a Jersey Gods pinup

Jersey Gods is an incredible comic and if you're not reading it you are truly missing out. While at Comicon I got to meet the writer Glen Brunswick (and hopefully next year I'll get to hassle the artist Dan McDaid). He gave me a copy of the first issue which I poured over on the train back home and after that and the awesome painting by Toby Cypress ( which you can see here ) I was inspired to do this...

I started with a thumbnail that is long gone and started drawing.
once I had that done and inked I wanted to start painting. I was a little nervous because I didn't know what I wanted to do with the colors so thankfully I scanned first then painted.after I was here, I was a little dissapointed because I lost some of the linework. So I took the inks from the first scan, put them on top and dropped the opacity to what I wanted. I also adjusted the colors in photoshop, added text to and finished up the highway sign for Cherry Hill. I also added some color behind Barock to try and get him to "pop" a little more.
and that's it. On another note, I've been neglecting this blog for awhile now but I'm hassling alot of editors trying to find Comics, Cover and Illustration work and I think having more of an internet presence couldn't hurt. So I'm going to be making more of an effort to make this a busy place again. Till then, go check out Jersey Gods. Seriously.

The End.

-Dan

no ticket...

I gotta go to bed and I think this is all pretty self explanatory anyways, so...
For a new project you have to start with sketches and thumbnails,and then I took those ideas and did some pencil and some paint on a 15"x20" piece of rives,oh my god your so close to the action now!!!then adjust (brutally) the levels and add some color...
and finally!!
the end.

-Dan

Static Hudson

So I was just scribbling around in my moleskine and I came up with the idea for this sketch that in my mind is based on a comic character I came up with in school. I want to (and slowly am) doing a series of paintings based on this storyline because I was inspired by the World War Robot book by Ashley Wood.So the next step was to blow this up and paint it. from 5.5" x8.5" to 15" x 20" and I traded the bic for acrylics. It was going to be a submission for the Spectrum art book, but because of other deadlines and personal restrictions I missed the deadline by two days. oh well, next time.
Here are some closer shots,
and a couple more.And thats all for now...

-Dan

A resurgence in the Galactic Empire

This is something I've been meaning to do for awhile now and never really got around to. But recently my roomate ( http://kajusx.deviantart.com/ ) has got me hooked on the new clone wars series on cartoon network. In all honesty, I talked a lot of shit when the new movie and then this show came out because I felt a kind of loyalty to the Tartakovsky shorts. But this show is fun and campy and jam packed with action so I made room for both.

Anyways, I took this piece from awhile ago...and then I theoretically set it after the third movie, added text, graphics and photoshop effects and made this...That's all for now, I'm not as "weekly" any more but I'll still be regular and whatnot.

-Dan

WW3

This week and next week I'm exercising graphic design muscles on old work again so bear with me and enjoy the ride.

I had to do an assignment in school taking a "D" list comic character and doing an updated and hopefully more interesting version. Ultimately I used G.I. Robot.
In my updated version the robot didn't have artificial intelligence, it was an unmanned assault vehicle (UAV) piloted remotely by children. At the time I had been talking with friends about how video games are essentially training programs for this exact thing. The concept still interests me.But in school I didn't have the time to work out the child and the scientists to an acceptable level, and honestly I was never to thrilled with the copy. Fast forward to now and I'm really interested in worn looking propaganda posters so I pulled copy from a similarly themed poster and covered the elements I didn't care for as interestingly as possible in illustrator. Then aged and distressed it in photoshop. In my head it's still a UAV but I didn't keep that element in the poster for some reason.See you next week!

-Dan

A lot of little things...

I was asked to help out at Upper Deck doing artist sketch cards several months ago so they could get the second set out on time. I had a blast so when I was asked to contribute to the third set with a more realistic deadline I was thrilled. It's a fun job sketching out damn near the entire marvel universe and a great way to warm up. Not only that but after you finish the set you get "Artist Proof" cards that you can spend more time on and sell however you like.

my last few ( THOR, VISION, CAPTAIN AMERICA, ELECTRA ) are up on Ebay now

But here is all the art, I wanted to put it up all at once because it just feels more impressive that way...

The first set:and the second set:and the Artist Proofs from both sets:

Diggin' up Robots

So this week I was thinking about a piece I did for a friend http://xshaunx.deviantart.com/ based on his personal project that's loosely based on me and our shenanigans. Because it's not my book I'm not going to go in to specifics but it's going to rock you when he finally does this.
I actually did this painting of a Hardcore/metal robot back in August of 07. Mostly because I loved the idea of a giant robot wearing a giant hoodie and bandanna. It was unfinished in a lot of ways. The missiles at the bottom were too rough, it needed some other hints of color, and I wasn't happy with the "city scape" in the background. So I took what I had and ran it through photoshop and illustrator...
And now I like it again... The grenade was a total last minute thought I had to be funny and rip off the james jean Fable cover for the "Sons of Empire" trade. But I actually think it gives it some vague storytelling element. Because of the season and the colors I added, it seems that storytelling element is about Christmas. I work retail, so I want to bomb Christmas I guess.

Word, more next week!

Thanks,

-Dan