Light as a feather....

...and almost carefree. Or, at least, that's how I feel in comparison to the last month or so now that I've put to bed two Green lantern movie adaptations for GrossettDunlap. Because of the movie release date the deadlines were really tight and it left for very little breathing room. Especially since I had many other obligations for work that I also couldn't drop the ball on.
I'm also going to use this as my excuse for why I was, for two weeks in a row late (okay, a complete no show) with my picks for Fan Request Friday. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Anyway, here are picks from last week and two weeks ago. The first has been requested multiple times and since part of it was requested two weeks ago (the Flash and Dale part) and the other part (Ming) was requested last week it seemed like a good idea to put it together in one piece.

The next choice has been suggested on and off for awhile and much more consistently lately  - probably due to its second season premiere. I started watching Archer when it first came on and I really enjoy the writing and sensibility of the whole show. If you haven't seen it I highly recommend checking it out. You can click on the link above and it will take you to Amazon where you can buy season 1 or just check it out on TV when you get a chance.

This last piece I've been sitting on for awhile because it was a commissioned piece for someone's birthday and i didn't want to accidentally spoil it by posting it too early. The birthday girl has received it and I'm no longer worried about that. Here is many an X-Men fan's fantasy: Wolverine and Rogue getting married. I was asked to use the Wolverine and the X-Men designs and I through 'reality' to the wind and had them kiss...

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

A glut...

This weekend it seemed like I actually had some spare time - mainly because there were no immediate deadlines for other work looming - so when I started the drawings for Fan Request Friday I thought I'd have a little fun and see how many I could get done before the weekend was over. Obviously I misjudged my time and that's why I'm posting a little on the late side.

I even decided to wrap up a drawing I had started last week and never finished (the two Storms). Both of these specific Storms were requested by different people and I thought it would be interesting to combine them in one drawing. The old S&M version (as I refer to her) and the latest version.

I also tackled several requests that I was able to combine (Logan, Kitty, Rogue) and instead of doing the usual X-Men: Evolution version I decided to go with the Astonishing X-Men design - I don't think I've ever drawn these characters in any other looks than X-Men: Evolution or Wolverine and the X-Men so this was a fun way to explore something new and to satisfy several suggestions at once.

I also took the opportunity to draw a couple of characters I've never drawn before: Kilowog of the Green Lantern Corps and Red Monika from Battle Chasers.

Unfortunately I was so ambitious, I also started a couple of drawings that I found I'd not allowed enough time for and I'll try to finish later in the week or next weekend.

Because you asked for it...

I know...how unusual 2 posts in one day (it's unusual for me to post twice in one month sometimes).

Anyway, someone, in one of the other posts, asked if I'd upload some Toad/Todd from  XME to my web-site and since that's more complicated I thought I'd post  a few images here.

Breathing room...

Well, the plate spinning has finally relaxed a little.

There are still plenty of plates up and spinning, but I finally have a little breathing room where the deadlines aren't coming one on top of the other. It also gives me time to work on commissions, pitches and some fun projects of my own (that will hopefully lead to something more substantial).
Heck, I might even blog more often -- anything is possible.

Here's a series of posters I created for Marvel and Nickelodeon to promote season 1 of Wolverine and the X-Men. My son painted these and I'm very happy with how they turned out.

Still a Rogue...

Here's the finished commission of the adult Rogue and Logan getting ready for some smooching. I'm not sure what the results of that would be, but I assume Logan would heal fast enough - maybe it'd be worth it, eh?





I'm still busy working towards season 2 of Wolverine and the X-Men as well as some miscellaneous freelance gigs so the commissions are slow cominmg, but I'm trying to do what I can to not disappoint anyone.
I might have some cool news coming up soon on the secret project if all goes well. We'll see - in this business (and this economy) you can't count on anything until the check clears. I'll settle for it getting close enough to get my lawyer involved.

Clip time again....

Just in case some of you haven't seen it yet...



They are also screening the first three episodes on Saturday of the San Diego Comic-Con (as it says at the end of the video - though it appears they got the date wrong)

Officially the trailer...

In case some of you haven't seen it yet, I thought I'd post the official trailer for Wolverine & the X-Men. Now you can see what I spent a good part of 2007 working on - or, at least, the trailer for it...



Start drooling now fanboys!

UPDATE: I hadn't realized that some might assume that these were my designs. They are not. I was not involved in the designs other then in the way a director normally is involved. The character designer was AJ Jothikumar.