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!

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!

Ghetto Illustration

Ink Drawing done for my inking class at SCAD.

I have a sad little story about this drawing. I left the original of this image in the scanner at Wallin Hall about two and a half hours before the building closed. I didn't realize until the next morning, and went over immediately, and the drawing was gone. People leave drawings lying around that building all the time, so I know it was probably stolen. I asked around the hall and none of the professors or administrators had seen it, nor had it been turned in.

Sad.

If anyone ever sees the original of this image or an unauthorized copy of it, please email me and let me know at erykdonovan@yahoo.com

Regardless, I'm glad I have the image that I can still share with everyone!

8x6 on 2 ply bristol board
Pen and Ink

Smuggler's Run Cover

The cover for my upcoming short story in the SeqaPunch! Anthology! It's a brand new black and white comic anthology featuring unknown and up and comers! Check it out!

Banner - Pencils to Inks

I decided that I need a new banner for my blog. I really like the stars and the moon, but I think it's a little dated at this point, and I want to have something for the New Year!

Clean workspace please!

So for starters, I clean my desk and get my pencilling tools ready. I usually do prelim sketches on copy paper.

I usually end up using 3 different erasers when I pencil. This is probably a little overkill, but I end up using each to erase different lines. The automatic eraser is the newest addition, and is great for removing pencil that I may have worked up too far and realized I need to get rid of. The other two are for lighter erasing.

Now I have a sketch on the copy paper. This is loose and spontaneous, but it needs to be defined enough to transfer to the actual art board.

Taped to Bristol

I've got the copy paper taped to the artboard, made sure the angles are correct, and then get out my lightbox.

Transferred to the artboard.

 At this point I have now transferred the sketch to the bristol board that I'm going to have the finished art on. This piece is 9x12. I want to keep some of the spontaneity of the original sketch, but I define the lines better.

Detail on the pilot.

Detail on the mecha.

Ready to ink.

I work up the detail on the pilot and then move to the mecha. I am told by my fiancee the mecha sketch looks like a fairy. You can see that I make a notation of the ellipse that I'll need for inking near the shape on the pencils.

 

Here are inking tools that I use, and that I'll need for this piece. French curve, Triangle, Glass ashtray for ink, Notched ash tray to hold brushes, Black ink for drawing and white ink for touch ups. Micron technical pens .005 .01 .05; Faber Castell M Artist Pen. Raphael #1 for line work, #2 for touchup, #2 for dry brushing and spotting blacks, and a G-Nib dip pen.

Once everything is set up and cleaned, I'm ready to go! Inking Ho!

Faces first!

After faces, foreground

Some texture and detail, then move to the design.

Start inking the mecha

Linework on mecha.

Line work done.

At this point the linework is pretty much finished, and it's time to spot blacks. I used primarily brush for the pilot in the foreground, and the G-nib for the mecha, however the tight ruled lines were done with the technical pen. It is now time for black!

Covered up with Post-it notes.

Black texture for the design.

More black

Final Blacks and Textures.

I use post it notes to cover up the parts of the board I don't want to ink. This allows me to continue the stroke through without holding off at the end. I'm overall pleased with the result, but I've made a few mistakes that I need to fix.

All done!

After touching up with the white ink, and adding some texture, I decide that the chest of the pilot jacket looks a little too empty, so I add on the patch.  I sign the piece and I'm all done!

The Adem

New art!

I have been reading Patrick Rothfuss's Wise Man's Fear, and I was inspired to draw some of the Adem mercenaries from the story. I don't use color often, much less traditionally, but I felt it was worth a shot, and I'm pretty please with how it came out. The blood red garb of the mercenaries is a primary trait that is a centerpoint of their design, so I had to include it!

I have been pretty busy over the past few weeks, between work, figuring out wedding plans, and getting stuff set up for the move and I have not made nearly as much time for myself to draw as I should have. Two weeks ago Kate and I went to Savannah to find an apartment, and were lucky enough to find a totally sweet spot that we both love, and pretty much fit every criteria we were looking for. This past weekend was spent looking at wedding venues, moving the remainder of my packed belongings to her apartment, and spending time with the family over the 4th of July.

All in all it was a pretty great weekend, but I have been jonesing to sit down at the drawing board, so tonight was more that just work, it was pure fun.

Im still working on the comic, updates will continue!