Mountain Biking

Alright, I'm trying to get back into the swing of things and getting this blog up on a more regular basis than I have been recently. Being busy is no excuse not to show you what's going on.

Here's the finished cover illustration for the new kid's book I've been working on. I showed off a few of the different elements of the cover here and there but here's how all the pieces fall together. Once the designer is done and the logo, type, and other elements of the cover are in place I figure this one can be called done and done.

Thanks again to Jenny who gave me the great idea on where to find a place in Boulder to get some good photos of a mountain biking track for the background. And thanks again to the weather for giving me a good day to get this photo. After months of snow, rain, and gray skies, I think this was the first nice day we had in a while.

It's always nice when things fall into place so easily when you need them to.

From The Vault - Big Jim OCD Cover 2005

Geez, you know it's been a long work week when you finally look up from the drawing board and realize it's already Friday. And here I meant to post a few more blogs this week but time just got away from me. Luckily there is always "From the Vault Fridays" that forces me to find something to write about.

Today's piece is a cover I did for one of the many OilCan Drive comic book incarnations. And look, it isn't a new "number one" issue! It's actually issue four! But, how can this be, you ask? How can a man who's done multiple issue ones of the Wastelands favorite rock band and a bunch of unfinished issue twos get to issue four of a book?

Well, while working on this incarnation of OilCan Drive I had the first book done and was working on issue two of a continuing story (how many times have I done this now?) Anyway, while working on the second issue an old college buddy of mine who was having trouble starting his own comic book proposed an idea. He said if I did a horror story that he'd also do a horror story. He figured if we were both working on something similar it would give him incentive to work on his own book. So, wanting to help him out with his motivation, I said sure.

Thinking that the third issue of this OilCan Drive volume would wrap up the story I was already working on I thought issue four could start a new story and introduce Big Jim, a villain in the OilCan Drive world who has two werewolves as bodyguards. I figured the werewolves was enough to satisfy the "horror" aspect of the story outline I had agreed to while keeping it all within the OilCan Drive universe.

The story dealt with Big Jim, a corporate big wig, who was looking for the next big thing in music. He auditioned various bands, being disgusted by them, until one of the bands, feeling they were being treated unjustly, gave him a bit too much lip. Jim gave the word, his bodyguards wolfed out, attacked the band, and had an early lunch. Jim then got on the phone and said to keep the auditions open.

Like I said, it satisfied the horror aspect of the story and started the next OilCan Drive adventure all in one fell swoop. I penciled, inked, and lettered this entire story. I even did the cover.

Five years on and I have yet to see even one thumbnail, penciled page, or even character design from my college buddy.

The other sad part to this tale, other than I never went ahead and finished issue two or three of this series, is that my computer crashed and I lost all the work I had done on this cover. All I am left with is the original art I inked by hand and a few of these small-res JPGs. But, at least I still have these and it taught me a valuable lesson in backing up my files as I work on them.

Here is the original inked piece as well as the colored cover without the logos. I'm glad I still have them.














OK, back to work. Have a great holiday weekend!

From The Vault - Nicole 2002

And no, this is not the "Nicole" from OilCan Drive. Although, I was happy to find someone out there who shares her name and looks just as good.

I did this piece back in 2002 as an experiment and to simply play around.

Using a friend as a subject I drew her on the cardboard backing of a pad of bristol board. I wanted to try drawing on the cardboard so I could use both dark graphite pencils and white pencils to produce both shadows and highlights on a piece of board that wasn't simply white.

Not a bad experiment and, looking back eight years ago, I'm still happy with the result.

I just hope Nicole liked it.

The Archies!

I found this illustration today over at Cliff Chiang's website through an article at Newsarama.com.

I absolutely LOVE this piece and love the way Cliff chose to portray Riverdale's favorite band.

Who needs the Gorillaz when you have the Archies?

"Sugar, Sugar" indeed!

Back to the Future Part 2

Oy, it's been a long long day but I figured now might be just the right time to share with you the continuing time traveling adventures of yours truly.

Here is a photo of me when I went back in time, met two friends, and, together, we took on the ugly troll monster and his hideous trouser snake! Look at us giving that ugly troll a good what for!

Actually, this is another photo of my Dad back in college circa 1964. I have no idea what is going on here and my Dad hasn't given me any hints. Either he, too, has no idea what is happening here, is too ashamed to tell me, or, probably, is doing his best to forget about the whole crazy night.

Either way, another photo of my Dad that, for those of you who know me, should make you do a double take.

Adding a Little Color

Here are a few screen shots of the piece I showed off yesterday. It's been scanned into the computer and I've been laying down colors on it all day.

Since I showed off what the inks looked like by themselves yesterday I thought it was only fair to also show what just the colors looked liked without the black and white lines.

And finally, not only did I have to color this piece but I also had to find a photo background to merge it with to complete the cover.

After reading the story I thought and thought about places near Boulder that I could use for the background. There are a lot of hiking and biking trails around town but I was trying to figure out somewhere that didn't look like it was at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. The story is supposed to take place on the flat plains so a background that looked like a hiking trail in Boulder, Colorado simply wouldn't work.

I asked around and a girl I know who works at my usual lunch place told me about a mountain biking track that was nearby that I had never heard of. I took a ride over to a small dirt road behind a business park. There, amongst some small hills was the track she had talked about. It was perfect!

So, I took a few photos and made sure the mountains couldn't be seen in the distance. Luckily, it was also a beautiful day to get some shots. With the winter and spring we've been having here a normal day has been overcast, cold, rainy, and sometimes even snowy. So, to get even one day where it looked this beautiful and clear out was a real blessing.

Now, to put all the pieces together...

From The Desk

Just a quick shot from the desk of both a thumbnail sketch and what the finished piece looks like when it's finally inked.

As I showed a few days ago, the wheels for the bike will be generated in the computer. It's still the simplest way I could figure out to make a detailed spoke pattern on both tires.

But, this is what it looks like before it's scanned into the computer and manipulated.

Next up on this piece, a little scanning, a little tweaking, and a lot of color!