Punisher 2099 Sample

I received a script from an editor at Marvel mid to late 90s.  For Punisher 2099.  I did some exploratory things, but overall I like the pages.  It didn't turn into a job, I don't know if it was because the editor didn't like the artistic flourishes or (blame this on my memory) I didn't turn in the sample in a timely manner.  I know I did multiple styles of art for the piece and this is just one version. I haven't done anything in this style in a while, the technique holds up even after all this time.  My underlying structure has improved -- perspective, design, light and dark, but all in all not too bad.

Amazing Spiderman 531

 As is my wont, I would pick up a current issue of  a book and do pages I picked up Amazing Spiderman 531.  The pages I decided to draw had several interesting features -- although I didn't know it at the time this was the beginning of Marvel's Civil War.  The Titanium Man played sniper, which I thought was silly considering the array of weapons at his disposal, also I couldn't imagine how he would use a standard rifle.  Spiderman had a new costume. And the pages I chose took place on the steps of Congress.  Lots of interesting stuff to draw and I overworked it, too much research, too many photo references, by the time I finished my sample it was too old (in my mind) to send to editors.  So some pages have more layout details than other pages.  I redesigned The Titanium Man's armor, created a shooting gadget for his sniper moment, and went nuts on Congress -- number of steps in front....

Ghost Rider

 This is me just drawing.  Ghost Rider, my design.  There are things I would do different, hindsight being 20/20, but there are things I like.

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Random Fandom

This is a random selection of incomplete tryout pages that I have completed-- oxymoron I know.  The pages were mostly complete, but the whole tryout was incomplete.  I have dozens of these sad to say.  I was getting my practice as an artist, but no one was seeing, because I would lose interest or something else would come up or any number of life interruptions would take me away, and it might be weeks or months, since I worked on the pages and I would have grown as an artist since then.  I know these seem like very different styles, and to a certain extent they are, but they are something that I can easily create. In the Aquaman piece I am exploring the old fashioned adventure style, I do that one rather well, but I think editors aren't interested in that style.  Everything else is done in variations of the American manga style.  The problem of course, is I didn't finish the sets of pages and editors did not see them.  The Green Lantern Piece was one of many that I did about the character.  I enjoy the second tier characters, and sometimes I am attracted to the lower tier characters, sometimes they have more visual hooks to them.  Green Lantern, of course, is all visual.  The Witchblade Magdelena Darkness script "Heart of Darkness" was difficult because I've never read the books!  I've never gotten into the lusting for comicbook characters thing, and "good girl" art never really stuck on my radar.  I was too busy chasing the real thing!  So the research was extensive, getting covers and examples.  The real problem, to me, is that there is no definitive way of drawing the character, everyone is encouraged to create their own style with very little influence, unless the artist, chooses to follow someone else.  Its like drawing Superman from a vague description, you might get some interesting visions, but you also get some uninteresting and bad visions.

Green Lantern

You Gotta Fight For Your Right To Party

 So I was told by a local artist about the great work that they have received through sites like Guru and Odesk, so I tried them out.  I haven’t received any work through those sites, but I have seen this attitude towards art which I find offensive.  It’s the “draw for free so I can decide if I am going to hire you” attitude.  Forget your portfolio, it's "draw my characters and then I will decide whether to hire you."  I’m amazed by this attitude.  In what business do you go into and use their services then decide if you are going to pay?  You order a sampler plate at a restaurant – you pay for it.  You go for a checkup – you pay for it.  Yet these people want me to work for a week on the off chance that you are going to hire me?  I refuse to give anyone my time for free.  And that’s what it boils down to, the time of the artists – and professional artists should take a stand about this.  It’s one thing when you have me doing samples to see which of your comic books that you want me to draw, it’s another thing when you want me to spend my time working on a cattle call – I put in time on the chance that I might get hired.  I don’t care what type of job you work you want to get paid for your time.  It is unfair to the artists to do that, how many hours of labor did that company get?  Let’s say all the artists are a page a day artists – the company asks for four pages, that four days of work.  Say they do that to seven artists, that’s 28 days of work – for free.  There is no way to justify that behavior.  Anywhere someone would ask people to work several days for free to see if they will get hired they would be breaking state and local laws, but it’s alright to ask an artist to do that after all, they’re only producing art.  We professional artists have to stand for our rights, if we all refused to jump through that hoop, then companies wouldn’t think it was alright to have us work for free.

Star Trek The Next Generation

This was the project that I focused most for my attention on for the last couple of months.  I’ve always been a fan of Star Trek and when someone proposed that I work on a Graphic Novel and/or Web Comic, I jumped at the chance.  It was going to be  a vanity piece: a piece financed by individual fans of the series.  IDW has the license for comic books as of this writing.  It was a true labor of love, besides the artwork, I created logos and lettering, color guides, all the production work that a whole company would do to produce a comic.  I only completed a few pages before they decided to stop the project with me, but the experience was educational.