Hefin

Its been a while since I updated the blog with new drawings. Sorry world, I know you missed me. Here is Hefin, another character from the project I'm working on. Kind of a non nondescript character. He didnt  come with a lot of fancy armor or a costume or physical features that made it easy to figure out what he looked like. He was actually one of the more challenging character designs I've done as a result. He's just a guy with a cane.

Jono and Wolfric

This is Jono and Wolfric. A pair of characters for the project I'm working on. They are based on several characters from popular culture, most notably Han Solo (slash Malcolm Reynolds) and Chewbacca.

Bale

 This is the first drawing I have finished in the last few weeks. With school starting up again and me seeing patients now, life has been a little preoccupying. Also, I went a little crazy with the detailing on this one, but I think its one of my favorites because of that. It takes a little longer to do it that way, but the finished product just seems a lot richer for it.

This is Bale, an obviously villainous character from the project I'm working on in my spare time with my buddy Dustin. I decided to include both the shot with the helmet and the shot without to show off the work I did on the facial features. I spent a good deal of time figuring out what his face should look like and I didn't want it to just be covered up immediately by his helmet.

COMMISSION: Pixie by Ryan Kelly

I just got this in the mail this afternoon and I couldn't be more psyched! I saw Ryan Kelly at the local MN Springcon in Minneapolis this last weekend and he didn't have time to finish this up before the con closed on sunday, so he took my name and address and said he would ship it to me when he was done. He also mentioned that, since he lives in town, he would be able to take it back to his studio and work on it there, and that it would invariably turn out better for the extra attention. Boy, he wasn't kidding. I got this amazing piece for $100, which is an amazing bargain. This is the first and as of now, only, time Ryan has drawn this character and I, for one, think he nailed it. Like I said, couldn't be happier!

Apolis Update: Finished!

On a roll today. Just started this one a little over an hour ago. Moved along a lot faster than I expected. This is Apolis, another character from our as yet still untitled (to the public anyway) comic project. I'm really happy with this. I have noticed over the last 3 months or so that I have finally gotten comfortable (I hate to say that I've gotten good at anything, I'm just too critical of my own work) at making my characters look dynamic and alive. I love this pose, its very Spider-man. I'll post the final version once its done.

Petrolas

This is Petrolas (Petya to those close to him). A character design I did for the project I am working on with my friend Dustin. I'm really psyched at how this one turned out. I havent really done much drawing the last 2 weeks, partially because of finishing up my 2nd year of dental school, and partially because I was working on a piece that was frustrating me. Nothing de-motivates me faster than having a piece frustrate me. So! I'm very happy that this one turned out exactly how I wanted it to! It was a good kick in the pants to start drawing again.

Othmar

So, this one has been a long time coming. I've been working on it for about a week, not because it was so difficult, but because my attention has been elsewhere. Finals started this week, classes wrapped up a new patch was released for World of Warcraft, I rediscovered Majora's Mask (N64 Zelda game from 2000) and I also wanted to spend time with my wife. So, I didn't do much drawing this week, but here it is!

This is another character created by my friend Dustin for a project were working on together. Basically I was going for a creepy, serial killer-esque vibe from him. Don't know if I nailed it yet or not, but I think it turned out alright.

Erin and Dru in the Yard

I took this the morning after the first snow of the year, sometime in November 2010. I just so happened that Erin's mom and sister were visiting and so, of course, we had to play in the snow. I was actually pretty happy at how clever I was at when taking this pic. It is composed of three separate shots, one on the right and left, and one in the middle. For the middle, I wanted to have some action, showing them playing in the snow, so I snapped probably ten or so shots of them and then just picked the one I like the most, and merged it in photoshop with the two for the sides. I think it worked out very nicely.

Duran

This is another character my buddy Dustin created. Sketched this up over the last two nights. I wanted to put in a steam punk element here, but, as I found out, steam punk is very hard. I managed to muddle through here, but hopefully I will get better at it the more I draw it because it is an aesthetic that I really enjoy.

COMMISSION: Magneto by Jim Cheung

This is a commission sketch I got from one of my favorite artists, Jim Cheung, in Seattle at the Emerald City Comic Con in March 2011. Jim is a bit of a quiet guy, but very friendly. I was lucky in that I was near the front of his line at the beginning of the con so I only had to wait through two people ahead of me to get this. Jim was very generous with his time at this con, in that he was only doing these head sketches, but was taking as many as people were willing to wait for. This took him maybe 10 minutes to bang out while I was standing there. It was a real thrill for me watching this master of his craft work. These guys make look so easy what I have to work so hard to accomplish, at a quality I could only dream of.

Note: I apologize for the quality of the image, it is not a high res scan, this was taken on the floor of our hotel room with my iPhone.

Oristone

This is a character created by my friend Dustin. I did this quick sketch mostly last night, with a few finishing touches to the cloths and the shading this afternoon. I just wanted to sketch here, so I decided to forgo inking and coloring for now. Maybe I'll add it in the future, and show the progression a step at a time.

The Cliffs of Moher

NOTE: Notice the small tower on the far right of the picture. For scale, that tower is about 3 stories tall.

Listed as one of the seven natural wonders of the world, the Cliffs of Moher certainly live up to their billing. We were there last summer when my wife and I visited Ireland. We had been told not to bother going if the weather was bad but it just so happened that on the day we were traveling from Dingle to Galway, it was one of the most brilliantly beautiful days of the trip. We stopped at the cliffs, and it was breath taking. I took this shot from outside of the sanctioned tourist zone (which you can actually see some of waaay over to the right of the photo). There was actually a big sign that said no one was allowed to travel past this point, and yet there was a well worn trail leading right past it. Erin was so mad at me the whole time we were out past the walls. She thought I was going to fall off the 700 foot drop into the ocean so I could get a better picture. Well, I didnt, and I got this photo (and about 200 others) so, ha.

Madeline

I dont really know who this character is yet. For some reason the name Madeline (Maddie) popped into my head when I started drawing her. She is some sort of psychic with latent telekinetic abilities but thats as far as I've gotten. This first one I drew last week in an hour or two, is her as a child.

 

I drew another quick sketch of her last weekend when I was on break from painting our basement. This one is Maddie all grown up, and apparently doing something that requires a bullet proof vest.

For this one, I took inspiration from Liz Sherman of the Hellboy universe, as well as Kitty Pryde of the X-men. I drew both of these in Sketchbook Pro (which I'm new to and LOVING). I gave it a try early last week at the behest of one of my favorite artists, Skottie Young. I don't know him personally, though I met him in Seattle earlier this year. What can I say? Twitter is an amazing thing. It's like being able to text your favorite creators any time of day.

COMMISSION: Beast by Eric Canete

This is the first of my commission sketches I've decided to share. I will probably put up a lot of these just to share how awesome the work for hire done by these artistic giants can be. I got this Beast (from the X-men) Eric Canete in Seattle in March 2011 at the Emerald City Comic Con. Eric is a very friendly man who does amazing work. He was very under the weather at the con, which I didn't find out until later, but he was able to crank out this beautiful piece, among several others. I find his work to be very kinetic and dynamic, looking nothing like anything else being done right now. I thought that he would do a great Beast because this characters power set is very movement based, being super agile and acrobatic. I think Eric brought a great sense of action to piece, so much so that you can almost see the characters motion jump right off the page at you. This is the most expensive commission I have gotten yet, but it was worth every penny.

A Work in Progress

Started this one tonight after school. Not done yet, but I thought it might be cool to just show a nights work and maybe share what it looks like later after more tweeking. A werewolf howling at the moon done in Sketchbook Pro.

Red Shift

Being a nerd, I love super heroes. Combine that with my passion for drawing and you get someone who loves drawing super heroes. However, I don't like drawing other peoples super heroes so I've taking to drawing my own. I don't know if I will ever work up the confidence or the know how to actually write and draw stories using these characters, but that doesn't stop me from designing and drawing them. This one is Red Shift. She is a speedster along the lines of the Flash. I am particularly proud of this one for several reasons. Firstly, this is the first woman I was able to draw successfully. Women have been hard for me to draw for a long time. I have much more practice with the much sharper angles and harder lines of drawing males. I've found, with women, to make it look right you have to soften the line a bit and work in more curves. The other thing I like about this one is the pose. I am really happy with how it captures the motion of sprinting so well. The name Red Shift comes from the phenomenon known as the Doppler Red (or Blue) Shift. Basically, if an object is moving towards or away from a detector (your eye, or a telescope or something), the wavelength of the light will shift (along with its color, thus the rainbow motif in the drawing) based on its speed, just like the Doppler effect in sound, but on a grander scale. This is how astronomers know that the universe is expanding. Also, I like how it sounds as a super hero name. Now, if you ever see this,

you'll understand the nerd humor. You're welcome.

Pulnabrone Dolmen

This is a shot I took in Ireland, summer 2010 on our way from Dingle to Galway. We stopped at this site, the Pulnabrone Dolmen, a 5000 year old pagan tomb found in the middle of these ancient glacial stone fields call the Burren. It was absolutely breathtaking. Probably some of the most unique landscape I have ever seen, and traveling through it, we came along this unimaginably old structure built three thousand years before Christ just off to the right of the road. It was just awesome.

MIssissippi At Sunset

I took this summer 2010 during a wedding reception on Nicollet Island. I'm really happy how this turned out. Taken with my iPhone 4 and merged in photoshop.

Things got a bit messy here

This is one I just finished this morning, or rather I decided I was done. I don't really ever finish anything... I could tweek forever but you have to move on at some point. So, this started as a vampire killing some poor dude but turned in to a frat boy vampire killing some poor nerd. Notice the popped collar and the faux-hawk.  I usually do things in full color (the shirt would have been pink, of course) but I thought it would be fun to try to stay in black and white for this one, excluding the obvious. I took a lot of inspiration from Ryan Ottely's commission sketches here. I used a wet brush for the shading. I think it turned out pretty well.

Robo Hitler

Ok, this is Hitler, but a robot. An evil robot.

Minneapolis from the Guthrie

This is one of my more favorite photos I've done. I took this from the yellow room on the 9th floor of the Guthrie Theater in downtown Minneapolis. Two pics merged in photoshop.

Something simple

This ones from a few months ago. I have been reading Freddie Williams' excellent "Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics" and was ithching to try out a new inking technique he wrote about. This was my first quick attempt. I don't know why the fish man. I guess I like fish men.