Daily Sketch 008- SVEN THE IMMORTAL

Today's Daily Sketch subject is SVEN THE IMMORTAL, from Brian Wood's Vertigo Comics viking epic, Northlanders. I've been trying to catch up and finish reading this series, and Sven has been my favorite character in the book so far. If you dig vikings, go check this series out !

SVEN THE IMMORTAL
6x9, brush pens on bristol

15 minutes

Daily Sketch 007- MONOCYTE

In honor of today's release of the fourth and final issue of the series, today I chose MONOCYTE. Monocyte is a mini-series from IDW publishing, created by menton3 and Kasra Ghanbari. This series has been a real inspiration to me as an artist. The first time I saw concept images for this book last summer they took my breath away and I knew it was going to be something special and followed it ever since. The fact that 2 Chicago guys can get together and publish their dream project and make it just an absolutely amazing work of art is very inspiring, and I can't wait to see what Kasra & Menton have planned for the future. Go to your local comic shop and grab #4 (and 1-3 if they have them) today, and make sure to preorder the oversized hardcover collected edition that's coming out later this summer !

MONOCYTE
6x9, brush pen on bristol
15 minutes

Daily Sketch 006- MATTY ROTH

Hey there, hope everyone had a great weekend ! I took a day off from the daily sketch routine to spend some quality time with my family for the holiday, but we're back today. Today's subject is MATTY ROTH from Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli's epic Vertigo series, DMZ. If you haven't read it, do yourself a favor and go check it out !

MATTY ROTH
6x9, brush pens on bristol
20 minutes

Daily Sketch 005- TETSUO SHIMA

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend so far ! Here's todays Daily Sketch entry, TETSUO SHIMA, from Katsuhiro Ootomo's masterwork AKIRA. I really like how this one turned out. Thanks for checking it out, and see you tomorrow !

TETSUO SHIMA
6x9, brush pens on bristol
15 minutes

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