Comic-Con's Coming!

[Oliver]

Hey ya'lls, soooo, it's almost Comic-Con time again! Can't wait for all the hysteria and sensory overload! Also, looking forward to meeting new peeps and all you loyal and supportive fans;)

As the clock is ticking, us artists here at WildStorm are scrambling to get ready, usually right down to the wire. I just decided to do another brand new piece for this year's show too.

I picked on one of my faves, Death, a regular character that I love to draw, which has been spotlighted here on this blog on more than five or six occasions. I've included the quick pencils and the final image, minus text. Hope you like and see ya in a few weeks!

Wonder Woman

[jimlee]

Sending a Wonder Woman sketch in stages done on my iPad

Done using sketchbook pro using my fingers-here I'm just blocking out colors and features

Now adding some values and colors using the airbrush tool which gives me color grads I can sample later

Adding more color and defining structure playing between line drawing and painting

Between literal and impressionistic; I like seeing strokes of paint. App replicates that aspect of painting well

Now I'm tightening up details zooming in around the eyes using a brush tool and sampling existing colors

Defining values more esp around neck and nose. Eyes are incongruous need to fix

Luckily they have a smudge smear tool that works like liquify in photoshop. Added blue underlighting, tiara effects

Adding hair as framing device makes all the difference. Chin still has value issues. Got to push the neck bk more.

Running out on my hour self-imposed time limit. Quick background done in to frame composition and use light to draw eyes attn

Finished piece. Took 80 mins. Added blue bk into neck, eyes fixed but still a bit off. Always tough drawing symmetrically. Added waves to hair.

Finally, here's my Boston Comic Con schedule for this weekend:

Saturday
11-1pm Signing
3pm - 5pm Signing

Sunday
10:30am - 11:30am Jim Lee Panel
1 - 3pm Signing

Brightest Day 1 cover

[Scott]

Cover for Brightest Day # 1 by the incomparable Dave Finch. What's funny is, he didn't really seem to be happy with the drawing--too static and posed I think he said.

I thought it looked great. I wasn't too thrilled with my inks--I thought they were kind of slick and standard, in that I didn't really take any chances or experiment on it--but Dave loved it!

So there you go. Everyone is their own harshest critic. That's probably a GOOD thing.

Jason Pearson - Domino

[Eddy]

I had a great time at the Emerald City Comicon last weekend and I even had a chance to record one of my favorite artists sketching at the show. Unfortunately, this sketch isn't for me, but I wish it was!

Thanks to Jason for letting me tape this little video and to Jim Demonakos for putting on another fun show!

Hope you enjoy the video!

Green Lantern #50 Variant Cover!

[jimlee]

Colors and inks of the Green Lantern 50 variant cover by the amazing Alex Sinclair and the incomparable Scott Williams, respectively.

Pencils of Green Lantern 50 cover, shot with my Canon S90 in a snow covered cabin, emailed via usb wireless modem.

So for this cover I did I drew 3 diff layouts and do work on all 3 simultaneously-switching from 1 to another-unsure which I like best.

Here's the 2 I didn't go with. Was pretty sure I was going with A for most of the nite then tried a Frazetta inspired shot then ultimately w/ C.

GL 50 cover A. The rest of the Lanterns were gonna be behind Hal.

All the Lanterns powering up.

Stan Lee/Jim Lee "Meet & Greet"

[Eddy]

At the recent Long Beach Comic Con, I had the pleasure of sitting in with Stan Lee and Jim Lee in an exclusive signing where I even caught a few moments on video. It was an intimate few who had rare comics signed, heard cool comic stories and even posed for a pic or two with these comic icons.

I'll always remember hearing Stan doing the intros to those Saturday morning cartoons of my youth, so it was fun to hear him joking with fans while Jim was sketching away. This ranks as one of those really memorable con moments for me and it's made even more special by catching it all on camera!

For Facebook fans out there, you can also join the official Jim Lee Facebook page for the latest Facebook-to-Facebook updates!

Yes, another Death...

[Oliver]

Hey ya'lls, how's it goin? I'm just gonna keep this short and sweet. Here's another 'Death' I did for fun, simple and graphic is what I've been leaning towards in a lot of my pieces in the past months for two main reasons:

1. cause I like the way it looks, especially in a nice frame and...

2. cause I don't have a lot of spare time to just draw for fun and it helps speed things up.

Hope you like ;)

LOL, LOL, LOL...

[Oliver]

Hey guys, how's it going? Here's another piece of my fave villain Joker that I just did for fun. It may be the cover to my Comic-Con '09 sketchbook.

I just wanted to do a close-up and make it high contrast with a little gesture thrown in. I found a really cool photo of actor Vincent Cassal (who I think would make a great Joker) and it was perfect reference for what I had in mind. I did a few tweeks here and there and this is what came out.

I use my fair share of photo reference, but it's what you do with it and how you interpret it that counts as far as artistic integrity goes. So don't be afraid to use photos for inspiration, it doesn't make you less of an artist:)

Hope you like...

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

[Eddy]

Michael Lopez stepped in with his deadly DJ skills and added the beats, after the background noise got a little disjointed after editing.

Hope everyone enjoys Memorial Day weekend!

8 min Gambit

[jimlee]

Arts and Crafts and ink and paper collide to create this 8.5 minute pic of Gambit, in honor of his debut in X-Men: Origins-Wolverine.

Catfight!!!

[Lopez]

Hey everyone, I thought I would do something a little different this time. I enjoy a good boxing match, but to make it more interesting, let's add some DC Characters.

Batfamily villians up first! So here it is along with a colorized version.

And the winner is...

Batman Inferno

[jimlee]

Started this piece in my hotel room in Cairns, Australia back in November of 2008....that's how long I carry art around with me. This piece, done for fun, has literally travelled the world heh. Anyway, I really should have scanned it earlier as it is about 67% done at this point. The plan is to do a lot of fine line work (see lower left area of the piece) to create a textured inferno to offset the more "gooey" oil-like rocks Batman is perched on. The idea was essentially Batman overlooking hell.

So mostly the fire needs work...a bit more in the rocks and then some whiteout corrections/cleanups and effects.

Just trying something different than the traditional rain/moon/cathedral background.

Poor man's Berni Wrightson. Hell...flatbroke Wrightson lolol

Will post further WIPS every day as I basically warm up, noodling parts of this piece here and there. But I make sure to have my composition, my negative space and my shapes and shadows set before I jump in too deeply in the details.

Bits and pieces added up and it got done! Now onto my work for the evening...

Phoenix Rising...

[Oliver]

I actually started this Dark Phoenix piece last fall, forgot about it and just found it under a pile of 'To Do', which is a pretty big pile. I've done some Phoenix sketches and commissions but this is my first 'real' take on the character. Who doesn't love the 'Dark Phoenix Saga' with all it's grandeur, emotion, and heartbreak?

I wanted to convey power, strength, and a cosmic connection all the while giving her a softness, almost angelic and ballerina like. I love the hard/dark and the tender/light contrast that she represents as a character.

Hope u like ;)

Batman in Barcelona: Dragon's Knight #1

[jimlee]

I wanted to pose Batman more upright, almost in parallel to the spires of the magnificent Sagrada Familia and took an artistic liberty of posing him on an arch "erected" entirely so he would be on the same height as the cathedral. I made the cape more cloak like, made of heavy material, billowing in the wind and spotted the blacks in horizontal swatches of triangular shapes to contrast with the more up and down vertical lines of the spires and the torso and legs. Batman can not be bigger nor more imposing than the cathedral but reflective of its power and majesty.

Here I add the detail which adds complexity, nuance, and texture but not at the expense of the composition and the balance of the piece which was already established in stage two. I kept it loose for the background to create a shorter depth of field and to pop the more detailed, gritty foreground off the simpler, more chiaroscuro background.

Black and White cover I did for Batman in Barcelona: Dragon's Knight written by Mark Waid. That's the surrealistic gothic spires of the incredible Sagrada Familia in background. Saw em back in '94 or '95...can't wait to see them again at the end of May.

The colored piece by the insanely talented Alex Sinclair. Batman in Barcelona: Dragon's Knight written by Mark Waid. There are articles about the piece online but they are all in Spanish at this point and about 3 pages back in google searches.

another...Death...

[Oliver]

Hey ya'lls, here is another 'Death' piece that I just finished for fun. It's a little more traditional of an interpretation as compared to the last one that I did. I've been just working on the piece here and there for the last couple of months and just finished.

I decided not to render her flesh in grey tones as I usually do with the characters in my pieces because I really wanted her to 'pop' from the statue behind her, which I did in all 'hatching' to achieve the grey tones.

I've already got another 'Death' in the works and will post as soon as I'm done. Enjoy!

The Boys cover black and white

[jimlee]

The black and white inked Boys cover I did for Garth, Nicky and Darick. What a book!....the Boy's is a crazy intense rollercoaster of a whirlwind of a title...and I wanted to capture just a bit of the dark, ultraviolent sickness Garth and Darick sprayed across the face of comics heh.

Nemesis

[Oliver]

Hey everyone, here's a recent commission I did of 'Nemesis' from Wildcats. I luv the Coda characters because they all have great costumes and I just luv to draw strong women. I kept the figure and composition simple and to the point. I also wanted to put her back on her homeworld, to change up the background a bit and it let me be able to put the planets in the background to help guide yer eye.

As I usually do when I'm inking my own work, I keep the pencils pretty light, since I do the majority of the work in ink and don't like wasting time drawing tight, then pretty much redrawing again in ink. As for my thunbnails, they're just 30 second sketches to help me with the feel and I blow them up, lightbox the silouette just to get that energy u get from quick gesture sketches.

Anyhoo, hope u like and untill next time....

Rogue in the Savage Land

[jimlee]

Worked on it here and there over several days as a warmup to my real work.

The 80's ruled...

Savage Land Rogue WIP

[jimlee]

After the layout sat on my desk for a couple of days, I went back in and tightened up areas that didn't look right (it's good to have some time to gain perspective) and then I take a lead stick holder and use the side of it to lay down my black areas. To add form, shadow, indicate texture but most importantly, to create depth and a feeling of light and 3-dimensionality. I squint a lot during this process to make sure the black areas are forming the basic shapes I want to create.

After I chunk in the blacks and squint to make sure the shapes actually form different planes and essentially look well balanced and composed aesthetically, I go in with a .5mm mechanical pencil, HB lead, and start capturing and better defining shadows and add detail and rendering. I work left to right sometimes so that I don't smudge any of the final pencils.

Rogue X-Men pencil layout

[jimlee]

Here's a blast from the past. Rogue from the X-Men circa issue 269 when she's trapped in the Savage Land. A very short scene but you wouldn't believe how many fans hold it near and dear to their hearts. Here, I'm trying to apply my since evolved style and do another take on the fan favorite character.

http://jimlee00.deviantart.com/