Daily Sketch 004- HELLBOY

Hey, 4 in a row ! Another quick sketch on my lunch break today, Mike Mignola's HELLBOY !

HELLBOY
6x9, brush pen on bristol
15 minutes

Daily Sketch 003- JOHN PROPHET

Ok, here's number 3 in the daily sketch series, JOHN PROPHET ! Really had to rush this one (did it on my lunch break) do I'm not entirely thrilled with it, but hey it's something, right ?

JOHN PROPHET
6x9, brush pen, multiliner & Copic marker on bristol

Daily Sketch 002- PRINCE ROBOT IV

Hey guys, it's day 2 of the daily sketch routine. I'm on a roll ! Today's subject is Prince Robot IV, one of my favorite characters from Brian K Vaughan & Fiona Staples' amazing series, SAGA ! Once again, I'm not spending a lot of time on these or trying to create a masterpiece, just fast & loose. Back for another round tomorrow !

PRINCE ROBOT IV
6x9, brush pen & Copic sketch markers on bristol
15 minutes

Daily Sketch 001: JOE THE BARBARIAN

I've made a little bit of a breakthrough art wise the past few days. Things are definitely looking better. I've decided to start a daily sketch routine to keep myself on my toes and get myself to draw at least something small every day. Gonna keep these small, loose and quick.

The first one here is Grant Morrison's JOE THE BARBARIAN. I just finished reading that book today and it's fantastic. This took about 10 minutes or so. Tune in tomorrow for the next one !

JOE THE BARBARIAN
6x9, brush pen on bristol

TRYING TO FIND IT

So over the last month or so I've really been struggling creatively. Every time I sit down at my drawing table it's like I just forgot how to draw. I know artists block is something every artist goes through, but in this case it's lasted long enough that it's really starting to bother me. A while back I did some work for a 3 page backup story in an independent comic. I was really happy with how it came out and felt I was really on to something. And then for some reason the wheels just fell off.

I'm most definitely a perfectionist when it comes to my own art. If it doesn't come out exactly the way I pictured it in my head I get frustrated and I'll never be happy with it. That's happening every time I draw lately. I'm trying to do some design work for a comics project that's going to eventually made public. It's a lot of stuff to design, but the project is something I'm really excited about. I'm working with an awesome writer and we have a really unique concept that I think people will really dig. But in the midst of doing the design work nothing has been coming out right and it's all ended up in the trash. So decided to take a break from designing and work on a couple pieces featuring my character, THE KING.

They turned out great, in my opinion anyway. I thought I had made a breakthrough and was really ready to take this comics project head on. And then I sat down to work on some designs and it's just not working. My pencils are erratic. My inking looks amateurish. My composition and anatomy and layouts are all over the place.

At this point I've decided that I've been putting too much pressure on myself. I honestly want this project to be the best thing anyone's ever seen, but I realized that I have to enjoy it just as much as anyone else does. So I've decided that I'm going to try some new things stylistically. I AM going to find something that works, and I AM going to make it something that I enjoy doing. Instead of trying to emulate something I'm really going to make a stronger effort to define myself as an artist. I think this project is something that could turn some heads for myself and my collaborator, and I want to make it fun and unique and interesting and amazeballs and awesome sauce and whatever term you want to use to describe it.

So I'm going to make some changes. I'm going to play with my style. I'm going to make it fun again and not dread sitting at the table to draw. Things will definitely look a little different, but I can guarantee you that it will be fun and unique and interesting.

Also, my wife Liz and I are having another baby in less than a month. I couldn't be more excited about it and obviously family comes above everything, so this project may be coming a little later than we originally planned but you can bet your ass that it IS coming and it will, to quote my awesome partner B Alan Hubbard, "melt faces AND cashew butter". I promise we will live up to that !

Thanks for bearing with me during my little venting here. And what would an art blog post be without some art, eh ? EH ?! So here's the 2 THE KING pieces I did a couple weeks ago. I may eventually do some prints of these, but we'll see what happens.

Thanks for reading !
RJW

MORE NEWS AND MORE ART

Hey guys, here's some more news on upcoming projects and some more new art from the last few weeks !

DEAR DINOSAUR

I'm pleased to tell you that I will be doing a pinup that will be featured in the upcoming print edition of Ryan Schrodt's hilarious webcomic, DEAR DINOSAUR ! Ryan has been running a Kickstarter campaign to fund the book, and it's already been 100% funded ! there is still time to contribute and get yourself a copy of the book, and you can do so by clicking here !

STICK CITY

The Stick City crowdfunding project is still live, and we need contributions ! This 3 page backup story will be my first published comic work, so it is very important to me that people know about it and contribute to the funding of the book. Brennan has added some awesome new rewards for the second half of the drive, so PLEASE check them out and make a contribution HERE !!!

CHEMO GIRL COMMISION

Here's a character design commission I did for a girl named Virginia. Virginia is a cancer survivor, and her battle has inspired her to write a comic about a cancer fighting teenage superhero ! I'm very happy to have had a part in the creation of this character. Chemo Girl is something that is obviously close to Virginia's heart, and I can't wait to see what she does with the story !

CHEMO GIRL
11x14, ink on bristol
Logo treatment done in Manga Studio

LUTHER STRODE

LUTHER STRODE, for the Challengers ASSEMBLE! art blog.
11x17, ink on Strathmore comic art board



TRANSMETROPOLITAN

TRANSMETROPOLITAN, for MOEBIUS tribute week on Challengers ASSEMBLE!
8.5x11 ink on bristol


MONOCYTE

MONOCYTE, personal work, 2011
11x17 ink on Strathmore comic art board


MODOK INKS

Finally, here's a quality scan of the David Finch M.O.D.O.K. piece that I inked a while back. Once again I'm really happy with the way this turned out.


That's about it for now. I'll be back here soon with more stuff !

Thanks for reading !

NEW ART AND NEW NEWS !!!

Hi there folks ! I know it's been a bit since I've posted, but things have been pretty busy lately. Anyway, I've got a lot to catch you up on, so here goes :

STICK CITY

First off, I am very happy to announce that I will have a 3 page backup story in STICK CITY #Pi: First Slice, the first issue of a seven issue mini series by Brennan Neil, available June 13th ! This is a really cool book with an awesome concept. Brennan has been working his tail off on putting the book together and trying to spread the word about it. He recently launched a fundraising campaign on Indiegogo, which is an international version of Kickstarter. This campaign is a great way to pre-order the book and make sure you don't miss out on it ! If he gets enough funds, he will be able to reach a much wider audience and get the books in a lot more comic shops. So head over to Indiegogo and help fund both of our budding comics careers !

NEW ART

So with working on the Stick City pages and also some other top secret stuff, the only other art I've had time to do is my weekly pieces for the Challengers ASSEMBLE !  art blog. Here's the last 3 weeks worth of posts I did, and as always, make sure you check out all the other great art on the blog !

Week 9- Your least favorite comic book character- WARLOCK

8.5 x11, brush, yellow & black India ink on Strathmore smooth bristol


 Week 10- March M.O.D.O.K. Madness

8.5x11 brush pen on Strathmore smooth bristol


Week 11- Batman: Year One

8.5x11 brush pen on Strathmore smooth bristol


That's all I've got for now, folks ! Make sure to pre-order Stick City !

Thanks for reading !

GALACTUS, DEVOURER OF WORLDS

Hey everyone ! Here's a piece I did for week 8 of the Challengers ASSEMBLE! sketch blog. The theme was obviously Galactus, and I'm really pleased with how this came out. I've include a scan of my original pencil work here as well because I really am happy with my work on it. Make sure you head on over to the blog and check out all the other great artists who contributed this week.

Thanks for reading !

STAR WARS - Boba Fett sketch

Here's a quick Boba Fett sketch I did this afternoon. My son and I were just sitting around watching RETURN OF THE JEDI, and I decided to just do some sketching. I've been meaning to do some Star Wars art for a while, so you might see more of this type of thing. This is just a quick 15 minute sketch, but hoping to do some nice finished pieces to post here.

Thanks for reading !


BOBA FETT
8.5x11, brush pen, Copic sketch markers and white gel pen on Strathmore smooth bristol

Challengers ASSEMBLE ! - Week 5 - Image Comics

Last week's sketch blog theme was Image Comics. There's obviously quite a bit of material to choose from in Image's 20 year history, but it was an easy choice for me.

THE NIGHTLY NEWS by Jonathan Hickman is my all-time favorite series from Image. I first read this book about a year ago, and I've probably read it 5 times since. It's honestly like nothing I've ever read. Hickman is really a comic making genius, telling a great story with a phenomenal sense of design that is truly unique. I've since read all of his other Image work, including PAX ROMANA, A RED MASS FOR MARS, TRANSHUMAN, and THE RED WING, and I can honestly tell you that Hickman is now my favorite writer currently working in comics.

Reading these books over the last year or so has really changed the way I look at making comics. To me they show that you don't have to follow the "rules" to make an incredible piece of work, and they've opened my eyes to a lot of different things process & storytelling wise.

Ok, I'm done ranting now. Make sure you buy this book, and if you can, pick up the new oversized hardcover edition. It's definitely worth it. And please, head on over to Challengers ASSEMBLE! and check out all the amazing art there !

Thanks for reading !


THE NIGHTLY NEWS
8.5 x11 Copic Multiliner & Copic Sketch Marker on Strathmore smooth bristol

Challengers ASSEMBLE ! Week 4 - Panel Re-Creation - Process

So last weeks theme on the sketch blog was panel recreation. We had to choose a panel (or panels, in my case) from a comic we read the previous week and re-create/reinterpret it. I happened to be reading NORTHLANDERS Vol 1 - Sven the Returned, by one of my favorite writers, Brian Wood, and amazing artist Davide Gianfelice. The particular page I chose was from issue #6, page 5. I decided to this blog post to show my process from beginning to end of the piece. Here goes :


PREPARATION

 I start by by getting my workspace (aka coffee table) and materials together. I have my source material, a sheet of 8.5x11 Strathmore smooth bristol, my pen/pencil case loaded with numerous weapons, a small plastic t-square, circle templates, and of course way too much caffeine.

The first thing I do on the board is take my t-square and rule out my working area with a 2mm pencil. For this particular piece I'm doing basically a comic page, so at this point I also rule out my panel borders. Since I'm doing some hand lettering as well, I also use my circle templates to place word balloons so I know where I have to work around them.


PENCILS

After everything is ruled out and set to go, I go directly into penciling. I typically use 2 pencils for this process, .7mm and .4mm Pentel Graphlet drafting pencils. I really like the grip and the sturdy feel of these pencils, and they're small enough to give me good, tight lines. For a lot of the pieces I've been doing recently, I basically do a pretty rough sketch and then add most of the detail in the inking process. For this piece however, there is quite a bit of detail involved, so I decided to do tighter pencils to help avoid mistakes when inking. Here's a few detailed shots of the penciling process :

And here's how the full page looks after the penciling is complete :

LETTERING

One thing is for sure, lettering is not my thing. My handwriting is not the worst in the world, but it's pretty dreadful. Anyway, I just used a small ruler to measure everything out, and then the .4mm pencil the write in the words. The only thing I'm unhappy with in this piece is the lettering.


INKING

The first thing I do in the inking process is ink the page & panels borders, and also the word balloons and dialog boxes. For this I used a .5mm Copic Multiliner SP. I love these pens, and I'll use them a lot for fine and technical lines in a lot of my work. I also used these to ink the lettering on the page.

After that, it's in to inking the body of the piece. In this case, I worked from panel to panel, left to right & top to bottom. My favorite tool for inking is the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen.  I love this thing. It makes great lines, the brush tip never loses shape, and best of all it's refillable ! I also use various sizes of Kuretake disposbale brush pens when i want to work in some smaller detail. All of these are filled with permanent, archival quality india ink.



I usually start each panel by outlining all the black areas that need to be filled in :

And then add some detail :

And then fill in all my black shaded areas :

When all the ink is on the page, I go over the entire page with a white rubber eraser to eliminate all traces of the penciling that I worked so freaking hard on :( Then, at last we have our :


FINAL PIECE

I'm really happy with the way this turned out. I really enjoy this series, and I wanted to make sure I did Gianfelice's art justice. In my eyes, I was able to pull that off.



Make sure you head over to Challengers ASSEMBLE! to check out all the great artwork that's been posted there so far. I've really enjoyed doing this for the first month so far. It's helping me be more creative with my art, and I've been able to draw things that I wouldn't necessarily do on my own. This weeks theme is Image Comics, and the new art will be posted on Friday. For my piece I've chosen my favorite Image series of all time, which is...... a surprise ! Well, until tomorrow anyway.

I hoped you enjoyed this look into my process. If you have any questions, comments, critiques or suggestions please feel free to leave them in the comments section below this post,

Thanks for reading !

Challengers ASSEMBLE ! - Week 3 - Spiderman & Daredevil

Hello again, everyone ! Here's yet another piece I did for the Challengers ASSEMBLE !  sketch blog. The theme for week 3 was Spiderman & Daredevil. Not one or the other, but both ! Kinda had to rush this one in at the last minute because my son & I were sick all last week, but I'm still pretty happy with the way this came out. I decided to use the "noir" versions of the characters because I thought it would fit my style better, and I figured everyone else would be doing the traditional versions anyway. Also, I threw the Punisher logo in the background because he's also involved in the current Marvel crossover event with Spdidey & DD, and it just added a little extra to what would have been a blank background.

Sooooo, the next theme for the blog is panel re-creation. We have to choose a scene from a comic we've read recently and re-create/reinterpret it. I've already finished my piece, and it was a ton of fun ! It will be posted on CA tomorrow, and next week I'm going to post it here along with a full process of how i did it ! So if you're into that kind of thing, keep an eye out for the post next week.

Thanks for reading !
Ray


"THE OMEGA EFFECT: NOIR"
8x5x11 brush pen & Copic sketch marker on Strathmore smooth bristol

Challengers ASSEMBLE ! - Week 2 - Captain America

Here's my piece for the second week of Challengers ASSEMBLE! . The theme for the week was Captain America and everything related, so I chose Ultimate Cap. It's 8.5x11 ink on Strathmore smooth bristol. Thanks for checking it out !

Challengers ASSEMBLE ! - Week 1 - The Legion

Hello, everyone ! With the holidays over, it's time to get posting on the blog again. I'm taking part in a new sketch blog, Challengers ASSEMBLE !, presented by Challengers Comics & Conversation  in Chicago. Each week, the stores owners will choose a theme, and a group of artists, including myself, have to come up with their own interpretation of the theme.

The first week's theme was DC Comics Legion of Superheroes ! As much of a comic book fan as I am, I've never really been a Legion fan. So i did a little research on some of the characters and this version of Star Boy really stood out to me. The first week's sketches were posted on Friday, and there's a bunch of cool pieces there. Make sure to go check them out HERE !

The theme for this week is Captain America. I'll be working on that piece today, and it will be posted on CA this Friday. I'm already really enjoying this. It's an opportunity for me to draw some things I normally wouldn't draw, and hopefully it will help me grow as an artist as well.

Thanks for reading !
Ray
twitter - @rjw1213


Star Boy
8.5x11 brush pen on Strathmore smooth bristol

THE KING III - final

Hello again,

You might have noticed I played a round with the titles of a couple posts here. The last post I did was originally THE KING III, but since it wasn't technically a finished piece (and i wasn't happy with it anyway), I decided to just call it something else.

Anyhow, here is the "THE KING III". I did a rough of this in my sketchbook the other day, and was really pleased with the look of it. So I decided to do a full piece for it. It's a little different look for my guy here. I've been toying with some story ideas for this fella for a while, and the more I draw him, the more the story seems to evolve.

I'm actually thinking about doing some art prints of some of these pieces. If that's something anyone would be interested in, please let me know in the comment section below this post so I can get a gauge on the level of interest.

As always, thanks for reading !



THE KING III
9x12, brush & ink on Strathmore smooth bristol

THE KING sketch

Hi, everyone ! Here's a quick piece I did yesterday. Not exactly thrilled with the way it came out, but I promised myself that I would post some failures as well as successes here. Anyway, I had an idea for this piece and for some reason I just couldn't execute what I wanted to do with it. So I ended up just rushing through it, and that usually doesn't end well. There's just a lot wrong with this. Maybe I'll use this as a reference and make a second attempt at this one somewhere down the line. Even though it looks bad, it felt good just to sit down and draw something after not having done it in a few weeks.

Thanks for reading !

WORMWOOD : GENTLEMAN CORPSE

I've been a big fan of Ben Templesmith for quite some time. If you aren't familiar with him, he's a comic creator from Australia who has worked on projects such as 30 Days of Night with Steve Niles, FELL with Warren Ellis and several of his own books from IDW Publishing.

I finally got around to reading the first volume of one his IDW books, WORMWOOD : GENTLEMAN CORPSE. This is by far my favorite work of his that I've read. You can tell he really puts a lot of effort and heart into his work in general, but this series especially. The thing I like the most about Templesmith is that his art is completely unique. He isn't afraid to break the rules of traditional comic art, and because of that it really stands out. The colors and textures that he uses are so different than anything else out there.

I liked the book so much that I decided to do a piece featuring the main character of the story, Wormwood. When I was done, I decided I wanted to try doing something with another character from the story, Medusa. I bought some red India Ink a while back, and I thought this would be a good opportunity to put it to use.

If you're interested in checking out some of Ben's work, Amazon has a great selection of his books at great prices here !


I hope to be posting more stuff soon. As always, thanks for reading !


WORMWOOD : GENTLEMAN CORPSE
9x12, Pentel Pocket Brush Pen on Strathmore smooth Bristol

MEDUSA
9x12, Pentel Pocket Brush Pen, brush & Bombay red India Ink on Strathmore smooth Bristol

FRANKENSTEIN FRIDAY !

Hey, did you guys know that the last Friday before Halloween every year is Frankenstein Friday ? Yeah, I didn't either until today. Anyway, just did a quick 5 minute sketch on my lunch break to celebrate the occasion. Enjoy !

BANG YOUR HEAD !

Just another quick, very random sketch to post today. This is NOT what I intended on drawing today. I was planning on doing something different, but when I tried to get started this morning, I apparently forgot how to draw. Just a slight case of artists block. Later on I came back and picked up my brush pen and this is what came out ! Hope you like it !

ZOMBIE !

Here's a quick zombie sketch I threw together this morning. Certainly seems appropriate for the season ! This is about a 20 minute sketch done with brush pen & multiliner on 9x12 Bristol board. Hope you guys like it, and feel free to leave comments below. I'm always open to suggestions for subject matter, so if there's something you want to see, let me know !

Thanks for reading !