The Morrigan

It's been a while since I did a process. So I think The Morrigan piece I recently did for the sketchcard set Classic Mythology would be a nice one to show. (in case you would like one of the promo cards, you can goto this site for more info: http://pernastudios.deviantart.com/journal/Classic-Mythology-Promos-P4-amp-P5-Available-272815303)

Here you can see me feeling out the elements, the feathers, the pose and the ravens. Although you will see in this initial drawing, I had a third raven in the foreground. I thought that the raven took away from the overall image so I decided to nix it. In it's place, I will eventually add a cape. The raven made the image a bit claustrophobic. I think I should have left more room to the sides as well. In my head I was thinking .2 inches border for the final card, but forgot to scale it up since this was done on a 11x 17 page. oops. We fudged some stuff in the end to make it work hehe.

Havok's Hand

Here are the pencils to a short that I did for up and coming writer, Rich Douek for his Gutter Magic Universe called Havok's Hand. More info on the project and how to get a copy : sixguncomics.com  =D. This book debuted at NYCC 2011

You can see the straight pencils here before it went to colors. It is difficult and quite challenging to color over tonals properly and probably to my own detriment that I insist on penciling in tonals =(.

 

Marvel Universe Cards Process

Here are some more process cards where you can see from pencils to inks to colors of how I worked on the cards. This set took quite a bit out of me as I spent a long time on each card. It's tough to draw small and I've always tried to get 3/4 to full body on most of them. The cards themselves, when cut down are only 2.5 x 3.5 inches so it's tough getting small details into the faces, but I try. Now doing comic pages, it seems I have so much freedom because the characters are so much bigger in comparison.

Marvel Universe Set from Rittenhouse

The Marvel Universe card set from Rittenhouse Archives will be released this coming Wednesday. Here are some samples of the cards I did for the set. On the left are process scans of the inks. I forgot to scan the pencil breakdowns for the first few.

NYCC Postcon

Thanks to everyone that stopped by my booth to say hi! Had a great time meeting everyone, but unfortunately wasn't able to see everyone I wanted to =(.
Anywho, here was a Precon Sketch done for a fan. (Megan Fox as X23)

NYCC INFO!

Next week I'll be at NYCC. You can find me in Artist Alley U5! You can find me by spotting my banner as well =D. Just to tide you over till I get back, here is an image I did for this year's NYCC. See a full res version at my table!

Pond, Amelia Pond

Pond, Amelia Pond. Quick sketchie from latest ep.

Huginn and Muninn Process Part 6- Color Process

 

This is the thumbnail that the colorist gave me. Just the general tone of the piece which was to be muted and dark to fit the subject matter. Here is the runes placed in as well. It was a pain to make with futhark. Had to dig up some math and geometry to make it spin around the circle evenly. The phrase was composed by the writer.

Here is the final from the colorist and you can see the details more clearly. We were still unsure what color to make the runes so the colorist came up with three options.

We finally came up to the decision of the red and with a bit of tweaking as well with the final file, here is the finished product!

Huginn and Muninn Process Part 5!

The finished tonal pencils. All the details are added in and tonal shading is placed to add form to the piece. At this stage I will take it into photoshop and clean some areas out like the background that I want flat so it won't intefere with what the colorist puts in there. Once done, I send it off to the colorist to let her do her thing. I will show you some of the color process she sent me in the next post!

H& M Process Part 4

As the details begin to come together, I start adding some tonals to the piece to fill out the form. In this case, I have moved to an H pencil which is slightly darker than the 2H. Hence the bottom left is fading out in the scan. I have no particular mode of finishing but often I will start at top leftish and continue down if I have the foresight to do so. That's because I'm righthanded and I will tend to smudge with my palm if I don't do so. Of course, I also turn the page all the time so this will minimize some of the unwanted smudgings. i probably should have finished the foreground figure as well in retrospect. You can see I've left out a lot of the top girl as I'm not sure yet how the textures of the bottom girl will overlap. This piece is close to done at this point, one more session with the bottom figure and then some slight tweaks.

NYCC

Something I'm working on for NYCC. I'll be in Artist Alley U5! Stop by and say hi if you are going! Oct13-16.

H&M Process part 3 - Hair!

 

In this scan, you can see that I start working the hair. On the top figure, you can see the roughness of some of the shapes. Here I am trying to feel out shapes rather than individual strands. On the bottom, there is a general directionality to the hairs and textures to add form. I always like flowing hair, but at the same time it should be layered instead of a clump. This helps add movement. I used to hate drawing hair, but now I find it relaxing as I take this approach. As an artist, always face challenging obstacles and keep working through them. Over time, you will at least gain some control and not dread them each time in a drawing.

H&M Process Part 2

I start refining some of the details in the picture. I tend to jump around a bit at first. Mostly working out the faces, adding details to the costume. Because these are original characters (there were no costume templates except for the fact that each had an eyepatch on opposing eyes), I was able to let loose on costume designing. This leaves room to create a lot more detail than if you wanted to create a usable costume for comic interiors. The final design could be a pain to recreate in every panel.

Sketchies and Prelim Huginn and Muninn Pinup

So I've decided to incorporate a sketchblog into this blogger. I figured I may as well just keep this one as I've already customized the blogger templates. There will still be news but should be more active as I'll post sketches and a bunch of unseen prelim work. I'll start of with an image I did last year and here are a couple images to get started. As you can see I usually start with very loose sketches to get down an idea. This here was just a very quick thumbnail to get the idea down. I had the idea a while ago, but this loose image was to keep the general idea so I wouldn't forget. Then I started on a pencil sketch. I work a lot on the faces so usually the rest don't get going till I get that stuff figured out. Start with a 2H pencil. This is done on 11x17 board.

Deathlings trailer

After a year of hard work from Michael Marcynuk and Jon Gong, each taking time out from their busy lives to dedicate precious time into this endeavor, we present to the world the Deathlings trailer! It's a part trailer / part motion comic experiment that somehow I managed to convince them to take on =P. The original short story was written by Ian Struckhoff , pencilled by me and colored by Juri Hayasaka. (which can be found in its entirety ,as well as several other short stories, in printed form at:  http://indyplanet.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=4149 )

Enjoy! And thanks for lookin!

Here is a new image I did for a new card set called Dungeon Dolls from Axebone studios, http://www.axebone.com/BadAxeStudios.html . Should be dropping soon. Also are a couple recent APs that I have finished up. Been trying a new technique with the watercolors and I am liking the result =D

C2E2

I'll be at C2E2 this weekend. If you are going, drop by and say hi! I will be at H6 in AA beside my friends Logan and Lisa Lubera.

Here are a couple cover sketches I did for a fan for pickup at the show.

DCUO

DCUO came out this week. I did a little work with motherland for cut scenes. Here is a snipet of some of the work Motherland did.

DC Universe Online Cinemas Montage from Motherland on Vimeo.