"Free Comic Book Day" Sketch Cards

I did the first three of these (baseball size) sketch cards as a donation for a local comic book store's celebration of "Free Comic Book Day."  From left to right: Hellboy, Chun Li, Wonder Woman, and Manji (From Hiroaki Samura's "Blade of the Immortal").  I used a regular #2 HB pencil, 2mm HB Staedtler Mars technico, a black Verithin, and white gouache.  Here are some cards Vinod Rams did for the same event.   I'm diggin' on his Hellboy, Abe Sapien, and Kusanagi (from "Ghost in the Shell").

I took a liking to the little bristol card format so I promptly went out and bought myself a pack of them (with the accompanying clear plastic slip cases). Hence the Manji sketch.  According to the guy at the art store these "artist trading cards" are all the rage for people to sketch and trade.  Now if I could only coerce Hiroaki Samura to trade cards. :)

Hellboy is © 2009 Mike Mignola.

Chun Li is © 2009 CAPCOM CO., LTD.

Wonder Woman is © 2009 DC COMICS.

Manji is © 2009  Hiroaki Samura.

Gen. John Gibraltar

This is my entry for the first mini challenge of Dominance War IV. The challenge was to create a war General and make a portrait of him/her.  Mine is the seasoned, Patton style, two star General John Gibraltar (Buckminster076 is my forum name and CGHUB is my forum team). The design on the center chest patch is the logo of team CGHUB that we had to incorporate into the image. We were also required to post works-in-progress in a thread before submitting the final, which helps me get more out of each stage of development.  This definitely was a fun little exercise.

I'm continuing to play with graphite rendering, in addition to clean line work, and streamlining the process.

Pencil Test (WIP)

Playing with graphite rendering and the unlimited power of the kneaded eraser. (Updated 2/9/09)

Sunday sketches

Ink sketches with 2 grey tones, white, and a gradient.

While working on this I was listening to the presentations/conversations from 2008's "Beyond Belief: Candles in the Dark." on the science network with the theme of "Human Flourishing", and the one from 2006: "Beyond Belief: Science, Reason, Religion & Survival", really good stuff.

Alena - B & W Tones

This sketch is to nail down the look for a b&w comics story. My goal is to use minimal gradients, grey tones, texture patterns, and white highlights to make the production of the art quicker and the "reading" of the image (in the context of the story flow) clear and efficient, but still be more than just line.

While working on this I was listening to episodes of the TV shows Survivorman and Man Vs. Wild. Two shows about the skills needed to survive in harsh environments.

Chowdown - Colors

Chowdown sketch "Colors".  Continuing the quest to streamline my cg coloring process.  While working on this I was listening to the TV show: "Flight of the Concords" and the audiobook "No True Glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle for Fallujah."

Chowdown - Inks

Chowdown sketch "Inks". Actually Verithin (Noir 747 Black) as well as ball point pen. Yup, yup.