These are the final inks for my Conan pinup based off the Robert E. Howard short story- THE TOWER OF THE ELEPHANT.
I think the inks really brought out the magic tower element with the crystal walls and embedded gems. Overall the inks really made this piece pop, the Spider and Conan elements ended up being the lighter elements on top of the intricate background.
I think I succeeded in making a high quality Conan piece, accurate to the book, and also was a unique take on the subject.
This was not the best figure drawing session for me, it was if I had a bad deal on a card game, but here are the results, even if it wasnt the easiest session for me- practice makes perfect. I am always learning to work on my human anatomy to continually get better and improve my craft.
O.K… so this is something I get asked about frequently, and yes I do it when it makes sense… “Do you design tattoos?”… This is always a rough and slow process as the goal is to pull something out of someone’s head that isn’t necessarily an artist, but can “see” something, and like blind man’s bluff you are shooting darts to hit that imaginary target.
So this project was for a friend and fraternity brother, Dave Warden. A few words on Dave- I’ve Known Dave for about 20 years now, and he has always been a great older brother for me- sometimes we have spoken and seen each other frequently, and sometimes not so much. Also Dave has always been someone that would equally tell me I was wrong, as well as praising me when I was doing something right. I can also thank Dave for about 50% of my technology knowledge, also introducing me to the Geto Boys (2000?) and South Park (1997?) as well as many beers, laughs and good times. Pretty much, if you know someone like Dave, or as we called him “Sweet Daddy” consider yourself lucky, they don’t come along very often. Dave was diagnosed with M.S. a few years ago, which was a real blow to me, since I have known Dave so long I hated to hear that he would not have the same quality of life moving forward, and I realized we were all getting old.
Anyway Dave contacted me about this project because he wanted to get a tattoo to show his dedication to fighting this disease. Dave has always been a supporter & fan of my artwork since about 1993. Dave actually made a Mad Magazine style cameo in this 90’s fraternity tee shirt I illustrated here – Dave is driving the golf cart. After our initial conversation about this project I got a real feeling that my return to artwork the last few years really made Dave proud of me, and I also got a true sense of his enjoyment watching me make so many new pieces and getting back to the younger artist’s dedication that he remembered before I stopped drawing which I reference in this post called “Hiatus”. I get so much energy from positive talks like this, so once I had an idea of what Dave wanted last Fall- “A Broken Sun with a Smirking Face Surrounded by Tattered Flags”- it was time to get to work and get this taken care of for Sweet Daddy.
One of the things I found as I researched this issue (doing my homework) was that alot of people in the M.S. community get tattoos, and what a rough disease this is to have. Losing control of my body has to be one of things that scares me more than most- other things being Sharks and Drowning that would rate in that category. So while doing this project, I gained a healthy respect for Dave’s situation and the M.S. Community in general, and I knew that I needed to give the project the slow process and attention to detail it deserved so Dave’s wishes would be accurately drawn out for the tattoo artist to put this into his skin permanently. Of course, tattoo needles and needles in general scare me, so yes I am a huge pussy.
Luckily- Dave loved the first draft, and there was a move to get more to the original sketch, which you can see I was already moving away in images 2-3! The 7 images below chronicle the journey from step one- to final inks. Along the way we had some adds, deletes and some happy accidents that Dave loved that I had no idea were in there- so that was awesome. When I do something like this, I abdicate about 80% creative control to the client, so it is a slow process. I don’t always agree with what we (Jason and Art Client) are doing in a process like this, but unlike most of my projects I make I’m not the creative director.
Ultimately It is important that this is what the client is comfortable wearing on their skin, so they are the boss. I can say that getting Dave’s final email simply commenting “Beautiful” made my day, another job well done with some killer artwork. Thank you Sweet Daddy, keep up the good fight!
Updated (2/9/14 with actual tattoo art on skin)
Conan the Barbarian- an epic character from Robert E. Howard and an iconic figure in American Artwork on book & comic covers and thousands upon thousands of pages of printed comic books. Unlike my last series of pinups (Dr. Who Villains) where there is little art to compare to- Conan is an epic order to fill- Frazetta, Buscema, Smith, Alcala, Chan, Boris are just some of the classic legends to tackle and succeed with this Barbarian from another age and time.
The biggest challenge when facing this kind of historical comic character is what I’ll call the “Nord Barrier”- and by that I mean Cary Nord- super artist in general that re-launched this title with Dark Horse several years back. What impressed me with Cary’s work was that he made his work original and “re-made” Conan all over again with a fresh style that was unique, as well as beautifully rendered. I think that Cary pulled this off was made all the harder with so many great artists doing the same thing for decades. He managed to make the Nord Conan a unique look and feel despite so many hurdles to being original. So I felt if I were doing a Conan piece I had to make it mine and not a knock off of say- Buscema’s or Frazetta’s etc. and thus cross the “Nord Barrier”.
So I took my favorite Conan Story and made my image of two paragraphs from Tower of the Elephant– it was a challenge from the changing poses of the Main character- Conan, and the Spider- below are my 4 steps to get to final pencils. Here is the passage I took my cue from…
It was as large as a pig, and its eight thick hairy legs drove its ogreish body over the floor at headlong pace; its four evilly gleaming eyes shone with a horrible intelligence, and its fangs dripped venom that Conan knew, from the burning of his shoulder where only a few drops had splashed as the thing struck and missed, was laden with swift death. This was the killer that had dropped from its perch in the middle of the ceiling on a strand of its web, on the neck of the Nemedian. Fools that they were not to have suspected that the upper chambers would be guarded as well as the lower!
These thoughts flashed briefly through Conan’s mind as the monster rushed. He leaped high, and it passed beneath him, wheeled and charged back. This time he evaded its rush with a sidewise leap, and struck back like a cat. His sword severed one of the hairy legs, and again he barely saved himself as the monstrosity swerved at him, fangs clicking fiendishly. But the creature did not press the pursuit; turning, it scuttled across the crystal floor and ran up the wall to the ceiling, where it crouched for an instant, glaring down at him with its fiendish red eyes. Then without warning it launched itself through space, trailing a strand of slimy grayish stuff.
And now that you have read the text I based this on- I present the pencils, and layout and thumbnails that led to the final pencils. Lots to do here before I get it complete, but a project to be excited about! Did I cross the “Nord Barrier”? Well dear reader, that is for you, and not your humble narrator to decide!
*Note- the top scan are some edits I made after the “final pencils” I got some amazing crits on this piece from some killer artists (who asked to remain nameless) and I was able to give Conan a boost, to look, well more “Conan”. So the first scan are the Conan Specific Corrections, and then the main scan is under that – it was done about 48 hours prior. I like to share as much behind the scenes stuff as possible so I wanted to show this part of the process pre inks.
CONAN RE-EDITS
The final inks to HARLEY LOVES JOKER
Notes- I really rebuild the face to get more of a sexy look and a pronounced nose, this worked well in my opinion – I also really felt the line weight and solid blacks evoked a style that I love from the old U.K. 2000 A.D. Books from the early 80’s. If you are familiar with that- chime in to give your opinion!
I also changed up the Heart’s in the middle and just made it say LOVES- it was unclear to the public what I was trying to get accross- so it had to change!
Overall, I felt a solid composition and execution on a fun commission for a client!
The final inks for my Thanos Commission. The inks really brought out the details and made this piece pop. The facial texture really did it for me, I liked this from the major composition and layout to the final details. I tried to take my old school Role Playing Game inking style to a Marvel Hero, I think it worked well to take a new take on an old character.
The final inked version of ATTACK ON TITAN that I made as a pinup- the detail really turned out gorgeous for the Titan, and Survey Corps horseman, and even the man in the high background getting squished! The Attack on Titan Manga is very un-detailed (but highly fluid in motion) so I had to really go over volumes 5&6 to piece together the anatomy of the equipment, uniform and gear for the cavalry rider, and even the Giant body details on the Titan- Hajime Isayama really has some things spelled out in some panels and others are left to the imagination, and then the next panel is completley opposite in terms of what is shown in detail and what isn’t. So to get a full picture, I needed to look at various reference points constantly. This made it hard to really attain the accuracy and level of detail in my style, while keeping it true to Hajime Isayama’s original designs. The details really fleshed out the composition in the end despite the lack of solid reference…or un-fleshed it in the Female Titan’s case. I felt the rider’s Jacket and the Giant’s face really were stong elements of this piece. Ironically the hardest part to ink was the shoulder patches on the rider’s jacket. The Survey Corps has a very complicated logo, and I really tried to nail it. I would have never thought that would have been as hard as it was, but indeed it vexed me. Well I hope all of my anime friendly fans enjoy this as much as I did creating it!
Another cool commission from a fan who asked me to do an interpretation of DC Comic’s Harley Quinn, the girlfriend of the Joker. I was surprised to see her new costume was more of a roller derby girl as opposed to her old Batman the animated series jester outfit, but hey, times are changing! I may tweak some of the facial expression, but at the same time, I like the odd expression that came with the smile and stare I was going for in a psychotic killer’s psychotic girlfriend….
Enjoy!
Just a short and sweet Thanos Commission I’m doing for a fan I met at a store signing. He is collecting different artists doing their own interpretations of the classic Marvel villain. I’ll always identify Thanos with the following four items as visual keys…
#1- The Infinity Gauntlet
#2- The 70’s Anime inspired helmet
#3- the psycho eyes and ever present smile
#4- the wacked out ribbed chin
I put all of them in the piece, and had a nice overlap of hand over face and shoulder to build depth. The piece ended up being a fairly simple, but effective composition to get what I remembered about Thanos into one coherent pinup.
2014 means some awesome conventions that I’ll be at, and since I identify as the “Metal Artist” on the con circuit, just like last year, I needed a metal themed tour shirt for the fans, and this year is no different- and super local graphic artist Andy Mylin took my wishes to make a JUDAS PRIEST Themed Jason Lenox shirt into reality with some of my recent artwork. Here is the new Shirt Artwork that will be for Sale as tee shirts starting in January of 2014 via my website or with me at comic shows at my table/booth. Below are the Front and Back artwork for my 2014 theme “HELLBENT FOR INKING” and the art from Priest’s album “HELLBENT FOR LEATHER” that Andy used as a template is below all of that.
Check out Andy’s website here and contact him if you need some great graphic design and artwork in general if you dig his style- I know I do!
Enjoy some killer tee shirts in a few weeks from yours truly!
FRONT
BACK
Original Judas Priest Album Cover Artwork
