Holiday Love

Practice

Been a few months since I did a page I likes this one came together nicely I think। I noticed that I pretty heavy on the Non-photo blue pencil.
I should work on that if only to make my pages look more attractive

Just trudging along doing new pages with a heavily rendered style that I like. I am still figuring out how to tell the story and stay "artistic" as well.
Storytelling is something I like so I tend to burnout when it comes to the best way to tell a story. I really was proud of how I worked the close of the guys face in panel 3.

Aside from the main panel I like his page. I will have rescan. Figuring out what works is half the battle this looked good in my head.
On the page it looked like crap. I was going to take some time and redo it but that would have slowed me up. I am working on a new panel that can be photoshop’d in as a replacement.

I am sure he had this coming. Not a bad splash.
I am sure there are a ton of things I could have done to improve this shot but I still like it.

It’s a short fight scene I would have liked to make it longer. But this is a warm up.
I am working on real pages, at the moment. And by real, I mean pages that I can use for submissions.
And honestly all I really care about is the fact that I finished a set of pages.
Something I have not done in sometime. It’s amazing how other work, life and different art directions can make you rusty.

Street

An urban squabble turned ugly? A drug deal gone the wrong way. I am not sure but I am working on a mood/attitude. Yeah,still loving the noir look. Its about ugly and not-so-ugly characters doing the do that they do. And then they get kick your face.

This was a piece I did for a friend when he wanted to pitch a book to a publishing company. I am partial to this one. He is still working out the story so I have time. Did I mention I really need to learn to ink.



A year ago I was taking Eskrima Kali Arnis unfortunately the classes got suspended and I could never really go back but was so into the classes that I worked up some art based on the style.

This shot feels stiff so I didn't do anything with it like add a background or some type of design element but overall I do like this shot.



This is another Kali inspired piece and tried to be more dynamic with the angle. I am not sure if I got it but I like the overall feel of this one more so than the last one.

Scene of the Crime

I am still on the film noir kick. Today's attempt is the classic scene of the crime shot from above. Aside from this being one of the hardest of my projects, simply becasue I had to make sure the background a made sense. Overall I like this shot and I am happy to finish something. I am working on two more in this vein and then I will probably move on to something superhero or scifi not to be confused with syfy.

Character Study Excercise

This was more an exercise of beginning to end rendering of a head for comic work. I am not happy with the pencils on this one at all but I gave myself a limited deadline o do it because I wanted to get in the habit of finishing work and figuring out how to handle the work flow, process and time management. Yes, in my old age, I have become very anal. So this can be categorized as Step 01



Step 02 of my exercise of beginning to end rendering of a head for comic work. I am not happy with the inks, as you can see I suck at inking even on something as simple as this. I used a brush pen. I inked this about 4 times until I got to a version I could stomach. C'est la vie, I had a deadline so I had to get to gettin' I really need to get an inker or learn it. I am shooting for the latter but you knwo how that goes.

And now I realize I am rambling.



Step 03 The last step of my exercise of beginning to end rendering of a head for comic work. I have a lot to learn but overall the exercise told me what I needed it to.

My inking is horrible but I sort of have a clue what I need to do to improve. However I did do some massive clean up of my inks in Photoshop.

My coloring while not retina burning needs to be refined and more controlled. I have been taking some classes in color so that is helping me just need to learn how to translate that on to the digital board.

Its not a real step-by step but I hope some of it was useful to anyone.

Image Dump!

Because you people deserve it. I have finally gotten around to scanning the respectable sketches I would like to post on here and each have a little story to keep you amused.

This was just practice with light and shadows. I am still learning about light and darks. Like for instance. In life there is no line all you have is your ability to delineate the subtle levels of light and dark to define form.



This is just some random studies I did one day. I like to think I am improving art-wise. Right now I a working on a comic project that should put me to the test.





I am a huge fan of Noir art and the universal Monsters. So I did some studies in the shadowy studies to see if I could see the darks and translate them well.



This was a study for a fantasy commission based on the commssioner's story. I have no idea if it went anywhere but I stopped working on it when the author saw my work and hated my rendition of his characters. Well I liked them so there!



More random studies but I know for a fact I was listening to the new RZA/Bobby Digital album when this was done. Ho do I know? When I ever I listen to any aspect of Wu-Tang I draw a sledgehammer.



I suck at clothing so I told myself , that was not so cool. So I sat down with George Bridgman's Guide to life Drawing focused on his section of clothing and a Macy's catalog and practiced. Still practicing but this range I liked.



Random sketches on my commute to and from work.





I love me some samurai. You name it I love it. There is a reason Japanese Medieval Period is a favorite study of mine.Just some studies with a variation in the the sword.

Butterfishmaniac is live!

You may notice a new look to the blog it is to coincide with the launch of my new site. It was a long time in the making but worth it at least in my opinion.

Yes, you guessed it: Butterfishmaniac is the name. So enjoy and expect more stuff from me.

Have some sketchy goodness on the way so no worry, people the long drought is over. :)

Go have a visit!

www.butterfishmaniac.com