Hulk Sketch

 My warm-up sketch for the day. A grumpy lookin' Dr. Banner.

Sherlock: Side of the Angels

An image I did just before the now-cancelled Boston Comic Con. Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock Holmes from the BBC's great "Sherlock" TV series.

(This Site Needs) The Perfect Drug

No one has posted since December, and I'd hate to see this lil' blog go the way of the dodo, so I'll post something, and hopefully others will join in.

This was originally over on my blog, but I'll post some of these here.

This was a morning warmup sketch;Trent Reznor, only/front man for Nine Inch Nails.

I was watching the video for The Perfect Drug at the time, which seems to be a Poe homage, so I did a screengrab for reference, and just kept it loose (cos, warmup sketch).

Okay. You guys (and gals?) go, or I'ma keep posting as a raindance until someone shows up. ;)

Doctor Acula

I've already posted this up at my blog, but I thought I'd throw this on here before the subject changed on the blog (he's still a vampire). So if you want a full explanation of this piece, go there.

S'all for now. Cheers, folks.

Bat Boy: UNLEASHED

Hey! Look! Me! I'm actually doing a piece! Crazy stuff.

If you click on it, this image gets really big.

"That's the last time my agent tries to book me on Carson Daly!"

Anyway, this was just going to be a random Nosferatu-like vampire, when I noticed his screaming mug looked a little like Bat Boy... so. Well. Fine. Bat Boy all grownz up. He's a vampire of course. You can take the boy out of the bat, but not the... uh.

Splat.

Lines in Manga Studio EX 4, colors in Photoshop CS2.

Raven by Blair Shedd

A recent piece this time, done a month or so ago during a Livestream show. Manga Studio EX 4, in case anyone cares.

Now I have to come up with an indie comics lady... hm...

Ladies of the Marvel U by Blair Shedd

And continuing on with catchup, another dip into the archives with a few commissioned sketch cards from '09. Ink and marker, all.

Something newer for the next one, I promise.

Wonder Woman by Blair Shedd

Like Mez, I'm trying to catch up. Deadline is in less than a week on Oz, so, I'm a bit hammered.

Unlike Mez, I'm going with something old. Above is a Wonder Woman ink & marker sketch from '09.

This is NOT, however, my "Ladies of the DCU" image. I have something more recent for that.

Until my next post (in a few hours)!

Cheers, lads!

TMNT by Blair Shedd

Hi guys. I'm going to try to get back into this now. I'm going to give up on trying to catch up on past subjects, however. Between deadlines, revisions, surgery, and frustratingly average recovery, I just don't have the time.

And I'll admit up front, I didn't draw this just for the group (though I knew this was coming up). No, this page was done on a whim for some portfolios I sent out a week back. This was sent to a couple editors in particular, but I already got a reply from one, so I don't think I'll be doing anything soon with these childhood heroes.

Not never, just not this year probably.

Oh well. Least I'm back here.

P.S. - pick up Dorothy Of Oz: Prequel #1 (of 4) Wednesday the 28th, from IDW. I done drew it.

W.O.R.M.S.

Here's an oldie from 2007, but I thought it fitting, as it has Harry Potter AND an Oz denizen.

I used to have this up on my deviantArt page, but started getting a lot of angry comments from people who read "Wicked" (not fans of the musical). Comments like "Ephalba was framed!" and "down with the Wizard" etc.

I have read "Wicked" and know that it's more a political drama than anything else, so I "understand" what these angry comments were about - but they were all "in-universe," a la a Trekkie complaining about a piece of Wrath of Khan fan art because Khan wasn't a nice guy.

I got fed up with it, and took the image down.

So... here it is again, reintroduced to the internet.

Still behind on Ash and Belit, but I'm flat out over here. I'll play catch-up when I can.

Five To One

I took this week's piece as an opportunity to draw in a style similar to the one I have to use on one of my current projects. Most people already consider me a cartoony line work artist, but on this project, I have to be very much so.

We're pretending those monsters are the heads of a hydra, so I won't have to catch-up with whole separate mythology piece.

Yeah! Shortcut!

Other Days of Past Futures

A lotta "cheating" going on as people try to catch up due to heavy work loads. I shall be no different.

While there might be covers that had more impact on me as a youth, this was still up there. X-men #141, the beginning of "Days of Future Past" originally drawn by John Byrne and Terry Austin.

I drew this back at the beginning of the year for emergency funding to the Doctor Who convention Gallifrey One, when a few things (including my own bank and the IRS) conspired to temporarily separate me from my money - I still needed airfare.

So I did a bunch of pencil sketches. The two figures in the middle were penciled on a 11"x17" comic page. I was originally going to surround them with Daleks. But I thought the pose looked something like Days of Future Past, and since a quick Google Search didn't bring up anything like it, I scanned the pencils, and did everything else in Photoshop.

The piece got a lot of internet circulation, and coverage on Nerdist.com (and I got to hand a copy to Chris Hardwick in person at the convention). The buyer of the original art got a print as well, and I kept one for my own physical portfolio.

And swore never to make/sell another print of this piece, to make it even more special to the buyer.

Except that didn't stop a booth at a recent Doctor Who convention in Chicago from selling low-quality prints of this. Who-writer Tony Lee told me about it, and with the convention organizers made them take that (and a ton of other fan art they were selling without authorization) down. They were apparently not too happy about taking them down either.

Sigh.

Yeah. So. That.

I still owe a mythology piece.

Foot in your Face

Just to add to the out-of-orderness and catchup going on...

Not to copy Suzi, as this predates her pieces, but I thought I'd get out this sketch commission from '09.

I had the only mother in elementary school who, when she went into a video store, went straight to the action section. Bruce Lee (and knock-offs) were a big part of my childhood.

Maybe someday I'll have time do something with a better likeness.

Mr. Turkey

I still owe a mythology and 70s piece, but since I've been flat out, I think there'll be some reuse.

Like the above piece from last year.

Having a small T-Day here at home, as my wife's doctor is worried about her traveling away from the local area, as the baby is due anytime. So... no family meal today. Just something we're putting together last minute.

Just to get sentimental for a moment, I'm thankful to be surrounded by such talent here on the blog. Happy Thanksgiving, folks.

And to the international FOCers, have a good Thursday. ;)

Cheers!

On Black Wings

And now I'm caught up.

The reason this took me a bit to get up, is that this was a little more involved than my previous catch-up pieces.

No, you're not crazy. You've never heard of The Black Raptor.

This is a self-serving piece, as I need it for my own comic, The Raptor (as you can guess, the antagonist of the story might be partially inspired by this made-up Golden Age hero). I hope that's not too much of a cheat.

As you can tell this is heavily inspired by All-American Comics, and the character himself is based on a bit of Batman (with gun!), Alan Scott Green Lantern, the Blackhawks, and The Red Cross.

A bit of a challenge trying to not drawn exactly like myself. I didn't totally succeed, but limiting my brush choices, and forcing some rendering choices helped.

May even do a Silver Age version of the character (and then gritty 80s version, and pouch-laden 90s, and... gritty Naughties reboot?).

Making Points

My next piece of catch-up, my dinosaur (a fave from my childhood).

As you can tell, I was looking at a lot of Frank's rendering technique while drawing this. No where near as good, but I figure I might as well emulate the best (my reptile skin rendering sucks). Figure this would be a good place to test techniques that aren't my typical.

Also did a digital paint under the line work. Playing around. Left some of the sketch showing as some seemed to like that with Thark.

Okay. One more and I'm caught up!

It's not news, it's Thark.

A couple of catch-up pieces today, including this Thark.

Wanted to keep it sketchy, so I left the sketch layer on. Also experimented with color again. Just having fun with it.

More in a bit.

Catch-up 1: Hairy Bugger

Due to a big work load (not complaining) I've gotten behind. Trying to catch up this weekend. So, here we go. My Universal Monsters entry;



Loved "The Wolf Man" so much as a kid, I was a werewolf at Halloween three years in a row. Separated yarn, corn syrup for adhesive, and eyeliner for detail (there's a photo somewhere).

Not as accurate as I wanted, but, like I said, I'm trying to catch up.

So... there you have it. More soon.

Uncanny Memory

Here's my slightly-belated X-men entry. I had a lot to do this week, and only got to this at about 8 PM on Friday evening. I was going to just post sketch cards I did for Rittenhouse, when I came across this;



A scan of my earliest-surviving hand-made "comic book" from when I was a kid. Would've been around '87-'88 when I discovered you could staple pieces of paper together and make your own comic book. I started making stacks of them, my favorite heroes being Spidey and the X-men. I had ones that were better drawn, but like much of my art from that time, my mother saw fit to throw tons of it out (I am not making that mistake with my own children). So this is the only guy from that time that made it to the present day.

So I thought I'd do a long-overdue "recreation" of the piece, or something more in line with what I probably actually had in mind. I slapped on some simple colors and a Photoshop filter for the old color-sep look, and traced (I admit that) the logo and cornerbox.

So there you go - a nod to my childhood, both happy and sad. Sad that so much of that is lost (both the artwork and childhood) but happy I've kept with it all these years.

Cheers, folks.

She Saw

Still having fun with these, trying different things, different approaches etc.

Manga Studio 4 EX and Photoshop CS2.

Now... g'nite. I've got an Old One sized migraine.