From 2005, here's one of the better illos that my buddy Ryan Kinnaird and I did for the Playstation magazine PSM, created for the "summer swimsuit" feature they ran back in those halcyon days of yore, which boasted art by a whole bunch of different comic artists. The bikini-clad character, here, is vampire chica Rayne (and friends) from the third-person shooter series BloodRayne<...
2019-07-10 14:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Wellp, it's time to solicit some art requests from you fine folks in the two higher Patreon tiers! As before, down in the comments section below, feel free to suggest any characters, intellectual properties, or situations that you'd like to see me draw during the rest of the month, as time allows.
Note that I added the term "situations" above because these two tiers now receive weekly doses ...
2019-07-10 11:04:31 +0000 UTC
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Here are my thumbnails for issue #3 of 2018's Empowered and Sistah Spooky's High School Hell, a six-part miniseries written by me, drawn by Carla Speed McNeil, and colored by Jenn Manley Lee. More info on the project here.
For each of the first two issues, I previously broke up the "thumbs" into two separate posts, but...
2019-07-09 14:00:02 +0000 UTC
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Fresh and piping hot off the ol' drawing table, here's a different approach to my usual life drawing from photoref. This time around, I wanted to try out some new pencils and art techniques for future con sketches on toned paper, such as the "white halo" effect (which I've seen other artists use successfully) and a bunch of different red pencils.
One interesting issue is that most of the red pencils "max out" at fixed value levels, meaning they can't convey the same ranges of dar...
2019-07-08 14:00:00 +0000 UTC
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Behold, big spenders, a li'l damsel-in-distress weekend bonus, featuring a handful of easily posted Empowered pages! Most of these pics either appeared in a short, out-of-print sketchbook I dubbed Empowered: Extra Sketchiness (all images from which will wind up posted here sooner or later), or were slated to appear in a never-published sequel edition.
The inked piece above was done for a commission based on 2019-07-06 13:02:50 +0000 UTC
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In my recent poll (feel free to weigh in!) asking you fine folks what you'd like to see on this here Patreon, the single most voted-for category was "Failed or defunct projects (like the Failed Project Friday posts I used to do on deviantART)." Wellp, I'm kicking things off with this exciting new (old) feature by going back 12 years(!) on my deviantART account and digging up the very first "FFF" journal. Wheeee...
2019-07-05 14:08:38 +0000 UTC
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Wellp, on my recent poll querying you fine folks about what you'd like to see more of on this here Patreon, "older con sketches" and "Dirty Pair material" scored strongly, so I'm combining 'em for this post. (Feel free to weigh in on the poll, which I'll be checking back in on from time to time.)
Through the 90s and into the early 2000s, I was doing so many con sketches of Kei and Yu...
2019-07-04 14:51:00 +0000 UTC
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Once again, I'm doubling up with this week's set of life drawings from random photoref! Above is a recent set (#320), featuring a sketch that was not working out to my satisfaction. Below is one from very early on in the effort (December 2016), featuring censored nipples from a time when I was sweating trouble from Instagram. (The attached full-res version isn't censored, I think.)
2019-07-03 13:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Welcome to this Patreon's "damsels in distress" feature, big spenders of the $5 and $10 tiers! I've done quite a bit of commissioned "DiD" work over the years for a handful of helpful—and discreet!—clients, which I'll be sharing with you kind folks on an at-least-weekly basis.
We're kicking things off with a goofy fantasy-RPG premise I've dubbed Hushed Half-Elf, which I've been using as a test bed for experimentation with different art techniques both...
2019-07-02 16:47:58 +0000 UTC
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Following up on earlier previews from my first bunch of cheesecake-intensive pages drawn for a Empowered vol.12 flashback (here's the first page; then pages #2-3; then pp.4-5); then 2019-07-01 18:35:57 +0000 UTC
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As we near the July 1 re-up for your patronage (Patreonage?), thought I'd do a quick "state of the Patreon" post, and query you kind folks with a poll re: what you'd like to see me post here.
Just had 3 people delete their support today (ouch), so the topic is certainly fresh in my mind. I would say, if there's some category of material that you'd like to see me emphasize more, lemme know before you pull the plug, and I'll see what I can do.
On that score, feel f...
2019-06-30 19:20:07 +0000 UTC
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Per a (seconded!) suggestion in June’s art request, here’s a quick set of sketches featuring Stem Cell from my 2004 Marvel miniseries Livewires, loosely based on images from Yuji Iwahara’s manga King of Thorns (which stars a similarly eyeglasses-wearing young heroine). I’ve long loved Iwahara’s approach to female faces—especially yelling faces!—which is why some of the chara-design riffs might seem familiar, as I’ve been inco...
2019-06-30 15:41:31 +0000 UTC
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Oooh, weekend service here on the ol' Patreon! (In the interests of long-term sustainability, I'm mainly sticking to weekdaily-oriented posting, but what the heck.)
More Empowered story notes from very early on in the series; been a while since the last one of these, alas. And now, some quick annotations.
Left-hand column:
*While a fair bit of <...
2019-06-29 18:19:49 +0000 UTC
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Trying something different today, by digging up a mildly salacious 2002 Dirty Pair con sketch colored by my buddy Ryan Kinnaird. Huzzah! A so-so sketch by me at best, but Ryan did a fine job on this tossed-off squiggle, especially on Young Kei's flesh tones. (Gotta say, the wildly overstated, glowing "saliva string" between their mouths cracks me up perhaps more than it should.)
In fairness, this isn't actually the Dirty Pair per se, as it's s...
2019-06-28 19:05:16 +0000 UTC
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Once again, I'm doubling up with this week's set of life drawings from random photoref! Above is the most recent set (#323); below is one from very early on in the effort, circa early December of 2016. Note that my basic "squiggly pencil" technique—a series of back-and-forth, zigzagging strokes with the beveled edge of a 2mm lead—remains largely the same, but with slightly different results over time.
2019-06-27 14:55:59 +0000 UTC
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Per an art request from the $5 and $10 tiers, here’s a set of sketches of Empowered’s floridly profane ninja “F**king Oyuki-chan,” drawn in the art app Procreate as part of my ongoing effort to familiarize myself with working digitally. Most of the images are based on photoreference to work in a li’l life drawing, though the face at lower right is based on a manga artist’s work. (You’ll likely see more of this over time, as I’m often imitating the wor...
2019-06-26 13:45:58 +0000 UTC
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Following up on earlier previews from my first bunch of pages drawn for Empowered vol.12 (here's the first page; then pages #2-3; then pp.4-5), here's another one, this time featuring a semi-Meta Emp expressing concern...
2019-06-25 18:36:46 +0000 UTC
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Wellp, as My Hero Academia cosplay was mentioned as a suggestion in both the art request comment threads this month, I decided to get in some practice—and work in some life drawing—by doing a sketch or to based on MHA cosplay photography. So, here’s a quick-ish sketch of the bloodthirsty Himiko Toga (I think?) drawn with the Procreate brush I like using for roughs. Yay?
Later on, I’ll put up Procreate time-lapse of the sketch o...
2019-06-25 03:46:49 +0000 UTC
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Not many days left in June, so it's high time to solicit some art requests from you fine folks in the two higher Patreon tiers! So, yeahp, as before, feel free to suggest any characters or intellectual properties (including my own!) that you'd like to see me tackle in the month's waning days!
Also, I"m happy to announce that the $5 and $10 tiers will finally* be getting access to exclusive weekly con...
2019-06-24 17:52:29 +0000 UTC
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A few weeks back, I solicited all you fine Patrons’ ideas for a monthly art request, and one truly off-the-wall suggestion struck my fancy—namely, Inframan (or Super Inframan), a Hong Kong superhero movie that loomed large in my childhood, even though I never actually saw the darn thing. (If possible, I hope to work on some other suggestions from the list, but time is short...
2019-06-24 13:30:37 +0000 UTC
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Whoops! A full 11 days after I posted pp.1-12, here are the rest of the thumbnails for issue #2 of last year's Empowered and Sistah Spooky's High School Hell, a six-part miniseries written by me, drawn by Carla Speed McNeil, and colored by Jenn Manley Lee. More info on the project 2019-06-21 18:48:38 +0000 UTC
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Doubling up with this week's set of life drawings from random photoref! Above is a recent set (#322); below is one from very early on in the effort (#10, looks like), circa December of 2016.
Later on, I'd exhaustively list the sources for each sketch, but at this point in the life-drawing kick I wasn't bothering. (Oh, well.)
Below, enjoy the higher-res, raw and untweaked...
2019-06-20 18:35:59 +0000 UTC
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(Part 1, here; part 2, here.)
Anyhoo, here's another pic from the 1996 leather-jacket photo shoot that proved so important to my rendering skills. I photoreffed this image several different times for con sketches and comic pages, but the only iteration I can dig up is a 1997 illustration for the Brian Michael Bendis crime comic
2019-06-19 18:36:05 +0000 UTC
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Following up on earlier previews from my first bunch of pages drawn for Empowered vol.12 (here's the first page, then the second and third) , here are the next two!
As I said before, I'm tryi...
2019-06-18 18:47:55 +0000 UTC
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And now, the rest of my sketches from Heroes Con! Above is a "DiD" (damsels in distress) commission of Emp and Ninjette cosplaying as Black Canary and Zatanna. No idea why I chose such boring, non-dynamic poses for the ladies; at the very least, I could've had 'em hanging upside-down with the same poses.
Well, this was my last sketch from Saturday, so no doubt my energy and creativity were at a low ebb. Below, the pencils for the illo:
2019-06-16 22:25:32 +0000 UTC
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Live from Artist Alley table #1817 at Heroes Con in Charlotte, here are my con sketches so far! Above, a high-contrast effort with Deunan and Briareos from Appleseed.
Next, Sechs from Battle Angel Alita: Last Order:
Pencils (and a wee bit of inks) for the Sechs piece:
2019-06-15 18:42:04 +0000 UTC
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Doubling up with this week's set of life drawings from random photoref! Above is a recent set (#319); below is one from very early on in the effort (#5, looks like), circa December of 2016.
Most of the poses above were reffed from random dance pics dug up online (I think), whereas the one at lower right is definitely from a very cool Japanese book of action reference photography.
Below, e...
2019-06-13 14:01:01 +0000 UTC
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As I'm heading off to Heroes Con in Charlotte tomorrow and will thus have more time for non-Empowered drawing over the weekend, I figured I'd open up June's art request dealie a little early.
As with previous installments of this monthly feature, any of you fine Patrons are welcome to suggest your ideas for a subject or character to tackle for a Patreon-exclusive piece of artwork. (Well, at least initially Patreon-exclusive, as I might somed...
2019-06-13 02:19:01 +0000 UTC
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Following up from the very first new page of Empowered vol. 12 that I posted recently, here's the next one! As noted in that previous post, the story starts out as a flashback to an old scene of Emp getting chloroformed and captured, with a new and important twist on the scene arriving later on in the episode.
I'm trying to ease my way into vol. 12 by tackling a...
2019-06-12 16:20:00 +0000 UTC
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Since I did this work-stage dealie for the cover to the upcoming Empowered vol.11 early on in this here Patreon, thought I might as well start doing the same for previous volumes. Behold, the (many) steps of producing Empowered vol 10's happy-Emp cover!
First off, the initial rough, which apparently would've featured other characters in the background ...
2019-06-11 18:33:54 +0000 UTC
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