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~

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

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.

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.