check the da pages for my comments. Sounds like I'll no longer be doing art for the Periodic Heroes blog, but I have been enjoying Marcos Martin, marcos martin and eric canete's work on Spider-man: the gauntlet. as well as the first three trades of mark waid's irredeemable.
I finished the pencils for Souled #2 the other day and did this for my friend's band, but I've heard mixed reviews about its readability. If you turn it 90 to the right you can see the skull pretty easy. But I think it works as being intrinsically visually interesting even if you don't know what you're looking at. So I think I still accomplished my goal and got to do another digital painting. As far as souled goes since doing 20pgs for From blood #1, back to back with a 24pg issue for Souled - my style is starting to cement itself. In my opinion somewhere between Chris Spouse and JRJR. Drawing for color with Souled has also changed things like my black placement and made me use more lines and hatching, like a exaggerated or blocky Kubert. Though I love seemingly simplistic work of guys like Alex Toth and even how loose Rick Leonardi's work is. But I'm also finding out how great and different a piece can look when you leave that much up to the inker. Some things that don;t matter to me and some that I envisioned as being a bit different when finished out than they go - not better or worse, it just means giving some of the finished product up to the inker. Which takes a little getting used to, especially since before Souled I hadn't worked with a separate inker over me. But I've still been able to stay well ahead of my deadlines and even fit projects into crunch areas when I have a break. Not relating to my style, but finding some classic Jose Luis Garcia Lopez artwork that I grew up with and being able to say - "That's my Batman" and feeling so dumb for always assuming his art was Niel Adams - though both look great and I prefer with the bold inking of my fav. Dick Giordano, RIP.
see preview pages from Souled #1 here See the megacon exclusive litho here I also posted my first public script for a Batman story I wrote a while back to hopefully find some writing work. You can read it here
When asked why his style had changed over the years since Spiderman 2099, Rick Leonardi was nice enough to show me his thumbs, pencils, script and samples of different inkers over him over the last decade or two - and sited the inker's interpretation rather than his own style changing that may have lead to the change I referred to. I also found this in the back of a Spectre issue, which was short and helped answer some of the questions I had about how far and inker's hand goes. Specific things to watch are the city in the background, the rendering on his arm and the musculature in his shoulder, among the other things the article mentions. I also found this comparison a fun example of inking styles, since they are a similar composition and subject, but two decades apart. James Whynot did the inks and Drew Zucker did the pencils on the Aliens one. And obviously Brett Breeding and Dan Jurgens did the Doomsday one. But I've really been back and forth about how much inker's are meant to do - if they only control the look of the lines and not the placement - or do you look at inkers as "art partners" and that pencils are basically glorified thumbnails, meant to be finished out in the interest of the story and storytelling, above all else. The article does point out the difference between "finishers" and "inkers." But I'm starting to learn there is a lot of gray in between.
As a guest of What the Flux Comics, my Megacon table looked like this. With my prints on the lower left, portfolio to the right and shirts in the background. I was able to sell at least one of everything I had at the table. I also had the Concrete Dove posters, I inked and colored, as well as my shirts and Bellydancer posters, and actually had quite a diverse audience for them. I later started hanging the following sketches, that I did, live, at the con, on the front of the table to get people interested in Commissions, which you can see below, of Daredevil, Emma Frost, Batman and Batgirl.
I did end up getting four Commissions, including: Death, a character the man apparently got various con sketches of and seemed to list mine among his favourites, and mentioned it getting very positive comments from several other artist’s he approached to do one. A fellow artist’s personal character, for whom I regret to say I don’t remember the name (please email if you find this and let me know so I can link you). Batgirl sitting atop the Hulk’s shoulder. And a character from Patrick Sessom’s comic S.O.A.R.
Megacon Commissions 2010 by ~xaqBazit on deviantART Jeramy Hobbs, a fellow WTFC artist seemed to like my work quite a bit and I was asked to ink one of his pieces. This one of the main characters from God of War and Assassin’s Creed fighting one another, I was told this piece sold, later that same day.
God of War vs Assassins Creed by ~xaqBazit on deviantART I got to sit next to Larry Watts and his wife Sarah, who along with Patrick Sessoms and Randy Taylor, along with a few others were running the ICCW table right next to us. We were all kind of in the corner, and business was hard. There were many artists but very few companies – so networking was about the only option and for that reason ICCW flourished, with around 25 new members after the first day. The ICCW rampage Vol. 1, featured my story “Friend$hip” and Patrick’s story that I inked, “3:33am” will premiere in Vol. 2. I got to meet new artists, such as Banky Farando, Patrick Larcada, Matt Buck, and Lamar Mathurin as well as catch up with some past acquaintances from the Mini-Megacon, and old friends like Ryan Miller. I also bought a book from Botobit, Epidemic vol. 1 – which, like the ICCW rampage vol. 1, was an anthology of different artists from around the globe, though more fine arts related and less sequential focused. I also stopped and grabbed a flyer for the Orange County Regional History Center, who have several comic themed exhibits, both currently and upcoming.
I got a few artists’ to critique my portfolio and recent work in Decision’s, such as Rick Tucker and various companies I talked to. And I was even asked to review up and coming artist’s portfolio’s, which was great, such as Jeanette Pabon, who is working on putting a website together. I got to meet and talk art with one of my recent influences, Erick Jones, one of my all time favourite artist’s Dave Dorman, and others as I examined their wealth of original artwork they all had on hand.
I was also able to spend some time at the Cosmic Times booth with Robin on Sunday, where we signed the first available copies of Decisions for customers, which premiered this weekend, and got to talk with two of the nicest people working in Indy Comics. Here’s a pic of the three of us, the creative team for the 1st issue, excluding only the cover artist Dan Mann, who was also available for autographs at the con though I didn’t get a chance to meet, and the editor Connie Voss. (From left to right: Martin –writer-, Robin –letterer- and me, Zach –interior artist). I did want to mention, to those of you who bought the book, and there is a note towards the end of the book that Cosmic Times is depending on readers like you writing in and letting them know what you think about the series, to decide weather of not to continue Decisions into a series. So send in those reviews! Speaking of which, we should hear back soon after from a few different blogs and websites who will be giving their opinion. Arthur: The Legend Continues, the Legend Continues (their flagship book) was received very well and even featured on the popular podcast Comic Book Geek Speak (CBGS) so I can’t wait to hear back about this one.
I was able to pick up some trades I was looking for at ½ cover price such as The Return of Superman, New X-men: Vol. 2, Fables Vol. 1 and Vertigo’s: First Cut. And while not everyone who stopped and looked bought something, most did take the time to grab a business card and that exposure alone is enough to help. All in all it was a great first Convention to officially be on the other side of the table at.
I was also informed I am slated to ink their next coming first issue – Outlaws, as the banner displayed on their website shows.
Nightwing Iss. 105, pgs 17-19 by ~xaqBazit on deviantART they went pretty well, they were supposed to be my submission pages for dc but i dont think they are as good as the spider-man pages,but they are fairly good. i was able to pull off most of my perspective except for the big shot with the fire escape that was a b****. i should have just laid out a grid for it, anyway. i learned and i do think they are good pages, just not my best. it was my last project before break, wahoo! only a week but i get to see my fiance and that is awesome! taking a bus and from what ive heard it will suck.
these are the tights that ill be pencilling for thursday. ill be inking one of them and ill be inking one of someone elses, as well as they will mine. not to mention i have to ink teh 1st 4 pages of maelstrom (iss 3) by monday and finish pencils for 9-12 by tomorrow. this 1st cover was the 1st version of the other cover after i found out i put the grizly side of two face on the wrong side, but i couldnt just flip it because the face on teh coin pointed the right direction in my picture so me and tom talked and settled on teh one below and to teh left. people have been telling me my style seems to shift too much from cartoony to realistic, and it does but i think i found a nice medium with this shot. kind of combining mark weringo and peter cheung. i did some similar faces on the 1st two pages i did for phil. here's a link to the finals
http://youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com/ if you haven't seen this website you should, it made me sick to my stomach to think about all the people, artists, that, as they say on the website "are being ripped off because they are counting on the fact that the original artists are too scared and feel it would be too expensive to take them to court." The people at this website think differently and help to exploit and expose these cheaters who are getting paid for these knockoff mass marketed designs.
I sent Tom Lyle my script from last year about Batman and my take on how Joker would eventually drive him crazy, i will not reveal the details but do have Lyle's comments on the script for which I received similarly positive remarks from Mark, for who's class I wrote it in the 1st place.
He said I understand Batman well, and that what happened in the script would happen, given what Joker does to Batman. Because the script was only 14 (comic) pages long and I had up to 7 panels per page he said I could easily stretch it to 22 pages and have time to play with pacing and payoffs a little more, which I will do. He also was nice enough to send the script back with a few grammatical corrections and some lines he felt I didn't need, or were to overt and even highlighted them in red. He thinks I had them talking too much but it was a scripting class, he said it was just an opinion because he felt Batman should always be a man of few words, concise and to the point. But he did say he liked the concept, he liked the pacing, I kept true to the characters, and that DC would never publish it because batman is guilty of murder by the end.
Also here are my thumbnails (4 to an 8 1/2x11) for an entire unpublished issue of Spider-man of which I will actually be penciling the first 3. You can read the script from which i worked here by Dwayne Mcduffie.
I also wrote a 15 page script for a play for my "writing fundamentals for the stage and screen" class, which I will be read out loud next class by students. The assignment was a 5 pg minimum, 3 characters, starts with an explosion and one location. I will post the class' and my teacher's opinions, as well as send the script to Aaron because I feel it could really be produced and it would be good and easy, and see what he has to say. I had a few troubles with the title but i settled on "two stories."
ok before i get started on batman frozen tapioka pudding = delicious.
how do i watch anything after this movie? anything i was working on, any movie i have, comic book i've read, project i could do... i don't know if it will ever come close to this film. im in a state of awe this morning after seeing The Dark Knight last night, the ending was my favorite part ***pseudo spoilers*** when this movie pushes the idea that batman is more than a hero, harvey is that hero because he works inside the rules, batman is something more. he takes the blame for two-faces killings to clear harvey's name even in death, even knowing this the commishioner calls in the police to hunt Batman. Batman says he is whatever gotham needs him to be, he endures it because he can. He can take that weight on his shoulders so that the city can keep hope in the public hero, the white knight, the late harvey dent and what he did for the city. They also talk alot about either "dying a hero or living long enough to see yourself become the villian" and give the example of Ceasar, that he was given all power in a time of need to protect the city and he took over it like a dictatorship. So Batman considers hanging up his mantle. Joker keeps changing his story about how he got his scars, all of which are terrifying and tragic but amazing at the same time. Two face's creation and backstory is rich as well, blaming Batman for chosing to save him and let Rachel die, even though my girlfriend says that joker switched the addresses and Batman was after Rachel. either way he tries to make gordon go through the same thing. some fo the cops, specifically teh ethenic female that calls gordon's wife from teh house at gunpoint and one of the larger cops look like "montoya and bullock." her design on the show was very similar to elisa's on gargoyles. ok so maybe i could watch gargoyles but nothing else after this movie! He talks of how she was going to wait for him, even though alfred has a letter from her saying she was going to marry harvey. they say the truth is not enough (also works and the movie plays to the point of the city hunting batman) that sometimes they need something more. batman begins was good, before i saw this movie - allot of things were, now everything seems so trivial. this movie has shook me to my core and redefined what i thought a movie could be (not just a superhero movie), what a story can show, what a hero is, and what is important. this movie is so much less linear than the first, there were enough scenes, plotlines and reversals to fill two or even three regulkar movies. it was like each plot point came at you so fast i didnt even have time to let the full impact of it set in before another was introduced. it was not like batman and robin where they crammed in as many badguys as they could so that it would feel bigger than the last one, and cut out everything important about the characters, this was all about the characters. as many people have said, "heath ledger was not in this movie, joker was" and that is so true. he was so different there were only a few scenes where i was able to catch something of his normal manerisms voice etc. he took everything jack nicholson did right and added on it, because it was nicholson-eske, and the way he kept licking his scars at the sides of his mouth like a dog was so wierd, and he did it so casually. amazing, amazing, amazing. batman did get a little gadgetey for my taste, the sonar vision so reminiscant of daredevil or batman forever. sticky bomb guns, etc - it was kind of like a james bond movie. i did love his bike though. im stil not sure how it works through, it was something like the left and right tires of the batmobile rotates to line up and had something like independant 360 degree mobility, very agile, very cool. i kept thinking his cape was going to get caught in the tire though. i liked that the spikes in his arm shot out but i guess im kind of partial to the batman in the gray tights and classic black bat logo on the chest with no yellow, kind of like an alex ross batman. i still think keaton looked like a better batman, and i like his suit better. batmans voice is a little over done, sounding like a metal singer - im kind of partail to kevin conneroy from the animated show's version. i also was looking forward to and found the anime segments of google video, just type in "gotham knight part" and you'll get them all - still need to watch them - i think its about the only thing i can watch at this point. lol
