DK3

Starborn

This is the cover for STARBORN, the last book in The Flaxfield Quartet by Toby Forward, the first three being DRAGONBORN, FIREBORN, and DOUBLEBORN.

Padme detail and pencil drawing

Here is a detail shot and the pencil drawing for the Padme piece.

ECCC and Padme in a meadow

Some of you may have noticed my name on the guest list for Emerald City Comic Con. I am very sorry to say I have to cancel my appearance due to scheduling/story issues with the Wonder Woman comic I have been working on. I should also mention that I am now only providing the art for the first issue of the 2-part Wonder Woman story, which isn't really a bad thing.

I'm quite disappointed to miss the convention as it has been a long time since I attended a show and I always enjoy meeting folks and talking art. I'm going to do my best to make up for it at the next show, whenever and wherever that is!

Some of you may have also noticed that I have removed the 'Gallery' page on the site. This place needs an overhaul and most of that stuff needs to go. I'll put up some good work to replace that sad graveyard as soon as I can.

In the meantime, here's a private commission of Padme Amidala I painted a while back for a good friend and avid collector of comic art and illustration. You can view some of his impressive collection here.

It is painted in gouache with a tiny bit of colored pencil here and there on the line work. I used metallic gold and silver for the frame and details on the dress, which shimmers in the light but unfortunately can not be captured in a scan. You can kind of see the effect in the second photo. The Futhork at the bottom reads "Amidala". I don't recall the dimensions, but I'm guessing it was in the 12"x18" neighborhood.

Commission enquiries

Just a quick note to the kind folks who have written to me about ECCC commissions- I am trying to make some deadlines at the moment, so my apologies for not replying as of yet. I will get back to each of you with details as soon as I get out from under this workload. Probably after the weekend. Thanks!

DOUBLEBORN

Here's the cover for DOUBLEBORN, the third book in the DRAGONBORN quartet published by Bloomsbury.

Wonder Woman- DC Comics' Convergence Event

It was announced today that I am drawing (and inking and coloring) two issues of Wonder Woman for DC. The issues will be on the shelves in April and May, and I will talk a bit more about it a little further down the road. For now, here is the image DC released for the promo.

As it has been misreported elsewhere on the internet (shocking!), I should point out that this is not a cover. It is in fact a single panel from a 5-panel page that appears in the first issue, and will probably be about three or four inches tall when it sees print, which is how it is meant to be seen.

I'm generally not a fan of taking panels out of context, especially when they are blown up larger than I actually drew them, but I suppose it might be better than spoiling a whole page, so there you have it.

And yes, I know that she is not wearing her tiara. To unravel that troubling mystery, one must buy the book.

The Flash 75th anniversary variant cover

The Jerry Robinson original

This was a fun one. To mark the 75th anniversary of The Flash character, DC Comics has him running through the covers of a bunch of other books. I was asked to look through all of the classic Detective Comics covers to find a good one for The Flash to run through, and we wound up with issue #67. As soon as I saw that ostrich, I knew we had a winner. Man, comics used to be some crazy fun.

So here is the original Jerry Robinson cover and my follow-up. I wanted to keep some of the classic feel of the old cover, so I played it pretty straight- pencils, inks, and relatively simple color utilizing the same palette as the original.

More soon!

Catwoman #35 Halloween variant cover

This is a variant cover for Catwoman issue 35, on shelves in October. It was fun sticking to just orange and black (and grey). My editor suggested the little devil on her shoulder. He's pretty tiny on the cover, but he was my favorite part to draw.

Pencils, inks, and Photoshop for color.

Wonder Woman - Batman 75th cover

Here's a Wonder Woman cover I completed recently as part of DC Comics' Batman 75th anniversary variants. After about a dozen misfires, I finally landed on a sketch I liked. I hadn't planned on going for an art deco feel initially, but as I worked out the thumbnail everything kept lining up in such a way that the style just sort of materialized on its own.

It was nice to break away from my usual approach to drawing and to think more about shapes than linework. In fact, I dropped out almost all of the line drawing, which I rarely do. I also tried to learn how to use the pen tool in Photoshop, which was somehow both liberating and infuriating.

More soon.

Ivy commission

Larger scan here.

She's alive...ALIVE!

15"x24" acrylic gouache and pencil on 300lb watercolor paper, private commission

Fireborn

Here is the cover to FIREBORN, the sequel to DRAGONBORN. I finished this one almost exactly one year ago, and the book still won't be on the shelves until December! Book publishers sure do plan ahead.

While I provided several different sketches, the art director liked the idea of basically mirroring the Dragonborn cover thematically and compositionally. There are four books in the series, so I was a little concerned about how I would handle the next two should I be asked to do them- I can't keep flopping the characters back and forth- but this is what we went with, so I'll have to figure it out eventually. Maybe the next one will be a straight-on shot of the main character, and the last could be a group shot. I don't know, but I would like the covers to work together somehow.

You'd think with all of that lead time we'd have a plan...

My original color sketch for this one was a bit moodier with darker shadows and the like, but the publisher wanted to keep it a bit brighter and more colorful, and asked me to avoid too much black. When I look at this now, it's a bit too "Photoshoppy" for me, but I feel that way about most of my digital colors. I still haven't found the "less is more" filter.