Vampirella: He Started it, but I Finished it!
Most of the time, I start and finish my art digitally, and almost always as vector art. Sometimes, to get a more organic look, I will start with a pencil sketch that I scan in and then render the vector-art over that. I have also been trying more recently to do more completely hand-drawn from start-to-finish works. All of these processes yield different looks to the final art.
One thing I had not done, prior to this weekend, was ink over the pencils of someone else. A conversation on the Digital Webbing forum inspired me to give it a go. In a case of fortunate timing, someone on the forum posted a nice high resolution scan of an Adam Hughes Vampirella sketch. I am a fan of Adam Hughes work, so this felt like a good thing to tackle as my first attempt at finishing the pencils of someone else.
Here is the original Adam Hughes sketch for comparison:
And here is my digitally finished + colored version:
Adam’s original sketch has some details and shading that I dropped out in my rendering. The digital inking is all vector art, which means I can scale and do other things fairly easily with this later if inspiration strikes. If you look closely you will see minor tweaks here and there between my final version and the original sketch. One thing that particularly bugged me was her left hand and the position of the fingers. It never looked completely right no matter what I did to it, but I settled on a position that didn’t drive me batty anymore… 😉
Famously, comic book inkers don’t always get the credit they deserve. Fortunately, thanks to the Internet, there are numerous examples out there of various inkers finishing the same penciled original where you can get a really good idea of just what each individual inker brings to the table. Also, some pencillers lay down more detail than others. Some teams of penciller + inker work better than others, as each compliments the other’s style in a more cooperative way. Part of what led me to this experiment was sometimes being dissatisfied with my inking of my own pencils. I wanted to see what it might look like mixing my instincts with someone else. Look for more of these collaborations as the mood strikes me.
Please let me know what you think, and remember, if you’d like an original commission by me or would like to hire me as an Illustrator, please use the Contact page and let me know as much as you can about your request.
2015 Raleigh Comic Book Show, Epilogue
(Buddy Prince is in this photo, on the left. I’m on the right, in the green shirt, behind the pastries!)
Yesterday was the big day! As expected, I did not get a lot of sleep in advance of the convention. I never do. It’s not even about being unprepared, I was more prepared for this show than any I’ve ever been to before… I just never end up sleeping much or well before any big thing.
I had a bunch of original art with me, and some sketches and prints for sale. I loaded up the truck and actually got to the show early! The new venue was nice. It was a good looking hotel and the layout of the comic showroom was nice. I found my spot, checked the WiFi access, and setup my table for the day.
For a post-Christmas show, you never know what to expect. Are people tired from celebrating the holidays? OR are they ready to get out of the house for a bit? Did they spend all of their money already on Christmas? OR will all the people who received money as a gift show up ready to spend? It seemed like the show got a pretty good turnout, but I literally only sold one of my prints.
I’m still new to the guest artist gig, so I don’t know how much my lack of sales had to do with me being new versus people just not looking to spend money. I did have a lot of people looking through my stuff, and got a lot of positive comments… so I’m figuring it was a mix of me still being new and people being choosy how they spend their money. Being honest, going into the show I wanted to have stuff for sale and hoped to sell some things but I was mostly there to spread the word, advertise myself, and promote my blog and ‘Sects comic strip.
Specifically for this show, I made eight promotional ‘Sects character cards (Buzz, Red, Bob, Blue, Buzzarro, Dez, Nell, and Al). These were 2.5 in. x 2 in. cards with a brief blurb about the character and a link to my blog. During the show I handed them out to everyone who stopped at my table, and tried to flag down people as they walked by to let them know they were free for the taking. After the show I also went around to all the dealers who hadn’t stopped by my table already to bring them into the fold as well. I’m hoping my blog will see some new visitors and fans as a result!
Fellow guests at the show were Chris Kemple and Buddy Prince. Buddy was at the first show I did, back in 2014, and I hadn’t seen him since that time. Chris and I talked a bit and each thought the other looked familiar, and we mutually concluded that we probably already knew each other because we used to shop at the same comic book store (Capitol Comics) and I actually worked there many years ago. Buddy and Chris are both good guys, and good artists, and they seemed to have a lot of interaction at their tables too.
During the show, I was able to draw some ‘Sects sketch cards and a Batgirl sketch card. I also drew a nice larger Spider-Man sketch. I posted these last night on the blog after returning from the show, but I was too tired to post this summary until tonight! 🙂 It was nice to be able to prove to myself that I could finish sketches while talking to people at the same time. Sometimes multitasking can be challenging, so it was good practice.
All in all, it was a good experience. It was a much better experience than my first show too. I was much more prepared going in, and I had a stronger comic strip to promote this time around. Next time I’ll have more art to sell and more comics to promote too… it’s a growing process. It was good to see some old friends that I hadn’t seen in a while, and make a few new ones. If anyone reading this met me for the first time yesterday, and has now come to check out my blog as a result, thank you for coming to the show and thank you for visiting my blog. Hopefully I’ll be able to get to more shows in 2016!
Spider-Man Bust Convention Sketch
While at the Raleigh Comic Book Show this weekend, I was able to complete a new bust style sketch of Spider-Man on a 7×10 comic backing board. Pencils first, then ink and coloring all with markers. I think it turned out fairly well.
Remember, if you are interested in requesting my services as an Illustrator, please use the Contact page and let me know as much as you can about your request.
Jetsons Take Flight
One more Hanna-Barbera classic cartoon inspired drawing this month… This time it’s that family of the future, the Jetsons! Meet George Jetson, his boy Elroy, Jane his wife, and daughter Judy all in their future car going somewhere… Sorry no Astro or Rosie, but the spaceship was getting crowded!
Once again I went with a mix of old-school and new-school to complete this illustration. Beginning with the pencil sketch to get everybody, and everything, in place… then scanned, inked, and colored digitally. If you compare the finished piece above with my pencil sketch below, you can see a few tweaks here and there, especially in the faces… but for the most part I had a solid sketch to help me create the final drawing.
It’s a little ironic to me, to be looking back in time at a classic cartoon set in the future! Think about that for a minute without your brain exploding… then let me know what you think of this one. Remember, if you are interested in requesting my services as an Illustrator, please use the Contact page and let me know as much as you can about your request.
Captain Caveman to the Rescue
Speed Buggy isn’t the only classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon that I remember fondly from my childhood. I also loved Captain Caaaavemaaaaaan! His battle cry, his enigmatic Popeye-esque mumbling, and strange sense of misunderstanding were fun things as a kid watching Saturday morning cartoons.
For this one it was back to the literal drawing board as I wanted a more organic feel to the illustration… So, I used my hybrid process and roughed out the initial sketch by hand with pencil. You will see some things in the pencil sketch below that I fixed or changed completely in the final digital rendering above.
I like using this process because I get to interject a little more of my own style into the pencil sketch, but then finishing digitally on the computer lets me have cleaner lines and tweak the size and shapes much easier to get the final drawing to look just like how I want it to look. I also end up with a piece of unfinished art (the sketch) that exists as a real thing, which is something I don’t have when I create something entirely in the computer realm.
By the by… you’ll note that I actually drew this back in July. I’ve just had other things to work on and draw that kept me from blogging about this one until today. Please let me know what you think, especially if you are a fan of Cavey! Hmm… I wonder how he attained the rank of Captain anyway? Oh well, always remember… Unga Bunga! 🙂
Remember, if you are interested in requesting my services as an Illustrator, please use the Contact page and let me know as much as you can about your request.
Something Mortyfyingly Ricked This Way Comes…
So… Rick and Morty is a thing… a cartoon on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim lineup. I almost missed it, as it was often on in odd time slots last year… but it is one of the most awesomely weird cartoons you’ll ever want to watch, and the second season is only a few days away now!
I actually drew this the weekend before last… and posted it on Facebook then too. I even posted it on the Rick and Morty page, and they liked it… so if Rick and Morty likes Rick and Morty, then who are you not to like Rick and Morty? Go ahead… try not to like it… I dare you! Rick and Morty forever and ever, for a hundred years.
So… I actually created two final versions of this image, and here’s the secret behind-the-scenes scoop why… I didn’t like my original final piece. I’m not quite as skilled at hand-inking and hand-lettering as I’d like to be… some of that is the tools I have at my disposal, and the rest is lack of practice from years of finishing stuff on the computer where I have quite a bit more control and ease of correcting mistakes.
What I didn’t like about this one… was that the lettering ended up so much larger than I wanted, I had to omit some of the original dialog and did not have any real estate to do some of the stuff in the background that I had wanted. I don’t hate this version… it’s just not the version I wanted to create… fortunately I had the scan of my original pencil sketch…
So, returning to the original sketch, I used this as a baseline to draw the eventual final version (the topmost one in this blog post) completely digitally. If you compare my two color versions above, you can clearly see where I was able to do a better job in the ultimate final version of capturing my original concept.
What I’ve basically done as a result of this learning experience… is develop a new process for myself. I like drawing with traditional tools, but only when it yields something I’m happy with creating… and while I like having final original works that I can sell to others, that doesn’t trump the desire to create what I intend to create. So, going forward… my standard process has become:
1. Pencil sketch and layouts on paper.
2. Scan and keep the original sketch somewhere safe for future reference or potential sale.
3. Use the pencil scan as baseline to create final digital render, coloring as desired.
This gives me a best-of-both-worlds situation where I have an original pencil sketch if anyone is interested down the road, and a final digital piece that completes the vision as I saw it in my head. I hope you like this as much as I liked drawing it… and make sure you watch Rick and Morty on TV too!
Remember, if you are interested in requesting my services as an Illustrator, please use the Contact page and let me know as much as you can about your request.
It Must be Fett!
I had met the challenge of the Thing… then the challenge of the Clone Trooper… so what next? I jumped to the head of the line, got ahead of the curve, drew something before I was challenged to do it… Boba Fett!
As with other recent drawings, this one was all old-school… pencil, sharpie, colored pencils. It’s a little wider than it ought to be, for a properly proportioned Boba Fett head… but that leaves no doubt that I really drew it… ‘cause nobody would ever copy someone else like this! 🙂
I didn’t scan the intermediate pencil and ink stages for this one… I wish I had, though, because in the drawings I’ve done lately I’ve learned a little bit about myself. It turns out for me, the best process to yield the strongest final results are for me to sketch in pencil, then scan that and use it as a baseline to draw digitally. Sketching in pencil lets me interject more of my own style and personality into the work, but finishing on the computer lets me get the strongest and cleanest representation. Also, when I screw up something in the inking… it’s much harder to fix than when working digitally.
Let me know what you think of this one and remember, if you are interested in requesting my services as an Illustrator, please use the Contact page and let me know as much as you can about your request.
Post #400: What a (Clone) Trooper!
Once again I found myself in a semi-challenge on the Digital Webbing forums. This time it was for a Star Wars Clone Trooper. Joe Simmons had posted a really nice painting of one, and I made the mistake of saying it made me want to draw one too… so I guess it was as much of a volunteering as it was a challenge when he suggested I draw my own.
This one didn’t really need any color, so it didn’t get any. I used a finer point Sharpie this time and I think I got closer to my desired result. I did use a brush tip Sharpie to help fill in the larger black areas so it would go faster, though. As noted in the blog post title, this is my 400th blog post. It seems like only yesterday I was making my 399th post… how the time flies! 😉
As always, please let me know what you think of this one. Remember, if you are interested in requesting my services as an Illustrator, please use the Contact page and let me know as much as you can about your request.
Trace, The Final Frontier?
So, I was participating in a discussion about tracing this weekend on a Web forum. This comes up from time to time, it’s just the first time I’ve been active in such a discussion online. I’m not even going to get into the penciller vs inker debate, that is a tangent discussion. For the purposes of this blog post, I’m strictly talking about tracing photographs. The usual camps formed:
- Tracing is evil and wrong and you are evil and wrong for tracing!
- Tracing is okay for practice, but real artists don’t need to trace.
- Tracing is an acceptable art form.
I’m firmly in the #3 camp with a caveat that I will get to in a minute. For beginners, I think tracing is good practice. When you’re initially studying art, and anatomy in particular, you will waste a lot of time drawing a lot of wrong things if you don’t trace a little to get yourself used to where things go. Part of learning how to draw is learning how to compose a complex illustration from simple strokes on the page. If you start by tracing you will simultaneously enhance your brain’s ability to see the composition in smaller parts, and your hand and arm will get used to the motions so that it feels natural to you.
Think of a golfer learning to swing. You can go in there and pick a club and just start swinging… but you can’t really see what you are doing and you will waste a lot of time tiring yourself out swinging incorrectly before you accidentally do it right a few times. Most golfers will watch other people swing and try to emulate that at first. You can even have your swing analyzed by a computer or hire a personal trainer. It will still take a lot of practice to get good at golf, but you cut the initial learning time dramatically by using all the available helper tools that you can.
So, now let’s say you are a good artist and don’t need to trace anymore. Why would you do it? Well, now that you know how to draw and you can do it… tracing is still useful. You can do the work much faster by tracing even if you don’t need to do it. Can you draw a straight line without a ruler? Can you draw that same straight line a lot faster, and probably cleaner as well, with a ruler? Would you refuse to use a ruler just to keep purity in your art?
I was at the Raleigh Comic-Con last year as a guest, and I was doing small sketches during the show. At one point I was going to draw Captain America’s shield. The artist next to me said, matter-of-factly, that he wouldn’t dare draw a circle freehand and that I was brave to try. I was sketching my circles on a quadrant so I really was only drawing four connected arcs to make my circles. This allowed me to be pretty fast at sketching and create reasonably good circles. Truth be told, though, he was absolutely right. I could have drawn the same circles much faster and cleaner with the right tools. I know how to draw circles and I can draw them with a little patience… but there’s nothing to be gained from refusing to use the right tool for the job.
And now comes the caveat. In my opinion there are only two unacceptable practices in tracing. First, I believe you should not try to pass off your work as if you didn’t trace. Own the practice, own your creation! If you traced some photographs to make it better or finish it faster, embrace it and don’t run from it. Second, make sure you are using photographs in the public domain or ones that you take yourself or otherwise have obtained the rights to use in your art.
If you embrace it, have permission to do it, and it makes your art better… I say trace all you want. Embrace the trace!
Meanwhile, as part of that discussion thread… people started posting their version of a trace of Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool from a movie still photograph. I didn’t want to feel left out, so I took a stab at tracing the photograph myself and am posting it here on my blog. I colored the clothing and accessories, but stopped there as the purpose of the exercise had been served at that point for me.
What was interesting, and perhaps surprising to some in the discussion, every person’s trace of the exact same photograph came out looking differently… which means even when we trace, our personal style is coming through in the final product.
My Signature Logo Design
You might not think about it, but your signature can be a logo too. You can simply sign your name of course, and you should on legal documents… but many artists have a stylized form of their signature that they use to sign their finished works. If you have been following my blog since I appeared at the Raleigh Comic Convention back in August, you have seen scans of my sketches that include my signature logo.
So what is the secret origin of my logo?
For years I had been practicing variations on things that I liked. For a time I thought I might use a stylized version of my initials (SJV) in a design similar to the old Van Halen logo. It looked ok, and I was a fan of the band, but that didn’t really yield a signature that represented anything of myself. As I have said before, your logo represents you and at that point my concept did not adequately represent me.
I was always a good math and science student and was an Electrical Engineering major at NC State University, so in some ways it is odd that it took me as long as it did to come up with this design. It is simple and quite by accident very functional in communicating additional information beyond just who drew the picture.
The integral symbol represents my first initial, the root symbol represents my last initial, and the J fits snugly in there as a variable to the root function. As I settled upon this design and grew to like it, I discovered a happy accident… I could use the lower and upper limits for the integral symbol to represent the month and year, respectively.
So I ended up with a neat little signature logo that identifies me as well as when I completed the work. It also represents the analytical side of me as much as it represents the artistic side.
Do you have your own stylized signature logo design?
i.e. Sequential... Journal... Visual... 
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