Batman gargoyle drawing

I'll write more about this later, but I'm about to step out and I wanted to post these scans before I leave.

Pen and ink, India ink, 11 x 17", etc...

I'll probably be selling this one, either directly or on eBay. Contact me here if you're interested.

Mary Marvel

I forgot her cape so I moved things around when I did the inked version.

Star Wars card painting

Most of you have already seen this one, but I found a copy of the pencils and thought I'd share.

The card was finally published recently, years after it was rejected for content. I picked it from a list of subjects supplied by Topps and (I would assume) approved by Lucasfilm. But after I did the painting, they rejected it because Lucas was about to start the new movies and didn't want anyone dealing with material that he was going to cover in the prequels.

Glad they finally changed their minds.

Legion of Superheroes Painting

Looks like I was wrong when I said that the Vision card was the only painting that I did for the Upper Deck VS Card series. I also did this large piece for the Legion series box.

A new Jack B. Quick drawing

The story behind this one is more than a little convoluted and I'm tired so I'll just let the drawing speak for itself. Like I said in a previous note, I've missed Jack.

Update: I made a few small changes in the drawing and added a couple of small shadows in the background that I'd forgotten to fill in.

Jack B. Quick cover art

This was for Mike Manley's swell magazine, DRAW! in 2002.

The idea here was that Jack is just doodling on a piece of paper, but his parents are terrified, knowing that disaster always follows whenever Jack starts coming up with new inventions.

Another DC card: Talia

Another Marvel Card: Black Bolt

I don't know if this one was ever published but there's a fair amount going on in the background so it's worth seeing at a larger size. The sketch and layout were really tight but I made a few changes when I did the final drawing. I also finished it as a tall rectangle even though the card image is more or less a square. So if it was published, the dead space at the top and bottom were most likely cropped out.

I couldn't find a pencil scan but you can see that there weren't many changes between the layout and the inks

A Photoshop note: When I colored the shadows on the little Inhumans I created a separate layer which saved me a ton of work.

You know, I can never ink moon craters without thinking of Wally Wood.

Old Avengers commission

"Old" in that, this was drawn a few years ago and also because this is the original cast, with Iron Man in his clunky yellow armor.

Soozi

Bob Oksner's late '60's newspaper strip featured the artist at the peak of his powers. The "dumb blonde" theme was already an anachronism but no one ever drew a cuter cartoon babe.

Scary Terry Beatty has several "Soozi" Sundays on his blog this week. Check 'em out and see if you don't agree.

Ra's al Ghul card art

The final version of this one appeared in the Modern Masters book but I thought some of you might enjoy seeing the steps that got me there.

This piece is all about lighting. If you take away the shadows it's just a guy in a bathtub.

Another Vision card

I think this was the only Upper Deck Card that I painted. The others were all pen & ink with photoshop colors.

The image above is the final cropped and Photoshopped file that I sent to Upper Deck. Below is a scan of the raw painting.

The Vision: Art for a Marvel card

One of my favorite Marvel characters...

Frankenstein

Update: I found some pencil sketches. No scan of the finished pencils but the larger sketch is pretty tight so it's the next best thing.

I think I drew this one around 2000 or 2001. Sorry I don't have pencil scans of this piece or the Frankenstein, Jr. drawing, but I couldn't resist posting either of them. You can never have too many Frankenstein images on your blog.

Frankenstein Jr. and the Impossibles

...and Secret Squirrel and Atom Ant! The amazing Bill Wray pencilled this piece and asked me to ink it several years ago. I think it was for the Cartoon Network website or something.

Teen Titans Card: 2004

This one was fun, especially since they let me draw the characters my way; younger and a little awkward. In the rough sketch they all look grim but they're smiling in the pencils. I don't remember if that was a request from DC or Upperdeck or if I just changed it on my own.

Hawkman #33 cover

Someone messed up and printed this one from a low-res file so I'm showing it here as large as possible.

This was a fun one. I like Jimmy Palmiotti's Monolith character. In fact, I think I did some designs for it early on, when it was going to be called the Golem.

Looking at this piece and the Superman cover reminds me that I rarely miss a chance to stick a fire hydrant in a ground level, urban setting. I guess it's a bit of a running joke, plus -- they always look right to me, with the shadows and chains and rough edges. I'm going to add fire hydrants as a label and see how many I can come up with.

Update: I forgot to post the final version of the colors. There are just a few small changes, like the highlights on the Monolith, but I like this version (shown above) better.