Done and Done

After three plus months of doing client work, sometimes juggling up to four projects at a time, the desk is finally cleared, all the invoices have been sent, and I am done done done.

Now to back up all the work I've done these past few months, clear my plate, and get ready to tackle the next project.

Question is, what is the next project going to be?

From The Vault - Spider-Man 1996

I've been pulling pieces out of an old portfolio I found on my bookshelf a few weeks ago and I finally got to a page with ol' Spidey on it.

The interesting thing about this piece is that I think it was one of the first pieces I did when I got to Boulder, Colorado.

I had left New Jersey a few months before. I simply packed up my jeep with as much stuff as it could carry and headed out on the road. I didn't even know where I was going but anywhere, at the time, seemed better than staying in Jersey. I traveled to Washington DC, North Carolina, and even set up shop for a little while at my friend Craig's house in Ohio. But, I still didn't know where I would settle down.

Finally, I took the long trip west, across Indiana and Kansas, and ended up in Colorado. I figured it was far away enough from anyone I'd ever known that it was a good place to start fresh.

But, after all that travel time, I was really itching to just sit down and draw again.

I think I did this Spider-Man piece for a few reasons. One, because I love Spider-Man, two, because I was itching to draw again, and three, because I had a relationship with Marvel Comics at the time as a painter and I thought if I could show them I could do more than color that it might mean some more work.

I'm not sure if I ever sent this piece off to Marvel or not. This is in the days before I had a computer so it wasn't as easy as scanning a piece and sending it off in an email. But, at some point, I did move from coloring work to inking work so I must have shown them something to give me those assignments..

But, yeah, Spider-Man...probably the first piece I did when I had my western based studio set up.

Geocache!

One of the last kid's books I finished up this week dealt with the sport of geocaching.

Now, I've never tried this sport or even knew too much about it but I have a friend or two who has done it and really seem to enjoy it. Personally, I'm not sure what the fuss is all about. It seems like hiking but with a purpose. But, if that's what it takes to get you out walking then I am all for it. Then again, I'm a guy who takes midnight bike rides around town so who am I to talk about what's weird and what isn't?

The one problem I had with this cover is that there are NO forests here in Colorado. Well, maybe there are but none within an easy driving distance from me. I mean, we have some great landscapes here in Colorado. We have mountains, streams, valleys, meadows, you name it. But, there aren't any deep forests like you find back east. And, I guess there are no oceans here either. But, that's beside the point.

So, after driving around for half the afternoon trying to find a place to make it look like these kids were running through the woods I finally gave up, came home, and went through some old photos. Luckily I had something I could piece together to create the above image.

The kid's books are done. Just a few more client jobs to go.

Techland Contributors 2

And, finally, here is the Wil Wheaton piece for Time's Techland website.

Again, I think his beard turned out well using a bit of color and subtle shading and then messing a bit with the opacity of the whole thing. It integrates the facial hair into the piece without it being an overwhelming black ink line. I feel like I've talked about and thought about these beards forever. Maybe I've developed some sort of beard obsession. Hopefully it will subside once these pieces are out the door. But, I do like the technique and will probably use it in the future when it's called for.

Since Wil has been known for his blogging lately I decided to head over to his site and pull some of the colors off the page for the background of this piece. I thought it would be more apt than going for some sort of Star Trek type space background. But, my contact at Time thought that might be a little too close to promoting his blog and asked if I could take the pattern off of his header and use that in the background. You can check out his blog and the title piece HERE.

Pulling a small pattern off of a website that already has a gradient to it was a bit difficult. It really had me scratching my head trying to figure out how to pull it off. But, in the end, I got it and I think what I came up with has subtle touches of his blog in there without full-on aping the look of his blog page.

And yes, that is an OilCan Drive t-shirt I have Wil sporting. I figured it was easier and more copyright safe than trying to put any other character on his comic book-type t-shirt.

Unfortunately, once the piece was used on the Techland site it was cropped in such a way that my cartoon band got left on the cutting room floor. Ah well, that's what blogs are for. To show you what could have been and what you may have missed.

You can check out all the new Techland contributor illustrations as well as all the old ones I've done over at the Techland website HERE. Simply scroll down the page and they are on the right hand side. A click of each thumbnail gives you a larger image and information about each contributor.

Techland Contributors 1

Two of the three illustrations are done and colored and have been sent off to my contact at Time Magazine.

So, what do you think? Did I pull off the beard idea or not?

Two down and one to go.

Tomorrow, I tackle Wil Wheaton!

Have a good one. As for me, back to work!

Inking Away

The pencils have been approved so it's on to inking the heads for the new Time Techland contributors.

Because each of these guys have a beard, and since none of them really has a full on mountain man type of beard, I decided to try a new technique. They all have that slight beard that I didn't think would work well if I simply inked in the hairs with black ink. So, I inked the heads and then laid a piece of vellum paper over the top of the finished illustrations and inked the beards on there. I put a few little x's around each face and beard to serve as a crude registration mark so I had some idea where the beards went when I put them together in the computer.

I think doing the beards this way will allow me a little more wiggle room when rendering them. This way I can add color to the whiskers or bring the opacity down a bit so they aren't as in your face.

Here's hoping it works. Keep your fingers crossed.

On to the color!

New Time Techland Illusatrations

I got an email from my contact at Time Magazine telling me he needed a few more illustrations for some new contributors to their Techland website.

One was for a second go-round of a gentleman named Peter. He was the first person I had drawn for the Techland website when they were first starting out. At the time they still hadn't worked out quite the style they wanted so his piece came out a bit too cartoony and I was really happy to have a second try at him. I hope he'll be happy with the newer style and the way I've rendered his beard this time.

I'm also doing another guy named Graeme. The only thing I know about him is that he's holding plants in the photo they sent me to work from.

And finally, I'm doing an illustration of Wil Wheaton, Gordy Chance of Stand By Me and Wesley Crusher of Star Trek fame. What's funny is that he amost looks exactly the same as he did all those years ago but is now sporting a beard.

Because all of these guys have beards and I'm going to try some new techniques to render them I'm dubbing this round of Time Magazine illustrations the beard sessions.

The pencils are done. Now it's time for some ink and color!