STUDIO MERIDIAN

Back in the saddle...again.

2009-03-18T15:09:00.011-04:00

Been a while again...I am a wretch. :P Well, things couldn't be busier. I wrapped up a digital art piece for UDON's Darkstalkers Tribute artbook not too long ago. It was quite fun to do since it was the very first time that I actually digitally inked and added colour to my work! Sorry, guys, I can't post it yet until the book's actually released but sufficed to say, I really surprised myself with the final result. As for UDON's previous Street Fighter Tribute and Art of Capcom artbooks, my contributions were a simple graytone digital pieces. For the "inks" in those pieces I simply darkened and cleaned up my scanned pencils. As shown below:

STREET FIGHTER TRIBUTE Artwork

ART OF CAPCOM Artwork

Personally, I'm not too happy with the Art of Capcom piece but it was my first time digitally inking and adding photoshop graytones/effects. Overall, working digitally has been a blast and I'm looking forward to migrating towards Painter but I'm itching to get back into my pencils and inks again. I'll have more sketches/artwork up soon but in the meantime, I'm keeping busy with some comic illustration for self-promotional purposes. Here's a sneak peek:

One final note, all my sketches and artwork are available for sale and I am available for commission work. Email me for details.

God bless!

aL

Iron and the Maiden/Impulse/Chun Li

2008-09-21T03:11:00.009-04:00

Okay, I've been a little behind in my posts but here's a trio of sketches to make up for it. First off, I've got my take on the lead characters of the comic, Iron and the Maiden. It's drawn by a very good friend of mine, Francis Manapul. I have to say I've had the privilege to see Francis' work evolve from the early Bright Anvil days 'til now. And his take on these characters from Joe Madureira's concept sketches is a pretty tall order but Francis seriously made them his own.

Now for part two, I decided to try out a sketch request that I've been meaning to get to for a little while: DC Comic's Impulse. I have to admit I was pretty hesitant to try to sketch this character out. I've never really drawn any 'speedsters'...probably because of all the speed lines I would have to draw. LOL Anyhoo, I've always found Mike Wieringo to be one of the best artists who could really capture the feel/look of the speedster (Art Adams is another...but we'll get to him a lot later). Man, I really miss his art. I really like how this sketch turned out...especially the speed blur in the background. I'm constantly amazed with the results of my PITT brush pens. I think I better stock up.

And finally, here's a sketch of Chun Li. Started as a very loose sketch then decided to finish it off with inks/brush pens. Again, I'm feeling like I don't draw enough women. That's definitely gotta change. I'll be submitting a sketch to the Wonder Woman Day auction to support the domestic violence shelter, Raphael House of Portland. I'll be posting the artwork shortly after I've submitted it and an image is posted on the website. And back to Street Fighter, I'll be attending the Street Fighter Tribute Book Launch Party on Sunday, Sept. 28 for book signings. If you're in the area, drop by! Check out this link for further details: www.new.facebook.com/event.php?eid=30921567061

Also, if anyone's wondering, all the sketches you see here are available for sale. Commissions are also available, so feel free to email me @ studiomeridian@hotmail.com for more details.

God bless!

aL

LOST...and found.

2008-09-08T16:59:00.006-04:00

One particular sketch request caught my eye a little while ago...LOST. A HUGE favourite for my wife and I. A while back I did a couple of Graffiti drawings for a friend on Facebook as you can see below:

I liked how they turned out and was now curious to see what I can do this time with pencil, ink and paper. Gotta say, I was really nervous starting this one. As I've mentioned in this blog waaay back, I've always been very uncomfortable with drawing from real-life but this was one challenge I didn't want to back down from. I remember checking out Mike Wieringo's blog a while back and he had some LOST sketches up and were they ever amazing to look at! Anyhoo, I'm surprised by the fruits of my labour. I like how Jack turned out but I'm not too happy with how I drew Sawyer.

As for the show, I'm soooo looking forward to the next season, especially since a fair amount to stuff has been explained...not to mention that there are now new set of questions that need answering. It really sucks that we have to wait until the new year to see the next season but hey, so far it's been worth the wait.

I hope you enjoy the sketch!

God bless!

aL

By Grapthar's...err...Thor's Hammer!!

2008-09-02T16:42:00.005-04:00

Had a great labour day weekend with the family...aside from a unsuccessful attempt to get to the CNE and almost getting a traffic ticket for my trouble (don't ask). Also got to spend some more time working on drywalling the basement, which by the way, is looking great so far. But I have to say this...drywalling ceilings is absolutely nuts! My body literally aches afterwards literally everytime...I'm getting too old.

So, on to the sketch...I've been meaning to try sketching out Thor but I was a little hung up on whether I should try the current version (aka Coipel's masterpiece) or the Ultimates' version. I chose the latter as you can see...I probably won't do the other version any justice, especially compared to Coipel's pencils. I was going to add some lightning on the hammer but I got lazy. Enjoy the sketch!

God bless!

aL

"I am Iron Man!"

2008-08-31T10:14:00.010-04:00

So far it's going well. After a good result w/ Snake Eyes, I thought I'd give this style of sketching another try. This time...Iron Man. He's probably one of my favourite characters of all time. I used to be soooo into the old Iron Man comics way back when I was a little kid. I used to think he was so cool from the repulsor rays that shot out of his hands, right down to the cheesy (and utterly useless) roller skates that came out of his feet. Remember that?! Anyhoo, the last time I drew Iron Man was for the Marvel/Guiding Light comic special, which I had a lot of fun on. One of these days I have to post my original pencils for that project. Back to Iron Man, I have to say that Adi Granov is one incredible designer. I've never seen Iron Man look as good as he does now. And his work on Iron Man the movie was even more inspiring. This sketch is based on Granov's earliest design. Obviously he edited the design since then, especially with the movie. I think I'm going to take a stab at sketching the movie version of Iron Man down the road...in the meantime, enjoy the sketch!

God Bless!

aL

Snake Eyes

2008-08-30T00:19:00.005-04:00

Geez, it's been over a year since my last post...where did all the time go?! Well, I've got a bunch of sketches coming down the pipeline so hopefully this will make up for lost time. I was scoping out the internet and found a sneak peek pic of Ray Park as Snake Eyes in the new GI Joe movie that's supposed to come out next year (?). Gotta say it looks pretty cool. Kinda wished that Destro had the metal head, tho. And Marlon Wayans?! I'm not entirely sure if that was a good call...but hey, let's see how the trailer turns out.

Okay, back to Snake Eyes...I did this rough sketch but found that I wanted to take it a little further. I remember watching a couple of my friends sketching at some cons waaay back and decided to give it a try. Before I hit pencil or in this case, ink to paper I had to pick up some extra supplies. Right now my current tools of choice are Faber Castell Pitt artist brush pens, Pilot DR Drawing pens, ShinHan Art Touch double-tip markers and a Pentel fine point correction pen. So to get this sketch done, I start with a light (but pretty messy) sketch and then I use a kneaded eraser to lighten up my lines to use as a base for my ink lines. I used to rely on non-repro blue but found that it messes up my art. Next, I start with the Pilot DR (at this point, I'm scared to death...I've tried inking my work in the past with disastrous results) and then use a black Pitt brush pen to fill in my blacks and add depth to some of my lines. Then it's off to graytone Pitt brush pens and Touch markers to layer on my tones. After all is said and done, my finishing touch is a correction pen to add highlights. Pretty happy with the results so far and I'm looking forward to seeing how this will impact my work.

Oops!

2007-06-05T00:53:00.000-04:00

Yep, another chunk of time's passed and no posts! Well, things have kept me busy for the past while: working on a plate full of UDON projects, selling my house, buying a new one, moving into my new house...it never seems to end. Suffice to say, a lot of work has been done in my blogger absence. Which means I'll have a new batch of sketches and finished work up very, very shortly. Also, a very good friend of mine requested that I post how I go about drawing anatomy, so I'll also have that up very soon. Now if I can only remember which box I packed my scanner in...anyhoo, stay tuned!

God bless!

aL

Narutoooo!!!

2007-01-16T16:47:00.000-05:00

This was a pretty cool request. To my recollection, I don't think I've ever drawn a manga character before. I tried drawing a some Street Fighter characters long ago but not like this. I've never really followed Naruto, so I'm not sure what it's all about but when it came up among the list of requests, I just had to do it. Except I wanted to do something a little different with this character. I kinda wondered how he would look a bit older...maybe as a teen/young adult. I mean, we artists all gotta experiment sometime, right? Anyhoo...enjoy!

God bless!

aL

Hot Stuff!

2007-01-15T22:19:00.000-05:00

Things are progressing along a lot better than I realized! The feedback is amazing! When I got this particular request, I just couldn't turn it down. Today's sketch is The Blazing Skull! Yeah, I didn't make that name up. No, really. The name doesn't really do it for me but the look of the character's pretty cool. I spoke to my friends about this character, asking if they've heard of him but they all thought I was talking about Ghost Rider. Now that I think about it, I guess my sketch does kinda look like GR. Well, in any case, I really liked how this one turned out...especially the flaming skull. I'm so looking forward to what's around the corner for sketches 'cuz I'm not the one in control here. Hahaha...it's all on all of you who post your requests on the forums that I've got these sketches on. On that note, you can find my sketches on www.comicbloc.com/forums, www.digitalwebbing.com/forums or www.penciljack.com/forum ...my username is Meridian. I'll also start posting my sketches on www.drawingboard.org in about a week or so. So hit me up for an online sketch request or simply comment here on my sketch blog. Also, I've been asked regarding paid commissions and sketches and yes, they will be available soon! Stay tuned for details! In the meantime, enjoy!

God bless,

aL

Mad to the Max!!!

2007-01-14T23:29:00.000-05:00

Wow, I'm really loving the comments and critiques that I'm getting regarding my sketches. It really gets me going and I have to thank all of you that have responded. I'm looking forward to hitting the sketchbook practically every night because of you guys. This sketch comes to you from one particular request on a forum that I regularly post to. Yeah, it's Mad Max. I grew up being a fan of all the Mad Max films...well, minus the third one. Mainly because of two words: Tina Turner. Personally I think musicians should stick to music and actors stick with acting. Anyhow, this sketch was particularily tough because usually I'm sooo uncomfortable with drawing from real-life. Call me crazy but I liken it to gambling: sometimes I hit the jackpot and sometimes I don't. I liked how this sketch turned out, though. I really didn't want it to look exactly like Mel Gibson but rather a comic representation of the character. Anyhoo, I hope you all like it! Enjoy!

God Bless!

aL

More goodies!

2007-01-12T23:33:00.000-05:00

I was checking out some of the forums that I posted my Captain America sketch on and the majority of the critiques out there focussed on the incorrect visual of Cap's shield. Y'know...I'm always one for detail and Cap's shield did bother me but initially, I wasn't going to edit my quick sketch for the sake of being accurate. It was a quick sketch, drawn in the confines of a seat on a crowded morning-rush Go Train. But reading the critiques made me want to change the shield even more. So here it is! In the meantime here's another sketch that I finished off today:

I remember the first time I tried drawing Wolverine...soooo long ago. Man, I really sucked! I think what really did it for me was the fact that I couldn't draw Wolvie's mask! Especially those absurd ears! At an early age I kept thinking there must have been some formula, some guideline to drawing this guy's weirdo mask. But the more I drew him the more i understood his costume...and it helped that Marvel sent me a 3 view of our favorite canucklehead. As for his claws, I 'm not too fond of the mini-samurai sword style. And neither his curved claws. I like a little combination of both. I found Wolvies claws as shown in the X-Movies were perfect. And the sound?! What the heck is Snikt?! I thought the X-films had Wolvie's claw sound effects just right. When I read that his claws go "Snikt"...it's not doing them justice. Just food for thought.

Also, I've been opening up requests for sketches on forums such as Comicbloc.com, Penciljack.com and Digitalwebbing.com. I'm really going to try to challenge myself this year. I've found that simply drawing things that I want to draw doesn't cut it anymore. It's monotonous and unchallenging. So this is the first request that I got: Destiny. I have absolutely no idea who this character is but suffice to say, he was interesting to draw. Again, this was done as a quick sketch.

I've been trying to get my pencils done faster so that I can adopt a looser form of sketching. Also it really helped to sketch with an HB mechanical pencil, instead of the usual 2H leadholder that I use for drawing my comic panels. Anyhoo, I'll have more stuff up soon...

God Bless!

aL

The Cap is Back!

2007-01-10T21:23:00.000-05:00

Well, after a lot of consideration I've finally decided what I'm going to do with this blog...welcome to my new sketch blog! I may add a few blurbs here or there but for the most part this blog will primarily showcase my sketches and possibly some of my actual comic pencils (after the work is produced and published, of course!). I've found that if I don't keep up with sketching between comic/illustration jobs, it becomes so much harder to get back into the swing of pencilling again. I hope you'll enjoy what you see here. And I'm always open to hearing from everyone, whether it's about comics or life, in general.

For today's sketch, I've decided to try drawing Captain America. I never really got into Cap's outfit while I was growning up but decades later I've grown accustomed to it. I think it was the wings on his head that really bothered me. Oh, and the texture on his upper chest area. Maybe it's because of the way it was drawn back then...I can't say for certain but I can say that I'm really diggin' the way he's drawn today...especially by Jim Cheung and Olivier Coipel. Anyhoo, enjoy!

God bless!

Alex