In the Dark and TipJar - Projects to knock your socks off!

Hey all!

I know I haven’t been updating much recently, but that’s because I’m hard at work!  I am proud to announce that I’m part of two awesome Kickstarter projects right now! They are both very cool, and if you like comics, horror, or just art in general, at least one of these projects is for you!

Here’s the low down and dirty -


IN THE DARK ANTHOLOGY

In the Dark is a brand new horror anthology featuring some of the top and up and coming talent in the comics industry today, and is a great chance to get an anthology full of unique voices doing really cool horror tales. In the vein of the old Tales of the Crypt, Creepy, and other classic horror anthologies, you aren’t going to want to miss this!

The project is spearheaded by Rachael Deering, and she was great enough to pair me up with James Tynion IV, a talented writer and all around nice guy who has given me one of most terrifying monsters to draw. Our tale is going to blow you away!

Pledges for In the Dark start as low as $10 for the full version in PDF, and more for the hardcover. There are still some really cool donation reward tiers open, so it’s WELL worth your time and money! Take a look at In the Dark here!



TIPJAR SKETCH COLLECTION


TipJar is a really cool project masterminded by my great friend Nicky Soh and organized by the rad Jen Hickman! This project is a chance to get to support fresh talent, and get to know new artists(and great people) in a very intimate way- Through their sketchbooks.

Every artist knows that for every good drawing, there’s countless sketches and process work that goes into it’s creation. This is a chance to see some of each artists unique work process, as well as a chance to see experimental work that wouldn’t typically be shown portfolios, or even sketchblogs! Each artist has selected the best of their sketchworks, and contributed at least 50 sketches to the project.

Donations for TipJar start at $1. The more you “tip” the more art you’ll get. Even $1 will get you 300 awesome images, and for as little as $10 you can get the full Megabook - 700 pages of awesomeness. There are also increased reward tiers as well, and for $75 you can get the full package, 4 prints, and an original sketch commission of your choice!

Check out TipJar here! $1 isn’t much to ask to support awesome art and keep us going!


Opportunities like this aren’t going to coming around often, and trust me, you’ll want to say you were there when it happened!


Please support these projects by donating, and if that’s more than your situation allows, please share, reblog, and spread the word to your other art loving friends!

Thanks!

Missing Portfolio from Baltimore Comic-Con

So it seems my good friend Jorge Corona lost his portfolio this past weekend at the Baltimore Comic-Con Convention center.

Most likely it was missed amongst the craziness packing up at the end of the show. We were all sitting together and there were probably 6-10 similar looking portfolios all sitting near each other and somehow it was missed during the hubbub.

Almost all of his best work including the pages for his first professional work is in there, and it is really heartbreaking for him.

This is a request to please keep an eye out for it. Unfortunately it only has his name on the interior and no contact information, so if you have seen it or have any information about it, please contact either -

Morgan Beem at - morganbeem (at) gmail (dot) com

or

Jorge Corona at - jorgecorona86 (at) gmail (dot) com

At their respective email addresses.


If you are an art dealer or collector and see any of these pieces for sale, consider them stolen, and please contact us and the authorities.

Thanks!

HeroesCon Table Placement!

Come see myself and :icondimsumdemon: at HeroesCon 2013!! We'll be there all weekend with prints, con sketches, and original art!

Hope to see you there!!

I'll also have a special edition print for the con featuring characters from Mike Wieringo and Todd Dezago's Tellos! Half of the proceeds from sales will go to the Wieringo Scholarship!

HeroesCon Tellos Print Preview

Here's a preview of the special edition print I'm doing for HeroesCon this year! The Wieringo Scholarship really changed my life, and gave me a boost right when I needed it most, and I want to give back somehow.

Tellos is a really special comic, and I know how much Mike loved these characters, so it only seemed fitting I honor his memory this way! Half of the proceeds from the sales of the print will go to the scholarship fund, to help the next up and coming artist along the way. I will also be donating the original art to the HeroesCon auction!

I'll have colored versions of the print at table AA-712, so be sure to drop by and check it out! Hope to see you there!

HeroesCon Print Preview!

Heres the black and white art for a print I'll have at HeroesCon this year. Little redesign of my character you may have seen before!

Enjoy!

Con Banner!

I decided I should get one of these! It'll be debuted at HeroesCon this year! Enjoy!

HeroesCon 2013 - Sketch Prices and more!!!

I sure hope to see you at HeroesCon this year!

I am sharing a table with my good buddy , and I'll be selling my mini comic Fix as well as prints and Sketch Commissions!

All sketches are fully finished ink drawings, and I'm focusing on quality over quantity here. One figure per drawing. I may consider some multi-figure options if enough people are interested, but it will be priced accordingly.

Prices are as follows -

6x9 Bust/Headshot - $25

9x12 Full Figure - $50


I love meeting fans, other artists, and anyone who has an interest in drawing and comics, so drop by and say Hi! I guarantee it'll be worth your time!

I'll also be putting a special original piece up at the auction from my special edition HeroesCon Limited print, so keep your eye open for that!

What is it you say!? You'll have to drop by to see!

Sandman: Dream into Dream

Illustration of Dream from Neil Gaiman's Sandman, published by Vertigo Comics. I sent this one in as an art submission for the San Diego International Comic-Con Souvenir Book, hopefully it'll make it in!

Enjoy!

You Never Know: Page Process for Playlist Kickstarter

Zoom in for Full view!


As you may know, I'm currently working on a project called "You Never Know" for an upcoming comic anthology called Playlist , which is being Kickstarted right now!

All of the comics in the anthology are based around songs by different musicians or bands, drawn in different unique styles. This is something awesome that you'll definitely want to be a part of, so check it out!

The song is a sort of Supernatural Horror/Noir tale that is inspired by and based on the song You Never Know by the band Brazil! Here is a breakdown of the page process step by step.

It's pretty self-explanatory but let me just give a little bit of clarification here.

1 - Concept Art
----------------------
After getting the general idea for the story from reading the song I do a rough concept design. This gives me a solid visual for what to think about when I'm drawing the thumbnails and finished pages.


2- Song Analysis
----------------------
This is one of the more exciting parts for me as a storyteller. Since the story was originally written as a song with verse rather than as a comic script, it's up to me to break down each page and panel. This gives me a LOT of freedom and makes the process really enjoyable.


3 - Thumbnails
----------------------
Once I know what's going on each page as far as the song is concerned, now it's up to me to break it down into individual panels. This goes hand in hand with the script analysis part. These thumbnails are VERY rough. If I was working with an editor or published house I imagine they might be a little frightened about these almost illegible scribbles, so I would have to tighten them up more. I probably should anyway, because coming back to these a few weeks later I even had to discern what I was drawing a few times. Regardless, when it's just for me I don't feel the same need to make these totally definite, I want the freedom to play with the layout and panels just a bit when I get to drawing the page.

4 - Pencils
----------------------
Rough pencils. I ink my own work so I'm not as concerned with having a final line, black placement, or rendering as I would if I were handing this off to another artist. This saves me time, as well as makes the inking more exciting for me as I usually do it the same day as the pencils. If I made finished pencils and then inked them it would probably take me close to 15-20 hours, and there's just not enough time in the day for that. These pencils are darkened up significantly in Photoshop so that you can actually see them onscreen.

5 - Inks
----------------------
I think I'm with a lot of artists who ink themselves in that this is my FAVORITE part of making comics. I love coming up with the storytelling and figuring out how to draw the different parts of my story, but the feel of the pens and brushes on the board is really awesome, as well as the variety of marks I can make with them. After inking I erase the pencils, scan, crop, and threshold the inks to get just black and white.




Hope you enjoyed and for all of you interested in making comics I hope this is helpful!


Please check out the Playlist Kickstarter page! We currently have 10 days left to go and it's going to be a tight squeeze for funding! If you found this useful, like comics and/or music, please share it with your friends and back us if it' something you think is cool!

Thanks again!

I use -

Strathmore 500 Series Semi-Smooth 11x17
4H Pencil core and mechanical lead
Micron, Brush, Rapidograph, Marker

The Following - Kevin Bacon

Sketch from class with colors added!

Kevin Bacon as Ryan Hardy from The Following.

Enjoying the show a lot!

Dust Comic Inks!

Hey cool! Inks for the first four pages of my graphic novel Dust! Hope you enjoy!

Doing them for my Sequential Art Senior Project at SCAD.

You can check out the original rough pencils here if you are so inclined!

Playlist! Brand new Kickstarter project!

I have an announcement to make! I'm excited to say that I will be collaborating with one of my favorites, the super cool band Brazil, in creating a comic for an awesome kickstarter project called Playlist!

This is the cover for our tale, entitled You Never Know, based on Brazil's song of the same name.

This project is featuring 200 pages of awesome comics from a bunch of great, talented and super nice comic illustrators! Every story will feature a song interpreted by one of the artists into comic form. There will be a wide variety of artistic style and voice, all bringing music by some great musicians and bands to life!

Please take a look at the project and help us bring this amazing project to fruition!

You can check out some of the great artist's on their dA sites here!

Our editor and awesome artist!





And many more!


Really excited to see this project happen! It is going to be totally unique and something really special that you'll want to be a part of!

Our success will be because of you! Enjoy, spread the word, and donate!

Thanks!

ArtBook - Sixty Shades of Blue - Nicky Soh Kickstarter

Recently my good buddy Nicky Soh started a Kickstarter for an art collection book called Sixty Shades of Blue! It looks like an awesome project, and I highly recommend donating to it, or in the least sharing the project with friends who enjoy this kind of stuff as well!

Let me just give you a little background on the project!

Last spring, Nicky started creating small illustrations in his free time as a way of relieving himself of any pressure from his other projects. It was a way to both experiment with style and drawing techniques, as well as cathartic means to draw unusual content. I am lucky enough to own one of these drawings, and I gotta tell you, they are all beautiful.

After amassing an amount of these, and having enough interest from friends and family, Nicky decided to put them into a compilation art book, and share them with the world! He also will include 20 pages of process and preliminary sketches, and has asked myself and 14 other super talented artists to do our own interpretation of his drawings for the book if the project gets funded!

I'm really excited about this project, and I think you should be too!

Here are some of my favorites of his blue pencils drawings that you could expect to see in the book!

Crazy Robot

WTF!?

SmokeHead

Bang!Bang! I'm lucky enough to have the original for this one!

Aren't they great! There are 56 more to be seen in this awesome collection! Take a look, check it out, and share the love!

Something Cool - Teaser!

 

Whats this!?

Something cool is coming soon to Kickstarter and I'm a part of it! Keep an eye out!

Dust - Rough Pencils

Hey just an update here!

Been a bit, I've been working on my Sequential Art Senior project at SCAD the past few weeks, and it's pretty much my main focus, so I haven't been updating as much currently.

That said, I want to show a few rough pages from my project, a comic called Dust! You may recall that I've had a few different pieces of art up for this here and there!

These are rough pencils, and I'll be inking over top of what you see here!

Enjoy!

All of these are done in non-repro blue pencil, but have been darkened and converted to grayscale so they can be seen better.

2013, HeroesCon, and upcoming Comics Projects!

Time to update!

I am currently two weeks into the final quarter of my senior year, mere weeks away from finishing my undergraduate degree, a Bachelor's of Fine Arts in Sequential Art at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

It's been an amazing four or so years here, and it has definitely changed my life for the better. I have not only the drive to succeed, but the tools and means to as well. Four years ago I decided to take control of my life and make a change, pursue the dream that floated in my head since I was a child. Now I'm seeing one of the first milestones in that dream come true!

So what does this really all mean?

Currently for my senior project, I'm working on pages for a graphic novel story that I wrote in spring of last year. I'll be taking the package to a few publishers, hopefully piquing their interest, and getting my first major tale into the world and into people's hands. There is no guarantee of course that my book will get picked up, but that's not going to stop me from completing it and seeing it published, even if it means I need to do this myself. I'll be keeping all of you updated with everything I can in relation to this and it's progress.

I am also working on a really cool anthology project headed up by the talented and hardworking . It's called "Playlist" and it's going to have awesome comics drawn by myself and friends of mine based on awesome songs and music that inspires all of us. There will be a Kickstarter for this project sometime in the next few weeks or months, and any and all support we can get for this will be great. Share, donate, support comics and art! Believe me, this will a project you'll want to be a part of.

Finally, I have my first gallery show next month here in Savannah Ga. It's called "The Underground Comix Show" and it will feature original art and stories by local comic artists and illustrators in Savannah. If you are in the area and like comics, independent artists, and/or unique stories, this is will be the place to be! Mini-comics of the work shown will be available, and it's going to be awesome.

The show starts at 6pm February 8th at the Ashmore Gallery, and will be open until February 12th.  You can check out more info at the facebook event site here [link]

I'll also be opening commission projects up once I've graduated, probably on a 1-3 slot rotating basis for those interested. Keep an eye out for announcements concerning this, if you're interested in getting an awesome original illustration from me, this will be the time.


I will also have a table this year at HeroeCon in Charlotte, NC. If you go to HeroesCon or are in the area, come by and say hi, buy some prints or a sketch, and chat! I'll be sure to update when I have table numbers and specifics!

Until next time!

Fix Cover - Underground Comix Show - Feb 8th!

Cover for Fix, the short story that I made for the Underground Comix Show at the Ashmore Gallery in Savannah, GA.

I'll be displaying the original artwork, and selling mini-comics of the story! Come check it out!

You can get more info here!


The opening for the Show is 6pm February 8th, and the artwork will be in the gallery til Tuesday the 12th!

Enjoy! Hope to see you there!

A Boy and His Bike

Concept illustration for Dust, the story I'm working on for my senior project.

Enjoy!

Fix - Page 4

I've been working on a short story over the school break. It's an 8 pager that will be featured The Underground Comix show on February 8, 2013 at the Ashmore Gallery here in Savannah, Ga.

I've been having a good time with these pages and I figured I'd drop in and let everyone see how it's been (slowly) coming along!

Mega Man

Oh hey! Mega man! SWEET!

Little warmupsketch which took me longer than I thought. Ah well! Enjoy!

Robyn Hood

My buddy Pat Shand writes the comic book Robyn Hood, and I figured I'd take a stab at his character today for my sketch drawing!

Enjoy!

Punisher

Warmup drawing today before inking. Punisher is pretty cool. I always enjoy drawing big muscular dudes with guns, so it was just soothing the Id today.

Enjoy!