Kylo Ren / Bane

Con sighting

I will be at the local MCBA Comic Con (www.mcbacomicons.com) today (10/10) from 10am till 6pm. I'll have full colored prints for sale.

Thank you to my friend Luis Lopez for the colors and price sign!

Dinosaur sketch cards

Convention sketch cards

Dinosaurs: Stegoceras

Ghost Rider and Hawkeye

Bane pencil and inks

Comic creators: The new celebrities?

I doubt right now anyone is reading this and if you are, awesome. This has been bugging me for the past few years, comic book creators charging for a signature. It blew my mind the first time I saw it. I don't understand it, and for the most part it's creators who have been around and who have worked on major books. So why the need for extra income just from me asking for your name on my books that I have purchased? You were paid to do the job, more than likely you've sold that art (be it the original or print), you can do sketch/commissions at conventions, more than likely if it was a well received book, you'll get royalties. So now why ask for $5-20 for a signature when I've already given you my money to buy the book and also to enter the convention to meet you? That money could have been used to purchase a print or sketchbook that you paid to have printed.

Along those same lines is "I'll sign your books if you buy something from my table". Again, I've already bought your books. Do you need the money to make up for costs on prints that you over spent on or the 4 table spaces that take up your very own section of the show floor?

The other thing that I've got a gripe with is the asking for charity donations. It seems like that bucket is on everyone's table these days with the sign that reads "I don't mind signing your books, but please make a donation". If you've been down an Artist Ally at a con, you know what I'm talking about. I've got nothing against the cause or any other charity, but if I want to donate I'll go to the booth where they are set up and I'll do so. Me personally, I have given them a fair amount of money over they years with the books that they put out (got em all as a matter of fact, bought one this weekend to complete the set), but I'm not made of money to be dropping $5 at every table for a damn signature. Also, I know people who contribute every year to that cause that get membership cards, if I flashed one of those would you still charge me for a signature?

All this is to me and I hope others take a stand and agree, is nothing more than greed. You don't need the huge table space, move over and let another creator have time to get out and make money. You're not "The Man", who can charge for a signature and photo. He can do that because of what he's done and everyone knows who he is.

One last thing, if you're a creator in the industry and go to shows and have your own table... Please stay at your table. You're advertised to be at the show and walking by your table and seeing it empty all weekend or seeing that you've got set signature or appearance times is a huge "fuck you". You can't take the time to lift your head up, sign a few books and go back to whatever you were working on?

So with all this being said, if I've encountered these things from creators (besides the charity) I've more than likely stopped buying your books, and ultimately stopped supporting you.

Inks over Steve Rude's Nexus

Saturday Night Inking: Batman and Robin

More inks over Pat Gleason

Lava-Roid

Here is a piece I decided to do for comedian Kevin Conn of his creation Lava-Roid.

More info on Lava-Roid can be found one either MySpace or Facebook.

Kevin is also known for his Unemployed Skeletor shenanigans.

Now for this piece I decided to see if I could keep myself from inking midway and finish a pencil drawing... And I did.

The inks were a bit easy with this project... and fun!

I could have ruined this piece by going over and giving highlights to the blacks with a whiteout pen, but decided not to do that.

Enough talk. Here is the final inks...

Invincible: Omni-Man

Here is my first attempt at Omni-Man from Image Comics' "Invincible".I'm not 100% happy with how it turned out (some areas need tweeking... and I will fix it up someday) but over all I am happy with how it turned out.

Colt Peacemaker

Nothing fancy. Just working on a project and was happy with how this quick research sketch came out.

Vintage Sketchbook: Penguin

I did this for my sketchbook my senior year in high school.

Enjoy.

WWE Sketchbook

Triple H, Kane, The Undertaker, Randy Orton and John Cena (took Kurt Angle out)

Stone Cold sketch book

Here is a page (well a part of it any ways) from my sketch book. It's a caricature of Stone Cold Steve Austin. If I feel it in me to finish (or make better) I'll show the rest of the page someday containing a caricature of Rob Zombie.
Oh yeah, the left eye looks a tad odd because I pressed too hard on the pencil. Don't do that.

Skeletor movie concept (1 of many)

So with word of a new Masters of the Universe movie in talks, I decided to do some concept sketches.

Here is Skeletor.

Group Project

So it's been a week, and I have been asked to post more. Well this next piece was done back in April of 06. It's pretty much the last thing I scaned (probably the first I ever scaned) anyways...
We had a fan project over at he-man.org where we took a select group of characters from the current 2002 Masters of the Universe toy line, and mimiced the Genndy Tartakovsky (Samurai Jack/Star Wars: Clone Wars) art style .

So the figure I chose to do was Man-E-Faces (Human...Robot...Monster!). If you ask me now why I chose him, I would probably lie and say "Because he looked easy to draw".

My assignemnt was to use this pose:

And this figure:

And come up with this picture:And the final product: Ric Nicholls put this project together, you can check out his AMAZING work over in my links section.
Well, time to go pack for comic con in Chicago :)
Love, J

First post and Venom!

So I finally decided to created an account here. After seeing some amazing stuff on here I figured what the hell.

So lets get on to it. Venom. I did this piece sometime back in the fall of 2002 for a friend. Todd McFarlane is a huge insperation to me, so to me the only "true" Venom was that from the McFarlane days.

Paper- I used 9x12 or larger sheet of Bristol board. Not sure if it was the smooth or what.

Ink- The black in the background was used using India Ink. As for the black on the figure, 100% home grown Sharpie along with some ball point pens that I can no longer find.

Colors- The blue highlights were done using... a blue highlighter (I use whatever looks good). As for the other colors, Crayola markers. Im a very cheap person, but if done right, who is going to question it?

Hope you all enjoyed this, I look forward to doing more and hearing from whoever reads these.

Love, J