RIP Boyd Kirkland

Instead of posting my drawing choices today for Fan Request Friday, I thought I needed to devote a little space and time to the passing of a great producer, director, writer, storyboard artist, collaborator and friend, Boyd Kirkland.
If you haven't already heard Boyd passed away several days ago after a long battle with pulmonary disease. He was too young to go and he still had plenty more to offer. Even though it wasn't completely unexpected all that knew him and worked with him will feel the loss. I also suspect that all his fans will miss him as well.

Boyd and I worked together often over the years. Sometimes he would hire me to work for him and sometimes we would work side-by-side. On every project I always admired his dedication, his creativity, his sense of art direction and his willingness to let others do what they do best. It was always a pleasure to work with him.
When he hired me to work on X-Men:Evolution everyone was initially worried that this would turn into something akin to an "X-Men Babies" type of show. Thankfully that wasn't the case and he tirelessly worked at  keeping the integrity of our re-imagined X world viable and solid. During XME Boyd, and all the directors  would spend almost every lunchtime discussing story ideas and ways to improve the show. Many of what I consider to be the best ideas for the series came about this way including the Logan and Capt America WWII teamup and the re-imagining of Wanda, the Scarlet Witch.
It wasn't until a few years ago that he realized just how many fans XME really had. A couple of years ago at SDCC when we were sitting in the audience for a panel for Wolverine and the X-Men (the new show we were currently involved with) a couple of fans recognized us and came up to sing XME's praises. He seemed stunned that we'd been recognized and he hadn't realized the impact that the show still had on fans. One of the most beloved XME episodes was all due to Boyd. On Angel's Wings was not only produced by Boyd, but it was also written by him.

Shows that he produced always had a lot of heart and character in them and I was always proud to be involved with them. This last year he was still busy directing on the second season of The Avengers - Earth's Mightiest Heroes and I was glad I could work alongside him one more time.

Most important of all, Boyd was one of the good guys and a good friend. I'll miss him

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.