Desktop Monday

This is what's on my drawing table this very moment. Had a little bit of spare time so I started a commission piece of Colossus, Wolverine, and Nightcrawler over the weekend. Pencils by Mike McKone printed out on Blue line for inks. The only thing left that needs to be inked are the speed lines on the bottom of Nightcrawler. That part may seem like something that can be whipped out quickly. On the contrary, it's going to take longer to ink than the rest what I've already done. Nice part about working on commission pieces is there's no deadlines. So I'm going to put it aside and come back to it later when I have a bigger chunk of time to spare. I'll post the completed image when done.

Commission Piece

Another commission piece over Mark Brook's pencils on Blueline. Spider-Man and Vulture. There was hardly any blacks to fill on this piece except for Spider-Man's eyes. So I decided to thicken up the holding lines around Spider-Man and the camera around his neck to pop the perspective more. Normally, pieces that hardly have any blacks to fill are faster for me to ink. In this case, it took longer because of all the detailed buildings in the background. All of that back there took much longer to ink than the characters itself. For this piece, I used microns, tech pens, brushes, crow quill, templates, and a ruler.

WARLORD #6

Just got a bunch of comp copies for WARLORD #6 that I worked on. I threw all of the comps on top of the original artwork and for it and snapped this picture.
I inked half of this issue. Eleven pages. Below are a couple of double page spreads from this issue that I worked on. Double page spreads are two 11x17 pages attached together which gives it an 22x17 art area to draw on.

Another double page spread with a panoramic first panel.

This issue is out in stores now. Find out more by clicking here.

Spatter and Splatter

What is this??? Every so often, I would pull out the white ink and do different techniques with my inking work. Sometimes I'll use the white ink and ink with it. There are also times where I can use the white ink to cover up mistakes. Then other times, I'll use the white ink to spatter or splatter. *SPLAT SPLAT!*
Here's a effect that I did with white ink. I take a toothbrush and spatter it on top of the inked artwork. Here's the trick. When I hold the toothbrush directly on top of the art and do the spatter effect, I get perfectly round dots. Some big, some small. The distance where you hold the brush to the art also determines how big the dots will be. When I hold the toothbrush in an angle and do the effect, I get directional splatter. Splatter with an "L". It gives the effect more of an action sense. In this case, I've done both. On top of that, I've done both the spatter and splatter above an inking technique that I often do. It's sort of a cross hatching/blooping thing. I've been told that I'm the only inker who can make that effect look like that. Nice compliment. I'm sure there are others who can do the same.

And that's how I got that cool effect. Below is the page where I did that effect on, last panel right side.

This page is from the comic, Dark Reign: Young Avengers #4 (see blog below).

DARK REIGN YOUNG AVENGERS #4

One of the books I've worked on, Dark Reign: Young Avengers #4, is out in stores today. I inked the whole issue in Blue Line over Mark Brooks pencils. I didn't get comp copies for this issue, so I clipped an image of the cover to that issue I found online and pasted it on top of a picture I took of all the original artwork that I worked on underneath.
Here's a splash page from from this issue.

And here's another page with the current Wolverine whom I didn't know much about from my earlier blog. There's also Hawkeye, Iron Man, and a bunch of of other characters.

To learn more about this issue, click here.

VIZ Media

I just love looking at comics no matter what kind there are. Super Hero Comics, Manga, hieroglyphics, or anything drawn, I like to look at. I can be given a comic book in a foreign language that I can't read and still enjoy it for hours.

On a side note, when you go to book stores and look for graphic novels, there are usually different categories for them. More popular being American Comics and Manga. Then there other publishers who call their comics, Manhwa. There's also Anime which is different from Manga. Anime means cartoons. Manga is comics. Still the literal translation for Manga is "Comics". Same with Manhua, "Comics". Which makes me wonder about the other side of the world... What do people in Japan or Korea call American Comics to separate it from their own? "Comic-Book-Ka"? "Coooo-mic-KU"? "Co-MIC!"?

Anyway, all this thinking about Manga led me to take pictures of a Manga Publisher here in San Francisco. Here's some pictures of VIZ Media. They publish Manga comics such as Pokemon, Dragon Ball, Naruto, and more. Huge Building. I think there are 4 floors. I only hang out at the first floor, the rest of the floors are uncharted territory for me. I can get lost in there.
Front doors are these cool looking metal doors that looks as if it's bullet proof. I dig how the company name is right there in silver.

Going in, they have this sort of media room which looks a lot like a comic book store with lots stuff they produce. Here are some big dolls and a Manga display stand.

Towards the left, is what you'll see here. They have monitors running Anime all the time. showcasing some of the Anime they do as well.

And here's a picture towards the right. Toys, gadgets, lost of fun stuff.

Walking in closer, I see this huge wall. Almost three stories tall. With these blocks with characters in light. It's very impressive to see in person. I couldn't even take a picture of the whole thing because it's so massive.

Here's a picture of that same wall on the other size. That's me standing in the stairs. There more of those light up blocks above and below. Just can't seem to get it all in one shot.

So here's me with one of the blocks. This character is Doremon. I use to read... well... Not read because the comics were in a foreign language to me... I use to look at Doremon comics. This character would pull anything and everything out of this little pocket at his stomach. That's why I'm covering up his pocket. So he can't pull a rabbit out of it. See.. He's tickelish too!

Now here's something cool. I'm standing in front of a page. Yeap, That's one page from the Manga, Phoenix, drawn by Osamu Tezuka. It's almost three stories tall. My friend was lying on the floor to take this picture for me. It was massive. But why is this page so important, you ask? WHACK! THWACK! WHAM! THUNK! I lettered that page. I removed the Japanese text, replaced it with English, and retouched the backgrounds. My letters in lights... Sorta.

Going towards the back of the building, I see this on the back wall. Posters, prints, and original art all in one place. Again, VIZ is a huge place, so I just took pictures of the areas I hung out at.

Here's a framed piece of original art I see all the time. All done by hand. Painted too. I don't know who the artist is and for which title it's for. Just really cool to look at. Man... There's that flash reflection effect on the boobie area again. What's up with that?And here's a piece of original art that everyone will recognize. A piece of Pokemon original art from the artist. Drawn and colored by hand. It cracks me up because it's thumb tacked to the wall. I can't read the writing, so I don't know what it says. I just like looking at it. I can stare at this for hours.

So that's it for VIZ Media. Speaking of Pokemon. Here's a couple of pictures I took from SDCC. Here's Pikachu stomach. This was hanging in the middle of the convention. I like how SDCC has things for all age groups. This hanging Pokemon were for kids... This Pokemon was for Adults... I don't remember Pikachu wearing stocking with red bows on it.

Mommies and Daddies would have their five year old child turn away when they see this Pikachu. And here I thought Pokemon was for all ages.

Inking body organs

Here's something I don't do everyday. I recently did some work for the Turpin Foundation. They contacted me to ink a Heart and a Pancreas with a comic book feel. These images will be used to make T-Shirts for a motorcycle rally on to raise funds for Johns Hopkins Pancreatic Cancer Center. I inked the first two images with minimal rendering. Really thick outlines and thinner insides.
I was asked to ink one of each. But I decided to give them couple of each so they have more choices to pick from. So I inked the next two with more cross hatching... giving it more dept. The numbers you see were just something I added on so it would be easier for people to point out which piece they're talking about.

My first time inking body organs and it was fun to do. Made me feel like one of those artist who does art for medical textbooks. I believe they're going to use it in a slogan reading "I (heart) my (Pancreas)." Where the images will replace (heart) and (Pancreas).

PREDATOR #2

Here's a comic that I did some inking work on. PREDATOR #2. Dark Horse Comics sent me three comp issues as pictured below. This time, I got creative with the pictures. I pulled out the original art I did for it and use them as a backdrop for the picture. Neat, eh?
The pencils were drawn by Javier Saltares. Well... I should say "laid out by". He is the series artist and does the inking himself. I'm not sure if he went to San Diego Comic Con or not. In any case, the Editor contacted me right before the convention to help out on a few pages. I told him I'll be attending the convention and won't be able to do anything during that time. He said it was okay as long as I can do a few before and after the Con. He also mentioned the pencils were more like layouts because the series artist would ink himself, leaving the detailing for the inking stage. So when I got the pencilled pages, I had to fine tune them and here's how a couple of those pages turned out...

Here's a page with the Predator. This was my first time working on Predator so that was a treat for me. If you click on the image look closely at the rifel scope, you can sorta read my name in on it. The penciller sketched that on and I went with it. Very nice of him to plug my name.

Have any of you seen the Predator movies which stars California's "Governator", Arnold Schwarzenegger? Anyhoo, in the movie, the Predators has this cool effect where they use this infrared vision. They can see their prey in color hues with the body heat it's emitted. So, I just couldn't resist doing this. Lets say one of the Predators got a hold of that original art work above. He came to my studio when I was asleep. Pick up the art work, but couldn't see it in the dark. So he flipped on his infrared vision and this is what the Predator sees...

Sorta like looking at the mirror for him, no? But how is the artwork emitting heat, you ask? Simple, I was sitting on it a few hours before I went to bed and that's the lingering heat which came from my butt!

This book is in stores now. To find out more about it, click here.