Cheap fragile materials

Drawn using 2B pencil, Pitt pen and marker
on inkjet paper...

I really enjoy the quick sketching I get to do at conventions. The free sketches I do of people, as their favorite superhero, is the most fun I have drawing.

So it seemed very natural for me to try to use those techniques for my finished pages, to keep from getting stale. I know the original art collectors out there will hate this, but I'm doing finished pages using 2B pencil, Pitt brush pens and Copic C8 markers on 11"x17" HP Inkjet paper. I tried using Bristol, but it doesn't work well with marker. Wanting something archival, I moved on to pH neutral Japanese Copic marker paper but it hates pencil, and doesn't like markers much either! I also went through about six other archival papers from the art supply store, but none of them worked even as well as the Copic paper

So anyhow, I'll be doing my interior pages on crappy non-archival paper. I don't want to sell my art if it's going to yellow and crack in a few decades. I'll just hunker down and make my living from my page rate. And if enough of you like it, my royalties. I'm not going to have as many pages to sell from now on. Maybe I'll give them away as fan prizes on my website, or eBay them for charity. I dunno.

I'll still be using traditional India ink and high quality Bristol to draw my digitally 'painted' covers.

No previews yet, but I'm doing another DCU Halloween cover for Eddie Berganza, the coolest biggest geek at 1700 Broadway. Then back to Top 10.

Also, spending some time this week at the wedding festivities for my amazing step-sister, Lynn. Congratulations, and glad you chose a guy like Mike. God bless to both of you!

Last bit, thanks to Mark S for the cool loot! Top 10 has made me a fan of badass cops, so I feel especially cool watching my Wire Season 5 DVD set while wearing a t-shirt and pin from the Phoenix PD.

After GL 36, before GL 44

In the early 90s Paul Kupperberg wrote for the little lamented Impact Comics, DC's line for the Archie superheroes. Characters like the Fly, the Black Hood and Steel Sterling. On his blog he's got some pencils from a Steel Sterling backup feature.

This is some of my earliest stuff, and it's even rougher than my Green Lantern work. I did it after my first published work, Green Lantern 36, and before Green Lantern 44.

I was still trying to find my style at this point. I was mixing Barry Windsor Smith with JC Leyendecker (the hatching/shading was supposed to evoke the dark gaps between Leyendecker's pale brushstrokes). It was kinda cluttered. I was dazzlingly fast with backgrounds and perspective back then. I miss that!

To see more of it, check out the original post.

Gallery Show post game

Pre-Show: 5:30pm, Diane Tanios Gallery on Broadway

Quick whine: I pulled my back Thursday. It might have been lifting my lawn mower off the high shelf in the garage (it's electric, so it's not so heavy). Or hefting it over the neighbor's fence. I mow his lawn 'cause he's older and I don't want him to strain himself... Lisa pointed out that it could have been: doing sit ups on our hardwood floors or carrying out the 25" CRT TV for recycling from the attic to our detached garage, and just generally not valuing rest. Anyhow, ouch. It hurts most after I sit in a chair, so I'll be drawing horizontal today, from the couch and bed.

The show at the Diane Tanios Gallery went well. The room was standing room only after an hour. Diane throws a great party. This is only her second show ever, but it's obvious she knows how to run a gallery.

Onto pictures!

The Gene Ha section

Tony Akins and his wife, Molly

Donn Ha with some of the gallery staff.
I'm horrible with names. That's Jessica in the middle,
I can't remember the photographer's name!

Everyone was supposed to put up a bio. Tony couldn't think of anything,
so Alex Wald and some others of us wrote one for him.

It got packed quickly

Action poses! That's Lisa on the left.


People ask where we get our ideas. In Chicago, we all steal them from Jill Thompson's purse. I didn't get a good pic of her man, Brian Azzarello, who doesn't steal from her purse but still gets by. Alex Wald on the left, Hilary Barta in flagrante.

Wendy modeled for the female lead in Batman: Fortunate Son

Premiere Berwyn creatives Dave of the Gin Palace Jesters and fellow CCS alum Liz.

Pickled garlic spokesmodel Adam Weiskind

Tracy and Adam

The Ken Ron scandal