Creations Infinite

Ms. Marvel for the Marla Bea Benefit

2011-10-06T12:00:00.005-05:00

It has been a LONG time since I posted any art up here! I'll blame school and my inherit laziness for that.

This piece was done for the Marla Bea Benefit for Breast Cancer, a charity fundraiser that Jason Gavin has done for the University of Iowa Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center, now in it's 3rd year. Jason has raised over $6,400 for the Cancer Center, and is looking to break the $10,000 mark this year. He is tireless in his pursuit to get artists to donate items to the cause, and I am always more than happy to lend a piece to this great charity.

This piece is on 11" x 17" Bristol, with PrismaColor markers. I will admit to shamelessly stealing poses for Supergirl from Michael Turner, and a Ms. Marvel by (I think) Greg Land, and meshing those poses together to get this one.

The running theme for the Marla Bea Benefit it that all original sketches should be of a "strong" female character that uses the color pink and/or the pink breast cancer awareness ribbon within the sketch.

Jason does this fundraiser in honor of his mother (Beatrice) and sister (Marla) who were both diagnosed with breast cancer within 2 months of each other. He donates all proceeds of this fundraister to the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center to help with their research.

If you want some AWESOME artwork from some great artists, head over to Jason's website he has dedicated to the fundraiser, make some bids, or pass this information around the web to help make The Marla Bea Benefit a success!

http://www.marlabeabenefit.com/

-Chadd

Sketch cards of the universe

2011-03-17T11:30:00.003-05:00

Four recent commissions, from the Marvel Universe. Mulitple Man (from various X-books, and then Hawkeye, Hulkling and Wiccan (from the Young Avengers series). The Multiple Man card was one of the more fun pieces I've done in a while. I thought about filling up the entire card with him, but ended up leaving the blue to follow that pesky rule of thirds, and allow for a bit of color contrast.

Pencil before color

2011-03-02T11:20:00.004-06:00

Sampling of some sketch cards I've finished over the last month. Pencils only for now; color later.

Here we have Multiple Man, Hulkling and the female Hawkeye, all for private collection commission.

Superman is dead; long live Superman - Kansas City Comic Books | Examiner.com

2010-12-10T06:56:00.000-06:00

Superman is dead; long live Superman - Kansas City Comic Books | Examiner.com

Enjoy leftovers

2010-11-17T08:16:00.003-06:00

These are a couple of card puzzles I did back in the summer for Breygent's SciFi/Horror series.

The one with the werewolf fighting the vampire came from this horrible, horrible B (C?) movie, of whose title escapes me, but the image was iconic in a sense, so I took it. Made a nice sketch card puzzle, horrible movie scene (Yes I watched it. Thank you, Wonders of the Internet).

The other is one that I rather liked how the lightning effect turned out.

The Spider-Man Vault

2010-10-28T10:45:00.010-05:00

Back in the Spring of this year, I inquired to Peter David about participating in a Spider-Man book he was writing, which followed Spidey from his early years at Marvel comics, up through modern times. It sounded like a very cool project, so I submitted some art to be a part of it.

I had two pieces accepted for it, and it's been published by Becker & Mayer!. The book should be coming out in early November of this year. I know Peter was selling copies of them at this table at NYCC, so they may pop up at other cons as well (though we're almost out of con season).

It's a very cool coffee table/collection book. Lots of info on the character of Spider-Man/Peter Parker and his publishing/tv/comics/movie history. There are also a lot of pull out, colelctibl pieces of art, trading cards, and reproductions of memorabilia. My art appears on page 151 of the book.

Keep an eye out for it! I feel very lucky to have been a part of a very cool project. It would make a great Christmas present to the comic book/Spider-Man fan in your life!

Be A Superhero for Babies

2010-08-14T01:08:00.002-05:00

My part of over 500 sketch cards donated to help raise money for March of Dimes. Stephen Frank is in his third year of running an auction with original, donated art, to help raise money for this charity. You can get more details at his blog:

http://steve4mod.blogspot.com/

Auctions Up On Ebay!

2010-08-07T09:19:00.004-05:00

New listings. The other two of my artist return cards for The Pro (shown above), are included in my new auctions, starting at $19.99. Go take a look.

I also have auctions for my Breygent Artist Proof cards, starting at $9.99.

http://shop.ebay.com/cmkeim75/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p4340

Thanks! :)

Your Own Personal King Kong

2010-07-05T09:10:00.003-05:00

My younger brother and I used to watch the original King Kong countless times during summer vacations. It had a huge influence on me as an artist, and as someone who wants to be a movie maker. Kong was larger than life, and at 7 or 8 years old, I found the way they made the movie with all the stop motion astounding. It was fun to draw these cards.

Here are the pencils, and then finished colors for this one. Not a lot of change from beginning to finished card, which is usually a good thing. There are times when I go from pencils to color, that I get surprises at how things turned out, typically through some trick of marker bleed or color interaction. With this one, it was solidly in my head before I started, and that vision stayed with me as it was colored in.

Keep an eye out for Breygent's Classic Vintage Movie Posters Sci-Fi and Horror Collector Cards - Series 2 coming soon. I really enjoyed the work I did on this set.

Let's Play Monster and Servant

2010-06-26T14:26:00.003-05:00

Over the next week or two, I will throw up some of the cards I did for Breygent's Classic Vintage Movie Posters Sci-Fi and Horror Collector Cards.

The set was challenging and fun at the same time. With a lot of reference material to choose from, I was able to snatch out bit and pieces of movie posters and add my own take and style onto them.

A couple of the puzzles I did, I'll grab the pencils and do a side by side for them later. I always enjoy being able to go back and look at my roughs, and then comparing it to the finished product.

The Pro Artist Return Cards

2010-06-21T09:08:00.004-05:00

These are the three Artist Return Cards I received back from 5Finity, for my work on The Pro sketch card set.

I'm holding onto to these for around 15 days, so if you have an offer that you would like to give me, let me know, and we'll talk price. I will entertain serious offers only, with the card being shipped after payment is received.

Get Right With Colors

2010-06-04T09:09:00.005-05:00

Last year, I completed a couple of pieces for a base [sketch]card set for Monsterwax, called "The Art of Fear". This was one of two pieces I'd created for the set; which unfortunately it seems to have been indefinitely delayed. The purpose of the set was to have artists illustrate different phobias or fears, and write some short text to accompany the image. I chose the fear of pool drains, after finding some creepy stories about it. I couldn't find a particular name for this phobia (which is odd, given that that the DSM has a name for just about ANYthing one could fear)

I don't get a chance to post progression pieces much, mainly because I forget to scan roughs or pencils, and just get the finished colors recorded. I like this one, in that I had the idea in my head, did a quick rough of it and then the finished piece didn't deviate greatly from the original. The girl's face I actually took from an image that my brother photographed of my (soon to be) sister-in-law, making screaming faces.

The idea is that the drain, coupled with the water, are actually dragging the girl into it, the bubbles of the water like long fingers, wrapping themselves around her, to pull her body into the vortex. You can see her silent scream, as the air escapes her body to bubble into the water.

The Pro for The Masses

2010-05-27T08:09:00.004-05:00

Here is my approved teaser image for 5Finity's sketch card set for The Pro; a card set based off of the graphic novel by Garth Ennis & Amanda Connor.

Info in a couple of places about it:

http://www.5finity.com/Coming_Soon.html

http://www.sculu.com/garth-ennis-the-pro-brings-another-instant-sell-out-sketch-card-set-47091/

If you want to see some other AWESOME examples of the cards being done, head over to

http://www.deviantart.com/

and type in "the pro" in the search field.

I had never read the book until I signed up for this set, and let me tell you, it's hilarious, and Connor's art is awesome. It's a dirty, NSFW super-hero spoof, that actually succeeds in making a valid point about comics, heroes, and the world itself. If you're an adult comic book fan, go grab a copy if you can find it (took me four comic shops, so thank Elite Comics in KS for nabbing me a copy). There is supposed to be a hard cover edition coming out soon, that will partner with this set.

The Policy of Sketch

2010-05-02T22:32:00.004-05:00

Link! Zelda was an awesome game, but I don't think I've played any of the newer versions of it. I understand there's another new one for the Wii.

I threw in Wedge Antilles for good measure, although he looks more like Hobbie. Only about five of you reading this may actually know who Hobbie is. Anyway, Wedge is a stud, and always will be.

Never Let Him Down Again

2010-04-30T10:43:00.004-05:00

Superman and Dad. Sketch cards for Blue Line Pro's Comics for Cures.

http://www.comicsforcures.com/

Hammer pummels Horrible

2010-04-21T09:47:00.004-05:00

And these... are not the hammer.

Odd. This one scanned a little washed out. Looks like both characters haven't seen the sun in ages.

Captain Hammer sketch card. More of these Dr. Horrible themed cards to follow for Blue Line Pro's Comics for Cures Cancer Charity Auction (that's a long title).

http://www.comicsforcures.com/

Walking in Luke's Shoes

2010-04-20T10:08:00.003-05:00

Some Star Wars sketch cards. More to follow next week.

As much as I love all things Star Wars, I rarely have the chance to draw stuff from that universe. When I was a wee lad, it was ALL I drew... ALL the time.

Now, I have a couple of projects coming up that actually calls for Star Wars art, so I get to release some of that pent up 10 year old fascination.

Just Can't Get Enough Sketch Cards

2010-04-20T09:24:00.002-05:00

More, more, more...

Breygent Golden Age of Comics series.

Look for cards of mine in their upcoming set, and later this week I'll be posting the rest of my Blue Line Pro Cancer charity cards.

Enjoy the Sketch Cards

2010-04-16T10:56:00.004-05:00

More sketch cards finished from Breygent's Golden Age of Comics series. I don't know if I'll post all of the ones I did up here, but I'll get most of them. While these have been a blast to draw, they all needed to be full color, so the pencils and plotting was a little time consuming. I'm glad these have shipped out.

Working on a big 11" x 17" charity piece now. Hopefully that will be inked and colored by next week, so I can show it.

Reach Out and Touch Sketch Cards

2010-04-13T08:10:00.002-05:00

More scans from the Breygent Golden Age of Comics sketch card project. You can learn more about the set over here:

http://www.breygent.com/comics.htm

I'll be filtering out some more of these cards to show over the next few weeks. These Golden Age characters have been fun to research and draw.

Let's Play Master and Sketch cards...

2010-04-02T16:51:00.002-05:00

More Breygent sketch cards for their collection. Miss Victory and Tygra.

Tygra was interesting, because this character (essentially a female Tarzan of sorts) pops up in many forms in these Golden Age comics. Simply change the hair color and Tygra could be Jungle Lil, Princess Pantha, or a number of others. Seems in the 40s, us men may have had a thing for crazy, jungle fighting women.

Some Great Sketch Cards

2010-03-29T12:00:00.006-05:00

Some colored cards done for Breygent's Golden Age Series coming out in the summer.

uoy evol annataZ

2010-03-13T16:43:00.001-06:00

The (middle) namesake for my youngest child.

hunting captain tightpants

2010-03-12T23:12:00.002-06:00

Huntress and Captain Malcolm Reynolds, two characters I had never drawn before.

Shake a stick at more sketch cards

2010-03-08T23:48:00.002-06:00

Captain America, Hal Jordan, and Jay Garrick.

Super Sketch Card Stylings

2010-03-02T08:31:00.002-06:00

I've always wanted to do a series of sketch cards or illustrations based on other people's viewpoint of Superman, most typically being reactions to them being helped by him. The title for this card is actually "The world fell down around us, and then... he was there."

Spidey Sketch Cards to Share

2010-02-26T23:03:00.004-06:00

Seriously, I could draw Spider-Man, his universe and supporting characters, everyday, for the rest of my life, and I think be happy with it. Especially Mary Jane. Redheads. yum.

new scanner test

2010-02-19T10:20:00.002-06:00

Trying out my new Mustek A3 on some old pages. Me likey.

I've needed a large format scanner for a long time now, and at the price this one was, I couldn't pass it up. Looking at what I've scanned so far, it's a huge bargain, compared to some of its $600+ brethren out there.

Rough thinking

2010-02-13T10:39:00.002-06:00

Just trying to get the pencils moving for a while.

The three phases of Spider-Man

2009-12-10T20:13:00.004-06:00

Blue pencil first, mechanical pencil and HB graphite after that, and then inks and colors with PrismaColor markers.

I think I could draw Spider-Man everyday. He's lots of fun. It's the webs.

A new day in the office?

2009-12-02T22:12:00.004-06:00

This actually belongs on the other "blog", but it technically has a new home. It's just that the new home really doesn't have any furniture, and I don't want to have any one over until I get some drapes. So, I'm going to dump this here for now.

I just need to figure out the fourth panel. How do I make my fella getting trounced look like he's actually bouncing as our super hero type figure jumps of of him?

The second one here, I've lost all sense of what the dialog was supposed to be, so it has to come up somewhere soon. I think we can all tell that there's going to be a Jabba's Palace joke in there, though.

Padme finishes

2009-11-24T11:22:00.002-06:00

Marla Bea Benefit sketch/Supergirl

2009-10-03T12:51:00.004-05:00

5 x 7 piece done for the Marla Bea Benefit Auction. It's an auction for charity beginning October 12th on eBay.

ALL of the proceeds from this auction will benefit the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Please click on their link to visit their site.

All of the artists that donated works to this cause did so with no compensation,and we hope to help Jason raise as much money as possible toward his goal.

I encourage everyone to spread the word about this auction, and help them raise moeny for a great cause. At the Marla Bea website, there are links that will take you to printable flyers that you can print and post where ever you feel would have the greatest impact.

mutant cards

2009-09-24T23:04:00.003-05:00

Husk from the X-Men books.

Padme for all seasons

2009-09-24T22:52:00.004-05:00

Sketch card commissions. Padme from each of the prequel episodes. Pencils first, and then the finished colors later.

...do anything a pork roast can

2009-09-11T08:54:00.003-05:00

I've never had a reason to draw Spider-Ham. I'm glad i did. He's fun. One of a bunch of sketch card commissions I took last month, and am finishing up this week.

Nighcrawler 1, 2, 3

2009-09-01T10:47:00.002-05:00

Blue pencil, pencil and then Prismacolor and Derwent colored pencils for the finish.

Spider-Man and the coffee

2009-08-28T09:43:00.004-05:00

I have re-done this sketch card three times now, each for different people who wanted the same image. Now that my scanner is back on track, I can actually share this one. So, here you can see the original sketch card (done in 08), and now the new gray scale version of it.

I always like how they turn out. One of those times in which I caught myself with a good pose. I also think that when people see this, they just like the idea of Spidey taking five minutes to get a cup of coffee, look over the city, and get ready for a long night.

Han Solo redeux

2009-06-30T00:15:00.004-05:00

I did the remix action on an old Han drawing. One of my favorite poses of him shooting, in A New Hope, as he and Chewie are escaping the stormtroopers. It's a piece done for a charity auction next month. Old 5 x 7 pencils on left, new 11 x 17 piece on right.

Gears of War card

2009-06-05T23:50:00.003-05:00

One of a series of sketch cards I've done that are part of a series of video game characters, this one being the lead from the Gears of War video game. The tech in this game is amazingly difficult to draw, so the first one I did was pretty much a head shot. The set is now orphaned, so I'll probably ebay them.

a quickie with Red Sonja

2009-05-15T08:50:00.003-05:00

March of Dimes Charity Auction

2009-05-07T08:42:00.004-05:00

March of Dimes charity auction is ongoing. Amoung the awesome sketch cards for auction over there, you can find three of mine.

Luke Skywalker and Yoda (only two days left, people!)

Han Solo

Mara Jade.

To take a look at the entire offering of sketch cards, run over here, to Steve's Spanaway Stash March of Dimes Charity Auction.

Han, Luke and Mara for the March of Dimes

2009-04-30T00:05:00.004-05:00

Cards sent in for an auction this weekend, to help raise money for March of Dimes.

Han Solo sketch card

2009-04-05T23:50:00.003-05:00

old school

2009-03-31T23:19:00.001-05:00

sketch cards for a cure

2009-03-17T23:35:00.004-05:00

Scans here of the sketch cards I ended up sending in for the charity auction.

http://www.comicsforcures.com/

There will be a public exhibition at Comics 2 Games, (Florence, KY) location on April 4th 2009. The auction of all the original art cards will go online (eBay) starting the week before the Sketch Card exhibition and will end that evening. All proceeds from the sale of the cards will go to the American Cancer Society.

Go! Bid! Look! Raise money for a great cause, and get some cool art!

on the lookout

2009-02-13T08:32:00.002-06:00

I'm not sure what he's looking at, but he's very serious about it.

The rest of the artist proof cards

2009-01-24T09:54:00.002-06:00

The last of the artist proof cards I had from Summer of ,08, for the Marvel Masterpiece series of sketch cards (of which I STILL have not been paid for), was a 3 card set that shows Wolverine, Shadowcat (Kitty Pride), and Lockheed going up against Magneto. While I was happy with 90% of it, I still am not crazy about how Magneto turned out, for whatever reason.

Shawn Keim's new photography book

2009-01-24T08:56:00.001-06:00

My brother has a new coffee table photography book.

This is the cover:

From Summer 08

It's a great looking book, full of awesome pics. I should know, because I am in some of them, and the camera loves me. Shawn once had to buy a new camera, because his old one fell in love with me, was stalking me, and so we had to put it down. True story.

I know that right now you're asking yourself: "Chadd, in these tough times, I personally can't afford it, but I know someone who would really like one. What can I do to help?"

Well, run over to lulu.com, and hit the entry for the book: Ultra Photography by Shawn Keim

Click on the "share this" tab, and share it EVERYWHERE you can think of. Blogs, Facebook, MySpace, StumbleIt, digg, whatever you can do.

New sektch cards

2009-01-09T08:07:00.003-06:00

I received some Christmas cheer, in the form an Xbox360 game, from my buddy Josh. So to return the favor, I whipped up a couple of sketch cards, featuring him.

Marvel sketch card up for bid

2008-11-09T16:04:00.000-06:00

If you work quickly, you can get a bid in on one of my Marvel sketch cards over on eBay.

It's a Hulk/Spidey card I did. I'll find a better scan of it later.

Blackbolt

2008-11-05T22:21:00.003-06:00

I kind of knew who Blackbolt was, from my years of reading Marvel comics. As I researched his look, I had no idea what kind of a bad ass he truly was. His powers are cool, and anything to do with energy manipulation lets me do some artsy stuff with color, so I always like that.

I really dig the way this one turned out.

Archangel

2008-10-21T08:29:00.003-05:00

This is my favorite version of Angel/Archangel. When this change first occurred in the comics, I was never crazy about the costume. I didn't understand how bright blue and pink colors made this character suddenly evil. It didn't mesh well with me.

After time, when Warren Worthington III turned back to the good side, I accepted the costume, and still think the line design is cool, even if it is bright pink.

this card was a challenge, to try and figure out what I was going to do with the wings. Angel himself I wanted to show as a stoic figure in this one, looking strong, but casually floating.

Cloak and Dagger

2008-10-15T08:44:00.002-05:00

I had never drawn cloak and Dagger before, the Marvel duo that I first started reading in the late 80's. After doing this card, I hopped online to read about their history again, and remembered why I liked them in the first place. They were kind of reluctant heroes, cleansing souls that had been damaged like theirs were.

In the early comics, I never got the sense that they were lovers, but this was explored more in the newer series they've been in. I thought that a pose with Dagger showing a hint of sensuality, and Cloak showing his own sense of protectiveness for her, was the way to go. Pretty damn happy with how this card turned out.

Drawing sketch cards

2008-10-09T08:25:00.006-05:00

Looking through some past entries, I realized that I hadn't posted a lot about the sketch cards I did for the Marvel Masterpieces II set. Over the next couple of weeks, I'll post up some examples of cards I finished. Here's X-23.

The first one is, of course, the pencils for it. I didn't really know a lot about this character, until I started looking for reference shots of her, and then discovered that she was a clone of Wolverine, and that she had made her first Marvel appearance ever in the XMen animated series around five years ago.

She was an interesting challenge. Based on who she is, you want her to look tough, but not manly. Sexy, but not swimsuit model sexy. I kept her lean, but placed some muscle in there, and made sure her hair had that flowing quality, to soften her features a bit.

I really like how she turned out, as I'm getting better with using the watercolor pencil for the white highlights, which can really make an image pop with a fgew, subtle lines to show detail.

2008-09-17T15:02:00.001-05:00

I'm open for the remainder of Sept, to do sketch card commissions.

$20 for pencils.
$30 for grayscale.
$40 for full color.

I originally had 10 spots, but now have only 6 open spots left.

I'll start making myself available for more, later in the year, but I can't guarantee the prices will be the same (might go up a few bucks in the new year). At the rate in which I am able to work, I figured that 10 cards for the next two weeks was doable, and I'm beginning to think that's about right.

If you're interested, leave a comment, or shoot me an email with what you'd like. Any subject is open.
Cards will be done on Blue Line Pro sketch cards or custom cut Bristol vellum, which will have a tan "brown paper bag" background.

super nursing

2008-09-02T07:55:00.003-05:00

My wife is in nursing school, and as one of the graduation fund raisers, her class wanted to create some original tee shirts. This task ultimately fell to me, as the class wanted to see something that was like a "super hero nurse". That was pretty much the extent of the direction that I received.

I did a couple of different drawings, and decided to go with a toned down version (character wise), and set up the two figures in heroic poses, but keep their proportions in a more reasonable state. After a couple of color edits (I still think the black guy might print a little dark), and some background design, I came up with the final version.

Eventually, I'll have a pic of one of the tees this ends up on.

More Marvel sketch cards

2008-08-27T21:11:00.004-05:00

Two of my cards that were part of the ten "artist proof cards" that were sent back.

I'd type more about how much fun these were to work on, as well as the other eight (which haven't been approved yet), but man, I'm tired.

sketch cards

2008-08-05T08:43:00.003-05:00

I've started doing more small commissions for people, in regards to sketch cards. A couple of the more recent ones I've finished are for my friend Tony, shown here.

I finally caved and bought some PrismaColor markers and grayscale pens. I'm such a numbskull for not making this investment sooner. They're very easy to work with, and give quick results. I'll be doing a lot more experimenting with them in the future, so watch for more art marker stuff to show up here.

I don't usually post too many finished commission pieces here. I generally leave it up to the client, as to whether or not they'd like me to post up a pic of what I finished for them (sometimes, they're personal pieces), so I just leave an open note as to whether or not they'd like me to show the finished piece. I've begun moving away from that, and posting up either pieces in progress or finished items, like these cards. I think I've changed my mind to the fact that, even though I'm doing a piece of art for someone, and it's theirs to do with and display as they please; it's still my drawing, and my chance to share with others.

Dragon vs. crazy humans

2008-07-07T08:13:00.005-05:00

I'm working inside a fantasy world that, while holding "Earth-like" attributes, is not of Earth. Within this world, there is what has become an age-old separation of human and dragon. For the most part, humans do no like dragons, and vice-versa.

Between each of their worlds is a large expanse of almost impassable wasteland called The Veil. It's an area so dangerous, that even a convoy of powerful dragons will lose members within it. It's one of the main reasons humans and dragons have stay separated for so long.

Once a group of dragons passes through The Veil, attempting to get into Man's Land, they run into a huge stretch of mountains, that run from one sea inlet to another. The land narrows to a long strip of rocky terrain, that dips into a valley called Klegg's Pass. Over the generations, humans (fearing dragons return to their land) used both magic and physical land movement, to build up the area just outside The Veil, so that there was only this bottleneck left.

The comrade of humans, elves, dwarves, halfings and giants building the natural barrier came upon a group of barbaric hunters. The group's intent was to build a mountain range along the entire expanse of The Veil, making a natural barrier so high, that even the most powerful dragon would experience hardship, even death, flying at such an altitude. Upon encountering these naked savages, a few of the group's leaders tried to interact with them, to let them know their purpose in building the natural boundary. The savages killed all but one o them; a giant named Juxtaik Klegg, who came back missing his right arm, from elbow down.

Klegg pronounced the project finished, advising that the barbarians they encountered were unmoving in their intent that the range come no further, and that they would stay in their hilltop villages, fighting to the last man to stay where they were. Klegg was the only one out of the leaders to remotely understand the savages, whom he continually referred to as "naked berserkers".

Klegg, favorably intelligent for a giant, and considering himself a sort of archaeologist, opted to stay behind, and live out the rest of his years just below the pass. Stories would come back of him trying to trade and interact with the Berserkers, but they always ended with him incurring some sort of injury. As the years passed, mapmakers began referring to this narrow stretch of valley as Klegg's Pass, and the rarely seen indigenous people there were known as The Naked Berserker's of Klegg's Pass.

Some travelers have reported seeing a one armed giant walking along the hillsides of the area, gathering food, and ducking back into his cave of a home. Others had reported sightings of dragon carcasses, hacked to bits, scattered across kilometers of land, their bones showing teeth and gnash marks. Legends began spring up about the Naked Berserkers; unbeatable savages whose hatred of not only dragons, but anyone who was not of their own, spread throughout the world. Over the years, people began to rest easy that not only would dragons have a hard time passing The Veil and all of its unexplainable dangers; but that once they attempted to navigate Klegg's Pass, they would encounter the Naked Berserkers, and either die, being overrun by the sheer numbers of insane warriors, or turn back, their losses to great to continue.

battle dwarf

2008-06-09T00:04:00.005-05:00

Grabbed some D&D 4 sharacter sheets from Grant Gould's website.

For you folk who still dig the table top RPG, you probably know that Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition is launching a series of new handbooks and such over this summer. Stuff I've read from different reviews show a lot of people liking the simpler gameplay, among other things. I never was a big D&D guy myself, not really playing much after middle school. I had a lot of the character books, and I think I still have an old Monster Manual around here somewhere.

I've been knee deep in drawing the fantasy stuff, and used one of the templates Grant provided players (download at his link above), and sketched up a warrior dwarf fella, before I hit the hay. If anyone else wants to grab the templates he provided, he's offering them up for players.

iron and beards

2008-05-14T07:58:00.003-05:00

In this fantastical world Jason and I are attempting to build, there are four kinds of dwarven (sic?) people.

You'll have your typical, conservative, superstitious people, locked in the old ways, still sporting the long beards, the traditional dress, and the old way of life. They mine ore, bot with uses of magic and without, are non-trusting of any outsider, and stick to this old way of life til death.

There's also a more moderate, farmer sect of dwarf; and from them dwarves who are traders and merchants. These people have shed a lo of the old ways, and are in constant conflict (non-violent, more like a familial squabble) with the mountain dwarves. They have different hairstyles, trade with other races, and are generally more social than the mountain dwarves.

Then... then, there's pirate dwarves. PIRATES. And they have mohawks, or are bald... or whatever I ant to do with them. While making up their look will be fun, it will be more challenging designing their ships, since in a design/mathematical sense, most ships are designed with the height of an average human in mind. I forsee lots of steps, and rope ladders.

elements of fantasy

2008-04-27T22:28:00.003-05:00

Aside from the primary elements of Aristotelism, (earth, water, air and fire) we could also have elementals made of gemstone, ice, rock, life energy, light, lightning, magical energy, magma, current (magic) power, metals, mud, plants and trees, smoke, steam, toxins, clouds or other weather items, and spirits. There could be more. Dozens more, based on what we could derive mystical beings to concoct.

It's certainly challenging, trying to envision these creatures (typically of a magic creation), and how they would look. Humanoid, animal, abstract, wispy, rainy... I could go down dozens of avenues.

For now, though, I like this rock guy. I like that he has a hole in his head (presumably from some battle, long ago, which involved catapults), but it doesn't bother him so much. I see elementals as beings that would have a driving force that is akin to instinctual. Kind of like primitive animals, driven by whatever created them in the first place; not bearing good or evil one way or another, but just working on the impulses that have animated them. Some (rocks, trees) are tougher than others (air, water), and some are created to serve a singular purpose. Rock Guy, we'll just say that someone created him hundreds of years ago to simply smash things, and now he's retired to the mountains. Woe to any poor mortal who comes upon him.

swords and folk

2008-04-23T20:38:00.003-05:00

I've never done a lot of detailing for weapons and materials, in anything I've drawn. Finding out different ways old style weapons were/are made, and how it makes them individual has been interesting.

This whole thinking about what elven royalty could look like, or the size comparisons between dragon and human, is something that I'm actually enjoying.

I've always kind of been a research whore, so delving into what could make up the fabric of this imagined world, while time consuming, is invigorating.

a new hope

2008-04-17T06:37:00.004-05:00

My girls were watching Star Wars on the Spike network the other day. Even though we could have watched the really nice, clean versions on DVD, we watched it on TV anwyay. It's odd... there's just something about Star Wars being on TV, that you don't want to turn it away.

dragons and swords

2008-04-17T06:27:00.006-05:00

Scribbles of ideas for a fantasy project Jason Truman and I are working on.

Basically, while the story we have will hold your typical fantastical elements; we're creating this world from scratch. It's inhabited by humans, elves, dragons and the like, but it's not earthbound, so it must be different, but the same. Challenging to be sure, even in these infant stages.

Today, we see one of the main characters of the story, and swords of the different peoples.

comic doodles

2008-04-12T10:32:00.005-05:00

A couple of years ago, I started digging into the idea of creating a webcomic. I threw out a couple of strips, trying to experiment with how I wanted to do it.

http://inanelogic.blogspot.com/

Ultimately, it was put on hold. Not enough time, for too much work, and my creative partner (Jason Truman) was going through some stuff that didn't allow him to devote anything to helping plot, and left him no time for his color/inking duties.

So, we shelved "Inane Logic".

Recently, Jason and I have been working on a fantasy novel together, and within our brainstorming sessions, we inevitably write down some ideas that come to us, that could be used for a comic strip (because, after all, we are creative geniuses).

Gathering together some of the scrips of paper, and reading through them, I began writing some new stories for our characters, and went out and bought a domain name.

Optioning it over at WordPress, we're going to set up the new comic using the ComicPress theme, and will attempt to keep a running strip going with two or three updates a week, with special "large edition" strips that will have either full gray scale, or full color, done by both Jason and I.

http://inanelogic.wordpress.com/

So, to the left are some sketches of some of the characters I'm reviving. It's not often I write something that makes myself laugh out loud (although I am Heee-larious), but some of these that we've done should tickle your funny bone.

another player commission

2008-02-07T08:47:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago, I had done a gnome commission, and the guy liked it pretty well. He wanted another pic of: "...a perplexed gnome jumping up and down on a box (with a hand in it) in frustration".

The "hand" he's referring to is the Hand of Vecna, something I had to look up, as it seems that my Nerdesh dialiect failed me. I speak pretty good Geek, but some of those regional Nerdesh dialects tend to have some terms that I've yet to encounter.

So, here's the result. I may go back and add some broken tools laying around the ground, but I'll wait and see what the client thinks about it.

jazz

2008-01-31T08:01:00.000-06:00

Some images I did for a marketing poster.

I've actually made a ne trumpet guy, as when you look at the fingers on this one, he's got either the longest digits of any human... or I just messed up. Let's go with the latter.

The other one is a sketch of a couple that was dancing as a ballroom dance studio, next to where my girls take dance classes.

gnome study

2007-11-20T09:09:00.000-06:00

Quick sketch out of a gnome thief.

Buffy Summers

2007-11-06T08:15:00.001-06:00

Quick sketch I did after watching a whole bunch of Angel the Series on DVD.

new sketch

2007-04-28T22:40:00.000-05:00

A quick sketch done for a commission request. It's been a while since this place saw some action. Working on that later this week. The home computer's been for a while, and I simply lacked the funds to build a new one as quickly as I would like. But, been using the laptop, and secured a decent scanner to get some stuff input. Here's one of Thor fighting Daredevil for no good reason. It's the beginnings of a commission, so I'm not sure if the final product will look exactly like this.

I really tried to get in the feel of Thor showing the defined sense of his being a larger than life god. With DD, I wanted an immediate shot to show his agility, plus his gymnast build. The outstretched right hand was originally going to be throwing one of his billy clubs to show how his senses were already reacting to Thor's attacking him, but I'm not sure if it will actually be in the finished drawing.

Webcomic panels and random...

2007-03-24T21:51:00.000-05:00

Dash to the thumbnail to click for the big versions.

Some quick preview pencils for some upcoming storyline action over at INANE LOGIC.

I also had some Han Solo art from a month ago, or so... and a mostly naked faerie for you to see. =-)

McSketchiness

2007-01-23T07:52:00.000-06:00

Been a while since I posted some drawing schtuff over here.

Sunday, Jan 21st, I went to a drawing jam with some other creators from a local Kansas City Comic Creators Network. Good times. had some beer, talked a lot, read some mini comics, and met a lot of cool cats. We're doing it again in Feb, so I'm look forward to it. In this post are some of the scribbles I did while we were there. Not real sure what the first one is, but the second is obiously Spidey, and the third is from someone insisting that Jean Claude Van Damme be drawn for an Illustration Friday topic, "superhero". So, why not draw Jean Claude beating the crap out of some robot?

See you soon, and remember to check out INANE LOGIC.

Viking, grayscale

2006-12-14T09:04:00.000-06:00

A while back, I did a commission for a viking/barbarian type dude.

I'd done digital inking on it before, and placed a family seal of sorts in the background for the finished product.

Here, my creative partner, Jason Truman, has taken the PrismaColor Grayscale markers, and did his take on the pencils. While we decided we're not crazy about how the cross hatching turned out, I did really like how the tones added weight to the warrior fella.

preview for next's week's INANE LOGIC

2006-12-11T08:15:00.000-06:00

Next week will hold the first "official" INANE LOGIC webcomic, set in the actual universe of the characters, and not just head shots of the creators talking smack about each other. Here's a preview shot for you.

sketch dumpie

2006-12-05T08:42:00.000-06:00

Some running dude from an RPG game I worked on quite a while ago.

A character that I'm placing into the webcomic, INANE LOGIC.

Preview posts

2006-11-27T12:45:00.000-06:00

I've been ignoring this blog space lately, and I haven't meant to. So here's some preview pics from Inane Logic webcomic, launching with "apology" strips, this Friday, Dec 1st.

So, in order, we have sketches of Daisy, who's not as dumb as she knows you are; and then Frank, the head of Security. Then we have a preview page with some inks in it, with Phil.

teaser shot for upcoming webcomic

2006-10-05T14:32:00.000-05:00

A cropped shot from one of the stips coming up for the webcomic "Inane Logic". Watch this space for more.

sketching girls

2006-09-24T13:34:00.000-05:00

Just throwing up some quickies done for practice.

photoshoppin' redeux

2006-09-11T22:20:00.000-05:00

There are a lot of different things one can do in Photoshop and Illustrator to either create art, of enhance artwork that you would scan into the computer. I've been learning different tips and tricks through a lot of trial and error, and I've come to find out that sometimes less is more. I like a lot of the tricks and enhancement you can do to an image, digitally, but I think the more you mess with a picture, there are times where more damage than good can be done.

I've been sticking with simple things, like the Levels and Gradient tools, to give some old pics a sense of new life, and add some more weight and effect to them. Sometimes I go in knowing what I want, and others I just start clicking around and see what happens.

Both of these old pics, I knew what I wanted, and used the noise that was already on the paper from the first one to get the "wintry" feel to the background, and with the latter one, I just wanted that overhead light we see him shielding his eyes from.

Digital manhandling of pics can be fun, but I think over-reliance on it can lead it to it being a crutch, instead of a useful tool.

a character from a webcomic

2006-08-31T00:11:00.000-05:00

This is Brian, and he's apathetic. Brian really doesn't like his job, but lacks any sort of motivation to go find a new one, or do anything to move himself out of the position he's in. Possibly the only reason he stays with his company is because of the people the temp agency sends over to work. You work with someone like Brian.

A webcomic panel

2006-08-16T09:12:00.000-05:00

So, here's a test page for a panel of the webcomic I'm working on. I have to say, I love the PrismaColor Grayscale Markers. These things are cool as hell. This panel is marker and inks over my very simple drawing, and makes it look 500% more fun.

webcomic coming. watch for it.

2006-07-30T21:15:00.000-05:00

So, I've partnered up with another guy, and we''re going to launch a webcomic after the Summer Con season is over. It'll involve some of the antics of the guys you see in the pic here. We're going to cover some of the idiosyncricies of coporate life. Think of it as something like Office Space meets The Tick. Kind of. But even funnier.

Reruns, but with a new cast

2006-07-30T21:05:00.000-05:00

So here we have two drawings of the same situation. After some third party critiquing, I changed a few things from the first one, and we got the second. With the newer version, I am going to send it off to my new art and creative partner for inking, and then have it come back to me for some grayscale coloring, and little photoshop tweaking. We'll see how it looks after that. Mainly, all I wanted to change was the arm he was ripping off, and give a little better face to the cyborg assassin he's destroying. I'll post the finished version in a couple of weeks.

old school

2006-05-26T22:02:00.000-05:00

In the early 90's, a couple of friends and I had airbrushes, and we would airbursh about every comic character, cartoon, star wars vehicle you could imagine... whatever we could get money for. For a while, it was some pretty good money doing it, for a high school/college student.

This pic of warblade, from the original WildC.A.T.S. series, was one of the first things I tackeled, over 13 years ago, I think? I have no idea whatever happened to this shirt. I recently found quite a few photos of airbrushed artwork I had done. Some of it was defintely just for the money, other stuff was just me wanting to create something. I miss using the airbrush. These days not only do I hardly ever have a need for it, but there's just not any extra time to set up the equipment, and do it. I remember a week where I airbrushed twenty shirts for a local radio station's promotion of "The Crow", when the Brandon Lee movie came out. That was... tiring, but a big learning experience.

Look, a drawing

2006-05-21T15:35:00.000-05:00

I did this sketch of a drawf character, based on a story idea from an Internet acquaintance. I actually kind of like it.

It's one of those stories where it's based in a past time period, but with fantasy characters, with a technological spin.

two versions of one viking

2006-04-23T22:03:00.000-05:00

So, this fella asked me to draw a Viking for him, and he would give me some cash for it. I said sure, sketched the guy on the right, decided he looked a little wonky, threw it around for some critiquing, and then came up with the guy on the left. I'm told, as far as Vikings go, he's a good looking one.

There's actually two finished versions of this sketch, one inked and one shaded with graphite, but those are the fella's, since he paid for them.

Gavin studies

2006-04-11T11:41:00.000-05:00

Studies of my other hero character, Gavin, the brother of Lance.

character stuff

2006-03-22T08:41:00.000-06:00

I've been playing more with getting rid of dialog balloons, and telling more of a story as a running narrative as the background of what I draw. It works because I'm lazy, and don't like drawing backgrounds, and I've found that I can do some fun stuff with the words themselves and make them into buildings and trees, and it creates a kind of trippy environment. Who knows, all that may just go away and I'll head back to the traditional box form, or we could see a combination of both.

I've found that going back to old drawings and adding to them is actully helping me draw new stuff. Looking at old skethces, I've been writing down environments and story elements, something to add to what was just a sketch. A lot of that is the scribbling you see behind the drawing.

2006-03-20T15:10:00.000-06:00

Not a lot to say today, just throwing up a couple of studies on my cop character.

Someday soon I'll have fresh material. By soon I mean within the next 3 months.

Ralph studies

2006-03-12T13:28:00.000-06:00

Three early studies of Ralph. As mentioned earlier, her physical appereance was actually taken from a different idea I had for a girl, Wild Escapade, a spy-type chick. I like this cop character better. I also noticed that in the first pic here, and in the collage of images, I made Ralph left handed, which I happen to like. You don't see that many left handed characters. At least, none come to mind, right off.

misc drawings

2006-03-12T13:18:00.000-06:00

It's been a while since I jumped over here to update. To busy in "real life", I suppose. So I'm going to place some older drawings of characters and misc stuff.

These two are come preliminary studies of Triumph, the established hero in my comic. He's went through several changes, but I've kept coming back to this original design, of him being a professor, middle aged, and his costume taking hints from 1930's aviator outfits.

Cover revision

2006-02-24T15:04:00.000-06:00

So, we started with the wrinkled one (which still held the original title design), tightened stuff up a bit and came out with a new version of it. I like it a little better.

a rough, and then messing around

2006-02-20T08:13:00.000-06:00

A rough done for a character, when I should have been working my "real job".

Then I messed around with it in photoshop. Never amazes me what things occur in that program by small steps or changes

Nothing really, just random sketches

2006-02-12T14:19:00.000-06:00

I start of with really good ideas for poses... and then stuff just kind of fades out of my head, and I leave it for weeks at a time, sometimes never coming back to it.

More and more though, I'm liking the effect of telling the story with dialogue as a background, and an image in the forefront. That just lends itself to my inability to draw a convincing background.

Cover idea

2006-02-05T17:07:00.000-06:00

Somewhere this sketch for a cover idea became exposed to some high humidity, so when I got around to scanning it in, the paper was all wrinkled, and it resulted in a bad scan.

Regardless, I like this concept cover. I like the ideas of comic book covers following the same line of thought as movie posters. With that in mind, I've always been a big fan of Drew Struzan, so I and think of his collage sense when building a cover for a book.

This is another one I'm in the process of redrawing. I like the position and pose of each of the characters, especially Lance on the left, with the sunglasses, but this was drawn a long time ago, and my style has evolved a bit since then. At least, I hope it has. Also, I think the images themselves need to be closer together, and I've been told the lips and eyelids for Ralph (the girl) are off, so there's something to be done with that.

It's a pretty big scan, so if you click on the thumbnail or link, you'll see what I meant about the paper.

trying to rough out a fight

2006-01-29T22:52:00.000-06:00

I started out trying to figure out poses to put my hero in as he was fighting, and then realized that I wanted something to show his strength, in how he could throw people around. So this little sketch page just wound down into roughs of trying to figure how bodies would looke, flung over a shoulder, or into a wall, or even through a wall.

The second image, I was playing with trying to show a stop in motion, with a flying character just out of frame. I think it failed miserably, and I've realized that this type of motion is very hard to convey in a comic panel.

a bad guy

2006-01-29T14:40:00.000-06:00

So, every good hero needs an antagonist. The main bad guy in my stories, Dominique, is a powerless (in so far as he has no extraordinary powers) gangster type. He came to power in his city after the super-powered beings started appearing. He saw a means for his end, and began employing powered humans into his organization. He was a street thug, killed his boss to become a ganglord of sorts, and now heads up his own little crime family.

I felt it was important to have a villian in the story that has no powers. It gives a chance to show the jealousy, contempt, and that sometimes even normal humans would certianly have these feelings toward those that are "above mortal man".

I show that with my female police officer, Ralph, as well, with the exception that she DOES have powers, but chooses to try and subdue them every chance she gets. She regards most of the costumed heroes running around as vigilantes, believing that they're operating outside the law. Dominique, on the other hand, sees only the chance to corrupt and extort the super-powered, figuring that since they are still human, they still have the same desires for power and money as he does.

sketches for a cop

2006-01-19T18:15:00.000-06:00

action sketches on the cop in my comic, Graham Montross. He's based upon a buddy of mine, who tells me "Hey, thanks for making me look skinny".