Recently, I got an email from the Comic Artist's Guild asking if I'd like to contribute to the upcoming anthology Iconic 3. (The answer being, yes of course I would.) And that reminded me of something incredibly important that happened during my busy autumn that I can't believe I forgot to write about: I've been published again!
I have an illustration tucked in among the back pages of Iconic 2. As far as I know, the book will be available at both Boston Comicon and New York Comicon this year. (Currently, the book is unavailable online but I will certainly let you know if this changes. And if you're wondering, my art is also... somewhere... in the One Million Giraffes book.)
Now I could just show you the page with my illustration on it, but where's the fun in that? Instead, for those of you who have or wish to score a copy, I'll walk you through the process of making the drawing.
In early 2010, I was asked if I wanted to do a "Pin-Up" illustration of Grendel for the Iconic 2 anthology. The discussion was pretty lively and by the end of it, I'd whipped up the MSPaint thing you see above. (I don't remember what the unicorn was about either.)
Now here's the thing about drawing Grendel, something that's plagued both professionals and silly little amateurs like me: In the whole of the epic poem, there isn't a decent description of what the heck Grendel actually looks like. About the only things we all have to go on are:
1) He's a big monster.
2) Who eats people.
3) And lives in a cave.
4) And is vaguely humanoid. Maybe.
People have illustrated the brute as everything from a troll to a dragon to a mutant Crispin Glover. Let's not even get into the many bizarre takes on his mom. Anyway, I went for Troll-Grendel for no more significant reason than the fact that Trolls are fun to draw.
These early sketches were just me working out the initial character designs. It's a little hard when you know exactly what you want to show the character doing, but haven't yet got a hold on what he should look like. As you can see, one idea is more monsterish and the other is more humanlike. Now if I had to do this over again, I think I'd push the humanlike version further, since looking at it again, holy crap that's terrifying! In the end, though, I went for more of a compromise between the two ideas.
It required a bit of research though. So here are some sketches of baboon jaws which became the very very initial sketch of Grendel's handsome face.
Now around this point, I remembered that my portfolio is a little heavy on... pretty things. And cute things. And so I did my best to do my own tribute to the illustrations of Stephen Gammell. And if you don't remember who he is, here's a reminder.
Yes, he's the person who somehow had the ability to draw things right out of the demented, vaguely remembered visuals of a nightmare. His illustrations for the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series ruined many a childhood, and it's honestly kind of surprising that they got published at all seeing as they look less like literal interpretations of the stories and more like the stains and smears and scribbles of a madman. (It's honestly not very surprising that new editions of the books have new and much less interesting illustrations by Brett Helquist whom I can't help but feel bad for given the nostalgia for the old artwork.)
With all that said, I... will be the first to say I don't know if I succeeded there. But here's the final drawing, as-scanned, before I did the final cropping in Photoshop. Yeah, I don't think those little plants were a good idea either, looking at them again. Neither was sticking my signature on that bone toothpick.
And finally, here's the version I sent off to the publisher. Hopefully I am totally wrong and that eye will be appearing in the nightmares of children everywhere.
This was easily the best Boston Comicon I've ever attended. Mad props to the show-runners and event organizers and the convention center and to and all the artists and vendors and costumed characters and like such as who participated and/or attended. Major major thanks to everyone I met who bought a print or a card or who just took the time to visit my sites or who picked up a Comicbook Artists Guild application. And thanks to the Guild itself for letting me take up a few cubic feet of their table for the better part of the show.
As usual, I'm overwhelmed with free stuff along with photographs and drawings to sort through. And that's going to take... a while. Like, I'll probably save my Comicon stories for next week. Until then, here are some new
Links of Interest!
So... you may have heard that some serious *EEsht* went down Sunday night. The Hollywood Reporter compiled some of the best/sweetest/strangest reactions from popular Twitter feeds. I am the person John Legend is talking about. If you were wondering, it's more weird than hilarious.
On a (much) lighter note, I love "Scott Pilgrim vs the World", I love "Friendship is Magic", and thus I wish I had come up with this trailer mash-up first.
Speaking of Ponies, congratulations are in order to Lauren Faust, for raising over $15,000 for Japan relief efforts via her recent character design auction.
O.T.I.S. visited the New England Aquarium and came back with lots of great photographs.
I read this weird story about Mike Tyson's tattoo artist and immediately wondered if he was suffering from the same ego-inflating disease that recently infected Greg Paul.
Here's a little song they both might need to listen to; and that should be turned into a cute animated PSA to run during Saturday morning cartoons.
The blog "Good Show, Sir!" is a repository of really weird trade paperback cover art. I think their newest find is my favorite so far.
We didn't talk much about current happenings in mainstream comics at the CAG table, but I did overhear some people wagering that once our old friends the Mainstream News (click the "Epic Fail" tab below) heard about a certain plot twist that happens in Action Comics #900, they'd blow it way the hell out of proportion. Guess what? They did. (Guys, he's an alien. Chill out.)
Lastly, and best of all, ArtEvolved's Hadrosaur Gallery is up! Hooray!
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Sketch of the Day! Have a random dragon!
Well, first of all, I have to share a very proud and awesome moment in case you missed it.
I woke up from the hangover after finishing Don Bluth Month to see a new comment on the last entry. It was from Kip Goldman, associate producer for Don Bluth Films -- and he said "We've" been reading my "nice blog about Don" the whole time.
My hands managed to type out a nice "thank you" response, while the rest of me was doing this:
I just... I'm still in fangirl-awe. So happy!
Speaking of things that are crazy and awesome. It's crazy and awesome to think that I was sitting at my desk about a year ago throwing in my hat as an illustrator for the Comicbook Artist Guild's then-untitled "Prose Project". And it's pretty hard to remember the process of creating my contribution to the project, now known as Worlds Beyond. Thankfully, I took some photographs of the various steps in the making of the illustration for the short story, "It All Started With a Mouse", by Joe Sergi:
Here's the layout sketch. It's the outcome of several days worth of finding every retro-Walt Disney World / Disneyland promotional poster I could find just so I could get the style down (the story is set in an affectionate parody of Walt Disney World where some strange stuff is going on). A few of the characters would be eliminated and some of the more elaborate designs in the background would be streamlined, but as you'll see, there is a very direct line from this drawing to the final.
Here's the final line drawing. I now had to imitate the colorful look of Disney posters - using only high-contrast black-and-white ink washes. Quite the challenge, I must say.
And here is what I'll call the "almost-final". The biggest and most obvious differences between this and the printed version are the lack of text on the banner and that the image hasn't been cropped yet. Other than that, it is very, very close to the final.
And here is the final version as it appears in the book. I hope this kind of thing never stops being emotional for me. Worlds Beyond may be purchased at eCrater. Get yourself a couple of copies and spread the love around.
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Cartoon Brew recently dug up this Disney promotional literature from circa 1989. And it is deeply bizarre and fascinating in a way that I have a hard time describing without spoiling things. I'll just say that it's the starkest evidence for the Disney/Warner Bros. rivalry I've ever seen.
Yaaaay! Here is the email:
Boston Comic Con
IN LESS THAN 30 DAYS THE BCC IS BACK! April 10-11, 2010 Starring Jim Lee & Mike Mignola, and Sergio Aragones (JUST ADDED)!
REMEMBER we have a new location: The Westin Boston Waterfront (425 Summer St.). There are two Westin's in Boston. Make sure you go to the Westin Boston Waterfront.
Our guest list is mind blowing. Check it out...
Jim Lee, Mike Mignola, Eric Powell, Joseph Michael Linsner, Jim Starlin, Bill Sienkiewicz, JH Williams III, Billy Tan, Steve Rude, Michael Golden, Ben Templesmith, Skottie Young, Joe Jusko, Cameron Stewart, Mike Norton,and many more!
We are also happy to announce media guest Amber Benson who played Tara Maclay on the hit TV series - Buffy The Vampire Slayer!
As an added bonus Marc Chiarello, Art Director for DC Comics, will be doing on site artist portfolio reviews both days. Do you have what it takes to be the next great DC artist? Sign up at the show!!
And wait, there's more...
1. Sunday only there will be a costume contest and speaker panels featuring Jim Lee, Mike Mignola, and Eric Powell.
2. Exclusive signed limited edition prints for The Boston Comic Con by Joseph Michael Linsner and Bill Siekiewicz will be available at the show for sale. Get there early before they sell out!
3. BCC T-shirts featuring Eric Powell's The Goon and Mike Mignola's Hellboy will also be available for sale. We are printing only a small supply of these shirts, so get 'em while you can.
The Boston Comic Con is hands down the best comic book show in New England featuring over 21,000 square feet of comic book artists and vendors. The BCC is privately owned and is not affiliated with any other shows or promoters. We are dedicated to delivering the fun, magic, and excitement that's supposed to be a comic con. If you didn't have fun, we didn't do our job!
You won't wanna miss this! See ya in April.
'Nuff Said.
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Now, there is a bit of sad news unfortunately. The Comicbook Artists Guild does not have it's own table this year -- however, we're making up for it by hosting an event after the Convention. Come on Saturday afternoon for more information.
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Last Feederwatch Friday of the Year!
Had some laughs, did some science!
Rock Pigeon 3
Mourning Dove 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
Northern Flicker 1
Blue Jay 5
American Crow 1
Black-capped Chickadee 2
Tufted Titmouse 2
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
American Robin 2
Northern Mockingbird 3 (!!!)
Song Sparrow 2
Northern Cardinal 2
House Sparrow 11
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Sketch of the Day
I was getting a little tired of the headlines this little guy was inspiring.
Glad you asked. I'm not feeling so good so this will be a quick post. Basically...
1) It is essentially going to be a "Greatest Hits" kind of thing. I've been going through the Photoshop files I have handily on my desktop, tweaking them and saving them at a 300 dpi resolution on my laptop (once you use Photoshop CS4 on a Mac, you can't voluntarily go back), and posting three at a time. Most of the selected pieces will also be available as prints, and on that note...
2) At least a third of the reason why I joined DeviantArt is to sell prints. There. I was honest.
3) But the other two-thirds of the reason I joined is to communicate with other artists. Artists who may never even have heard of Flickr or the Comic Artist Guild. To that end, I've spent a lot of my recent time at DA favoriting pieces and friending artists. And I have left nice comments with everyone.
4) I have no intention of making my DA Gallery into my main online portfolio. I love the hell out of Flickr. Of the two art-sharing websites, Flickr is ridiculously easier to use both for me as the art-sharer and you as the art-viewer. There have already been times when DA's art submission features have given me psychic nosebleeds. (Has Saphira randomly vanished *again*? WTF?) I could make a drinking game out of the times I've seen art collections fail to load properly, leaving me staring either at a bunch of broken graphics or nothing at all. And above all else, I know you could argue the same for any "anyone can add content" website, but I still maintain that Sturgeon's Law affects DeviantArt like nothing else on God's green Earth.
But even so, as I said before, it behooves me (whatever that means*) to join the most popular art-sharing site. You never know where you could make a lucrative connection.
* - "It behooves me" means, "it puts myself at a great advantage". Not, as one would naturally assume, "it turns me into an ungulate, somehow". Let it never be said that American English isn't needlessly confusing.
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Sketch of the Day!!!
Drawn from observation, here's a little squirrel who likes tro live dangerously.
