I woke up with the odd inclination the other day, to create an Influence Map for myself. I totally missed this meme when it first went around a couple years back, but I never forgot about it. It always seemed to be a good exercise in showcasing the artists and other media that influence one's work. I often find myself straying pretty far from what I think I really want to be doing, or comparing myself too much to any one particular artist, when the actuality is that there are at least a couple dozen artists whose work I continue to draw from, some more than others of course.
At any rate, here are the artists whose work has continued to inspire me throughout my life so far:
Click for a larger view!
I'd love to take a moment and talk about each of these artists individually, but that would take too long. I did do a write-up on Joseph Schindelman once, and might put together similar posts for each of these guys.
In the meantime, I think I'd like to do another one of these for the writers who've influenced me over the years...
Oh! And credit to fox-orian for the Influence Map template.
Seven Little Monsters is an 8-page minicomic I created this year to hand out to any trick-or-treaters who come to my door (which, based on years past, should be next to none!). Click through to read the entire comic!
Need to figure out the best way to consolidate all of my various blog/comic/social sites. So much of the stuff that I do day-to-day is process stuff, not often comics, rarely finished, but I still want to be able to share it someplace. My portfolio site wasn't the optimal place for that until I reconfigured it to be more of a sketch-blog (still light on the 'sketch' part). I can't put a lot of this stuff up on the Ellie Connelly site, because that should stay focused on Ellie. And that's tough, because while that project is getting like 80% of my traffic on any given day, I'm only working on it like 1 or 2 days a month at the moment. I don't want to start a whole 'nother blog for other projects - games, puzzles, concept stuff, shirts & merchandise ideas, writing - but I don't think either of my current sites are really conducive to presenting that kind of stuff.
I think the real problem, when I come down to it, is that so much of what I'm working on (and trying to work on) has nothing to do with any of the projects I've already got started. For example, I'm writing a couple minicomics as an exercise to stretch some long-forgotten art muscles. The style is going to be fast, black-and-white texture work, similar to my Hansel and Gretel art, or the Li'l Minotaur mini I made a couple years ago. Quick, fun little comics. Also, I'm writing a pitch for a superhero miniseries based on a minicomic I was working on in high school. Not something I'd be drawing, I'm hoping to find an artist who can do it justice, and free me up to work on other things as well. I'm also looking at other revenue stream ideas and to that end I've been working on cleaning up a couple of old board games I designed years ago, one of which still hasn't been playtested, and I'm hoping to release them as print-and-play games, just like the Dol-Dai set that's currently in my store. See, none of these things really have anything to do with Ellie so it doesn't make sense to talk about them there, and none of them are completed yet, so they don't really belong in my portfolio either.
On top of all of that is the desire to have something good going up on my Google+ page fairly regularly, but I don't want to just be republishing stuff from my other sites. Or I don't know, maybe that's what I should be doing. Does it make sense that, if someone wants to find out what I'm up to, they should have to know to check three different sites? I'd rather they be able to just check the one main site, which, I suppose, should be this one. I suppose it would work fine to start talking more about works-in-progress here on this blog, posting finished art into the portfolio areas, and keeping all of my Ellie progress over on that site, with updates mirrored here.
I know, for most of you this is hardly earth-shaking. Many folks I know have maintained multiple livejournal/facebook/blogspot/tumblrs for years now with no problem interlinking them and being awesome at it. I guess I just have a little trouble compartmentalizing my work like that.
Finished up the artwork for this Roger Rabbit poster and sent the final layout off to the client this morning. I tried to mimic the technique detailed in this tutorial by Chris Wahl.
(Click the image for a larger view)
Overall, I'm happy with the shading and the coloring, though I wish the shading had gone more quickly - toward the end I felt I was rushing through a couple of the characters. It's an interesting technique, and bears more study and practice.
I'm hoping to have digital prints of this event poster available at the screening, though I don't know how much they'll cost.
This week I'm working on a poster for an upcoming screening of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I just finished the inks for the main element of the poster, featuring Eddie Valiant, Judge Doom, and a whole bunch of animated cameos. I'm really anxious to share it, so here you go!
Click to view larger!
A couple months ago, my internet-pal Jon Morris invited me to take part in a super-secret blog-project (blogject?) he was creating inspired by DC Comics' announcement to reboot their entire universe of comics with fifty-two new #1 issues, redesigned costumes, and modified origins. These 'New 52' titles were announced over the following couple weeks, and Jon got this idea:
Once DC started releasing the cover images of what the New DC Universe would look like, it got me wondering what the New DC Universe would look like ... if it were out of DC's hands.I contacted a plethora of very talented - and very different - cartoonists with a simple challenge: If DC approached you and offered you any DC property - past or present - of your choice to be your own new ongoing part of the DC Universe, what would the cover to the first issue look like?
When I got the email from Jon asking me to participate, and asking which character I'd like to do, there was only one answer:
As a huge fan of the original run of the character, with his down-on-his-luck reluctant super-hero ways, and goofy adventures that always felt a little like super-heroing but often had him dealing with magic and leaving him out-of-his-league, I was for years disappointed with attempts in the '90s and later to reinvent the character as a full-on demon, a magical 'tough' with a chip on his shoulder. So, with this opportunity to revamp the character in a form which I would actually read and enjoy, I absolutely had to bring him back to his roots:
(Click to see the full cover)
Here's Dan Cassidy, 20-year old electronics expert and special effects artist supreme, hired to design a prosthetic suit with some pyrotechnic bells and whistles, the main 'hero' suit for the reboot of the classic 'Blue Devil' monster movie franchise. The elongated legs of this demonic warrior give Dan extra jumping strength, and the gauntlets contain electronic circuits that allow him to control the 'Flames of Hell' that erupt on cue from his trident! But a mishap during filming opens a gateway to a REAL demon dimension, and Dan is exposed to a demonic curse that forever traps him inside his costume!
I'm really happy to be part of Jon's imaginary reboot, and thrilled to be the one to launch the site! I know there's some amazing artists lined up for the remaining 51 covers, and some fantastic characters that are getting the Fifty-Too! treatment! Go check it out today, and every day, for a glimpse at what SHOULD have been!
This pair of studies is me trying to design a character for a new project I'm working on. It's not for a comic, just a kind of art exercise, really. I did manage to channel my inner Rick Geary on this one, which is about the style I keep imagining this project working in. Does anyone else do that? Where you think of a project and then start trying to figure out what style of artwork you want to try to do it in? I do that with every project I do, which i think is a big part of why I have such a hard time defining a 'signature style' for myself. Ah, well.
Bonus points if you can figure out who this character is!
2010 was a tough year for a lot of people, myself included. To thank everyone for your support, I'm knocking an additional 20% off everything in my store until Dec. 20! If you want want to make sure your order arrives in time for Christmas, please order before Dec. 10. And for an EXTRA BONUS savings, use the one-time coupon code THANKS2010 for $5 off any order of $10 or more (not including shipping cost).
UPDATE! I've decided to cut the sale a bit short, it will now end on Dec. 20 instead of the 24th, mostly because I don't want to be having to ship stuff so close to the holiday, when it won't get there in time anyway. I'll resume shipping orders after New Year's, so if you want your stuff now, order soon!
I'm not in the habit of showing my sketches, but I thought with the completion of my Hansel & Gretel piece for the Portland Opera that I'd take the opportunity to give people a peek behind the scenes.
These sketches were made during the performance with a simple ballpoint pen in a small digest-sized sketchbook I made for myself by stapling some copier paper together. Click the images to view them larger:
The first drawing of actual characters from the show, mostly just costume notes. Check out Hansel's crazy 'flailing arms' dance from the beginning of Act I!
Today I finished a project I'd started several months back - the McLiquorland Character designs. There were only six characters, and I came up with all of them on the same day, so why did it take me seven months to complete them? I'm not sure exactly, but there were a lot of reasons: it wasn't a high-priority project, there was no real objective other than designing the characters, I didn't have a clear reason for doing them in the first place, and simply, other things came up and took priority over my time.
I find that happens to me a lot. I'll have a flash of an idea, and high on creative fumes I'll jump in, inspired to do something flat-out amazing! But then, after a little while, the thrill disappears. Maybe the project is taking longer than I thought, maybe my inner critic starts to question the necessity of the project, maybe it's just not coming out as well as I'd hoped.
@indigo_k
Photo: In high school I created this abstract strategy board game, titled YIORA (why-O-ruh), to be included... http://t.co/GRCpX8AdI am enjoying that my home smells like mashed potatoes and onion gravy right now.RT @chris__baldwin: @indigo_k @Tranquility_PDX Irina Spalko… is in yr hanger 51… readnk yr mind. http://t.co/AEYQtWyy
