Untitled and Undecided

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After I finished up the last piece, Dread Persephone, I thought that I was done drawing real life pieces for a while so I could concentrate more on abstract and comic book looks. But then I saw this piece I started a long time ago. I thought I might as well finish this up and write-off my idea to do more athletic/fitness art as well.

Now that I have this piece finished, I’m back to being undecided. I have an idea for a comic book/graphic novel thing that I really need to get moving on. And that will involve a lot of writing, editing and concept sketching. That’s why I wanted to concentrate more on a comic style again. But something about this piece makes me wonder if that is the right decision. I’m happy with how it turned out and it reminded me of how much I enjoy illustrating sports/athletics subjects.

This piece started out as watercolor, then I moved it into a digital piece to do that line work, background and color tweaking. I used an image of crossfitter Brooke Ence for the model. Sort of related: I noticed that, while she was in the original Justice League movie in the background for just a moment, her character had a pretty good hero moment added into the Snyder Cut of the Justice League movie. Of course she played a warrior on Wonder Woman’s home island.

The Searchers

In truth, I really just wanted to draw something in a loose, ragged style that served as a sort of ode to one of my favorite shots in one of my favorite movies. The scene of John Wayne incapable of entering into that house after spending too much time away from the civilized world is perfect not just for that movie, but also the genre.

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In a sort of tongue-in-cheek way, it makes me wonder if I will be able to function in an office surrounded by regular people again after enjoying almost three months of being able to work from home. I’ll have to wear pants on a regular basis again…. kind of a bummer.

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Marvel Cinematic Universe Art

I don’t need to go on about reading comics as a kid. Between characters on shows and podcasts about retro pop-culture, we have more than our fill of people talking about how they always loved comics. But I will say this, though I really enjoy DC Comics characters, I’ve always been more of a Marvel fan. Needless to say, I am really looking forward to catching Avengers: Endgame.

There is just no way to collect all the drawings and doodles I’ve done of all the characters from the MCU. But here are a few I’ve done in the last few years.

Copic Marker and Digital Color Experiments

The reference is Canadian bodybuilder Natasha Aughey from a photo by Gord Weber.

For the last few months, I have been experimenting with copic markers. But it wasn’t until I saw a few Instagram videos by Terrance Whitlow that I realized a whole new level (to me) of how they can be used.

He takes a more painterly approach to their application. This can be seen by how he adds several layers of marker color, as well as a white wash of some sort for highlights. I wanted to be able to do all of this in a way that was much more mobile, so instead of a really wet white like he uses, I’ve been using General’s Charcoal White 558 pencils and a Sakura Gelly Roll pen. I started with white colored pencil, but I found the waxy buildup that colored pencils give you doesn’t work well at all with trying to apply marker over it. I also wanted a look that was much less creamy, and more granular. So, the charcoal looked great for that as well.

The next step was to color it. I still love watercolor and watercolor pencils for their textures and for the tactile feel of using them. But in the last few years, technology has hit the point where digital coloring, with the right brushes, looks natural and authentic. A good eye can still spot the differences of course, but overall, digital painting has hit the point where it looks right with what I want to accomplish. So after all the tone and line work was done, I scanned it in and brought it into Procreate for the iPad. I generally stick with a modified gouache brush for both color and eraser with a modified brush pen for line work touch-ups.

If you have any experiences with copics, white washes or digital coloring, leave a comment. I love to hear what other people think of using them as well as how they use them.