' Hunt 102).

Painted with watercolor, highlights with colored pencil (mostly in the nebula which was a blast to paint). Archival prints are available of this image through Imagekind HERE or signed copies are available on my Etsy shop HERE

"Clean" Cover Process

Here's my process for the cover to the short story "Clean" that I did with my good pal Justin Zimmerman. I used a technique that I saw on William Stout's website (he made that Dinosaur book in the 80's that every boy has, he also most likely worked on every fantasy film you like).

Initial rough penciled concept, getting all the pieces in place

Inked with a crow quill using a mix of black and sepia ink

Raw Umber under painting

First washes of color

Final painting, but since watercolor looks washed out when you scan it in...

...I did some digital color correcting in Photoshop.

Re-Charged

Well, I wish I knew this watercolor trick a few years ago! I could paint 100 pictures this way. If you're interested in the process, I followed William Stout's "Rackham" process that I found out through Justin Gerard on the AMAZING muddy colors blog. It might seem slight, but laying down a wash of colored ink over your watercolor really unifies the piece (in this case it really cooled down the orange of the kid's apollo spacesuit). I am hooked and I can't wait to try this on a more complicated piece.

Oh, and consider this the launch sketch of Jet Pack Jack's successor! Painting this spun off an entire story in my head. If you're interested in buying this astro-boy, you can do so HERE, if you'd like to buy a print you can do so HERE.

New painting

The latest painting off the easel, this went on a two month baby induced hiatus, but I'm starting to get the hang of this stay at home artist dad thing.

Take a Troll for a Stroll

The next painting based on Gina's story.

Ogre Serenade

Here is my latest painting, based on a story by Gina Bellisario (she was kind enough to give me permission to use her story to create some portfolio pieces).

Ogre Serenade

10" x 13"

Watercolor on Arches Hot Press

Tree Fort of ADVENTURE!!

I never had a tree fort...but I bet if I did it would have been something like this one.

DONE, for the most part

Here's the painting scanned and pretty much done. I think I'll play around with the colors a little in Photoshop, but I'm pretty happy with it as is. Oh, and I might add a splat of blood on the tongue, didn't have the courage to do that with real paint since it would have been a pain to take it out.

 Feed Me, 13"x19"

watercolor and acrylic on cold press Arches 140lb

Switching to acrylic mode

I started working in acrylic this morning and am pleased with how it behaves over the watercolor. It's a great feeling when you discover a method that "clicks". I've been painting transparently for so long that a quick jump into the land of opaque paint just wasn't working for me.

more progress...

Starting with watercolor and will move into acrylic once the paper stops taking the paint as well.

Morning Warm-Up

Playing around with photoshop this morning. This began as a loose watercolor and then was tweaked in PS. 

I'm always looking for ways to make stuff in Photoshop not look like it was Photoshop. I think starting with traditional media and then going digital for polishing it up is the best bet.
I'm also drawing Jet Pack Jack constantly so that I can get consistent for the comic.

Portfolio Piece #2, Reluctant Vegetarian

This is an old idea revisited. Originally I made an etching of the troll under the bridge giving up his carnivorous ways, but I never quite finished it because etching is a long and arduous way to make an image that I never really took to. I had a lot of fun working on this painting, even if I'm not quite happy with how the reflection turned out. I felt I was at risk of overdoing the blobs of color in the water, so I called it quits. I think I should have added some foreground rocks into the pool of water to break up the reflections, but working back into watercolor is risky business. Honestly, I think like the duck the most.