Chicago Con 07 Sample Pages

[J^2]

This is the first page to the mock Ghost story Dark Horse provides, I don't know if it was ever actually used in a comic. The largest image is the one I finished today. I want to show I can portray the old & young teen, cars and buildings. Also night scenes. Please give me any feedback you may have in regards to storytelling and the pencilling. It is the last non-super hero page I wanted to take to Chicago . Next I am going to finish a Batman page I have followed by a Superman, Wonder Woman and Sentry/Carnage page. Any feedback is always appreciated.



These images are the same page I drew earlier last year. Hopefully there is some improvement in the one I finished today...

The 1st attempt...


The 2nd attempt...

[Miguel Marques]

Good initiative. . . Has to work more the form and the space of the page and later to conclude.

[J^2]

Originally Posted by Miguel Marques

Good initiative. . . Has to work more the form and the space of the page and later to conclude.

I wish I knew what you were referring to when you said "form" is it anatomy?

Thanks for looking and leaving a comment anyway!

[joh james]

I like your use of mood and ambiance. A drawing tool almost forgotten in todays books. Primarily because light source is a critical element involved in the process. It takes guts to tackle, and for that alone you should be rewarded. I had a school for many years and taught light source and illustration. Hell of a job on the pages! Remember that a casted shadow will seem larger on the surface being casted upon(from fingers onto the face), depending on the distance between the objects. It also depends on the size of the light source. Also, in this day and age of digital cameras, take reference photos of people and objects for proper anatomy and structure. I personally buy toy cars and use photos for things like hands. Hope it helps. Never draw from imagination. Always draw from memory(meaning practice from realism)

[J^2]

Originally Posted by joh james

I like your use of mood and ambiance. A drawing tool almost forgotten in todays books. Primarily because light source is a critical element involved in the process. It takes guts to tackle, and for that alone you should be rewarded. I had a school for many years and taught light source and illustration. Hell of a job on the pages! Remember that a casted shadow will seem larger on the surface being casted upon(from fingers onto the face), depending on the distance between the objects. It also depends on the size of the light source. Also, in this day and age of digital cameras, take reference photos of people and objects for proper anatomy and structure. I personally buy toy cars and use photos for things like hands. Hope it helps. Never draw from imagination. Always draw from memory(meaning practice from realism)

Thanks for taking the time to look at my samples and taking the effort to leave me feedback...
For anyone reading this I'm sorry if it seems long winded but joh james has given me an opportunity to get on a soapbox, then again its my thread and you can see what you're getting yourself into.
First I'm no magician, there is no smoke and mirrors, I can't walk on water, so my art comes from my dedication to practice and literally drawing when faced with a blank piece of paper when all I wanted to do was puke from the sight of the white paper. My samples are not flashy, they're not that visually artistic, however what I hope they do is tell a story and are somewhat believable. My style right now is pretty bland, for the last six or seven months I've been doing nothing but studying the human anatomy. If you asked me to draw a man or woman undraped in free space I could pull it off with a certain level of accuracy. However when the environment changes, when the character becomes more defined in its personality that is where the challenge is for me. I'm still learning about lighting, perspective and composition. Right now my work is not really that artistic due in part to the fact I'm a Mechanical Engineer major(who hopes to graduate May 08) so I'm not exposed to whole lot of theory of art. Any formal art training I've had stopped in High School and only recently have I taken any type of formal training. So my vision is still developing, with that said to aid in my interpretation I do use a figure model and a digital camera. I also use myself, I'm no Hulk but I'm no slouch either so these tools help me with my anatomy and perspective issues. For example I used a photo of cardboard boxes to get the nadir for the first panel on the Ghost page. While I know that the nadir is what to use where to put it accurately to make the panel believable is something I'm still learning about. Some may call me hack or no talent... I don't care. I'm still in the learning stage and I believe within two years I'll be more comfortable and confident with my art. My motivator is not money, if I wanted that I would pursue a career in Engineering or go back to being an aircraft mechanic. Its not for my ego, if I wanted that I would go re-enlist in the military. I do it cause I'm passionate about it and it is something that I will always learn something new. And in two years if all I'm drawing is a black & white indy, great as long as I can make ends meet I'll be happy.
WOW! Thats' probably the most I've typed for one post on DW!
Thanks again for your comments.

[joh james]

Keep on that track, dude. You're certainly no hack and your pages are far from bland. Give yourself even more credit. The fact that a page can translate mood is no frilly affair. Many heavy-hitters in the industry stay away from it like the plague. And you don't have to explain how hard you're working. First off, it's self evident. I've been an art teacher for as long as I've worked in film so constructive crits are my currency. None of my buddies in the industry have any formal training and the best artists I've encountered in matte painting, videogame modeling, directing, and comics will all attest to the same. Keep on burning the midnight oil for the love of it. Leave material wealth for the happy seekers. They say 90% of cancer patients believe in happiness, spending a lifetime chasing it. Contentment is key. Good luck, J^2.

[J^2]

Heres another page. This one will probably be at the back of my portfolio as it really only shows how I would handle drawing Batman. With this page I was experimenting with dynamic foreshortening in the second and fifth panels. This is also another night scene however I was able to work in some lighting with this one.

Please feel free to leave any suggestions or other comments.




This page was originally done as an assignment for Joe Kubert's correspondence course. I was trying to be funny by making Batman with a teddy bear costume complete with a teddy emblem. When I drew this page I knew that having his left foot off the page was bad, but I was pressed for time so I left it. I took the critique the staff at the school gave me and I redrew the page in what you see above. The cheesy dialog and crappy inking & lettering are all my fault.

[joh james]

Worry-not! I've got your back. I like the redraw. Especially your reworking of the first panel. Like most editors, I'd prefer to see the material without any distractions(lettering, colour,sfx..). Be careful with lighting. A singular light source takes a while to get the hang of, saying nothing of doubles or triples. On the badguy(lower left) the source is upper right, which would mean the front of Bats is shaded. If you treat bodyparts like separate cylinders and spheres when lighting, watch how fast and amazing you'll get the hang of it. Good job of keeping Bats coming into frame from the right.

[J^2]

Originally Posted by joh james

Worry-not! I've got your back. I like the redraw. Especially your reworking of the first panel. Like most editors, I'd prefer to see the material without any distractions(lettering, colour,sfx..). Be careful with lighting. A singular light source takes a while to get the hang of, saying nothing of doubles or triples. On the badguy(lower left) the source is upper right, which would mean the front of Bats is shaded. If you treat bodyparts like separate cylinders and spheres when lighting, watch how fast and amazing you'll get the hang of it. Good job of keeping Bats coming into frame from the right.

Thanks for comments joh james.

[Premature Inker]

I have to say i am impressed with your talent for someone whom isn't even in school for comic art...I read your long post above and i have to say that I agree with most of your statements and sympathize for your efforts...COMIC BOOK ART ISN'T EASY!...alot of people just sit and wish they could do half of what you have done on those pages and I just love the fact that we all have this dream of being great comic artists!!!...there are few)alot of them have died away...a few critiques if that is ok.
1.Page flow:gotta' keep that eye movin from left to right and on to the next page..doesn't have to be flashy compositions.
2.story-telling:..shadows always play in comic work...it drags your eye where the artist wants you to see something important and frames events and local.Panel size also plays roles in storytelling as well as the size of the figure within the frame.
3.Have fun!!!:..It doesn't become fun until we can throw away our worries of what others will like and dislike...In my experience?.."There is always room for your style"nobody has proved this more than Marvel over the past several yrs.
4.layout:layout your pages on a 11 by 17 peice of typing-like paper...be loose and see where it takes you...I own several John Buscema pencil roughs and i have to tell you that HE even made his own mistakes and wasn't perfect(close)...but i pull those out when i need inspiration of a master storyteller.
5.Get disiplinedRAW DRAW DRAW DRAW....I get sick of hearing "comic"artists whom can't do a book anymore in a month...then they start putting a book or sketch book out every 6 months just to get a paycheck and they could care less for their fans...be different and get so fast that you can pencil 2 books a month..Look at John Romita Jr..he does it and still has time for shows and such..Great guy.
Your doing awesome and i again admire your talent.

Jason.

[J^2]

Originally Posted by Premature Inker

I have to say i am impressed with your talent for someone whom isn't even in school for comic art...I read your long post above and i have to say that I agree with most of your statements and sympathize for your efforts...COMIC BOOK ART ISN'T EASY!...alot of people just sit and wish they could do half of what you have done on those pages and I just love the fact that we all have this dream of being great comic artists!!!...there are few)alot of them have died away...a few critiques if that is ok.
1.Page flow:gotta' keep that eye movin from left to right and on to the next page..doesn't have to be flashy compositions.
2.story-telling:..shadows always play in comic work...it drags your eye where the artist wants you to see something important and frames events and local.Panel size also plays roles in storytelling as well as the size of the figure within the frame.
3.Have fun!!!:..It doesn't become fun until we can throw away our worries of what others will like and dislike...In my experience?.."There is always room for your style"nobody has proved this more than Marvel over the past several yrs.
4.layout:layout your pages on a 11 by 17 peice of typing-like paper...be loose and see where it takes you...I own several John Buscema pencil roughs and i have to tell you that HE even made his own mistakes and wasn't perfect(close)...but i pull those out when i need inspiration of a master storyteller.
5.Get disiplinedRAW DRAW DRAW DRAW....I get sick of hearing "comic"artists whom can't do a book anymore in a month...then they start putting a book or sketch book out every 6 months just to get a paycheck and they could care less for their fans...be different and get so fast that you can pencil 2 books a month..Look at John Romita Jr..he does it and still has time for shows and such..Great guy.
Your doing awesome and i again admire your talent.

Jason.

Thanks for the pointers and reading my long winded post!
I would like to stick with the storytelling aspect as much as possible, you mention John Buscema. I think he was a great storyteller, while he didn't use a lot of flashy big panels he did know how to effectivly tell the story with great art. I've heard before that using large panels can loose its effectiveness and I agree with this anolgy. Your also right about the work ethic aspect, if I ever do get a job at DC or Marvel I would hope that I keep my work ethic and my feet on the ground about the whole experience, I would hate to ruin my career because I let it go to my head.

Thanks again for looking.

[J^2]

This is probably the closest to my actual page completion time would be. It took me about a day. This page was also an experiment with using small panels. I like the fact that they are easy to draw but I don't like the lack of detail or lack of background. I wanted to improve on my donut drawing as well.

The setting is pretty generic, a building just blown up and Riddler, Wonder Woman and a really out of shape Superman.

I had this more or less done yesterday however I had to go over it again with an HB lead so it would photocopy. No that's not Dan DiDio, gee I hope they don't think that when I hand to DC in Chicago. I wasn't really working from a script it was just a funny idea that I had. This is another one that will be in the back of my portfolio.
Let me know anything you see that could use improvement.
Thanks for looking.

[J^2]

This is the last page of the DC portion of my portfolio. I was surprised at how quickly I was able to complete it(about 7 hours). Then again this doesn't have many visual elements such as perspective of the background, so I think that made this page go fast. Below the page I drew is the original page drawn by Jim Lee. I am in no way trying to best Jim Lee my only objective was to take a different approach to the same page. The original was done horizontally, in my rendition I tried to go vertical with all my panels. If something I drew looks out of place please don't hesitate to tell me. Any feedback is appreciated.






This is a revision of my Wonder Woman page, I corrected some symmetry issues and redrew Diane's hand in panel one as well as the Riddler's in panel two.




Next I'm gonna tackle that wicked scene where Sentry rips Carnage into pieces! I haven't seen the pages that were used just what I've read in Wizard.

Thanks for looking and please feel free to leave some feedback.

[J^2]

Here are the two pages of Sentry and Carnage. I might redraw that four panel sequence on page one, right now though I plan to revise the cop & nun page and redraw my Ghost page one, gee I really like drawing that page!

What do ya think of my interpretation of these two pages? I've never seen the actual comic these appeared in, so if someone has a scanned image of them I would like to see or you can just tell me if mine makes sense or not.
Any comments & suggestions are always welcome and thanks for looking.

(I plan to post updated pages as I draw them between now and the convention next month.)

[J^2]

Here are my latest revisions. First up is the Sentry/Carnage sequence I redrew page one and this time it has all nine panels! I added some detail to page two and fixed some anatomy issues. Panel eight may get redrawn before I show these in Chicago, I'm not happy with the figures in it.



With the church page I changed the last panel and tried to add more detail to panel one. On the Wonder Woman page I practiced my donut drawing and attempted to make them more believable. One of my life's ambitions will be to try to draw the perfect donut. If I only sell five copies of a comic, one to my Dad, one to my Mom, one each to my little sister's(for both of their sons) and one to that guy who has one of every comic made as long as the donuts are near to perfection and their happy that's all that matters.


The Ghost page is one I completely redrew as well.

Originally Posted by Miguel Marques

Good initiative. . . Has to work more the form and the space of the page and later to conclude.

Miguel can you let me know if these changes were what you had noticed?
I tried to add more detail to panel one and panel two. Panel three I tried to fix the lighting and the anatomy(the hand was too big). Panel four I tried to fix the placement of the figures in the SUV, tried to make it look more like an SUV and utilize more of the panel space, I think this is what Miguel was trying to say. The Superman page I just added some more detail.




Well I have one more page I want to redraw it is of the kids on the playground, I'm going to practice drawing the head a little before I attempt that one but in the mean time I would like to hear any and all comments you might have about the changes and anything else in regards to my pages here.
Thanks for looking.