Ghost Rider Black & White

Here's a sketch of the Marvel comics character Ghost Rider.

It's done in black ball point pen with some spatters from a tooth brush... and a little bit of black sharpie for the solid black area. You might notice a few "breaks" in the artwork. That's because I made some adjustments to the artwork after I scanned it in. I am currently working on this piece in Photoshop and digitally painting it. Should be fun!

When it's all done, I'll tell you what it's for... but not until then.

Red Sonja Sketch Card

This is a Red Sonja commission I did. It was my first sketch card and it was fun. The images above are the sketch and then the final inked version. The sketch is the standard non-repro blue pencil and the finished inks were done with brush for the most part. The chain mail and a few other details were done with a tech pen.

The subject matter is a little grim, but hey... she's a barbarian!

Enjoy!

Flora for Laura

Here's an acrylic painting I did for my girlfriend this Christmas.
I haven't painted in a while, but it was just like riding a bike... kinda dangerous, but worth the risk!
She likes Paris and flowers and these colors, so that's where I started.
I've never been to France so I looked up some photos on the web, selected a few I liked and started scribbling some thumbnail sketches.
I put a couple of coats of gesso on a 16 x 20 canvas board, let it dry and then lightly sanded the surface. I paint kinda thin, so I try to get a smoother surface. From there, I just started painting. I roughed it out in purple first. I knew that was going to be an important color in the end image. That's about it. I work background to foreground (standard stuff) and built up in layers. The end image is made-up. I used reference for the flowers and the Eiffel tower, but as a whole I assembled it.
She was happy with the final piece, which made me happy!

Bird in a Bathing Suit

So, I haven't updated this thing in a while, but not because I haven't been working. Quite the contrary, I've been working on illustrations for a children's book titled "Bird in a Bathing Suit". The author, Dawn Mitchell, was kind enough to allow me to share some of the work with everyone. It's just a sneak peak, I'm about half way through the illustrations for the book. I'll let everyone know where and when they can pick up a copy of this awesome project when it's completed.
For those of you that wanna know the process, here's the run down:
After reading the prose for the story, I did an initial illustration to see if Dawn liked the same style I had in mind. She did! So the next thing I did was a series of thumb nail sketches to plan out the book. I sent them to Dawn and she liked that too (she's by far the best client ever!).
Then I started at page 1. I did the rough sketch in blue pencil and then tightened it up with standard HB lead in my Staedtler Mechanical pencil. Sent that to Dawn, after revisions to the sketch, I added color in Photoshop. For most elements I kept things on separate layers (Sky, Ground, Trees, etc.). Once I had all the base colors blocked in, I added tone and texture. For the kids and birds I made a "lights" layer and a "darks" layer. So, if I am adding tone to a bird for instance, I select the bird (and the color), and on the "lights" layer (which is set to a screen layer effect) I'd brush in the light tones of the bird. Then I'd move to the "darks" layer (which is set to a multiply layer effect) I'd add in the dark tones of the bird. Using varying brushes and opacities, thats how I rendered each character.
Stay tuned for the completed book and more projects!