Crying Ryan

I couldn't resist doing this image.  Just a fun promotional image.  The election is long over but it was shocking just how much the GOP miscalculated their own view of  America.  And so I present to you "Crying Ryan".

Digital Inking

I recently began inking digitally.  I was just showing some improvement with inking with a brush but I was lured into digitally inking with the hope that I could turn out high quality work faster.  And although there are clear positives I am not completely convinced that I should continue inking digitally. 

Last year I completed a 30 page comic. It took over a year to complete I wanted to get started on the next installment to keep the many fans (3 people, including my family) I took up the cintiq thinking It would  look slightly different but In the end I would be able to mimic any traditional style and I would do it in half the time.  

I did work much faster and yet the endless tweaking may have made the process equally as slow as inking traditionally.  

But now that I am close to completing the 2nd book I am unsure of the final result.  In some ways I turned out pages I think I would of had a hell of a time doing traditionally but I don't have the same satisfaction as creating a one of kind line on vellum or Bristol.

1.First I complete the regular old pencil drawing then it is scanned.  I am not a tight penciler.  I wish I was but I like to tighten and draw a little at each stage not be too rigid.  But maybe it is a detriment to the final product.  as you can see I can easily swap out drawings when months later i decide that a drawing was crumby.  

2. Then on a layer i just put down a line like a wire frame of all the shapes.  it usually simplifies the pencil drawing.

Then on another layer I start doing what would resemble regular inking i start placing all the blacks.  adding thin and think lines but I can separate everything on layers.  so the figures, the wood paneling and  background characters are all on their own layers. But due to the forgiving nature of the computer It seems like I put endless hours into tweaking and experimenting.  It is hard to know when you are done.

Page is still in progress.  Slowly coming together.
Thanks for looking.  I would love to be turned on to other folks process digital or traditional.  This kind of process stuff intrigues me to no end.

New Image, Service With a Smile

I completed an image recently for my portfolio. It was originally inspired by the Libor banking scandal.  But it seems like it could be applied to a whole handful of banking scandals. 

Watercolor Sketches

I wanted to share a few recent watercolor sketches. There really is few things as pleasant as sitting on a beach and painting. I think I am hooked.

Underground

Last week I finished the cover image for The Pitch, Art directed by Ashford Stamper. The piece was about a guy who is building a luxury bomb shelter for the wealthy Americans who want a nice place to survive a nuclear holocaust. Who wouldn't want that kind of contingency. Here were some sketches that missed, But I was pretty happy with them.

Check out the great article by Ben Palosaari. The only Safe Place When the end Comes Underground

The Grey

I just saw The Grey, this past weekend. And although it wasn't fantastic it's worth the ticket price. If you like The man vs. Beast film genre. This might be the film for you. It is primarily an action film it reaches for some kind of existential exploration of man and his place in the natural world, and most principal to this film is the temporal nature of life itself. If you want to also see some creative uses of airplane liquor bottles and electrical tape it may be the movie for you.

I am a sucker for these films. I spent a good amount of time working in Alaska in the winter on a few television shows. The job required flying around a good amount of the state by plane and by car. Of all the places I visited the area of the state that left the most lasting impression was up above the Arctic Circle north of Fairbanks about 100 miles. There is something staggering beautiful about a place that would take your life so easily if you were to not be prepared or say your car battery died. It's definitely worth the trip.

New Work,Cincinnati Magazine

I was recently commissioned by Cincinnati magazine to create the above images for a piece by William Powell about Occupy Cincinnati. Art Director, Megan Scherer gave me this great opportunity to depict the Occupy movement. I worked on it while I was visiting my folks over the holiday. The Only draw back was that we were without heat the entire time. Drawing in the cold is harder then I thought.