Thursday, May 31, 2007

Gotham Guardian

[Nome]

Hey guys, Oliver here. This is an original commission I did for Tim Lo in Canada. I wanted Batman to really stand out from the background, so I'm happy with the end result. Working on all the environments for the MMO game, along with Jim's tips, have really helped me grow in doing better backgrounds. I look back at what I did when I first got here and can see how much I've changed.

Thanks again to all of you who responded to my last post and commissioned me for original work. Working at WildStorm keeps me plenty busy with other projects, but it's always nice to find or make some spare time to do commissions.

If any of you out there are still interested in an original piece check out my Comic Art Fans gallery and let me know. I can't promise that I'll have the time to take on anymore but you never know.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

White Havok

[Eddy]

If a picture's worth a thousand words, what's a moving picture worth?

Anyway, here's a short clip of Jim doing what he does best back at Planet Comicon and I should have a full report up in a few days.

In the meantime, hope you enjoy this video!

Friday, May 25, 2007

Civil War Poster Final

(entry ricH)

whew. Ok it feels really good to have this done. It was a TON of fun to do and I hope you all enjoyed seeing it come together. The piece is done with tech pens almost 100%. There was a small section I did with a crow quil just because I wanted a little extra bounce on the rocks and debris behind them (hardly noticable with all the stuff in the foreground)

Obviously doing something like this brings up the debate of pencils and inks. I never did this piece to add any fuel to that fire. I did it because the drawing looked fun to work on. I have always been addicted and drawn to mega-detailed work and I think double page spreads are like the "Opus" of that passion~!@!

I hope everyone has a nice and safe holiday weekend and I'll see you all in a few weeks with some new art. Next time it's 100% my stuff.

Again thanks to Leinil Yu for such inspirational art and an opportunity to ink something like this. You rule man!

ricH.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Madureira / Friend- Battle Chasers 1

(entry ricH)

I have been asked about getting together some sort of retrospective of the different art I've inked. I've had some free time lately...and I am getting that all together now. You'll be able to see it all at my ComicArtFans site...here's a link: gallery

This was a test page I did for Joe Madureira for Battle Chasers.(the job had already been filled but I wanted to do this anyway just to see what I could pull off) I'd still like to do something with Joe at some point. I really love his work and I know Joe liked this piece quite a bit at the time I did it.

I'll have the final for that Civil War piece tomorrow.

F Yu 2 (more)

(entry richard friend)

here's the final for the first half:

and here's a work in progress of the second half:

ricH.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

F Yu 2

(entry Richard Friend)

This is a piece that Leinil Yu did for a Marvel Civil War poster. I decided after I saw it online that I would give it a shot and do a inked version of the piece for myself. I didn't know at the time Leinil had a version up for inkers to try out on...I just like doing intense work so it was right up my alley: Here's the first 3 steps in the process...(This is a double pager) so use your imagination for now that it's all connected...stay tuned...there's more coming soon.

ricH

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

For Sale: Red Tornado's Head,
Some Assembly Required

[Eddy]

With Summer right around the corner, things have been busier than usual around the WildStorm office. But before Spring finally comes to a close, Sandra's cleaning out her office once again and selling off her remaining Justice League of America pages.

And since her office is right next to mine, I thought I'd be a good neighbor and help her sell the pages. Check out my For Sale gallery to see what's still available. Sandra would love to handle all the transactions herself, but those JLA pages don't ink themselves!

Oh, and if you haven't read the series already, check out the 224 pg. hardcover in stores June 6 or just click the link on the right to find out what happens to the Red Tornado. -->

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Mary Jane as Venom?!?

[Eddy]

After seeing the movie, Oliver did this tempting Mary Jane piece and it's also up on eBay for all of you art collectors out there.

Oliver also has a Comic Art Fans gallery where you get your very own commission too!

Friday, May 18, 2007

Skyerunner COVER FINAL

Ok here's the true final (above). Sorry for the stop and go on Friday. It was really busy here and I just couldn't get to this. Lot of fun working on Jeff again. I've got a few surprises coming up in terms of tutorials. If you are online savy you may already know what I am talking about. If you do...please keep it a secret for now and I'll let people know in a few days (here) what's already going on elsewhere from me.

curious?

good!

:)

Richard Friend.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

J. Scott Campbell step by step

(entry ricH)

Thought I would do something a little different here for the next day or two. I haven't ever done an inking step by step and I have a unique piece I worked on that I thought would fit the bill nicely.

Many people don't realize that when I started at Wildstorm I worked on Gen 13 with Alex Garner and J. Scott Campbell for 2 years(check all the way back to issue 2 of the ongoing series....you'll see my name in the credits as an ink assitant to Alex) I think I am known more now for the little detailed fine line hyper rendering like I did on Leinil Yu or Travis Charest. But I am very comfortable doing this style of inking as well.

This is about 1 hour into the piece. I've lightened the pencils a LOT in this scan so you can see how I am going in and blocking out the BIG shapes on the sillouhettes. I am VERY conscious of form and what's coming forward and whats receding...as it goes on you'll see what I mean. They key to good inking is to think like your drawing...not doing a bunch of techniques. I almost look through the image and defocus my eyes when I work. I am never looking at the small. Only the big picture. I'll hold the page several feet away from my eyes if I am checking it out on how things are progressing.

ricH.(stay tuned for more)

ok here's a bit more. You can see things are starting to "pop" and more detail has been added. I am working from front to back. The hands are in front of the face for instance so I did them first. There are some rock effects in the bottom corner that will have some speed lines through them, but generally if you are hitting them with white ink to make it "burst" more....you save that for the end. I've also started to work on the knight. Since there is some black in his costume I need to see the balance of that with the line work in front.

Art to me is a very delicate balancing act. It's weight and lightness, it texture versus non texture....you don't want anything to steal too much attention or to pull your eye to it and then lose it there. Stuck, because something was too heavy....you sort of want the eye of the viewer to dance over the page and to be able to enjoy it all/ I also think art should have a warm quality to it.

ok here's a little more. Main figure is pretty much wrapped up and I am moving outward now onto the knight figure and probably the girl with the wings. The tools I am using are: Hunt 102 (crow quill), brush (Windsor Newton, Series 7 no. 3), and I am using Koh i Nor tech pens (rapidographs) of all sizes.

ok getting there. This can be a tough part for newbies, intermediates, and pros alike and I'll tell you why. Everyone is always all pumped up to do a piece (at first). The first few hours are generally the funnest and where people do their nicest, tightest, and most focused work. BUT! Then you have to dig in and keep that kick as steam you had in the first place ALL the way through. That's my biggest complaint about a lot of artists whether they are pencilers or inkers. It doesn't matter what you do the first few hours if your wrap up sucks. Hang tough and build endurance. You have to finish as strong as you started. If you lose focus, the work will suffer, and so will your end result.

again the pencils have been lightened so you can see the inks clearly although the page hasn't been erased yet. I've got all the hard stuff done now and I am going in a doing the final bits and pieces that remain. I still need to ink the knights hand, a little of his helmet, and a few feathers here and there. Then it's time to erase. Jeff throws a lot of eliptical lines and your hand always has to be very loose when you ink him.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Wonder Woman final

(entry ricH)

Here's the final on that Wonder Woman piece. There's a slight crop line through the middle because I had to scan the image in 2 parts. I'll have a clean scan up on my 'deviant art' page tomorrow afternoon for anyone interested. Blasterkid

The piece was fun to do...it got me interested in doing a little short test story with Wonder Woman. It'd be cool to do a short story(like those 2 pagers in 52) or some sort of back up with her. I don't even know..do they do Annuals anymore? I haven't seen one in a while.....I've always wanted to do one. Usually they throw beginners like me on stuff like that...so hopefully I can get something going here pretty soon.

:)

ricH.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Wonder Woman work in progress

(entry ricH)

To keep things going here's another work in progress. This time it's Wonder Woman.

The thing I've noticed is that Wonder Woman has a lot of technical work you do with her costume. It's little perspective problems all over the place. All the stars, her breast plates, just everything has to work together. She's really fun to draw and I feel like I am sort of getting a handle on her.

ricH.

Monday, May 07, 2007

Dark Phoenix

(entry ricH)

There's been some great Jim Lee art up here lately. Even though I've known Jim and worked with/around him for several years now. I am still always so blown away by how great he draws. Those covers were just awesome. So props to you Mr. Lee. I loved them ALL!

Ok so here's what I got for tonight. The first image is my rough pencils and some partial test run on some inks and a little bit of wash. This is only about 1/2 of the entire piece so there's more going on above her and below her.

and then I have this one.

I just started to go in and do the real final pencils so it's pretty open at the moment. I know people are interested in the process so I am forcing myself to show these kinds of 'works in progress' and the little trial and error things I do for myself to see what I like.

again...these are only half of the full image(the bottom half specifically). Stay tuned for the full size final.

Rich

Thursday, May 03, 2007

Your Friendly Neighborhood Kirbizzle

[Da Bizzare Mr. Kirby]

With my love for anatomy, I wanted to show how I could play with structure. There were some other artists doing some interesting things with body proportions back in the day and I wanted to show how I come with it.

Can't wait to see the movie after we get back from Kansas where I'll be doing a signing with Jim, Alé, Allen Warner and Dave Baron.

And look out for the new 48-page KIRBYLAND sketchbook for 2007!

Holla back!

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Bat Splat!

[Sinc']

On the original art, Jim wrote, "Alex, can we do large, blurred blood drops on "screen"? and here's what I came up with:

1 & 2) Two initial versions. Only differences are the background color and reflective lighting on Batman.

3) Decided on a white background, but had a hard time pulling off the splattered blood effect on the "camera/viewer lens" so I adjusted it's opacity and added dripping suggested by Assistant Editor, Brandon Montclare.

4) My first instinct when I got the pencils for this (and before I got a note about splattering blood "on the lens") was to have a huge 'R' or bat shape in blood on the blank space behind Bats. So I did this quick version and sent it to Jim.

5) Jim liked it, but I had to move the bat down to account for the logo and trade dressing. This is the final version of the cover without the logo.

6) And a version with a quickie logo to assure correct placement.