Sometimes you can find the most awesome stuff in the most unexpected places. This last weekend I was at the supermarket buying groceries and out of nowhere, my girlfriend pulls out a Hand Scythe. She intended to scare me, but instead, I was very excited. This plastic toy was a perfect match to the weapon used by one of my characters, the “Grimm Creeper”. I had to buy it. Luckily I was able to find a second one too.
Halloween is always a great time to find plastic weapons and cosplay items. Last year we found a cool life-size Captain America shield, and this year it’s the Grimm Creeper’s scythe weapons.
Original Grimm Creeper Design
In my original sketch of the Grimm Creeper, I had drawn his weapons very similar to the ones I recently found. In later drawings, I modified and stylized the scythes. After holding and simulating how the weapons work in a fight (I was testing them out in the supermarket), I’ve decided to go back to my original concept: a simple and direct weapon.
Redesign Grimm Creeper
It’s really great having these props. I now have several ideas on how he can wield his weapons. I know that it will help me to come up with better action poses when I draw his fight scenes.
This blog post was originally published on my former website, Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Artist Blog.
Here are some quick Zombie Sketches. To help keep the Dark New World zombie comic book fresh and new, I decided to sketch out a bunch of zombies’ faces. This way, I can choose which ones I want to use in the comic. I don’t just want a bunch of stereotypical bland zombies. My goal is to have over 50 different zombies already designed for the comic when I start penciling the sequential pages.
I’ve been looking at people to get ideas for the different-looking zombies. I’ll be at the mall or the gas station, looking at the characteristics of all the different people. So basically I’ve been people-watching and re-imaging them as zombies.
I’ve tried to make them retain some of the human characteristics, but still bring the horror I feel when I think of zombies—with some rotting flesh, biting jaws, and dead eyes.
This blog post was originally published on my former website, Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Artist Blog.
Character Designs of The Carnies – Dark New World Zombie Comic
In this new chapter of “Dark New World“. You will be introduced to many new characters. Enter “The Carnies“, a group of marauders who have survived the initial zombie infestation. “Sometimes the monsters do have smiles on their faces.”
Here are my first Character Designs sketches of ‘The Carnies” for the upcoming zombie comic book. Carlos wanted the feel of “A Clock Work Orange” mixed with creepy-looking carnies. I was given sketch samples of their different pained faces, and from there I designed their looks. At this point, the Carnies as individuals do not have names. Which I think actually makes them a bit scarier.
I’m currently workings on the first few pages of the comic book. The Carnies are making a huge impact on the lives of the survivors. In the future, I will post some of the sequential page thumbnails, but not too many. Don’t want to give away the story.
This blog post was originally published on my former website, Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Artist Blog.
Original Captain Marvel Drawing By Comic Book Artist Eric Merced
I’ve been very active on Twitter for the past few months. I’ve actually maxed out the number of people I can follow (which is 2001). I would say that about 80% of the people I follow are comic book artists, writers, and fellow fans. Well, a few weeks ago I saw a contest for an original drawing from comic book artist Eric Merced through his Twitter account @eric_merced. “1st and 5th to tweet a character for me to draw on live stream…” I tweeted my favorite character Captain Marvel and was the 1st to enter and win the contest!
The cool thing about the live stream was I got to see him draw it live. Eric Merced talked about why he liked the character of Captain Marvel while he sketched him out. It was really interesting to see the process he used when going from sketching to drawing and finally to inking. He also had a question/answer session with other people watching via a chat widget. The original drawing is 7″ x 5″ and he gave it to me, which was very awesome of him!
As a fun added pulse the mailer that the drawing came in had a cool drawing of Captain Marvel too. Thanks, Eric Merced for an awesome original drawing! Shazam!
This blog post was originally published on my former website, Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Artist Blog.
Digital Inking with Illustrator Vector Anchor Points
I’ve received several requests to show the steps I used to create my digital inking of the Fantastic Four pin-up I did of artist Ariel Padilla’s pencils. I was looking for some art to ink and found the pencils on his DeviantArt page. This was a practice exercise I gave myself in the inking process of comic book art using Adobe Illustrator. I’ve been a graphic designer for over 9 years but this was the first time I used my design knowledge for comic book inking.
For this self-assignment, I decided to use Adobe Illustrator for inking the pin-up. I had used photoshop for a previous piece earlier I did of Batman 2.0, a character redesign. I had fun with that illustration but this time I wanted to do this digital inking in vector format. Why choose vector verse bitmap? Well, a vector image is made up of anchor points that are connected by paths (lines) that connect them. A vector image can be re-sized without loss of quality to the illustration. So basically you can re-size the image as small or as large as you’d like without pixelation, it will keep its sharpness no matter the size. Which is really neat.
Points & Paths: Example 2
For this illustration, I choose to use my anchor points to create only straight paths (lines). I didn’t use any curved lines. The cool thing about using anchor points and paths is that you can make curved paths, resulting in fewer points This is shown in Points & Paths: Example 2. So why didn’t I use curve paths? Well, honestly it was a self-exercise to see if I could do it. I wanted to create curved lines through straight lines. I found it to be a fun challenge.
I did not create lines or outlines of the original pencils. What I did was look at each line as a shape. I could have easily used the brush tool in Illustrator, but I found I actually had more control over what I wanted to achieve by using the pen tool.
Points & Paths: Example 3
With the technique, I like to use anchor points and paths I am able to get a type of jagged smooth shape. The strength of anchor points is you can use as many or as few points as you’d like to create your lines or shapes. I’ve illustrated this in Points & Paths: Example 3.
Points & Paths: Example 4
After I created the shape from the pencils, I colored it in black. I’ve shown this in Points & Paths: Example 4. As you can see it’s a piece of a puzzle that makes up the inking. These shapes help to create the feel I was looking for when digitally inking this drawing. This technique really works well when inking the Thing’s rocky skin.
Points & Paths: Example 5
I have included more examples of the anchor points and paths technique I use in inking these pencils. In Points & Paths: Example 5, we see how the wavy fire on Human Torch can be created without using curved lines. Every anchor point in the flames helps to create the illusion of line weight, depth, and movement.
Points & Paths: Example 6
In Points & Paths: Example 6, I’ve shown how I created what looks to be a line on the Invisible Woman’s arm. It is actually a curved shape created with paths. It is a shape that includes the bottom line of her arm and the shadows around her neck. You can see her hands and the background is already colored in.
Although this technique might not seem to be the most efficient, it allows for a lot of control. Looking at each line as a shape helped me to create a type of line work I would not have achieved otherwise.
This was my first comic book digital inking using Adobe Illustrator with the anchor points and paths technique. I have done a few more since this one. Although I have used curved lines in those illustrations. This was a fun self-exercise in learning to digitally ink the work of someone else. I am very happy with the way this illustration came out, and I’ll continue to use Adobe Illustrator to digitally ink comic book pencils.
This blog post was originally published on my former website, Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Artist Blog.
A few months ago I was vising my mom’s house where I found a box of old drawings I did when I was a kid. There were drawings I did of Veritech fighters from Robotech to comic books and superheroes. Last night I was looking through these treasures from my childhood. I had a blast remembering how I’d stay up late, looking at my comics and wanting to create and recreate these awesome artworks. One of the drawings that jumped out to me last night was this one of Iron Man. I drew this 20 years ago in 1989 when I was 14 years old.
In the late 80s I was reading all the Marvel Comic I could get my hands on, but Iron Man was on the top of my favorites list. I’m a huge science fiction fan and Iron Man was a perfect meld of Sci-Fi and Comics. This drawing was a recreation of the cover of Iron Man 244, it was originally drawn by Bob Layton. I remember being blown away by the split screen showing Iron Man’s then-current suit and his original grey one. I had to redraw it. So this is not a tracing, but a recreation of a cool comic cover. This is how I learned to draw. I’d look at a comic and try to recreate it. I didn’t take any art classes when I was young, but I loved to draw.
Looking at this drawing I did as a bright-eyed kid so many years ago really reminded me of the passion I had for comic book art back then. I feel very lucky that as an adult I haven’t lost that passion. I plan on posting more of my childhood drawing up, so keep an eye out.
This blog post was originally published on my former website, Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Artist Blog.
Vader’s Fist – The 501st Legion – Digitally Inked in Adobe Illustrator
A few months ago I decided to draw Vader’s Fist, the 501st Legion. I’m a huge Star Wars fan and wanted to draw something cool. I usually draw comic book characters but I think it was a fun change to draw some sci-fi stuff. The 501st Legion is cool because they are in the prequels, the original trilogy, and the extended universe. They are the highest and most elite Stormtroopers in the Empire. First starting off as the best clone troopers then as Darth Vader’s personal squad. Check out this article at Wookipedia to learn more about them.
This is the final digital inking of my original 11″x17″ drawing. I used my graphic design skills in adobe illustrator to ink the 501. The original drawing was done with an HB woodless pencil. I posted it in an earlier blog post, Vader’s Fist – The 501st Legion – Pencil Drawing. Check it out if you’d like. What’s really cool is if you do a Google image search for “Vader’s Fist” the original pencils show up on page one.
For this digital inking, I decided to use Adobe Illustrator. I’ve done inking in Adobe Photoshop before, but I find that I really like the way my digital inks look in illustrator. In illustrator your inking is in vector, this allows you to enlarge the image with no pixelation. So if I really wanted to I could make a print the size of a building and it would look awesome and sharp.
Example of anchor points
The tool I like to use in illustrator is the pen tool. I do have a Wacom table, but I feel I have more control with the mouse and pen tool. It lets me create a smooth/jagged line in my piece. I work with anchor points to create curved lines, straight lines, and solid shapes. There was some line work where I did use the brush tool with my Wacom tablet, but most of this digital inking was done with the pen tool.
I’ve very happy with the way this digital inking came out. Ever since I moved last year, I’ve felt a real recharge in my artwork. The penciling and inking of Vader’s Fist, the 501st Legion is a great example of this. I had a real blast inking it.
This blog post was originally published on my former website, Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Artist Blog.
I am currently working on the comic book “Dark New World” with Carlos. It’s a continuation of his independent zombie film. He’s introducing a lot of new characters into this awesome zombie-infested comic world.
Here are the initial Character Sketches for Private Andrew Martinez, one of the new characters. The character is a veteran of the recent Iraq war. He uses the skills and training he received from the armed forces to survive this Dark New World.
Andrew Martinez design sketches
With these character design sketches, I took into consideration Martinez’s military knowledge. I was sent several photos of soldiers in uniform for the general look he wanted for Martinez. I used these references and modified them a bit to come up with his look while still keeping to the standard U.S. Army desert uniform. He’s in 30’s so I tried to show that in these sketches. He doesn’t look too old or too young.
This blog post was originally published on my former website, Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Artist Blog.
I created this comic book in 23 hours with the help of my girlfriend (she inked the pages) for 24 Hour Comic 2008.
This was the first year I participated in the 24 Comic Book Day. The goal was to create a full 24-page comic book in 24 consecutive hours. It was organized by our local comic shop. There were over 20 artists who drew their own comics. There was even a small exhibition showcasing the comics we created.
I had a blast doing this and will definitely take part again this year. I can’t wait!
This blog post was originally published on my former website, Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Artist Blog.
Here it is….my drawing of Vader’s Fist, the 501st Legion. I started drawing this picture a few weeks ago. I took a week off from drawing it and finished it this weekend. I had a lot of fun with this drawing. I usually draw comic book stuff, but I felt like changing it up. I’ve never really drawn a Stormtrooper from Star Wars before, so I decided to draw a bunch. I choose the 501 because they aren’t just any legion of Stormtroopers. They are the Elite in the Empire and Darth Vader’s personal legion and later Grand Admiral Thrawn’s too. Check out this article at Wookipedia to learn more about them.
This pencil drawing was done on 11″x17″ Bristol board paper. Comic book art paper to be exact. I used an HB woodless pencil to sketch it out, then used an HB mechanical pencil to darken the lines I liked. I used little Xs to show where the solid black area would be. When I finished with the darkening of the final lines, I used a 4B woodless pencil to fill in the black areas. To see the beginning stages of this drawing check out my blog post ” Star Wars – Vader’s Fist – Beginning Drawing“
I’m planning on digitally inking this pencil drawing in illustrator. I like inking digitally with Illustrator because vector images are always perfect no matter how you resize them. I haven’t decided if I’m going to color it in Photoshop or in Illustrator though.
This blog post was originally published on my former website, Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Artist Blog.
