... A Little Help From My Friends

I'm finishing out a "Captain's Log:" Star trek project for IDW called featuring captain Jellico written by Keith DeCandido. Anyone familiar with Keith's work knows he has an eye for detail. One of those details were the walls of Captain Jellico's ready room. Those of you who remember the episode of TNG he appeared in, may remember he likes to adorn the walls with drawings his son made. I decided it might be fun to have real kids do these so I contacted my friend, Amy via FaceBook. We had gone to high school together way back when. She talks about her kids often and from what I knew of them I thought they might enjoy being in a Star Trek comic and if you look in the background of these panels you can see their work.

I asked Amy about her kids and the experience and she said this:
".... Javen is in kindergarten - very smart and quick witted (think smart ASS - he gets that from me). He enjoys drawing and creating things and took the project very, very seriously.... Big Star Wars fan, Batman, BattleForce Five....

Elijah is also a big fan of Star Wars - and a HUGE Batman fan. He is in Pre-K. Despite his age, he only recently started to draw - and enjoys it very much. He was also very excited about the 'project'. They literally spent HOURS with paper and markers all over the table... There were serious discussions about which ones I should scan - and what we should 'just recycle'... "

SCI-FI Art Now!

This image is the cover of DWP#16. One of my first published comics work. DWP is an anthology series and #16 featured Mike Colbert's character Crazy Mary and was illustrated by yours truly. Now this cover is going to be reprinted in a hardcover from Harper Collins called SciFi Art Now, a 192 page collection of sci-fi art with work by Bob Eggleton, Ron Miller, Lee Gibbons, John Picacio, Rian Hughes, myself and many others, at varying stages in their careers. It also includes an introduction from veteran SF illustrator Chris Foss!

This title will be released on October 19, 2010, but you can preorder it here:

Pre-order via amazon.com

Pre-order via amazon.co.uk

Excelsior!! - of the Star Trek variety

I'm half way through my work on the Star Trek book, Captain's Log:Jellico for IDW, so I thought I'd share one more sneak peek panel of the excelsior class starship U.S.S. Cairo, captained by Jellico.

I'm including the original B&W watercolour along with the digitally coloured finish.

More on This Later...

I'm trying to keep up with deadlines, but yesterday I squeezed this peice out for an upcoming venture. Too busy to go into it now, so in the meantime you'll have to make due with just the image. I'll talk more about it later.

Gayer than the average Tiger Bear!

Those who have been listening to Alex Robinson's and Mike Dawson's hilarious podcast, The Ink Panthers Show , probably know that they both have these nicknames that no one really uses but them. Gags(Mike Dawson) and Tiger Bear(Alex Robinson).
As far as I know, no one ever told him how gay that name sounded until today.
In Episode XXXX(40), special guest Liz Baillie gave it away.

Now I'm under some deadline pressure with a Star Trek book I'm illustrating for IDW, so I really didn't plan on doing yet another Ink Panther sketch, but as I was listening to the episode I found myself unable to stop.

Gags and TigerBear, you really are making it hard NOT to do this.
So here it is.
I'm not sure why I made their likenesses so manga-like in this one, but what the hell, it works I think.

character development

Just finished reading a script for a project I'm starting. I just thought I'd share the first character sketch from the script. I usually do at least 5-10 sketches of the new character until I feel like I "know" them. I do this before I start the pages so there'll be consistency to the character's look throughout the book.

Inking the Panthers...

Spending alot of time in the studio can drive you batty. Almost every artist has something happening in the background, t.v. radio, etc. With me it's music or podcasts. As a result of my long hours at the drafting table, I end up listening to alot of podcasts. Because most of them are art or comicbook related, there's one I listen to that stands out.

Ink Panthers.

While the 2 hosts (Alex Robinson & Mike Dawson) are actually cartoonists by profession, this is not a comic book podcast. They just talk about there lives and observations. It's just the right blend of hilarity and pathos. They share a side of themselves they probably shouldn't and invite their listeners to do the same by asking them to go to their FB page and share their "douche chill moments". Occassionally they'll bring on guests and invite them to participate in the same self-deprecation, forcing the jocularity to near intolerable extreme. (did I just use the word jocularity? brrrrr. douche-chill)

Occasionally, I get inspired to do sketches of these characters. I did the first one when it occured to me that the hosts and 2 of the guests (Tony Consiglio & John Kerschbaum)could easily translate into the Flintstone characters. (right to left:Tony,Alex,John & Mike)

The second one you see here I did today after listening to episode 38. Give it a listen.