Bunny, phase II

Tim's GF's bunny...

A little rough in spots, but a sorta nice raw texture... Some of the softness got lost, and the whiskers around the nose are a little clunky, but overall, it'll hopefully do. 

Bunny Jam, part 1

Here's a quickie,

My old pal Tim Kelly asked if I'd draw a bunny for his girlfriend's birthday. I told him, yeah, I'd do it, but  i'll penciled a pin up I wanted us both to finish it in our own styles.

Tim will finish it digitally, (because he prefers working that way), and I'll finish the same drawing 'by hand' over here. Then I'll send my finished version to Tim, who can present her with two versions.

Just something quick and fun.  Here's my quickie version. Stay tuned for the finished ..

How NOT to paint a comic book cover.

Here's a cover Tim Kelly penciled, and I inked & colored for the Heros Initiative, (which helps out aging comic artists , or just comic artists going through a rough patch.)

Here's Tim's way-cool pencil drawing..

My goal, try NOT to let the original drawing's charm get lost in over-rendering.

rough in come color with water soluble pencils to start..

Ad some inks... these blacks will lose contrast once water color and acrylic paint goes over it, so i'll have to go back in to add more blacks after the color.

Here's some teal watercolor added, so will go back in so he's bluer. Added some texture to his dace but the face is drifting away from Tim's original though.. which i really liked.

But it's to late now, I'm stuck. Since it's being auctioned off, no digital 'net' to fix mistakes of fuss with after the fact.

So thats it, warts and all. It's totally over-worked and lost most of Tim's quirkiness. (Which I *tried* to preserve), but hell.... what are you gonna do? So,  *learn* from my mistakes, know when to quit while your behind. But if someone likes it and helps out charity, my being satisfied doesn't come into it. If it's for a good cause, that's all that matters.

Missing ARPIL post!

MOCK APRIL post!

Wow, is it April already? Here's two versions of an unpublished cover for my friend Vassilis's "Mr. Universe " comic that Image published a while back. I painted one darker to hide the girls face which i felt i kinda botched. Still not sure which i like better...

I'd like to eat up server space bragging about three people in my life who I've been talking to, who YOU may or may not have heard of. They will be drawing some of the Oni Trout books I'll be writing, laying out and trying NOT to draw (otherwise they will never get finished as I'm too swamped to draw more than two books a month. Tried to on Bimbo, almost killed me. Never again!).

Tim Kelly: This guy has a sweet organic style that really blows me away. He says he gets compared to me a lot in his style, but I got compared to Frazetta and Bernie Wrightson—which is who both of our true lineage comes from, and no matter how we pale in comparison, it's still a cool place to try for. Besides, by now Tim's got his own style. He can pencil, color, ink, paint like a demon. He's a compulsive creator too. He always makes me WANT to draw, because he makes it look so damned FUN to create stuff. And it IS, when he does it.

http://timkelly.deviantart.com/

Leigh Dragoon: I met Leigh years ago. Out of the blue I asked a friend if she knew any women cartoonists; she gave me Leigh’s name, and when we spoke on the phone I was stunned to find out she lives in the same town I do! She's multi-faceted too—writes, draws, paints, all of it. She's getting so much writing work, it's crazy. She doesn't just draw, she 'acts' her characters, often much better than I do. If Lynn Johnston (from “For Better or For Worse”) had a long-lost daughter who drew comics, Leigh would be it. I'm lucky to be working with her. Leigh just finished a story she wrote for Fraggle Rock #2.

http://www.leighdragoon.com/illustrations

Vassilis Gogtzilas: I only put Vassilis last because I threw him into my second sketchbook FIRST. He's someone else I felt like I've always known. He lives in Greece, teaches art and does his own comics, advertising, has directed animated music videos, has his own art books too. Insanely prolific. VERY talented, and can draw even more wild cartoony stuff than I can, yet can shift to drawing much more realistically than I can. Basically he kicks my ass, but in a good way. He's humble too. I like working with folks who make me look better than I am. He's got his own comic series called “Misery City” from blacklinecomics.

http://vassilisgogtzilas.blogspot.com

All three are tirelessly helping me on my goofy little trout-a-verse, and in turn I tell them to exploit whatever attention that gives them towards their OWN books, because they have lives beyond me. Check their stuff out when you can. It's creators like these who are the future of comics,seriously. I wasn't doing half the crap they are when I was their ages.

end of plug.

sam