HAPPY NEW YEAR - 2015!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR - 2015!!!

Yeah, it's a picture for 2015 done on the last day of 2014.  :-D

I'm a really big fan of Jack Kirby's O.M.A.C. (One Man Army Corps), so I thought I'd do a drawing of him to ring in the new year.

A Happy New Year to All!  :-)

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Here are the pencils, which I scanned in and then colored digitally.

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This was done with pencil on 9" x 12" Strathmore drawing paper and then colored digitally in Photoshop.

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Rankin/Bass Presents... The Thing

Rankin/Bass Presents... The Thing

Just in time for the holidays -- a mash-up of the Rankin/Bass "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and John Carpenter's "The Thing".

(Click to embiggen -- or right-click on the picture and choose to view it in a new tab to see the pages full-size.)

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This was done digitally in Photoshop.

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It's a Good Life on the Island of Misfit Toys

It's a Good Life on the Island of Misfit Toys

I always assumed this is what happened to the man who was turned into a Jack-in-the-Box in the excellent Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life"...

(Click to embiggen -- or right-click on the picture and choose to view it in a new tab to see the pages full-size.)

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Two page comic done with Pen-and-Ink on 9" x 12" Bristol Board and colored in PhotoShop.

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Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Polaris

Polaris

Here is the original entry for the Polaris to the "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe".

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And here is my entry to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Redux.  

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STEP ONE:  I created a New Document 900 x 1,500 pixels in PhotoShop.  In this case, I forgot to save an early picture of this one, so here's the finished black-and-white digital drawing.

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STEP TWO:  I did some flat colors with a MULTIPLY Layer, and then went over top with some highlights and shadows with a New Layer.

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Created digitally in Photoshop.

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The Fly (1958)

The Fly (1958)

It's the last of this batch of B-Movie Halloween drawings and I figured I'd end on the 1958 Vincent Price movie, "The Fly".  OK, I know the head of this version of the Fly is actually from "Return of the Fly" (1959), but to be honest it is more visually interesting (and more universally known) than the original.

Both the original version of "The Fly" and the Cronenberg (1986) re-make are extremely disturbing and horrific in their own way.  I remember watching the original when I was a kid and finding the movie to be terrifying in an existential way.  I never trusted the idea of a teleporter after that.  :-)

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Here are the pencils on a 8-1/2" x 11" piece of cardstock.

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Here are the inks, done with a No. 4 Round Brush and Pro-Art 4100 India Ink.

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I then scanned it into Photoshop and colorized it with a MULTIPLY Layer.

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Done with pen-and-ink on 8-1/2" x 11" cardstock, colorized in Photoshop.

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This Island Earth (1955) - Metaluna Mutant

This Island Earth (1955)

Metaluna Mutant

Another Halloween B-Movie image!

If there is one image that represented aliens to my young imagination, it is the Metaluna Mutant from This Island Earth (1955).  Every book about monsters and bug-eyed aliens -- something which I sought out regularly as a kid as anything with monsters, aliens, and/or robots was guaranteed to capture my attention -- featured the Metaluna Mutant.

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Here are the pencils on a 8-1/2" x 11" piece of cardstock.

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Here are the inks, done with a No. 4 Round Brush and Pro-Art 4100 India Ink.

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I then scanned it into Photoshop and colorized it with a MULTIPLY Layer.

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Done with pen-and-ink on 8-1/2" x 11" cardstock, colorized in Photoshop.

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Gojira / Godzilla (1954)

Gojira / Godzilla (1954)

Hey, it's getting close to Halloween, so I figured I'd do some more B-Movie drawings in a similar style to the ones I did last year.  (Click HERE, HERE, and HERE to see them.)  And, what better way to kick it off than with the classic Man-In-Suit Gojira / Godzilla!

OK, sure the original 1954 Gojira / Godzilla movies probably wouldn't be considered a true B-Movie, with it being more of a meditation on nuclear war and the existential threat of atomic weapons.  That said, Gojira / Godzilla did fall quickly into B-Movie monsters and is one of my childhood favorites.

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Here are the pencils on a 8-1/2" x 11" piece of cardstock.

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Here are the inks, done with a No. 4 Round Brush and Pro-Art 4100 India Ink.

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I then scanned it into Photoshop and colorized it with a MULTIPLY Layer.

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Done with pen-and-ink on 8-1/2" x 11" cardstock, colorized in Photoshop.

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Ultraman

Ultraman

OK, I decided to take a little break between projects.  

I checked out the entire run of Ultraman from our local library.  It was a show which I only caught a few times as a kid, but I was always intrigued by him.  And, with the new "Godzilla" movie being out, I was feeling a little nostalgic for all those old Japanese shows.  Because of that, I thought it would be fun to knock out a quick painting and post it to the Blog.  Something I should do more often, to be honest.  :-D

I also liked the series run enough that I am sure I will be doing more with Ultraman in the future.  I have a few ideas...  :-)

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STEP ONE:  Here are the pencils on Stonehenge paper which was glued to 8" x 10" hardboard.

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STEP TWO:  This was the halfway point in the painting.  I decided to use casein to paint the picture, which uses a milk-based binder for the pigment (it has a slight ammonia smell to is, as well, which can be a little off-putting to some).  I decided to play with it after reading James Gurney's Blog.  I like it quite a bit--it behaves like an odd mixture of acrylic and gouache (opaque watercolor) and is waterproof after it sets.

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STEP THREE:  Here is the finished painting.  For some reason, the brush strokes on the top half of the painting really showed through when I took the picture with my camera, but they weren't that strong on the painting itself.  Because of that, I decided to pull it fully into PhotoShop and tweak it a bit more...

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STEP FOUR:  After it was finished, I decided to just fix the background a bit and brush out some of the strong brushstrokes which kept artifacting from my camera.  I also digitally blurred the ray coming from his hand and added an airbrushed glow to the gemstone on his chest.

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Done with casein paint on 8" x 10" Stonehenge paper glued onto Medium Density Fiberboard (with an assist from PhotoShop).

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On the Easel - September 12, 2014 - Dark Knight and Batman

On the Easel

Dark Knight #4 Page Recreation 
& Batman #251 Cover Replica

I realized it has been a while since I posted an "On the Easel".  I always like to see what people are in the middle of working on, so I figured I'd inflict some of that on y'all as well.  Also, it breaks up some of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Redux Edition posts.  :-)

And this one's a two-fer, showing two different projects I am working on at the moment...

Click to Embiggen

First, I am currently painting a page recreation of the Batman Vs. Superman finale from "The Dark Knight Returns" #4 for a friend of mine for his birthday/Christmas present.  It is being painted with Casein (sort of like acrylic with a milk-protein based binder) on a 15" x 22" piece of Strathmore illustration board, with the image area being 12" x 16".  The under-painting is about 85% done and I'm hoping to have it finished in the next couple-a-few weeks.

Partially hidden behind the Dark Knight page, is a Cover Replica I'm working on for my pal (and probably Superman's, too), Jim, from Jimmy Jams Comics and Games, here in Winona, MN.  The replica is another Neal Adams cover, this time for "Batman #251".  It is being painted with acrylic on Stonehenge paper, which is mounted on a 20" x 30" piece of hard board.  I just started on that a couple days ago, but as it is something I generally work on during something I laughably call "spare time", it may be a month or more before you see the finished result posted.

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Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Loki (Updated)

Loki (Updated)

UPDATED: A joke so obvious that even **I** thought of it.  :-D

I sent this to Jon for his Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Redux as an alternate/joke entry for Loki (or, should I say Joki?) and he liked it enough to publish it instead of the previous Loki entry.  It seemed more appropriate for a Trickster, methinks.  :-D

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Here is the original entry for Loki in the "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe".

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Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Morgan Le Fey

Morgan Le Fey

Here is the original entry for Morgan Le Fey in the "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe".

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And here is my entry to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Redux.

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STEP ONE:  I created a New Document 1,000 x 1,500 pixels in PhotoShop with a toned background and used a large Oil Pastel Brush to sketch in the pose.

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STEP TWO:  Here's the finished black-and-white under drawing.

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STEP THREE:  I erased the gray background and used a MULTIPLY Layer to lay down the flat colors to begin colorizing the picture.  This has the added bonus of establishing the darks and mid-tones for the digital drawing already.

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STEP FOUR:  Over a NEW Layer, I added the highlights and drew the added skulls for the belt and necklace.

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Just for fun, here's an animated .gif of the process.

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Created digitally in PhotoShop.

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Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Loki

Loki 

Here is the original entry for Loki in the "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe".

* * *

And here is my entry to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Redux.  

* * *

STEP ONE:  I created a New Document 1,000 x 1,500 pixels in PhotoShop with a toned background and used a large Oil Pastel Brush to sketch in the pose.

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STEP TWO:  Here is the finished black-and-white under drawing. 

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STEP THREE:  I erased around the figure to remove the gray background and created a MULTIPLY Layer, then began to colorize the figure.  Once again, I decided to use the MULTIPLY Layer as the mid-tones and darks and the New Layer mostly for lights and highlights.

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Created digitally in PhotoShop.

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Harley Quinn (Colorized)

Harley Quinn

And here's the Colorized version.

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The first box just shows the flat colors done with a MULTIPLY Layer.  The next step shows some of the variation in the lights and darks on the same layer; I also put some texture and lettering on the hammer.  And in the last step pictured, I pushed the final highlights on a NEW Layer; I dropped the opacity of the lettering to 45% and went in with the Eraser Tool to make it seem like the lettering was a bit faded from over-use.  Finally, I thought it needed a little more focus, so I used a large air brush tool to darken the background around Harley Quinn as seen in the final picture above.

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Here is something a little bit different: an animated .gif of each step in the process from beginning to end.  It's sort of a larger file (1.4MB), so it may take a bit longer to load depending on your internet connection.

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This was done with charcoal on 11" x 14" toned Strathmore drawing paper, then imported into PhotoShop.

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Harley Quinn (Black and White)

Harley Quinn

I noticed my Blog was quickly becoming nothing but art for my posts to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Redux Blog.  Not that there is anything wrong with that, of course--it's a great Blog and lots of fun to work on.  But, I think I've been getting a bit lazy and decided I need to change things up a bit.  And, with that, I thought it would be fun to do some character studies.  In this case, it's a drawing of Harley Quinn.  I will probably do up a colorized version in the next day or two.

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STEP ONE:  I used soft, vine charcoal to loosely sketch the pose on a sheet of 11" x 14" Strathmore toned paper.  I like working on a toned surface as it gives three values for the price of two (the mid-toned paper, plus black charcoal and white chalk), as opposed to just the two values of black charcoal on white paper.

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STEP TWO:  I smear the charcoal to soften the lines and push it into general shaded areas.

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STEP THREE:  I used charcoal and carbon pencils to build up shading and a kneaded eraser to carve back out some highlights.

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STEP FOUR:  Here is the finished charcoal drawing.  I also didn't care for the angle of the right-foot in the original drawing and changed it.

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STEP FIVE:  I went in an added some highlights with a white charcoal pencil.  I then took this picture and opened it in PhotoShop to clean it up a bit and use it as a framework to continue the drawing/painting digitally.

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STEP SIX:  In PhotoShop, I darkened and smoothed out the shading, bumped up the highlights more, and also changed the expression on her face, as well as corrected a few other odd-and-ends.  I thought I'd leave this one as black-and-white for now, and do a colorized version in a couple days.  :-)

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This was done with charcoal on 11" x 14" toned Strathmore drawing paper, then imported into PhotoShop.

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