Sweet Lil' Kaylee

Here's a recent sketch I did for someone . It's Kaylee from Firefly/Serenity. I have to tell you because it may not be apparent. I consider my artistic weakness to be likenesses so I was dreading doing this--I didn't want to disappoint the owner of this sketchbook. That said I think it came out all right, as in, I expected it to be a whole lot worse.

By the way, if I haven't said it before, I am a big Joss Whedon fan. If you've never got into Buffy or Angel I would still recommend the Firefly series. Oddly enough, this sci-fi series is probably his most accessible work. I know a lot of people who wouldn't normally like any "genre" tv who love this show. The whole first season is available on DVD and very reasonably priced. If you haven't seen the movie (Serenity) then I would recommend holding off until watching the series first as it takes place after the events in the series and wraps up some unresolved questions from the series. I highly recommend both.

Starman and The Shade

click to enlarge

I remember really liking the Starman series when it was first coming out. I probably stuck with the book up until about issue 30 before dropping off. Can't quite remember why I stopped reading but doing this commish made we want to borrow my friend's trades and reread them.
This drawing was fun to do but I have to admit the building were kind of a pain in the ass. Of course, building are always a little bit of a pain--doesn't stop me from drawing them though. Originally the shot was a bird's eye view which gave a better idea of how high up these two are and added more drama and dynamism. Unfortunately, I just couldn't reconcile that with the two figures for some reason--one of the two was always getting the short end in that you couldn't get a very clear view of their face or their body position was awkward. Not an unresolvable problem--I just wasn't able to "bring it" that day. Fortunately, I was very happy with this second attempt--as I hope the recipient of this drawing was.

Spy Stud Crocker V Craggy Crocker

Fans of Greg Rucka's Queen & Country series may recognize the following drawing as being a young and then old version of Paul Crocker, the lovable, crotchety grouch of a boss to Tara Chace: super spy. Do yourselves a favor and read this series (don't forget the novels--they're excellent).

I always like drawing Crocker, especially the young version, as Q&C: Declassified (which starred the younger, fresher Crocker) was the first book in which I inked my own work. And it shows. I think I was much improved by the third issue but the whole series was quite a learning experience. I had a blast with doing the book from a fanboy point of view as well--I'm a Cold War kid who is nostalgic for those halcyon days of looming nuclear annihalation. Simple times. So drawing the obligatory crossing from East Berlin to West Berlin and the cat and mouse games behind the Iron Curtain was a lot of fun. Plus, drawing European architecture is so much more fun than modern buildings. Fun fact: In issue 2 of this series Crocker can be seen wearing a Member's Only jacket. Rock star.

The following sketch was my original intent for the drawing but I was disappointed with how static it looked and I also wasn't able to incorporate the different environs the way I wanted to.

Damned #4 Cover

I realized that I hadn't posted this cover image yet, so, seeing as it's out (today!) I thought I'd throw this up. I had a lot of fun with this cover--the background demons were fun to draw and the inspiration for doing the cover this way came from this Dr. Fate commission that I did.

Batguy and Thorman

Here are two recent commissions that I did. It's always challenging, and a lot of fun, to do the Batman. I've probably never drawn him quite the same way twice but I do have a couple rules I try to stick to: 1) Try to keep the Dark Knight dark. Put as much of him in shadow as possible. 2) Small bat-ears.

I was excited to try and draw Thor as well. For some reason I've always had a lot of difficulty with drawing this guy and I've never progressed beyond the sketch phase. I think it's his goofy helmet. I have a lot affection for the God of Thunder as it was one of the very first comics I started following as a kid. It was of course the Walt Simonson run on the book. He may very well be one of the first creators that I was aware of. I love that run on the book and was especially fond of the Asgardian/mythological elements. I would love to get around to doing something in the mythological/fantasy vein some day. I think I got it in me. But, I digress...in the end I was pretty happy with how this drawing turned out.

Animated Damned

Okay. Sure, it's not the Cartoon Network show I hoped for but I still think this animated GIF is pretty cool. And if you think The Damned is pretty cool, and I know you do, then you need to right click, save, and post somewhere where others will see it and love it.
I have a slew of posts comin' at ya'--and by slew, I mean at least 4 or 5. I've been having scanner issues but they're resolved and I have a handful of commissions I'll be posting. Stay tooned.