Drawn at some point in the early 2000s, here's yet another incomplete commissioned story fragment in proto-Empowered comic format, this time featuring Dirty Pair's Kei tangling with a drone from Kenichi Sonoda's Cannon God Exaxxion manga (for which I did the English-language rewriting on the Studio Proteus/ Dark Horse Comics translated version, back in the fabled day).
As these pages were never intended...
2020-09-16 14:28:33 +0000 UTC
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Behold, a cover illo that my buddy Ryan Kinnaird and I did for a sourcebook—Games of Divinity, it seems?—from the pen & paper RPG Exalted, probably back in the early 2000s or thereabouts; sorry, no time to look up the details right now (or later, TBH). Line art by me, color art and 3D background rendering(!) by Ryan.
To me, his piece is notably less successful than the later two Exalted covers I drew, ...
2020-09-15 13:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Once again, I'm doubling up with this week's set of life drawings from random photoref. (Someday I'll have to downgrade to a single piece per post, but my buffer of these pieces remains reasonably large.) First above is a set from April 2018, while the second set is an example from February 2017, still fairly early on in the effort.
Below, enjoy(?) the higher-res, raw and untweaked grayscale scans as PSD attachments.
2020-09-14 13:01:02 +0000 UTC
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Running waaaaay behind today after shower repair consumed the last few workdays, so here's a hasty post of the next three images in my hard drive folder of old con sketches.
The first two were 2006 commissions for a fan of the SF TV series Farscape, of which I've seen a few episodes, but not the ones that (I assume) featured either scenario with the characters above.
Not sure if the third commission (from 2002) was an Original Character, or if I ...
2020-09-11 12:51:07 +0000 UTC
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Following up on Tuesday's post, here are the rest of the scans of recently unearthed photocopies of the 1993 story The Dirty Pair: I Honestly Hate You, which was originally done for a Dark Horse San Diego Comic-Con promotional comic, then reprinted as a bonus feature in the DH TPB collection of the first DP miniseries Biohazards.
I consider this story a bit ...
2020-09-10 13:01:02 +0000 UTC
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Running way, way behind today due to real-life complications, so here's a hastily scraped-together DiD post. First up is a CSP sketch set of two damsel-based monthly art requests from the $20 Patron tier; fairly self-explanatory, I think, along with the Bettie Page ref photo referred to in the Ocelotina cosplay image.
The last two images require a bit more explanation. They were meant to be a continuation of a Meta-Emp Commentary scene from Empowered v...
2020-09-09 19:19:19 +0000 UTC
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Behold, brand-new scans of recently unearthed photocopies of the 1993 story The Dirty Pair: I Honestly Hate You, originally done for a Dark Horse San Diego Comic-Con giveaway book, then reprinted as a bonus feature in the DH TPB collection of the first DP miniseries Biohazards.
I consider this story a bit of a rarity, given that I have no remaining copies of either the SDCC "floppy" or the Biohazards TPB, nor ...
2020-09-08 13:01:03 +0000 UTC
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Yet again, I'm doubling up with this week's set of life drawings from random photoref. (Someday I'll have to downgrade to a single piece per post, but my buffer of these pieces remains reasonably large.) First above is a set from May 2018, while the second set is an example from February 2017, still fairly early on in the effort.
Below, enjoy(?) the higher-res, raw and untweaked grayscale scans as PSD attachments.
2020-09-07 13:00:04 +0000 UTC
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I'm slowly emptying out my hard drive's folder of scanned con sketches, so here's the next few commissions up, dating from 2001 through 2003. A few words:
That is, of course, "Bad Yuri"—and, by the end, the only Yuri—from my 1995 miniseries Dirty Pair: Fatal But Not Serious.
2020-09-04 13:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Recently unearthed these Dirty Pair character design sheets for Yuri, which date back to 1998 or so, around the time of the Start the Violence story originally serialized in Dark Horse Presents. (You can check out the Kei designs here.)
NOTE TO PATREON TRUST & SAFETY TEAM: Yuri is this character's name, okay? This post con...
2020-09-03 13:00:05 +0000 UTC
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I'm presently working on stories from four different points in Empowered vol.12. Today, I finished work on a three-page "Emp in distress" sequence that bridges two existing story fragments. I'll insert the relevant pages below, and try to clarify what the hell you're reading.
First off, let's jump to the final page of a previously excepted sequence, with ended with bad guys admitting that they feel inexplicably compelled to bedamsel Emp, then taking off:
...
2020-09-02 14:04:18 +0000 UTC
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Recently unearthed these Dirty Pair character design sheets for Kei, which date back to 1998 or so, around the time of the Start the Violence story originally serialized in Dark Horse Presents. (That final, full-body design sheet featuring both Kei & Y**i's been kicking around for a while, though.)
The notes on the designs seem to suggest that they're for another artist's reference, which might mean that they were part of one of my...
2020-09-01 13:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Yet again, I'm doubling up with this week's set of life drawings from random photoref. (Someday I'll have to downgrade to a single piece per post, but my buffer of these pieces remains reasonably large.) First above is a set from May 2018, while the second set is an example from February 2017, still fairly early on in the effort. UPDATE: Nope, looks like I put the more striking 2017 sketch set first.
Below, enjoy(?) the higher-res, raw and u...
2020-08-31 13:01:00 +0000 UTC
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With the time-consuming Empowered vol.12 restart now well underway, finding time to work on art requests from the higher tiers has been a serious challenge. Finally got around to tackling 'em this week, only to run into trouble as I found myself very rusty indeed after 3+ weeks away from Clip Studio Paint. Anyhoo, here are a bunch of the sketch sets featuring a varied array of Patron suggestions.
THIS WEEKEND, EXCLUSIVE TO THE $10 & $20 TIERS:
2020-08-28 14:25:23 +0000 UTC
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UPDATE: Accidentally scheduled this post to go up at 9pm instead of the usual 9am. Whoops! Well, here it is in the afternoon, only 5 hours late.
Following up on Tuesday's "roughs, pencils & inks" post, here are the final cover colors (and my color guides) for another mid-2000s cover illo I drew for a sourcebook from the pen-and-paper RPG Exalted. I think
2020-08-27 18:02:54 +0000 UTC
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Behold, a commissioned story fragment (in proto-Empowered format) from the early 2000s featuring the "hot pants & garter belts"—& opera gloves!—costume variation of Dirty Pair's Y**i finding herself DiDed yet again.
Note that the Lovely Angel's uncharacteristic helplessness could no doubt could be explained away as part of an interactive simulation, per the Dirty Pair: Fatal But Not Serious<...
2020-08-26 13:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Once again, got 5 g-d minutes for this post; clock is tickin', folks!
Followng up on a similar post from last week, here are the initial B&W work stages on another mid-2000s cover illo I drew for a sourcebook from the pen-and-paper RPG Exalted. I think the book's title was something along the lines of Exalted: The Books of Sorcery: The Roll of Glorious Divini...
2020-08-25 13:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Yet again, I'm doubling up with this week's set of life drawings from random photoref. (Someday I'll have to downgrade to a single piece per post, but my buffer of these pieces remains reasonably large.) First above is a set from May 2018, while the second set is an example from February 2017, still fairly early on in the effort.
Below, enjoy(?) the higher-res, raw and untweaked grayscale scans as PSD attachments.
2020-08-24 13:01:02 +0000 UTC
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"Griff-voiced, pointy-eared" being my semi-oblique way to refer to Batman-related commissions, natch. Pretty sure I have quite a few more con sketches with this content theme, but these three are all I could find in my PC's scanned "CON SKETCHES" folder; down the road, I'll dig up the relevant pieces and scan 'em for a future Friday (or two).
Had a rough time with that 2004 Harley Quinn piece as I disliked drawing her regular costume intensely, hence the bit ab...
2020-08-21 13:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Following up on Tuesday's post of the initial B&W work stages, here are the final colors (and my uncharacteristically minimalistic color guides) on a mid-2000s cover illo I drew for a sourcebook from the pen-and-paper RPG Exalted. A helpful commenter looked it up, and the book's full title appears to have been a sprawling affair along the lines of Exa...
2020-08-20 13:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Behold, a three-page "DP DiD" story fragment from, I think, the early 2000s, judging by the character designs. A friend wanted a few pages of Dirty Pair's Yuri (his favorite) in distress, so I did a brief scene loosely adapted from a "real" DP plotline I'd worked up involving the Angels running afoul of a hotel's hacked "smart suite."
Note that a "real" DP story probably wouldn't have featured quite thi...
2020-08-19 13:15:59 +0000 UTC
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Got 5 g-d minutes for this post; clock is tickin', folks!
Behold, the initial B&W work stages on a mid-2000s cover illo I drew for a sourcebook from the pen-and-paper RPG Exalted. I think the book's title was either Glorious Divinity or Games of Divinity; no time to check right now, alas.
Thursday, check back in for my color guides and the thoroughly badass final color...
2020-08-18 13:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Yet again, I'm doubling up with this week's set of life drawings from random photoref. (Someday I'll have to downgrade to a single piece per post, but my buffer of these pieces remains reasonably large.) First above is a set from May 2018, while the second set is an example from February 2017, still fairly early on in the effort.
Below, enjoy(?) the higher-res, raw and untweaked grayscale scans as PSD attachments.
2020-08-17 13:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Only have a few minutes to post this sucker before immediately getting back to work on Empowered vol.12's WTF-tastic opening pages, so lemme quickly tell ya that these are all pieces based on commissioners' original characters. (Come to think of it, the first is an illo I did for a TPB collection of the webcomic Applegeeks, which still counts as an OC commission, I suppose. Then again, of course, everyone in Empowered
2020-08-14 13:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Yesterday, as a birthday present I drew a character-portrait illo for one of the players (who miiiight be related to me) from the D&D 5e campaign I've been running off and on since late last year. (In case you're wondering, Halfling Rogue with an Entertainer background, hence the pan flute.)
As I did the piece in the two-color (actually three, counting eyes and nails), 11" X 14" format I've been using for con sketches and commissions, I decided to document the work pr...
2020-08-13 13:01:03 +0000 UTC
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Recently dug up a few photocopies of vintage con sketches with a DiD theme, so here they is! The first two are, of course, Major Kusanagi from Ghost in the Shell; the third is Chiffon, an obscure character from (I think) Shirow's manga Dominion; and the last is Giant Robomaid Anna from my 1998 miniseries Gen13: Magical Drama Queen Roxy, accompanied by a color guide from the series in case you'd forgotten her.
...
2020-08-12 13:01:02 +0000 UTC
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Work stages on the cover illo for Empowered vol.8, folks! Final colors by the great Rob "Robaato" Porter, by the way.
The stages are pretty self-explanatory save perhaps for the next-to-last image, which was a mock-up color guide I worked up for Rob to show what FX and correx I wanted.
QUESTION FOR LONG-TIME PATRONS: Er, does anyone remember if I posted the work stages for the back cover illos of Empowered vols. ...
2020-08-11 13:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Yet again, I'm doubling up with this week's set of life drawings from random photoref. (Someday I'll have to downgrade to a single piece per post, but my buffer of these pieces remains reasonably large.) First above is a set from May 2018, while the second set is an example from February 2017, still fairly early on in the effort.
Below, enjoy(?) the higher-res, raw and untweaked grayscale scans as PSD attachments.
2020-08-10 13:01:03 +0000 UTC
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I'm working through the remaining scanned pieces in my CON SKETCHES folder more or less in alphabetical order (with the files rather haphazardly named, BTW), hence this rather random bunch of pieces from varying years.
First up:
As important as the Moore/ Bissette/ Totleben/ Veitch run on Swamp Thing was to me (I wound up at the Kubert School in large part becaus...
2020-08-07 13:01:07 +0000 UTC
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After doing a bunch of covers and illos for the videogame magazine PSM in the early 2000s, I talked to the editors about doing a recurring back-page comic feature riffing on various Playstation-related issues. The first piece above, riffing on the crocodile-camouflage headpiece from (I think) Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, was prrrrrobably the earliest example to see print.
NOTE: In fact, I'm not 100% ...
2020-08-06 13:01:03 +0000 UTC
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