Retro Iron Man

Here is a drawing that I have been waiting to complete for a few weeks, I have been a little busy lately. This is Iron Man, or at least what he looked like in the 1980's comic books. If you are unfamiliar with the origin story of Iron Man, you probably should pick up the 2008 movie titled Iron Man. Please do, I'll wait...

Ok so for this drawing I started out with a rough sketch in pencil and then scanned it into Photoshop to finish off some of the designing. I originally had the character straight, but decided to tilt him counter clockwise in order to give the drawing a more dynamic feel. While still in Photoshop I changed all the pencil lines into blue lines, so that after inking I could use the magic of Photoshop to make them disappear. For this inking process I used a quill pen although I normally try to use brushes exclusively. The benefit of this is that a pen tends to give a more steady and less organic line, which is perfect if you are drawing something metallic or man-made. Here's the drawing and I'll have some more soon!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Birthday

Hello again, today I would like to share a drawing I made for my Nephew's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle birthday. On a side note, along with the drawing I gave him the new Ninja Turtles action figure set, just as any awesome Uncle should. To tell the truth a few months back I grabbed a set for myself, what can I say guilty habit, but it goes a little further than that when it comes to the Turtles. My love of the Turtles runs deep.

 

Some of my earliest memories are of singing the original TMNT television song and being in awe of all the figures in the toy aisles. I was a Turtle fanatic, I even had the Ninja Turtle pajamas! The Turtles were a big thing in the early 90's from 1990 movie to the awesome video games like Turtles in Time. It's good to see the the Ninja Turtles being brought back for a new generation and done right.

Back to my nephew, it's really awesome when you can bridge a generation gap and really connect with a kid. There's nothing like arguing with a kid over which superhero is the best. I mean look at him, Leonardo suit (the BEST Turtle) and a Rocket Raccoon? One awesome kid. Anyways the drawing was created with ink. More art soon. I like Turtles!

Batman Arkham Asylum Style

I decided to do a quick sketch on my day off work. This is just a pencil sketch on relatively cheap newsprint paper. I started randomly drawing the upper body then moved into filling out the rest of the figure. It is kind of unproportional, so I've cropped off the hands, it kind of makes it look better...trick of the eye sort of thing.

Anyways this is Batman, I think we all know who is so I don't have to give my usual trivia facts here. I tried to hint at his suit having little creases in it where his armor or pads link up. This is more or less his costume from the popular Batman Arkham series games. I have never played them but I have watched other people play them. Seriously, I don't play games anymore I just watch other people play them on youtube. Until next time!

Rocket Raccoon

This weekend I was lucky enough to see Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, a fun film about a group of heroic space bandits. It is one of the less known and outwardly bizarre Marvel franchises. The team consist of a human, an assassin, a man bent on vengeance, a talking raccoon, and a talking tree named Groot. While some of the characters have been around for more than twenty years, this incarnation of the team was first published in 2008.The film itself is one of the best times that I have had at the movies in awhile, and I highly recommend it to anyone, even if you are not a fan of superhero films. The music is great too! Enough about the movie, now about this little raccoon guy.

This is Rocket Raccoon. Don't let his furry looks fool you, he is a trained killer and weapons expert with a bad attitude. I'm not too sure how spoiler-y I should get here, so if you want to find out more see the movie of wikipedia. This is just a pencil drawing, hopefully I can get a inked version up soon.

Donatello Marker Sketch

Here's a quick sketch I've created while waiting to get sleepy. This is Donatello, he is the tech-savy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. I have drawn the Turtles a few times lately, I guess I like how colorful they are. I use a sepia toned brush tip marker and Prismacolor markers. The sketch paper really helped soak up the colors and allow for some layering of hues. I am not too worried about the presentation of this piece, due to it just being a sketch so I chose to leave it uncropped. I'll probably be doing some more of these little sketches so be on the look out.

Some Superhero Heads

Here are some head drawings from my sketch book today. I wanted to work with my Pentel Color Brush which is like a sable brush but in a pen. I find that it has better quality lines and more versatility with line weights. For the colors I used my Prismacolor markers.

The two heads I decided to draw were Michelangelo, one of the Ninja Turtles and Daredevil. I tried to keep the details to a minimum and focus on the color at the end. There is a pretty big smear on Mikey because I was too impatient to wait for it to dry before erasing. Enjoy!

Leonardo - Ninja Turtles Drawing

It has been awhile since my last art update, I know that it has been awhile, excuses, excuses. Anyways here is my latest work of art, Leonardo my favorite turtle!

I had a bit of time over the past few weeks and decided to watch the first episodes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from 1987. I remember collecting the action figures as a kid and the fact that they were all named after Renaissance painters, but beyond that I didn't remember much. After the first 5 episodes, it all came back to me and I was hooked once again. I have not had the chance to check out the original Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird comic stories yet, but hopefully I can sometime soon.

I started this drawing on the computer and printed it out in blue lines so that after I inked it I could take out the blue with Photoshop. Drawing on the computer was a lot quicker that doing the original in pencils. I tend to get really frustrated with the original concept drawing and end up digging a hole into it. With the computer tablet and Photoshop I can at least hit "Ctrl + Z " as many times as I want. Next I moved on into the inking phase. This was odd because on the computer I had only drawn the actual character and vaguely hinted at what I wanted in the background. A lot of white out and frustration ensued. In the end I am happy with the final product. Turtle Power!

Current work in progress...

Here is the current art that I am working on. It is taking a little bit longer than I originally thought it would. Be on the look out for more soon!

Admiral Ackbar - It's a Digital Painting!

Last night I started to paint in the colors for my original line sketch, but I didn't really like the way that they were coming out. I was following a tutorial in Imagine FX magazine and I think I was doing it wrong. I'll Post the image at the bottom of the post. 

I decided to do a study in black and white of the characters face, in order to practice my painting skills. I wanted to not have to worry about color, but more on the actual form. I plan on doing a few more of these, just as practice. Here is what I created.

 

So here is the coloring job I did on the line drawing. I think the problem I had was that I was trying to paint it, when coloring it like a coloring book would have been a better approach. I did a grey under-painting and then painted over the top with a single color. Everything turned out kind of saturated and I decided to leave it.

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Admiral Ackbar - Digital Drawing

It's been awhile since my last drawing update, but here is my newest artwork that I can show you. Admiral Ackbar! The Mon Calamari leader of the Rebel fleet in Star Wars Return of the Jedi. He is famous for his odd appearance and "It's a trap" line. Ackbar and his fellow fish-head friends were some of my favorite Star Wars aliens as a kid.

For this drawing I went completely digital. I drew everything in the computer using my Wacom tablet and Photoshop. This is just a line drawing at the moment but I plan on creating a digital painting. I am not sure if I will be replicating this exact process in the future, due to the fact that it is a little hard to create clean lines in the computer, but we shall see. Also I have included a bonus pencil sketch, enjoy!

Captain America Head

The past week or so I have been busy writing my comic and applying to jobs, but tonight I decided to spend a little time at my computer with some digital painting. This is my first attempt at trying to seriously paint anything in Photoshop. I guess the process is a little like painting a real painting, but a lot more forgiving with mistakes. I had fun experimenting. Enjoy!

Hulk - Now Green

Lately I have been focusing more on completing finished looking pieces rather than just creating an interesting inked piece. I created a Hulk drawing about a week ago and while I enjoyed using alot of brush strokes it just was too messy to do anything else with. So I went back to my original pencil drawing and inked it again.

I used the same coloring technique as I used with the Thing. It reminds me of the way Japanese prints seem to fade into paper. Enjoy!

 

 

Thor Ink Wash

This is Thor, the Norse God of thunder and also a Marvel superhero from outer space. Punished for his arrogance, Thor's father Odin exiles his son to the Earth. His hammer, Mjolnir, allows him to fly, wield the power of lightning, and travel to other dimensions. Thor is also strong and is nearly invulnerable.

This piece started off as a line drawing with the plan to ink in clouds into the background. I decided to try my hand with an ink wash and next thing I know I am inking everything. I guess if you give me a paint brush then I am going to paint. It was really fun and felt like painting.

Wolverine First Apperance

Everyone's favorite Canadian superhero, Wolverine. This was his costume when he first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #181. Wolverine, an agent of the Canadian government, is sent out into the Canadian wilderness to hunt down the Hulk.

My goal when I started this drawing was just to draw Wolverine out in the wild. Eventually I realized that this would be the perfect opportunity to put him in a story context. I would like to maybe do a second drawing of Wolverine when he finds the Hulk. We shall see, but for now, enjoy!

 

The Thing

Out of all the Marvel heroes I think The Thing is my favorite to draw. I think it is because he is made of geometric shapes and the fact that seeings how no one has ever seen The Thing in real life they cannot say "He doesn't look like that". So there is a bit of room for error I guess.

I remember drawing the Thing many times from one image in How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way when I was a kid. I think he is a really good character to practice drawing because of the planes and shapes his body is composed of. It really allows you to step back and analysis how the light would react to the figure. Enjoy!

Antman on an Ant

My girlfriend asked me a few days ago who my favorite Avenger was. This was a tough question, but I eventually settled on Antman. He gets to ride around on an ant!

 

Iron Man - First sketch of the New Year

My first sketch of the New Year, Iron Man! I'm fresh off winter break and I have been dying to draw some characters. I have been practicing my inking skills and it feels good to finally put the brush to the paper. Its always fun when I draw Iron Man. I like the freedom to experiment with his armor and think about how it forms over the figure. Its also fun to think about all the little compartments and what might be in them.

When I started inking this drawing it was morning and I had just drank coffee. Not a good idea when you are trying to get really delicate lines with a brush. I am using a cheap #6 sable brush to ink. Because the figure is in somewhat of a rigid pose I wanted to add a little bit more interest, so I added a background. In the past when I have done this I have noticed that I lose the figure in trying to put too much detail in the background. To combat this I tried to minimize the background detail and create contrast with the figure.

Winter Break

Hello everyone, I hope that you all had a great holiday! Mine was very relaxing, though a lot of it was spent studying. I received many awesome books for Christmas that will help me out with my drawings and paintings. I even received a digital painting issue of Imagine FX so I became a little side tracked and dabbled into the world of digital painting (more on that in another post).

Mostly I was happy to have time to study my figure drawings. Drawing is like anything else, you have to constantly go back to the basics to make sure that you are not forgetting anything.This means for me that I have to make sure that I am creating new and interesting poses. I am also drawing from life when I can. This allows me to pick up on the little nuances that make the human body look three dimensional.

Also I have received comments from bloggers and even professional artist that my figures are tending to be a bit rigid. So gesture drawings are really helping me to loosen up and make mistakes. The idea was to find something that I was weak at and do it 100 times or more. Alot of these were taken from Muybridge's, The Human Figure In Motion. I highly recommend it as a drawing source and to study movement. Be on the look out for new drawings coming soon!