A Blast from My Past! X-Men Cover Concept by BigGuido

I decided to post an old drawing I did way back in 1987 and then finally inked in the 1990s. This was an X-Men cover idea featuring my original super hero, The SYNAPSE (the guy getting pwned by Juggernaut). I think I'm gonna revisit this one and post it here for your review.

Vampiress Pamela Swynford De Beaufort from True Blood

Here's a sketch I did today on my recently purchased 64GB iPad3. I used a Jot Flip stylus and my trusty index finger to draw this. I used a pic I found on the web as reference as I was more interested in seeing what the capabilities of the app and the iPad were than creating an original piece of art. This was drawn in AutoDesk's FREE SketchBook Express app. I was so impressed with it, I went ahead and dropped the $1.99 for the Pro version of the app. Look out, kids - BIG SPENDER COMIN' THROUGH!

Anyhoo, This is my first all digital sketch and I wanted to post it to get feedback from you folks. After working directly on the screen of the iPad, it makes me want to take the plunge and get rid of my Intuos tablet and buy a Cintiq monitor. All I need now is the money!

Catwoman Blueline - Ready for Inks!

I thought I'd post this blueline version of my Catwoman sketch I am preparing to ink. As you can see, I tweaked thinks a bit in photoshop and added the Batsignal motif to the background. I had planned on dropping it in and left it for photoshop. I tightened up the Gotham City skyline graphic to simplify the inking of it. I was trying to get a similar feel to this piece as the end title graphic from the old Batman TV series. I also was inspired by the skylines Carmine Infantino used to drop into his Batman, Flash and Adam Strange covers and interior art. What can I say, I'm Old Skool.

I print out the blueline on Strathmore smooth surface 11 x 17 Bristol Board via my Canon i9900 inkjet printer. That way, I have a nice clean board to work on and don't have to worry about erasing the pencils. Plus, if I really make a mess of things, I can always print out a fresh board and start over. An added benefit of this process is that the original pencils remain intact. I used this same process on "Forbidden Planet Jen". After scanning the art in color, it is a simple task to remove the blue line via a simple replace color action and desaturate in Photoshop. I'm sure this is probably old hat to most of you folks, but I'm having a lot of fun discovering and adopting digital practices into producing my traditional comic inspired artwork. 

Catch-Up Month - Ladies of DCU - Catwoman

Well, I have been wanting to draw that sex-kitten Selena Kyle for awhile (I have always loved the Audrey Hepburn look Adam Hughes gives her) so here is my attempt! I was really inspired by the dynamic foreshortening Elshad used in his Powergirl image and decided to try that out in this piece. It has been a while since I did that and I must have gone through 20 sheets of parchment paper overlays before getting everything right. I plan to ink this so the pencils are pretty loose. I will probably rework things before finalizing the piece for inking. I'm still not really happy with Selena's face. I think I am trying too hard to be AH! than I am myself.

Update: Reworked it a bit.

Catch-Up Month - Forbidden Planet Jen - Inked by BigGuido

Well, here's my inked version of "Forbidden Planet Jen". I did some re-working here and there and re-did Jen's face and hair to make her look more like Uncle Frank's vision of loveliness. NOT EASY! Anyhoo, much cursing and tubes of white-out later, it is finished. I am somewhat pleased with the results, but as I stated earlier, inking has never been one of my strengths. That being said, let me know what you think.

Inked on Strathmore smooth Bristol Board with Prismacolor Premier, Pitt and Micron Art Pens with corrections made with Montana Marker Acrylic Paint Pens. Time: Too $#%@ing long.

Catch Up Month - Forbidden Planet Jen by BigGuido

Over on the Apes & Babes Forum, Zeus suggested that I go back and do sketches for some of the old blog themes. I decided to take his advice and go back to what appeared to be the first theme - Jen from Liberty Meadows. I started a couple of sketches and after some messing around, decided to take a bit of inspiration from Uncle Frank's Star Trek Brandy and drop Jen & Company into one of my favorite 50s SciFi flicks, FORBIDDEN PLANET!  I also wanted to take a whack at drawing Robby the Robot too.

Drawn on Utrecht Vellum Surface Bristol Board with a variety of Utrecht drawing pencils and my trusty Rotring mechanical pencil. Time: 4.5 hours.

Catch-up Month: Vampirella by BigGuido

I actually did this one of Vampy earlier in the month of June as a personal exercise. After some consideration, I decided to post it here on FOCer's. I thought it would be a nice addition to the blog and has that "Cheesecake" flavor all of us Friends Of Cho love. Vampy has always been a fantasy of mine, so she fits into the FANTASY theme in the broader sense of the term!

I drew this on Canson XL recycled sketch paper with a set of Utrecht drawing pencils - H to 6B. I used a Utrecht kneaded eraser that came with the set for corrections and highlights. No model or reference - all outta my head!

Merlyn and Archimedes by BigGuido

Here's my Arthurian Mythos entry for the blog - Merlyn and his familiar, the owl Archimedes. This took about 3 1/2 hours. Drawn on Canson XL recycled sketch paper with a Rotring .05mm mechanical pencil with HB lead and a Dewert kneaded eraser for highlights/corrections.