Back in the saddle...again.

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

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.

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!!

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!"

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

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!

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