Chris in Korea!

I just got back from a 3 day business trip to Korea!  Here is a link to my Photobucket album for the pictures.  kamsahamnida!

Trip to Korea Photo Album

Couple of sketch cards

I just got back from a vacation to WA. and a trip to Korea.  I am still tired.  lol  Anyway, these are a couple of cards I did right before I took off.  HR Puffinstuff and Gandalf the Grey

Comicsforcures.com Cards Finished

Got my sketch cards finished for the comicsforcures.com benefit auction and I did 4 cards, a couple Star Wars, Tusken Raider and a pair of Stormtroopers, a Venom and a Hellboy.

3rd Annual
SKETCH CARD BENEFIT AUCTION
AND GALLERY SHOW
FOR AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY
May 22nd, 2010

Comics 2 Games is hosting a SKETCH CARD GALLERY SHOW and Benefit Auction for American Cancer Society on April 3rd, 2010.
Proceeds will go to the AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY.
Location: Comics 2 Games, 8470 US 42., Florence, KY 41042 phone: 859-647-7568.

Sponsors:
BLUELINEPRO.COM - COMICSXP.COM - SKETCHMAGAZINE.NET

Commander Cody in Watercolor

Watercolor sketch of Commander Cody from Star Wars - The Clone Wars.  I will be adding the ink work to it later.

Puffin - Final

This is the finished Puffin.  I ended up leaving the background alone and just inking the bird and the rocks.  I used a thinner pen than I usually do and I think it improved the look.  I is a bit more...subtle.  I like it. 

Puffin commission

Working on a commission.  I did the initial sketch in pencil and I was ready to start inking it up and it was suggested that maybe a watercolor version would be better.  Sort of like my previous Cad Bane watercolor that was inspired but David Petersen's (mouseguard) watercolor work.  So I painted it up and I will be inking it up later today.  Argh I am nervous.

Ink Work - Schoolhouse

This is a picture of a piece I am working on for a commission.  Heavy black inks and thin inkwork for the shading of the wood panels.

Doctor Doom Ink Sketch

Made a mistake and scanned it as a GIF instead of JPG and the scan makes it look all pixelated.  But this is a sketch I did last night.  I have been so impressed but the TWART guys and Chris Samnee in particular that I wanted to practice some of that style.  I am developing a real fondness for ink work.  I have an ink brush that is refillable and the brush is really good quality that I really enjoying doing brush work now.  Anyway, I thought Doctor Doom would be a good subject...

The Finished piece...really this time

I guess I forgot to upload the image last time I posted this.  LOL  Anyway.  This is the finished piece.  Besides getting his likeness, it was really important to me to include the window in the background.  He designed and made that stained glass window.  I was also worried about the tone of the skin, but when I started on the sweater, the skin was secondary.  I was really worried that the sweater was going to turn out crappy, but I think it came around rather nicely.

Quick Alien

Just a quick Alien for a message board contest.

New Vader Piece Started - Pencils

Started a new Darth Vader Piece last night.  I should have been working on other projects, but something inspired me and I just "needed" to do this piece.  (I love that feeling.)  Anyway.  Thought I would share the process here so here are the pencils I did last night.  I am thinking of monochrome, maybe black, white and one or two greys.  I may add a couple of figures to the top of the image, we will see.

More Comicforcures.com Benefit Sketch Cards

 

  

Two more cards for the Comicsforcures.com Cancer benefit auction.  Tusken Raider with Micron Pen and Primacolor Markers.  And a pair of Stormtroopers, inspired by a photo taken by Ken "Elvis Trooper" Tarkenton.  I love his work.

Finished Commission

This is the finished piece.

Commission

Comics For Cures Sketch Card Auction

 

Got my sketch card blanks for the comicsforcures.com benefit auction and Venom was my first finished card.  I am doing 4 cards, I think a couple Star Wars, a Venom and a Hellboy.

3rd Annual
SKETCH CARD BENEFIT AUCTION
AND GALLERY SHOW
FOR AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY
April 3rd, 2010

Comics 2 Games is hosting a SKETCH CARD GALLERY SHOW and Benefit Auction for American Cancer Society on April 3rd, 2010.
Proceeds will go to the AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY.
Location: Comics 2 Games, 8470 US 42., Florence, KY 41042 phone: 859-647-7568.

Sponsors:
BLUELINEPRO.COM - COMICSXP.COM - SKETCHMAGAZINE.NET

A couple of new Sketch Cards - Iron Man and Clone Trooper

 

A couple of new Sketch Cards I did recently.  Mandalorian-Style Helmet of "Captain Rex".  And an Iron Man head shot from Comic Con.  These are available for sale, contact me.

My Son in a Swing

 

Pen and ink piece of my son.  I can't tell you have difficult it is to do a portrait of your family, or someone you really care about.  The pressure was tremendous.  I am really happy at the result.  I finished the line work and I sat there wondering "how am I going to shade this thing??"  It took me a couple of days to decide, cause with this, once you start, you are committed.   I was happy and my wife was really happy and my son recognized himself, so you can't get a better crit that that huh?  :) 

Watto and Qui-Gon

 

This is a sketch I did the other day, I am trying to get better with the Copic markers I have.  I was getting really frustrated with the piece in the middle of laying down the colors, I was just adding color after color and I thought I was really getting away from the look of Watto.  But I stuck with it and I think Watto and Qui-Gon came out a lot better than I expected.  I love surprising myself.  What really got it going for me was laying down the inks afterward.  I started with the jacket and the inks really made it pop.

 

I did another watercolor sketch yesterday.  Of Cad Bane from The Clone Wars TV show.  As wild and uncaring as I was about putting on color and how much, the sketch came out surprisingly satisfying to me.  Then I took a pen to it and I am still getting used to it, I can't decide whether I think it is an improvement.  Yesterdays sketch was different, the watercolor was terrible and the pen improved it.  But this one, I actually think the watercolor sketch had some good feeling about it and I think the pen changed than feeling.

Watercolor Sketch

I got some watercolors and a watercolor sketchpad and so this was my first sketch.  After I saw what David Petersen (of Mouseguard fame) did with some of his artwork, I went back to this sketch and did some outlining with pen.  It improves the sketch 1000%!  It gives it a bit of a stained glass look.  I like it.

Self_Portrait Sketch Card

I like the way my face looks when I look angry!  LOL  I get asked why I always look angry on my self-portraits, honestly, it is because I think I look more interesting and I enjoy drawing that more.  This is ink brush on a sketch card.

Redesign of Crime Noir piece

Redesign of the Crime Noir piece I did last week.  I had a buddy help me with some better photo-reference and that helped a lot.  I mean a lot!  adding the gun helped but I think the body position is 101% improved.  First pic up is the pencils, then the line-art and finally the scan. 

Inked - Crime Noir Piece

I am kind of on the fence with how I feel this one came out.  It says "victim" to me and not "danger".  Any way the crime noir piece is finished and I am waiting to hear what the client says.  I did another version of this that I will post later.  It says "danger" the guy has a gun and looked a lot tougher.

Crime-Noir

 

I am doing a job for a guy who is doing a script for a crime-noir webseries.  This is one of my sketches.  All of the black is surprisingly intimidating.  Although the man is supposed to be a detective, he seems more like a zombie.  So I am changing the guy.  Took some reference photos yesterday, hopefully I can make him a bit more...tough?  Yeah tough.

Another set of Star Wars Personal Sketchcards

More sketchcards I did over the weekend.  Trying to make them look as dynamic and cool as I can while working on new methods and effects.
Star Wars Personal Sketchcards
Darth Vader
Mace Windu
Boba Fett
Darth Bane
Darth Vader
Master Yoda

Weekend of Sketchcard-y Goodness.

I tried to crank out a number of sketchcards this weekend. 
Star Wars Personal Sketchcards :Clone Trooper, Emperor Palpatine, Millennium Falcon, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Farmboy Luke, Kit Fisto.  Trying to get faster, trying to get better, all micron pens.

Sketchcardiness - Jedi Youngling

This was something that I thought you never seen much off is Star Wars sketchcards, a Jedi Young-ling, totally innocent, not knowing that there is a guy named Darth Vader coming to kill him, maybe he has felt the disturbance in The Force, but just doesn't know what it means...poor kid.

Battle of the Darth Sketchcards!

 

These are two more Copic Marker sketchcards, Darth Vader (episodes 4-6) and Darth Maul (episode 1).  

Clone Trooper Sketchcard

This is a sketchcard of a clonetrooper helmet from the Star Wars prequels.  I used Copic markers, I am still trying to get used to them.  I never have been great with color, but I wanted this to be a bright piece and I think I got that.

Sketchcard Madness - Kit Fisto

This is a sketch card of Kit Fisto, I think one of the coolest under-utilized Jedi out there.

Sketchcards... Princess Amidala

Todays sketchcard comes courtesy of SW:TPM (Episode 1).  Princess Amidala in one of her big headdresses.  I like the way it came out generally, it doesn't look like Natalie Portman, but I think it looks good.  there are some issues with the skull size and the eye placement...but overall I think it is alright.

Sketchcard of Princess Leia, from Ep 4.  I found with this one that even the position of the eyebrow, makes or breaks the entire portrait.  I had a real problem with the chin, and I was worried about the eye.  A couple of small tweaks changed the whole picture.  It was not working at all, I moved the eyebrow and reworked the chin and things really came together.  

Here is another Star Wars sketchcard, Obi-Wan Kenobi.   Think this one came out okay.  Again with the Micron Pens.  I did this one while my son was watching the Return of the Jedi for the second time in a day.  :)

Sketchcards Yoda-ness

Sketch card I did this morning, Yoda, using a crosshatch technique.  I haven't done a crosshatch drawing in quite sometime and I really enjoyed it.  Done with Micron Pens and Canson 150lb sketchcards.

More sketchy-cardy goodness

Star Wars Clone Wars, newest baddie, Cad Bane!  Using Copic Markers.

I am still trying to find a white marker that is heavy and keeps its brightness.  Suggestions??

Darth Vader Sketchcard

Crime Noir Sketches

 

Nathan Fillion Continued

This one is my favorite of the two.  This is from a scene in ABC's CASTLE where Nathan Fillion is dressing up for Halloween as a "Space Cowboy" a direct nod to his days as Mal Reynolds on Joss Whedon's Firefly series.  This is one of the first "finished" works I have done that involves a real background.

Finally Finished _ Nathan Fillion

This is a picture I did of Nathan Fillion as Capt Mal Reynolds from Firefly.  Inked with an amazing Pentel brush that uses a replaceable ink cartridge.  You never have to dip the pen in ink or water.  I have found it liberating.  Anyway, this is inked with black and gray ink.  I tried to give it a Micheal Cho kind of feel.  I didn't get it what I wanted it but I think it was a pretty decent first try.  I will be working a lot more with these lind of works.