Over the Garden Wall Background Designs

Drawn on actual paper with an actual pencil. I love a good smudge in the morning.

Illustration Process for a Movie Poster

Found some development art for an independent movie poster I worked on a while ago and thought I'd share some of the old process with ya.

No idea if it ever saw the light a day but as I recall it was called It Takes Two to Mangle by Josh Something-er-nother (Sorry for the brain fart iff'n yer out there pal.) If ya know anything about it kindly pass it along to me in the comments.

Star Trek Marker Cosplay

This is a commission done for a friend. Star Trek cosplay in magic marker form. Set your phasers to stun.

Kill Bill Go-Go

These are the rough preliminary sketches for an illustration requested by a prevert.

Go-Go with Bo-Lo

 The final drawings rendered with markers. The adorable assassin from Kill Bill.

Updated Surfer Dude

Took another pass at this Silver Guy. Redrawn and recomposed. Which'n you like best?

Popeye and Milt Gross, when cartoons were solid

The Popeye page is from a vintage mini children's book. Artist unknown.

The Milt Gross is from a post by Steve Worth.

Ferry Man guitar whale angler devil

This is a new piece done as a commision, marker on illustration board. Thanks to Wade and Derek for the concept, you guys are sick!

The Silver Surfer

The Silver Surfer is very powerful yet always bemoaning his servitude to Galactus. This was done in photoshop, drawn directly on the cintiq.

Animation class

There is a kickstarter for a new animation class starting up soon. It will be conducted by Mike Polvani and Wayne Carlisi. They worked for Disney and Chuck Jones productions and many others. For info, the link is:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1439554785/1-on-1-animation-school?ref=nav

Creating a finished illustration for a client

This a an illustration done recently for a comic book to be released later this year by a company called www.thevagabondcomic.com in Australia. It will be used as a splash page type poster to go along with a story called "Wrestlers in Space"

 When asked to do an illustration for hire, the first step is a rough pencil sketch from the client's reference material (if provided).

 When the rough pencil is approved by the client, I will do the finished drawing and get that approved.

 Next, a rough color comp is done using markers. This can be a small thumbnail size sketch indicating the basic color scheme.  

 After getting approval of the rough color, the finished drawing is scanned into the computer and transferred into photoshop. Using the Cintiq, I trace over the scan on a new layer with a brush tip that tapers giving the thick and thin look, much like old comic book style.

 Then on a new layer under the ink layer, the flat colors are painted. As you can see, I mistakenly started shading on the flat color layer. It wasn't a problem so I left it instead of doing that part over.

 After the flat color is done, the background is drawn with color brush and paint is filled in. As a final touch, I used a marker brush in photoshop to shade the characters and when all the layers are put together, the result is the finished piece you see at the top.

Loki Cap revised

This piece was done as a birthday card for a friend of a friend, same set up in a slightly different drawing style.
 Happy birthday Tawny!

Comic book style illustration

 This is the thumbnail sketch for a character combining Loki and Captain America.

Then a drawing was done in a sorta Jack Kirby style.

This is the final art done with markers on Bristol heavy smooth board. Thanks to Derek and Wade for the idea.

Ren & Stimpy Stories Never Made

The top 2 are story sketches for another Untamed World episode. 3 & 4 are for another army story. Next is a doodle of Mr. Horse and the idiots. At bottom Sgt. Hoek and private Stimpy ride into hell.

George Pal composition for groups shots in storyboard and layout

When composing group shots, add variation to the characters placement and body angles to make it more interesting. In this first shot, the group is composed around one central figure. The foreground figure a bit separate. As a side theory, the eye lines are focused on several different places. 

 In this shot the group is again composed nicely, the lines of action are varied, and there is also a single focus for the characters eye lines: they are all focused on the same thing.

In this shot, there is the variation in placement and line of action, plus the same single focal point.

Many of the movies produced by George Pal have this quality, here in "When Worlds Collide" (1951) and also in "War of the Worlds" from 1953. Although Pal did not direct these pictures, his influence as an artist is clearly displayed.