Archive for ‘Sketchbook’

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MSU comics forum 2012 exclusive print progress part 5

by Denver on February 2, 2012 at 12:00 PM
Posted In: Sketchbook

Hello friends. As you may have read here on the site previously, I'll be a guest at the upcoming MSU Comics Forum on February 4th. This year, I wanted to do something fun and special specific to this event. My idea was to create a print exclusive to the event itself (it may be the only comics event I attend in 2012)!

Follow me as I post the progress of developing a special SQUID-GIRL print in various stages.

Stage 1: Rough Sketches

Stage 2: Penciling

Stage 3: Inking

Stage 4: Coloring

The final step of the process is fairly quick and straightforward. In creating an event-specific print for the upcoming MSU Comics Forum, I opened up Adobe Illustrator so as to add in a block of text with the event name and year as well as the character's name and the title of the comic like so:

I tend to nit-pick and tinker with stuff over and over again until I finally feel satisfied with the final result. What does the final print look like? Well, I suggest you head to the MSU Comics Forum on February 4th to find out.

Remember, quantities will be limited and any unsold prints left over from the show will be sold here on the site next week! Stay tuned! I hope you enjoyed this little look into my creative process.

Cheers!

-Denver

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MSU comics forum 2012 exclusive print progress part 4

by Denver on February 1, 2012 at 6:00 AM
Posted In: Sketchbook

Hello friends. As you may have read here on the site previously, I'll be a guest at the upcoming MSU Comics Forum on February 4th. This year, I wanted to do something fun and special specific to this event. My idea was to create a print exclusive to the event itself (it may be the only comics event I attend in 2012)!

Follow me as I post the progress of developing a special SQUID-GIRL print in various stages.

Stage 1: Rough Sketches

Stage 2: Penciling

Stage 3: Inking

In this part of the process we're going digital. My goal here is to add a simple, but slightly weather field of color behind Squid-Girl. Since the event is at Michigan State University, I decided upon the rich Spartan green for said field of color and sampled it from a MSU .eps logo.

Opened scan of image into Photoshop.

Cleaned up image using Levels and Threshold tools.

With my CMYK green recipe and brush I begin adding color w/ my Wacom tablet.

Here we are after all the color is added. The rougher look, the spotty color will give the print an older, weathered look.

Lastly, I go in and add a white "halo" around the figure to separate it from the background with a similar rough brush.

The final step before it goes to press will be the addition of some simple white text with the event name and date! Check back on Friday to see the end result!

-Denver

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MSU comics forum 2012 exclusive print progress part 3

by Denver on January 30, 2012 at 6:00 AM
Posted In: Sketchbook

Hello friends. As you may have read here on the site previously, I'll be a guest at the upcoming MSU Comics Forum on February 4th. This year, I wanted to do something fun and special specific to this event. My idea was to create a print exclusive to the event itself (it may be the only comics event I attend in 2012)!

Follow me as I post the progress of developing a special SQUID-GIRL print in various stages.

Stage 1: Rough Sketches

Stage 2: Penciling

So the next step might be my favorite stage of all, the inking. Over the years I've tried several different tools for inking: technical pens, Sharpie markers & pens, crow quill, and brush. There were pros and cons to each method/tool, but I never found any of them 100% satisfactory for my needs. Earlier in the year, I was introduced to Mitsubishi brush pens by my buddy Chad Sell who does the webcomic, Manta-Man. What I like about them is the combination of the pros of technical pens and brushes without the cons. I always felt awkward handling a brush, it never felt comfortable in my hand though I loved the quality of line it could produce. Tech pens felt much more comfortable and easier to use, but I was never really satisfied with the line work I got out of them.

I heard Stan Sakai once say that he begins every drawing with the eyes. I think that's kinda cool because the eyes are such a powerful focal point. I may not always begin drawing with the eyes, but I tend to start inking there as is the case with this picture of Squid-Girl. I took some snapshots of me inking and posted them below if you're interested followed by the finished product. Enjoy!

And finally, here is a scan of the final inked version!

Next we move to what I refer to as the finishing stage in digital realm of scanning, clean-up, coloring and formatting! Stay tuned!

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MSU comics forum 2012 exclusive print progress part 2

by Denver on January 28, 2012 at 6:00 AM
Posted In: Sketchbook

Hello friends. As you may have read here on the site previously, I'll be a guest at the upcoming MSU Comics Forum on February 4th. This year, I wanted to do something fun and special specific to this event. My idea was to create a print exclusive to the event itself (it may be the only comics event I attend in 2012)!

Follow me as I post the progress of developing a special SQUID-GIRL print in various stages.

Stage 1: Rough Sketches

Stage 2 is taking the rough sketch I liked (at left) and developing it a little more. I decided to go with something not as frisky because I personally don't want to devolve the image of the character into a simple pin-up girl. So I went this route instead. I wanted something that kept the characters fun personality intact but within a traditional superhero-like, Bruce Timm-esque way. So I went right to the source. This sketch was based off of a drawing of Batgirl by Timm which captures the essence perfectly.

From this point I went ahead and decided to jump right into penciling the image. I enlarged the sketch (at left) on a photocopier to fill an 8.5x11 sheet of paper (approximately) and adheared that copy onto the back side of a piece of Strathmore 300 series smooth Bristol board. Typically this isn't how I pencil my artwork, but I really liked the energy from this sketch and I wanted to capture as much of it as possible. I used my light table to rough in the figure with a 4h lead. It's hard on my eyes to look into the bright light of the light table for too long so once I felt like I'd captured what I was looking for in the copied sketch I moved on to my drawing table to tighten up the drawing. The results are below. The 4h lead is light and the final penciled artwork was adjusted in Photoshop to better show the drawing:

Next time we'll be moving on to the inking stage! Stay tuned!

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MSU comics forum 2012 exclusive print progress part 1

by Denver on January 26, 2012 at 6:00 AM
Posted In: Sketchbook

Hello friends. As you may have read here on the site previously, I'll be a guest st the upcoming MSU Comics Forum on February 4th. This year, I wanted to do something fun and special specific to this event. My idea was to create a print exclusive to the event itself (it may be the only comics event I attend in 2012)! From now to the event I'll post the progress of developing the print in various stages.

So without further ado I present to you a scan of a page out of my sketchbook featuring the subject of the MSU print, SQUID-GIRL! These doodles were done with a 4h pencil and/or a Sanford Verithin Indigo Blue colored pencil.

Check back

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promises promises guest strip by denver!

by Denver on January 11, 2012 at 12:00 AM
Posted In: Sketchbook

Hello friends! Back in late December my pal Jules Faulkner (creator of the wonderfully wonderful comic strip Promises Promises) picked up a case of the plague (her words, not mine) and sent out an SOS for some guest strip fill-ins while she was recovering...so I decided to lend a hand!

Click on the thumbnail (at left) to see the comic in its entirety!

Feel better soon Jules!

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MARVEL UNIVERSE 2011 Sketchcards #097-120

by Denver on December 14, 2011 at 6:00 AM
Posted In: Sketchbook

Earlier in the year I was hired by Rittenhouse Archives to contribute sketchcards to their Marvel Universe 2011 trading card set (only one hand-drawn colored sketch card per box). Beginning today, October 19th, 2011 I am now able to share with you the fruits of my labor. Over the next several weeks I will reveal all 120 of my sketchcards at the rate of 12/week. Please enjoy!

Denver: "I decided to end this run with a big ol' double-sized gallery! Happy holidays everyone!"

Fin!

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MARVEL UNIVERSE 2011 Sketchcards #085-096

by Denver on December 7, 2011 at 6:00 AM
Posted In: Sketchbook

Earlier in the year I was hired by Rittenhouse Archives to contribute sketchcards to their Marvel Universe 2011 trading card set (only one hand-drawn colored sketch card per box). Beginning today, October 19th, 2011 I am now able to share with you the fruits of my labor. Over the next several weeks I will reveal all 120 of my sketchcards at the rate of 12/week. Please enjoy!

Denver: "As a bit of trivia for you, my very first paid 'professional' job was doing sketchcards for the Marvel Creator's Choice 1998 trading card set where I contributed 100 black and white sketchcards to that set where I also included a version of the original Iron Man suit of armor (below) as well as Captain Ultra, Moonboy, and Madcap!"

Check back next Wednesday for more!

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MARVEL UNIVERSE 2011 Sketchcards #073-84

by Denver on November 30, 2011 at 6:00 AM
Posted In: Sketchbook

Earlier in the year I was hired by Rittenhouse Archives to contribute sketchcards to their Marvel Universe 2011 trading card set (only one hand-drawn colored sketch card per box). Beginning today, October 19th, 2011 I am now able to share with you the fruits of my labor. Over the next several weeks I will reveal all 120 of my sketchcards at the rate of 12/week. Please enjoy!

Denver: "All of the sketchcards produced for this set were distributed at a rate of one per 24 pack box (so you have a 1-in-24 chance of finding one). I always liked the idea of opening a blister pack of cards and discovering an original piece of artwork--its a nifty idea. So on these projects I try to keep in the word "sketchcard" in mind as I work. As such you'll notice in the final product I do little clean-up in the final stages of production to present a more 'sketchy' look to the cards."

Check back next Wednesday for more!

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MARVEL UNIVERSE 2011 Sketchcards #061-072

by Denver on November 23, 2011 at 6:00 AM
Posted In: Sketchbook

Earlier in the year I was hired by Rittenhouse Archives to contribute sketchcards to their Marvel Universe 2011 trading card set (only one hand-drawn colored sketch card per box). Beginning today, October 19th, 2011 I am now able to share with you the fruits of my labor. Over the next several weeks I will reveal all 120 of my sketchcards at the rate of 12/week. Please enjoy!

Denver: "One of the anxieties I have with doing Sketchcards for hire on customer provided stock/boards is that you CAN'T screw up. Well, you do make mistakes and as such you just have to deal with it. One of the cards I'm LEAST proud of is Super Skrull (below). What a fun character with so many fun elements to draw that when all was said and done just came up, m'eh."

Check back next Wednesday for more!

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