three small trees

These were done on  4 x 6 pieces of watercolor paper i cut up... sorry if this one's a little blurry.

Sometimes the holidays stir feelings of melancholy in some of us, and i'm no different. 

So i decided to take a break from the purple dude... and do a few of these.

Some relaxing trees.

All I'm trying to do with this red-ish tree is make it somewhat different than the first.  It's not literally based on any known tree i've ever seen.

Here they are together, for contrast.

Some people ask me why i sometimes draw my pages all different sizes? Most assume it's easier to draw an original art smaller sized, but it's actually more difficult, and sometimes drawing smaller has often made me work harder and focus more, and not be as sloppy in the larger size.

I also noticed my work tightens up when i bounce back the normal 11 x 17 page.

So working small can help sometimes.

But trees, have no rules.

Their probably the most intuitive thing i draw, outside of outback critters,
which are also mostly totally made up and pulled randomly out of me ass, so to speak.

This third tree was inspired by a miniature bonsai tree i saw once. I doubt the top leaves were that thick though.

It was years until i'd explore working subtler subject matter into my work, like the trees in the Hollows series, or minimal brush strokes of sumi brush painting.  Still love the detailed stuff, but it  took a lot of courage to creep out on the branch of organic subject matter, and the 'taboo' of daring to omitting detail, a devotion to detail that i too worshiped while trying to break into comics. Detail i still dig sometimes.

But what's so cool is, you guys get that too. In many ways, you are more open minded than i am, and  keep reminding *me* that all of it...

...large and kick-ass stuff, small and delicate, crazy detailed, or bare and minimal, it's all 'sam-a-verse' crap, for lack of a better word.

take care of yourselves and thanks for letting be yammer on.

Sam

2 more Maxx Covers.... and a couple of Random Pages.

Finishing off the last of the Maxx scans - so thought I'd snap a few pics of a page or two. You can see the white out on this one. Yeah, will collect them in some big-ass collection next year, but remember that's 35 issues, so unsure if it'll be One really fat book, or Two smaller volume's, or Four Vols. ?

 We'll figure something out.

Here's another new Maxx cover.. it's done with the same marbling effect that i used on that Trout cover i did a couple of posts back.

I went back in with colored pencil to bring out the abstract shapes the wet water created.

Julie's face was getting lost, so i darkened her up a little so she's pop out from all that abstract background.

That's more or less it for this cover.

Another random Maxx page. This one of Gone and Julie's son Mark Winters. I've forgot tons of things about this series over the years.

It's truly freaky-weird to re-read something you created some 20 odd years ago.

Maxx cover 29, getting towards the end. I'll keep doing covers even after the reprints stop, because I'm actually enjoying it for some reason.

This one's a playful nod to one of the cover's i did for that Hulk Wolverine mini series i did years ago.

Though i doubt anyone would notice unless you compared them side by side.

And speaking of side by side...

And Sara after she turns into a big Izs... clearly i was out of ideas at this point.

Sorry it's this one again, but I threw in a scanned version of  it, because it's interesting how much colder it is without my studio light warming it the version i sapped with a camera. 

New n' Old Maxx crap.. and the spaces in between.

Here's the new cover to one of the IDW Maxx reprints.

 


Wow, I almost ran out of yellow ink on this one..



Decided to leave the background white... seems like there's enough distracting stuff happening in the rest of the cover.



Some vintage Maxx sketches I dug up.



May have posed these a while back, but at least these are different pictures of them.



Maxx's design was still all over the place, still getting used to his proportions.

 

Come to thing of it, i never did settle on one exact way to draw the Maxx, did i?  Same deal with Julie..



Least a 'happy-faced' Maxx was ruled out early.  *That* would have been a wildly different book.



and finished up with the Slug cover again... glad i got a chance to throw him on at least one cover.



I may add a few more black dots on his tail,

 

or maybe not?

Either way,  this is the version that'll go on the reprint. But I suspect i'll just keep doodling Maxx covers every month, even after the reprints stop.

I'll find a home for them somewhere.

* * * 

Wanna thank everyone out there who hasn't given up on me yet. I know my hermit-like nature may make it seem like i don't care, but it's not true. I'm just at a time in my life when... my focus on drawing.. often takes away from more frequent posts, but i know it can be a pain to wait so long between posts.

Best way I can make it up to you is just to keep plugging away.  Drawing. Creating.  Never giving up.  All your considerable patience ... is *never* lost on me. Hopefully when i DO finally get it up to post again, it can make up for those long spaces in-between.

Thanks,
Sam

Trout Update...

Just throwing these up..

added some white highlights to him.  About a third of the way through...

i might go back in and darken some of the highlights on his lower lip?  I notice (but sometimes forget to) sacrifice detail....

...in order to get a more realistic lighting on the overall figure.

It's often what i *don't* show that is the most impressive,

well, hopefully.

: )