Thursday, May 27, 2010

What is best in life...?



More half-done crap! Woohoo!

At least this one has a little more meat on its bones.

Anyway, throwing this guy up here, as it's what I have at the moment. Hopefully, in the not-too distant future I'll be posting the finishes of these. Trying to build some momentum!

Comment away, Suckpumps!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010


Yeah, I'm a slacker. Been slammed by this whole "Real Life" thing. Kids: whoda thunk they'd be so needy?

Anyway, from time to time a get a few minutes and start scribbling a little. Mostly this amounts to endless headshots, hands, monster parts, etc.

This is a Grey Knight from the Warhammer 40K game (NEEERDD ALERT!). Hoping to get this thing up to inks at some point.

Sorry for the crummy scan, but still working with that crap beast at work.

Anyhow, gimme some thoughts before I work this up further. (Yeah, because you don't have like, all the time in the world before that happens! ;P)

Friday, May 21, 2010

Whipmaster doodle

Quicky for the quicky challenge. Done all digital.

Friday, May 14, 2010

NEW mini challenge!






http://www.clipstr.com/videos/BillMurrayAsTheWhipMasterSNL/


The link is included now instead of the embedded video because im pretty sure the other one doesn't work!

Everyone has one week...to do what?

To design a sweet poster as if there were going to be a full length Whip Master movie...

I know its a short one, so it doesnt have to be anything fancy, i just want to bring some fresh blood to this dying site, and since i was just thinking about this sketch this morning, and happened to find it online, i think its perfect for this kinda thing!

ONE WEEK, JERKS! May 21st!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

More Comic Whatevers...

So, i think i'm FINALLY pulling out of my horrible comic art burn out, and i think i figured out why!

All this time i was working on stuff for clients and some of them put SO much pressure on every single detail of the artwork that they were missing the point. They had always missed the point. The school was trying to beat it into our heads for 3 years, and even I lost sight of it. But thanks to actually READING comics again, i figured it out.

STORY TELLING

Yeah, i know...the most obvious thing in the entire universe! The art has to do its job, and doesn't have to be perfect, that's just a bonus if it is! But obviously the average person, and even the average art nerd (speaking for myself obviously) doesnt look at a panel for longer than it takes to read the dialogue, and in a lot of cases actually spends more time ON the dialogue than paying attention to the details. I tried telling this to clients...clients that wanted to go over every panel line for line, but they wouldn't pay attention. They wanted to get the absolute best picture for their money, which, i cant say as i blame em for it. But they weren't looking at the BIG picture! They were looking at huge 300dpi scans of 11 by 17 inch pages, panels that on the monitor were easily 5 to 6 times the size of what they would look printed! Hell even on the page, or at 72dpi its still almost 2 times the size! and that's still without color, ink, and lettering to fill it all out!

Now, i mean the following as no knocks to any artists: BUT, i've gotten back into POWERS and have been re-reading the image years and now i'm onto the icon stuff...those last few months at image, man the artwork in those is SO RUSHED, but the pacing, the storytelling, so on point! And there's a couple glory shots along the way, which is what most people would remember anyways. Oeming is SO good at that. And Bendis writes so many words, you probably dont even need artwork to fill a page...so maybe thats a bad example! But the story works, what i remember is the STORY, the combination of everything, the finished product! It's some of the best comics i've ever read! Same with Blankets. Blankets was great, the guys an amazing artist to boot, but he has his flaws like everyone else, and i don't get hung up on them. It doesnt take me OUT of the story, or make me wish i hadnt paid money for it. I also read FURY peacemaker, by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. The art in that book...well lets just say its nothing i would ever really find appealing. But again it all comes together and who really sees it long enough to care? The guy knows how to get it down on paper, and how to make the story flow and who cares if he uses too many hatch lines, or draws every tooth in someones face? I don't.

So right now i'm kind of in this great head-space where flaws don't really concern me that much. I don't care if something small is slightly off, or if it looks perfect flipped over on a light-box. And when i don't worry about that kinda shit, i think the mistakes actually happen LESS and i can continue to make progress on pages instead of leaving the same one on my desk for weeks just KNOWING that i have to make that face better...but not wanting to try since i did it 80 times prior.

I hope this actually makes some sense to you guys, and if anyone IS having the same kinda problems as i was/am having about being overly self critical, that this actually helps! And if you guys have any other tips to get over being burnt out, or blocked, feel free to drop em in the comments.

-Eric