Sneak Peek Week(s): Peek 6

Another shrunk-down screenshot from the Cintiq.

I only have eyes for you... and you... and you... and...

Sneak Peek Week(s): Peek 5

Continuing on with Sneak Peek Week(s), this image is not "the end."

Nyuk, nyuk and all that.

A shrunk-down screenshot from the Cintiq.

Weekend Wayback: DIGITAL SPAWN 1994

This week is the eighth installment of Weekend Wayback, where I gaze back into the archives, trying to keep an eye on where I was, in appreciation of where I am, and where I could go.

This image was drawn on my old Apple Macintosh IIvx, in a program called Color It!, way back in 1994. Mouse drawn. I was trying to emulate comic book coloring (which, in retrospect, was just about impossible with Color It!), and instead decided this looked like stained glass.

I eventually used it as the cover to a short, full-color Spawn comic I drew as a final project for an art class in my junior year of high school.

Sneak Peek Week(s): Peek 4

The real tragedy about today's Sneak Peek is that I may never get to show you the full image.

Sneak Peek Week(s): Peek 3

Another sneaky peeky. I will give you a little more info on this - this is a redraw on a completed panel. I didn't like the profile on the character so I'm redrawing it.

Sneak Peek Week(s): Peek 2

Full day plus falling asleep early putting my two-year-old to bed means I missed a Sneak Peek Week pic.

Oh well. You get two then.

First one is above. You may hear more about this soon.

Sneak Peek Week(s): Peek 1

Due to an internet interruption yesterday, there was no Daily Sketch. Actually, there wasn't going to be one anyway.

I have a lot of projects going on this week, so I'm doing a little something I call "Sneak Peek Week," where I'll give you random, partial screengrabs from whatever I happen to be working on at the time, in various stages of completion. Depending on how much I have to do, this might go into next week as well.

What's the above snippet, you ask?

Well, that'd be telling. :)

Weekend Wayback: SPIDEY VS THUGS 1992

This week is the seventh installment of Weekend Wayback, where I gaze back into the archives, trying to keep an eye on where I was, in appreciation of where I am, and where I could go.

Another piece from 1992, apparently the peak of my reinsurance years of late-middle school/early high school comic book-hopeful work.

December of 1992, in fact. This would've been just after I started high school, and therefore, this was about the same level of quality I was drawing at near the end of the eighth grade.

As some one pointed out to me at the time, all of the graffiti seems to have been written by the same person -- it's all at the same angle and all the same color (save for the dated "NOT" behind Spidey's leg).

As you can see, hands and eyes weren't my strong point... heck... nothing was.

Daily Sketch*: SECRET ZOMBIE PROJECT 1

As I get close to completely finishing this, I'm going to give you little panel (and sometimes partial panel) sneak-peeks at the project I'm working on (but nothing that give away major plot points or action).

Here's a panel from somewhere in the story. I won't say when, where, or who is in this.

I will say this is just the "inks," and I'll still have some coloring over this in the final. Going to go back and forth with the editors of the project (and writer) to see what they think might be best. Personally, I'd keep it black and white, but black and white can be a hard sell, especially when the stories surrounding this will be color (that's a bit vague).

Might go Frank Miller with the colors. We'll see.

Anyway - there you are.

Daily Sketch: FRESH ZOMBIE

Today is not only a warmup, but a peek at things to come.

It's not huge secret I'm working on a short zombie related tale right now. I won't give up all the details yet, however.

I'm mostly done, but looking back through my pages, I'm really not satisfied with my zombies. I wasn't sure why. Now I think I know the problem.

The zombies that appear in this story are relatively "fresh," as in, these people had just died, or were just turned. They weren't corpses coming up from the ground, nor had they been walking around for a long time. The zombies I drew were too desiccated, to wrecked.

I plan to fix them.

This is my concept for the more "fresh" zombies.

Save for any damage caused by other zombies before turning, their bodies are relatively intact. In my mind, the virus or magic that changes them (I won't say which) becomes apparent in their eyes and mouth first, hence the veins/tendrils extending out from there. The eyes go black (save for red irises), and they start to decompose (quicker than a normal dead body). That allows me to make everyone a bit more gaunt and mummified-looking than if I just splatted blood on a normal looking person.

So, yeah, I've made a little bit more work for myself, but I think I'll be much happier with the results.

Daily Sketch: ZATANNA

Long day means late Daily Sketch.

Today features the lovely Zatanna.

If you don't know who she is - "kooL reh pu flesruoy!"

Daily Sketch*: DOCTOR WHO - CONTAGION

Like a few of my past Daily Sketches, this isn't a sketch, but a finished piece. However, viewers cannot live by black and white sketches alone.

This commission features the Metacrisis Doctor (aka, Duplicate Doctor, Ten-Two, 10.5, 10 v2.0, Righty, Handy, and many others) saying "no fang you" (I'm sorry everyone... I should've issued a bad pun alert) to a humanoid vamp/bee woman, in the fan fic "Contagion by mtemplar. If you'd like to know more about the yet-to-be posted on the internet fan fic, you can contact (and follow!) her on Twitter at twitter.com/mtemplar.

A fun piece. I'm happy with how this turned out.

Like what you see? Want something similar for yourself? Contact me at info [a] onegemini [dot] com, or skip on over to www.oneGemini.com/comm.html for the commission price list and terms. :)

Daily Sketch: SPIDER-HAM!

Yes indeed, it's Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-ham.

I have a copy of his first appearance. Oh, yes.

And, hey Marvel, instead of dumbing down Spidey cartoons (like the 90s series) to appeal to little kids, or the awful Marvel superhero show on right now (with the sorta-superdeformed characters), why not make a good, fun, well-written version of Spider-ham?

Just sayin'. I got ideas. Call me.

Weekend Wayback: NEW SPIDEY 1992

This week is the sixth installment of Weekend Wayback, where I gaze back into the archives, trying to keep an eye on where I was, in appreciation of where I am, and where I could go.

1992 - the year where most of my surviving "childhood art" comes from. I don't know if that's because I started taking better care of my old work at this point, or because I drew a lot more?

At any rate, like many pieces at the time, this one featured Spider-man. This was up on the wall of my room in my parents' house for years, even when I was away at art school.

I was more of a fan of black suit Spidey back when I drew this. Also was enamored with Erik Larsen's Sinister Six arc in SPIDER-MAN, where Spidey fashioned some web cannons for himself (which lasted for all of two panels). The gear in this picture was obviously based on that design.

Daily Double Sketch: HE-MAN

FULL DOUBLE DAILY SKETCH ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE BLOG. OH MY GOD WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!

It means I couldn't get log on to my account last night (password wouldn't be accepted), so I'm putting up yesterday's and today's Daily Sketch today. This is today's.

He-man, aka, Prince Adam of Eternia, aka, THE MOST POWERFUL MAN IN THE UNIVERSE.

Big He-man fan as a kid. Drew him a lot back then. Millions of muscles on each arm. One of the first pictures where my dad pointed out my flawed anatomy (he's a physical therapist) was a He-man drawing.

After about second grade (when He-man was long gone off the air), I stopped drawing him. I attempted to draw him maybe a handful of times since then, and never did I follow through. I could never make him look like wanted him to.

When the new He-man series came on a few years back, I felt that's how I was always trying to draw him, so I didn't bother trying.

Except for today. So here he is, a mix of my own comic book line-work, and the classic animation version (but with slightly less page-hair).

Maybe it's time to do a color one...

Double Daily Sketch: THE PUNISHER

FULL DOUBLE DAILY SKETCH ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE BLOG. OH MY GOD WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!

It means I couldn't get log on to my account last night (password wouldn't be accepted), so I'm putting up yesterday's and today's Daily Sketch today.

First up, a simple, but fun, Frank Castle piece.

Daily Sketch: CEREBUS THE AARDVARK

Today, Dave Sim's Cerebus.

Like Bone, I wasn't trying for super-on-model. Just having a little fun.

Daily Sketch: FACES IN THE CROWD 4+

Another of my Faces in the Crowd "normal people" face studies. Like I posted the last time;

I go on Google Image Search and look for photos of crowds. Crowds are usually unposed, so you get a lot of candid faces. I then pick out the clearer faces, and sketch them out. I then refine the features a bit, splitting the difference between the real life person and a caricature of them, and that's sort of arrives at my comic book line work style.

Here's another three guys (and I SWEAR the guy in the upper-right isn't Elvis), BUT I have a little something special to go with this.

After I draw these pieces, any of my daily sketches or commissions as well, I usually post here smaller versions for quick net-viewing. Today, as sort of a peek at the drawing table, I've uploaded a full-size, full-resolution JPEG of the original file (save for watermarking, and slight JPEG artifacting because of a slight quality downgrading so it wasn't too huge).

I'll leave this up for two weeks (that is, until August 24th, 2010), then take it off of my personal server. So take a look while you can at the full-sized image;

CLICK HERE FOR THE PIC.

(Feel free to download -- but not reuse -- the image for a better look.)

Granted, I'm zoomed in even further than this when I draw most things, but this is what they look like on my screens when they're at their 100% size in Photoshop.

Daily Sketch*: METACRISIS DOCTOR AND ROSE

Like the Fourth Doctor and Dalek from last week, this piece isn't a sketch, but a finished piece. But I wanted to share it with you anyway.

Like the above-mentioned piece, this was a commissioned piece, depicting the Metacrisis Doctor (aka, Duplicate Doctor, Ten-Two, 10.5, 10 v2.0, Righty, Handy, and many others) from "Journey's End" and Rose Tyler. You can imagine them on "Pete's World" ready to go off on adventure for the alternate-univerese's Torchwood.

This was first roughed out on the computer, then hand-penciled on paper, then those pencils were scanned in, digitally inked and colored via Photoshop.

I really like how this came out, considering it's my first fully-finished Rose image.

Like what you see? Want something similar for yourself? Contact me at info [a] onegemini [dot] com, or skip on over to www.oneGemini.com/comm.html for the commission price list and terms. :)

Daily Sketch COMMISSIONS!

UPDATE: One slot left!





Hey, remember those two pieces above? Like 'em, but don't like the characters within?

Well, this your chance to have your say.

This week only, I'm offering up to five (5) Daily Sketch-style* commissions.

You have your choice of either;

a) A finished ink and gray marker sketch on 8 1/2" x 11" cardstock.

OR

b) A rough pencil drawing on 8 1/2" x 11" cardstock and finished digital inks with grayscale/halftone shading (digital delivery only)

*Daily Sketch-style means a single character, design-element background only, waist-up on most characters only, commission.

How much? Much lower than if you just emailed me and asked. All told, $25 a piece.

Like I said, the limit is five (5) total for the week, but there's no limit per person, which means if someone comes along and buys one, there's still four left. However, if that first person comes along and buys five - that's it. No more. All gone.

If you're interested, email me at info [a] onegemini [dot] com with the subject "Daily Sketch Commission."

First five orders take it. Payment via PayPal only.

Thanks for looking!

Weekend Wayback: PREDATOR 1992

This week is the fifth installment of Weekend Wayback, where I gaze back into the archives, trying to keep an eye on where I was, in appreciation of where I am, and where I could go.

This week's brings me back to 1992. I couldn't tell you exactly when though, but since this features the Predator, it was either the tail-end of 8th grade, or the beginning of high school.

I was big into Predator since my first watching in 7th or 8th grade (knowing me, probably a TV-edited version). From there I became obsessed with Dark Horse Comic's Alien Vs. Predator series (the original one).

In my initial drawings, I would always have trouble with the lower mandibles. This was the first Predator drawing where I got close. My obsession would carry on through most of my freshman year of high school, then peter off a bit.

I still like a good Predator flick (hence why I skipped AvP2).

Daily Sketch: RIGHTY THE ROBOT

Just felt like messing around with robots today. This poor jerk is not having a good day.

Nevertheless, we thank him for his tireless work. Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto.

VLOG: Episode 1

Here it is - the first oneGemini Studios Video Blog, with me (run for cover)!

I answer three questions from my Formspring account (www.formspring.me/oneGemini), share a little art, some vid clips, and trip over my words on camera.

Also - DAVID HASSELHOFF.

Okay... not really.

But sorta.

I guess you'll just have to see. Push play on that, and we'll see you next time!

Daily Sketch: FACES IN THE CROWD 3

Not all days are superheroes and time travelers. Some days I do what I did here, and just draw "real" people.

I go on Google Image Search and look for photos of crowds. Crowds are usually unposed, so you get a lot of candid faces. I then pick out the clearer faces, and sketch them out. I then refine the features a bit, splitting the difference between the real life person and a caricature of them, and that's sort of arrives at my comic book line work style.

Not exciting? Maybe not - but for you comic book hopefuls out there, you'll be drawing more normal people sitting around talking than superheroes slugging it out. Get good at this - because many comics with bad art fall apart when the masks come off... and not just story-wise. ;)

Daily Sketch: WOLVERINE

Back to the normal Daily Sketches, today, we've got some Wolverine!

I was going to draw the brown suit, as that's what Logan was wearing back when I started reading comics (though, to be fair, I was reading X-men Classics at the same time, where he was wearing blue), but I ended up making it a bit darker, and in black and gray, it looks a bit like the X-Force suit. Whatever.

You'll notice a largish head and shortish arms - intentional, as many an artist draws Wolverine has an "average height" superhero (that's to say, about 6'). He's not. He shouldn't be. He's 5' if he's lucky. He's a vicious, vicious, scrapper, and should be portrayed as such.

Anyway, that'll be the last Wolverine for a while. Drew enough of him while I was working on the Rittenhouse Archives X-men sketch card set.

Just thought my blog could do with it's own Wolvie.

Daily Sketch*: DOCTOR & DALEK

Okay, so this one isn't a sketch. It's a fully finished piece, but it's a busy week, and I just had to share.

A commission for Sarah Darkmagic (www.SarahDarkmagic.com), as a gift for Trevor Kidd, Community Team manager (correct me if that's the wrong title) at Wizards of the Coast

The Dalek is a bit Nu-Who, as I had mostly Nu-Who Dalek reference on hand, though I tried to give it a "Genesis of the Daleks" head and color scheme.

All in all, a fun piece to put together. Sarah was happy with it, Trevor seems to have liked it, so I'm definitely satisfied with my work.

Daily Sketch: SUPERMAN

Been a hell of a day, which means late Daily Sketch.

Today we have the Man of Steel himself. Of all the superheroes I draw, I almost never draw this guy (I think I've drawn Supergirl more).

Another exercise in halftones, giving me a slight feeling of watching George Reeves reruns back when I was a kid.

(And leave me alone on his arm muscles... I was tired and just trying to get it finished.)

Staving off Starving

Originally posted in my deviantART journal here -- >CLICK.

About to mention something here where my tone could sound either a) very offended, b) angry, or c)very egotistical. Let me preface with this; it is not - my tone is one of business, common sense, and the real world.

Now that that's out of the way...

I used to get these from time to time, but I'm now seeing them a lot more often now that I've gotten a foot in the door; offers for comic and other art jobs that don't pay a dime.

When I was first trying to break in right after the Kubert School, I took on a few of these; pinups for a friend's indie book, promo pieces for a random underground comic, and sometimes just character designs for other indie books that never got off the ground.

My biggest whoopsie was a whole 30 pages of penciled and inked artwork or an indie book called "The Black Waste," a comic about a man who crossed a modern-day warlock, and was bonded to a landfill, making him in to a Swamp Thing of trash (in retrospect, this seems to be very much "The Heap," the Image book by Greg Capullo). I was assured the writer and colorist had ties with Marvel, and that they'd get the book published through Image, blah, blah, blah (this was before you could easily look up all this stuff on the internet and verify stories). All-day-sucker, me. Long and the short, they fell right off the face of the earth, my pages in tow, and as far as I can tell the book was never even published, not even on a Kinko's photocopier. Months of work down the tube. All I have now is a few pages in a sketchbook with sketches of some of the characters.

It was only a year or so after when I stopped with trying to break in, and spent the next five or so years working in graphic art. Also got married and had a kid near the end of this period. This when I learned that as often as possible, I would have to skip "fun" projects, and take on only paying projects.

Outside of my graphic arts job, I'd get offers from friends to design this logo, or make this t-shirt -- most never offered payment, and I didn't ask for any. Our mutual reasoning is that "we were friends." But some of these jobs were beasts, and I'd often give up nights of sleeping for finishing these non-paying projects. I'd then be fatigued at work (if not late), and that of course would have a negative effect on that job.

I lost a few jobs that way. Fired.

On recommendation of another graphic artist friend, he suggested that I only take jobs where someone could pay a reasonable rate - friend or stranger alike. Yeah, it's always nice to do a solid for a friend, but a warm smile doesn't go far when it comes to paying rent or buying food. That's just the reality of the situation.

My mother was never a professional seamstress, but is very talented when it comes to sewing - alterations, sometimes original clothing from patterns, etc. My father would often bring home garments his co-workers wanted fixed. My mother always charged them. She figured she was going to use her talent, her skill, to help someone with something and take hours out of her very busy work week to do it, she should get compensated.

"With great power comes great responsibility," is fine and all, but my mom doesn't save lives - she saves someone $10 to $20 that they'd spend per hour more going to professional tailor. It's perfectly reasonable for her to charge for her craft.

As it is for me to charge for mine.

So, like I mentioned up top, many of these "no pay" jobs have been coming in again. Much of it started when I was working on my own unlikely-profit project, Wayward Son. That differed in that it was all for me and I took all the risk/reward and could set my own schedule and goals. Around that time I started making more fans here on dA. Even more fans started joining when I began doing Marvel sketch cards. And more with the Doctor Who fan art - and now a few more now that I'm actually working on the proper Doctor Who comic.

Those approaching me with "no pay" jobs aren't people who believe are approaching me with any malice or with any intent to take advantage of me (for the most part), but they are people who seem to not quite understand what they're asking of me. Many of these will right away say "I can't pay you and there's no potential for pay." Some will say there's no pay up front but a "split of the profits" (often a quick read of the project outline, if there is one, will tell you many of these will never show a profit. Some are written by kids and teens who just haven't got the writing skills yet. Some are adults who obviously will never have the writing skills).

There are many artists out there who will take these jobs. More power to them. That's their decision, and I respect that. There are many pros out there that say that taking freebie jobs devalues every artist's work. That's up to debate. The fact of the matter is you gotta do what you gotta do. If you think it benefits you to take on a non-paying job of that magnitude - then go on, take it and attack it. If you're independently wealthy, and just like doing these jobs for shits n' giggles, do that as well.

Most of these jobs will never benefit me -- and no, "you'll have a great portfolio piece," is not an enticement for me. I can do great portfolio pieces by choosing what I want to do and doing it. I have judgement enough to decide what makes a nice image for my permanent binder without being locked into someone else's ideas and schedules for a period of time.

On the second point, I'm not independently wealthy. Trust me.

Another thing is I don't believe that many of these "no-pay" job offerers don't quite understand what they're asking. Most of us wouldn't walk into a brand-new restaurant and say to the chef "you're food is excellent! I love the samples I've tried and the couple of meals I've bought. Come cater my party! I can't pay you, but it's a great opportunity for you!" You wouldn't do that, and I wouldn't walk into your work place, be it a data mining center, K-Mart, or whatever, and ask for free products or services because I thought you were doing a good job. If you were doing such a good job, I'd pay you for it -- you'd deserve my money for your hard work. And if I couldn't afford you, and really wanted your products and services, I'd save up my pennies and then pay you -- or find someone cheaper or free.

One more example - there's a farmer who grows fruits and vegetables to sell at a farm stand. The produce he churns out is quite good. You wouldn't go to him and say "your watermelons are the best in the area. Grow me a bunch more -- I can't pay you, but please believe I love the fruit you grow." No one would call him egotistical for charging for what he does. That's just how he makes his living. You don't like his prices or can't pay? Find someone cheaper or free who does it just as well - or grow your own (and stop talking about others' mellons. It's rude.).

Plus some of these people need to learn to word their proposals better. I had one individual who said he'd "let me" draw the interiors for his comic. "Let me?" Like I was begging and they were nice enough to give me an opportunity. Keep in mind, these are non-published writers and creators - not Robert Kirkman offering me an Invincible arc.

Another said I didn't "have to" draw all of this other project. "Have to?" Like I was already locked in and he was giving me some reprieve. Better wording "I wouldn't ask you to" draw the whole project. Or even less convincing, but not as aggressive as the original wording, "I don't expect you to" draw, etc. Y'see?

Let me wrap this long thread up -- long and the short, I appreciate all my fans, I do. It's hard to think I even have fans. I'm just some dude who draws for a living. But keep that in mind - "for a living." I am not a charity. I can't afford to be. If I were someone like Jim Lee and had that kind of money, perhaps I would "donate" a cover to a fledgling comic here and there... but let me tell you, I'm pretty sure he doesn't do that. It's still his job and his business. He might not charge as much as he does DC or Wildstorm, but I bet a few hundred or more go out to ever cover he puts his sig on.

I've donated art to charities before, and will do so in the future I'm sure.

All but one of these no-pay comic offers were not charities (and the one that was a charity was so hard-sell to the project, basically telling me to put everything aside for his no-pay charity that he turned me off of it). There are many out there who will work for free. Many are very talented. Seek them out.

Whether y'all like it or not, I'm considered a pro now. This is what I do to make money. This is how I pay the bills, this is how I feed my family. You say you respect me and my work, and want to work with me because of it? Then please respect that I need to ask for money to do it.

And no, I won't draw your Doctor Who fan comic/fic/slash (I'm up to seven offers so far since announcing my work on Doctor Who). ;)

~B