Oh boy! It's Christmas card time! Which means Batman be climbin' down yo' chimney.

I have a serious obsessions with octopi. 

An Actual Page!

So, earlier posts (waaaay earlier) were about a project entitled "2020" or "2016" (it was changed), but these here is the second draft of the first page from that project! Finally! Alright. It's not great quality since I took it off my phone, but it was exciting nonetheless.

I actually have spent a lot of time deciding what workflow I wanted for my pages. At first it was just thumbnails, then straight to the finished page. The immediate problem with that was that the decisions I made at the rough stage had to be made again at final size. Thumbnails became useless. After that, I tried taking the roughs, blowing them up, and tracing them, but they were so rough that it didn't contribute much to the final product either (it even made my final drawings stiff and lifeless).

Finally, I created a comic page template which I carefully resized at about 5"x8". I did detailed drawings at that size, blew them up, traced the shapes, and added the details straight to those.

As a result, my artwork looks much more lively, and the decisions I made at the composition stage remain untouched. 

Well, that's all. I hope you all have a lovely evening.

James

The Shining!

So I was inspired to sketch this while a friend and I were watching the Shining. It doesn't seem to match, but I think it was because the hotel manager mentioned Indian burial grounds or something along those lines. Someone asked if he was a caveman. He just has a magnificently large brow, thank you very much.

G'afternoon y'all,

James

The Incredible Man-Tree

I had a waking dream, (or a vision, I guess) of a man who was walking on a narrow path in a ravine. He had cuts all over, but instead of bleeding, branches would grow out of the wounds. Branches continued to grow until roots formed at his feet, and when he stopped to take a breath, he grew into a great tree.

A little odd, but it made for a striking picture. In addition to old people, I love drawing people who are scarred with imperfect, tired bodies. Or odd faces. Heck, anyone who isn't Adonis just seems more interesting to me.

Later,

James

Look! Just a Regular Guy.

I tend to do sketches of faces draped in shadow, because that's just more interesting to look at. While in the studio, I tend to look at a lot of Tim Bradstreet and Sean Phillips, two guys who know the power of heavy blacks. I like old folks, but this guy is just forty. Or a really, really badly aged thirty year old. I like the latter much better.

Have a good night,

James

Inconsistency, Inconsistency...

It would seem that Christmas has gotten the better of me; no worry, I'll make up for it.

I recently saw True Grit, and it made me want to draw dusty textures. Also, I really want to draw crackle-faced old folks.

I couldn't get Jeff Bridges' eyes, but this was from memory, so this is really just my impression of the film.

Man, that is some serious man-scraggle.

In other news, this is Business Tycoon Odin. I read that Wagner's Ring Cycle was reinterpreted for modern audiences, and that just sounded cool. I tried to insert the ravens somehow, but I could only get in one of the two.

That's all for today.

Have a good one,

James

St. Brutus, Saint of Zombie-Killing

One more Christmas card, for my friend Sam. She digs Victorian-era gentlmen, and also monster-hunting.

Have a good night!

Christmas Cards!

So, one of my favorite things to do for my friends on birthdays is to draw them an offbeat birthday card. I usually improvise the whole card the moment I sit down to draw the thing, and it is always a ton of fun. It's also cool because my friends are the kind of people that appreciate time, care, and personal gifts.

Another plus is that I don't have to spend money, which is often a necessity for me.

Anyway, this year I decided to do a slew of Christmas cards for my friends. They were a blast to do, and while they may not always look pretty or polished, they are definitely from the heart.

Sorta.

Well, at least I did them myself.

Anyhoo, here are the first few I did that I liked! I channeled Mike Mignola for some of these, so that was cool to do.

By the way, I did write heartfelt notes for all of these, I just covered those up before posting 'em.

Merry Christmas!