AVENGERS ASSEMBLE!

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Every morning I do a warm-up sketch via Facebook friend suggestions. Today's was "the Avengers as a rock band." So, here they are. Enjoy.

Light of the Golem cover

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I always do this to myself. I create a title logo and a finished cover BEFORE I'm even done writing. This is no different. Here is the final cover for my upcoming graphic novel, 

Light of the Golem

I'm not finished writing it yet, and at this point haven't even started thumbnailing. But, here it is, the cover. Enjoy.

Scooby Doo!

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I had so much fun with drawing the characters from Winnie the Pooh that I wanted to do some more classic cartoons, so I put the call out on Facebook. I got a couple suggestions for Scooby Doo. So I present to you 

Scooby Doo and the Mystery Crew

Enjoy.

Battle for the 100 Acre Woods!

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So, you know those warm-up/morning drawings that I've been doing on Facebook? Well, one suggestion was "Eeyore". Instead of doing the traditional thing, I drew a buff/tough guy Eeyore. Well, it turned out so nice that I couldn't stop, it was too fun. So here is the entire crew of Winnie and the Pooh all decked out for battle, sort of. This is the 

BATTLE for the 100 ACRE WOODS!

Enjoy. :)

Cthulhu vs King Kong!

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If you haven't read my past posts, recently I've been doing some "warm-up" sketches on my Facebook page and drawing the first thing someone suggests. Today the suggestion was Cthulhu vs. King Kong. So, here you go. I spent about 2 hours on it, and possibly might revisit it and tighten it up a bit. Enjoy.

Illustration Friday - "WATER"

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This is a combination of Illustration Friday topic of "Water" and a Facebook warm-up suggestion "Lion doing push-ups". Enjoy.

Warm Up Drawings

Last week I started doing warm-up drawings every day. To keep it fresh and get my creative juices going I would make a post on Facebook and draw the first suggestion to get posted. I try to keep all of these under an hour. Some of them went a little over. Here's what has come of it so far:

DAY ONE: 

"A crazy spaceship" and "A bow-legged cowboy"

(I drew the first two suggestions for this one, just because the second suggestion gave me the easy idea for the first)

DAY TWO: 

"Atom Ant"

DAY THREE:

"A pizza, stuffed in a turkey, and the whole thing deep fried and dipped in chocolate"

DAY FOUR:

"Fraggles in SPAAAAACE!!"

DAY FIVE:

"Fish?" and Illustration Friday topic of "Mirror"

DAY SIX:

"The Mad Hatter"

DAY SEVEN:

"Trick or Treaters" and "John Lennon's Birthday"

Illustration Friday - MIRROR

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This week's topic for Illustration Friday is "Mirror". On Facebook I've been doing daily warm-up drawings and letting the first person who comments determine what I draw. Today my niece said, "Fish?". So, I combined "Fish?" with "Mirror" and got this: Daily Shark Affirmations. Enjoy.

Illustration Friday - CROOKED

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The topic for this week's Illustration Friday is "CROOKED". So, here's a giraffe with a crooked neck. Enjoy.

Illustration Friday - BURST

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This week's topic over at Illustration Friday is BURST. The first thing I thought of was the Blue Lantern, Saint Walker, doing an energy burst, so, here you go. Enjoy.

MTG Commission Final

Here is the final for the Jace Vs. Chandra Magic: The Gathering playmat commission. Click the image for full view. Enjoy.

Start to Finish

I'm in the process of doing another Magic: The Gathering playmat commission for a client. This one has been really fun to do, and I wanted to give you a little step-by-step process. I know I've done them before, but you can never have too much process, right? I work entirely in Adobe Photoshop, so I'll be mentioning tools and such from it. Okay, here goes:

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STEP 1: ROUGH SKETCH

I do a rough sketch and flesh out the character. I try and keep it loose, but still tight enough to ink on top with a new layer.

STEP 2: INK

I make a new layer on top of the sketch layer, drop the sketch layer's opacity to around 15-20%, doesn't really matter, then I ink. I try and get a good variety in line width. I think no line width variety is boring to look at. For this particular commission, it's rather large, so I'm using the 20pt default setting brush tool. For a regular comics page I use between the 5pt and 10pt default brush.

STEP 3: SHADOWS

The next thing I do is do a "shadow" layer. I do a layer copy of the ink layer, put it directly under the the ink layer, then drop the opacity to around 30-40%. The higher the percent, the more "direct sunlight" feel the shadows will look. I rarely go above 40%. To make the shadows I use the LASSO tool and paint bucket.

STEP 4: COLOR

For the coloring, I make another layer copy of the ink layer, put it under the shadow layer and go nuts with the paint bucket tool. I set the tolerance to around 30. I usually have to click in an area 3 times to make the white "halo" edge disappear. If you don't know what I'm talking about, just take the brush tool, draw a closed shape and then fill it will a color using the paint bucket. You'll see a sort of "halo" around the inside of the shape. Hit the paint bucket 2 more times and it will go away.

STEP 5: FINISHING TOUCHES

Here is where I put some finishing touches on the character. For this particular character, Chandra from Magic: The Gathering, I put a red color overlay since she is some kind of a "fire maker". (sorry, I don't know the story behind her). Also I put a red "rim light" around her. This will tie her into the background once I draw it. I added texture, more shininess, glow effects and things like that.

Anyways, that's my process right now. Magical, right?

If you have any questions feel free to email me (see top banner image) or put it in the comment section of this post. Enjoy.

Alien Warrior Princess

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Had a bit of free time last night, so I drew this Alien Warrior Princess. I did a rough sketch of her a couple of months ago and liked it a lot, so I finished it. Enjoy :)

Here is the process from sketch to final:

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Illustration Friday - "Bounce"

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The topic for Illustration Friday this week is "Bounce". And who bounces more than Tigger? I don't draw licensed characters very often, but I felt like it today. Tigger, Piglet, Pooh, and Eeyore do some bouncing. Enjoy.

Characters are ©Disney. 

I do not own any rights. 

Just drawing them for my own kicks and giggles.

ROBO 6 books!

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Hey everyone! My mini-comic, ROBO 6, just came from the printer! It looks great. Thank you to Ka-Blam for the books. I'll be selling these at whatever show I attend next.

Illustration Friday - LONELY

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The topic for Illustration Friday is "Lonely". I couldn't think of anything funny this week, so I went for something a little bit sad. I don't draw "sad" things very much, so this was good to break out of my "whimsy" box for a bit. Enjoy.

Light of the Golem - Concept Sketches

Every day for the past 3 weeks I've been taking my kids to swimming lessons. So, for 45 mins everyday I have been writing and drawing stuff for my upcoming story, "Light of the Golem". Here are some, not all, of the sketches that have come of it:

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Dogs Vs Cats

Have I put this up here on my blog? I thought that I did, but maybe I didn't. Anyways, drew this a year or so ago. If it's not completely obvious, I'm a total DOG person. I love 'em.

Wipe Your Bum

My kids are at this stage right now. You know, that limbo between potty-trained and big kid. So, I made and printed out this little sign to give them a reminder. But, you know, it's pretty good advice for us all.

Click on the image to get the 300dpi full res pic to print out and use with your little kiddo, or for a sweet joke at the office, whatever floats your . . . um . . . boat. :P

Enjoy.

Illustration Friday - LOST

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The topic for this week's Illustration Friday is "LOST". So, I had to go with a classic joke for this one. Enjoy.

Magic: The Gathering Commission

Just finished this commission for a client. He wanted to be Jace the Mind Sculptor from the "Magic: The Gathering" game. He's going to get it printed as a playmat. It was a super fun one to do. I would love to get more like it. Enjoy.

Coming Soon

I wanted to make this little announcement so that maybe you guys will hold me accountable if it takes too long. Anyways, this is the next story that I'm going to be working on. It's going to be an 8 page mini-comic. I'm not going to give away the plot, mostly because I don't quite have it figured all the way out yet, but I will show you some images. 

I drew this image a while back and I've had a lot of response to it. People keep asking me what the story is behind it. At the time, there wasn't a story. It was just an image. 

But, my wife and I had a 4 hour drive to talk it over and flesh it out. We got it about 80% done. Just need to work out a few bits and pieces. I hope I'm not giving away too much, just enough to peek your interest. 

Wait . . . what is that mountain? DUN-DUN-DUUUUUUN! 

The tentative, working title for this project is "Light of the Golem", but I think that I might just shorten it down to just "Golem". I don't know. We'll see. Enjoy.

Illustration Friday, "Suspend"

This week's topic for Illustration Friday is "Suspend".  This is a sketch card I did at Denver Comic Con of a Spiderman panda suspended from his webs. Ink on bristol. Enjoy.

Illustration Friday, REFRESH

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The topic at Illustration Friday this week is "Refresh". This is what came to mind. I think my local grocery store is guilty of this. Enjoy.

Comicification

Comicification (verb): To make something a comic that wasn't.

What am I making into a comic that originally wasn't?

ROBO 6! 

If you don't know, which is probably the case, I did an 8-page kid's picture book story called ROBO 6. It premiered in 8: A Kid's Book Anthology.

Anyways, tabling at Denver Comic Con got me thinking that I need more work on my table that is just mine. Now, don't get me wrong. I love everyone over at illopond.com. My career would not be the same without them. They've played a pretty big part in my creative endeavors for the past 2 years. But, I felt kind of weird selling their work. So, that's why I felt like I need more of just me on the table. So, here is what I'm doing:  I'm turning ROBO 6 into a mini-comic, just like Pest Control. But this time I'm going to print it at the 5x7 "manga" size. So, it will be the same page count as PC, but just physically smaller. Since I'm in the re-vamping mood, I had to redo the logo and cover.

Now the part you've been waiting for, IMAGES! Here are the cover and page 2 side-by-side comparisons of the original and the re-design. Enjoy.

Denver Comic Con REPORT

Holy. Smokes. Denver Comic Con was AMAZING!

Below is an honest, full disclosure report of how things went. I want to do this to show beginning artists what kind of hurdles, failures, and successes they can encounter when tabling at shows.

First up is my expenses, such as table fee, hotel, etc. As you can see I come out of this with a $578 LOSS! But, the image explains why. But yes, tabling at a con, in my opinion, should not be thought of as a money making venture. Sure, it might happen, but that shouldn't be your main focus when starting out.

Now, lets move on to my actual sales. Here is a breakdown of my book and sketch card sales:

Now, if you're comparing how much I said I made in sales and double check it with my actual sales, it will NOT come out the same. Why? I gave discounts when people bought multiple books. For the anthologies I charged $20 a piece, $35 for 2, and $50 for 3.

Now, here is a look at my table set up for Day 1 and Day 2&3. Two and three's set up was the same. I learned some things from day one and changed it for 2 and 3. If you really want to know you can ask. It was nothing major, just flow of traffic and so forth.

DAY ONE

Day one I had my price guide down on the table, which wasn't good because people didn't see it there and kept having to ask me what the prices were. So, day two I took the "review" of Pest Control and replaced it with the price guide. That helped, but people still had to ask. So for the next show I think I'll just make little tags to put next to each product or something. I don't know.

DAY TWO

For day two I moved the banner over to the right of me so you could see it better. I pretty much flipped my table backwards to fit with the traffic flow. I now have the ink sketch cards on the table.

And lastly, if you have an iPad, iPhone, or Android smart phone, I HIGHLY recommend getting yourself a Square reader and register app. This bad boy was a life saver (when the Wi-Fi was working). Over $100 of my sales were from taking credit cards. It's easy to use and works great.

Now, I think I'd like to address some table etiquette that I actually saw that works and doesn't work.

Etiquette 

DO's and DON'Ts 

of 

TABLING AT SHOWS

DO:

- Chill out. Relax. 

- If someone stops and looks at something on your table, then talk to them. If they're just walking by and not making eye contact with you, then let them be.

- Smile

- I don't care what your brand is, be friendly to people.

- Make it look like you actually want to be there. Because you do, right? RIGHT?!

- Always look like you're having fun, even at the slow periods where you might not be having any.

- For crying out loud, make yourself look presentable. Shower, comb your hair, iron your shirt. I don't know, just look nice. Sheesh.

- While someone is thumbing through your book, tell them what it's about if they having asked.

- Let them touch stuff. Let them look at your book/art. Let them experience your work.

- Make yourself look like a professional. Get a banner. Use good graphic design. Make it look like you belong with the "big boys".  Make it look like you know what you're doing and that people should buy your work for what it's worth.

- Charge for what it's worth. You're an artist. You can do things that the average person can not. So, charge them for it. If a drawing SHOULD BE worth $20, don't sell it for $5, sell it for $20. Believe it or not if you charge too little for your work, it will be a turn off. People will wonder what's wrong with it.

DON'T:

- Yell at people from behind your table. If you do, you have become a door-to-door salesman. And who likes those?

- Going along with that first one, don't make a spectacle of yourself. Because if you do, then you're selling a spectacle, not your work. Spectacles don't make money.

- Try and MAKE someone stop at your table.

- Don't make the sad, desperate puppy face.

- Eat in front of people at your table. Do I even have to say this?

- Undercharge. You're worth it. Act like it.

- Have a 5 minute explanation of your book/art. If you can't explain it in 30 seconds or less, then rework it until you can.

I give you these because me and some other artists around me did the things in the DO list and had a GREAT show. On the other side of the coin I saw artists around me do the things in the DON'T list and they had a bad show. Coincidence? I think not.

Anyways, that's about it. It was a really great show and will do what I can to make it there next year. If you have any specific questions, just leave a comment below and I'll answer it the best I can.

If it will let you, you can click HERE to see some of the cosplay and other photos from DCC.

Enjoy.

How to make a height adjustable X-Frame banner stand for $80

Here's the story. I bought a 3ft x 6ft vinyl banner from GotPrint and needed a banner stand to stick it on. Long story short, so we can cut to the chase, I bought the wrong banner stand from VistaPrint. This one:

When I got it I realized it wasn't going to work. I needed an "X-Frame" banner stand with hooks to fit the metal grommets in my vinyl banner. But, VistaPrint doesn't do returns, so I was stuck with a stand that was useless. So, I scoured the internets looking for an "X-Frame" stand. I found TONS and TONS. The problem with all of them was that they all started on the ground and I wanted my banner to start around waist high. So, I searched some more and came across the perfect one! This:

But, you see the same problem I do right? It's almost $400! Yeah, that's not going to work. But, that's when I had my flash of brilliance. Shut up, it happens sometimes. So, here is what I did. Through research I found a $30 "X-Frame" stand from Power Graphics in Utah. So, I bought this one:

Okay, here is where we get to the good part:

HOW TO MAKE A $400, HEIGHT ADJUSTABLE, X-FRAME BANNER STAND FOR ONLY $80!

Step #1: 

Buy both stands mentioned above from VistaPrint (STAND A) and Power Graphics (STAND B). (if you find them cheaper somewhere else, then by all means, don't be stupid, get those ones instead)

Step #2:

Step #3:

Step #4:

Step #5: 

(ignore my girly hand)

Step #6:

(yes, I see the typo. Like you've never made one. It should say "stick IT into")

Step #7:

There you go! A height adjustable "X-Frame" banner stand for 80 bucks instead of $300-400. Hope this helps.