So my wife told me I should make a pinup-girl picture for Phoenix Comicon. Of course, being a Browncoat, I just couldn’t resist making use of everyone’s favorite Companion for my “model”. Apologies to Morena Baccarin for this:

I’ll have prints of this (and possibly posters) to sell at Phoenix Comicon, this Thursday through Sunday. I’ll be at table 70B in Artist’s Alley with Emma of emacartoon.com. Come and see us!

Hello! I haven’t updated in a while, due mainly to finals and my wife’s birthday preparations, but now all that’s over with it’s less than 2 weeks until Phoenix Comicon! Lots of art and preparation to get done, and the orders from Vistaprints keep coming in with the colors all messed up so we’re trying to get those fixed at the last minute as well. I have one of the prints finished that I’m going to be selling at the con:

Click to Embiggen

Yes, that’s a lot of tentacles. I’m going to get a bunch of letter-sized prints to sell, and at least 2 large prints (probably 16×22 or so) to give out – 1 to the first person at con who can name all of the characters included, and 1 to a randomly-drawn winner. Anyone else want a poster of this? Let me know!

So Phoenix Comic Con is less than a month away, and I’m trying to get as much as I can ready. I will have a table in the exhibit hall, number 70B , which I’m sharing with Emma of emacartoon.com. You can see the map of the hall here. I will have a setup with which I can draw digital sketches for people on my tablet and print them out there or email them to people if they wish, as well as some prints of my artwork, and possibly comics. I’ve been working on a big vinyl banner I can display to attract people to my table, and I’ve finished the artwork after many hours of fiddling and fussing:

The full, print-sized version is huge, probably the biggest thing I’ve worked on in Photoshop. There is text and stuff to advertise my websites, but I wanted to post it clean here. I could still pick some nits but I’m declaring it done so I can get it printed and move on to the next project. Please let me know what you think in the comments below!

I finally made it to one of the open sessions over at MCC, in time to make up one of my previous assignments – another anatomy study, of the musculature of the arm.

I actually missed the lecture on this subject, so I had to work entirely from the diagrams and descriptions in the handouts from the lecture as well as the textbook. For some reason when I was working this time it seemed like I didn’t have to hurry though – it’s strange how time passes differently when I’m involved in artwork, and even from one piece to the next. Often I feel like I’m really laboring over something, or that it’s taking quite a long time to get everything right – but not in this case. Not that I still don’t see things that need fixing, mind you. But overall I’m pretty happy with this one!

Everyone needs to go RIGHT NOW and look at the awesome, shiny, new, completely redesigned website for Monique Reddy Photography. Here’s a preview:

There’s still content to be added, but it’s all running on a WordPress-working-as-a-CMS backend so that will be easy for Nicki to do herself. I’m MUCH happier with this design than her old site, and I designed it in a fraction of the time (granted, it was based on an existing WordPress theme, but HEAVILY modified). So go look at her pretty site and know that she will have a lot more pictures in her gallery for all of us to marvel at, and a new blog too!

This is a study I actually did a week or two ago, just never got around to getting it on the blog here…

I always have the toughest time drawing the back musculature. It’s such a complex structure, with so many layers of muscles and bone , many of which are visible to some extent on the surface. I will probably have to do a few more like this before i really get comfortable with where everything is. I have some more studies I’ve photographed now, just need to get them fixed up and uploaded.

New pic! This one is a commission from my good friend Eric Fiallos, a representation of his piratical RenFaire persona.

This is also my first attempt to use Manga Studio for inking, the ink pen and pencil tools in that program are quite good, though the eraser in vector mode isn’t quite as good as the one in illustrator – it leaves jaggy edges. Still, redrawing a line is not tough, and the whole user interface is quite nice. Plus laying out panels and lettering is much faster and more intuitive than any other program I’ve used. Colors are still pretty much gonna be Photoshop so far as I can tell though, unless I someday learn to use Painter properly…

So last night I watched the latest Matt Smith Doctor Who episode, the third of this season, featuring the return of the Doctor’s nemeses, the Daleks. I’m not sure what I think about the new redesign, especially in their new Apple iDalek color assortment. I understand the colors indicate their functions, which isn’t a new concept for daleks, but I think the candy-coated color schemes don’t appeal to me as much as the bronzed and black looks of Russel Davies’ reintroduced versions from the Eccleston/Tennant series. In any case, it got me thinking about some of my ideas for how these great villains could be reinvented. While I understand they can float, and fly, now; the flying daleks don’t have the  menace that the gliding, tank-like original design had. So here is my concept: a classic, gliding dalek, that when faced with uneven terrain or stairs, can unfold into a walking mech-like configuration. It’s “head” dome and manipulator and weapon arms are more articulated but it keeps the classic dalek look, and the creepy alien menace that makes them so different and unlike other sci-fi villainous aliens.

Just a rough sketch but it was fun to play with, and I like tripod mech designs anyway. What do you think? Should Daleks be reinvented further for newer generations?

Just wanted to post a quick digital painting of the Great Old One, Cthulhu, the fan-favorite elritch monstrous thing created by good old crazy uncle Howard.

Not quite as cuddly as the plushie version, but I’m reasonably happy with it. By the way if anyone out there hasn’t seen it, the silent film adaptation of Call of Cthulhu is now available to watch on Netflix Instant. Go check it out!

I was too sick last night to make it in to school, so I don’t have a new anatomy study. This makes me sad. However, I was going over ideas for pinup-style work with my wife, and she requested a drawing of Batman and Catwoman.

So here they are! My Batman is heavily influenced by Neal Adams and 80′s era Frank Miller. I confess I haven’t been keeping up with the comics, though I am aware Dick Grayson is currently the acting Batman while Bruce has wacky time-travelling adventures. I’ll probably pick these storylines up in trade because they sound awesome. Still, I always loved the Bruce and Selena dynamic, whether in the mainline comics, 90′s TV series, Burton movies, etc. They are probably my favorite dysfunctional underwear pervert couple.

I just hope someday I’ll be able to do Catwoman justice as well as Adam Hughes…