last practice image

I decided to make a pledge to start my FX-mulrooney universe and portfolio for free-lance work instead of practicing- I decided to do one last practice art piece- recreating a comic panel- linework, color and copy- I used an piece created by Scott Lobdell and Chris Bachalo from"Generation Next" by Marvel Comics...
I created this image in Sketchbook Pro 7... I am thinking how to create the images of my Universe with this tool if my laptop doesn't crap out... I like the copic tools set of this version... It makes coloring easy and fun... so here is the last piece of the practice era....

I do note I am still a fan of Bachalo's style-its hard to duplicate and sweet

practicing with clean styles

The ultimate goal for my push in comics is to be able to be a better draftsman and simplify my style so i can do lots of it without burning out- so figuring out how other artists pose a character and handle rendering is a asset. So this is a test in copying the style from a great French cartoonist Felix Meynet... I found an image online  and went about trying to get the essence of the character and change it up a bit- I made an okay first approximation.... still need work on line weights, but not too shabby... You can find more of his published work on Brand Studio Press web site

pats inkover

I saw this cool Oliver Coipel pinup image of weapon X that another artist posted with his inked version and i decided to do my own to help me master the crazy crosshatch skills Oliver Coipel has- looks like I am failing miserably, but I will keep trying... I did this ink over digitally using Sketchbook pro 7... I felt I did better that I would have expected with this program. I was comfortable enough to ry to embellish more over than just copy.  Maybe if I keep it up I will have a shot at the pros some day- another practice image bites the dust

trace with bernie wrightson

Just trying to understand how these greats understand form by pure tracing over their work- this time I tried to trace over a Bernie Wrightson Solomon Grundy page. This was crazy on how detailed the work was- image it was 11X17 or larger- a lot of ink bottles were emptied on this piece.

I did this with Sketchbook pro 7- and was impressed with the response with the felt tip marker tool. this took me  a couple of hours to trace- image the time it took to ink this one with non digital tools- WOW- still impressed with this work...

My critique: I can tell I need to understand a curved stroke over a straight stroke and how those stroke define form- will keep working...

Tracing to crack the code- Neal Adams

was listing to interview with Neal Adams on Kevin Smith's Smodcast: Fatman on Batman and was inspired to learn many professionals use reference and maybe even tracing to increase there speed to complete artwork and  their production quality in some cases. Looking at Neal's stuff, I see a lot of reference but also an eye for art being exercised.. Noting he knows how to render shapes with a line and indicate depth like no other- so I am going back to school and tracing over his stuff to help me see how he sees in defining  and rendering his shapes- so I used sketchbook pro to produce this inking trace- I learn a lot about how he renders hair and volume.... more to come...

value study crazy

I am thinking about doing value studies to  put into my portfolio- so I attempted this  figure drawing in sketchbook pro- just using the pencil tool for sketching the outline and the paint brush on medium opacity for the fill colors- I am trying to keep monochromatic so I can practice on identifying shapes with tone only... I determined that a clean line and great silhouette is the start for an impressive value study- well I have to get back to finishing the shading on my comic assignment of finishing pages for a writer in our comic group in preparation for Detroit Fan fare

a potential process for digital comics/black it out

I was trying to look a new quicker process fro creating images with photoshop without drawing them over many times- so I am testing out how to use layers, blending modes, opacity, levels, brush opacity, and brush flow.

So here goes the process:

first- set up a sketch brush- In zero layer or background//I use the square scatter brush at 25% opacity and 25% flow- so it may be a little gray- I generally put the brush size shape to 0% it will produce a gray underlying drawing- loose lines and all// I then use levels  and move black slider up till drawing gets lighter- redraw clean line concentrating on smooth quality- erase if necessary- the underlying drawing is now done- for longer curves strokes- we can use the pen tool and brush stroke- vary brush size when needed...

second step- in above layer- set on multiply// increase brush size and lower opacity to <15%  and low flow for use this as a rendering  or shading layer- concentrate on shading core shadows and cast only- you can erase with low flow and opacity as well to make less drastic in tone....

third layer- in above layer- the black out layer- here we just color in black/ leave in normal blend mode - this can be used as both  a mask selection and a solid  upper background layer for the top color layer- set brush to 100% opacity and flow- we can use this as a mask by selecting the area outside the mask if colored in and choose inverse or select the black colored are if well defined...set this layer as 10-15% opacity- this will allow color to be seen from top layer

fourth and final layer-set to color mode- with the mask intact- fill in a skin or other area of color- with solid color... this also can be altered by erasing at low opacity and flow and adding color with a hard bush to identify textures

so thats it- hopefully this will make creating a page systematic and cool looking