Disney Buys Marvel

You probably already have heard the news but blog artists have already begun the drawings of "What If...?"

Marvel Mashups!

This sounds like a TAG drawing challenge if I've ever heard one. Anybody game??

Page 03 for the Comic I'm working on ... And five links to videos I just finished last week

**Snore** ... Colors and letters took from 12 - 3:30 am ... But the "accomplishment" means I'm actually not too sleepy today (well, not yet).

I'll skip a night (I'm sketching page 10 right now) and will color another page tomorrow morning.

Lastly, here are links to other early morning endeavors -- these five segments are for a grant exploring the question "What is Worship?" ... I did the raw videos and sound clips, married everything in After Effects and put together the finished segments (all but one are under a minute in length, and the one that's over is so by only one little second) Each color word is a link to a different segment:

.

PURPLE YELLOW GREEN BLUE ORANGE

Los Angeles Volcano erupts

More doodles from my Faces Sketchbook

Used a Generals Layout pencil. Dark but messy. Soft lead.

Mechanic and Tourist- trapeze guy with dome sketch overhead, and skinny, masked super-hero guy and a Mob Including a Spidery Machine Kind of Thing.

The head is some Judge listing a lot of crimes for the jury foreman.
Couple more of the same sort of thing.
And a GrabBag doodle sheet

Met Joe Rubenstein at Comic Con; Here Is His New Onlie Portfolio

The title is a link to Joe's work, both his inks of other artist's pencils and his own color work. If you know of specific industry work, contact Joe about it off of his Web page, or forward the link to your contact. To the best of my knowledge he is finishing up a pro job or two, but in this economy ... after that? You can never have enough work or enough industry contacts.

My First Comic ... Ever.

In the DVD I mentioned below, the Comic Book series from The Write Environment ... Mark Waid mentioned that he had a copy of the very first comic he ever read. I took that to heart and went out on Ebay and found a copy of the July issue of Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom, the one where he battles a mysterious outbreak of prehistoric creatures. I purchased it prior to boarding the SS Barrett en-route to Hawaii where my family was moving. My mom said each of us kids could pick one thing to take on board the ship. Well, that was what I chose. I read that comic about fifty times during the three day voyage, mostly to spite my brother who purchased, built, and played with a Revelle model car kit.

I shall treasure this copy forever.

But I challenge EVERY ONE OF YOU, and that means every one ... to jot down the name and possibly the issue number or month of your own first comic, if you can remember, that is. This should be good.

New Material in B! B!! B!!! (going out to publishers this week)

BBB Dummy Master09
Here is the latest and greatest version ... Especially note Rick Schmitz's great work between the Introduction and Foreword; really nice. Oh, and now the book actually comes up in book form on Scribd so you just arrow press through the pages like it is a book ... I have a list of cookbook editors and will also be social networking and tweeting a lot about this this week. Publishers, here I come ...

I got machine guns..In My Butt?

This new trailer has some great character designs. That old robot he activates is obviously inspired by Laputa.

I notice it crops the video, at least in firefox it's cropped. The title is a link to the youtube video

BizLogo-Haed-Avatar Inspired

I like my dyslexia on "head" so I left it.
Sketch inspired ( or copied) from Avatar trailer.
And a biz card I picked up at Comicon that was very close to a logo I remember as one of Rick's logos.

More Mascot Madness

War Wagon Plus an Idea

The Wagon and other random doodles just me exploring shapes for Nadja's conveyance.

The guy with the squinchy features is from some news story. And the idea is, why not post a face like this and then everyone do a caricature.

What do you think?

The title is a link to a Cat dying a slow death. Not for the squeamish.

The Hep Cat By R. Clampett

Click title link to see the cartoon!

Slobbering Dog

The sketch below the dog is based on a bathing photo of the wife of the French President.

Added another sketch because I can

More Doodles

After seeing Tom's Mr. Ugly, I sketched up one of my own. (Not as refined I'm afraid) + other scribbles.

sketchbook page ...

I finished overworking this one during Felicity's piano practice a week or so ago ...

;-)

Sketchbook Doodles

Figured I post a page of doodles from one my sketchbooks, been working on faces.

Used the Dixon Sense-a-Mark 2100 pencil. Oh Boy

Are Batman And Robin Gay?

click headline for answers.

Joker Victim Death Grin A Reality!

From an online National Geographic article:

"Thousands of years before the Joker gassed comic book victims into a grinning death, Phoenician colonists on the island of Sardinia (map) were forcing smiles on the faces of the dead.
Now scientists say they know just how the ancient seafaring traders created the gruesome smiles some 2,800 years ago—not with a toxic gas like Batman's nemesis but with a plant-based potion.

By the eighth century B.C., Homer had coined the term 'sardonic grin'—'sardonic' having its roots in 'Sardinia'—in writings referring to the island's ritual killings via grimace-inducing potion.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/090602-smiling-death-potion.html

Working on Character

Nadja, professional Lion Killer. In an alternate reality where lions rule the wilderness and settlements require professionals like Nadja.
I'm studying Charles Sanders and Cheeks. Probably need to pull out the Joe Chiodo as well since he does this elongation thing so well.

Movies and Comics article

Click on the headline for an interesting discussion about why movies based on comics don't lead to better comics sales. The answers aren't that surprising, but the thoughts on how to improve the situation are worthy of our consideration.

Sand Painting

For those of you not on Facebook, or who don't keep track of such things ...

It's so gratifying to see a fine artist win one of these " ___'s Got Talent" shows. She uses a light box, music, imagination and extraordinary sand-painting skills to interpret Germany's invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WWII. I love that she used one of my favorite tunes (Apocalyptica's Nothing Else Matters).

More MadMen Madness

Just had to try this myself. Here I am presenting a doughnut to Rod Serling. I like the suit and hat but why are my ankles smaller than my wrists?

MadMen, Never seen it.

I do have Netflix. I'll catch up with Mad Men some day.
The above is my Darren Steven's persona.

MadMen Couple - Brent's Post

Brent tried posting a comment in response to Ellis's "Arnold" post, but it needed moderating, probably because it included the "D" word. I accidently deleted his comment. Brent, try posting again.

Oh, and here's Patty and me as a '60's MadMen couple. We each designed ourselves using the "MadMen Yourself" web site Beata discovered: http://www.amctv.com/originals/madmen/madmenyourself/

Cork 34

Hey! New Cork finally. I've actually had it in my computer since Monday but I've been busy, busy, busy. It's good to get back to it.

More Scoring Pencil Doodles

Electronic Scoring pencils have made me forget that I haven't seen CORK for a Looonnnngggg time.

Elmore Leonard TV Show

I'm a Elmore Leonard completest. I think I've read all his work. Including his great westerns. Raylan Givens is one of his most bad assed characters. This clip I got from AintItCool looks like it gets the character right. I hope this plays on Hulu or something so I get to watch it before DVD release.
I even have the DEC 1953 issue of Argosy with Leonard's first published work. That took some ebay work to find that.

Scoring Pencils

Title is the link to a pencil I discovered in my collection.
It's out of manufacture.
But I found some other scoring pencils made by Dixon.
It's a very buttery and fun lead to draw with.

The sketches are incidental to the feel of putting the line down.

So I recommend finding an office supply with scoring pencils.

I added another sketch that combines the three pencils I've been working with. It's probably no more complex than discovering I like the equivalent of a 4b pencil.

The Blackwing 602

The Final Chapter

http://www.pencilpages.com/articles/blackwing.htm

The Write Environment -- Excellent

I watched and listened to this DVD today and found it excellent. It is the Comic Book Series Special Edition from Jeffrey Berman's "The Write Environment." Featured on the DVD are Marv Wolfman, Mark Waid, and Geoff Johns, with a teaser segment from David Hayter thrown in for good measure. Worth a look for aspiring writers out there looking for info and inspiration ...

The Title is your link to Berman's site, or you can click here.

something is causing me to not be able to upload the image ... I'll try again from home ...

Good to keep things in Scale

Arnold is big. No he's not.

Posted by a "friend' on Facebook. I don't think I actually know the guy. Thought the rest of you might have missed it.