Sunday, November 19, 2006

Christmas is coming!

Here's the cover to the family Christmas card this year. A few years ago (before kids, when I still some of the elusive thing called 'free time') I started doing these not very holiday themed mini comic Chirstmas cards. People seemed to dig them, and I had fun doing them. But last year I was busy and although I wrote most of it and drew the layouts I never got a chance to actually draw the card. Well I guess more people liked them than I thought, because I got all kinds of grief for slacking off. So anyway, this year the theme is outer space. Hopefully I'll get the rest finished in time to get it to the printer and sent before Chiristmas. Feliz Navidad.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

SPIDA

Spidey here is another sketch. I know I didn't draw the webbing on his costume, but the time was up. The old dude is a design for something I'm not talking about yet :)

Monday, November 06, 2006

Briareos Sketch

I have a tendency to like to overwork things looking for just the right line. So lately I have been forcing myself to be a little more sketchy. I gave myself an hour to do this warmup sketch of Briareos from Appleseed. The guns were the last thing I drew and the hour was almost up, so they got shortchanged, sorry.

This kind of drawing is fun, because my goal is not necessarily to make a good drawing, it is just to finish before the time is up. The time limit removes most of my edits from the process. Its like when I was drawing as a kid, I didn't know what made a good drawing or bad drawing, I was just drawing to make a picture, to create something with pencil. The process itself was the joy, not the quality of the finished drawing.

Monday, October 30, 2006

Hulk

I like drawing at cons. Sometimes. I recently read an article somewhere about creativity. It made the point that creativity comes from new experiences, and if you are stuck in a rut sometimes merely changing your surroundings can unstick you. Or at least give you a different perspective. Anyway, the Hulk here was a con sketch (the lines were, I colored it later of course). All the visual and artistic stimulation at a big con impacts how I draw at the show. Sometimes things turn out well, other times they are a bit choppy, but either way the result often feels different than if I am drawing in the familiarity of my studio at home.
Indy here is another commission. I'm not at all pleased with the likeness. But I got to draw a gun :)

Friday, October 27, 2006

Back again.

Just to make sure things get off to good start, here are a couple more images.

Science Dog here was pin up for Invincible 34. A great book, you must buy it. Or at least read the trades while sitting in the coffee shop attached to your local bookstore...

I think everyone should color their own work. At least give it an honest effort. Their are many
amazing colorists out there, guys (and girls too) whose work is far better than I will ever be. But for artists whose work will be in color, it seems that a big part of the vision is missing when another artist weighs in with the color choices. Color has such a big design and emotional impact that it seems that those are decisions that the original creator should make. On the other hand, I have a list of colorists that I would love to work with, because, well they are way better than me :) But I guess my point is that, for me, when I first started coloring my work a couple years ago, thats when I really felt like I was pulling some things together creatively. It forced me to think about color and design choices in the drawing stage, instead of just hoping that a colorist would save me.

This chick/robot drawing never really came together like I had hoped it would. It's an original character design and there are areas of the drawing that I am OK with, but the overall design of the elements don't quite work for me. It was dissapointing, because on my sketch I felt that it had all kinds of potential coolness, but I guess I got a little lost in the execution. Moving on.

The B/W image was commision for a friend. A slight reinterpretation of his characters. I like drawing guns.





Beginning


Hey. This is my first post, hopefully it will be a somewhat regular pattern for me. Hopefully.

I plan to use this space to show some of my art. Mostly illustration, mainly the comics stuff that all we all love so much. But I might even breakout some of my design work and the retail packaging things that never end up with my name on it.

I have always dug the Savage Dragon. I did this image for no reason other than fun. While not perfect, it captures the overall feel I wanted to when I did the first sketch for the image. Anytime I can do that, I'm happy. Anyway it seemed like a good one to start with.

Jason