Fun little project

One Cover, Two Awards

Exciting News today! Earlier in the year the cover I made for David James Keaton's the Last Projector won the 2014 Golden Goodis Award for Best Cover of the Year. And now it has also picked up the 2014 This Is Horror Award for Best Cover of the Year!

Not only that, but soon the book will be released in paperback. And since we made the hardcover look like a VHS tape, the paperback will look like a mix tape! Seriously, it's pretty rad.

It was an amazing project and I'm so grateful for the response it's garnered. Thanks everyone. Now on to the next project.

 

Time lapse, inking Lewis & Clark

Baba Yaga in progress

Been slowly picking away at this for awhile and it's finally starting to come together. Skin tone, hair, necklace, foot wraps, smoke, and chicken legs haven't even been touched yet. Still, happy with how it's shaping up.

La Calavera Catrina in color

I'll need to clean off the halo before it's truly finished, but pretty decent.

Not sure How I feel about this one.

May still need work.

I asked the Raven, but you can imagine it's response.

So I'm asking you. Yes you. Which one should I go with?

Alien Invader Color process

In order to provide a sense of how a piece changes as it's colored, I've tried to use the B&W art, flats, base color layer, a soft light layer and then two screen layers to create an animated gif. Cross your fingers. Hopefully this will work.

If it goes by too quickly you can always hit refresh.

***
Here are the stills so you can see the colors better.

the Abraham Lincoln Project

A few weeks my cousin Amy asked if I could put together an Abraham Lincoln portrait for her 9 year old son Nathan's birthday. Of course the answer was yes. But then the realization hit that that very next Saturday was Fallcon and I'd have access to many of my artist friends, and so the idea began to percolate... Why not ask my friends and colleagues to contribute sketches of Abe as well?
And so I did.
And so did they.
And here are the results...

We can start with my own inked, finished, and printed versions.

And then proceed in no particular order...

Anthony Peruzzo


Brent Schoonover


Christopher Jones


Eric Schuster


Jack Kotz


Jeff Peterson


Ryan Kelly


Sean Lynch


Dave Wheeler


Jeff Kulisek who threw in a Chester A Arthur for good measure.


And Kelly Brown who's image was gone from fb messenger before the writing of this blog. I assure you all it was quite amazing.

Gigantic thanks to all of these generous, talented and oh so kindly gentleman for lending their time and talents to this awesome, but somewhat silly, venture. I'm told Nathan was blown away by them, which is a bit ironic given the subject matter.

Thanks again and HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATHAN!!!

This Saturday!!!

FALLCON is a mere few days away and I couldn't be more excited. Though this year comes with a bit of sadness since the passing of Dominic Postiglione. The work he's done over the years and impact he's made on our comics community has been vast and so greatly appreciated. Conventions have never been my cup of tea, but I started attending Fallcon and Springcon back in 2006 and was amazed at how welcome, and valued I felt by Nick, and the experience provided by the efforts of the entire MCBA. I entered feeling like a nobody. Someone with no business taking up table space. I left, not just having enjoyed a convention for the first time, but with a deep sense of gratitude and loyalty towards Nick and the MCBA. With that in mind I can't wait to see everyone on Saturday. 

Third time's the charm

The background got rebuilt for a third time tonight and it seems we have our winner. Now the decision is between the originally colored illustration or a slightly desaturated version. It's times like this that being able to trust my eyes would come in handy.

Clean up / Background rebuild

The realization came to late that the dimensions of the original wouldn't fit on a number of different formats, and the background was at a place where it couldn't simply be stretched out and still look right. So a new background was built with a new approach, the previous having been forgotten, and based on the premise of including the cloud which didn't look right on the first run. Still tweaking the intensity/ brightness/ darkness of the new background.

In addition, there was still a lot of clean up to do. Specifically, a tiny white halo that runs tightly around all the black lines from the original scanned image.

As usual this was being done ever so carefully with the eraser tool. A Pain to be sure. Then inspiration, and the feeling of stupidity that sometimes accompanies it, that the lasso tool would allow a tighter selection while better preserving the original lines, as well as being faster and more efficient.

Last but not least, it seemed like it would be cool to include a shot of all the layers that are going in to making this what it is. Whatever it may be.

Still unsure on the background. And once that's all squared away the main part of the illustration needs to be centered, but confidence abounds that this is now a day, maybe two, from completion.  

Trying to add some clouds

Closer still

I am (not) Groot.

Mapped out and inked some roots to add on to the surrealism piece. 

Went ahead and added them onto the illustration as well as laid in the color flats. Slowly but surely it's coming together and, so far, I'm somewhat pleased. 

better in blue

still feel like it needs ants

Surrealism still in progress

Finally settled on how the "sand" script monster thing should look in terms of color and texture and have started working it in with some shadows, though the dark blue seems too heavy. There will need to be some futzing with blending modes, opacity and saturation it seems. It's eyes and teeth are probably done. the glass face of the watch feels pretty close as does the sandy surface beneath the boy.

There has been some question as to what, or wether, to add something under this. The ground plane looks too abrupt so I've decided to add some clumped up dirt and intertwining roots to sort of mirror the sand swirls. Most likely that will be made as a separate drawing altogether and then combined with this in photoshop.

Still plenty to do but fairly ok with how this is shaping up. And as a pet project there's no real rush. So enjoy and I'll make sure to post more when there is more.

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge 101

No one is safe... from a refreshing burst of icy water. Challenged by my cousin Amy, who has three perfectly good sisters, there was nothing else to do but grab a bucket and cover the basics for the uninitiated. Thanks to Dave "sugar pops" Wheeler for manning the camera. As for David James Keaton, who I'm pretty sure has an irrational fear of ice, Joel Feld, and the Ridgedale Apple store it's time to pony up. For everybody else: www.alsa.org

Last Projector Cover is done

Or at least I think it is. We'll see what I hear back, but it feels like its in a good spot. Here are the three variations. The publisher has their own designers so want one copy free of text, and then included the two text treatments. I prefer the one with the name at the top. Again, we'll see. Fun project all around.