Megaman

I'm a really big fan of Megaman. Not only his design, but also, for the vivid memories of him making me melt down in utter frustration, the bitter taste of failure after pathetic failure poisoning my psyche and still just having so much fun that I'd always keep coming back for more.

I drew this image of Megaman a little while back, and had my very talented brother Daniel Morrow mock-up a loving homage to those days of blowing in cartridges and thowing the controllers in fits of rage. You should give his blog a look, it's a minimalist's dream!

Enjoy!

Madman: A step-by-step look

I've recently had a few people ask me about my process, so I thought it might be time to have a proper post regarding how I work. For this example, I decided to draw Mike Allred's Madman because I love his costume and felt like drawing a leather jacket.
Conveniently, THE MADMAN 20th ANNIVERSARY MONSTER has just been released and it looks like a beautiful book, seek out a copy if you haven't yet!


Due to time constraints, I didn't get to mess with composition too much, (I'd like to add some street Beatniks at some point and a proper background) but my process in that regard isn't so different from any other artist, I'll start with a post-it sized drawing, figure everything out and then transfer it to a larger sheet of paper.

I'm left-handed and smudge a lot when I draw, so I use a very hard lead (4H) to block out shapes and proportions, when I'm happy with the pose and everything, I'll draw everything up in much the way an inker would, however, I do this in HB pencil. This is all done in a 9"x 12" sketchbook, I should add.

If I were to add a background, I would do this with a lightbox on a different sheet. I try to be as messy as I need to be here and clean up as I go. (The Aquaman piece, seen lower on the homepage for instance, was done on 5 seperate sheets of paper.)

Okay, I'll admit I got overexcited and forgot to scan a step, sorry. Here, I lightbox all of the messy pencils onto a nice, clean sheet of bristol in HB pencil. Since I've made my light source decisions in the sketchy phase, I don't shade the piece in pencil, preferring to create mass entirely in marker.

Basically, I use Cool and Warm gray tone markers and try to create textures for different surfaces. (Leather boots, soft leather for the jacket, hair, etc.) While also taking the light source into account.

I finish by inking the outer edges in black with Faber-Castell pens, and soften the edges with a black color pencil. I find this makes the drawing kind of pop off the page a bit more.

I then scan the image and flat it out, nothing fancy.

Then I proceed to color it in Photoshop CS5, no real science behind it: I use the stock brushes and probably way too many layers, and voilà! One Madman drawing done by yours truly!


I hope this has been interesting, and that you've enjoyed the piece.

Thanks for reading!

Kelly Tindall's Archie Snow

It was my friend Kelly Tindall's birthday recently, and since I wanted to draw my favorite creation of his, Archie Snow, I segued that into a gift, because I'm ever so kind. But seriously, If you aren't aware of Archie (He appeared in a back-up story in the Image comic PROOF, among other things) or of Kelly's work you should definitely check it out!

Also, I always think of Bill Nighy when I draw Archie Snow. That's apparently too old, but I don't care: Bill Nighy.

Br-Aquaman

When friends ask me to draw things for them, I tend to try their patience quite a bit. I procrastinate until I feel bad about making them wait, so I then try to salvage my broken friendships by giving them a little extra.

Here's one such occasion in which I drew Aquaman for a friend.

And here it is in color, because I'm all about going above and beyond.


Enjoy!

Montreal Mini-Con 2011

I'm going to have a table at the Montreal Mini-Con this Sunday December 4th, at Place Bonaventure. I'll have this Hellboy print, some sketches (I'll also be drawing in-person) and a brand new original mini-comic called "Wishes".

Come by and say hi!

Neil Gaiman's Death

Here's a marker sketch done in anticipation of the Montreal Mini-Con on December 4th. It's of Neil Gaiman's version of Death as seen in the classic series Sandman from Vertigo. I decided to use Seventh Seal by Ingmar Bergman as influence because I thought it would be fun, also, I'm pretty pretentious.

Do enjoy!

Pure Steele

After a prolonged absence, I have returned! Here is an image from a book I get to work on with Some fantastic people, I'll just let the website namedrop for me, if you don't mind:

Pure Steele

It's a fantastic project so far, and I'm really proud to be a small part of it, as it's going to be a gorgeous book. So be sure to keep an eye out for it!

UPDATE: And now here it is colored, because I said so.