Topical, No?

Not that I've actually seen the new movie mind you, Nolan's interpretation just doesn't do it for me, so it's not something I'm going to rush out to see. I am experimenting with shadowy painting though, and you don't get much more "shadowy" than the Bat.

This one's pretty minimal, but I really liked the way the face turned out, as well as some of the strokes. Could use a bit more substance in the lower section though.

I'm flipping back to spending time on the commissions I've got sitting on my desk, so it'll probably be a few days until the next one of these hits. That said, I'm having a blast with them, so maybe I'll find some time.

Punisher

Playing around with this new brush and I thought I'd do a series of these black back paintings. This Punisher is the one that followed Spidey, and I've got a Batman in the wings, along with a Daredevil and a Black Panther coming next. I'll probably cap myself at 13 pieces, so if there's any that you'd really love to see let me know and I'll consider popping it on the list. I'd really like to get some female characters in, but currently can't think of any past Black Cat and Catwoman.

As for this piece in particular, I had a lot of fun working on the face (what you can see of it anyways) as I've never painted skin before. I've read a bit about it in ImagineFX and online and had a bit of an idea about what I wanted to do (like trying to suggest pores in the skin), but it's still very much a first attempt. I quite like how quickly these come out, though to be honest I spent a lot more time making correction with Punisher that I'd like to admit. Bats came out damn fast though, and I'm hoping the same will go for the rest.

Fingers crossed!

Here comes the Spider-maaaaaannnnnn!

Picked up a digital painting tutorial from DART a couple days ago and whipped this up while experimenting with the brushes that were included with the download. I'm pretty floored with the way the brushes work, and will likely be deconstructing/rebuilding them for weeks to come. I'd like to get handle on this style so that I can use it for the next Red Cape piece.

While I was setting things up over at CAF I found that they run a monthly sketch group, and conveniently enough this months challenge is "Spider-man, Batman, or both", so I'll be posting this there as well. I don't know what the other topics have been (there's no list that I can find) but I'm going to assume that I'll be tempted to take part each month. Fingers crossed that it leads to some great new art!

It's not pretty, but it was fun

Fiddled with some color today, and thought I would post the result. I also thought it would be fun to do a side by side comparison of the original Black Cat piece along with the Zombie themed one...

And that wraps up my weekends dalliances. Tomorrow it's back to working on commissions, so I doubt I'll find the time to post anything. That said, I've still got quite a few pieces one the back burner, so there will definitely be a few more updates before the week is out.

Until then!

-Dave

Unattractive Undeath

Finishing this has been on my "to do" list for quite some time now. Originally it was planned as a special edition print for the Calgary Expo of 2011 (George Romero being a guest that year). Unfortunately the whole zombie theme fell apart as I was forced to focus on other pieces, and then moved on when I heard that Romero had injured himself and wouldn't be making it to the show. I've been hankering to get back to Sketchbook Pro to do some inking lately though, and thought that this would be a decent way to scratch that itch.

As for the piece itself, the idea behind it was to take a fairly hyper-sexualized image and make it as vile and repulsive as possible. At the time I had intended on building visual tricks into it, drawing the eye to some of the more repulsive areas in the hopes of giving the viewer little horrifying surprises. Coming back to it now I was far more interested in playing with ink again, and having the opportunity to focus on some texturing, that I disregarded the original plan and simply dove into the piece.

In other news, I've begun to post my work on some of the myriad gallery sites that I visit from time to time. I've had a Deviant art page languishing for a while now (Expo 2012 updates coming soon), but what's got me excited at the moment is Comic Art Fans, and my listing within it. Being able to track how many impressions each image gets is really helpful when you're looking for a bit of a morale boost, or a gauge for what work is drawing the most interest. There's nothing up there that hasn't already been posted here (and I have no plans to begin separating what work is posted where) but I thought it was worth mentioning. I'd like to spend some time over the next few weeks filling out the gallery there, and then building similar galleries on other sites. I won't spend too much time focusing on it, but don't be surprised if links start to pop up a bit more frequently.

-David

Castle Crashers FTW!

I've been meaning to do a Castle Crashers piece for quite a while now due to it being such an amazing game. I haven't spent much time with it lately, but when I was playing it a few months ago I was having a blast! On top of being super fun, it's got a great look to it, and some pretty slick animation. It'd be nice to get some time to go back in and do some proper inking on this one, but for now it's going to stay as it is. It's one of the first times I've colored a sketch (instead of a piece with finished linework) and I must say that I'd like to make a habit of it. Experimentation is a requisite to really understanding a medium, and it's something that I've avoided with color as I felt that only finished pieces "deserved" that kind of treatment. 

With any luck this shift in attitude with lead to some great learning experiences over the next few months, possibly even funnelling into some of the comics work I have planned for the future (perhaps even the near future).

Sketches for a Sketch blog

Now that I've finally got a second site up and running I feel like it's time to reconsider the function of this blog. Originally it was host to sketches and fun challenges posed between friends. Then it grew to be host to pretty much anything I did, with a focus on professional, finished pieces. With time (and some constant cajoling from friends) I decided to build a separate pro site, that would act as host to my finished works, and would serve me as a digital portfolio. With that site up and running, this blog has become redundant, and so I feel it needs to be re-imagined. My plan is to liken it to the special features one finds on a DvD or BluRay... a behind-the-scenes look at my studio practice filled with rough sketches and blurbs about my daily life. Ideally this will mean more posts more often, as I won't have to worry quite so much about what appears on the blog.

To start things, here are some sketches of Leonardo from the "Last Brother" story I was tinkering with earlier.

Mockingbird

I haven't posted anything about the commissions from the con because I wanted to make sure that things were kept between myself and my clients until such time that the piece was finalized. Now that I've delivered Mockingbird into the hands of the one who requested her, I feel much more comfortable posting some images here.

At top is the final version of the piece. It was developed as a companion to the Hawkeye print that I was selling this year (this character is his wife in the comics). Below are some of the sketches done while working on the piece, as well as a version with both Hawkeye and Mockingbird together.