Avengers and MLK 50 years later...pencils

In 1963, the year MLK Jr. gave his famous speech, The Avengers debuted for Marvel Comics, with five white males as the main characters.  If you look at the books today they are full of a series of diverse and interesting characters including an android as a main character in one of the books.  The diversity may not be directly attributed to that speech, but 50 years later, the diversity in comics is mirroring the society around them.  Thank you Reverend King, and thank you Marvel for showing the interest in making your comics diverse and accessible to everyone.

NFL daily Sketch

So, I've been in a little bit of an artistic slump lately.  I have been disliking most of my current art, so I decided I'd go back to some life drawing and looking closer at people around me and images in magazines.  Then I got the NFL shop holiday magazine and saw a series of people in jerseys.  I liked the contrast of the images and the textures in the differing clothing.  So I drew one.  I liked the way it came out and decided I'd do some more (they are coming soon).

Another...DAILY SKETCH!!!!

Ok, so I know these haven't been daily...and I know I haven't been doing them daily, but we'll still call them Daily Sketches.  I am doing my best to do at least a bit of drawing daily.  So far, it's been some paid work too...those are the days I am tending to miss this daily sketch thing...oh well.

Connecting to YOUR Readers

Have you ever thought about who would be the audience for your comics?  Is there an age group for whom you are writing and drawing?  If so, then you should ask yourself, how do I connect to these ages?  The easy answer: put someone their age and gender in the comic and make them go through a challenge your readers would be going through as well.
For the Adventures of Toothy for Comfort Dental, we are introducing a pair of 6-8 year old characters. One of them is losing a tooth.  Our target age group: Elementary School kids.  Make sense?

Another Sketch

Today's daily sketch is brought to you by: forgot my drawing stuff at work.  I am working on more comics for Comfort Dental, plus a five page comic, and a one page comic.  I have a lot going on, and when I forgot my drawing materials at work last night....I was upset to say the least.  But! I got to do another daily sketch.  Honing the skills needed to increase my talent level.  This was done with a ballpoint pen before bed last night.

The Running Man, inked

I did these inks last night and was fairly disappointed...then I looked again this morning, still a little disappointed, but I do see some good in there. I left the arms fairly high contrast, especially to let them stand out and away from his body.  That worked.  On the other hand, the hatching I did on his back and biody, didn't quite create the planes of the form correctly...need to work on that, otherwise, the energy is still there and the gesture of the running is still very much alive.  Not too bad...

Running man

This is daily sketch 4a.   The reason for the a, I didn't get to complete this sketch last night before I fell asleep with a pencil in my hand.  I am drawing a comic strip for Comfort Dental that has a chase panel and I could NOT figure out how to draw someone running, so I found a picture and started working on that...so here the under drawing, the finished piece will come tomorrow, possibly with the panel I was trying to draw with it.  Enjoy!

Can-Am Spyder

Today's sketch is of a Can-Am Spyder.  It's a three wheeled road bike by the same people that make Ski-Doo snowmobiles, and if you looked at the early models, it was like looking at a Ski-Doo Rev chassis on the pavement.  They have diverted a bit since then and made them more unique unto themselves, but I digress.  This sketch is in preparation for an upcoming post-apocalyptic story I am about to start on.  There are four rules to the story: 1) 5 pages long 2) dinosaurs 3)main character is me 4)motorcycle...and yes this counts.

Today: An Airplane, Tomorrow: The World(?)

So, With these daily sketches, I figured I'd put them up no matter what, success or failure, I am just trying to get better at the stuff I'd need to draw to be successful...today, fail.  Tomorrow, who knows!

daily Sketch #1

In an effort to really nail down my style, my anatomy, my skills and such, I have decided I am going to be doing a small 4x5 sketch every day, usually while waiting for my new baby to fall asleep. This came from the Five C's of Cinematography.  The section that talks about consistency scene during shot selection.  I am going to be doing sketches from life and from pictures and such...whether good, bad or indifferent, they will be here.  As I go along I'll also be posting other work so you can see how it's effecting my work and hopefully improving my aesthetic.  Enjoy!