Some Quick Color

Just threw some color on an earlier drawing.

Batman Beyond

All Chunky style!
I usually don't do requests, but what the hey...

"It's Good to be the Bat!"

I don't draw Batman enough...

...and "It's Good to be the Bat deux"

Ameri-Girl Redux

Remember Ameri-Girl? She made an appearance on a sketch blog I tried to do about three years ago. Anyway I had posted a page of sketches of her so I grabbed that image for a test. I set out to only use a standard stoke for my line width (like in the past) and then go and use that new line width tool to see how long it would take reworking all the lines... I would suggest using a Wacom tablet and the brush tool then adjusting with the line width tool.

I'll Order You a Red Beanie and a Speedo...

Yes I'm still playing around with the brushes in Illustrator, but I finally upgraded to CS5 (side note to Brian A. if you haven't played with the "Width Tool" yet... it is freaking AWESOME!).

The story behind this one, I have been wanting to see The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou for some time now. My son, sharing my weird sense of humor was game and added it to his Netflix queue and so, a week or two ago we set down for a viewing. I liked it, probably not everyone's cup of tea, but I ended up watching it twice.

I decided to try and render myself as a member of Team Zissou and since I have acquired a few more readers I thought I would put it up as a welcome. My son thinks it could also pass as a stylized version of Steve Zissou (played by Bill Murray) as well. Who knows I may try to do an illustration of the whole crew in this style...

Look who turned 6 today!

That's right it's Squee! Happy Birthday Squee!

Relaxing before the big party tonight.

Squee on the left with her "Sister" Lulu on the right, almost as big as Lulu in this picture, must be the angle.

Thar's Silver Troopers in them thar hills!

What no one like the Vader Sketch? Oh well, here's a little heads up. Toys R Us is giving away Silver Stormtroopers again and I finally got one in my grubby little hands, thanks to my son. He also picked up another set of Imperials for my Snowtrooper Army I am apparently building. I think you can skip the purchase though and just buy the Silver Stormtrooper, at least it looked that way on the Toys R Us website the other day. Hey I'm not going to turn down some more Snowtroopers.



This one is going to be opened and put on display with my other Stormtroopers!

Vader Doodle

Not sure how I'm going to color this one yet, but it was ripped straight out of my sketchbook I have been trying to doodle in lately and "inked" in Illustrator. These are all just tests.

Sketch vs. Digital Ink

Zombie Doodle

Okay I'm checking out some tutorials on inking on the web and holy cow I did not know you could do something like this with the varying strokes in anything else but Photoshop. So I immediately opened up a sketch I did a week ago, never really happy with it, and a few minutes later I'm looking at a inked and colored piece the way I had envisioned it from the start. I think I am in love with digital illustration again. Like I was ever out of in love with it before, but now I need to go back and revisit some sketches, I mean I really do like my "clean line" style, but this opens up a whole new world. I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks.



I'm probably more excited than the rest of you artists out there, I truly love learning something new and probably everyone else has known about it, but hey give me a moment to soak this in.

Here's another thought, do you think this is something I might explore in a Cafe Press sort of thing? The content, not the style...

Oh yeh, the swag...

I was on a tight budget and a mission so this is what I picked up from Comic Con.

Still some more from Comic Con!

Okay this is about it for my photos of comic con. I realize two things now if I ever get to go back, one is bring a ton of cash and two make a list of everything you want to see because you will miss it.

I also think maybe I am getting too old to participate in comic conventions, as I looked around there were a ton of younger people having a blast and a ton of older people that sort of creeped me out, then I realized these older people were my age (or older), and while I am far from creepy I think this sort of event is made for the young and that the young at heart should just let the young enjoy it. Oh and all the creepy people need to just stay away.

Optimus Prime welcomes you to Comic Con!

I wanted to take these two home, LEGO didn't want me too.

I shot this picture for a friend. Hagrid was taller than me!

I was told that they were only selling 400 of these a day, of one style, and that you had to get a ticket in the morning and your ticket had to have a "smiley face" on it before they would take your 75 bucks. What? 75 Bucks per little dude!!

This will be under my Christmas Tree this year or I will disown my entire family.

Surfin' Troopers!

This thing was huge, almost three feet! I imagine it costs a pretty penny as well.

See comment above, also how cool would this be hanging in your den?

If I had this I would be wearing it as I type this. Who am I kidding I would wear it everywhere doing everything!

See, Bart has one!

This would be a cool set of Kubricks to get, but the cost is way out of my budget.

The Green Hornet's Black Beauty.

Stan the Man on Odin's Throne!

This was about a foot tall. A foot tall plastic Army man!

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice...

Time to catch the train!

Ah crap, is this my stop? I knew I should have packed a Klingon Dictionary.

Well, that wraps up my day trip to San Diego, I wish I had another day to take in some of the panels and visit that damn Hasbro booth, that I seemed to pass like 20 times without stopping, just wandering around like a country boy in the big city... Oh well it's not like I won't see all the photos on the toy news sites or for that matter all the toys in the store this holiday season. Thanks for coming along for the ride!

Some more of my one day in Geek Paradise!

Glad you could make it back for some more pics from my one day visit to all things geeky, San Diego Comic Con 2010 or as the initiated call it SDCC 2010! Okay I know it's hardly news now, but you might enjoy some of the stuff I saw. You know not as many costumed characters on day one as I thought, or I missed them all. I saw a ton of Stormtroopers and Harley Quinn, must have had a sale on those costumes : )

I think there were people in these, not sure so I punched them both in the gut anyway.

I was told if I gave up Marvel cold turkey that one of these would be under my Christmas Tree this year, I think it's a trick.

I should have shot video, this thing had the engines flickering and all sorts of stuff.

I know it's probably no where close to 501st quality, but I still wouldn't mind this Stormtrooper costume, and I was right they were selling them!

I WANT ONE OF THESE! More on this later...

Who you going to call?

the REAL Ghostbusters, man I used to have a few of the originals, now I miss them : (

Wait are we supposed to cross the streams or NOT cross the streams???

Lunch break turned up this awesome auto on the side of the road!

I thought this was just plain cool, behind the Batman graphic is a bunch of Plastic Man stretched all over the place.

Since I was there on day one I only got to see one new Mattel/Mego, it was cool though...Wonder Woman!

If I collected Superman this would be a no brainer, Christopher Reeve Superman! You know I may get one just because it looks so freaking awesome and back in 1978 I was hooked on that movie.

The next four are Venture Bros.!

These were the SDCC 2010 Exclusive for this line, I should have picked them up, kicking myself now.

Dr. Orpheus (far left) I will get.

Dr. Girlfriend! Awesome! Oh, hey Hank...

B'Wana Beast, missed him in the JLU line maybe I will find him in the Brave and the Bold line.

That is one big Green Lantern

Tune in one more day for the final group of SDCC 2010 pics! See you then.

Visiting San Diego and a little comic convention...

I have been back for almost two weeks and am just getting around to posting pics from my first San Diego Comic Con experience, jeez. So here's the story... I attended the con, but for only one day. The company I work for was doing a scouting mission to see if Comic Con is a place we would possible like to display some of the stuff we are working on at, thing is it's something like a four year waiting list. Anyway, I was part of the team that flew in the night before and like ninja stalked the con the following day.

I can honestly say that one day at this convention is not enough if you are going. I left that night and realized that I didn't even stop at the Hasbro booth to check out the Giant AT-AT, doh! Also, if you have a problem with personal space, this probably isn't the place for you. I learned that the grab the butt game that the more immature con goer plays was not just limited to young women and that it is only played by really creepy old men, dude I wasn't even in costume. Seriously though, why?

Well even though I was only at the place for a day I shot a few pictures that will take me a couple days to post. I hope you enjoy and tune back in for the rest.

My First San Diego Comic Con!

The Fett Man watching over the line at the Gentle Giant Booth.

Concept Vader Bust

Aghhhh! Zombie Troopers!

If I could I would buy up all of these, better stop and get a lottery ticket.

Those three in the back will find a home on my shelves!

Why the Big Headed Han? Oh Well.

Another three for the collection.

The new light cycle from the upcoming Tron movie.

time to run, a Recognizer!

All sorts of Big Robot Awesome Fun Time!

I shot this one for my son, look at that Gundam go!

I did manage to get a picture of the booth sign at least : )

Ah a nice place to rest, funny thing is I woke up with a slight tummy ache.

See you next post with more Comic Con!