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.

Page 2

Here is the second page to the challenge I was doing. I'm working on something different for a few more days, so I'll get back to this challenge later. I found out that the Comic Book Challenge for Platinum studios doesn't require you to go to SDCC, but I only just started an idea for the challenge, so I might not be able to finish it in time. I've only just finished half a page and I have two others to do after, a synopsis and a video pitch.

I'll post what I get done, so you can see what I was able to accomplish is three days.

Sequential page

I did this for fun. I wanted to branch out from what I'm working on, because sometimes you need a break. This is a sequential challenge at ten ton and since I stopped doing sketch challenges I figure this would be a nice break.

Things to come

So the art classes have ended--for now. It was a pretty cool two weeks of classes and I had fun. I think I'll try to give people more notice before starting them, because the number of people in class was a bit inconsistent. If anyone is interested in classes in the future, just let me know and I can let you know when I'll be doing it again.

Here are some sneak previews of what I'm working on. Nothing I can really talk about right now.

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.