Friday Night Fun

With my girlfriend camping in Michigan for the weekend, I decided to take advantage of the freedom by throwing all my art supplies on the living room and sketching like a madman.

Yeah, I know. Pretty lame.

But here's what emerged...


Since I've been trying to develop my animated-style skills, I kept this one simple. Although I didn't do a full pose, just imagine her being pretty tall and having really long legs. That's probably the only way she could have her (ahem) relatively large chest.

After a good scan and half-an-hour of Photoshop-ing, here's what she turned into...


Bernie

Space Ghost - Part Three

Alright, here is the final colored pinup.


However, since the souvenir book is printed in black and white, I converted the pinup to grayscale. After playing around with the contrast, here's how it turned out.


I sent it over to the good people in charge of the San Diego souvenir book before the April 15th deadline and I got an email confirming that they received it. I guess I'll find out if it made it into the souvenir book once I get to San Diego in July. If it made the cut, it'll be a cool surprise. But if it doesn't, that's OK. It was fun to work on.

Bernie

Space Ghost - Part Two

With Space Ghost complete, it's on to the background.

Like I mentioned in the previous post, I knew I wanted to show Space Ghost flying through the cosmos and I wanted to stick to the an "animated" feel. Having already channeled a little Alex Toth, I decided to go to another master for some inspiration - Jack "The King" Kirby.

A few weeks ago, I was on one of my online surfing sprees and stumbled upon a small gallery of Kirby artwork. And as I was checking out the pages, I realized how far Kirby's genius extends. So I ran to my local comic shop and bought Marvel Visionaries: Jack Kirby volume 1.


It's an oversized hardcover that collects a quite a few highlights from Kirby's time at the House of Ideas. To say the least, I ate it up. His layouts, inking, designs, techniques...brilliant. It goes without saying that I'll be the proud owner of volume 2 very soon.

With pencil in hand and Kirby at my side, I went to work. Since I'd already drawn Space Ghost, I took into account how much space he would take up and where he would fit in the shot. After some loose roughs of the planets, some random space stuff, and a few Kirby dots, I went right into inking. The whole thing came together pretty fast.


The Kirby dots didn't come out exactly the way I wanted but I'll chalk it up to a learning lesson. Next time I'll get it right.

With Space Ghost and the background complete, I scanned in both elements and worked a little Photoshop magic. I ended up shrinking Space Ghost alittle more than I intended but it made for a better layout.

I'll post the final pinup next.

Bernie

Space Ghost - Part One

Since this is the first year I'm going to San Diego, I've been going over the Comic-Con website looking for travel info, guest updates, and anything that'll make a trip half-way across the country that much more fun and worthwhile. And as I was perusing the site, I saw that the con gives each attendee a copy of a trade paperback sized souvenir book.

These year's souvenir book celebrates a number of comic-related themes, including Universal Monsters' 75th Anniversary, the 75th Anniversary of Dick Tracy, Captain America's 65th Anniversary, Archie's 65th Birthday, the 50th Anniversary of Gumby, and...

...the 40th Anniversary of Space Ghost.

"Before he went "Coast to Coast," he was a popular 60s' Saturday morning cartoon character. Comic-Con celebrates the enduring appeal of this character who has survived to become a Cartoon Network "talk show host" and the star of his own DC Comics mini-series!"

I love Space Ghost. He was the first superhero I was exposed to as a kid and he made quite a big impression. And since I couldn't pass up this opportunity to contribute to the San Diego souvenir book, I drew a pinup of Space Ghost in his full space flying glory.

I knew I wanted to show Space Ghost flying through the cosmos so the character's pose came pretty easy. I wasn't sure about the background just yet (beyond the cosmos idea) so I drew the character separately. As for style, I wanted to stick to the an "animated" feel so I channeled a little Alex Toth along with some Bruce Timm for good measure.

This was also the first time I've ever used a brush pen which was an interesting challenge (although I had to resort to some of my steadfast .005 Microns for some cleanup work). I'm not a 100% brush convert just yet but I'm going to practice with them for a while and see if I can add a new tool to the skill set.

And here he is.



Overall, I think he came out alright. Now for the background.

Bernie

New Work Blog

Whoever created "blogging" should really pat themselves on the back. What a simple and interactive means of communication. And the good people at Blogger shuld also engage in some well-deserved back patting for making the actual blogging process easy. You always have the option to customize and accessorize but if you just want to write down a few thoughts or post a picture, the logistics are not beyond the average person's capabilities.

That being said, I've got a ton of artists' blog sites saved under My Favorites and it's pretty cool to see them utilizing their blogs as work diaries. Some artists post their work from the first sketch to the final illustration. Some discuss their inspirations and provide links to other amazing and talented people. And some artists use the blog as a sounding board for their ideas, even if it is a one-way conversation in their mind. But all of the blogs provide an insight into the artistic process that is hard to come by outside of standing over the artist's shoulder as they work.

So I'm gonna give it a shot with my own blog and to give anyone that cares to look a little insight into my artistic process. I'm also going to keep this separate from the Element X blog I frequently update. I'm sure there'll be some crossover but this blog will center on whatever sketch/pinup/project I'm working on at the time with a few rants and raves thrown in for good measure.

I'll try to keep it entertaining.

Bernie