Monsters - Seven

This is the cover for Image's Monster Pile-Up book. What is "Monster Pile -Up" you ask? Well, that is a fine question. The book has original short stories from some of the monster themed books that Image is doing right now. Including The Astounding Wolf-Man. Yay! Our story picks up right after the groundbreaking events of issue #7 and leads right into issue #8. Check it out homes.

The cover itself was an interesting process. I did a really rough layout for it...
Based on that each artist penciled their own character. Scans of the pencils went to Riley (Proof) Rossmo who composited them and drew in the background. That was all sent to Craig (Perhapanauts) Rousseau who inked the whole thing and then it was back to me to do the colors. Crazy.

Also, Wolf-Man #7 is scheduled to come out tomorrow. Here is the cover. If you have been following the series so far, this will be a good one. I mean they are all good, of course, but this one will be even more better. :)

Post Heros

For the past few years I have been hearing good things about Heros Con in Charlotte, NC. I can now say that they are all true. What a cool convention. I had a blast. If you haven't been, you should make plans to go. Make them now. Right now. Go.

I did a bunch of sketches, and many people came up to talk about the book. So thanks to all. Here are a couple of the sketches I did.


At the show I hung out with art wizard Ryan (Invincible) Ottley. We got to talking about doing something fun and awesome together. After the show he did a sketch, check it out-
http://wya.deviantart.com/art/Sea-Bear-and-Grizzly-Shark-89780951

Cover 10, Heros and the Pig-icorn

I gots some art for you. But not too much, I have to spread these posts out a bit you know.

The first is the cover to Wolf-Man #10. If its not obvious I was going for a Batman feel with this one. I also inked this with a "real" brush. A Scharff #3, if you care. It was way fun. It has been at least 3 years since I have inked anything with a real brush. Typically these days I use brush markers and pens as I hate having to spend the time cleaning the ink out of a brush. With a marker kind you just pop the cap on and done. But I realized how much I missed making lines with a good brush. I also had a small unlabeled bottle of ink that had been sitting in a drawer forever and the consistency was perfect, very black. I liked using the brush so much that I used it on a couple pages, until my ink ran out. Bad news, because I haven't been able to find ink that is nearly as opaque as what was in my mystery jar. Any suggestions on good ink brands...?


This is a Pig-icorn. Does he really need anymore explanation than that?

Also, if you are going to be at Hero's Con in Charlotte this coming weekend, stop by and say hi. I will be sitting somewhere. Presumably in the vicinity of Robert Kirkman. So just look for the line of people with Walking Dead trades.

Sketchy

I'm back! I thought you might like to see some of the rough layouts for issue #6. I know that I do. I usually draw the layouts small, about 4 X 6, and then enlarge them and lightbox onto the art board. In the lightboxing step I add all the details and get it as tight as I think it needs to be to ink. Although recently I have been skipping the layouts and penciling right on the board. Sometimes I really like the result, and it seems to be a bit quicker, but for more involved shots I still seem to get better results working small first to figure out the design. Maybe one day I will have it all figured out.




Here are a couple older things just for kicks. I did these around the time that the second and third Matrix movies came out. Probably just before, because I was still inspired enough by them to want to draw something.. :)

This one was my idea of what I would look like in the Matrix world.
And this one was done for no particular reason. Both of these were created in Adobe Illustrator, for those who care about such things.

Six.

Hope you all had a great Memorial day. I spent a portion of my weekend sitting on a beach in northern Michigan reading a book (one without pictures). Super relaxing. But now its back to drawing board.

Issue #6 should be coming out this week. Look for it. Here is the cover. A while ago I had a post showing some of the process for creating it. Check it out if you missed it.

News and Nine

Well, the official announcement came from Image this week, Wolf-Man is going to a monthly schedule! Here is the press release for more details-
http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=156054
I am excited about this, as a reader I am not a big fan of waiting so long between issues of a comic on a bi-monthly schedule. We have wanted to do this from the start, but both Robert and my schedules needed some time to clear up a bit. Of course this means a little more work for me, but so far things are right on track.

And for another super sneak peak. Here is the cover for issue #9.

Appearances and Cover #7

Hey all. I realized that the previous post has the cover for issue #8 but I don't think I have posted issue #7 cover here yet. Maybe I have posted it, I cant remember. Hmmm, well, if I have then here it is again. If I haven't then here it is for the first time!

I also thought I should mention that I have some upcoming appearances, so stop by yo. I plan to have color prints of some Wolf-Man covers for sale as well as those dandy sketch books that everyone loves so much. I will also smile at you (if you buy something first).

May 3 (Free Comic Book Day) from about 11-2.
Clem's Collectibles
Lansing, MI
www.clemslansing.com

May 10 & 11
Emerald City Comicon
Seattle, WA
www.emeraldcitycomicon.com

June 20-22
Heros Convention
Charlotte, NC
www.herosonline.com

Sneak Peak!

Hey, hey. For the first place anywhere, here is the cover for issue #8. A little bit of an exclusive for all you good people who pop in here. I hope to have a step by step process post on this before too long.

Sports and Snow!

Just a quick one today (or tonight, or whenever you happen to be reading this).

Here is the finished T-Shirt design from the sketch in my last post. The shirt has to be printed in only 2 colors, so that of course limits aspect of the art. But it is still fun. If you live in Minnesota, some city league team somehwere is going to be wearing some sweet T-Shirts this summer.
I have done some other sports themed drawing lately, but I can't show them off yet. But trust me, it is for some cool projects. I love drawing this kind of stuff, particularly basketball, as I love to play the game. Although sitting around drawing all the time does not contribute positively to me being able to run up and down the court the way I used to. Anyway, to combine basketball and drawing is just super cool.

We got a bunch of snow throughout the month of February. My son (who is 5) asked me to help him make a snow fort, as is customary when a dad gets involved with his son's projects, I sort of took it up a level and worked on it long after he lost interest. But it was a ton of fun making the fort and playing in it with some of the neighborhood kids. Since it ended up being sort of a creative endevor I figured I would share it here.

Five is alive!

So tomorrow (Wednesday, March 12) is the day that issue #5 is supposed to be out. Yay. Finally. The art for this has been done awhile, it must be hockey season in Canda and all the printers would rather watch people hit each other with sticks than print our comics on a timely basis. In case you forgot what to look for here is the cover-


Also, to give you a little of the behind the scenes goodness that makes us all feel special, here are the rough layouts for the pages in my previous post.


And now for something different. Hold it now, hold it now, hit it. Here are a couple T-Shirt designs. This first one is for a baseball team (hopefully that is obvious) its still in progress but this is the approved sketch. I'll be sure to show the final when I finish it.


And finally, to wrap this party up here is a shirt design I did several months ago. A winter shirt for kids. And really, wouldn't our world be better off if more people did stuff for the kids?

Wolf-Man #5 preview

So, it is long past time to get a new post up here. Issue #5 of The Astounding Wolf-Man should be out anytime. Here are a couple pages from it. I dig drawing robot stuff, and this issue has plenty of roboty guys in it, including the newly created "Construct" shown in these pages.

Going old school

Well, because you demanded it, I thought I would empty the files and show some really old stuff. This is a little embarrasing, but I always like seeing other artists old work. It sort of gives some perspective on where they came from and it is interesting to see their early influences. So I thought I would share some of my own with you. Yes you, sitting their wasting time on your computer when you should be working or spending time with your family, I care about you. And this is how I show it, so brace yourself... :)



Yeah, its not hard to see what kind of artists I was into back then. Please don't judge me too strongly, I was young and impressionable.

Cover #6 Process and More!

Before we begin today, a quick Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all! Now down to business.

The cover to issue 6 is one of my favorites so far. I really like drawing the Actioneers, the superhero team that Wolf-Man has some issues with, so designing a cover with them all fighting sounded like it could be cool. After a couple scribbly attempts, this was the idea I felt had some promise.
After looking at it more we decided that it might be better to have the other characters in the foreground.
As is my usual process, I enlarged the layout to comic board size and lightboxed it with blue pencil, tightening details and tweaking things a bit as I drew. And I forgot to scan my pencils again, so you can't see those. See the problem is that I don't have a big scanner, so I have to scan this stuff in pieces and put back together in Photoshop. I hate that part, cause nothing ever lines up right. So beacuse I don't like doing it and because I don't need to do it for the pencils (other than to show you guys) I often "forget" to do it. But I'll try to do better. Promise. Anyway, excuses over, here are the inks. Yay!

And now the final colors.



Also, here is a con sketch that I forgot to post sooner. Big thanks to Brian for the reminder.

Issue #4 is coming...

It is supposed to be in stores this coming week. Lots of good stuff this time, trust me, I wouldn't lie to you. I mean really, what good would it do me? Its a good thing I'm coloring this book on the computer, because if I was using traditional media I would have used up all the red paint from every art store in town (for those of you not as quick, that means that there is a whole lot of blood in this issue) :)

The cover is somewhere below in a previous post, but here are a couple pages from the issue and their rough layout.


Also, I should have a cover process post for issue #6 coming soon. Tell your friends.

The Giant

The book collecting the 2 issues of the Invincible universe handbook came out a week or so ago. You should buy it. It is done in the style of the old Marvel handbooks and contains pinups by some of my favorite (and therefore the best) artists in comics. I was honored to be asked to be included. The drawing that I did is of a character called The Giant, and he appeared for like 2 pages in an issue of Invincible. sdfdsf

Random stuff.

A mish mash of things this time. I have been super busy lately so some of this is a little delayed.

First, I know that here is a blurb about this over on the right side of the page but in case you missed it, ART SALES! Splash page art is handeling my original art sales. There are some good pages from the first 3 issues of Wolf-Man still available. Not to be a complete shill, but if I don't tell you, who will? I care about you is all, I want you to be able to demonstrate your good taste in art and contribute something positive to this world. Buying my art is a simple way that you can do that :) You can find my gallery here-
http://www.splashpageart.com/GalleryDetail.asp?GCat=47

In other art news, the ever awesome Ryan Ottley (Invincible) drew a great cover for the second printing of Wolf-Man #3. Check out the pencils and final colored version on his blog here-
http://ryanottley.com/archives/87

The cover was colored by Kelsey Shannon. Kelsey is an all around art wizard. I want to be able to draw and color as good as him someday when I grow up. Check more of his work here-
http://www.roboworks.deviantart.com/gallery/

And finally, here is an interview Robert did a couple weeks ago about "The Astounding Wolf-Man"-
http://comics.ign.com/articles/831/831242p1.html

So yeah, no art by me this time. But I'll be back soon with some cool stuff.

TPB #1 Cover process

Well the trade collecting the first 4 issues of Astounding Wolf-Man is soliceted for January (I think) make sure to buy lots! Here is some of the process we went through for the cover. It started with a conversation with Robert (the writer) where we talked about some of the design elements we though would be cool. This was my first sketch based on that. I liked it alright...

...but Robert wasn't down with Wolfman's pose. So I worked up some other ideas. We decided to go with number "B" below.

Here I tightened up the drawing a bit. I really wanted the logo and everything to fit together well. So I mocked it up in Photoshop with the logo to make sure I had enough room.

Then I enlarged this to fit standard comic board size and lightboxed it to the board with blue pencil, tightening up the details as I traced it. I dont have a scan of those, so you will have to use your imagination and picture it. While your at it also imagine a beach in the Carribean on a beautiful sunny day. Your laying there next to a gorgeous woman (or man) with no responsibilities just enjoying the moment. Nice isnt it? Well hopefully this final image of the inked and colored cover will bring you a small portion of that Carribean happiness. Or maybe it won't but its all I have for you.

Cover #5 Process

Here goes! Initally we tried some other design ideas for this cover but they were bad. In trying to come up with something cooler Robert suggested the newspaper approach, I instantly I had an idea for the image and this was my early sketch.I wanted Wolf-Mans hand to really pop out and as I messed with the design more it seemed to better use the space and tuck under the logo to flip the image. I liked the left to right movement of the sketch, but I just couldn't make it work. So I changed it. Thats the best part of being an artist, I do what I want and justify it as a "creative" decision :) These are the pencils.


Here are the inks. Pretty much a trace job, because my pencils were so tight. I really need to loosen up with the penciling. Sometimes I do better than others, but for some reason I got pretty tight with these. Although for me there is always a little more pressure with a cover to get the lines just right, that tends to result in my tightening up. I added the text on the computer (thank you Adobe Illustrator) and for some dumb reason I changed "killer" to "villian". I also spelled it wrong. Killer sounds cooler (and is eaiser to spell) so I changed it back on the final, don't know what I was thinking here.

And finally the colors with all the newspaper text added. Robert wrote most of it. There is some funny stuff in there. Also some nice story bits.

Issue #3 is coming...

Just a quick one today. But first, you may noticed I finally painted around here. So the blog is less boring looking now.

Here is the cover for issue #3. It should be in stores next week. And it is AWESOME! Well, that opinion may be baised. But seriously, as usual there are some parts of it I like OK and other stuff that lets me know I still have ways to go.


Also, I should have a couple other cover process posts coming in the near future.