Monday, November 30, 2009

The "game changer" part IV


Here's another sneak peek at my "game changer" book. Still can't announce what it is, but I promise to do so when the time is right. I appreciate all the interest in this thing already, and beg forgiveness for being so vague about the details of the project thus far.

Part I
Part II
Part III

Best,
Mike

Friday, November 27, 2009

Drawing for fun - HELLBOY!! pt. III


Hey all!

I finished the pencils for that Hellboy piece I was working on. If work allows I'll get to inking it, and will post the work in progress.

Best,
Mike

New art for sale Nov. 27th, 09


Hey all!

I put that DREDD art up for sale in my store.

Best,
mike

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving 2009!

Hey everyone,

I want to say Thank you to all of you who check out the blog and support my work. I appreciate each and every one of you and thank my luck stars that you've decided to follow my work.

I try my best to give back and post often to share as much of what's going on in my studio as I can.

I hope you all have a great day, surrounded by friends and family with plenty to eat.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Best,
Mike

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Hulk VS Thing

Apparently I always draw big monster dudes as kinda' somber.

Wonder who'd win in a "who's sadder" fight?

This guy...




...Or this guy?

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Old sketchbook find - The Thing


Guess who can't sleep again!?

Been tossing and turning for over an hour now, so I got up and flipped through some old sketchbooks to find something to goof around with. I found this little half inked Thing sketch, and decided to finish it.

A while back I had started it for a Thing inspired art thread on the old Ivan Brandon message board, but was too busy to finish it. I ended up forgetting about it till tonight. I polished off the inks, or maybe I roughed them up a bit, and this is what I ended up with.

Enjoy!

best,
mike

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Drawing for fun - DREDD! pt. V


FINISHED!

Previous post.

This piece will go up for sale later this week, unless it sells before then.

Best,
Mike

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

New art for sale Nov. 18th, 09

I'll be posting new art for sale every week leading up to Christmas. Check out this week's haul.




best,
mike

Drawing for fun - ELEKTRA pt. I


Remember how cool 'Elektra Lives Again' was? I came late to it, but once I laid eyes on it I knew I wanted to make THAT kind of comic. Anyway, over the weekend I decided to play around a bit with a shot of Elektra VS the ninjas in the cemetery, made famous by the fight scene from book.

Even used a red pencil for extra wreck. More soon.

Mike

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Queen & Country W.I.P. pt.III - The big finish!


Got this wrapped this weekend. I'm really happy with how it turned out, and will honestly miss it once I ship it off. But, it's going to the good home of a true Queen & Country fan! :)

Best,
Mike

Friday, November 13, 2009

Queen & Country W.I.P. pt.II


Got the pencils done on that Q&C piece. Man, really nice to get to revisit these characters that I grew to love.

The first post from this piece.

Anyway, enjoy.

Best,
Mike

PS - Before anyone e-mails to ask, this piece is already sold. Sorry :(

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Drawing for fun - DREDD! pt. III

This is coming along nicely, so I figured I'd share.




I fixed a drawing mistake and a costume element I missed, thankfully caught by eagle eyed PJ Holden (thanks, man!), and have begun inking it here and there when I have time. This week is all layout work, so I'm playing around with this when I need a break from that.

Now that I've started I see I should have used a more up to date gun, and maybe made that eagle shoulder pad/armor element bigger or more stylized...not sure. Definitely something to keep in mind for next time.

Previous DREDD posts: pt. I & pt. II

Best!
Mike

Sunday, November 08, 2009

Drawing for Fun - HELLBOY!! pt. II



Got a little farther with that Hellboy piece. Can't wait to finish it, but have a ton of layouts to get to.

See the first post of this here.

Best,
Mike

Saturday, November 07, 2009

Drawing for Fun - DREDD part II


Finished the pencils on that DREDD piece. Hopefully I can find some time to ink it...but I kinda doubt it'll be soon. Too much work to get to first. :(

See the first post here.

Comments welcomed.

Mike

Friday, November 06, 2009

The "game changer" part III

More art from my secret project.






Required reading, if you haven't seen the posts already.
Part I
Part II

best,
Mike

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

The "game changer" PT. II

Before reading this, you may want to catch up on part one of The "game changer"

"You don't want to read about it fool, you want to feel it..."
Brother Ali

Years ago I attended the prestigious Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts. My room mate was a classically trained Opera singer, and he was amazing. We got to be pretty good friends. He was a happy go lucky, goofy, & lovely human being. I couldn't imagine him taking anything seriously, which to me was what being an artist was about. Taking shit really seriously. So, I went to one of his performances one night to see him in action. I was blown away. This boy sung like a dream.

That would have been memorable enough, but then another thing happened that changed my attitude towards art for years to come. I was totally enthralled with the performance, but then something in the crowd caught my attention. A few girls, all students and artists, were openly weeping. They were so moved by this guy's incredible performance that they just cried at the beauty of it. And even through the tears they never stopped listening, never took their eyes off of him.

I swore then and there that some day, God knows when, I would make an image that would move people they way this song had. I would make something so pure that the viewer would forget the artistry behind it, the technique, the draughtsmanship, and just experience it on an emotional level. I would take this task very, very seriously. Because I was a serious artist.

I failed for years. So many years in fact that I forgot about the goal, forgot about adding pure soul to art, and focused more and more on the technique.

Then I sent some pages from The "game changer" book I'm pouring my heart into to a cartoonist friend I respect to get his input, and he typed back something stunning. He said the pages made him "tear up".

I was floored. This guy is not the crying type. He's been through some shit in his short life that would break the strongest amongst us. I mean, real pain and struggle. The kind that either crushes you, or hardens you into diamonds. This dude did the latter.

And I made him tear up with some comic book pages.

My mind went back to that night in that Opera hall and I'll be damned, I finally figured it out. My Opera singer friend didn't TRY to move people. He just stood up on a stage, forgot we were all there, and sung from the soul.

When that shit happens, you can FEEL it.

I think, God help me, I think that is happening here with this book. I'm holding my heart while I draw this thing, and hopefully you will not only read this book...you'll FEEL this book.







Thank you.

Best,
Mike

Monday, November 02, 2009

Drawing for Fun - Queen and Country


Hey everyone,

Ok, here's another piece I'm doing. It features characters from a book I actually worked on, Queen & Country. This one is a VERY rare commission piece (rare because I RARELY do commissions!) for a gentleman who has bought a few pieces of art from be and been incredibly patient with me too :)

I actually LOVED Q&C long before I even drew it. When Oni had first started putting some of my work out I made it clear I really wanted to work on the series eventually, and they were kind enough to have me on.

Q&C is a bit of a disappointment for me though. Mostly because I just rushed through it more than I would have liked. The book had been gradually coming out later and later, and the Oni folks really needed someone to try and get it back on track. So, I hustled like hell to get it moving, even going so far as to ink 11 pages in 2 days on the last issue. (I was also penciling a book called RUULE, which became a bit of a time issue later in the series. But not a real big one as the scripts were rarely overlapped and caused a real issue in scheduling.)

In retrospect, this was terrible a idea. I should have just focused on one book, and should have definately spent more time on Q&C. I take being timely and professional VERY seriously (ask anyone who's ever worked with me) but I should have talked it over with everyone and not tried to catch the book up ENTIRELY on my shift. I should have just passed at least part of it on, but I'm kind of hard headed and have trouble turning down a challenge.

In the end, I'm VERY proud of the book. I just feel that it was a special series, and I wish I could have lavished the thing with attention instead of just rushing along the love affair.

Best,
Mike