A Rough 'SUPERMAN' Prelim From 2004 That Was Part Of A Commission; Complete With Anatomy Revision Notes

This is the first sketch I ever commissioned a comic-book artist to do for me.. Back in '85, Mark Askwith invited me to see Mike Kaluta at the Hamilton 'SILVER SNAIL'.. A genuine thrill when one of your favorite artists impresses you even more as a person! He loved drawing this 'ROCKETEER' pinup too, and I think it shows..

A pair of freelance illustration jobs by artist/friend: Dave Stevens.. The 2nd one has been widely published, but has been rarely seen in it’s original context. These were ads for BOSS Audio products that appeared in GUITAR WORLD magazine, back in 1985. It took me years to locate the "Feedback Monster" version in the bad olde pre-eBay days!  Fortunately, Toronto had a number of good Used Books stores that carried back-issues of old mags.. Dave famously drew himself into the "Sampler Safari" one, as "Professor D. Sampler".. He’s sporting the jodphur pants that he'd already made famous in his ROCKETEER comic stories.. Intriguing to me, are the mail-in offers for larger 18" x 24" posters of these ads? I've never seen one. And it makes me wonder how many were printed, and if any of them are still around?

I'm not a particularly big Life Drawing fan.. But awhile back, I was fortunate to be gifted with a bunch of at-size color photocopies, done by none other than my fave artist: Frank Frazetta!! He drew this sometime around March of 1957.. Wouldn't it be great to have an entire book of these published someday?

An old Sketchbook page from 2004.. Can't remember if these were studies from a specific story, or simply an attempt to re-create some 'Golden Age' stuff? I do recall wanting the Bedouin dude to resemble a 7-foot tall "Rondo Hatton" -type, though!

‘Doctor Strange’ illo that I did, back in 2008.. Colored it later on, using colored pencils, felt markers, and a bit of digital.. My hope was to give it a very Kevin Nowlan -esque quality. As I think his interpretation of the character has always been the best!

One more BEETLEJUICE for the pile.. BJ shreds on a Tuesday Afternoon!

This is a logo design that I did for a family friend living out in Strathmore, Alberta.. I was asked to try and incorporate a Warthog (their club mascot) into the artwork.. So I thought the project would be a perfect opportunity for creating a kind-of Hank Porter -esque emblem, along the lines of his amazing WW2 Squadron insignia? I'm still not entirely sure about all of my color choices. But I'm pretty happy with the overall result..

Been a long while, but I’m finally back with an update.. I was digging thru some old work files on my HD, and thought I’d put together a brief post..

Back in 2015, I worked at Nelvana on Nick Jr.’s  “Fresh Beat Band of Spies” cartoon series. A lot of the front-end creative work was directed by ‘6 Point Harness’ in L.A., including some of the Design work; usually establishing the look and style of: characters, props, and locations. Full turnarounds and additional views of those designs though, were done at Nelvana in Toronto.

Early in the production, I spent most of my time creating rotations and additional views of Props. I didn’t have any real experience drawing directly with vector lines. So, I was allowed to draw them in Photoshop on a cintiq, using very clean bitmap lines. I'm guessing another artist may have converted my finished work, later on?..

One of my favorite episodes to work on was: “Band Of Pirates” (ep.14).. There were a lot of very nice design elements in that one. Plus, a fun storyline that featured “Captain Arrrgh” stealing half of a Treasure Map. He does so, using a flying robot and a Steampunk-inspired JetSki. For which, I drew some of the additional views..

The Fresh Beat crew makes a quick pursuit using their elaborate Tour Bus, which could conveniently transform into a kind of hydrofoil speedboat! The Bus was  based loosely on the handful of Art Deco “Futurliner” trucks that GM produced in the 40′s. And I felt like the speedboat itself, also gave off a bit of “Thunderbirds 2″ vibe? Creating the fuller rotation, was something of a drawing challenge, as I had to make hard decisions about the overall dimensionality and how each of the surfaces and corners attached to each other..

About halfway thru the production, I took over the Layout Supervision from my friend: Terry Lenko. This may be the only show that I’ve ever worked on, where my End Credit designation changes across the episodes arc?! Again, I have zero experience (or interest) in vector-based art. So thankfully, all I had to do was “direct” a very talented Layout crew, rather than contribute to the production art directly..

But there were always Layout issues with the storyboard animatics, that would require attention. And Terry taught me the valuable lesson of creating quick Layout thumbnails for each entire episode. Not only did these drawings allow me to identify where the Master and Reuse BGs existed.. But I could also spot and correct all of the continuity, cutting, and staging problems, too!

Enjoy.

"TOILET HUMOUR" In The Literal Sense..

I was cleaning up my studio room, when I unearthed a large manila envelope. It contained folders of some Spümco-related artwork that I'd purchased from an eBay Seller, back in 2005.. One folder contained rough layouts from a comic-book story, featuring: "NUTTY the Friendly Dump" ! This past year, I finally got to see the finished-version of the story, when it was included in IDW Publishing's 'John K. Presents COMIC BOOK' collection..

When I published my sketchbook in 2003, I was invited to table at a few local Toronto comic-book conventions. I had a standing offer that if a customer paid a bit extra, he/she could get a finished drawing from me. Chris C of Hamilton took up the offer and asked for "Hannah Dundee" after I told him that I'd worked on the Nelvana cartoon.. Last night, I fixed a copy of his drawing in Photoshop and added some digital color. The hair is clearly over-done, but overall I still like the drawing!