The Man Who Left the Earth...

 As most of you know by now, we lost the iconic David Bowie a few days ago. And also most of you also know...That it's been a long while since I posted any work on the blog.
 But with Davids passing I felt compelled to do something...to say something, to create something voicing my grief over the passing of a man, that for all purposes, has always been a part of my life in one way or another.
 I grew up listening to him when I was a teen. And as I matured, and my taste in music matured and changed, his always seemed to fit somewhere in the playlist of my life. I've always felt Davids music had a certain sensuality to it. (His soundtrack from Cat People oozes it) And as outward appearances go, he carried himself a certain way...a classic look. Stylish...but with that bit of punk, eccentric appeal that I've always admired. I listened to a broadcast interview on my way in to work this afternoon. As they played samplings of his music, they shared little tidbits of info about some of Davids songs as they played. I just found out today that the song "Heroes", written during what some called his Berlin Era, is actually about two lovers separated on either side of the Berlin Wall.
How did I never not know that?
 I think I'm going to be doing a lot of delving into Bowie music over the next few months.
 I personally feel....we may never see another of his ilk ever again. And at this point, if you have children or grandchildren, be sure to play Davids music for them. So that his legacy never dwindle...he truly does become immortal. Travel well David...and thank you for the years of inspiration. A friend of mine over on my FB page wrote this...and it feels so poignant...so perfect on how I feel,aside from the sadness and loss, I feel the need to share it here as well. (My thanks to my long time I-friend on the other side of the pond, Aidy Gerrard for these words. You inspired me to create this.)
REV~
""Go make some art. 

Write a poem, draw a picture, play a song, go into the city and be a mime, bake a ten-tier lemon cake, wear your Gran's old dresses combined with a flat cap and high tops, build a shed, tell some one you love them using only abstract levels of expression, paint a big, red, lightening bolt on your face - do whatever. Just make it mad, bold, avant garde, irreverent and be your own Zeitgeist.

It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. Doesn't matter if it sucks, or even if it doesn't. Just give it a try, tomorrow it will be something to look at, touch, feel, laugh at, smile about and remember.
Just make some art.
That's what Bowie did. Today you should. "

The creation of Ringworm: The Beckoning......

Howdy.

Rev here...

I've made it my goal to quit complaining about how I'm too busy to post to the blog...and start posting to the blog.
This is something I worked on for the Breakneck Gallery Rock N' Roll Show on Saturday November 8th. I had fun with this one...letting the pen and brush just wander around and play with textures.
I selected the band Ringworm...because...well...I like their music and the other was...I like the name. So I thought I'd post up some of the roughs and the progression of the work, along with the finished results.
Working on this I went into the bands past album covers for inspiration and listened to the music. As in some cases with metal music, the subject matter can be of questionable subject matter. I'm picky about my metal...I look for bands that have an unusual sound... out of the norm. One image in particular I came a cross was of a young woman...long flowing hair sporting horns. I didn't want to repeat the same image and I didn't necessarily want to use the all to familiar demonic symbols usually associated with some covers.
I began thinking of the the term "ringworm" or rather the skin decease. A disease of the flesh...of rot and decay. I also began thinking of what it must have been like many years ago when the world was much younger...and more naive. Superstition...monsters...demons and ghosts invaded the minds of humans to explain many things we see as a mere fact of science now a days.
So...I have this old deer skull that hangs in my garage. Coming from a family of hunters, but not one myself, I got it from one of my relatives. I was in the garage looking for Halloween decorations..and saw it hanging there, forgetting its there most of the time. And that's when the idea kind of took shape...This being the first rough..
As I said...I did want to incorporate the nubile young woman from one of the bands cover...just not in the same manner. And I also wanted to incorporate the worm shape...The name Ringworm taking on more of the name of an ancient  demon god...maybe the birthplace of the name for the disease.....instead of the disease itself.

The rough pencil sketch.

The inking in progress......

At this point I just started having fun going in and playing...adding textures....Paying a lot of attention to the texture of the trees. Allowing the texture lines to add depth, but also help and define shape and form of the tree bark. I paid attention to line direction so that most of the lines moved toward the shape of either the prone figure of the woman or the demon god Ringworm.   

Of extra note are the bell bracelets around each of his wrists. The night I was working on this...I was out back letting our dogs run in the backyard. As I stood on the back steps...the wind was blowing slightly and somewhere out there in the dark I could hear this small bell, like that on a cats collar, or maybe a chime on someones back porch...or maybe...just maybe, the bells placed on the wrists of some ancient demon god, placed there by an ancient race of people as a sign, a warning of the coming of the evil one. Yes...I do let my imagination run wild at times.

              

And this is the end results. Now...you all stay frosty...and listen for the sound of the small bells. You just never know....

Kirby and his Demon...

If there is one artist that influenced not only myself but generations of others...it's Jack Kirby. I feverishly poured through his work on superhero titles for Marvel when I was a kid. But then one day a friend of mine bought a copy of a DC title Jack had created. The Demon fed my already ravenous appetite for action and comics, but also made the tie between comics and monsters...The tale of Merlin, Etrigan and Jason Blood ignited a spark in my brain untouched previously. It was also THE very first comic page I ever did. Copying a page from the first issue as Etrigan dives into the forces of Morgaine le Fey's invading army, helmets armor, shrapnel and weapons flying. The way only Jack could illustrate it. I chose Etrigan for purely that reason...a sticker will be available at Carol and Johns Comic Shop, to not only celebrate Jacks birthday, but also raise funds for the Hero Initative....And Jack....thank you for the spark. Happy Birthday.
REV~

A Knight in Gotham

Hey...Rev here.

My piece for the upcoming Carol and Johns Comic Shop Batman 75th anniversary party this Saturday the 26th curated by good friend and outstanding fellow artist Ryan Finley. If you were to boil Batman down to his basic essence....take away all the hype....all the crazy nefarious criminals...it boils down to one thing. Batman is just a man. Just a guy that dresses up in a bat outfit. Driven by a relentless desire, a need to avenge the death of his parents who died tragically at the hands of a criminal. Wrong place...at the wrong time. That being said....all he has is his money (being a billionaire and all), his wits and his training.

So I envisioned what it must be like for him at the end of a night, after running around and stopping as many crimes as he can. Muggers, rapists....robbers...taking on all these in one night...only to come home, mend his wounds and go back at it again the next night. 

Ink...ink washes, red ink...and white paint marker. I wanted a really wet look to this as Bats comes in from the rain...so I worked wet. Well....not me personally, but I kept the paper wet as I worked and allowed it to dry before wetting it again.

Happy Mothers Day....

Greetings and salutations,

Tis me...Reverand Jim, doing my best to keep posting when I can. This sketch was something started at Drink'N Draw on Wednesday in my sketch book...and it felt like something that needed finished. I'd like to do a final piece for this...work out the the details of the hands and weapons in the foreground....the breast feeding infant...
Anyways at Drink 'N Draw we had asked, for those that wanted to participate, to do your best strong female character. Instead of the obvious..( Wonder Woman, Power Girl...Supergirl...etc.,.) I had this vision in my head of a mother trying to breast feed her child.....and then rouge Ronin...lowlife thugs happening upon her, thinking they would have their way with her. A bad mistake...Sword drawn and still performing her motherly duty, she waits ready to cleave the first man dumb enough to come within distance of her katana. I'm a huge fan of Koike & Kojimas Lone Wolf and Cub. And this kind of just fell into place...and on my sketchbook...see you soon. Stay frosty.
J~

Everyone should be punished...A History of Violence

Or...at least that's what Frank Castle seems to be brooding over. Hi..it's me, Rev. Jim. It's been waaaay to long since I posted anything to the blog...(something the devious Crider nonchalantly screams out at events.) So I thought I'd throw this here. This is a piece I did, entitled "The Punisher: A History of Violence", for the gallery show for the upcoming Free Comic Book Day event at one of our bestest buds, Carol and Johns Comics Shop. There will be sketches done at the Friday night Pre-Party and on Saturday, the RBMC and myself will be doing the live mural thingy. So come by and see us and the rest of the talented artists Cleveland has to offer. You can get the skinny on everything here...Carol and Johns Comic Shop
So until we meet again...Stay frosty.

Happy Birthday Jim!

 

Yesterday was Jim Giar's Birthday.

Jim is many things.... a lover of white wine, a master of ink, a snazzy dresser, an amazing family man, and one of the wisest men I know. AND, on top of all that, he's a Monster! We are so lucky.

 

Happy Birthday Sir!

I'm Thorry...oh so Thorry

In celebration of the new Thor flick we did a draw off at this weeks Drink and Draw Social held in Great Lakes Brewing Co. I liked this sketch enough to add colors. Bic pen, pen and ink, markers in my sketchbook

A peek ahead...BROKEN

Greetings and salutations..
Today I thought I give you a peek inside my sketch book as I work on the forthcoming comic, Mark Bertolini's BROKEN. Mark had a situation where the artist on issue 1 was unable to continue. I've known Mark for some time and we've always wanted to work together. However the stars never seemed to line up in our favor...until now.
BROKEN is a crime drama. And I've been dying to sink my teeth into such a story. BROKEN is the tale of a child Quinn, who witnesses the death of his parents at the hands of hoodlums. The leader of this pack, a mob enforcer by the name of Big Mike Murphy, takes the child in to care for him, teaching him the skills to survive on the streets. If you get a chance you can check out the first issue. http://www.amazon.com/Broken-1-Mark-Bertolini-ebook/dp/B00CAUH5HO
Whenever I begin a project I normally spend a few weeks gathering material...references..and begin sketching characters. In this case the previous artist had already established the look of the characters, making my job much easier. But to get the true feel for them I seek out people that may resemble them...to attempt to ground them in my reality.

The character of Big Mike was based on several actors...more notably Brendon Gleeson. Minus the hair of course.

Mob boss Rossi was based on actor Jon Polito...a guy you just love to hate.

The main character of Quinn...the child growing up under the wing of Big Mike, took me a bit of time to lock down. Since we follow Quinn from childhood, to teen and then adulthood. I settled on child actor Rider Strong, who I felt had the childlike innocence, but could pull off the cold blooded look of a killer as he ages. Check out the film Borderlands if you doubt me. 

And I neglected to add that RBMC's own Tim Switalski will be joining me again...adding his bad ass colors. I'll be posting things as I go along....with Marks approval first of course. I leave you with my tighter sketch of Big Mike Murphy. Stay frosty.

Fubar: Empire of the Rising Dead

Since we're heading to Ingenuity today I figured I'd post up a little something to promote one of my favorite projects I've had the pleasure to work on. Fubar: Empire of the Rising Dead was a dream come true for me. A chance to draw zombies. However once I read writer pal Ron Montgomery's script, I was looking at more than just a brain eating tale of the undead. Ron's story was more about a man fighting with not only the ghosts of his stint in a zombie infested jungle, but also his struggle with the ghosts of his families past. It's only an 8 pager...but it had the heart of an encyclopedia. I'll have copies at our booth at Ingenuity this weekend. So stop by...grab a copy...and say hi.

An EyE for an EyE.....

Greetings and salutations. I continue to wade through the murky waters of my memory of boyhood crushes....and came by this one. Christina Lindbergh. Thriller: A Cruel Picture or the watered down U.S. version, They Call Her One Eye was, and still is the epitome of Grindhouse cinema. A very sad, violent tale of a young girl forced into prostitution, blinded in one eye by her abductor and pimp, who eventually trains herself to become a killer and seek vengeance against those responsible. Her character is well known for inspiring Tarantinos Elle Driver in the Kill Bill films as well as more recently, Robert Rodrigues character Luz in Machette, played by Michelle Rodriguez. This is a roughed in pencil...that I'll be inking...after a few minor tweaks.

Sultry gun slingin

Afternoon. Welcome back to my continued exploration of my boyhood crushes. (Hey...consider yourself lucky. At least you can look away or head to another site. This stuff's in my brain.)

At the tippy top of the heap is this ravishing young lady. Once I saw Raquel in Fantastic Voyage...and the hormone altering One Million Years B.C....I was in love. She has remained, at least in my eyes, one if the truly beautiful women in cinema. Hannie Caulder, is probably one if my favorite films of hers. A fantastic revenge western..starring Robert Culp, Jack Elam, Ernest Borgnine, Christopher Lee....and of course Raquel. This was a quick pencil sketch...same size as yesterday's. 5x8...see ya next week.

Schoolboy crushes...

Greetings and salutations. No....this is not Tim Switalski. Reverend Jim here....Tim had a last minute emergency...something about tracking down a cosmic cube...battling his evil stepbrother and defending the bridge to Valhalla. Sheesh some guys will do anything to keep from posting. 

So I volunteered to post for today and tomorrow. Lucky you.

So I've been thinking lately of all the women in comics or cinema, that I've had boyhood crushes on. (Must be an elderly thing)..So for the next few weeks I'll be using that to polish up on drawing the female figure.

I'd like to start with the lovely Pam Grier. I grew up in the late 60's and 70's. A great time in cinema. Grindhouse flicks were in full swing. It was a different time with different mind sets. There were not a lot of committees and parents groups enforcing age restrictions in most movie houses. So it was pretty easy for a teen to get in to an "R" rated flick. Sure...there were a lot...A LOT... Of badly made movies. But there were also a ton of great ones. Pam...was one of my first actress crushes... She was beautiful but could kick some serious ass. Films like Coffy, my first, welded her curvaceous form and bitchin attitude into my pre-pubescent noggin for eternity. This was a quick pen and ink sketch on 5x8 sketch paper. Enjoy...and see yuse tomorrow.

Go west young man

Hey there....Reverend Jim here.

I do love westerns...I should say, I love a good western. I'm definitely particular...and skeptical of anything made in say...the last ten years. There have been the surprises...Blackthorn...The Proposition...I even liked Open Range.

However the other night I finally had a chance to watch The Coen brothers True Grit. It's movies like this that renew my faith that today's filmmakers can make an entertaining western. Especially with such a talented cast. 

So last night at DnD I was inspired to sketch this one up real quick. Jeff Bridges was amazing as Rooster. And even though I loved John Wayne's version at the time...Bridges replaced that. A quick sketch with ink and markers.

RBMC Plain Dealer PDQ Story

Wizards...dragons and damsels.

Yes...I know it's Sunday. Since I missed my Friday....and me being a self proclaimed Reverend...what better day to post?

This was a piece I did for a client a few months back. Her husband is an attorney who wants to be a writer. Like most of us creative types, he struggles with uncertainty and self doubt. To help keep him motivated she asked me to flesh out his characters so he could have it to look at when those moments occur. A noble concept indeed. I have both Craig and Mr. Crider to thank for the color help. Since I work so much with black and white...the thought of doing color...at times causes me to hyperventilate.

So...here's some shots of my inking progress.

I start with outlining most of the piece just to wrap my mind around the line weights needed to create my foreground, midground and background.

Then I begin laying in my solid blacks...or spotting them as some call it. This I do to create patterns to help lead my viewer around. Something I more typically do in comic pages to lead the reader. I then work on textures, such as the grass...the rock formations..the details in her armor and the scales of the dragon. I keep in mind at each point what is closest...and what is further away. I work a lot in brush, usually when doing clothing...hair and at times the forms and shapes of the body. 

This being the finished results before I begin laying color. In most cases, such as this, I work in a combo of marker, acrylics and colored pencil.

Up..up...and away!!

Good morning...Reverand Jim here. I've been handed the duty of tackling Fridays here at RBMC central. Mr. Friday you can call me. Or MF...wait..no...bad idea. As I was saying, I'll be posting on Fridays while the group and I work our hectic summer schedule. So be on the look out.

I thought I'd post a Superman cover a bunch of local artists are doing to help celebrate Supes 75th birthday...but more importantly, his heritage, his birthplace here in Cleveland. It's for an upcoming event at Carol and Johns Comic Shop. This is the initial pencil sketch I did, directly on the cover. Now originally I was going with a 3/4 profile view of Supes handsome chiseled features. But I opted out for a full side profile, liking the epicness of of his stance.
 However there was something wrong but I couldn't quite put my finger on it....I proceeded with colors hoping it would eventually pop out for me.

 Working so much with comics, where I work in black and white, I struggle with color. I typically work with acrylics or marker and chose the latter in this case. I started working with grays first. Going from light and working in my darker shade. It's always easier to go darker than to try and lighten. I then began laying in color. I wanted the figure to pop, so I went with a yellow background so the cools of Big Blues suit would pop. I'm a traditionalist when it comes to superheroes and went with his original suit and emblem. It wasn't until I neared completion that the eyesore popped out for me. I never adjusted the ear from 3/4 to profile. Kids...if you're paying attention, the ear is always placed half way from the back of the head to the front. Now I could have just started over, scrap this cover and begin again. But...our own Erin Schechtman once taught me a valuable lesson...one I've never forgotten and repeat often. "Every painting...every piece, goes through an ugly stage." And I was there. So I went back in, penciled and placed the ear where it belonged, went back in with ink and white paint marker, then overlayed color pencil to blend the ear into the piece. And I ended up with the final shown at the top of this page. The important lesson here is to, one pay attention to details such as basic anatomy and two, never feel that something can't be fixed. Even if not by computer. Hey...it's only art. What's the worse that can happen? You start over.

Round 34: Surrender the Booty!!!

I must have drawn that stupid pirate...turtle...sweet cuddly bear hundreds of times. But I never ordered the course. I did however have a cousin who did...and they were nice enough to turn some of the course books over to me...I think I still have a few of them laying about. Anyway...I dig pirates...and robots...and explosions. And da booty...so there you have it.

A little Halloween love...Farmer style!!

The results of this past Drink and Draw...and yes...I just recently watched MOTEL HELL. What else can you do with a severed pigs head? Ink and white marker on red...blood red, paper

WWhhooooo goes there?

I have amassed a huge collection of horror films....HUGE. I dare say I have close to 200 films or more. I know...it sounds like a pick up line...and if I were single I'd use it in a heart beat. But my point is..I've seen a lot of horror films. Some great...some good ....some not so good. And of that group there are a few that I watch again and again on a whim. And STAGE FRIGHT (Also known as AQUARIUS and DELIRIA) is one of them. Shot in 1987 by director Michele Soavi, (Of CEMETARY MAN fame) it's the tale of a theater group locked inside a sound stage at the hands of a lunatic actor dressed in an owls head costume. It may sound goofy...but there are some seriously intense scenes...more notably the stage scene where the killer sits in a chair like a king with his court before him, the corpses of his victims. The soundtrack reeks of 80's music...But it stands as one of my personal favorite slasher flicks.