Earl Art 3

Early art 2

Something to look forward to in the theaters this summer!

Well, I've been away from the states for quite some time now.  I've kept up with my usual 'nerdiness' by going online to read all about the latest movie news.  And, I have to admit, this summer seems to be the most promising to me!  I haven't felt this excited about seeing movies!

First off, I missed out on Iron Man.  I love Downey Jr, and it sucks that I probably will catch it on DVD.  But, from the little videos off Apple Quicktime, I'm pretty excited to see it!  Although, recently, from the Civil War series Marvel put out awhile ago, it made me hate Iron Man.  Tony Stark is such a sell out.   I was taken aback when browsing through the new Thor series, and saw in an issue where Thor sticks it to Tony Stark.  Wow!  Way to go Thor!  The movie interpretation might make me like him again.  Thanks to Favreau and Downey, Jr. of course!  

Next up, The Incredible Hulk.  Not much expectation there to be honest.  It does look entertaining though.  Already heard from friends that it's a fun watch!  Again, pity I won't be around in NY to watch it in time.  

One thing is for sure, I am NOT missing out on The Dark Knight!  I don't make it a secret that I'm a huge Batman fan.  I've grew up with Batman comics and he's definitely the one comic character that rates at the top of my list.  His is a much more deeper and psychological tale.  And I love what Nolan did to the series with Begins.  I confess I doubted it when I first saw photos of it and read about it.  Heck, the first picture of Batman with that huge neck of a cowl turned me off.  

My foot got planted firmly in my mouth when I saw it in theaters.  I was surprised how great it was.  It was my long awaited Batman movie!  I never figured they'd redeem him after the crapfest that was Schumacher's nipple-suited camp.  Finally, someone who got it right!  Make no mistake, Burton is still a favorite!  Burton started it and made my dreams of seeing the Dark Knight a reality!  Now Nolan has realized my real dreams of 'THE ULTIMATE BATMAN' interpretation.  

Next up?  Hellboy 2 and Wall-E.  I've always followed Mignola's work since seeing his back-up story in a Spider Man annual.  Not sure which one it was.  But, I just remember thinking, 'Who's this???'  I've followed him through the Cosmic Odyssey, Gotham by Gaslight, his little back up stores in X-Men, Wolverine one-shot, his covers for Batman: Death in a Family, Legends of the DK, etc, etc.  When he started Hellboy, that was it.  I haven't followed any comics as fanatically as his brilliant series!  And, now, with the sequel helmed by another genius in Guillermo de Toro, I'm excited!

Pixar is another production for which I have a special devotion for!  And seeing those spots of Wall-E, I can't help but feel anticipation.  Not to mention, Ben Burtt is doing the sounds!!!!  

On the downside of things, I'm not looking too forward to Wanted.  Nor is Punisher War Zone looking that good either.  Both might make it to my rental list.  The book for Wanted seems interesting.  Don't get me wrong.  I've been meaning to pick it up and give it a go.  But, Wanted just doesn't do it for me.  Neither is the Punisher.  How many movie incarnations are they going to attempt before realizing, Punisher just isn't going to cut it???

I love my comics and I love a well done comic book movie interpretation.  But, there has been too many horrible misses (Ghost Rider, Fantastic Four, X-Men 3, Spider Man 3, etc, etc.).  I wish the studios would take their time to bring us quality entertainment rather then just your below average popcorn fare.

Early art 1

Here is a page of early art I did for some ideas I have for the story.  They're really rough and not final.  Was playing with how to introduce our main cast of characters in the story to the reader.  This is page 1.

First issue

Hello, again!  For those of you who come back here from time to time for updates, sorry for the disappointment.  If you're wondering what I've been busy doing, I've been pretty much plugging away at the rest of the first issue!  Yep!  I've finally quickened the pace and finished about 10 penciled pages (so far)!  No slacking off lately just to assure you.  I plan to finish at least 3 issues hopefully within the next months.  Hoping!  

I'm planning for this to be a 6-issue story arc for now.  I'm going to do the Mike Mignola thing and basically just do a story arc at a time.  I don't want to do monthly and be behind because of my slowness.  If I can quicken the pace and produce a butt load of pages a day, or a week, then I'd commit to monthly.  But, let's be realistic and stick to the story arc goal.

In the meantime, I'm still going to try and keep you all up to date, or at least drop a daily blog to keep you coming back!  Stay tuned!

My Process

I thought I'd let you in on my process.  I'm sure there are some of you out there who are curious what I do and what I use when I work on my illustrations.  So, here in the first photo is the tools I use.  2H Pencil, Rapidograph, ruler, eraser, Copic and paper (not pictured).

Next, I start sketching on my sketchbook.  Me just doodling around and figuring out what I like.  What works, what doesn't work.  My 'planning stage.'

When I'm confident and happy with what I came up with through sketches, I start laying out the panel.  Most professional artists use blue line paper, sadly, I still measure my panels manually without any blue line borders.

Next, I start laying out the basic structure of the panel I worked out with loose lines and slowly flesh them out.

Last, once the pencils are done, I go over it, make sure I like my lines, then go over it with the Rapidograph pens and then the rest gets the Copic makeover.  If there are any sketch lines left, I just give it the once over with the eraser.  Don't forget to sign your work so that everyone knows you did it!  

So, there you go!  I think I go through the whole drawing process like any other artist.  Every artist's habits vary depending on their work pace.  Overall though, I think we all draw alike behind the scenes.  If you've got any questions, feel free to ask!  Or just leave a comment and it would be appreciated!  Thanks for sticking around!  

Lagging behind

Sorry for the long delay in new posts.  Been lagging behind of late since I got back from the UK.  I've definitely been working on the next few panels of the story.  Working out a lot of little details that I like and don't like.  So, stay tuned and hopefully, you'll see something new real soon!

On a different note, I normally don't plug for other people, but since I'm a huge fan.  I highly recommend those of you to go out and pick up Mike Mignola's Hellboy Library Edition Volume 1 as well as the new Hellboy Darkness Calls collection!  Both come HIGHLY RECOMMENDED as great reading!