Tue class

Class was a little smaller on Tuesday, but I figure since it was a holiday people are out of town or busy. We studied character concepts and design. I did take photos of the work again, but I'm posting them on a site give to the students that come that week.

Fri Class

Here are the images I drew during class today. This class again studied one character and how to draw him in a comic strip. Next week we'll work with another type of character and do something similar. I'll try to plan out the class so I can give hand outs so you can work at home too.

Josh

Starting to teach classes

I'll be teaching classes this summer for "Beginning Comic Book Illustration" and I'll be having classes two days a week. I will be creating a new blog to update every weeks class outline and updates for students to check. For now, I'll be just having everyone check this website for updates until I can get a new blog started.

I'm going to setup a paypal account so that students can pay for classes online and get registered for classes that way too.

The email I have listed on this blog is fine to email me about questions you may have.

Thanks,

Josh

Charlton Heston

I've been keeping myself busy with all kinds of cool projects. I wish I could post what I'm doing, but not able to yet. I did a character design for a company and they might have me do a small comic for the character and I'm working on a top secret project that might become a web comic.

I have also decided not to enter anymore sketch challenges, unless there's money involved, so I can work more on sequential art. I posted up my art on comic space and I noticed I have a whole lot of sketches, pinups, and covers, but very little work with sequential pages. So, you'll be seeing more sequential work from me hopefully shortly.

Card

I've been busy at work on different projects. One of which you see the image from below, but not able to talk about it as of yet. I'm doing doodles for an idea for a web comic and I got some good feedback from a screenwriter friend on the formula for the web comic, so I'm looking forward in completing it. I'm still working on a pitch with Mike for an idea he came up with. I've only finished two pages so far, because I'm kind of busy doing commissions on other small projects.

I hope to have something good to tell you once I can finish one of these projects, so stay tuned.

Tutorial

I thought I'd do tutorial on making a pinup this time.

So, I had in my head a loan girl and her pet Saber Tooth Tiger. Naturally I referenced the character and her landscape. So, I figured Africa would be a good reference to start. I referenced a normal tiger, but I made a lot of changes to make him look cooler. A normal tiger doesn't really look they way I drew it.

I found a really nice image of grass that I used as a reference as well.




When I started the pencils I was thinking only of design and the pose. No details. When I started inking I thought a little more pencil work was needed for the grass, but they were still pretty rough and from there I started inking. I added all the shapes and line work when I inked it, but only because I know what I wanted when I started. If I'm not sure, I'll tighten up my pencil work and then ink it.

I inked the boarder first, then started inking the grass, her boot and the tiger, etc. I moved my way up and then finished it off by doing the clouds and mountains.


I hope this was somewhat interesting to you.

Thanks for reading.

Tommy Girl

This was a commission requested a few days ago. It's supposed to be a t-shirt later. The guy just requested a school girl with a tommy gun, dead guys around her, and white roses. I thought it was a cool combinations and he likes it.

Willow page

"Sometimes I need a break from work I'm doing. Normally I can just sketch something, but I want to do more sequential pages, so when I found the art contest for a single page over at the Blueline Boards I couldn't resist."

I said the above over at another board and didn't want to retype it here. This week I'm going back to work on coloring and more page work on the new project I'm doing with Mike. This time he came up with the idea and it's pretty fun doing something without the story going on in my head while I'm drawing it. Normally I'd be think of other plots and whatnot while drawing, but Mike is taking care of all that, so all I have to do is the art.

Willow sketches

I found a challenge on the Blueline boards about a character designed on the boards by a guy named Clayboy. Really cool design and the contest is one page sequential, so I thought I could fit that it my schedule. I'll post when I'm done.

The pitch we sent to Image Shadowline was rejected, but there are still other prospects. I'm looking into getting a colorist to work on the rest of the pages while I work on yet another pitch that Mike and I want to do.

Wolverine

I inked and colored this piece for the no prize challenge at ten ton studios. The idea was to ink over someone else's pencils that we found on the forum somewhere. So, Joh James came along and I couldn't resist inking his amazing pencils. He's a rising star and I'm sure you'll be seeing his work all over the place soon.

Bloodrayne sketch

Just a quick sketch I did this morning. Updates to come!

Redesign of Havok and Polaris

I thought I'd take a break form the serious work for a little while and have some plain old fun. I won the last sketch challenge at Ten Ton Studios and I decided to have the next contest be about redesigning X-Men characters in normal clothing, or in this case not so normal clothing.

No word from Image yet, but by this time I'm hardly thinking about it. I think I'm getting numb to the waiting.

Mystic Lady and Fury

Some sketch challenge entries for the Ten Ton No Prize challenge and Sketch challenge. I'm back in a good rhythm for drawing again and I'm hoping to draw the first five pages of our new book today. Just the roughs for now and maybe I'll finish penciling them, but I don't want to complete them incase Image has some changes they want to make on our book...that is if they even want to publish it.

No word yet, but the waiting is getting easier now, because I'm planning on submitting to other publishers soon.

Kid Netptune

This is another piece I did for Hiro Unlimited. I've started coloring it already and should be finished in a day or so.

We sent our pitch over a week ago and no word yet. At this point I'm looking forward to hearing them say no, because this waiting is killing me. Last time I pitched to Image Erik got back to me in three days, so I don't know what this means. I guess this means maybe next time I should pitch to Erik (Image Central) rather than Image Shadowline.

If they do say no then we have at least three other prospects that I know on a personal level and even more that are friends of friends, so I'm pretty sure we can find a home for Space and Time.

Nightcrawler

We finished our pitch and we're now waiting on a yes or no. This won't be the end for this book if Image says no, so don't worry. I'm making a list of publishers that might be interested in publishing this book and we're working on the first five pages of the book. The pitch we sent was the last five pages of the first book.

On a side note, I’m working on another pinup/cover for Hiro Unlimited. I’ve gotten the rough approved so all I have to do now is get better (I’m sick) and start working on it.

Kraven

I took a break from coloring to do his little schetch, but now I have to get back to my next pinup for Hire Unlimited.

Deathlock

Hey all! I thought the Deathlock challenge was cool, but I hardly have time for much fun drawing these days. I've been doing logos, finishing up my pitch to Image, and commissions, which keeps me petty busy these days. Here is a quick sketches I did while at work.

I'm just about finished with the cover and I'll start coloring page 1 and the cover in a day or so. We should be done in the middle of next week and I'll check with Kris at Shadowline to see if it is okay to send her our pitch. She maybe busy, so I don't want to bombard her with our pitch if she doesn't have time to look at it.

I'll most likely send our pitch to Image only for now and if they don't like it I'll try other publishers, which there are quite a few and I'm sure we'll find a home somewhere.

Judge Dredd

Another sketch at a pretty small size. For one I'm busy, but also I like being able to put little details in a small area. I'm supposed to color this for a no price challenge, but I'm supposed to have time, so we'll see.

I'm finished with the pitch, but taking my time on the cover, since Shadowline is in the middle of doing their writer challenge and will be too busy to look at it this week. I have to do the lettering, but it takes a few hours at tops to do all five pages, so I'm not doing that until last.

I have to come up with a good logo, but I kind of do this for a living, so I should be able to come up with one that I like. I went with a pretty common type of cover look, but it is coming out very well, at least I think it is. The real test will be when I send it to Shadowline.

I’m actually getting a ton of work, for logos, comic art, and little paying jobs like commissions and stuff, so If I’m not posting here as often you know why.

One of the Thunderbolts

So what's up everyone? I've finished penciling the submission I'm doing for Image and now it's off to correct, ink and letter them. I'm only coloring two pages-the cover and one sequential page. The reason being is Chris from Shadowline Image has agreed to let me send my submission in with only those two pages colored. I thought that was very nice of her and I'm hoping she and Jim will like the idea.

Mike and I have been talking about some of the character development for the book, so we're getting geared up for this. One thing I've learned is not to give up, so if Image doesn't like it I know that there is a home for this story somewhere.

Sketch cards

These are for an auction for the American Cancer Society. You can learn more about it here: http://www.tentonstudios.com/forum/index.php?topic=4731.0

Deadpool

Still pretty busy right now. I haven't had time to even start the sixth page for the new project and I still got to finish the second pinup for Hiro Unlimited. I just have to finish up the coloring, which doesn't take that long.

This Deadpool I did for a sketch challegne, but didn't have time to finish it on time.

Okay, back to work I go.

Hulk vs. Wolverine

So another week starts and things are looking up. I have two brothers that live here in CO and as of Friday two more coming, so that makes five brothers living in CO. We'll be taking over CO in no time. Now I just have to get my two sisters and my parents to join us.

The game plan for this week is to finish page six, which will be page seven, and then if I have time to finish page four we will finally be finished penciling our pitch. Mike has done so much writing already that he's just waiting for me at this point.

Maybe I can get him to do the letting for the comic, which would keep him on the writing side of things still and he can learn a new trade...but really I'll just be getting him to do more work, so I have less to do. :)

So, after the pages are all finished Mike and I will look over everything again and try to fix stuff-make sure everything makes sense before I start inking the pages.

Christmas Card

I don't normally do Christmas cards and to most this is late, but I thought I'd post it anyway. I have another one that I did of the mountains painting too.

Many Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas by the old calendar and so do I. The old calendar, known also as the Gregorian calendar, was used by the US even during the time of President Lincoln, however, the Julian calendar took over, as most of the world used it. I figure why not be as close to the true Christmas as I can, plus presents are much cheaper after the Julian calendar's Christmas.

Zealot

I didn't have quite the time I wanted to spend on this sketch, but it has some nice action to it. The girls in the foreground are too small or Zealot is too big, but I still like this one. I used more blacks than I normally do, which is something I like to do with my sketches that is I like to do something different than I normally do.

I'm still plugging away with Hiro Unlimited next pinup and I've finished inking it. I'll start the flats today and finish the coloring tomorrow or this weekend and if I get the green light to post it I will.

I'm also working on page five of the Space and Time project, which I'm thinking will be finished, pencils only, by the 7th of January. After I'm finished with the pencils I'll go back and fix any problems and possibly add some more details. I only want to add what will be pertinent to the story, but I also want the art to have a very detailed look to it. Something I generally don't do, because I ink and color my own work it takes a lot of time to finish. The reason basically for this change is simply the style of the book is meant to be very 1960's sci-fi. So, the art will reflect in this light.

If we get the green light from Image I'll have to higher two artists to help with this project, if we're going to get it done by next Christmas. I'd like to get a background artist to help out on some of the pages and a flatter to help with the color. We'll see how it goes!

Lone Wolf and Cub

I'm in the process of finishing my second pinup for Hiro Unlimited and I love doing it. It's something completely different from what I might normally draw and it's looking pretty cool so far. I with Hiro Unlimited had more work for me, but looks like I'm only getting three pinups in this book.

I've finished four pages for my pitch to image and I've added two more pages to the mix, for a total of seven, so three more to go. We had to add one page for continuity and the seventh page is to build suspense. So, the pacing will change slightly, but the overall pages are telling the same thing we set out to do.

I feel like I'm getting less done then I normally do, but my work is looking better, because I have to focus more on the details rather than the quantity of art I produce. Slowly but surely getting close to my dream of working full time as a comic book artist, but still I have a lot to learn I don't want to rush it. I know in the back of my mind I want to rush things, but I'm older now and I know there is a time for everything and right now I have to focus on the now.

New version of pinup

Here is a revised version that my brother helped me edit. We adjusted the saturation and lightness of the background, which came out much better on his screen. My screen it looks very yellow, but that's because his screen is calibrated to be the most true color it can be and looks the same when printed.

I made a print of the art with archival paper and true pigment. Normal prints like that cost something around $150.00 to $200.00. The print will retain its color for over a 100 years, so I guess that's why it costs so much.

If anyone is interested in having their digital art printed on archival paper shoot me an email and I'll let you know the cost and I can arrange a sample to be sent to you if you'd like to see what it looks like.

Hiro Unlimited pinup

I did this for Hiro Unlimited, for a book called Force Galaxia.

Possible cover

I'm pretty busy, hence the reason I'm not posting much, but here is a sketch I did for warm-up, but that turned into a possible cover for my new book.

Painting with the DS

So, I finally got my DS, R4, micro SD, firmware update, and Colors. I painted my first painting in my bedroom. I'm pretty happy with it, since it took me awhile to get used to how to use it, but that didn't really take that long. Hopefully you'll be seeing many more painting from my DS to
come. Now, back to work I go.

http://colors.brombra.net/details.php?i=1730 Scroll to the bottom to play the video of my painting and you can see how I jacked it up a few times, but finally figured it out.

How to make it work
1. by the DS light $129
2. get an R4 card $30 to $40 it comes with a usb/micro sd thumb drive to download and upload software to your computer from your DS or to your DS.
3. get a micro SD card $20 for 2 gigs or some R4 deals come with an SD card.
4. go to the R4 main page http://www.r4ds.com/r4.htm and download the firmware to your computer, unzip it (it's a rar), and then just save the data to the root of the micro sd. There will be a folder called system, just take everything from there and move it to root and you're done.
5. download COLORS from http://www.collectingsmiles.com/colors/ and unzip and place the whole folder in the root (you don't have to move files to root, just put the folder in root).

That's it!

The DS is pressure sensitive, so it’s just like a Wacom, but cheaper and you can take it just about anywhere. The best thing ever, for artists.

New Painting

Here is a new painting I'm working on. This is just a fraction of what it really is, but I thought it would be nice to post something.