Another great anatomy/figure drawing session with our model Danna Jayne at the Art Alliance- the final 45 minute prone pose from the back was hard, but really really please with the outcome. I also liked the 2 minute leg pose I drew- simple , yet elegant!
Page 7 of 22 is now inked and in the can. The big changes were in the bottom panel- altering the cowboy hat to the correct height, giving Elijah more “anger” in his eyes, and increasing the size of the gun/hand- all three edits really improved the dramatic impact of that panel as you can see from pencils to inks in the two images below. Lots of linework to keep the old world feel in the textures of the inks as it relates to fabric, leather, metal etc.
Im realizing as I ink this story, that it is really intimate and alot of small interactions with some well fleshed out characters, and less “large scale” like last year’s “Through the Eyes of Grizelda” which had alot of crowds and masses of background characters.
The action pinup page of “Painted Ladies of San Quentin” in full inks!
The big changes were the hand , and horse’s eye location (anatomy) and the gun (Technical Corrections).
The fun inking parts were the Chinaman’s textured clothing, and the close up cross hatching on Elijah’s arm as we get a POV of the Gunslinger in action for the first time. The up close foreground cross hatching which was a fun effect I hadnt done before, and I will definitely use again! The story here is in the action, or a picture is worth 1000 words!
And in this case, one big word- BANG!
I just got this progress update regarding the artwork I did for TPK games for the Jirak Thoole Metal Miniature- while not PERFECT, it is pretty damn cool to see a metal sculpture of some of my artwork- here is an overlay of the artwork from 2012 with the metal mini. Also included is a photo of both of the minis they made for the project, the human form was based on another artist’s work for the cover of the Module.
Shelly Cleveland Morris has just gotten her first batch of homemade boutique soap completed with the new packaging featuring some old pen and ink artwork that I had done for Lambda Chi Alpha back in 2001. This stuff looks great, great job on the packaging! The original 2001 artwork is below the packaging photos of the soap.
Here is a nice writeup she did on the process
This is the Facebook Group for her Soap
And this is the store to get some on ETSY
When you get put in the same article with someone like Neal Adams- it is the highest compliment you can get when you do what I do with my artwork- enjoy!
And Chris Ring is pretty awesome too!
Page 5 is now 100% inked- with changes on 2 of 4 of the panels. Panels 1 & 2 were originally to close out the flashback by showing Elijah looking at Jessica while passing out- this received some fairly constant criticism as a storytelling device that didnt work. Local author Abby Assetto pointed out that in the later parts of the story- we see an emotional response from Jessica about the Sheriff getting hurt/killed and that we never established a romantic emotional relationship with them, so I killed two birds with one stone- eliminating the two “eye closing” panels and adding two new ones to show a sexual relationship with Sheriff and Jessica, and also the type of relationship- combined with the hit to the head, and Elijah thinking Sheriff would help at the burning building he now sees that the power behind the Sheriff pulling his strings is Jessica… this is a mini-reveal, Elijah thought he was good- and symbolically, the hands are digging into him like a spider…. while also giving evidence of a physical intimate relationship. It just worked- thanks Abby. The last two panels had that great old time engraving look are a great segueway into page 6- the shooting pinup!
Below is the final page- the non shaded inks, the corrected pencilled panels and original pencils.
Page 4 of 22 is now 100% inked- this page had some great texturing, with an experimental textured technique that pays homage to the incredible pen and ink techniques of Edward Gorey since I am a big fan of his parallel line style, I wanted to put my spin on his style of penwork, I think it succeeded in giving this panel a unique look to the rear parts of the shadowed characters. Stipling and linework added some really detailed facial work on panels 2 and 3 to the foreground characters. Finally a gradation in the stipled background to focus on the action in panel helped highlight the original pencil work. I was going to use a manga style “kinetic” background but went in a more traditional direction in the style of the woodcut/old time art of the rest of the story I have been going for since the cover artwork.
Now the biggest issue of this page was Jessica in Panel #3- I struggled with this, and Nate Stemen and Joe Freistuhler tried to tell me it was off, and while I tried to fix it, I didnt get it, and my good friend Dani Kaulakis really called it out, so I had to do some surgery with Kristen at Jaru to do a new piece of art and then superimpose it over panel 3 to get it right – the original inked panel #3 Jessica was too far gone, but I think the new piece is killer and I’m glad I did th work to change it- thanks Dani and Kristen!!
Im including the original pencils- to the bad first ink on panel #3 and the whole repair process to the new page- enjoy the process!
An amazing article from the Lancaster New Era from 1984 (ok 29 years later now!) where if you look closely- I am working on one of my little fiend folio monster pieces, while not an artwork post- relevant to this upcoming project- where I update and redo the monster/rpg art I made as a child- enjoy!
Check out my quote from the article…”If you want to do something, and it is impossible to do, you can just draw what you think.” I agree with this quote today, and will try to keep it going! – Good Job 9 year old me!
Two fan commission pencil sketches from SETSUCON 2013 in State College, PA- an Anime Character, and Blade, from Marvel Comics
