I recently did some inks for IDW’s Combiner Wars: Windblade #3 (I’m a little fuzzy on how all the titles are numbered.)

I realized I hadn’t drawn Windblade before so I used her for some marker practice. I’m trying to do a little more subtle blending and focusing more detail on the parts I want the viewer to focus on.

Not sure how successful I was with any of that, but here you go.

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It’s been a crazy busy year so far. Soon I hope to get back to doing some more tutorials. In the meantime, I’m still doodling in my molekine notebooks when I’m out and about. Here are some recent sketches:

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My week has been crazy. Here’s a quick warm up sketch of Michonne from Walking Dead.

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Here are some Manga Studio Batman sketches. When I was 3 or 4, reruns of Batman would come on and nearly ever time the cartoon intro would come on I’d hope the whole episode would be a animated and not live action. And every time I would be disappointed. And watch it anyway.

66

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I’ve been playing around with some new brushes in Manga Studio. Trying to get a handle on them with Megatron here.

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Over on my Twitter and Instagram accounts, I’ve been    posting some quick sketches of various characters. Here’s some Scooby Doo sketches from last month.

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As a social media experiment I labeled one of these gorilla sketches as “gorilla Grodd” on Instagram. It got more likes, even though the sketch was just another gorilla head study like all the others.  That one got more likes, because the perception of it as a known character somehow adds more interest to it, even though the sketch isn’t any different than any other gorilla sketch. In fact, Grodd is just a super-gorilla, but design wise he really is just a gorilla.

I have no conclusions, just something I find interesting.

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I recently gave some tips on how to choose paper for drawing comics. Once you have decided on the paper you need, you will have to either 1) mark off the areas of the paper to draw in or, 2) print a template onto the paper. The second is way easier, but in case you don’t have a printer that will handle the 11×17 paper, let’s briefly go over the areas of a comic book template.

There are 3 components of a comic book template. The full bleed area, the trim area and the safe area.

1. The full bleed area is the out-most solid line. Anything drawn between this and the next line will probably be lost when printed. Draw up to this line for a page that’s supposed to contain art over the entire printed page, but don’t put anything important in this area.
2. The trim area is the next inner line. This is where the art will be cut for the printed page.
3. The safe area is where the important stuff lives. Keep your panel borders and lettering in this area.

Note: Templates are usually non-photo blue, cyan, or light cyan so that when scanned, the template doesn’t show up but your linework does. You could use another color too–Photoshop can remove it– but blue works really well.

I could reinvent the wheel, but over at Blambot.com they’ve done an excellent job of showing the measurements in this image:

Templates are very easy to find, here’s an excellent one from Deviantart by GeekyWhiteGuy.

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE 11×17 HI-RES TEMPLATE

I reduced it to fit on standard copy paper too in case you don’t have a large format printer. You can make comics just fine at the smaller size. Just find what works for you and what you have the resources to do–then do it!

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD THE 8.5×11 HI-RES TEMPLATE

That’s all there is to it. I hope this helps!

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I’ve been busy trying to wrap up a deadline this week and have had to take care of some family stuff. But here are a couple art related things I dug up this week.

Roger Scruton on Beauty – British philosopher Roger Scruton has written and given lectures on the idea of beauty and how it’s been marginalized in the art world, archeteture, and in a lot of the pop culture we consume. This is a short 2-minute video but you can find a lot more by him on YouTube.

The MAD art of caricature – Someone on instagram asked about resources for caricatures. I’m not that great at caricatures, but I do follow MAD artist Tom Richmond’s blog and his book on caricatures has going into its sixth printing. I haven’t read it, but given Tom’s skill, I’m planning on checking it out myself.

Disney Ladies – Some interesting images of behind the scenes sketches from older Disney animated films.

The post Art Resource Roundup (Jan 27) appeared first on Brian Shearer.

“The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see.”

―G.K. Chesterton

If you drive down I-40 East long enough, the rolling curves and ample exits of the North Carolina Piedmont will give way to a flat stretch of coastal plain.  Periodically the highway will present a sign or two advertising a single gas station or fast food restaurant.  How far apart you perceive these stops to be grows in proportion to how full of soda your bladder is.

After a couple of hours the landscape will give way to the outskirts of Wilmington, NC–ripe with all the generic trappings of any city between there and Barstow, California.  Citgos, Shells, Wal-Marts, and Walgreens proliferate like weeds.  Stick with your drive long enough and you’ll emerge from this artificial thicket into Wilmington’s historic and revitalized downtown.

My wife and I have made this drive every year  since 1999 to celebrate our anniversary.  We typically stick close to the downtown, which stands on the edge of the Cape Fear river.  We park in front of our usual Bed & Breakfast and walk through the Victorian neighborhood down to the river walk.  I’m still impressed by the river itself, which moves up and down with the tide alternately bringing the decks of docked boats into view below you and then, hours later, pushing them high above your sight.

The Battleship North Carolina sits permanently across the river from downtown.  She’s been museum since the 1960s having long finished her impressive, though brief, tour of duty during World War II.  The river has since ceased  raising and lowering the warship, and instead has encased her considerable hull in mud.  Once a day the river gets low enough to reveal that her last victory has been against the tide itself.

After all these years we usually find ourselves in the same old places.  We’ve done all the touristy things:  the studio tours and the historic tours, the walking tours and the riding tours.  When all the tours have been done – and they’re worth doing – you’re left with the place itself.  We would just rather be there by the river. 

I just want to see the bookstore and the cigar shop.  I want to see the boats rise and fall, and the battleship not.  I want to walk by the old house that occupies two lots that used to look haunted, but now looks like a place I wish I could afford to live in.  I want to walk by the oldest building in town that was standing while John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were still trying to work the kinks out of the republic.

After a few days we pack up and drive back through that generic stretch of road that we could experience anywhere in the country.  The last impression you have is the contrast – the difference between a real place and anywhere.

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