BRAINSICK: Elation

Elation
9x12 technical pen on Strathmore cold-pressed watercolor paper

Finished pencils!

Inking begins with my Pentel G-Tec-C.

My Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph technical pens!
Pentel G-Tec-C on far left.

Using my book of printed references as I ink!

Rapidograph #3 used to outline Lily's foreleg and paw.

Morning motivation: dynamic lighting!

Brainsick is not meant to be a 'happy' story. Life isn't always sunshine and rainbows. But god, did it feel amazing to draw something Brainsick-related that wasn't grim! (That's gonna revert by the time INKtober comes...)

Paranoid and Lily share a close brother-sister bond. Much of their interaction was inspired by my relationship with my brother, Cameron. Love you, Bub! :D

Book cover: The House of Lazarus, Part 1

I am lucky enough to be working on a second book cover for my good friend, author T.L. Bodine! You may remember the cover I did for her short story anthology, The Beast in the Bedchamber, back in 2013.

Her upcoming novel allowed me to work with a new subject: zombies! The sketchbook pages here are an exploration of figure and textures. I'm going to make some digital mockups to show Tiana before I begin the final illustration.

I have a second book cover in the works for another good friend, author and artist Robert A. Sloan. I am illustrating the cover for his novel Elder's Pride, a Raptor Red homage following a family of Smilodon fatalis as they navigate the Californian Pleistocene in search of home territory. Although I took the cover on two years ago, Robert and I have both had setbacks in getting it ready. But I have several study pages to share, and you'll see them soon!

Fan Art: Jasper (Steven Universe) [SPOILERS] - Part 2

More progress on my Jasper drawing! Last night, I began outlining her with Prismacolor Verithin pencils. They're great for detail work, and I used them for many of my Oaxacan Animals.

Fan Art: Jasper (Steven Universe) [SPOILERS]

We All Get What We Deserve
11x17 Col-Erase pencil on computer paper

I'm a huge nerd for Steven Universe right now. What used to seem like an unassuming, simple little cartoon quickly proved itself to be one of the most engaging shows I've ever watched. While I usually shy away from fan art, I had to draw Jasper after her corruption in "Earthlings." Gotta love broken characters and body horror!

I wanted to practice my cleanup drawing skills. Although I haven't animated anything for five years, I still love the feeling of taking a rough sketch to clean line art. I wanted to make it look like an animation frame.

Screenshot I used as reference for the drawing.
(C) Cartoon Network.

Rough Prismacolor marker sketch.

Lightbox progress!

Finished rough drawing. I used photos of myself as reference
to correct some proportion and perspective issues.

Cleanup drawing progress!

Rough vs. cleanup.

Ready to be transferred to bristol paper!

Prismacolor / Copic marker sketch.

Stay tuned for updates on the final illustration!  I'm going to color the final piece with colored pencils.I can't wait to exercise those forearm muscles again. :D