A Touch of Color

I’ve been experimenting with watercolors for the first time in years. Once upon a time I filled sketchbooks with color experiments. But after over a decade, my technique has gotten rusty, and I have to relearn to wrangle physical color media in my spare moments. It’s been slow going, since Courtney keeps my pretty busy, but I might try my hand at doing acrylic painting again soon. In the mean time, my color sketches have been pretty fun. And yes, I’m taking the occasional commission.

More Late-Night Sketches (or “I’m such a Fanboy”)

I’ve recently been on a Bruce Timm animation spree, having taken in the entire run of Justice League: The Animated Series, Under the Red Hood, and Batman/Superman: Public Enemies, and Justice League: Doom, among others. Having never gotten into superhero team books, this was kind of a new world for me. I noticed a few things, such as how much the Avengers movie borrowed from Justice League, and how much JL borrowed from Buffy and other Whedon works. I feel like Timm, Dini and Whedon belong to a really geeky modern version of, like, the French Impressionist scene in the late 1800s, with everyone inspiring one another and egging each other on to greater heights of nerdy awesomeness. I was also astounded by the range of human experience that could be explored through the medium of people getting punched in the face.  It reminded me of figure drawing class, where the goal is to express as much as possible with drawings of nudes in rooms. Seriously, the series explores quite complex moral quandaries, the ethical responsibilities of power, plus feminism, existentialism, quantum and causality, etc, all with variations on the basic super-powered fist-fight. Amazing.

Also, I’ve been reading the latest Scott Snyder comics, plus resisting the urge to download the Arkham City downloadable extras, basically cuz I really need to work. But the Batman Universe is still calling to me, so that’s what my sketchbook playground looks like these days.

My basic take on Batman Beyond, which, for the layman, is the Spider-Man story set in the future with a super-powered bat suit instead of spider-powers.

This is another in a series of  sketches I’ve been doing, where the challenge is to reveal the superhero persona of the character without a costume.

People pick on Robin in the Batman Universe, and I can understand why. But he’s still part of it, in all his incarnations. So our challenge in the geek world is to make him fit. This is my first attempt at Nightwing, the grown-up version of Dick Grayson.

Batgirl always has a special place in my heart. I’m still experimenting with my brown paper sketchbook, and I think there’s some interesting stuff here, but Poor Barbara Gordon looks a little blue-ish, like she’s been taking mass amounts of colloidal silver. Not so sexy.

And Batgirl on a scooter again, a concept I just love. Does everyone have to ride a bad-ass motorcycle?

Commission Sketch – Batwoman

So I got a commission to do Batwoman. I haven’t had much time to do commissions, but sometimes I jump at the chance to do characters I rarely get to tackle. Here’s what I ended up doing. Overkill again.

DC Ami-Comi

As if I didn’t have enough going on, DC has just announced the Ame-Comi digital series, a unique alternative DC universe. If you haven’t already heard about it, this is the concept. Whart if the DC universe had no superheros of super-villains, but only heroines and villainesses. Right? I love it too! And I was honored to be asked to participate, drawing one of the 30 page chapters of the series.

It looks like my editors at DC want to keep the info at a minimum, so for now, I have to take the sketches down. Sorry. Here’s something else to enjoy in the meantime.

My New Color Sketchbook

My first attempts in my new color sketchbook. Busting out the watercolors…

Some New Batman Sketches

Some comics artists spend their life drawing corporate-owned characters, and draw their own concepts in their spare time. I’m the opposite. Here’s my latest experiment, a 1920s Batman.

Experimenting with micron pens and really simple lines. My latest inspiration is the deco magazine art of Russell Patterson.

Labyrinth

Big news. My friend Adrianne and I just finished our first journey into Henson’s Labyrinth. The story will be out in time for New Comic Book Day.

http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2011/12/archaia-to-publish-new-labyrinth-graphic-novel/

Sadly, I don’t have time to draw this book, as I’m completely overwhelmed with Courtney Crumrin and other secret projects. Happily, this won’t be a problem because THIS GUY is doing it. Holy cow! But just to be a tease, here’s a Hoggle sketch I did for craps and giggles.

A Little News

I’ve been pretty busy this last month. The DC jobs I was trying to get over the last year finally came through. I will be in the next Batman Annual, as well as in a new project DC West Coast is putting out, which I’ll post details about as it comes. In addition, I just knocked out the cover for the new Polly and the Pirates book.

Also, I will be at Comic-Con International in San Diego next weekend. I will be at the Oni Press booth all weekend.

Here’s a few sketches to tide you over.

Green Lantern and Whatzisface

The Baroness

A Few Commissions

Here’s a couple of pieces commissioned by fans. If you’re interested in a commission, write to my friend Lan at tednaifehart@gmail.com.  They range in price from $25 for small headshots, to $100 for the large full figure pieces like these.

The Superman one isn’t a commision. I just wanted to see if I could draw Superman. It is for sale, though, since you asked.

While You’re Waiting

I’ll soon be posting art for the sequel to Courtney Tales: A Portrait of the Warlock as a Young Man. But in the meantime, enjoy this selection from my sketchbook.

Batman Beyond_cover_03_pencil

◄ Back

Next ►

Picture 1 of 7