[Oliver]Hey ya'lls, here's a piece I did of 'Harley Quinn' for fun and practice. She's such a wacky and twisted character and is always a joy to draw.
I used Prismacolor cool grayscale markers for the graytones and a little bit of warm grays for her face and some red for the lips and eyes for that extra 'POP".
Anyhoo, hope you likes;)
I first saw Frank Frazetta's art as a kid. I was probably 8 years old and my best friend and I were HUGE KISS fans. I remember one day we were working on a puzzle that was the cover of the Destroyer album which at the time we thought was just about the most amazing piece of art ever created (ironically done by artist Ken Kelly who was hugely influenced by Frank's work) But my friend had this other puzzle. It was this warrior with polar bears pulling him through this bleak snowy world, and I was like "WHAT is THAT??!"
That's the thing with Frank's work. You know it and have seen it even if you're not aware that you have. I had many moments like that with Frank's work throughout my formative years. I wasn't a comic fan as a kid. As a matter of fact I didn't even own a comic until I was 24 or 25 years old. But Frank's work I've been a fan of and has impacted me throughout all those early years. All my favorite things seemed to stem from a line that went directly to Frazetta. Star Wars, Dungeons and Dragons, all the kick ass concept art you see for video games and movies...all that imagery is influenced and inspired by Frank's work.
I would go to book stores as a kid, and I'd see these covers by Frank and you'd just be drawn to them. They could pull you from half way across a store over to see them.....They almost demanded to be seen. You would just see this abstract design that was so interesting and then as you'd get closer to it. The piece just got better, and better, and better.
That's the other thing with Franks work....it improves over time. The mark of a great artist is to create timeless art and Frank managed to do that again and again. He at times looked like he'd been to these incredible worlds and scenes he painted whether it was moving us into the future or taking us back to primal man...he lived them. I don't know how he did it, and that's why no one has really been able to go beyond Franks work in an INCREDIBLY vast and huge field of "fantastic" ideas. It all seems to go back to Frazetta's art STILL to this day....it's amazing really and a true testament to his brilliance.
Frank passed away last night from a stroke at the age of 82. He's probably my favorite artist and as much as his work has already impacted my life and art....I don't see that ever ending. There are pieces I've yet to imagine, and draw that I am sure will have Frank in there. So he's not gone and really will never be forgotten because I know I am not alone with those sentiments.
All hail the great Frank Frazetta, a true legend and icon.
Richard Friend
[Oliver]
Hey ya'lls, thought I'd treat you to a double dose of goodness, with two recent pieces of two tough chicks.
I luved the Kick-Ass movie (maybe even more than the book...) and like nearly everyone, I luv Hit-Girl! I was inspired to do the Hit-Girl piece the next day, I went a little more manga/exagerrated with her face and proportions and did the colors with Prisma color markers.
As you know, I do luv to draw the darker comic babes out there and had a blast with X-23. I tweeked her costume a lil to match what they've done in the X-Men movies and also used Prisma color marker for her.
Hope you like;)
[Scott Williams]
This was a pretty fun cover. Lots of fat brush renderings on the big guy, and a bit thinner pen line on the Martian Manhunter. Inking Dave is a little bit like when I inked Whilce Portacio back in the day because of dramatic lighting that both these guys are so good at. They both understand form very well and I have to make sure that blacks (shadows) are spot on. The blacks also add drama, and when it comes to art, I'm all about the drama!
This is just about all brush. It was also the cover that had me thinking that doing finesse brush work over Dave is maybe not the way to go. He pencils so dark that for me to erase his markings properly pulls up SO much ink, leaving ghostly ink renderings (not a problem when using the pen). The ink I use (straight Rapidograph Ultradraw 3085-F) is fine for everyone else, but Finch is a beast with the graphite!
Pretty simple cover (simple is good!), but the wings were a bit of challenge from a patience standpoint.
[Oliver]
Hey ya'lls, in honor of Earth Day coming up tomorrow...(and Avatar on DVD!), I wanted to post this 'Avatar' piece I did.
I luv, luved the film and had a ton of fun with this piece. I also colored it and Livio added some of the cool background effects.
The character isn't necessarily anyone from the film in particular but was very much inspired by Neytiri.
Hope you like;)
[jimlee]Pencils I did for Vertigo book called American Vampire. Scanned the pencils into Photoshop then overlayed with watercolor paper texture and then did some digital coloring and painting work on it.
CHICAGO debut of C2E2 show
FRIDAY, 4/16
2:30-3:30pm: SIGNING - DC booth (#630)
4:45-5:45pm: PANEL – DC NATION (room E451)
SATURDAY, 4/17
2:00-3:00pm: SIGNING - DC booth (#630)
3:15-4:15pm: PANEL – DC UNIVERSE (room E451)*
4:15-5:15pm: PANEL – WILDSTORM (room E351)*
SUNDAY, 4/18
11:15am-12:15pm: PANEL – DC TOWN MEETING (room E351)
12:30-1:30pm: SIGNING - DC booth (#630)
*in audience more than likely than on stage as these are to spotlight creators working on the various title
[Oliver]Hey ya'lls, here's a piece I did of Simon Dark for fun...(and for sale;) As you know I'm really attracted and luv to draw the darker characters like Death and Joker, and wanted to do a Simon piece for a little while...(it was on my ever-growing 'To Do' stack).
Anyhoo, I'll be at the Wizard World Anaheim show this weekend and if you are there, you can come see it in person!
Hope you like and see ya at the show!
[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
[Livio]With this painting, I was trying to go for a more monochromatic look, with mainly a bleached-out atmosphere and only bits of color here and there. I've found that putting a lot of the classic looking Transformers in the same shot with their natural colors can sometimes look pretty garish, and fight whatever sort of "realism" you're trying to go for.
Studiomate JJ has been doing some great "big team shot" commissions of The Avengers and JLA lately, and I suppose I was influenced a bit by him here. It was fun to play with scale and have massive characters in the same shot as smaller ones.
See you next time!
-Livio
[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.
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