CHOCOLATE DONUTS & GRAPE SODA

Pen & Ink on 11x15 Warm Press

Original Creation Date: June 18, 2014

G.I.Joe. The 80's. Like most men my age, there was a natural transition through the Reagan years from Star Wars to G.I.Joe to the Transformers, and then finally onto girls and junior high and all of that mess.

But man, I was a Joe kid. At this very moment, somewhere in my parents' attic sits boxes and boxes of vehicles and figures, presumably their rubber-ringed pelvis suspensions all rotted and broken. Where I differed from so many other guys from my generation was my opinion of the cartoon.  The G.I.Joe show was always second-rate to me; it was like a serviceable dilution that promised to be so much but never quite delivered.

It always fell short in comparision to the comic.

Marvel's G.I.Joe was a fantastic series. Sure, it was too much of a promotional tool to sell toys, and there were too many characters to really develop stronger personalities... but what'd I care? I was the one buying those toys, and even when I reluctantly gave them up I still followed the stories. Larry Hama. Herb Trimpe. Great stuff. For a long time, if I recall correctly, it was Marvel's best selling title. I think there was a perception back then that this was only a result of its crossover success from the brand itself... but I disagree. This was a great comic book with cool characters and compelling adventures.

I thought I'd pay homage to one of my favorites... the infamous master of disguise, Zartan. Zartan and his men were so much cooler in the comics (I think in the TV show they were just buffoonish comic relief), and they were written more as the unruly thugs and gang members they were intended to be. They caused trouble. They broke the rules. They partied.

However, it was also a comic book being read by a lot of kids. So, presumably, Jim Shooter or someone in those circles instructed Larry Hama, the legendary mind behind G.I.Joe (he's the guy that wrote all those file cards you cut out and saved in your rubber-band encased stack), that they shouldn't be having TOO MUCH fun. No drugs, and no booze.

So instead, Zartan and his boys had a thing for grape soda, and chocolate-covered donuts. Works for me.  I've depicted Zartan here returning home from a trip to his local grocer, complete with his famed bow, some healthier necessities, and some treats for the lads.

I LOVED drawing this, if only for the nostalgic value. I might get around to color at some point.

ALIEN LEGION #60 COVER, aka HARKILON HELL FINISHED

Pen & Ink on 11x15 Warm Press

Original Creation Date: May 20, 2014

Color Completion Date: Jun 3, 2014

No, there is no actual 'Alien Legion #60' being published by Epic Comics this month.
Heck, there's not even an Epic Comics anymore.

This is the final 'Harkilon Hell' cover design piece, in all its colored and cover mock-up glory. As fun of a pencil and ink exercise this was for me, I may have very well learned more about the digital coloring process on this one, just because there was so much layered detail. I originally planned on using some blurs to push the background away from the figure and action, but in the end I think the contrast of value and color was enough to define things in their proper environments.

A glimpse of the final piece without the branding and title treatments:

I'm happy with this, and certainly happy calling this a portfolio piece. I probably took more time than I would have liked to color the completed inked version, but I was doing it part-time at night, and without a Wacom tablet. Either way, this is certainly a display of what I can do and how I can do it.

A glimpse of its evolution from pencils to production color:

Finally, for the record, why #60? Well, in a perfect world, Alien Legion would have ran endlessly from its original series if not the second, and there would be just hundreds and hundreds of adventures featuring the famed footsloggers of the Tophan Galactic Union. I just chose 60 because it's a number that hits very close to home for me, both in sports and design. For many seasons I wore '60' as a hockey player (I've since shortened it back to '6') and I have freelanced as a branding and design consultant as 'Six Zero Branding.' So it just seemed like a logical choice.

Finally, if you haven't ever had the opportunity, take some time to check out Carl Potts' ALIEN LEGION. There's a new series breaking this summer from Titan Comics, but the originals are still out there and in recent Omnibus collections from Dark Horse. It's some great sci-fi comic book storytelling.

"TOUGH AS TUNGSTEN, AND LOYAL TO THE DIRTY END."

WHO YA GONNA CALL?

Pen & Ink on Standard Stock, Digitally Colored
Original Completion Date: June 8, 2014

Not much to say about this little character study, really. I tried to limit the time involved for color, just to test the overall process duration.

30 years since this movie. Wow.

THE TREE

Pencil on Standard Stock, Digitally Painted
Original Completion Date: May 3, 2014

Earlier this year I was commissioned to develop a cover illustration for author Chip Rice's first novel. "The Tree" is a story about transformation, a young man's struggle to break away from an image he'd allowed his past to shape, and into the type of man he truly desires to become. This is also a story about the unique relationships formed between men: between sons and fathers, mentors and friends, both good and bad. Mr. Rice has a gift for weaving, through the simplicity of one man's life, a stronger narrative about the things and people we allow to influence the men we become.

As for the cover, the story is really about the relationship between two characters, and the symbolic nature of the giant white oak for which the book is titled. I wanted something painterly and rich, and decided very early on that the entire thing would be painted exclusively in Photoshop. And it was-- the only traditional work performed at all was a fairly simple pencil sketch in 3H, HB, and 5B:

This was completed over a month ago, but I'd been holding off on the release of the imagery until the book itself was published. Chip Rice is proud to officially unveil his first novel, which is available for purchase in eBook format from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and more! To buy the book now, or to learn more about this compelling story, please visit the author's web site today at:

http://chiprice.net/tree.html

KITTY & LOCKHEED

Pen & Ink on Standard Stock
Original Completion Date: June 1, 2014

Another round at Shadowcat and her beloved dragon. Actually this was another exercise in inking restraint, where I withheld the option of putting down any sort of hatching whatsoever.

Since I've been tinkering with this drastic change in inking style, I have found that the secret to restraint in inking is actually... restraint in drawing. I have spoken before about the compulsion to fill the page with detail (see the Alien Legion piece for reference if necessary), and how it all seems to come from an inexplicable aversion to untouched, white space on the paper. That part of my process is certainly at its highest point during inking... but I am learning that those decisions start when a pencil is in my hand. Occasionally it even rears its head during the initial blue pencil phase.

Forcing myself to resist such urges, such as in this piece, helps me consider the "how" and "why" behind all of it. I think that heavy detail I love so much is, in many ways, a partially subconscious behavior that probably started a long, long time ago in the evolution of my style. Hatching adds complexity, and visual interest... but it also serves to hide things as well.

My lines aren't as graceful as I'd like. Sure, the vector process mangled those above a bit more than I liked, but even without that step, my lines just don't seem to possess an inherent elegance like those in the works of Josh Middleton or even Paul Smith. Perhaps deep down I'm not happy about it, and I'm subconsciously hiding something that I don't like in my own work?? We can dig as deep as we'd like here about the psychological foundations of an artist's drawing style... but I do think I've arrived to the conclusion that less detail will come much easier if I focus on the quality and grace of my lines.

So in other words, I'm switching to a much softer graphite tomorrow, haha!!