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
Page 3 of 22 now is 100% inked- this page ended up being a nightmare of architectural proprtions, T&G shadowed ceilings, wood siding, over head shot of a terra cotta building burning, multiple facial emotion shots and three burning women… and yet – it turned out gorgeous (in my opinion) what do you think?
The Trailer finally came out for “ZERO CHARISMA” and my artwork did make it into the film! Here is the screen cap from the trailer, my work is at the 1:02 minute mark behind actor Sam Eidson’s Character in his room, tacked on the wall- Grizelda goes Hollywood, just a little bit… Enjoy this, I certainly did!
Trailer and fundraiser is at
http://www.indiegogo.com/zerocharismathemovie
Pages 3 and 12 that are in the screen capture…
Some of the Shirt Logos I did for the Vandalettes of Vero Beach– in 2011 in some of their new press photos in 2013- thanks Brandy and Kelly, the shirts looks outstanding! The 2011 artwork is below the two photos…
Photo credit to AUSTIN RUSSELL PHOTOGRAPHY
Jessica Belmont is hanged until dead in a California Prison in the 1850’s, and we see the land that was fought over is now the present day 2013 SAN QUENTIN State Prison in California… – The End
I loved the top hangman’s noose panel with the Flag of the state behind Jessica hanging from the gibbet, and the last panel is stark and sums up what it was all about- land for a prison to be built on that is there 160+ years into the future. Now onto the editing, and inking process with my writer Kevin Truglio who has stepped in to fill David’s shoes to make sure we hit all the script points so this works when you read it later in 2013.
