Egyptian Thursday! (Hetek)

Here's a piece that I've finally finished inking! (It wasn't that long ago that I penciled it, but it slipped down the list of priorities a bit when it came time to finish the damn thing!)

The lady's name is Heket (Ms. She Who Hastens The Birth if you're nasty) and she was the head midwife of Ancient Egypt. Interestingly, one of her titles was 'I Am The Resurrection' and this led to her being at least respected by early Christians; they often used amulets depicting that phrase and her image.

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This piece started off pretty clear in my mind. I did a little, and very rough, thumbnail in my sketchbook but I more or less knew exactly how it was going to look. I don't know if any of it's clear but heres it is.

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At this point there's kind of two options I give myself in dealing with photo reference for something like this. I can either find something close and adjust the picture and composition accordingly, or I can allow for a greater amount of time looking for a photo that looks 'just right'. I decided to go with the second option here. I'll lean towards the former in cases where I feel like my idea isn't all the way there; the improvisation of a change in my layout can be exciting. This time though the image was so solid in my mind that I decided to stick with it.

First I found a couple images and cobbled them together to get the body. The lighting in the photo on the left particularly appealed to me.



Next I needed a frog model. Haha. It did feel a bit like casting. Normal when you're using people, but a little...weird... when you're dealing with a frog.



And then of course, frogs. Lots. Of. Frogs.

Then some more.

(I'll leave those off, there's too damn many of 'em)

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I penciled, and then inked the piece. Here's what she looks like.

I'm officially over frogs! lol No, I'll end up using them (and her) again.

I'll need to to justify all the reference I dug up!

Manic (Not) Monday!

It's Monday! Er... okay it's not, it's Friday. But I'm trying to get my blog something like on schedule. It's beautiful outside, Go, Diego, Go!'s on in the background, the peoples are running around for Memorial Day and the coffee's brewing. Let's do this!

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I've got a new computer! It arrived a couple weeks ago now. It's one of the new iMacs. I'm incredibly excited. I'm going to start dipping my toe into the digital production end of comics. I'll let you know how the experiement goes. In the meanwhile, here's a book recommendation: The DC Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics. I know, not the most catchy title. But everything else is great about this book. It's a huge resource of how to create comics digitally, and also on how to adapt a traditional (pen and paper) workflow to something somewhere in between traditional and digital. Written by Freddie Williams II and priced at a little over twenty bucks, it's a great investment.

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I'd seen such a wide range of opinions on the new Thor movie that I had absolutely NO idea how the movie will actually be. After seeing it I'm very in the middle. Many things were done really well, some were done not so well, but there was plenty that was closer to the former and that makes me happy. Oh, and this.

I think I'll have something more of a review soon. Maybe.

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What's that? I haven't talked about "Genius, Isolated", the new book about Alex Toth, yet? That's because I already have, suckers. Go read my review over at Giant Fire Breathing Robot, where I'm a regular contributor (at least until they kick me out).

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Speaking of which, Alex Toth inked by Vince Colletta is the most bizarre idea anyone ever had. But it happened! In Hot Wheels #3 (1969). I don't know what's more amusing, picturing Dick Giordano (who was editor) when he realizes what's about to go down, or Toth, when he (I'm positive) stormed into Dick's office, demanding Vinny never touch his pencils again.

Man. Comics, everybody.

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I'm busy at work on my next turnaround. It's a recent character, and another one from the Green Lantern universe.

A preview:

Turnaround Tuesday!

(Intro if you're new: 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. The fact that you're drawing them in three fairly static poses means that the defining elements of the character have to be displayed in small, subtle ways. And they're fun!)

This week's is definitely fun. A little while ago I drew Lucia as an Orange Lantern. I had so much fun with that one that Lantern I figured I might as well continue the trend! This week's turnaround is Larfleeze, the original Orange Lantern. Man, he's fun. He's basically an id gone wild, gluttony and appetite and greed and obsession... really, pick any two of those things and you've got a fun-to-draw character. He's only been around for a few years now, but there's been a few artists who have drawn him already. My favorite, by a margin, is Doug Mahnke.

Doug Mahnke is the artist on Green Lantern right now, and the man is a stand-up example of consistent quality art. He's done the vast majority of the last two year's worth of issues on the book, all while keeping a (more or less) monthly schedule. His work has a slightly grotesque or macabre feel to it, which really works with the strange creatures he's called on to draw. His Larfleeze is bizarre, comical, scheming and melodramatic. Milton's Satan with a power battery, basically. (Here's some Mahnke goodness)

I wanted to keep that energy going in this piece. I got pretty close IMO. Check it.

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Manic Monday!

It's an amazing San Diego day and it's hard to stay indoors right now. Let's get through this Manic Monday, manic-lly!

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I have seen paradise and it is Genius Isolated, a book just put out by IDW. It's about Alex Toth, and yes, know I've posted about it before, but I just got my copy in the mail and dammit I'm excited! Really, it's amazing. It's bigger and thicker than I thought ("That's what she said") and the production value of the thing is astounding.

I can't recommend the book more. Well worth it. (The link up there is to its Amazon page, where it's only thrity-two bucks right now)

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Beyonce's got a new single out. "Run This World (Girls)" is classic Beyonce. And by that I mean, awesome, ass-shaking and just bizarre enough to keep you engaged through the coming years. Her discography is seriously aging well, better than most wines. Honestly I think she tacked the parenthesis-Girls-parenthesis onto the title to be nice. We all know who runs the world, Miss B, but thanks for extending the royal hand.

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I've got another, semi-serious writing gig coming up. I've just, just started, so I'm going to keep it light and not jinx it. I'm excited about it. More to come soon!

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Progress on my Egyptian Frog Goddess has been made! Not quite done yet, but the inking's moving along nicely. Here ya go!

Manic Monday!

Well, it's another Monday. It was a busy, crazy weekend here and Easter's come and gone (and I've got no bacon left in the house!). Fun, fun, fun... now let's see what's been going on in the world.

It's Manic Monday, let's turn this mother out!

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Yeah, I went there. Deal with it. You know you love it.

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I think that the greatest untapped market right now is 'Easter songs'. I mean, besides "Here Comes Peter Cottontail", what is there? And yet, look at the market! That's a simple issue of supply and demand, my friends. Nothing in sight.

Well, except for this gem. My god...

Ya know what? Nevermind, no Easter Songs. We're obviously not advanced enough yet as a race to get them right.

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So the highly anticipated (at least by me) book about Alex Toth, "Genius, Isolated", is due next week. I cannot recommend this enough. Having seen some preview pages and read some of interviews, its' an amazing look at one of comics' certifiable legends.

It's going to be a series of three books, looking (roughly) at his early, high, and late career. This is one of those books that I think is a no-brainer purchase, whether you're a fan of comic books, animation (Toth created Space Ghost and had a big hand in the Fantastic Four and Super Friends cartoons) or just great art in general.

Or, maybe if you're lucky, I'll let you borrow mine.

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A couple links for your Monday perusal:
* Awesome San Diego food blog Sasha Eat World ,with great photos and wit. What more do you want?!?
* I've linked to it before, but if you're not reading Agent of S.T.Y.L.E., I have to wonder what's wrong with you.
* Slightly off the 'pop culture' beat, if you want an accurate, honest look at American politics, Glenn Greenwald is your man. He makes most mainstream 'journalists' look like high school reporters.

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Last week (or so) I started on this piece on Heket, Egyptian frog goddess. Here's step two in the process.

Tick tock, tick tock...

New Gods Update! (The Missing Ink)

So, here's an update on the New Gods page I've been working on. (The roughs for this bit of it can be found here )

The lettering turned out great, if I can be so bold; you can tell by the roughs that, for this page, I really considered it a crucial part of the layout. The 'fun' of this has been the roughs (a lot of quirky storytelling challenges, many self-imposed) and the lettering (which helps overcome some storytelling problems and is just plain entertaining). It's a bit of work now to get to the finish line with this one, but I really want to see this done (not always a given) so rest assured true believer...done it will be!

Soon.

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The Missing Ink!

Well, it's Friday, not Wednesday, but I finished this piece today and so it's going up now.Our penciling selection for this installment of "The Missing Ink" comes to us from Phil Jimenez. Phil (I had him as a teacher, and we're Facebook friends, so I can refer to him by his first name if I want! lol...) is known for a wide berth of projects he's worked on (Tempest, X-men, Infinite Crisis) but he's probably best known for his run as writer and artist on DC's Wonder Woman.

Phil's work is very line intensive, detailed and carries with it a great deal of emotion, even in this piece, which is theoretically a skecth. I'm not sure where I pulled this Wonder Woman drawing from; I found it online and that's about all I know of it. Ask Google!

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Working on this (the first time I've tried inking Mr. Jimenez) I realized that I would need to switch things up. Usually I'll ink hair in brush, not nib or pen; this makes sense, as you generally want the organic, soft line of a brush for something soft and organic. However, I started inking with the brush and realized that the sketchy line (it is a sketch, I guess!) needed a line that would firm it up a bit and give it a solid volume. I switched to nibs and pens, and I'm glad I did.

I think it turned out alright! (Phil's pencils are on the left, and my inks are on the right)