Writing and Commissions...

I started writing a monthly book for DC last week. I've written shorter pieces for Marvel and DC in the past but this is kind of monumental (to me anyway) because it's the first monthly book that I've been able to write. Writing for an artist is really an interesting process. Kind of liberating in a way and it has a fire-works kind of feel to it, in that the script I write is like lighting a fuse and then you get to sit back and enjoy the show that the artist puts on. Kind of a unique feeling. Horrible if it goes wrong - but amazing when the artist surpasses your imagination and the script. Anyway, having a blast this month - can't wait for DC to announce it so I can talk more freely about it. In the meantime, here's a commission I did over the holidays...

Heroes Con this weekend!

I'm going to be at Heroes Con this weekend and I'm really looking forward to it. There's a really nice crowd and a lot of creators that I'm a fan of will be there so it's doubly good. Also I'll be doing a LOT of commissions, so the time is going to fly by. If you are at the show, make sure you go to my panel on sunday at 1:30 for a discussion of Historical Comics and comics with a little history stuck in 'em. Jason Lutes and several others will also be talking. I can't wait.

Here is a scan of one of my commissions I'm doing in advance for Heroes Con. Classic Aquaman. I'm going to watercolor this today and I'll post the color version when it's done. Aquaman was one of my favorite costumes and probably the best set of under-oos I had as a kid because the green shorts and orange shirt actually felt like his costume. Spider-Man and some of the others didn't quite pull off the same effect but Aquaman was designed like a real costume.

Wolverine Commission

Just finished a Wolverine commission I'd been sitting on for months. I just couldn't think of any image of Wolverine that hadn't been done before a million times. Then I thought it would be cool to have a cross section of Wolverine with little diagram bubbles to explain what was what under his skin -- and then by the time I inked it I dropped the diagram bubbles because they seemed redundant and I thought it would be more interesting if in the 'reality' of the piece Wolverine was posing with his skin cut open for the picture -- and then healed up a few minutes later. That sounds really strange as I type that out...oh well -- that's my thought process for better or worse!

Incidentally, this piece was for Brett of good ol' Top Shelf -- and he has a great blog here -- this week he posted some photos of sketchbook drawings I did at some conventions over the summer as well as a bunch of killer sketches from Jeff Lemire.

The three images are the thumbnail (drawn in bed the morning I thought of the idea), the pencils and the finished color/inks.

I've finished catching up on all my commissions and the last of my freelance jobs for quite a while (a children's book -- 30 pages of full color art) which has slowed me down on Giant Man and my other books. So now it's full steam ahead on graphic novels for the next 3 months.

I'm designing the cover for my Dark Horse book this month so I'll post the thumbnails and art as I go.

Spider-Man Annual!

The last post was super dry and black and white, so here's a recent commission I did (actually last month). A Spider-Man annual homage and the hardest commission yet only because there were so many freaking characters. A couple firsts though -- never drawn Mysterio or Sandman or Elektro before so kinda fun.

Fantasic Four!

It's been a little crazy around here since I started doing commissions. It's good though, to keep my brush warmed up while I'm writing on my new projects. This came in last week -- a request to re-draw Fantastic Four #1. It was fun to do -- especially the Human Torch who I've never drawn before. Heck, I don't think I've drawn any of the FF before this week. But I liked the idea of the Human Torch maybe leaving a smoke trail instead of just flames...that's my deep thought for the week.

Heroes Part 2 (Bonus Post)

One more Heroes commission finished this week. This is the last of them (I think)! I used some new materials this time -- some super-bright Dr. Martins India Ink that was really fun. The india inks are waterproof too, so I'll be experimenting more with that and mixing it with watercolor, etc. It was really interesting to layer the colors because they are mostly transparent so when I laid the yellow down and the magenta on top it all turned orange. Fun, but there's definitely a different (longer) thought process when inking to anticipate the effect of the next layer of color.

Heroes

I got a commission last week from Jesse Alexander -- one of the writers and producers of Heroes and Lost and Alias. Great guy and I had a fun time coming up with his paintings. He wanted Hiro, the Cheerleader and Peter from the Heroes TV show. The 3rd cover -- Hiro -- was my idea for a fun flashback issue to the 1940s where I imagine a Hiro from another timeline became a WWII sword-weilding hero that would help his future self out somehow in some sort of time-traveling brain bender story.