From Conception to Completion

Over the past week or so, I’ve been plugging away at this sketch of New Zealand-based future wrestling legend Evie.  A short while ago I finally, mercifully finished.  Not that I can actually explain how I shade with so much detail (pretty much completely self-taught), but I grabbed progress pics after each session.  Just thought it might be fun to show it in various stage of completeness here on the ol’ blog.  So here now is Evie, in five excruciatingly long steps.

Step One: Just a semi-rough outline with minimal detailing..

Step Two: The first section of shading.  Gotta start at the top and left because I’m right-handed & don’t use a glove or anything, so it’ll get messy if I don’t..

Step Three: More shading.  Top to bottom, because the lower half is about to get hella complicated..

Step Four: Roughing out the folds in the fabric.  So many folds.  So, sooooo many folds..

Step 5: Tightened the folds, finished shading dress, tightened up other lines, touched up shading in places, and voila… Done!

And there you have it!  A complete sketch of one of the coolest and most badass wrestlers in the business, in classy mode, I guess you’d say.

That’s all for this post.  Thanks for stopping by!

Until our next…

My only eBay Purchase of 2015 so Far

That’s right, most of my money has gone to COMC this year, with a little to loose retail packs of 2015 Topps and a couple repack boxes.  I’ve only bought one thing on eBay in 2015, and it wasn’t even a card.  It was this:

Raven comic book backing board sketch by Jose L. Rodrigues..

I picked up this great addition to my Raven art and sketch card collection for a whole $9.99 (shipping was free, but it was nicely protected) back in January.  As the caption states, this fantastic piece is drawn on the non-glossy side of a comic book backing board.  Looks good at the end of my sketch card binder with the rest of my larger Raven art. 🙂

Random aside: I’m considering drawing something on the other blank backing board that was in with this to protect it and sending it back to the seller, lol.  Maybe they can try to sell it too.

Haha, anyway, that’s it for this post.  Thanks for stopping by!

Take my hand, with all your might… ♫

Blank Covers

Got these bad mamma-jammas (mostly) inked a few weeks ago.  Have a look, won’t you?

The Avengers, assembled. This is the not quite finished one. Was using a pen that was too big for some of the small stuff. So I gotta hunt up a .3 or .35, depending on which brand I use, to get those parts. Was using the .6 for these.

She-Hulk! I used a model for this one. She had no muscle mass at all though (or boobage really), so I had figure that out myself. Turned out okay I think.

I have no idea when it’ll be coming, but trade bait will be coming next.  Maybe.  Until then, back to the drawing board.

Drawing in the Dark…

Howling @ the Broken Moon/BadWorld

 

I’ve had this image stuck in my head for ages, so a couple nights ago, I finally drew it. Drawn on the unglossed side of comic book backing board with 4H pencil in somewhere around three hours. Whatcha think?

Until our next…

Tales from the Mailbox

Click this pic for the eBay listing..

This isn’t the thing I mentioned at the end of my last post, but I think it’s still pretty dang cool.  It’s a sketchbook by Ian Walker.  It is about comic book-sized and 24 pages in length.  All the pics within are done in black & white, hence the title.  I picked up two on eBay, one for myself and one for my dad to put up till Father’s Day and/or his birthday.  The cost: $5 each + free shipping (for disclosure purposes, that means I bought them myself and wasn’t compensated in any way for this promotion, in case that’s not clear).

Click this pic to see Ian's deviantART gallery page. The gallery itself will require one more click once there,

I scanned a few pages for your viewing pleasure.  Clicking on them will take you places.  Ian is very a talented artist and you can see a lot more of his work at his deviantART gallery.

He is also taking commissions.  You can check out his deviantART page linked in the scan above for more info.  Just scroll a ways and boom!… commission information, prices, etc..

Click this pic for more of The White Ninja Guy..

White Ninja Guy is Ian’s own creation, the titular star of his own webcomic.  He’s got his own website and everything!

Click this link for Ian's ustream channel.

Stop by when he’s on sometime and watch the magic happen.  Never know who you might meet.  I ran into  A Pack a Day contributor darkship there recently (I think it was Ian’s channel anyway).

Finally, as if $5 a pop and free shipping wasn’t enough for these great sketchbooks, he is also offering a free sketch (drawn on the last page in the book) of a character of your choice, for the time being at least.

Here are the characters I chose for myself and my dad:

My sketch: Raven of the Teen Titans

Pretty awesome, huh?  Another great reason to check out his channel: You might get to see your art being done live, as was the case with these. 😀

My dad's sketch: obscure-ish Green Lantern Jack T. Chance

I think Jack is the best one Ian drew all night.  Just outstanding!  He’s an old favorite of my dad’s and an obscure enough character that he wouldn’t expect me to choose him (he asked me to “surprise him” when I chose the sketch).

Well, there ya go.  Definitely amongst of the best five bucks I’ve ever spent.  If you have an extra $5 burning a hole in your pocket, I highly recommend picking up a copy.  I do believe you will be glad you did.

Until our next…

I’m Tired, Maybe Sick, and I have Nothing Interesting to Say

Yep, I think the title sums up where I’m at right now quite nicely.  So here’s a sketch from back when it wasn’t f***ing freezing.  It’s all I can muster for a post today.  Sorry…

Ones of several ideas I thought would make a good webcomic (note the awesome tagline), but I'm not sure I have the sequential art skillz yet. And I definitely don't have any of the other intangibles to keep a schedule (focus, drive, not getting burnt out in less than two weeks, etc.). Also, I don't sign stuff as Twitch much anymore. But ya gotta admit, that's a hella cool sig. 😛

Urgh, my body kinda feels like it used to after soccer practice in 6th grade, and don’t think I’m even close to full-blown sick yet.  Sleeping from now till about this time tomorrow afternoon would freakin’ ROCK.  Goodnight.

You have two choices.  I’m either going to faint or projectile vomit… choose carefully. o.O

Pack Breaks & Sketches

I got a couple fat packs of ’09 Topps Chrome at Walmart, cuz that’s what was available.  Seven cards and I guess two inserts or refractors per pack.

Pack 1

175 Bobby Parnell Mets RC- I am so sick of pulling Niese & Parnell rookies this year… I guess Max Scherzer found his anti-collection successors.

68 Jay Bruce- Jay Bruce got a Rookie Cup?  Really?  I didn’t think last year’s class was that weak.

129 Jeremy Bonderman Blue Refractor #ed /199- Blue refractors are nice, and less… odd, than bronze. For a flagship at least.

164 Ryan Zimmerman X-Fractor- Who needs an arbitrarily limited regular refractor of random color when you can have this?  The X-Fractors this year are officially SICK~!!  Gone is the s***ty over-the-top “static bling” of recent years, replaced by this much more subtle look… THAT MOVES~!!  This is the closest thing I’ve seen to an Atomic Refractor in years.  More of this plz.

90 Johan Santana

168 JD Drew

185 Everth Cabrera Padres RC

Checklist 3 of 3

Pack 2

97 Dustin Pedroia

147 Garrett Anderson

W8 Kenji Johjima World Baseball Classic- Have I mentioned how awesome I think the World Baseball Classic is?  I loooooooove it.  Keeper!

21 Brad Hawpe Refractor

19 Rich Harden- Keeper.

110 Jonathan Papelbon

121Francisco Rodriguez

Even if 2009 Topps Chrome’s design was total arse, it’d still be somewhat worthwhile entirely on the strength of it’s easily obtainable X-Fractors.  Fortunately, it looks good and has good photography from what I’ve seen too, so it’s a big winner all-around.  This probably won’t be the last of this I pick up, it’s right up there with Upper Deck X.

Also, to make up for lack of Chrome pictures (not that a scan could ever hope to convey the epicness of this years almost Atomic Refractor-quality X-Fractors), here’s a couple quickie sketches I did with a sharpie while sitting around downtown earlier this month:

Not too bad for 40-50 minutes combined when I’ve never done straight ink before I guess.

Until Our Next…

Claire #1

I missed posting a sketch for my one year anniversary of busting out my sketchbook for the first time by a long shot.  It’s already been a good 10 days or so.  But I suppose that is neither here nor there.  Art doesn’t need a reason, so here you go.

This is my friend Claire, the first of four sketches I’ve done of her so far.

I did this one exclusively in 3B instead of my usual much harder lead.  It was the first time I tried to use a softer lead after I started drawing again.  I’d like to be able say it was only like three months after I started, but I didn’t, and still don’t, draw nearly as frequently as I should.  So no, it was almost nine months later that I got around to expanding my horizons.  As Michael Cole would say, “VINTAGE Lonestarr~!”.  Yeah, I kinda fail sometimes.

Okay, I’ll shut up now.  Enjoy.

This is Lonestarr, signing off…

Mariana #1

Not too long ago I said I was going to start putting some art up on my blog.  Might as well start strong with one of my best efforts.  Here is my friend Mariana, as sketched by yours truly.  Hope you like it.

My Art

A few days ago a friend of mine mentioned that I needed to update my blog because he was sick of looking at the outdated blaster box breaks.  An understandable sentiment to be sure, but I don’t know what to write about, so I’ve still yet to update.  I’m probably never going to catch up on the rest of the pack breaks, and I don’t experience a lot of talk about-worthy things being stuck where I’m at in life for the time being.  But there is something I can do.

I was considered a pretty good artist for my age back in my formative years.  When I was about 14 though, I just stopped getting better.  Eventually I pretty much just stopped altogether in frustration and the fact that I was in a horrible downward spiral at the time.  I still have my problems, but I’m in a place that isn’t quite as bad now, though I’d hardly even call it acceptable.

Last March I picked up the sketchbook my dad got me for Christmas the year before.  I drew Ness from Earthbound… and it wasn’t too bad.  Then I drew a picture of a friend.  It wasn’t real good, but in the past I would have given up instead of keeping at it and finishing it.  I’ve kept drawing off & on all year, getting a little better each time, and while I’m nowhere near as good as my dad or little brother, the artistic talent that runs in my family has apparently not completely skipped me.

With that in mind, I’m going to begin adding some of my art to my blog.  Maybe a day will come when I can actually make a little cash off of my skillz, maybe not, but in the past 10+ months I’ve rediscovered this little joy from my younger days, so I think I’ll share it on this here blog.  After all, it’s another thing going on behind these hazel eyes that makes me, me.

Look for my art, both the comic and the realistic, coming soon to Behind These Hazel Eyes.

A little preview...