Batman and Robin #7 First Look (Again)

Hi everyone, DC Comics has finally officially released a few pages from my upcoming Batman & Robin arc. This is the page I posted and had to pull a couple of months back, plus a couple more! Enjoy!

Eurotour 2009 - iPhone Paintings

To avoid weighing myself down with too much stuff I didn't bring a sketchbook along with me on the trip, but I did try to do some quick paintings on my iPhone with the Brushes app. Here are some of the better ones. They're not terribly complicated, mostly they were quick sketches of things I had in front of me when sitting down for an extended period of time, but I like that they immediately conjure up very vivid memories of the exact time and place where I did them.

Eurotour 2009 - Sketches!

I'm back from my big European tour with my friends Karl Kerschl and Ramón Pérez! I'll post some photos from the trip shortly but for now, here are a few of the sketches I did for people at the various festivals and comic shop events:

(Yes, they are all quite similar headshots, but these were free and so I was doing them quickly)

Euro Trip

I'm literally minutes away from leaving on my month-long trip around Europe with fellow TXers Karl Kerschl and Ramón Pérez - if you are in any of the following cities, please come and visit us!


October 23-25
Festival Internacional de Banda Desenhada na Amadora (FIBDA)
Amadora, Portugal
http://www.amadorabd.com

October 28
Kingpin Books
Lisbon, Portugal
http://kingpinbooks.blogspot.com/

October 31-November 1
Lille Comics Festival
Lille, France
http://www.lillecomicsfestival.com/html/main_UK.html

November 2
Album Librarie
Paris, France
http://www.album.fr/librairies/librairie-album-comics/librairie-album-comics.htm

November 7-8
La Fete De La BD
Andennes, Belgium
http://lagrandeourse.over-blog.com/pages/FETE_DE_LA_BD_2009_ANDENNE-1447954.html

November 11
Alastor Milano Fumetto
Milan, Italy
http://www.promocard.it/locations/show.php?id=7809

November 12
Alastor Novara
Novara, Italy

November 14
Forbidden Planet
Dublin, Ireland

November 16
Comica - ICA Nash Room 7:30pm
London, England
http://www.ica.org.uk/visit

November 19
Orbital Comics
London, England
http://www.orbitalcomics.com/

November 21-22
Thoughtbubble Festival
Leeds, England
http://www.thoughtbubblefestival.com/

Please check with the individual event websites for more information.

More Digital Drawing

Here's another panel from Prince of Persia, with a video of the drawing process:

Girl Fridays

Technically it's Saturday morning, but I did this to to unwind after a long work day today.



Yes, I do draw to take a break from drawing.

Selina

Here's that final Catwoman piece from yesterday's video...

Digital Drawing

Here are a couple of videos I made of me drawing digitally in Manga Studio, with a Cintiq tablet.

Batman & Robin

Sorry, everyone, for having to remove the page of Batman & Robin #7 I posted last week - unfortunately I jumped the gun and posted it without going through the proper channels and so, quite understandably, I was asked to remove it.

To make up for it, here's an early drawing I did of the characters to get a feel for them. This is NOT appearing anywhere in the series, it's not a cover, it's just a drawing I did for my own practice, but it's a decent enough example of what my work on the book will look like...



PS I've had dozens of people ask why Batman & Robin #7 wasn't in the December solicits - I actually don't know, I don't have anything to do with that decision, the book is completely drawn so it's not because we're behind schedule or anything. I'm sure there's a valid reason for it but I'm not the guy to ask. Sorry!

The Palace

Here's a little snippet from Prince of Persia...

You Go In The Cage, Cage Goes In The Water

A birthday card done for a shark-loving friend.

Batman and Robin #7 First Look

UPDATE: SORRY - HAD TO REMOVE THE PAGE


Here's a page from my upcoming Batman & Robin story. I'm not going to show too much on this blog, because obviously we want you to buy it, but I'll ration out a few bits and bobs as we go...


IMAGE REMOVED



Now, here's what I need you to do. This Wednesday, September 16, the solicitation for Batman & Robin #7 is in the new Previews catalogue (for those of you unfamiliar with the comic book direct market system, Previews is the distributor catalogue that all comic book retail stores use to order stock). I need you to go in to your local comic shop and talk to the people who work there, and tell them that you're really looking forward to this, and if you really want to be bold, suggest that they should probably order a few extra copies to be safe. I feel like, as a guy who hasn't done a whole lot of big mainstream superhero work, I'm the dark horse in this race and I need all the help that I can get, and it would be great if advance word-of-mouth could help make a little jump in sales. Thanks for your help!!

The Bat's Out Of The Bag

I've been keeping this secret for months, but it's finally been announced that I will be drawing issues 7 through 9 of DC Comics' Batman & Robin, with my frequent collaborator Grant Morrison. I couldn't be more excited about this and I hope that you'll be along for the ride.

Below, the line art for my 1-in-25 variant cover for issue 7 (the regular cover will be by original artist Frank Quitely):

Digitally Blonde

Here's a drawing done for geek girl extraordinaire, Carol Zara of Digitally Blonde:

Fan Expo

If you're in Toronto for the Fan Expo this weekend, you can come and see me in Artist's Alley, where I will have prints, books, and original art for sale, and be signing and sketching all weekend. Look for the giant row of TX Comics banners, you won't be able to miss us.

If you're at the show TODAY, Friday the 28th, please come to the WEBCOMICS 101 panel at 5pm in Room 713A! Hope to see you there!

Stars and Garters

Photo Reference

Something that comes up time and time again in discussions I have with others about comics, and illustration in general, is the use of photographs to produce the artwork. There's a particular popular trend in contemporary comic art to be "realistic," to have the characters and environments look like stills from a film set, and quite often this effect is achieved by using extensive photo reference. Personally I dislike this aesthetic, particularly when applied to superhero comics, as I feel it is reductive and a lot of the time ends up looking stilted and ironically unconvincing, and I much prefer to see an artist's individual style rather than a series of traced photographs.

I'm not saying that an artist should not use photographs in their work, in fact quite the opposite - I use quite a lot of photo reference, and studying photographs provides a wealth of detail and nuance that make the drawn image feel more authentic and natural. What I don't do is copy or trace the photographs exactly, as I feel that can rob the drawing of its character and spontaneity, and also appear quite lazy. For many of my pinup girl illustrations, generally what I do is to do a quick initial sketch based on the photograph, including general impressions of most of the details, and then I put the photograph away before I start work on the final piece. Once the photograph is out of sight I am free to stylize and distort the shapes and interpret it in my own way.

I usually don't trace photos, but occasionally a tricky pose or angle can prove to be quite frustrating and time-consuming and so a quick trace can help reduce the stress. I decided to do an example for this post. I chose this photo of a friend of mine (and yes, I got her permission to use the photo):



I chose it because it's a difficult angle and pose and would be much harder to draw from scratch than a simple eye-level portrait. Then I did a quick, loose digital sketch over it:



Once the basic shapes are there, I remove the photograph and start working on the final drawing without referring back to the original, using my memory/imagination/understanding of figure drawing to do the rendering.



The final drawing hopefully retains the authenticity of the photograph, while still having some spontaneity and character that a direct trace wouldn't.

(I don't intend this post to be any kind of legal advice for using photographs in hired illustration, mainly because I'm not qualified to dispense such advice and copyright laws probably aren't consistent worldwide anyway. This is just an example of how I use photos in my own work. Generally speaking if you are to use photographs it's safest (and most ethical) to use ones that you've taken yourself, or to ensure that you've got permission by the photographer.)

My Favourite SDCC Souvenir

During this year's San Diego Comic Con I went for some lunch near the convention centre with a bunch of friends. Most of the surrounding restaurants get into the spirit of Comic Con and have special dumb "superhero" menus or whatever, and the place we chose was no exception. As I was looking over the menu something caught my eye - it was a drawing I'd done years ago of Mr Fantastic of the Fantastic Four. I held it up to show my friends and noticed two more drawings of mine on the back:



(not shown: Invisible Woman)

I had an idea. I called the waitress over and told her that I had drawn the pictures that they were using on their menu.

"Oh, that's so cool!" she said.
"Yeah, I think we should get some free drinks or something in compensation, right?"
"Uh, well...I'll have to check with my manager."

Shortly after she returned with the word from the manager, who said that in order to get anything on the house, I had to prove they were actually my drawings. Fair enough. Luckily I had my iPhone and was able to use Google Image Search to find a photo of me right next to the drawing of Mr Fantastic.

We got those drinks.

The Song Remains The Same

This blog's been pretty one-note lately, lots of headshots and pinup girls. I wish I could post more exciting stuff but both of the comics projects I'm working on at the moment are kept under lock and key and I can't share any with you. As soon as I get the greenlight though I'll post some images from the comics, which hopefully make me look less one-dimensional.

Gamer Girl Sketch

I started sketching out this drawing, which is intended to be a girl with a video game controller, but then I realized that the pose basically makes no sense for the activity she's doing. I've posted it here to show a bit of the creative process.

V-Line

Here's a drawing I did to unwind from work tonight. I think it's the cool blue but this drawing has a Michael Cho quality to it.

Pinup Girl

I was asked to do a drawing of a pinup girl as a mascot for a company that sells pinup-style wigs, corsets, etc. The character is based on the owner, herself a pinup model.

Photos used for likeness, but not for the pose.

Purr-casso

While working on commissions tonight, my good friend and studiomate Karl Kerschl said that I should try drawing Catwoman with my eyes closed. I gave it a shot:



What's surprising to me is that most of the elements are correctly drawn, they're just in the wrong place. It's like a weird Cubist Catwoman.

The Grim Gondolier

A recent commission. I was asked to draw "any Seaguy character" and instead of doing the obvious ones I chose Death:




I hope he doesn't mind.

Portrait Study

Just a quick something to break up the workday...digital drawing, from a photo.

No Pants No Problem

Just a quick doodle. Don't have my scanner handy so it's a photo of the drawing...

Mum Would Be So Proud

If you're in or around London, England, you might want to go see the exhibition "Deceitful Moon" at the Hayward Gallery in the Southbank Centre, which is a collection of artistic works depicting the moon as a hoax or fraud, in honour of the anniversary of the moon landing. Among the work on display is an original drawn page from the first Seaguy miniseries, my me and Grant Morrison.

This is the first time my work has been, or is ever likely to be, in a real, proper art gallery, so that's fairly exciting. I believe admission is free.

Prince of Persia

Well, it's been announced, I'm working on an anthology graphic novel based on next summer's fantasy action blockbuster Prince of Persia.

The 120-page book is written the by the original video game's designer, Jordan Mechner (it blows me away that 20 years on he's still so closely involved) and include six prequel stories set in the world of the game/film. The other artists are Niko Henrichon, Bernard Chang, David Lopez, Tommy Lee Edwards, and Tom Fowler, all wrapped up in a cover by Todd McFarlane. The book will be out in April 2010 from the Disney Press imprint, as part of a line of graphic novels from Disney. For more information come see me, Mechner, McFarlane, and several of the other artists at the Disney panel, Friday at 11:30 at the San Diego Comic Con.

I think its gonna be a great book, a lot different than the usual movie tie-ins.

Here's a small taste of my story, but this is all I'm gonna post for now...

Another Warm-Ups Sketch

Another front page sketch in a Warm-Ups sketchbook...

Warm-Ups Interior Sketch

I'm almost out of my 2008 "Warm-Ups" sketchbook (see sidebar). I'm going to try to sell the remainder at San Diego but after the show if I still have some left-over you can still order them from me. If you choose to get an interior sketch (for an additional $10) it will look something like this: