SKETCHINGS #1...and another convention!

Here is the first of our three new books... SKETCHINGS will be a series of collections of some of our better sketches. Some of them probably shouldn't even be called sketches, as they are pretty developed pieces that took quite awhile. But there is also a lot of just quick, fun stuff in there.

This first issue only features my work, but future issues will display the talents of Dusty (and possibly others). Most of the sketches you have seen here on the blog (or on our sketches page), but there are some new ones in there as well. It mainly consists of realistic drawings of real people and looser images of various characters. Several people have asked me if I was going to put some of my extra drawings in print form... so here ya go. It's 32+ sketches all in one book. I hope you all enjoy it. You can order Sketchings #1 from the Indy Planet Store.

If you're in the Kansas City area, another way you can get Sketchings (along with all our other books) is to stop by and see us at Planet Comicon on April 5 and 6! We'll have a table there for the first time. It'll be great to hang out with a bunch of the KC creators that we interact with on message boards with all the time!

Two conventions in under a month... didn't see that coming. They sure are dang fun.

Being productive and Devious!

There are new images up on my art blog at:

http://ink-xercise.blogspot.com/

In other news I decided to become Devious, check out my Deviant Art page also:

http://noodlephish.deviantart.com/

Both these will be home to new images and are a source of networking, please feel free to comment and connect.

HurleyCon 2008

Elton and I had a great time at the inaugeral HurleyCon here in Joplin on Sunday. Turnout was really good... which is a great sign since this is the first real con in Joplin for many years. We were busy pretty much the whole time... selling books, talking to conventioners, doing sketches. A lot of my current and former students stopped by, which was great. (I had been spreading con propoganda to them all week.)

You'll probably notice some new books on the table there with me. There is Rook City #1, which collects the first several stories from that series. Also, we had Sketchings #1, which is a collection of some of my best sketches (most of which you have seen here). And then there is Duel #1, a brand new book I just finished, about two overly competive artistic kids. I will post more on all of these later, including ordering info. It was great to have multiple books to talk to people about this time. People really seemed to dig all of them.

That last picture is of Randy Rustin, a friend of mine who works at the local comic store. He is one of the fastest artists I know and a great guy.

Jason and Nathan Hurley (of Hurley's Heroes) put this all together, and they said that turnout was good enough that they'll probably do this again next year or maybe in 6 months. I'm hoping this con leads to the start of some sort of comics community here in Joplin. There are quite a few of us that love comics, and it'd be nice if we could get together and encourage each other to do more.

Con Men

I thought it would be awhile before we hit a convention again. But it seems that a pretty cool one is coming to Joplin. Like the poster says, this will be the biggest one Joplin's ever had.

We are going to be there with a table. And we should have four books for sale. That's right... four. More on that later... It'll be fun to hang out, sell some books, do some sketches for people, and meet some more Joplin area artists. Hopefully there's a decent turnout and we can have more of these.

So if you're in the area on March 9, stop by (it's free!) and say hi. We promise to try to be friendly.

Here there be sketches.

Here are some fairly recent sketches. Kind of all over the place. This first one was just messing around with a brush pen, plus some Photoshop alterations.



These are from photo reference:


This is based on a wood carving on a cork.



Drew these while showing my students the Corpse Bride (great movie):


These were done while waiting around bored at parent-teacher conferences (art teachers don't get a lot of traffic):

Don't mess with the god of thunder.

Two posts in a week? What's going on here?

Here's something I did for a sketch challenge. Not sure if I'm happy with the values yet, but it was fun.

My drawing arm is fatigued. Not from drawing (unfortunately), but from playing so much Wii Sports. I guess that says something.

A One Page Story

Here's a one page story I just finished. It was just a simple little idea I got in my head one day, but it turned out to be a bit more complicated to execute. Not sure how easy it is to read, but it was fun to make. I'd like to do more of these one-pagers... see what you can do with limited space.

More stuff should be posted soon, but I don't want to say anything until it's actually up. Although I guess I just did. Oops.

A belated Christmas card.

I hope everybody had a Merry Christmas.

Inkxercise

Started an art blog to force myself to be productive. Now you know.

Here's the link: http://ink-xercise.blogspot.com/

Check in on me and keep me accountable. Thanks.

-Dusty

Drawing Each Other

I've been doing some life drawing with my high schoolers after school. Dusty sat in on our last session and came up with the above sketch of yours truly. He says it makes me look "venerable." I prefer "sage-like." (My students thought "Santa Claus.")

Anyway, here's my take on Dusty and some of my students... Dusty's got a bit of a Stevie Wonder thing going on. It's been great to just spend some time pushing the pencil around on paper.

Halloween pin-up swap

Quite awhile ago, I did a pin-up swap with Bill Hook, one of the Kansas City comic guys. We agreed to draw one of each other's characters. Well, I just got his image and he chose to do the entire Vlad Squad. I really enjoy his take on them... it's always so cool to see another artist's version of your characters. He really gave Gregori (the short one) a classic Peter Lorre look.

In case you're curious, here's the pin-up I did of Bill's character, Gentleman Jack:

What's this? A new post?

Yes... I am alive and well. I know it's been a long time since I've posted. I'll blame school starting back up (still playing catch-up in that area). I should have some more time to commit to comics soon.

My wife and I created this picture at the Simpson movie site. They have a cool little character generator thingie where you can make yourself a Simpsons character. I'm not the biggest Simpsons fan, but it was fun messing around and creating ourselves.

I've actually got quite a bit to post. There is an 8-page story that I completed for an anthology that I might post here. I've been cranking out a quick fun story about two kids dueling with their imaginations. And I've finished a few more pages of that Rook City story, but I want to get a few more done before I start posting those. That way there will be no delays in the story when it starts up again. I'm sure some or all of this stuff will be on here soon.

Thanks for sticking around!

Kyle Strahm's Clockwork Creature

One of the cool artists that I ran into through the Kansas City comic scene is Kyle Strahm. He has been working on his Clockwork Creature story for some time and now it is being put into graphic novel form by Ambrosia Publishing, as well as being serialized online for free. It is the tale of strange creature that is terrorizing a small town and the equally strange "savior" who offers the townsfolk a way of ridding themselves of it.

This is not your typical story as Kyle is using it as a storytelling exercise, spending only a few hours on each page. He really has a lot of fun with this tale... it's anything but predictable. It's full of quirky characters and creatures along with plenty of odd twists and turns. I'm a sucker for stark black and white artwork, and Kyle works very effectively here in that style. I can tell you from experience, it's not nearly as easy as he makes it look here. His rendering of the various backgrounds and the creature itself is particularly amazing. He has a really good grasp of storytelling and pacing, as well, using a variety of visual techniques to clearly break up the action. Not a lot of character development, but it's really not that type of story.

So if you're in the mood for a loose, free-wheeling story full of originality... give it a look. I know I enjoyed the heck out of it.

Wrapping it up

Well, I'll be out of the country for the next couple weeks. Since I won't be able to update, here's the last three pages of this story:



Now that's over, I'd love to hear what you thought of the complete story!

In case you're wondering why I'll be out of the country... well, my wife and I are going to Taiwan to pick up the baby girl we are adopting! If you want to see more about it you can check out the BLOG we have set up about her. We leave Wednesday and get back on June 9. You might not see as much artistic output from me for awhile, as I'll be a new dad! Oh well...

The battle rages on...

Page 6 is up... three pages left! They are all done and in the bag, so you don't have to worry about any delays. Hopefully, I can't get busy on Rook City again very soon...

Hey, one of our readers from Poland, Frapazoid, colored the last page just for fun. Check it out! I really dig how he did the backgrounds.