Photo Ref Wednesdays No. 2

Can't show what this is for yet. I'll give you a hint though, it's a drawing of someone with at least one hand.

V-Day Salute

 

 Happy Valentine's Day boys and girls! In line with the spirit of this most hated holiday, I humbly present the cover art to X-23 #6. Why? Because, really, what could be more Valentonian than a busty leather-clad vixen stepping on someone?

If you don't agree, that's okay. it just means your Valentine's Day is probably going to look a lot different from mine.

Actually remembered to scan the pencils... that never happens.

The original art for this cover is sold. A lot if inquires from Italians, they were very eager for this piece. Make of that what you will.

Bucking the trends

 So apparently there's this thing called ESPN Magazine, and every year before basketball season they do a preview issue where they make predictions about each team in the NBA. This year, Marvel Comics handled that section and I was asked to contribute an illustration.

Key members of each team were represented by Marvel characters. My team was the Milwaukee Bucks, but if, unlike me, you know something about sports, you already knew that. You could tell just by looking at the illustration.

Me, I'd never heard of them before I got the reference. Nor had I heard of players Jennings and Bogut, featured here as Powerman & Ironfist, respectively. (Powerman & Ironfist I had heard of.)

None of that really matters though.  Here's why: despite knowing jack and shit about sports, I really like drawing sports imagery. If you think about it, athletes and superheroes... not so different. I mean, they both wear colorful, icon encrusted costumes, both have idealised, chiseled physiques, and drawing both requires the ability to capture intense dynamic motion.

Not so different.

Chain-link fence in background added digitally. Why? I'm not crazy, that's why.

My original version.  See above for the slightly tweaked final. ESPN got uneasy about depicting a black dude wearing "shackles and chains."

Photo Ref Wednesdays No.1

Boo!

I'll try to keep these up as long as I have reference to post, and I have a lot. This one relates to yesterday's Big Head post, but in the future I'll include whatever piece of art the goofy photos in question relate to.

A note to Messrs  Paolo Rivera and Stuart Immonen, I'm not sure which one of you I saw doing this first, so props to you both.

Dot-eye added in post.

The Big Head

A bit of unfinished business from last year: the cover art to R.E.B.E.L.S. #19. My final cover for the series.

I'd written up a lengthy blog post about it at the time, but in a spectacular techtard moment, deleted the whole thing irretrievably.

It was just too much.

I'm a fragile-spirited creative-type, I couldn't go back after that, and so it languished among my drafts. This tragic event also may or may not have contributed to the 6 month blogging hiatus. I'm not saying it did, but re-read the above carefully, and draw your own conclusions.

I'm dusting it off today though, as I've just gotten news that I'm among the 2011 Joe Shuster Award nominees. The Shusters are Canada's own comic creator awards, and I'm pretty chuffed to be recognized by them this year. More info about them and what they do here.

But wait, what has that got to do with...?

This cover is among the pieces I'm nominated for, and the only piece on their list not yet on the blog. Oh, and also? Getting the nom has given me one.

So, enough jibber-jab, this is my attempt to (sorta) re-create the post you would have read, if I didn't have fat Hungarian sausage-fingers. Ahem. This cover was different from all the others before (and since,) in that pencil never touched paper.

I did my rough digitally as per usual, but worked it a little further and blocked in some shadows.

And after an embarrassing photo-shoot in the studio bathroom, in the dark, lit only by the LED on my bike lock key, I had my reference ready to go. (Please see future Photo-ref Wednesday posts...)

And so I proceeded to skip the pencil stage entirely to lay in the blacks, straight onto the bristol (with a brush!)

And then proceed to lay in grey tones

In successive layers from dark to light

With Copic cool grey markers.

Maybe not as intricate as the original would have been, but there you have it kids!

Clement Sauve

Died last night.

He was 33 years old, two years younger than me.

I barely knew Clem, I only met him a handful of times. We sort of crossed paths career-wise at Devil's Due in the early 2000's. I took over from him first on Infantry covers, and then on Voltron for all of one issue before it was canceled.

I liked him, but I barely knew him, so it's not my place to get into some of the things other people are, but he was one of us.

This has been borne out by enough of my peers that even though I can only speak for myself with absolute authority, I'll say it anyway: Most of us who create as a way of life are driven by similar things. Our secret origins are often eerily similar, and tend to result in a lack of faith/interest/understanding in real-world trappings like wealth, family, and shiny things. We just want to make shit. And underneath that, perhaps born of simple fear, we share a desire to leave something behind, long after wealth, family and even we ourselves are gone.

Clem left a wealth of awesome behind.

Whether you knew Clem well, or never heard of him until this post, please take a moment today to learn a little more about him and look at all the beautiful things he made.

Sit and Deliver

I thought I'd balance yesterday's case study in less-than-hoped-for results, with another Soldier Zero cover, this time the cover to #3, which is one I think came together well.

 

This one was a bit of an experiment, both in terms of layout, and use of graphic elements. Stuart, the man inside the alien suit, hadn't been seen on the covers yet, and I thought featuring him, a human character for humans to identify with, was important.  

Funny how there's a lot less to say about a piece I'm happy with...