Ace Kilroy

Happy Halloween!

This Halloween has been one I've been especially waiting for. And "why is that?" you ask? It's because this Halloween marks the launch date for a project a few old college friends of mine are doing called Ace Kilroy. Two of my good friends, Rob Kelly and Dan O'Connor, guys I met on my first day of art school, have teamed up to do a daily web comic book project and today is the day that the whole thing goes live.

You can check out Ace Kilroy at the main website HERE and the guys have launched a Kickstarter project to try and raise funds for the whole thing HERE.

And, the best thing about the Kickstarter project (well, to me at least)? Because I really liked the project and really wanted in on the fun I offered up my services and I got to do the video promo for the project. Yep, that's right, I believe in the project so much and think so much of these guys that I did both the audio and video for the project just so I could someday say, "yeah, I worked on the project once."

So, go take a look at the website and, if you like what you see, think about helping my friends out in their creative adventure. Oh, and here is the video I did. Enjoy that as well.



Have a great day!

I Need a Hero! Part 8, Finished!

Well, those of you who chose the fourth Chase Cooper version yesterday as the one that was used were dead on right. Give yourself a prize!

Although, I never thought of the reason Manu gave as to why the logo I designed wasn't used. Manu apparently thinks of things that never even enter my mind. The reason I was given that my logo wasn't used was that it looked like it could easily be confused with an "E" and didn't read enough like a "C". Manu apparently thought it had something to do with the way the dark red background of the "C" looked a little too much like a phallic symbol. Believe me, I wish I was smart enough to be that subversive. I'm just not. ha ha

But, here is the finished version of the illustration and the book that it was used on. Ann Wachtler was kind enough to send me a copy of the book along with a great "Thank You" card last week. The book is now on my pile of things I need to read when I find some free time.

You can find a copy of "Super Power of the Day" HERE and, if you'd like, you can read all about the design of the book and how Ann is marketing the book on her own blog HERE.

It was a fun job and I'm looking forward to seeing what the next few books bring.

Have a good one.

I Need a Hero! Part 7

After getting the inking done I went straight to the computer and started coloring away. There were a few changes and variations made but, at the end of the day, the piece was done and the client was happy.

Now, let's see if you can guess which of these characters made the final cut and made it onto the cover of the finished book.

I'll post the final book tomorrow and we'll see if you guessed right.

Have a great day!

I Need a Hero! Part 6

With the pencils approved and everything hunky dory I went back to the drawing board and started laying down some ink. It was a pretty straight up inking job and I always love doing these simple kind of characters where I can really play with the thick and thin of the ink lines.

And, while I got the inking done, I also did a color logo of the "C" emblem that would go on his chest. I wasn't sure if the client would like it or not but I really liked the way the 'C' turned into a part of the overall oval emblem.

Next up, a little bit of color.

Have a good one!

I Need a Hero! Part 5

Boy hero Frankenstein!

Because the client liked a bit of each from the last two attempts I used the head of the second version of our hero and put it on the body of the third version. It fit well but I still missed the head and smile of the third version. Ah well, you can't win them all and when you're working for someone else your first goal is to make them happy.

So, with this version approved it was back to the drawing board to add some ink and go to color.

Progress!

I Need a Hero! Part 4

With enough changes needed on the previous version of our hero I decided it might be easier to simply go back to square one and start over from scratch.

Using the thumbnail sketch I originally did as a template again I came up with this new penciled version.

Personally, this was, by far, my favorite look of all the pieces I did and I would have been super happy to simply ink him, color him, and have a great piece of artwork done and out the door.

But, while I was getting closer there was a little bit the client liked of this piece and a little bit the client liked of the previous versions. So, I went back to the old piece and did a little Doctor Frankenstein work on both pieces to create the ultimate super hero kid.

I wasn't there yet, but I was getting closer!

I Need a Hero! Part 3

Even though it was back to the drawing board luckily I still had the original thumbnail to work from. So, I pulled that out of my sketchbook and did this new version of our hero.

The client didn't like the idea of giant manga type eyes so I went completely in the opposite direction and gave him a set of Lil' Orphan Annie button eyes. I really love the look of eyes like this but I had yet to find any client at all who liked the look. That was, until now.

I did a couple of changes at the client's request, making the eyes a bit bigger and giving more definition to his legs (which, thank God, we didn't end up using.)

I even came up with a logo for his chest.

We weren't quite there yet, but we were getting closer than my initial pencil sketch.

More tomorrow!