HULK!!

Couple of more colorin' sketches...

Black Canary

Coloring some images today...

Hawkeye

This was a sketch I had in the sketchbook...finally got around to doing something with it..1 down, 3,447 to go.....

stuff

random sketches....

Joker

Actually had a free weekend to NOT work on work related stuff....so naturally I squandered my time by watching TV and slacking...I did manage a little bit o drawing Sunday night possibly out of guilt...

sketch dump

random sketchbook crap...a lot of work lately and sadly can't post any of it....

Hawkeye

Found a Hawkeye pic I did a little ways back...

sketches

Lazy Saturday, spent an hour looking around at other blogs, so many damn talented people out there..

Anyway, scanned some stuff from the book, this years posts have been way below projections. Productivity is lower in the sketchbook area mainly because work has been keeping me busy and then I spend time looking at other people's stuff, which then can either lead to motivation or hopelessness depending on mood...

New Halloween invite image

Man, can't believe it's already this time of year again...( I probably said that last year as well...)

more sketchbook crap...

stuff

Some pages from the ol' sketchbook. The first is obviously influenced by Frazetta, thought it'd be nice to see the man take a backseat to the ...chick with sword!!

I've seen that more Frazetta paintings have been auctioned and that totally sucks. The Frazetta museum will probably never re-open adding another thing to the list of regrets I have, seeing as how I never made it out there....

The barbarian/space guy was drawn while listening to The Sword's new album, Warp Riders. That CD totally kicks ass!! Not the most sophisticated review, I know, but it does.

Influences

So I've seen a few of these around and thought I'd give it a go. Once you start thinking about influences it can get a bit crazy; Do I include writers, music, movies, etc.? I decided to just stick with art and kept it wide spanning. If I put guys that currently are influences the list would have some different names like Canete, Murphy, Dave Johnson, Jason Pearson, and so on...

So I went with a more all time list of just the big guns and even that was difficult. So I looked at what was on my bookshelves and these people are very prominent.

1. Frazetta. Please, I shouldn't have to say one word why he's up there, move on to no.2.

2.John Buscema. The guy is a beast! He drew more Conan issues than anyone ever and if that wasn't enough just look at his stuff in Savage Sword inked by guys like Nubres and Acala. It's beautiful and his draftsmanship was always incredible.

3. Bruce Timm. I dig his style, and I dig the animated series' his style influenced. From Batman to Beyond to JLU, he showed that simple can be brilliant. The guy can draw a mean comic as well. I also would like to put Shane Glines and Darwyn Cooke in this, both great artists in their own rights and still possessing a bit of Timms' "house style".

4. Mike Mignola. A stylistic approach so different yet effective. Add in the cool horror/quirkiness and the great storytelling of Hellboy and it's all win.

5. Ashley Wood. Zombies. Robots. Amazons......good enough for me....

6. Jack Kirby. OK, I admit; as a kid I'd much rather look at "prettier' styles like Byrne or Perez, but I just get more impressed by him the older I get. Crazy imagination with powerful shots that jumped off the pages.

7.Frank Miller. Daredevil, The Dark Knight Returns, Born Again, Year One, Sin City....

8.Derek Riggs. I saw Eddie on shirts and posters before I ever heard a Maiden tune. And once I became a fan I was drawing Eddie on everything everywhere I could. I couldn't have this list and not mention him.

9. Claire Wendling. Like Frazetta, I'm pretty sure there's nothing she can't do and not be amazing at it. Conceptual, finished, colors, design, everything she does is amazing. I don't know what they put in the water in France, I'm pretty sure they're handing conte' crayons to babies right out of the womb.

10. John Romita JR. The guy has been cranking books out consistently for decades. He has amazing storytelling and I like the blocky simplified style he's adapted over the years.

Whew! Ok, so there's the most ass kissing I've ever done on this blog, but these people deserve it. The only negative I have is that with such an impressive list of influences, I should really be a lot better at this stuff...

sketch dump...

Just watched KickAss again, pretty damn enjoyable. Also saw Scott Pilgrim and really enjoyed it, very quirky and fun, the video game crowd should love it.

THOR!

Another cool comics moment; Odin Loki and Thor facing off against Surtur. I actually missed this when it first came out, wasn't reading comics at the time. It wasn't till years later a buddy told me about this run. It's pretty damn epic. Walt Simonson was artist and writer and many believe this to be the best run on this book ever.

The second image is also from that run, Skurge's last stand at the bridge in Hel. I actually got goosebumps reading this, as he holds the bridge so Thor and the other Asgardians can escape. This was truly a F&%# Yeah! moment.

Sooperdooper dude!

...from my book of sketches...

........uh....I got nothin'....

sketchbook stuff...

a zombie and a dinosaur....yep, the well runs very deep....

sketchbooky stuff

Been busy with work, little time for sketchin', but here's a page from not too long ago.

Back from vacation

One of the stops on what was a great vacation. It had the recipe for disaster; two parents driving 5 kids from AZ. to the east coast. Luckily, I never even had to say,"Do I have to pull this car over?!"
We stopped in Alabama to visit relatives and lo and behold there was a Star Wars exhibit at the Space Museum. Yes, I geeked out....

I'm pretty sure that kid could out eat a wookie.