The Hurricane Kids

Coming sometime in 2008, I hope.

Art for sale!

Selling (or trying to at least...) my second favorite cover of the Villains run, issue #2.


Go here to bid on the awesome.

Interview + Gimoles

Recently I was contacted by a 9th grader from the Denver School of the Arts and he wanted to interview me for an assignment. I don't know if he just chose me randomly from deviantart or what, but here's the quick interview.

1. How long have you been a working artist?
I've been cartooning and drawing comics since I was about 12 years old, however my first professional work was done in 2005, so for about 3 years now.

2. What media have you predominantly used?
Well, as far as comic book work, for penciling and sketching I use non-reproducing red colored pencils and sometimes a tablet for my PC and Photoshop. I ink with a traditional brush and India ink and Pentel brand brush pens, as well as an assortment of markers and pens, and for coloring I use my tablet with Photoshop.

3. Did you go to art school, if so where? Do you have graduate degrees?
I am an Honors Graduate with a degree in animation from The Art Institute of Phoenix.

4. When did you become interested in art?
I've always enjoyed reading and writing ever since I was little, I became interested in art around the age of 12 or so.

5. How did you get involved with a gallery?
I haven't had any solo gallery shows, although I was part of a group show early this year and I have also worked with galleries in the past doing lectures and presentations. Usually they contact me through local store owners and friends.

6. Where do you get your ideas for your art? Do you research, sketch from life etc?
My ideas come from everywhere, I watch a lot of documentaries, historical and scientific programs and they generate thoughts and story ideas for me, and I also try to keep up on current events and they can influence me as well. Once I have an idea I try and do as much research as possible until I know exactly what it is I want to portray. Often times I develop concepts with writers and other artists, so that's a great way to think of new and inventive stories and visuals. I don't do nearly enough life drawing or sketching, but it is something I highly recommend.

7. What percentage of your income do you make from art?
Currently, very little, but the potential is there and if I chose to adjust my lifestyle and cost of living, then I could make a living directly from my art and freelancing work. Hopefully within the next year or so I can move into freelancing full time.

8. How do you decide how much to charge for your art?
In my particular line of work, I don't get much request for original art sales, but when I do sell sketches or pages, I usually look to see what peers at my level are selling their work for and try to stay in the same price range. I want my pages to be affordable so there is an interest in it, but it is also work, and one should be compensated fairly for their time and effort.

9. Do you have any advice for someone in high school who is studying art?
Practice as much life drawing as possible, learn as many techniques as possible and study art in all it's forms from painting, to art history, film, comics, animation and everything in-between.

10. Where were you born? Where do you live now? Does the place you live influence your art?
I was born in Minnesota but have lived all over the place, including Okinawa, Japan, which really affected my outlook on society and culture, and helped breed my love for comics and animation. I currently live in Phoenix, Arizona, and the only affect it has on my career is the limited opportunities available here. Since my artwork all comes from my imagination, my surroundings have little influence on it.

And here is a pin-up I did for my buddy Mike (Lions, Tigers and Bears) Bullock's GIMOLES graphic novel, it's out in June I think, from Image Comics, go here to get ordering information.

HERO - HULK

This is my sketchcover for the HERO Initiative's HULK #1 project, hopefully it raises some funds for the Initiative, a wonderful charity that I have written about, and worked with before.



and page 7 of the in-progress Villains sequel, colors by Anthony Nixon, pencils and inks by me.

Spicy Space Tales!

Here is a page I whipped up real quickly for a community jam-type blog I'm part of, not the best, but not too bad for only a few hours work

Spicy Space Tales!

sketch

Colors

Colors really does make all the difference sometimes.

New designs

Couple new characters for my next HOLLOW short story.

more

More birthday card art for the 4th grade class.

A quick Hulk face this morning for a 4th grader's birthday card, per demand by my 4th grader,(notice I didn't say request). Spent a good chunk last night inking, and contemplating a decision.

Should I do hours of work for free, in order to get a job that will give me hours of paying work? I think it's kind of a slap in the face to do this work for free, knowing that they already plan to hire me, but I also could use the money and it's a good contact to have.

Ugh.

Hobbs Beer

First off, look for Hobbs Beer at your local grocer, it's a rare gem. Secondly, yard work on Saturday killed my whole weekend of productivity, so besides hanging out with the boys and inking a few pages for a client, this is all I did. A few drawings for my kids.

Hellboy Salad

Strolled across this photo taken at last years San Diego con where we all drew on the tables. So here is Hellboy, my salad, and my crotch.



Photo by the awesome Wes Molebash

Hump Day

Again, no new art today, last night I worked on some roughs for a potential job, we'll see if the Art Director likes them, I'm also starting a short inking job tonight and I need to work on Villains and a new Hollow short story for an anthology later this year. So, I'm keeping busy, but can't post anything yet. I did my sketch cover for the HULK #1 HERO Initiative charity thing and turned it in, I'll post it when I'm allowed. It's an amazing charity and good exposure so I am honored to be a part of it. I had to sell all future rights to it to HERO and Marvel Comics for $1. I think I'm going to use it to go get a Spicy Chick-N-Crisp sandwich from Burger King. No mayo please.

Weekend Update

Hey kids, just a quick one today, I had a pretty eventful weekend so I thought none of you would like to hear about it. On Thursday I got a nice phone call from the Phoenix Police Department notifying me that someone had broken into my house and they needed me to rush home, so they could enter the house.

Thought #1 "Shit!"
Thought #2 "I'm stuck in a drive through at Jack in the Box."
Thought #3 "The dog!"

So I race home, arriving at the same time as my X and the boys and the police have the place surrounded, K-9 units, about 10 officers, the works. They enter and search the house and nobody was in there, and nothing was even touched (the K-9's did more damage inside the house than anything else). So nothing was taken, but the asshole did break 2 windows. One was very thick door glass that has to be special ordered. Taking into account the age of my house (98 years), putting in new windows was a day-long job of sanding, chipping and cleaning. So I learned something about installing new glass old-school style, big thanks to my Dad who really did the majority of the work, and while installing one we noticed a hairline crack we made, so we get to re-do that one later this year.

(side note - anybody want to buy a unique, antique home in Central Phoenix?)

Friday night was the first Phoenix Chapter Drink and Draw of 2008 and it was fun, I mostly chatted with Patrick Scherberger, Ben Glendenning and his wife and a retailer friend of ours, but I got a little sketching in on something I have been dying to do, The Hulk #1 Sketch Cover for the Hero Initiative. I'll post that when I'm allowed to. I also got about 7 games of darts in with The Drunken Tossers, dart night is always fun, and I flat out dominated, so that was even better.

Sunday I taught a Dynamic Drawing Class and had a small, but interested and fun group and then I got to watch the Yotes game with my gal, so a great day was had there. No new art today, but check out the new VILLAINS PRODUCTION BLOG for some goodness.

Oh, and if you see a shady white guy in his mid-30's that looks like the type of ass that would vandalize/potentially burglarize a home lurking around my neighborhood, kick him in the nuts for me.

Miserable Weekend

So I had a terrible weekend where I taught a 3 hour workshop to some of the most dis-interested kids on the planet, made about half what I thought I would, and I fought with my kids a lot. The only fun part was a birthday party we attended. Here is a HULK I sketched on the card.



and here is a Wolfman pin-up I inked, pencils by Nate Bellegarde

Pillowface?

I have been sketching this character from as far back as probably 2001. I like the design and the idea, but I cannot settle on a name or anything else. I love "Ghostface" but I'm sure that's been taken. Whatever, I think I'll incorporate him into my HOLLOW series. He'll be a good Storm Shadow to Nissa's Snakeyes.

Old Stuff - part three

A Batman for the kids obviously - 2002


A poster I did in 2005 or early 2006 for some film festival in Dallas or something, I don't even know if it was ever used, I got the impression the client was not too happy with it. This thing was 3x4 at like 1200 dpi and killed my computer at the time. It would take about 20 minutes to render any change in photoshop.



Life drawing, circa 2001


I really miss life drawing.

Old Stuff - part two

I thought I was the greatest artist ever when I did this Hulk, from 2003



then I followed it up with this He-Man (2003), which actually got me a try-out with an editor of whoever had the MofU license back then, which I promptly produced 3 shitty pages for and never heard back.



and some life drawing from around 2001


*the fairy wasn't really there, but her gigantic breasts were, they were fake and I think she may have been an ex-stripper.

Super Tuesday is today!

Go vote. Go here to find a polling place near you. I'll continue the oldies but goodies theme tomorrow.



* Oh, and on a related note, you would think in a society where we can clone living animals and put a cruise missile up an enemies ass by remote control from 1000 miles away, we should have a better system for voting than going to a church (mixed messages anyone?), and relying on 5 senior citizens who need a magnifying glass to read their ledgers (no computers anywhere in sight). I'm just saying is all. One good thing though, I was at the polling place (church!) for about 15 minutes, and every time someone needed a specific party election form, one old man would yell out the party name to an old woman about 5 feet away from him so she could give the voter the proper form. 15 minutes I was there, all I heard was "DEMOCRAT" yelled out, so that was nice, even though McCain owns this state and a Democrat has no chance against him. So I was voting for the rest of you, I'm a giver.

Old Stuff - part one

While going through some files this morning I came across a batch of stuff from 2001-2004 that I actually kind of still like. Nothing great, but fun stuff, so starting today through Wednesday I'll be putting some of them up that some of you may or may not have seen.

Life drawing from school, 2001-ish


The first image of my "Ronin of the Ryukyu" character, 2004, still hoping to get the chance one day to tell his life story.


Part of a comics-jam for the Drawingboard.org, circa 2003