55 - You Shall Not Pass!

...Go and Collect $200

Just an Iron Man drawing in my sketchbook for fun.

FL SUPERCON

The show was a bust, but I did get to attend a live figure-drawing session. I miss having a live model. There is so much to learn from being in the room not just looking at a photograph. Here are some of my drawings from the weekend.

All the same, I still ran the same raffle that I do every show. The winner did not leave a name so I am listing their email here with some redacted characters: jmsg***@gmail.com

Please send me an email and I will send you your original art.

BALROG

Last year I illustrated this iconic 18”x24” scene from The Fellowship of the Ring as my premier display piece for DragonCon. This year I have drawn the Confrontation between Gandalf and the Balrog.

I wanted to go bigger, and I have. My balrog piece is 20”x30” making it the largest illustration I have ever done.

Technically, this cicada piece I did in school is the largest Drawing I have ever done at 20”x40” But this piece was half-baked and didn’t have any storytelling, I was merely drawing on large paper, not a fully realized illustration.

Anyway, here is the Black and White illustration, the full process from thumbnail to color is on my Patreon.

I will have the original and prints for sale at DragonCon

CYBER LEAGUE BASEBALL

CLB is currently on hold. I have a full slate of work and sadly this is the project that has to take the back burner, but rest assured, I am sneaking in some work whenever I have a free evening. (haha, free evening…)

PROJECT: SEAL

The author decided to go forward with a different illustrator for the project, but I wanted to share the pages sans text as I am really proud of how my test pages came out.

PROJECT: LAKES

This project is a go! I had a meeting yesterday with the writer to go over the thumbnails for the first issue. Here is an interlude from the book that features a tour of the S.S. Flotsam’s Weight Deck. All the thumbnails are on my Patreon as well as more concept art for the series.

MISH MASH

I am collaborating with Colby McHugh to do some illustrations in his Zine, Mish Mash Vol 4. It is a local publication here in Atlanta, GA. I will contribute some SFX comics, a spot illustration for a short story, and a CLB promo. I’ll let me know when and where you can pick this up in the next newsletter.

ANIMATION CLASS

I am teaching Animation 101 to high school students this fall at a local Homeschool Co-Op. I studied animation before becoming a Comic artist and I am really excited to dive back into this art form. Here is a reference sheet I made for my students on the 12 principles of animation.

DRAGONCON

Woot woot! Labor Day weekend I will be in Atlanta, GA for my biggest show of the year, DragonCon. I will have several new prints, my new baseball-themed baseball booth, and a few new comics. I would love to do some preshow commissions. Send me an email with your request and I can get it done before the show.

WATCH: The Bear, Season 1

100% on Rotten Tomatoes. and well-earned. This show is fantastic. First of all I love how the episodes are short, averaging around 25 minutes. The best episode for me was episode 7, which features one 18-minute single shot. It is a tense show, but it’s also funny and heartfelt.

LISTEN: The Great Gatsby the Musical

New to Broadway this year, this is a musical adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel of the same name. I love the jazzy 20’s music, some of my favorite songs in the album are New Money, Second-Hand Suit, Only Tea, and La Dee Dah with You.

READ: Harry Potter

My wife and I are rereading Harry Potter, This mostly consists of my wife reading and me falling asleep but she doesn’t mind and I am enjoying the return to this classic series. I look forward to reading it to my kids when they are old enough.

PLAY: Monopoly

Look. It’s not my first choice, however, I am feeling pretty nostalgic about long, lazy, rainy Saturdays spent playing a 6-8 hour game of slowly crushing your siblings into debt. Now I don’t really have time for it, but there is a really great 15-minute game, Monopoly Deal that scratches that itch for me.

Slightly less ranty and more informative than usual, I still bring some hot takes in my analysis of Originals vs. Prints vs. Digital

You have that blank space above your mantle and you want to fill it with something special, what should it be? You could get one of those digital frames and display a scrolling litany of artworks or maybe a print from that comic convention you attended, or you might go to an art fair and buy an original from a local artist. But which is best?

On Patreon, I detail the Rarity, Status, Price, and ROI of each of these art worlds.

Cheers,

&