Taking flight...

I'm running a little later than usual, but here's this week's choice for Fan Request Friday: Wilma Deering and Buck Rogers.

Many of you might know these characters from the old TV series staring Gil Gerard and Erin Gray. I decided to go retro and work from their original comic versions.

Who Knows...

...well, you know the rest (I assume) , but suffice it to say that this week's Fan Request Friday is The Shadow. I love these old Pulp charcaters and tried to figure out a way to include some of the others, like Doc Savage, The Spider, G-8 and The Avenger (not to mention all of Edgar Rice Burroughs' characters), but that was opening a can of worms that I thought would be better suited for other requests - or maybe even a new sketchbook that spotlighted all of my favorites. That's something to consider.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this one and have a happy Father's Day  - we're off to see Toy Story3 in IMax later today. It better be good ;)

Two for one...

...sort of. This week, for Fan Request Friday, there were a lot of great suggestions - as always. I want to thank everyone and I really wish that I could do more each week, but there's only so much free time available. So, when possible, I'll try and sneak in a little something more. This week I chose a subject that had been suggested many times before...and since it kind of coincides with some of the freelance I've been doing - the DC books for HarperCollins that I mentioned below - I thought it would be fun to give a shot at the Women of Gotham. I couldn't decide between the heroes or the villains so I decided to do both.

Dove's a girl?...

It's news to me. Last time I saw these characters I was a young kid buying comics for 12 cents. Frankly, I didn't care so much for the characters even with Ditko and Kane art in them, but when I heard of Dove being a girl that definitely intrigued me. Since these characters (in this boy/girl incarnation)  had been requested  several weeks and by a couple of different people I went with it for Fan Request Friday.

It's a little late because yesterday I spent most of the day at a charity event for the City of Hope. They were having a picnic and Scott Shaw! was looking for artists to sit around and draw requests for the kids and their parents. I must have drawn a couple of dozen (at least) superheroes and other misc characters. It was good to see these kids so happy and excited and hopefully I was able to contribute a little to that. There were lots to do there in the way of games and food to eat as well as costume characters from Star Wars, Harry Potter and DC comics. There might have been more going on, but I was too busy drawing.

I also wanted to alert you to the fact that my latest book from HarperCollins is now fully listed on Amazon and you should probably rush out and order it before it becomes a collector's item. Well, maybe not, but you still might enjoy it and the price is good. Just click on the link below and while you're at it look for my other books from HarperCollins and also my Shrek 4 book from GrossetDunlap

Running late...

...as usual, but my way of saying "oops" is to do a little extra.
Since I started doing this Fan Request Friday on Twitter and FB these two (actually three) characters have been suggested every week, so it felt like it was time to finally do them. Once again, I was very unfamiliar with any of these characters though I had at least heard of Cowboy BeBop (My son used to watch it all the time if I recall right), but I hadn't a clue about Ch'p from Green Lantern.
I hope they succeed despite my lack of experience with them.

Now have a good Memorial Day and remember it's not just about BBQ and a day at the beach

Worth a try...

....though I'm not sure it works. Here is my take on the much requested (for Fan Request Friday) Asterix and Obelix. If you're not familiar with them here is a link that will give you some idea and reason to possibly agree with my original assessment. Next week I'll try to go more traditional...

Fan request booster

These two guys have been requested consistently more than anyone (aside from X-M:E Rogue that is) so I thought it was about time I gave them a shot. I'm not real familiar with Booster Gold at all, though I do recall a Blue Beetle from way back when I was still buying comics for 12 cents - though he didn't quite look like this as I recall.
I was sorely tempted to do a Frazetta tribute piece (it was suggested), but since I still plan on writing up my Fire & Ice remembrances I figure I'll include one at that time. Hopefully I'll be able to do all that by about mid-week.

Fan Rquest Friday again...

Last week there were a lot of great requests and ideas (I wish I had time to do more of them, but  there wasn't much response from my blog followers, but I thought I'd try it again.

Send in your ideas and suggestions and I'll pick one to do over the weekend to post on Twitter (which would cover Facebook) and here as well.

I'm also planning on writing something up about my time on Fire & Ice working with Frank Frazetta in tribute to his recent passing away...maybe even a new drawing or two if I have the time.
In the meanwhile here's a drawing I did of Darkwolf a few years ago that is in my first sketchbook---

A little Modesty...

This week, in honor of Peter O'Donnell's death I decided to choose Modesty Blaise as the subject 0f Friday's fan request. To be honest I hadn't heard of his death and even on the web-sites I visit there was no mentiuon of it so I thought I would do my part to give him his just due with my little picture. By the way, if you're unfamiliar with Modesty and her creator, I linked to sites that could help explain them better than I ever could.

That time again...

...for Fan Request Friday. Last week's sketch of Deja Thoris got a lot of great reactions - thanks everyone. Not sure what I did different than usual (except draw a beautiful mostly naked woman - oh, never mind), but I'm glad everyone seemed to appreciate my effort.
Send in your suggestions for a character and I'll pick one to draw up over the weekend. I might even post a non Fan Request Friday post...pretty exciting, eh?

A little Deja vu...

When I was much younger (back in the days of the dinosaurs, as my kids will tell you) one of my favorite authors was Edgar Rice Burroughs and my favorite story of his was the Princess of Mars. I used to draw John Carter and his Princess Deja Thoris even before I could draw something that resembled a woman. So when for three weeks running someone put in a request for Deja Thoris I mulled it over for awhile and desided to give her another shot. Usually I've drawn her in more or less an action pose (or ready to take action, at the very least) so I thought I'd try something a little different and try a pin-up pose. Not sure I quite suceeded, but it was worth a try.

Fan Request Friday Request...

I was out of town for a few days (Vegas, baby!) to celebrate my second son's 26th birthday (we had a great time despite my habving to work while in the hotel room - they had wi-fi and a scanner/printer so it was easy) and now I'm back.
I didn't want to leave all of you non-Twitter and non-FaceBook followers out this week. So go ahead and send in your suggestions for a character and I'll choose from them, draw it up and post it here (as well as Twitter) over the weekend.
Cheers!

Better late...

...and this one was pretty late. In fact, I realized too late that I never posted the Friday Fan Request here - sorry. I'll try and do it next Friday.
This actually wasn't the request I was going to start then I realized that I've done nothing but ladies every week - so I decided to do something with at least one male in it. Oddly enough I've never drawn Capt Marvel (or any of the Marvel Family) and even odder than that, this was the last Capt Marvel I came to know as a child. Since I'm not as old as some of you might think, I actually was familiar with the Capt Marvel from Marvel Comics first and before that the android Capt Marvel created by the same guy that created the original Human Torch (also an android) - ya' know, the one that would yell "Split" and his various body parts would fly apart as he fought crime until he yelled "Xam" to call them back. But I digress...

Here's the most recent Friday Fan Request: The Marvel Family!

roughing Sailor Moon

And because someone asked (and you know who you are) I thought I would post the rough for the Sailor Moon piece so you can see some of my process. With this piece there wasn't a lot of process - just a quick rough and then the final drawing.

Sailor Moon...

There were lots of interesting requests this week and I wish I time to do more. Maybe I'll pick one of them next week if they make it onto the list.

I chose this request because it was outside of my wheelhouse as they say but to be honest I know nothing whatsoever about Sailor Moon and I thought it was the stretch. I'm not sure I was completely successful, but it was worth a shot.

Fan Request Friday...

That's right, it's Fan Request Friday again (pretty catchy sounding, eh?). That's when I ask for anyone following me on Twitter to send in a character suggestion and then I choose one to do over the weekend. But since my Tweets are also connected to Face Book (and I get suggestions from them as well) I figured I should also open it up to all of you really loyal fans that follow this blog.
So feel free to join in and maybe I'll choose your suggestion.

Frack it...

There were a lot of good suggestions for this week's Friday request, but I chose Starbuck and Boomer (from Battlestar Galactica) . I usually don't do that type of thing - a drawing based on characters from a TV show), butI figured I might as well try expanding my horizons a little, eh?
I think it came out decently -  though I wish I'd gotten a better likeness on Starbuck, but I think Boomer came out okay though. What's funny is I struggled longer on Boomer and it wasn't until I was almost done that I realized Starbuck was only meh. Unfortunately I had too much else to do to keep messing with it, but maybe sometime in the future I will revisit it.

Next week I'll also try and remember to post here as well for suggestions so all of you who don't tweet or use FB can join in.

Anyway, I started a new gig last Monday. I'm directing again at FilmRoman (it's now called now Starz/ FilmRoman, I think, or maybe it's FilmRoman/Starz) on a Marvel project - The Avengers. I haven't worked in-house for almost 2 years so it's taking a little adjusting and I'm also working for the first time on a Cintiq. I've worked on a Wacom pad for years and have actually gotten to the point where I can draw directly on it (to some dgree), but this is the first time I've actually used a Cintiq. It took me about half a day to get used to it and now I can honestly say I've grown to love it and I'm looking forward to the day when I can save a little extra scratch so I can get one for home.

Something daring...

As promised Friday I took requests for a character to do over the weekend and out of the many requests I chose Daredevil - the man without fear.
Never had reason to draw him before so it seemed worth a shot. I also thought I'd venture a little bit outside of my comfort zone and try a little less of an animation version...not sure I quite succeeded, but I'm going to keep trying. There were quite a few good suggestions and I'll possibly take some of them up next week when the time comes.


In the meanwhile, tomorrow I start a new dayjob directing on a new series (sort of) and will actually be working out of the house for the first time in over a year - maybe closer to two years.

Something new...

Earlier today I mentioned on Twitter that it's been awhile since I blogged and I was going to set it on my calendar to post something today. Someone tweeted back that I should post a pic of either Colossus or Storm with a mohawk. And since I've posted quite a few Colossuses lately I thought I'd try a Storm with a mohawk - never had a reason to do one before. Not sure why Storm had a mohawk, but here it is...

This got me thinking that maybe once a week I would take requests, via Twitter, to create a new drawing based on someone's suggestion. I hink I will twwet Friday that I'm taking the requests and then when I see one that intrigues me I'll post it over the weekend here on this blog. So, if you want to get in on requesting something you'll need to follow me on Twitter - and you can do that by clicking the button over on the right of the blog>>>

Commission time...

...well, sort of. This has been on the list for awhile (to the point that I forgot about it until she reminded me) so I finally got around to creating a rough. She wanted me to draw her with her favorite blue elf - evolution style. I'll post the clean-up as soon as that is finished.