Merry Christmas to all!

I hope everyone is well today and you've all got what you wanted. Me, I'm just glad I have a great family and I have my health. Thank God for all things!

Here are four sketch cards I did for the American Cancer Society auction. I asked to do 12, but they sent only four cards to me, so I guess this is all the American Cancer Society gets this year.

In comic news, I have finished Gusto, but still no word on whether the colorist will be replaced with someone else or if I'll end up coloring it. I wasn't scheduled to color it, but the colorist they had wasn't quite up to par, so I offered and sent the editor one page colored. We'll see what happens.

I'm working on another short story, but this time for a creator over at Ronin Studios. He saw my work on their forum and he asked me to do the eight page back story in one of his up coming comics.

Until next time, stay safe and if you're getting blisters from drawing you're not drawing enough.

Josh

My new website...

It's been a long time coming, but my new website is up. http://www.joshmillsart.com

My wife did the website and you can see here portfolio here: http://phenixwd.deviantart.com/

I've got new work on the site and some preview pages from my new story that's going into Ronin Illustrated #5.

Josh

Gusto book finished and on to the next...!

I finished the cowboy/western short comic story called Gusto, but it still has to be colored. We don't know who or when that's going to be done, but I'm pretty happy with how it's come out. It took longer than I wanted, but this is only a part time job right now, so that's to be expected.

I'm already started on the new project--another short story--and I'm definitely taking my time on this one. It's kind of a war type story, but more dealing with after the war type story. The concept is really cool and I can't wait to post some sketch from it. I'm almost finished with the first page pencils and I'm inking it myself too.

I'm still playing around with my DS when I'm waiting for my wife at the doctors or on beak and where ever I can. So, I have a lot of unfinished sketches, but I'll get them finished eventually. I've been trying to spread the word about the Nintendo DS and COLORS, but so far I don't know if there are any new NDS/COLORS users.

Finally, I have reserved a hotel room for my wife and I and a table at the Seattle Comic Con in April. If anyone will be there I'm going to have a sketch book for sale and hopefully one of the published books I have. I’ll be selling the sketch book at this website as well, but not until after the con.

The Psylocke pinup is unfinished, but I thought I'd post it up so it remind me to finish it one of these days.

Hugh Jackman DS Painting

Here are a few DS paintings. Hugh Jackman took me the longest and I still could work on it, but I thought it was good enough. If you want to see the playback on these paintings click on the below link where you can see my colors gallery.









http://colors.collectingsmiles.com/author.php?page=1&id=474

Past and Future

This is a painting I started awhile back, which I posted a sample of way back when, so you can go back and find if you want. I'm finally finished and I think it's pretty good, but mostly I'm just happy with it being finished.

I'm inking Gusto now and I should be finished by the end of the week.

Josh

Favola update

I just posted the latest page to my web comic Favola. I'm updating it every two weeks every Monday, but sometimes I'm a little late. Hopefully I won't be late anymore. I want to keep this up for at least a year.

Here are the first two pages and one panel to the third page.

Psylocke

I did this over the weekend to play with Jim Lee's style. He's a real great example of the greatness of the 90's. Many of the artists have changed their style, but Jim's has stayed pretty much the same. I like that. I seem to change styles with moods.

I'm almost finished with the Gusto pages, but I got too busy this weekend again, so I was only able to finish two pages and this pic.

Lunch Sketches

I've been taking my 30 minute lunch and drawing recently. Mostly because it's cold outside and I don't want to go anywhere and a lot of the time I'll eat while I work, so I can take time to draw on my lunch.

Here are a few of my lunch sketches I've done this week.

The Gusto book is moving along nicely. I'm four pages in and I should be finished this weekend with the pencils. I'll ink them next week and I'll be starting another project right after it, so I'll let you know more about that when I start it.

Josh

Random stuff

As I said below this is just some work I've been doing for the past six months.

More sequential pages!

Sequential pages

I've decided to show some of the work I've been working on in the past six months or so. I had some rejected by publishers and others I haven't finished yet. If you like one group of pages more than another, please let me know. I can use the feedback.

Thank,

Josh

Web Comic Updated

I just updated my web comic with its first colored page.

Here is the link to my web comic: http://josh.smackjeeves.com/

For a quick update I'm doing another short story for Ronin Studios for their Hope anthology. I'm looking forward to it, because it's a western. I normally draw superhero things and this is a nice change of pace.

Favola

Favola is the title of my web comic. The sketch is of one of the characters named Faith.

Thoughts on Holmes

I'm reading the Complete Sherlock Holmes Volume I and thus far it's understandable why it was such an instant hit, and subsequently one of the most endearing characters throughout history. Holmes has this unique and appealing arrogance. I never really noticed it, but I think in a way the hero is meant to be you, the reader, and therefore the arrogance is ones own arrogance. In any event, the stories are short and subtly working towards a greater story that seems to be developing throughout the volume, but I've only just began to read it, so I am only speculating.

I think what makes these short stories so appealing to me, a comic artist, is that each short story could easily be a comic book. I think if I were to illustrate the stories I'd want to make them more relevant to today's technological advantages and knowledge of sciences. I could easily see these stories in a future type setting as well. I think it might bring a dynamic feeling to the stories if it was set in a Gotham City type surrounding. Obviously, this is where Batman came from, but with the Shadow added to the mix.

If I were to create a new superhero based on Holmes I'd want him to have few and almost weak powers, but an arrogance that was almost recluse. Maybe make situations more dynamic, with shooting, fighting and lots of action, but still making the deduction his greatest attribute.

I've only read up to page 99, the third chapter one, I think. Each short story has it's own chapters, so page number is really the only way to know where I am in the book. I do think these stories, so far, were ill prepared, as I'm sure he didn't know how popular they would become. It seemed, in the first story, as he approached the ending he decided to tell the story of the perpetrator, to fulfill a sense of satisfaction for the murders that had taken place and Holmes own importance in the story became lessened in a way. I think the story was well done, but could have been organized better to create more mystery on top of the mystery, but then again I'm not that a writer, so these are just my thoughts so far.

I'll be continuing the story of my 24 hour comics challenge as a web comic that I'll publish every Monday, hopefully. I've posted some of the characters in color here and I'll keep you all posted with my progress as it develops.

As far as other projects, I have things in the works and I'm in talks with a few companies and as soon as I have something concrete to report and will.

Josh

Once Upon a Love Story

Here is the comic I did during the 24 hour comic challenge: Once Upon a Love Story

The image on the cover page was drawn after the challenge, but the cover page itself was drawn during the challenge.

Enjoy!

24 hour comic finished, but not scanned yet.

I'll have my full 25 page comic up either tonight or tomorrow after work. I just got home and I haven't slept in almost two days, so I'm quite sleepy. I did one extra page for the title.

24 Hour Comic Book Challenge

I'll be doing my third 24 hour comic book this weekend. I do this every year with Squidworks and whomever else shows up. The other two years had about 30 people attend. The process of staying up for over 24 hours, because I have to drive there from another city, is extremely painful, but very rewarding.

I get a lot out of it, but most of all I can feel good about accomplishing what normally takes more than a month, in 24 hours. You stop worrying about all the little details and focus only on the whole story. You can see the story form right before your eyes. Even a small 9 page story takes awhile and once it's finished you can finally look back and say, "Okay, now I get the full picture." Where as a 24 hour comic you're seeing the full product in one sitting.

Another thing I've noticed is what you learn and how much better I got at laying out pages once I finished one of these. It's not like anything else. You can spend hours drawing and finishing pages, but once you've finished a 24 hour comic you realize what's important and what can be left alone to come back to if you have time.

This year I'm doing something different than the other two years. I'll be taking an hour or more to write a good script...well, better than just making it up as I go. I'll write it much like a do any story, using the three act play format. I'll come up with all the right elements that make up a good story and I'll try to end it on a note that will entice the reader to inquire about more stories. Who knows, it might become a new series.

I don't think about what I'm going to write until I sit down and begin the challenge, which is something I haven't done on the other two challenges. I had the main character thought of before hand, but this time I'm just going to go all out and come up with it right then and there.

Here is the link to Squidworks 24 hour page: http://www.squidworks.com/Events/2008d24hcc.html

Lots of sketches

I'm supposed to be doing some comic pages, but I've been too busy to sit down and get all the references I need and whatnot, so I've been doing sketches when I have a few minutes here and there. Today, I did the pencil sketches and finished the x-man sketch.

I'm starting to work in a new department at work, which is a good thing. I'll be working in the Data Center with all the servers and mainframes. Normally I'm either working on updating documents for IT or on the phones with customers. Now I get to get my hands dirty, which is where I've been wanting to go for the past two years, so I'm quite happy. I'll be working a different shift, so I have only one day off this week.

Well, back to work I go!

Red Day

I call this piece Red Day for obvious reason. I'm told this is a book, but it's also a game called The Witcher. I did this for a contest over at DeviantArt. I have a link to my page in the links section of this blog.

You can order prints here: http://www.deviantart.com/print/4232706/

Witcher Game pinup

Did this for fun and practice drawing monsters. I've finished the Ronin Studios story I was working on and it's off to the letter now. The next story is kind of a horror story, but it's also something of a mystery, like Sherlock Holmes. Anyway, it's just in the beginning of my though process, so I really don't have any idea what it's going to be like.

I'll post sketches of some of the characters when they're done.

Anime sketches from NDK

NDK was a learning experience for sure. I have to remember to print business cards before I go next time. I printed like 50 the first day and had three left, so I kept having to go back and print more. One thing I liked about the show was the diversity of people. We had comic guys, Trekkie's, anime and just about anyone else you could think of.

I didn't like that this show seemed geared for kids, but I'd never take my kids to that show.

The comic panels we did were really fun and I was surprised to find people listening to me. The webcomic panel was the biggest panel with maybe 35 to 50 people. The rest, how to pitch a comic, making comics on the computer and 24 hour comic challenge, were a little smaller. We had a few other panels that I wasn't apart of, though.

I'm hoping from my experience in this con I can be more prepared for Seattle.

Nan Desu Kan

I'm a little late posting this, but here goes. I'll be at the con all weekend, starting today. We don't know where we're sitting, but somewhere in artist ally. We'll be doing zombie sketches. I think I'll do one part, then someone will do another and so on, unless we have requests for individual sketches by only one of us.

I'll be in a few panels too. One for webcomics, one for pitching to publishers and another for the 24 hour comic book challenge, which we're doing again in Oct.

The sketch is of my wife.

Learn more about the con: http://www.ndkdenver.org/

He-Man

I try to post something meaningful when I post, but it seems nothing I have to say is going to make much sense anyway, so I might as well just ramble on and hope somewhere in the end there will be a meaning to what I've said.

I just finished the first page of the story I'm doing for Ronin Studios, but I had already finished page four weeks ago and I finished penciling all nine pages a week ago. I sent my pages to Diana (editor) and she had suggested I get a letter that is really good at...something. I actually don't know why it was so important (which is why I don't letter), but it turns out I got a letter that is an old friend of hers, Richard Nelson. She was really happy to hear he wanted to work with me and I was happy too, because I really do want my pages to be the best they can be and I want the story to be told in the best possible way it can be told. I know nothing about lettering, Erik Larson has said as much to me, not in those words mind you, but he said something like "your lettering is weird", which says it all.

Thinking of Erik reminds me I want to pitch to them again. I always have some new idea that I want to pitch, just no time to finish the pitches. Superhair is one such idea I want to pitch, but I still need to ink, color and letter the pages. Plus, if this story with Ronin takes off I might want to continue it with a publisher like Image as an on going or a miniseries. It's just that time thing that I keep running into problems with.

This week was no exception, to the busyness that is my life, but I also had a lot of fun. My in laws came in on Tuesday from Italy and they love it here. I love it that they are here too, so it kind of works out. People always talk about in laws as a bad thing, but I really like mine. They love my daughters and of course they like their daughter, but I like similar things that they like. Computers for one. They bought my wife a new one and I built them one to take back to Italy. We put some Linux OS on it and it's working like a charm. I forgot how much I love building computers.

I'm now rapping up my post and coming to the meaning of this post. No meaning in sight, so I'll just end it with a saying of mine, "life is short, so remember the people that mean the most to you and spend time with them…and always leave some room open for creating art."

Style

I've noticed a lot more interest in my newest work than I have in awhile. I think styles come and go, but some styles last longer than others and I see this new style I'm working with will be here for awhile. Eric Canete wrote on his blog, that he steals other artists styles, with the underlining meaning that all artists look for inspiration and steal from those inspirations to create what they call their style. I thought that was a really cool way of describing the learning process of any artist.

We're all trying to improve and when someone comes along that you connect with you take what you can from them. Whether it's as simple as how they draw feet or trying to mimic the style completely, which intern shapes the style of your work. Naturally, copying isn't what Eric was talking about. I think when we artists go so far as to copy another artist completely, we're simply losing site of the goal, which is to create art of their own. If it's not the goal, then why draw in the first place. Just collect art, which would save time too.

The reason for bringing this up is that I've gone through some major changes in my art over the past 2 to 3 years. I had a Middleton faze, Travis Charest, Chris Bachalo and before them the list was even large, which includes Jim Lee and Bart Sears. My point, as an artist I'm always going to be making changes in my style and art, but for now I'm sticking as is for awhile.

Publishing with Ronin Studios

I have been given the green light from Ronin Studios to publish my short story I call Transfer. Diana, a great editor and good person all around, is having me touch things up a little. One part of the story is questionable. My friend Mike is offered to help me touch it up, so I asked him to jump on board as co-writer. Once the story is approved he'll write up the script. I'll draw the pages as soon as possible, as I'm scheduled for a con next month, NDK. I'd like to show the art off there and even possibly have something printed to hand out at the show.

The sketch I posted here is the other main character for the Transfer story. I'm only doing the story in grayscale, because Ronin Studios had two stories that had similar plots for their Hope books, so they want to put it in their Ronin Illustrated, which I'm fine with because I'd just like to finally get one of my own stories published.

HOPE: The HERO Initiative

I thought of a pretty interesting story for the HOPE: The HERO Initiative anthology at Ronin Studios. I sent it to them and they wrote me back asking me for an example of a page that the art would be in. I didn't have one, so I sent them a few things and told them this is all I have for now. I'm doing up a page today to send to them.

I got the web comic job I was hoping to get. There was a few times while we were negotiating that I felt it wouldn't work out, but we came up with some good compromises and I signed the contract this morning. She says the comic will last for 18 months and I’ll be doing 10 pages a month. I'll start drawings tomorrow and by the end of the week I should have three pages to show everyone. I'm not sure if they'll start posting the art on their website right away or if they want to wait a few weeks.

I'll ask if I can post up some of the characters to give you something to look at. For now, I've posted the lead character for the Hope story I came up with. If they don't end up publishing it, I'll just post the story in here and maybe put it in a sketch book to bring to cons.

Speaking of cons, I'm scheduled to be at the NDK this year in Denver. This is my first con with a table and I'll be doing some programs with some other artists. The programs will be on pitching to publishers, making web comics, drawing a comic in 24 hours (which I've done twice and plan to do again this year), and I'll be doing sketches and whatnot when I have time.

I'll post more about NDK when it's closer to Sept.

Light at the end of...

So, I might get to do a monthly web comic. Not the one that I wrote and drew, though. Some novelist is looking to publish a short story before her novel comes out and we've been talking this week. I did a test drawing for her, but not of one of her characters, but of the style she wants to comic to be in.

If I get the job it doesn't pay extremely well, but it is consistent and she seems very legitimate, so I'm looking forward to getting the work. I actually haven't gotten any paid work, since I did this design for a new character. Plus, its going to be consistent sequential work, so I'm happy about that.

I'll post as soon as know if I get the job.

Super Hair Cover

I'm kind of in the middle of projects in a way. The Super Hair project is finished, as for as the art goes. I need to finish lettering the pages and then Mike is going to tweak the dialog to fit better on my art. I'm not so good and making the images work with the lettering, so Mikes going to help by working with my art to make the lettering fit. I think it takes real talent to be able to change dialog to work with art and still keep the story you want, rather than making the art work with the dialog. I should be able to do it, but there was so much going on in each panel that I couldn't fit it all in and still leave room for the entire dialog. Sorry Mike. I sent my web comic to Zuda and I'm hoping to hear from them in the next two months, as that is the amount of time they have to get back to me, per their agreement. If they don't like it I'm planning to submit it to a few websites that host web comics. I'd really like Zuda to except it, but I like the story and since I'm writing it and doing the art I can do it anyway I want. So far, from the what people I've shown it to are saying, it looks to be a good formula for a web comic and should keep people interested. The format is in an eight page sequence, so I really can't post a page every week. I have to post eight pages at a time for the formula to work correctly.

So, what do you all think of the cover. Leave a comment and give me your thoughts. The styles a little different from what I normally draw in and the five pages I've drawn are in the same style. I'll be sending it to Image Central for review.

New Mutants

This was for the Ten Ton Sketch challenge. I know you're thinking I said I'd be doing more sequential pages instead of sketch challenges, but that's still true. I'm about to do a cover for the new book that Mike and I are doing and I needed some practice with pinups. So, did this sketch as a worm up.

Selling my art

I just started selling my art on line. You can see the link to your right, Buy Original art. Here is one of the pieces from there. I don't think I've ever posted this up here before, so it's old, but new to you.

I've just finished my first web comic. I finished eight pages, fully colored and lettered by me. I have been working on it for so long, I can't even remember. I have some minor things to correct and I'll be shopping it around to Zuda, Shadowline, Image Central, etc.

I'm also working on the other comic with Mike called "Super Hair". It's about super-heroes and how ridicules it can be when you put the paparazzi in the mix. It's funny and my art hasn't looked better, not to be vain or something. I'm just saying the style is a little goofy, but seems to work better than some of the other stuff I've done.

Super Hair

Me and Mike are working on another project, which was for the Comic Challenge from Platinum, but we couldn't get a fully realized project finish in four days. So, we'll pitch to Image or some other studio when we finish it.

The sketch I've included is one of the characters called Insomniac.