Telara Chronicles #4 Cover Art

Pencil artwork for the cover of Wildstorm's THE TELARA CHRONICLES #4. This is the final issue of my four issue cover run. I had a great time working on these covers, and give big thanks to Jim Chadwick, Ben Abernathy, and Trion Worlds for letting me work on them.

Telara Chronicles #3 Cover Art

Pencils for the cover of THE CHRONICLES OF TELARA #3. Here's the solicitation copy:

Written by RICARDO SANCHEZ
Art by POP MHAN
Cover by DREW JOHNSON
In the third issue of the 4-issue prequel to the highly anticipated MMORPG from Trion Worlds, Asha and her Guardian allies return to Port Scion triumphant. They’ve captured an ancient Eth device that could be the key to saving Telara from the invaders that threaten it. But their work is not done; minions of The Court of the Endless have been opening Death Rifts in an attempt to summon Regulos the Destroyer himself through the Ward. It’s up to Asha to stop them and give her companions time to learn the secrets of the device.
On sale 17 • 3 of 4 • 32 pg, FC $3.99 US

GI JOE: FRONTLINES

My pal Ray just emailed me this piece. I hadn't seen it in a long time, and was happy to revisit it.
This is a little-seen promo piece that I drew for the story arc ICEBOUND that I worked on for GI JOE: FRONTLINES. Inks are by Ray Snyder, and the color work is by JD Mettler.
I came up with the story idea for this arc, and Dan Jolley wrote it. Interestingly, the flashback sequences in the series that featured Duke were illustrated by Tom Feister. Tom has recently done a string of really cool covers for IDW's GI JOE books.
Thanks to Ray for finding this piece, and for sending it to me.

Step By Step: Commission

Here's step one of a new commission I've started. It's of Tara Chace from the Oni Press comic, Queen & Country.
This is my initial underdrawing that I did on a piece of typing paper---really just hacking out the pose and the plan for the background on a separate piece of paper in order to avoid ruining my bristol board with a ton of erasure.
I scanned in the initial drawing and worked out some anatomy mistakes by messing with 'em on the computer a little. Next, I'll light box it to the actual art board, where it'll be worked out some more.
As far as the pose, I wanted to do something unusual with a commission of the character. I google image searched Tara Chace, and most of the time, folks seem to draw her in a standing pose, wearing her regular outfit, and holding a rifle. I wanted to try and capture a story moment, a good "spy moment", where she's pulling a pistol from under her pillow on an assassin trying to sneak in her window.
I'll post the next step soon, and take it all the way through the finished piece.

Ballpoint pen study for 8/4/10

Just a quick one today---Jean Reno from the great film, RONIN. Didn't do too well on the likeness, but learned a couple of things. Interestingly, I actually went too conservative on the length of the nose.
It's fun to study interesting faces like this one. I think it'll help me make characters that I draw in comics look more distinctive. More from RONIN tomorrow. It's just too interesting to study. I haven't even gotten to DeNiro or Sean Bean yet.

"LEAVE ME ALONE, RAYMOND BURR!"

Today's ballpoint pen head studies---From my very favorite film, REAR WINDOW. I really wanted to study the feel of that horrible moment when Jimmy Stewart is trapped in his apartment in his wheelchair, and the killer, Raymond Burr can be heard coming up the stairs...His heavy foot falls on the landing---the doorknob creaks as it turns slowly...
I started the first one a few days ago---Stewart picks up the phone, thinking it's his policeman buddy...But it's not...
I did 2 and 3 today. I don't know that I did very well with the likeness, but studying an everyman like Jimmy Stewart sure was fun. The shadows in the dark apartment were fun to play with to. Boy, I love that movie.

New Ballpoint pen studies

I've started trying to do quick studies from paused movie frames. It's a fun exercise in facial anatomy and likeness study. This one's from SHERLOCK HOLMES. One of my very favorite recent films.

It's Ballpoint, Baby.

I can't speak to whether this is a good piece or not, but I drew it last thursday at Koffee & Komics as my entry in our Dungeons and Dragons fantasy theme. It's black ball point pen in my sketchbook. I had a lot of fun with it, though I may have poked and prodded at it a little too much...