a little "making of" Samanya

SAMANYA from Neverminds

Damn, its been a long time since I posted something new here...

Been working on a project for the last month and have not been drawing anything else (when I can post stuff from that project, I will) and now that I've got a few days... I'm going to catch up on some other drawings.

This one was one I did for my friend Rich Bernatovech of his character Samanya from his comic series NEVERMINDS. Check it out here.

More coming soon...

NEW YORK COMIC CON... here we come!

Just submitted my payment for my Artist Alley table (well, half a table... man on a budget, dontcha know) for the New York Comic Con... WHOO HOO!

Now on to the next step... planning and money. Maybe a combination of eBay and good old fashion begging? He he he.

More coming soon
-Drew

New Sketchbook Covers

I am in the process of re-vamping my 4 sketchbooks for an up coming show. The first time I did each sketchbook I used very similar covers and people could not tell they were different. They would pick up one, check it out, put it down and walk on, never realizing there were two or three different books sitting there.

This time, I am making them distinctive. By adding COLOR, yeah! One 2008 and 2009 have been in any type of circulation and 2010 had a very limited print run and 2011 has never been in print so there's a lot of new stuff in this collection.

I'm also working on a smaller size book, not page count mind you... so far, 2008 is 90 pages with over 80 illustrations. 2011 will be closer to 130. The difference I am working on is size. I looooove the 8.5x11 sketchbooks but they are expensive. 6.625x10.25 or comic size is fine but I think for sketchbooks it's boring. I'm going to give the Digest size a try. 5.5x8.5. I just ordered a proof copy of the 2008 sketchbook and I'll see if I like the size.

More soon.
-Drew

Venus DelMachio with text

Venus DelMachio

Venus DelMachio was originally introduced in Volume Two of Cornerstone but with what I am doing next, she will have a bigger part of the story. This is the forth of four images I had racking around in my brain for my new Cornerstone launch next year... more coming soon... I Promise.

enjoy
-Drew

Andi with text

and with text

Andi

My favorite little Witch from Tales from the Cornerstone, Andi.

This is the third of four images.

Last one coming soon.
-Drew

Cortez... with text

Here it is with the text...

Cortez

My favorite Werewolf... Cortez.

The second of four Cornerstone related character spotlights. More coming soon...

-Drew

and, of course, a little "making of" Ricky 17

Ricky 17

Tales From The Cornerstone... coming back in 2012

I recently made a list of all the projects that I will be working on for the rest of this year and in 2012. The first (of many) upcoming projects will be a return to my "creator-owned" series Tales From The Cornerstone.

I'm going to take a whole new different approach to Cornerstone and I'm really looking forward to getting it out there... more coming soon.

This is the first of 4 teaser images I have in my head. This one featuring my main man, Ricky 17.

-enjoy
-Drew

Artist’s Block, not necessarily a mental thing.

Everyone has heard of “Writer’s Block”. Defined as “a condition, primarily associated with writing as a profession, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work.” Well, Artists feel it too. A combination of family issues and a disastrous convention outing lead me to one that lasted almost six months last year.

In an attempt to fight the Block, I made a New Year’s Resolution to do a sketch-a-day, also inspired by my friend Rich Bernatovech who did the same thing in 2009 and produced a Great sketchbook from it. For the first four months of the year, I did pretty good. 120 sketches in 120 days. Well, as of today, June 18, 2011 I am officially 40 sketches behind, and I know why. Artist’s Block.

But this time, it’s a little different. This time it is a Physical Block and not a mental one. Let me try to explain.

When I accept a project, whether it’s a paid commission or a simple freebie sketch for a friend, I set a certain expectation for the final product. I imagine the final picture in my head and I tweak it till I know exactly what I want, and then I draw it. Some times this process can take a few minutes, some times a few days. In one case, I imagined a double sized splash page for several months but when I final figured it out in my head, I completed the whole thing in two days. I actually have dozens of personal ideas floating around in my head that have yet to make it to paper, but that is going to change very, very soon (I will write more on that soon).

Because of my process, I work on several projects at one time. I roll ideas over and over in my mind and work on the one that reaches that final step. Usually finishing up a drawing in a day or two.

Today, I realized why I am currently in a new Block. I have several personal issues, family issues, real work issues and such but those are not the cause of the problem. The problem is a sketch. And not an idea for a sketch but an actual physical sketch.

I have this sketch, currently in the pencil stage, that has been sitting on my desk for over a month. This sketch is killing me. I can’t finish it and because I can’t move past it I can’t finish anything else. I have several sketches ready to go but I just can’t get past this one sketch. I’ve realized what I have to do… I have to trash the sketch. I have to rip it up and throw it away. If we still lived in our old house, I would probably start a fire in the fireplace and burn the thing.

I’m not sure what it is about this sketch. I know it’s not the subject matter. When I first got the request I jumped right into it, knowing almost immediately what I wanted to do. I sketched it out right away and then sat on it. I keep looking at the sketch and something about it just isn’t right. And I don’t know exactly what it is. Would the requester be happy with the sketch? I think so, but I’m not happy with it. And that’s why it will NEVER get done and why nothing else will get done.

So today, this is what I am going to do. I am turning around, right now, grabbing the sketch, tearing it into 20 pieces and starting all over again. I’m going to make myself happy with the final product and then (finally) make the requester happy (he’s only been waiting five or six weeks). I am going to physically remove my Artist’s Block.

Time to draw.

Later
-Drew

SUBCULTURE

I did a "Guest Strip" for Kevin Freeman and Stan Yan's webstrip SUBCULTURE. Check it out Here.

a little "making of" Union Jack

UNION JACK

Catching up on several commissions, this being one from last year (with a few more to go). Union Jack.

enjoy
-Drew

a little "making of" Saku

SAKU of Agents of C.O.L.T.

I did all the main designs of the members of the Agents of C.O.L.T. from PKD Media when I worked on Volume One. We are about to start working on Volume Two of the series and I want to take the opportunity to tweak some of the designs.

SAKU, the ninja of the group, was one of my favorites. I want to stylize him a lot more for Volume Two. This image has been rumbling around my head for a while.

More C.O.L.T.s characters coming soon.

-Drew

a little "making of" Poison Ivy

POISON IVY

This was me just screwing around.

I have a request for an IVY sketch and I just keep pushing it off. I may send this in it's place... maybe.

-Drew

a little "making of" Darth Talon

DARTH TALON

Ok, so since I got back from the Super Show I have been in a little bit of a slump, but it's mainly because I have been busy with a billion other things, but that's starting to level off and art is coming back.

I have had this idea for another Darth Talon since the Show and here it is. I loooove going all out on some of these sketches. This one is not for anyone specifically and I went kind of all out on it.

Might show up on eBay later, who knows.

enjoy
-Drew

a little "making of" Jasmine

JASMINE

I was iffy on the background idea for this one but I think it worked out.

enjoy
-Drew

a little "making of" Tinkerbell

TINKERBELL

I drew Jason as a Yellow Lantern, his son as an Orange Lantern and now I did his daughters as Tinkerbell and Jasmine. This one is Tinkerbell.

I really liked how this one came out.

Green/Red Lantern Two-Face re-worked

Green/Red Lantern Two-Face.

re-working a few black and white pics

Last year at the 2010 Comic Geek Speak Super Show, I did 10 pieces for Jason and all were in Black and White. This year, he gave several back to me to color... and these are a few of them (I did Yellow Lantern Scarecrow and Red Lantern Darth Maul at the show).

Blue Lantern Nightwing
enjoy
-Drew

"My Life on a Leash"

I've been toying around with doing a web-strip for a long, long time and this is nothing more than a "practice" strip.

I am working on layout, title design, text (actual typed text or hand written text), balloons (or lack therefore of them) and other such stuff like materials and style.

Seems everyday new ideas get presented to me for the strip and it may start coming together sooner than I think. Originally slated for next year, it might start happening a lot sooner... I'll keep you all posted.

The Ink Spot 2011 Part One back cover

And, of course, the Back Cover.

The Ink Spot 2011 Part One

This is the cover to my new sketchbook, The Ink Spot 2011 Part One and includes all 120 sketches I did from 1/1/2011 to 4/30/2011 (well, around about those dates, he he).

Still not sure when it will be available or in what format (black and white or color) but I am working on that now.

2011 Comic Geek Speak Super Show Sketches

Here is the bulk of the sketches I did while at the CGS Super Show. There were a few that I forgot to take pictures of (Duh) but they are...

The Scorpion fom Dave Wachter's Guns of Shadow Valley
Allan Scott Green Lantern
Hawkgirl
a Maroon Lantern
Darth Talon
Black Lantern Venom
White Lantern Anti-Venom
Red Lantern Batman
Black Lantern Spider Jerusalem
Jeanette from Secret Six
Jim's wife as a Red Lantern
and Dex-Starr

if I count each one toward my Sketch-a-Day (and I am... it's my perogative), I am now caught up through April 30th... Yeah!

Now to work on the first (of three) sketchbooks for the year.

enjoy
-Drew

a little "making of" Star Sapphire Captain Kirk

CAPTAIN KIRK as a STAR SAPPHIRE

Don't ask me cause I really don't know...

Captain Kirk as a Star Sapphire.

not sure what else to say here...

a little "making of" Golden Glider

GOLDEN GLIDER

This was a quick sketch for a kid going to the CGS Super Show. I used reference from several different versions of the character Golden Glider from the Flash series.

enjoy
-Drew

a little "making of" Corwin as a Red/Yellow Lantern

CORWIN as a RED/YELLOW LANTER

This was another request for the CGS Super Show where the requestor wanted himself drawn as a Red/Yellow Lantern hybrid.

I think it came back out pretty cool.

-Drew

a little "making of" Harley Quinn

HARLEY QUINN

This was a request for the CGS Super Show LAST Year that I finished this year and then was not picked up.

Oh, well.

eBay, here is comes.
-Drew

FAMILY GUY LANTERNS

This was the original request from LAST years Super Show that I never got around to completing... The FAMILY GUY Lanterns.

Stewie Griffin as an Orange Lantern
Peter Griffin as a Black Lantern
Lois Griffin as a Red Lantern
Chris Griffin as a Yellow Lantern
Meg Griffin as a White Lantern
Brian Griffin as a Blue Lantern
Quagmire as a Star Sapphire
Joe as a Green Lantern
Herbert as a Indigo Lantern

enjoy
-Drew

a little "making of" Star Sapphire Belle

STAR SAPPHIRE BEAUTY

This is the second half of that last request for Disney's Beauty and the Beast with Beauty (Belle) as a Star Sapphire. I originally wanted the backgrounds to go together but when I stopped and looked closer, it was all of the Beast elements in the background and nothing connecting Belle to Beast.

So, instead, I did similar background elements to connect them.

enjoy
-Drew

a little "making of" Yellow Lantern Beast

YELLOW LANTERN BEAST

This was another request for the 2011 Comic Geek Speak Super Show (next weekend for those of you who did not know). Beast from Disney's Beauty and the Beast as a Yellow Lantern.

This one was fun and I went a little crazy on it. Enjoy
-Drew

Few quick updates...

well, other than getting really far behind on my sketches... there is a bright light at the end. I actually got to work on some art this weekend, even with family and Easter stuff going on, and I will be posting a few of them now.

enjoy and keep checking back
-Drew

a little "making of" Blue Lantern Dan

DAN as a BLUE LANTERN

One more member of the LanternCast... Dan as a Blue Lantern.

enjoy
-Drew

a little "making of" Yellow Lantern Savage Opress