There's a Storm coming...

My darling wife put in a request for a "proper" Storm quite a while ago, and while I did take some time to do a redesign, I haven't done a piece that makes the character recognizable. I'm endeavoring to change that now, and so far I'm pretty happy with the results.

I started with this environment study, but soon realized I didn't have an idea as to where Storm would go,  so I scrapped it and moved on to...

 A composition that puts the figure front and center. 

I'll be coming back to her a lot in the next few days/weeks as I think there's a lot of potential here. 

Back in Black

I haven't been looking at my black background pieces much lately as I was starting to worry that they were becoming a bit of a crutch. That said, I had this urge to do up a Cyclops piece (he happens to be on the Req-a-sketch list) and after some doodling in my sketchbook I brought it up on my comp and started to push the color. After a little while I sat back and realized that what I had done was pretty much a black back piece, only it didn't have the right dimensions (the tall/skinny frame was part of the challenge for the black backs).

I might go back in at some point to see if I can crop it to match the rest of the set, but for now I think I'm done with it. 

EPS #3

Hey all, did another EPS portrait up a little while ago and just got confirmation that the client has received it (I don't like to post things here until I know the client has had a chance to enjoy it first).

Also, I've got a ton of WIP sitting around and I'd like to see what I can do to share it. I'm going to experiment with scheduling posts ahead of time, to see if I can put together 3 or 4 posts at the beginning of a week and then have it drop without my having to come back to post it. I tend to horde work during these big breaks and posting it all at once seems silly as I'm worried that whatever I post first will end up off page, and thus ignored, so I'm hoping this scheduling thing will help to alleviate that issue while still allowing me to throw down a lot of content all at once.

Leo

Whipped this up a couple nights ago. I'm loving the idea of Leo moving towards the traditions of a Samurai, or perhaps getting interested in Bushido. Earlier I was toying around with the idea of him in his later years (40's or 50's) but then I got to thinking it'd be cool to do a version of him in his prime. I might go through and do a few more (gotta have a Raph) but I must admit I enjoyed the ragged feel of the older turtles a bit more. That said, they're hella fun to draw no matter what age I'm working with so it's safe to say the TMNT will make another appearance soon.

EPS Commissions

I wrapped these up a while ago, but I hate to post things here before the people who've commissioned me receive their prints so I figured I'd wait for a while before popping them on here. Then I got distracted with the whole Edmonton Expo thing (which was awesome!) and am just now getting back to them.

These are two of the commissions that I got out of the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo. An officer from the Edmonton Police Service contacted me via email and after a few messages back and forth we were in business. I started these with a few rough color sketches for the client (we'll call him John) to pick through. Once he let me know his preferences I began to build the finished pieces. Unfortunately I ran into a fair amount of difficulty, not with the pieces but with my computer, during their creation. At one point during the process I as down for over a week while my machine was being diagnosed (bad memory sectors). That and a few other issues extended the process much longer than I had originally anticipated, but John was always positive and understanding when I messaged him, and I've got to say that I really appreciated it. I had a ton of fun working on these, and John was one of the best clients I've ever had, making for a great experience overall. He was even nice enough to swing by my booth at the Edmonton Expo to visit, and give me a swag bag! So now I've got an EPS t-shirt, pin and crest... pretty badass eh?

All in all one of the cooler opportunities that I've had and I wanted to make sure I took the time to share it.