Astro Boy

Over at Spitballin' Comics the crunch crew and I have been doing a week devoted to Atom/Astro Boy in all his various forms (uh, two, I suppose). I figured I'd feature a different version of my Astro Boy piece here, with a simplified mouth I couldn't decide if I liked better or not. It's really hard sometimes to go with the simpler version of something when you put more time into the other version, so I'm presenting them both to pussyfoot around making a decision..

If you haven't yet, do please check out Spitballin'--tons of cool art posted there every week by awesome up and coming illustrators here in the Toronto scene. Astro Boy week wraps up this Sunday, and there's more cool stuff to come!

Nightcrawler

(Click to embiggen.)

Kinda like how this one came out. Really fun character to draw.

Voltron Tribute

Voltron: United and Drawn, the official Voltron art book, came out early this month and is in stores now, as well as being available for purchase on the official website. This the piece I illustrated for it, line work by me with Adam Metcalfe on colours. It's full of great art and history and such so if you grew up on Voltron and you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up. It is so choice.

The Aquagent of Victorian England

Done to submit to Superhero Cocoa, a superhero redesign blog that's taking part in a redesign Aquaman month crossover with a few other sites. Their theme is to re-imagine Aquaman as he'd appear in a different culture/time, so I went with a turn of the century British Aquagent, protecting the waterways and the lost city of Atlantis' magics and riches from his rogue admiral half-brother Ocean Master and the deep sea plunderer Black Manta. Aquaman's pretty much my favorite superhero so I took the redesign to his supporting cast as well. Topo's still an octopus.

"Very Very" Illustrations

This sequence was done for the short story "Very Very" by Sandy Navaro, published in the Fall 2010 edition of R.E.A.L The Canadian Kids' Magazine, an educational mag for kids K-3. The finished art's slightly different in the published version (gone are the Coraline-esque button eyes) but I really wanted the originals for my online portfolio, so here they are. Mostly really happy with these.

Bebop

Youse wants a drawing of Bebop on All Hallow's Eve Eve? Duuh, sure thing, boss! This is kind of a Halloween post, right? I mean, Bebop's a monster of sorts. You decide!

As always, click images to embiggen.

Leonardo Leads

After a brief turtle-break I decided to come back to the Ninja Turtles and finish off the quartet with Leonardo. Somewhat unfortunately, I did this right after finishing up a kind of big and rather cartoony illustration job, so I think the inking style especially is kind of different from the ones that came before it.

(Click to Embiggen)

A big part of the reason I ever started drawing as a little kid was to try and be able to draw a really good Ninja Turtle. Getting there.

No Bad Dogs

Piece I did for the short story "No Bad Dogs" written by Laura Best, appearing in volume 4 of the grades 4 to 8 edition of REAL Kids Magazine. Wanted to stick this in my portfolio eventually so I figured I'd share it here as well.

Raphael

Another turtle for reasons I can't begin to imagine--Raphael this time. My version's more in line with the Raph of the original comic books or the first couple movies--the angry, scrappy Raphael more than the sarcastic 'funny' one he was on the cartoon series. So he's like a battle damaged tank, less concerned with finesse and accuracy in a fight and more with inflicting damage.

No pencil version this time around as this started out as Leonardo until I re-thought what I wanted to do with them.

Donatello

Donatello, probably the turtle I have the most affection for nowadays. I did this much quicker on the heels of the last one than I intended, but they're fairly fun exercises and I tend to need to remind myself drawing is fun every couple of days haha... It's fun to try and make the turtles look physically distinct from one another, and communicate some of their personality in their face and build. I gave Donny more of a nerdy unassuming face, big beak, lankier, taller build than Mike. He's a thinker.

Dunno if I'll keep this up for these but thought it might be interesting to show the pencils and inks again, especially since it changed so much between the two. Wanted to make his face a little more likable, as well as get rid of the tool belt I was originally giving him. Didn't want to cheat the geting-personality-across-in-the-design thing with too many props. He ended up with bicycle gloves for some reason? Maybe this Don drives the turtle cycle exclusively, I dunno.

Michelangelo

Michelangelo, the turtle no kid can do without and no adult can stand. Started as a rough sketch from months back, but I liked the face enough to want to see it through. The other three may be coming in the future, similar motif. 

Figured I'd post the process stuff, too, seeing as how I actually had it all scanned for a change. These are the DVD extras to which you've become accustomed.

Snikkety Snikt, dingoes!

I always think of brown costume Wolverine as Australian Wolverine, due to his inexplicable accent in the 80s Pryde of the X-Men cartoon, which I watched again just this morning. The accent I remembered, but I was seriously surprised to hear him call people "dingo" instead of "bub". Dunno whose idea that was.

He-Man and the Masters in color

Final colours on the Masters of the Universe Print, a Cutler Metcalfe joint. Forgot to include Evil-Lynn and Moss Man and as such I've failed you all.

Briefly: FanExpo was a blast, thanks so much to everyone who came by and said hello--can't wait for next year. I did a lot of commissions but I always forget to ask people if they'd be so kind as to email me a scan of them or, you know, bring a camera myself. There's a Deadpool or two floating around out there that I was pretty happy with. If any show up, I'll post 'em!

Riddle Me This Shiz Right Here

Questions, Mr. Wayne? My work raises too many questions?

Then why not come down to FanExpo Canada this very day and ask me them in person! Commissions, sketches, prints, idle chit chat--I got what you need.

Did this very quick Riddler job for love of the game. Love the Riddler in all his incarnations (even Jim Carrey's), but I especially have a soft spot for Frank Gorshin's brilliant turn as the prince of puzzles in the 60s tv series. Tried to capture some of Gorshin's performance in the face, but like Jim Carrey's attempts at copying him, I fell short. 

Bizarro hate FanExpo!

Finished colours on the Bizarro pencil drawing I'd posted earlier this month. I'll have prints of these on hand at FanExpo this very weekend and you should come along and bring your jukebox money!

Let's croak us some Toads!

Does anyone remember Bucky O'Hare and the Toad Wars? It was kind of the jam in 1991. Looks at first glance like a Star Fox knock off or Ninja Turtles cash in, but the original comic it was based on predated both (okay, it was in stores the same month as TMNT #1, but still). The cartoon was canceled too quickly but it managed to spawn an awesome toyline and an even better NES game before it died. Drawing these guys is insanely fun.

Likely going to have a few prints of this available at FanExpo at the end of the month. Sort of a niche thing, but I figure if a couple Bucky fans do pass by--who are they to resist it?

Dinobot--Maximize!

(Click to Enlarge.)

That's right, Beast Wars fan art, you heard me. Beast Wars was a Transformers franchise spinoff and one of the first CG animated shows on television. Friend Meaghan Carter loaned me all three seasons on DVD, and this was the end result.  The show was a favorite of mine in the late 90s, way better than it had to be. Even today, outside of Avatar, I can't think of any kid's shows where the characters grew and changed the way the best ones did on Beast Wars.  Dinobot's always been my favorite.

There may be more of this to come, haha...

(The background image is edited from a texture by http://arcy-is-distracted.deviantart.com/)

New Warrior Forest Girl Print

This is one of two prints I'll have available for purchase at the Toronto Comicon Fan Appreciation Event This coming Saturday and Sunday, June 5th and 6th.  It won't have the "Toronto Comicon" bit at the top--that's just there so you don't just download the smaller version, you hooligans.  The other print is still being coloured, but I'll post it here before the show.  Hope to see you there!

He's just a chill guy

The longer you look at the words house and mouse the less they look like they should be pronounced the way they are.

Business Card Illustrations

I started doodling this alien girl in my sketchbooks back in early 2008--K'yoot, the teal-skinned world conquerer in a bubblegum Jetsons dress. I whipped up this pinup shot to go on the back of my 2010 business cards, although I'm starting to worry about the loss of clarity at such a small size. Might get some tweaking yet.

Update (May 7th, 2010): And here's the illustration for the front of the card. More of this is going to bleed off than I intended (for some reason it was the only way I could get it to size right) so here's the full thing for the curious. Originally there was a robot sidekick but it was too busy for what's going to end up being such a small illustration.