THE CREATIVE PROCESS PART 4- DRAWING MARIE CURIE

In late 2005, I received a phone call from Capstone Press. They had a project that I had sent in samples for, the life story of Marie Curie, and they liked the samples and wanted me to draw it. Although I had drawn a short comic feature for a compilation that the people I work with were doing, was working on pages for my own project, and had spent the previous summer painting over a hundred celebrity faces for a book that never saw the light of day. This project scarred the hell out of me. Why? Because it would be the first professional comic book work that I was doing for someone.  Once I started working, everything went just fine.

They sent me a huge folder full of reference. Between that and some clothing books I bought pertaining to that time period, I was all set. They sent me a template for the way the pages were to be laid out. I went out and bought a digital camera and started taking reference shots. I was contracted to provide thumbnails ( they referred to them as "storyboards"), pencil and color 12 "spreads" which ended up being 24  individual pages. Here are the results:

Overall this was a fun project. If you are interested in getting a copy, it can be found HERE or HERE

LIFE DRAWING PART 3 - LEARNING HOW TO DRAW

Every artist has to start somewhere. My first figure drawing class was at Truman College in Chicago. It was one semester and, like most 19 year olds who had never experienced it before, I was very shocked to see someone posing nude. I got over it real fast when I realized that no one else in the class even noticed.

Two years later, I had Drawing 101 at Loyola University Chicago. In that class, we not only had nude models, but we also had to do self-portraits and all kinds of other things. I now cringe at the stuff I turned out in that class.

The second drawing class I had at Loyola was a Human Figure Drawing And Painting class. At that point I had done a lot of studying out of books and had a much better grasp on some of the basic principle of drawing figures.

I was still a few years away from a lot of the breakthroughs that would eventually come.

ROUGH PENCILS AND INKS PART 1

I have a confession to make: I hate it when I can only do rough pencils that someone besides me will ink. Sometimes, because of time constraints, I will only do rough pencils ( sometimes called "breakdowns") and the inks will be added to them ( sometimes called "finishes"). There are reasons why I dislike this so much. The first is that I am unable to correct mistakes in the roughs and because of this they make it into the finished art ( more on this in a future post). The second is that I feel like I'm abandoning my work. I can get roughs done fairly quickly and because of this the blood, sweat, tears, and love just don't make it into the drawings. Thirdly, I just like to have control over how this stuff will look for as long as possible. I like determining where the blacks will be, for example. Below are three pages of roughs that I did for AC Comics  Femforce #149. The inks are done by Mark Heike.

This story lead to the 150 anniversary issue of Femforce.  Learn more about the issue HERE.

HERETIC ISSUE 5

Heretic: Templar Chronicles was the first project I worked on for Markosia Enterprises, starting back in 2007. The graphic novel was based on the the novel by Joseph Nassise and deals with the adventures of modern day Templar Knights. The knights fight ghosts, zombies and are lead by Cade Williams, who has the ability to cross over into the world of the dead. The following pages show Cade and fellow knight Sean Duncan battling ghosts until they are forced to flee into the great beyond.

Originally planned as a 6 issue limited series, the series was cancelled at issue 3, with the intent to publish issues 4, 5, & 6 along with the first 3 issues as a complete trade paperback. The first artist had left the series after the 3rd issue and I was asked to do chapters 4-6, all of which I had completed ( 85 pages total). Of the 3 issues I drew, this one was the most fun because it was the most action packed. To this day, the trade has not been published and it seems unlikely that it will be. If you're interested in this type of story, it's probably worth it to get a copy of the novel. It can be found HERE

INFLUENCES PART 4

When I was 15 years old, my Pop bought me a copy of HOW TO DRAW COMICS THE MARVEL WAY by Stan Lee and John Buscema. I never drew the same way again.

What this book taught me, more than anything else, was how the human body, and everything else in the world, for that matter, is structured. Everything is made up of 3 shapes - circles, rectangles, and cylinders. 

It also shed a light on how to make pages more exciting, although it took me talking personally to a professional comic book illustrator before this lesson sinked in.

Below are some drawings I did way back when where I employed what I leaned from the book.

These are my drawings, age 16

If you are interested in purchasing this fantastic book, it can be found, very reasonably priced, HERE

COMING SOON: FEMFORCE #155

Here's the solicitation for AC Comics Femforce #155. The issue contains Stormy Tempest part 3, written by Len Strazewski and illustrated - both penciled and inked- by me. It chronicles the history and fight between Stormy and her former teammate Cali, who has been horribly disfigured.

The climatic scene from issue #154

FEMFORCE 155

Please Order Femforce 155 From Your Local Comic Shop Before February 15th!!

Diamond Previews DCD Number NOV100686

Hey, Femfans- there is STILL time for you to place an advance reorder for FEMFORCE #155 at your local comic book retailers’. Remember, it’s the orders we get through COMIC BOOK SHOPS that keep the FF comic book afloat. We STILL need every order we can get through the store system, so if you were planning to wait until the book has shipped and then buy it directly from us off of the web store on our accomics.com official site, we’d ask you to reconsider that plan and order it with your retailer instead. All you need to tell him is “I want to order a copy of FEMFORCE #155 – it’s listed as a January-shipping book in Diamond Previews, and the DCD item number for it is NOV100686″. With that information, he can reorder a copy of the book for you – provided the order is placed before February 15th. If you go this route in purchasing your copy of FF #155, not ONLY will you save on the cost of shipping ($4.90 if you are ordering off of the AC web shop) BUT most comic book retailers will offer you a DISCOUNT on the cover price as well if you order with them. And the single copy YOU buy might be the difference between AC being able to continue to offer the FF book, so we urge you to seriously consider ordering FF #155 at your local comic book retailer RIGHT NOW!!

This big 84-page, all-new issue is rounding into shape right now! Within it’s pages you’ll learn strange new facts relating to Synn’s ever-increasing loss of control, and what the FF may have to do about it, in a story titled “Illusions In G-Major” (guest-starring PARAGON), with script & art by Mark & Stephanie Heike. Then, learn what CAT-MAN and KITTEN did for their anniversary celebration when the US Government WOULDN’T let them use the Time Triangle to go back to 1947 in “Kitten’s Biggest Adventure”, by Rock Baker & Jeff Austin. Next, it’s a previously-untold wartime exploit starring YANKEE GIRL (guest-featuring LADY FAIRPLAY and a NEW heroine, FREEDOM GALE), “The Menace of Baroness Von Schreck”!! See why the death of Hitler might NOT have ended the Axis menace in WWII- if not for YG and friends. Plotted & layed out by Gianluca Ceritelli, Scripted by Eric Johnson, with finished art by Jeff Austin. Then, the latest installment in the ongoing saga of the time-tossed adventuress STORMY TEMPEST, as an old friend from the future returns as a menace in our present in a story written by Len Strazewski, and illustrated by Scott Larson. Scott’s been penciling ST for a few issues now; this go-around he will be INKING his own art, as well. And, in the Gargantarama- The Comic Book flip-book half of the issue, DINOSAUR GIRL stars in a double-length WWII blockbuster, “The Last Giantess”, which introduces a “new” retro all-girl team The War Birds!! Written & drawn by Rock Baker, with ink finishes by Jeff Austin. ROWENA’S naive cousin is in the spotlight this go-around, as the Gentle Giantess must sort out GTS high jinx gone wrong in “Sera’s Day Out”, written by Eric Lindberg, with art by Rock Baker & Jeff Austin. Finally, MARLA ALLISON (a.k.a. HUMONGA ) returns in “Making A Big Scene” as a villainess’ tampering changes the script in Marla’s latest giant-woman movie, with GARGANTA herself  teleported onto the set for a battle royal in front of the cameras. Written by Eric Johnson, with art by the team of Baker and Austin. Without a single reprint in sight, FF #155 is STILL the best value in comics, even at $9.95. And you certainly don’t want to miss this issue, or you’ll be lost when FF #156 hits, coming in May. Old friend and animation star (not to mention THE greatest living “good girl” art comic book illustrator in the world) WILL MEUGNIOT returns to pencil and ink an entire 20-page lead FEMFORCE feature!! As Synn’s current control problems reach a crisis point, the team looks back at the terrible incident that occurred decades ago when Synn was new to the team, and an awful loss of control forced the team to exile her to limbo for years!! It’s wild, way-out late1960′s action as only Will could render it!! But you won’t know what’s going on unless you read FF #155, so go down to your local comic book retailer and order it NOW!!

FEMFORCE 149 ( January 2009)

The following are pencils that I did for AC Comics  Femforce #149. This is the first story in which I started to become aware of putting more detail into the pages that I was drawing. The reason for this was that I saw what inker Jeff Austin had done to the previous pages that I had worked on and was inspired. This pointed me in a direction that I hadn't considered before.

The title of the story is BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR and stars Ms. Victory and She-Cat.

The story begins with something crash landing in a Florida alley. 

There are 2 people left behind - a naked woman and a man that we can't see clearly.

The woman, confused as to who and where she is,

 spots 2 men - who are deposing of a 

dead body - and asks them for help.

The men think that she's seen too much and decide to eliminate her.

The attacking criminal passes right through the woman. His

flesh is burned off leaving only his skeleton behind.

Meanwhile Ms. Victory and She-Cat are flying above the city. They see

a flash and decide to investigate.

Back to the woman, who is horrified by the deaths of the criminals. 

She is reminded of the other figure in the alley, who

turns out to be Paragon, Ms. Victory's husband.

Ms Victory and She-Cat arrive in the alley. They are shocked to 

discover that the woman knows them by their civilian names. She-Cat attacks.

The woman claims to be their friend, and fellow adventurer Stardust, who had died in issue 140. She warns them that the "Old Dark Ones" are coming and disintegrates. They spot Paragon, who has been blinded. 

This story lead to the 150 anniversary issue of Femforce and was written by John Gotschall.  My model was my friend Megan O' Brien, who did a spectacular job. Learn more about the issue HERE.