Little Big Head Adventures

Gi-Joe vs. the old man of the sea. July 27, 2010

Sketched on paper with blue and black pencils, scanned, lettered and cleaned up in photoshop, printed out black, inked onto bristol with a light box.
This was a Commission, for “gi-joe”, not a member of the team but the general icon/hero, having been defeated by the demonic “old man of the sea” now wanders exhausted with him on his shoulders. Text script was provided.

on a related note I started reading the new Gi-Joe comic by Larry Hamma that picks up from the series he did for marvel in the 80′s and 90′s.  Good stuff so far.

A quick Flash. July 11, 2010

Black pencil over blue, digitally removed the blue, and auto contrast was added to darken the grey lines. I also reduced the head size slightly in Photo shop. I think I have a tendency to make my head like 10-20 percent larger than they should be if I am not careful. Maybe it’s the bad influence of all those caricatures.

Oh by the way Magic! July 9, 2010

Here is a version of the Valkyrie pic as a Magic card, for giggles and poopers, and Q.

Crystar the crystal warrior! July 8, 2010

Enjoy Crystar the Crystal Warrior, as he enters the lair of his Evil brother Moltar, and his Molten men.

Done in blue pencil, scanned, manipulated/corrected in photoshop, then inked with pigma pen .08, .05., and.01 on Crystar’s exposed body, sword, and helmet, for an crisp angular look, then Japanese brush pen for the rest. Scanned and Manipulated/corrected the inks in photoshop. I tried something different with the coloring where I did all grey shading first as though it would be black and white, then colored and shaded that, I think It helped. I also added several layers of transparency to the crystal body parts and of course shines.

I HATE! July 7, 2010

I found this listing on Guru, I see this stuff all the time, sometimes with an even worse set of specifics. Comic art,(the most time consuming and difficult of the styles I use), gets this worse than any other. But anything related to art feilds I look into has these people posting in it. 

>>Hello,
I am looking for a graphic artist to work with to design and illustrate 100 page graphic novel.  I am looking to spend below $15 per page.  The best sample of the style I would like:  http://artemis-fowl.com/images/misc_images/graphicnovel_example_large.jpg

I would have a deadline of September 1, 2010 to finish all 100 pages.

You are bidding per page, NOT per illustration, one page can have anywhere between 1 and 6 panels.

**A lot of the bids I have been seeing have included samples very far away in style from my sample.  Please include a sample SIMILAR in style to what I have posted.  I will focus on quality of line art, (no sketchy lines please), as well as color and lighting usage**>>

I sent this to him/her as  a reply. I know they probably won’t care, might not even read it, and it won’t change a dame thing, but it made me feel a little better. 

To clarify your job listing; you posted this June 30 and need 100 pages of full color detailed comic art done by sept 1. Assuming someone got assigned the job the same day you posted it, that would allow 60 days, (counting weekends and holidays), for the artist to finish. OK cool, so assuming you would not have any revisions or feedback at all when the work is done, That means the artist will need to do an average of just over 1 and a half pages of pencils inks and color, (you did not specifiy if lettering was needed as well), everyday for 60 days strait with no break. For an average professional comic artist that would be way more than an 8 hour work day for each of these 60 days as well. As far as rates your highside rate price would be 15 dollars a page.
 So, for 1 and a half pages a day you would pay 22.50. If the artist gets done in 10 hours, (a conservative estimate) thats’s 2.25 an hour,(less than minimun wage in evey state). What does the artist get? No sleep, social life, or downtime of any sort really for a full two months. Also The artist gets the vague promise, of “exposure” if and when the project is produced and “hits it big”. What do you get? 100 pages of art for a story you didnt believe in enough to spend a decent amount of money on. Either by tricking someone skilled into doing it, or getting someone inexperienced/unprofessional to do it. So, you are left with inferior presentation on something you supposedly shold care a great deal about. Also you should get guilt and or bad reputaion over ripping someone off that produced work for you.
 What If I offered you a the art for free if you did 2 months of break-neck speed writing with out a break in return? Oh, and you have to write about what I want. No? But, you like to write don’t you? Wouldn’t you be doing it anyway? When I concider these arguments towards my work from a potential client, I think  I DO like to draw, I do draw for free almost everyday. But, for myself! No pressure, no time line, I choose the subject matter, I choose if it needs revisions, and I don’t have to spend part of that time with anyone else on the phone, or e-mail, ect. Also I own it forever when I am done. If you have a vision, If you belive in it, get a partner who shares the vision and split it 50/50 work load and profit. If you want to hire an artist to work for you, set a budject invest in your self and your idea. Treat it like any other job you might offer like landscaping or accounting. Pay a decent wage, respect the time and effort it will take, and you will be rewarded with great work done for your dream project. Some people just don’t ever do the math on how ridiculous it is on what they are asking, Some people are delusional enough to think that that with little to no money investment,(and sometimes little to no quality to their idea itself), somehow their idea will be the next big thing, and everyone is fool for not begging to be a part of it. Some people don’t care, and are happy to use others for their own benefit. I don’t know which catagory you fall into, but I hope you have learned soemthing by reading this.

Wizard! July 6, 2010

Here is “the Wizard” from Marvel comics, drew him last night in bed watching farscape Pencil only.

Valkyrie from marvel comics. July 5, 2010

Valkyrie from marvel comics.

Blue pencil rough cleaned up with black over it.
Digitally removed the blue lines, and shading added with Photoshop.

Trying to create more useable female pin-up samples.

Used to be unable to draw female characters at all, over time I got over that, and now do it all the time.

Only problem is I never really went for the hot girl sexy pin-up type stuff, which is expected in samples, so now I need to work on that a bit.

Also, I seem to have fallen in love with the digital shading over pencils format. I feel it takes a sketch to the next level with a minimal time investment.

Sea-or pin-up July 4, 2010

Pencil drawing shaded and colored in Photoshop.
My own creation. “Sea-or”,  for an upcoming light-hearted short comic story.

Wade Wilson AKA Deadpool July 2, 2010

Blue pencil sketch, black pencil clean up, digitally removed blue and added shading in Photo shop.

One thing that has been suggested, is that maybe my style looks more cartoony when I tried to do Hulk ,and Hellblazer, as they are traditionally more serious books, but my Blue Beetle done in basically the same style looks OK, because he is a more light hearted sort of character. It coudl be exaggerated perception of style based on contect,  so going with that theory, here is Dead Pool!

Follow up! July 1, 2010

I was inspired to do a more finished Beetle after all that so here it is!  I sketched it out similar to below from my head, then black pencil “inked” it, removed the blue in photoshop, and added some shadow.

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