[VINCENT] Image Exposition

Hello people,


Another week, another set of sketches.


But, this wasn't just any other week. This last week was Image Expo 2012! "What was Image Expo 2012?', you ask. Well, as soon as I pull you out of the rock you've been under, I'll tell you.


It was a freaking awesome comic convention right here in our Bay Area backyard, hosted by none other than Image F*&$#ing Comics. Only the best publisher of those little picture books we fondly call comics EVER. All kinds of people converged on downtown Oakland to celebrate, not only Image's 20 years of awesome, but all manner of comic creativity, from other independent publishers like Archaia and IDW, to creators doing it on their own with self-published comics, artbooks, and prints filling Artists' Alley to the brim.


Of course [P5] was there, represented by yours truly and the ever-ready illustrator & designer extraordinaire, Jonathan Chan. We started the weekend off coming straight from the office, so after the set up, we pretty much kicked back for the rest of the day, getting the lay of the land and soaking in the atmosphere. This was the very first year for this Expo and no one, even us in the office, knew what was going to happen once the doors opened. The vibe was definitely mellow throughout the weekend, with it only picking up a bit during the Walking Dead panels and signings on Saturday. Our table had a good turnout, a lot of old and new friends coming by for encouragement and catching up on old times, new customers checking out our wares, and asking our advice about publishing, creating comics, and all kinds of other things. I never really got away from the table til Sunday. I'll get to that in just a tiny bit.


First, this is what I did on Saturday:

I was a bit bored in the morning and after roughing out a pinup of old Image character, Wildstar, I took a look around. What I noticed were my fellow creators, but more than that, the way they looked like cartoon characters. I gravitate towards people with unique looks because they give me endless visual inspiration. So, what did I do in this sea of cartooniness? I drew. Most of the people who had tables around me. Got good reactions from those creators as well so I'm glad nobody was offended (heheheh).


Sunday became my get around the floor, say hi to peeps, and buy out the store day. Got around to seeing the Vescell crew at their table. Enrique Carrion is one of the nicest guys I've ever met. I think he hugged me at least five times over the weekend. Obviously, as seen above, I got to meet and talk to Kurtis Weibe of The Intrepids, Green Wake, and Peter Panzerfaust fame, along with his artist on Panzerfaust, Tyler Jenkins, DJ KirkBride, editor of the Popgun Anthology, Bryan J Glass, writer of The Mice Templar, Shane Houghton, one half of the awesome Reed Gunther team, and the always amazing Ryan Ottley. Too many more to list here, but some of them I will be adding to [P5]'s inspiration list soon, so check back there and hit the links for some great art.


I did spend some money during the expo. I have to support my fellow comic book creators, right? Over at Archaia, I tried to pick up the Jim Henson hardcover of Tale of Sand, but they had just sold out before I got there (silent cries). Instead, I got Royden Lepp's Rust hardcover, which I had been eyeing at my LCS every week since it came out along with An Elegy for Amelia Johnson on the recommendation of Top Cow's newest editor Bryan Rountree. I also got:

So, there was this large booth on the other side of the Archaia booth that looked interesting. It was decked out in WWII military gear, had little robots on the table and time appropriate designed tees on their wall. I found out that all of this was designed by Paul Roman Martinez, all in the service of his prized creation, "The Adventures of 19XX", his creator-owned comic book. The most elaborate thing in his arsenal though, was a small stack of crates, all handmade in his garage, one by one, to look like old-style military ammo crates. Inside were all kinds of goodies, including the graphic novel, a character bible, pins, bookmarks, a patch, and a teeshirt.

Well, color me impressed. And at a low price of $60 for all of that in a handmade box, I had to get it. That was right before the close of the final day.


Needless to say, everything went off without a hitch, and, looking at the almost exclusively positive feedback from everyone involved, Image Expo seems like a big success. I think it was for us as well. Some sales, some commissions, put some money in my pocket. Definitely more exposure and a whole lot of reminders that people are expecting some published work from me sooner than later. So, here I go. Back to work!


Thanks to all the people I met throughout the con. To our wonderful neighbor Andy Suriano and all the people in artists' alley. We are the lifeblood of this industry so keep it up!

[JONATHAN] Image Expo Wrap-up

Done with Image Expo and I am exhausted. Overall, had a good time and got good receptions to my art. The show itself was steady. It wasn't too overwhelming which allowed a lot of cool, relaxed interactions with people that you can't get at the bigger shows anymore. I missed out on half of Saturday for a family function, but the show still ended up being the most successful show I've exhibited at yet in terms of product sold. I definitely wouldn't mind if the show came back next year in a similar size and fashion. Didn't get to walk around much and didn't go to any panels. Just wanted to sit at my table and meet whoever came by. Glad I did.

Thought I'd share the sketches that I did over the weekend. At least, the ones I remembered to take a picture of (I think there were two I forgot to take a picture of). And btw, I am so happy I have a smart phone to look up reference images!

Metaknight from Super Smash Brothers

Fighting American

Hyperion
Nova
Blue Beetle

[JANA] No Pants Monday/Post Image Expo

I didn't get around the con as much as I should have but I am so glad that I at least talked to a few of the artists in Artist Alley. Please check them out here and help support the same people Image does.

Jen Oaks: 

Royden Lepp:

What No Pants Monday would be complete without a posting of s horse?

Aaaaaand a few artists you may already know!

Anthony Diecidue: (has a fantastic sketchbook)

Bryan J.L. Glass: (can do amazing summersaults!) 

Tyler Jenkins: (incredibly charismatic!)

[JONATHAN] Having LINSANITY at a coffee shop!

[JANA] No Pants Monday Looks for the Humor

Trolling Deviant art for some of my more humorous inspiration. I'm attempting to put together my sketchbook for 2012 and for those of ya'll who are artists I don't have to tell you the mental anguish that goes with such a task. The fighting, biting, punching, kicking, screaming and occasional bout of depression that comes with looking over one's pieces up for consideration and review - okay, so I'm hoping that it is not so difficult for you as it is for me. My antidote is to try and find the humor in it. Here are some examples from some more fine artists.

By: eatfun

By: Devilpig (I include him a lot, huh?)

By: stablercake (A recent find!)

By: TaniDaReal (not usually into all that animal stuff but this was cute)

By: Endling (More witty stories!)

By: stressedjenny (Love her cute but emotive characters)

By: wya (heh heh heh heh)

[VINCENT] Blargh!

Where did the time go???


Well, it's another night, another post. And since I've been away, I've been pretty scatter-brained and unfocused artistically. I can make excuses and say it's the day job, or just a case of the blahs, but really I just have cold feet. A lot of second-guessing myself and lack of confidence, occasionally brightened up by bursts of manic energy. Those bursts are what's represented in my post tonight.


To quote an uber-rich, hip-hop superstar, "Just my thoughts, man. Right or wrong -- Just what I was feelin' at the time."

[JONATHAN] Convention Countdown

A week and a half and counting!

Next weekend, Friday through Sunday (Feb 24 thru 26), our group will be at the Image Expo at the Oakland Convention Center. We will be in Artist Alley at table 203. And then in 2 weeks, we'll be at WonderCon down in Anaheim. THEN, two weeks after that, we'll be in Seattle for the Emerald City Comic Con! The conventions are going to be coming up fast and furious!

In preparation for the conventions, I submitted my new prints for this year to the printer last night. Coupled with my new sketchbook that is currently on the way to me, my first batch of new content is done. I already posted my new sketchbook cover, but here are my new prints altogether:

I'm doing small versions of these prints (5.5" x8.5") and big versions (11"x17") for sale (small prints are $5 and the big ones are $10 in case you're interested).

Oh yea, that top print is the finished version of my post from last week. So I lied a little and said I was done with it. I decided to take that image and turn it into a mock movie poster. I was inspired by those science fiction movie posters of the late '70s, early '80s where there was a white border around the main image with a slogan embedded in the main image. I went with a fun, generic title that I thought sounded like it could plausibly be a science fiction monster movie title. I also added some minor fake ancillary movie credit speak to add to the look of a movie poster.

Okay, gotta go and get more done before the show gets here. And I know it will be here too soon!

[JANA] No Pants Monday at Work

So I'm working Mondays now and have to fit all my chores, errands and me time into two days. I'm sad to lose the 3-days weekends but that does not nearly overshadow how happy I am to have a full time job again. GOOD GODDESS! Anyway, here is a view of my current study.

I want to draw more emotive and need a study guide from which to practice from and here it is. From Tracy J. Butler the artist of Lackadaisy I give you the expression sheet. I know, they are cats but look at how successful they are at expressing emotions and such!

And one of Tracy's images that gets a good hardy laugh from me every time! 

I don't know why I pick on him so much. ;)

[JONATHAN] Monster Hunt!

Today's post is the promised continuation from last week's post. Previously, I graytoned my drawing in preparation of coloring it up in Photoshop. So this past week, I did just that.

I decided that I wanted to use a very simple color palette and try to evoke more emotion and atmosphere. For this experiment, I decided to keep everything predominantly blue -- like the soldier and monster were engaged in a game of "cat & mouse" in the moonlight. I created my lighting scheme in the graytone version so that I could just colorized the drawing and just accentuate what was already established. I tried to bring forward the bright spots with highlights, and recede the dark spots with darker values. I also attempted to create separation between the soldier & the stone column in the foreground from the monster in the background. To help separate the elements more, I used a purple rimlight.

May do some graphic design tweaks to it. Not certain yet, but I'll decide soon. Planning on turning this into a print for the upcoming convention season.

Lastly, I decided to name the piece "Monster Hunt". The soldier is not scared. Look at her face. She's not hiding from the monster. She's not on the run. She's ready for a fight. In fact, she's looking for a fight. She's on the offensive. She's hunting it. Monster Hunt.

[JANA] No Pants Monday Celebrates... NO PANTS!

Let's get started with a link to another site that entertained me...

Where Are My Pants?

And now a word form our lack of sponsors...

From the DA site of: Gimpbeast

From the DA site of: Kickstandkid78

From the DA site of: Lao-wa

Yup. Pretty sure that Bus/Monster/Robot is NOT wearing any pants.

From the DA site of: Stabstabstab

Reasons to wear pants... or is it? ^_^

From the DA site of: Rattlesnapper

Not sure if I've already shared this image somewhere but she is absolutely adorable and those are the BEST kind of no pants to pick rhubarb.

From the DA site of: Lily-fox

Hope y'all are enjoying a bit of No Pants Monday.

[JONATHAN] My Monster & Dame in gray

Long day at work, so this post's gonna be short and sweet. :-)

I posted the line art for this piece a little while back, but never got to finish doing everything I wanted to with it. Finally got back to working on it the other day and was able to do pretty much all the graytone work on it. Got to experiment with 3 different types of copic markers. I used cool grays on the monster in back to "push" it into the backgound with the bluish tint. I used a neutral gray on the stone column. Lastly, I used some warm grays on the figure in the foreground in the hopes that the reddish tint would bring the figure forward.

Overall, I was pleased with the experiment. I see parts where I like what I did. Other parts where I will do things differently next time. It was fun to get the pens out - haven't had a chance to do it in a while and I've never used all 3 types on one piece before. Looking forward to getting the pens out again soon.

Oh, and I'm actually not done with this piece yet. This graytone piece is another step in the process towards my final goal with it. Hopefully by next week, I'll have a finished piece to show.