Turnaround Tuesdays!

Welcome back to the second week of my new-and-improved (or at least consistently updated) blog. It's Turnaround Tuesday!

Turnarounds are a great way to get a feel for a character and to see if you can get a handle on their look and personality, even more than a pin-up. Last week I kicked off with the turnaround that started my interest, Wolverine. (You can check that one out on my Deviant Art page here) This week...

Wonder Woman!

Wonder Woman is one of those characters that's so iconic it can be hard to find a 'voice' for them. That's how this week's turnaround was for me. There's a litttle bit of Garcia-Lopez here, a little bit of Hughes there, a dash of Jimenez, Fradon, Dodson.... on and on. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the results: the anatomy's wonky in a couple places and she's not quite as 'on model' as she is in my head, but... a noble first attempt, I'd say.

Manic Monday!

One week down, infinity to go! Welcome back to my fresh and new (guaranteed!) blog, updated every weekday. It's Manic Monday time, let's get random!

- I meant to mention this last week: "Manic Monday" is a great song. Did you know that it was written by Prince? Did you know that he wrote the verses for the song using the exact same structure as he did for "1999"? Did you know it was possible to basically recycle a song and make another good song? Prince did. Prince always knows.

- I'm reading Neferetiti right now. It's a historical biography writtten by Joyce Tyldesley. It's interesting; the Berlin Neferetiti bust is so striking that it leads us, the modern viewer, to believe that we know more about her than we really do. The book is very good (I'm halfway through), and is a great read for any Egyptophile.

- Oh, and that Nefertiti bust is one of the greatest pieces of art in history.

- I'll love you forever if you buy me the All-Star Superman Absolute Edition for Christmas.

- I'm starting to get the Egypt 'bug' again. We'll see where that leads, but for right now at least I've been just reading a lot and doing some sketches. My junior year Thesis Project at the School of Visual Arts was on Hatchepsut, first female Pharaoh of Egypt, and I became very wrapped up in it. I'd kind of forgotten until recently that I'd down a small three page story about a later Pharaoh, Ahkenaten, as a warm-up for my larger thesis work. I found the pages a couple days ago and, despite my desire to stop putting old shit up on Deviant Art, I've uploaded them. You can check 'em out here. If I do another large-scale Egyptian project it will be on this pharaoh.

- On that note, here's your art for the day. It's a bust of Ahkenaten, from the same workshop that created the above-mentioned Nefertiti bust. The controversial pharaoh died before this bust was ever completed.

Foto Friday!

Welcome to the last day of the first week of my new and improved (or rather, now-consistently updated) blog. Fridays are going to close out my weeks (I might go insane if I tried to get a sketch or drawing up here every single day of the week!).

Aside from my comic work, I spend a decent amount of time doing a more photo-realistic style (this work might actually be exclusively what some of you know me for). On Fridays I'll be pairing a photo or two (some kind of reference, basically) with either a realistic drawing or a comic work which has integrated photo reference.

First off is something exciting. This week's Foto Friday will actually be doubling as a preview for a work that I'm doing right now for a small independent company. It's very cool (in my opinion, at least) and I'm excited to be working on it. I'm excited to show you a couple excerpts from parts of it that are now complete.

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I'll start with the photo references. These are Steven (left) and Sean (right), two good friends and two REALLY good dancers, together known as Happy Feet. I knew that they'd be great for the kind of big, exaggerated gestures you want in your zombies. Little did I know that the night we figured to get together they were actually going to be in a flash mob later that night... doing Thriller! As zombies! Score for me! (BTW, their performance was recorded; you can check it out here) Anyways, here's Steven and Sean...



Pretty cool, yeah? Some times you've gotta play with reference and tweak it here and there (and sometimes there again) but Sean and Steven rocked this shoot (plus their outfits were great) and all I had to do was not fuck it up (excuse my Spanish). All I did was 'tame' Steven's mane a bit; I've already apologized to him for his comic version's mullet. Here's what I came up with (these are just segments of larger panels, but this is all you get for now!)





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Thanks for visiting my blog, and for all the well-wishes as I round out this first week. Come back on Monday for more blog goodness!

Inspiration Thursday

Welcome back yet again to my new and improved (or at least consistently updated) blog. Hopefully you've been enjoying it so far. I'd love to get some feedback from people, to hear what they think. I am also qualified to answer any comic question you might have about... well, anything, I think. Maybe...

Getting back to the point, Thursday are going to be a day where I attempt to recreate, or use, or imitate, some part of an artist that's inspiring me. This week I've attempted a little bit of Kevin Nowlan. I pulled some Nowlan comics when I was inking the Garcia-Lopez Batman yesterday (the two of them are an amazing pairing) and I wanted to try to really, consciously 'pull' some more Nowlan out of my own art. Nowlan is also for me the preeminent Man-Bat artist; he designed the version you see in the animated Batman cartoon from the 90's (which I grew up with) and his work with the character is really inspired. Check out Secret Origin #39 if you're intrigued. It's also Thanksgiving, so...

Here's your 'Inspiration' sketch of the week. Happy Turkey Day!

The Missing Ink

Welcome to another installment of my new and improved (or at least much more consistent) art blog. I'm your host Alonso Nunez. Wednesdays will from now on be a little something I call 'The Missing Ink'. Basically, it'll be a day wherein the 'sketch' will be a nice bit of inking (hopefully a nice bit of inking anyways) over some pencils, usually by another artist but sometimes over my own. It'll range anywhere from a panel or small sketch up to a full page, depending on my current workload.

This week's piece is a Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez sketch (by the looks of it) which first appeared in Modern Masters Volume Five. Garcia-Lopez has quickly become one of my favorite artists; his easy, fluid motion and amazing draftsmanship are incredibly effective. This sketch is from 2004, with my moderately successful attempt to not butcher it next to it. I'd redo the cape...but that's why it's a sketch.

Next time!

Turnaround Tuesday!

Welcome back to my new-and-improved (or at least consistently updated) blog. Tuesdays are going to be a day for turnarounds. During my last year at the School of Visual Arts, in preparation for a Wolverine/ Fantastic Four sample story I was doing, my teacher had me execute a turnaround for Wolverine, and a duel sketch shot of Human Torch and Thing.

Turnarounds are a great way to get a feel for a character and to see if you can get a handle on their look and personality, even more than a pin-up. I remember standing on the A train with above teacher and talking about how some of the most memorable images of characters have been from character handbooks (like Marvel "Deluxe Handbook to the Marvel Universe" or DC's "Who's Who" or the first couple Marvel 90's trading card series do it for me); images so realized that you have a connection to a character without really even having read a story. I feel like I knew, or wanted to know, characters like Phoenix, Sersi, Captain Marvel, Thanos and Black Manta... just from one image. It's a testament to the strength of the craft involved and the power of art to convey a story. Picture, thousand words, yadda yadda...

That's all a long-winded way of saying every week I'm gonna do a turnaround. This week...

Wolverine.

I'm leading off with my Wolverine turnaround that I talked about above. I still like the thing; I think it was executed well, and conveys the character nicely. (The Human Torch and Thing dual pin-up can be found at my Deviant Art page ) I'll have a new one next week!

Manic Monday!

Welcome to the new and improved blog of yours truly. Today marks the beginning of a rededication to blogging daily, well at least during the week. I've been doing a good amount of work lately, professional and commercial, but most if not all of it is stuff I can't show until publication. I've missed the back and forth of a dialogue that a blog entails, as well as being able to show everyone the stuff that I'm drawing or interested in or feeling inspired by.

Mondays will be a clearinghouse day, for all the stuff I've seen lately, or drawn, or thought about. Along with a pretty, pretty picture of course. I'll save the syllabus and just let the rest of the week unfold as it comes around.

- This past weekend me and the family went to the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibit currently at the San Diego Museum of Art. I realized quickly that Toulouse-Lautrec is one of those artists with whom I had a fairly deep recall of two or three pieces and then... not much else. His poster work for the Moulin Rouge is famous, justifiably so, and was amazing to see. The real revelation however was his sketches and preliminary drawings. Having very much what can be identified as a 'Parisian line' (confident but soft, delicate but detailed), his technical proficiency was surprising. It was a well-organized exhibition also, and well worth a visit. It's ongoing for another month, I believe.

- You picked up Grant Morrison and Yanick Paquette's "Batman, Inc" yet? I was initially skeptical on Morrison's run (which started back in 2006(?)) and even despite enjoying some arcs (particularly "Club Of Heroes" with JH Williams III) I wasn't following it consistently until Batman RIP. Since then it's been incredibly exciting and fun to follow. The pacing and various art teams have made the book(s) a bit less consistent than I'd like, but if you're looking for something new to pick up you can do a lot worse than Morrison most recent Batworks, especially this weeks release, focusing on a ...er, refocused Batman, guest starring Catwoman, taking place in Japan, introducing an old Japanese Batvilain to the DC Universe proper and taking the piss out of a couple comic cliches/ tropes. Great stuff. (I have some more, specific, thoughts on Yanick Paquette's art, but I'll save that for another time)

- Prince is a genius. Not much more than that. I've lately been digging his "Camille" stuff. The aborted "Camille" was going to be an album in which Prince affected a female personae and recorded the album under that personae, complete with modified voice and themes. A lot of the work found its way onto other albums, but it'd be awesome to get it all in one place. Can you have an anniversary re-release for an album that never came out to begin with? Check out "Good Love" and "Shockadelica" to hear 'Camille' in action.

- And here's your inaugural Manic Monday sketch. Prince, with some Toulouse-Lautrec accoutrement thrown in. (Interestingly, I feel like the prelim sketch was very TL, and saved it to compare)






And here's the original, pencil prelim too: