Thursday, May 30

HeroesCon 2013 cards

I started a new batch of "face cards" -- wallet-sized inked sketches -- for this year's HeroesCon, June 7-9. Standard prices remain: $3 for b/w and $5 color. These went over really well last year, and requests ran the gamut from Deadpool to Deadpool. Maybe a few others as well.

I would have finished a row of color cards but I got caught up in the Blackhawks/Red Wings game.





Wednesday, May 29

Post Atomic Horror 128



I have appeared once more on the Post Atomic Horror podcast, devoted to reviewing every Star Trek episode in order of broadcast. This time we talk "Frame of Mind" (Riker is crazy) and "Suspicions" (Crusher solves a mystery).

MP3 link | iTunes AAC link

I first hit the show in January for "Power Play" (space ghosts!) and "Ethics" (Worf wants to die).


Thursday, May 23

See Me at HeroesCon!

I just found out I'll be at table AA-1821 in this year's HUGE HeroesCon floor. It looks twice as big as previous years. This is June 7-9. That's much soon!




Look for the Robot Wonderboy banner!

Wallet-size sketches $3 (b/w) and $5 (color)! Color sketch requests under $45! Portfolio pieces for various prices and comics comic comics!

Wednesday, May 22

Commission Piece

Here's the process for a recent HeroesCon commission. This particular patron of the arts requested Green Arrow, Green Lantern, and Black Canary from the Hard-Traveling Heroes era. I did a little Goggling before I realized I have these guys in toy form. That helped a bunch.

I liked the idea of a tight shot on their three faces with fists upraised, but that seemed like a cheat for such a large image. I pulled the camera back for more of the figures. I played with action shots before going back to a portrait.

This image is 9 x 12. I fixated on a diagonal composition to lend energy to what I feared would be a stiff image, but I dropped it once I moved to a full-size 11x14 sketch. I switched out Arrow's hands too.

The full-size pencils came out pretty well, although I was constantly making Canary's hips larger. I also redid Arrow's head because that angle was tougher than I expected. I decided against the arrows in his fist because the arrowheads would be too close to the paper edge. It mad that corner feel crowded.

After tracing the sketch onto an 11 x 17 Bristol board with a lightbox, I colored it (using Bic fine point markers). The swatches at the bottom of the image will be trimmed away.

Combining marker, Sharpies and Micron Pen ink, I added the blacks. Still think the hips are too small, but the lighting effect came out OK. I also tweaked Lantern's symbol with a Wite-Out pen and brush, a neat new contraption that's better than a simple correction pen.

I emailed the final image to the customer, and he liked it.

If you want your own commission for HeroesCon (or after), just click the commission image link to the right.

Monday, May 6

Free Comic Book Day



I sat in at Asheville’s Comic Envy for Free Comic Book Day, offering free sketches. Loki was the first, but many, many more followed. 

I still have some sketches to finish for customers who have pull lists at the store. I’ll add their work to their weekly comics when I go back to the store this week. That let me do sketches for people coming into the store for the first time. And there were a lot.

Favorite moments:
+ Teaching three boys how to draw Spidey: concentric rings, “surprise eyes,” and webs flowing in one direction.

+ Drawing characters for the first time: Daleks, Spider Jerusalem, cartoon Rogue, and more.

+ Seeing the variety of people who wanted the same character: Girls asking for Batman, kids and adults asking for Deadpool, etc. The day rightly destroyed stereotypes of who reads what.

+ The tremendous generosity of the people who asked for art. I had a tip jar, and it was filled with money, and I am humbled. I split the contents with my table partner, the high school senior who’s heading off to SCAD in the fall.

+ Even the exhausted people were smiling.

You can see the sketches and who requested them here.