Portrait of Ursula K. Le Guin

This was a recent illustration I did for California Magazine, to accompany an interview with noted sci fi author, Ursula K. Le Guin.  I have to say I hadn't read any of her works prior to receiving this assignment, but after researching her, and reading the excellent interview, I was very intrigued and found her to be a fascinating person.  The research and the drawing were so much fun to do that this became easily my favourite illustration that I've done this year.

The final art was drawn in ink and composited digitally to make the image (the red and the black parts of the image were drawn separately and merged in photoshop).

Just for fun, I thought I'd post all the various research notes, concept thumbnails and rough sketches that I made in my sketchbook on the way to creating the final art.  They're shown below, with all the silly reminders to myself about approaching deadlines left unedited.  I hope you'll find them of interest.

The Frightful Four!

These are 4 drawings I did recently for a fundraising auction for the Doug Wright Awards.  They asked a bunch of artists to contribute pieces on the theme of "super villains" so, after a bit of canvasing suggestions on twitter, I decided to draw the old Fantastic Four villains, the Frightful Four.  I always thought they were a fun group - especially Paste Pot Pete, or the Trapster as he was later known.  Any supervillain whose main weapon is a glue gun has gotta be fun, right?

I don't normally work in such a cartoony/animated style, but it was fun to stretch and try it out -- it was definitely an entertaining way to work.  These were drawn in coloured inks on bristol, and were each approximately 11" x 14" in size.

Fantasy

This was a small piece I did as a submission for the Calgary Comic Expo's artbook.  I don't know if they'll use it, but it was fun to paint anyway.  The theme of the book was "Weird Tales", so I tried to come up with a fantasy related piece.

This one was painted in gouache and ink on board, something I haven't done much of lately as I've been playing around with pens and coloured inks. I often post snapshots of rough sketches or thumbnails on my twitter feed and you can see an example for this piece below.

Jason Williams...

...is White Chocolate.  I always thought that was a funny nickname.  JWill was one of the most entertaining players during his career and got a few comparisons to Pistol Pete, which I suppose Ricky Rubio also gets nowadays.

I drew him here in his Sacramento Kings jersey, because that's how I'll always remember him - on the break, dropping elbow passes to Chris Webber.

Like the previous drawing, this one was drawn in ink and gouache on board, from reference.

That shot is going in...

...because it's Larry Bird.  This was drawn for fun in ink and gouache on board, from reference.  

Scenes from the Apocalypse

These are some illustrations I drew last year for the University of Toronto Alumni magazine.  It was for a feature on various scenarios of the apocalypse and their odds of coming true.  Naturally, a subject like that allows me to stretch my imagination and have fun.  I especially enjoyed drawing the "Giant Robot Attack" scenario.  

The big image with couple at top was the interior opener illustration, while the large yellow background one below was for the cover.  And the fellow in the window was a spot illustration, depicting a possible pandemic.

All of these were drawn in ink and watercolour on paper, with some colour tweaking and processing in photoshop.

Muddy Waters

A quick portrait of McKinley Morganfield, aka Muddy Waters, drawn as a present for a friend.

Upon seeing this, my friend asked, "Gee, are you going to make a book of blues musician drawings?"

To which I replied, "Oh hell no -- every cartoonist does that."

This was drawn in ink and marker with a bit of tweaking in photoshop.

Popular Science portraits

My apologies for the gap between posts on my blog -- I've been tied up for the entire winter finishing up a large graphic novel project as well as experiencing terrible computer problems!

Anyway, to rectify the lack of art here, I thought I'd share 3 illustrations I did for Popular Science's December 2012 issue.  These are colour portraits of a few of their "Inventors of the Year", along with their inventions.  

All 3 illustrations were drawn in software -- mostly in Sketchbook Pro (my go to app for drawing).

Occidental College Illustrations

A few months ago, I was asked by Occidental College in California to draw a few illustrations for a recruiting booklet.  The assignment was a fun challenge -- mixing location drawings along with some portraits of famous alumni.

Below are a few of the illustrations I did for this assignment.

This was a very wide wraparound cover for the booklet, featuring the college on the front with Los Angeles visible on the back.  I painted this in gouache and ink on paper - the only drawing I did "traditionally" for this project.

Another view of the campus, this time drawn digitally.  One downside of digital illustration is that drawing foliage takes twice as long as drawing it traditionally!

I drew 10 Alumni portraits, a few of which are shown below.  The fellow with the giant Monty Python hand in the shot is, of course, Terry Gilliam.  They were all drawn digitally.

The Minutemen

Here's a recent cover illustration I painted for DC Comics' Before Watchmen project.  It's a variant cover for Minutemen issue #5.  I had fun playing around with the composition, trying to fit all 8 superheroes into a design.   My personal favourite of the heroes depicted here -- Mothman.  Gotta love a guy with antennae on his head.

This was painted in ink and watercolour , with some colour tweaking and adjustments in photoshop.

Batman take a bow

This was an illustration drawn for Grantland Quarterly, to accompany an article about the end of the Batman trilogy of films.  I enjoyed working a sports metaphor into this one.

This was drawn mostly in ink, with a few tweaks and redraws done in software.

My favourite play is the alley-oop!

Closing out our week of posting NBA portraits, we'll end with the big man, Patrick Ewing of the New York Knicks.  I always liked Ewing's teams of the 80's, even if they couldn't get past MJ and his Bulls.  He also had a pretty cool hightop fade in his day.

And for those who guessed it, yes, the common theme among all 4 portraits is....they all wore number 33.  Thanks for indulging my NBA obsession, folks.

This one was drawn and lettered entirely digitally.

I like slam dunks, take me to the hoop...

And day 3 of our 4 day NBA portraits series brings us to...Scottie Pippen, my favourite "point forward".  

Like the last one, this one was drawn in my tiny sketchbook, in ink and a cheap red marker for the tone.

One more portrait left to go for the week!

I like the way they dribble up and down the court...

Continuing on with my theme of posting NBA portraits this week, here's "the hick from French Lick" --  Larry Joe Bird.  

I always liked Larry's wispy moustache -- I'm glad I got a chance to draw it.  This one was done in brush and ink, in my very tiny sketchbook. 

Basketball is my favourite sport...

If you're like me, when you read those words, you immediately hear Kurtis Blow in your head.  That's like my favourite basketball related song, ever. 

Anyway, the NBA season tips off tonight and to celebrate I'm going to post a drawing of an NBA legend every day for the rest of the week.  See if you can guess the connecting theme in all the week's portraits.

Starting us off today...Kareem Abdul Jabbar!  I'd still pick him over Shaq in a fantasy draft.     

This one was drawn entirely digitally, and I had a lot of fun trying to reproduce my pen and ink style and lettering in software.

Iron Man for the umpteenth time

Some people know I tend to doodle Iron Man a lot.  This one is a bit more elaborate than a doodle, and was painted in gouache on 13" x 17" paper.

Elvis and Muhammad Ali

I painted this double-page spread about a year ago, for a special book on Elvis featuring artwork from comic book illustrators.  I was excited to participate, and when they told me they'd like an illustration focusing on Elvis and Ali's friendship but in a "Batman and Robin action scene", I knew this would be extra fun to work on.  

The finished illustration was painted in gouache and ink, and you can see below the various roughs and thumbnail drawings I did while working up the concept.

Gerald and Cullen Rapp

As some of you may know, I recently signed with illustration reps, Gerald & Cullen Rapp.  On their website, you can check out my portfolio while, above, you can see  the first piece of work I did after signing on - my take on the iconic Rapp logo.  I was very grateful for the opportunity to be a part of that group of artists.

This piece was drawn completely in software, using Sketchbook Pro.

Time Travel!

A recent illustration I drew for Torchbearer magazine, on the subject of quantum physics, time travel and viewing the past.  I was grateful that they gave me the latitude to do a "pulp sci-fi" take on it.

This one was painted in goauche and ink, with some colour tweaking in photoshop.

Fan Expo!

It's that time of year again, and I'll be at Fan Expo here in Toronto, selling prints and chatting with comic fans.  So, to get in the spirit of comic-con, here's a few recent super-hero (and super-villain) sketches.

The Superman and Batman sketches were drawn in ink and gouache, while the Joker one was coloured with dyes.

Back Alleys and Urban Landscapes: Exhibition @ 129 Ossington

During September, Gallery @ 129 Ossington will be hosting an exhibition of original paintings from my recent book, Back Alleys and Urban Landscapes.   The show will feature approximately 30 paintings from the book, ranging from small ink sketches to large paintings in gouache.  There'll be an opening reception on September 6th, so please drop for drinks by if you're in Toronto that day!

Michael Cho

Back Alleys and Urban Landscapes

Showing: September 5-29, 2012

Reception: Thursday, September 6th, 7-10pm

Gallery Hours: Wed- Sat 12- 6pm or by appointment

Please contact Gallery @ 129 Ossington for more information or if you want to inquire about artwork sales.

Sketchbook Ronnie James Dio

Another straight-up b&w drawing on cheap paper...this time of Ronnie James Dio, whom I always considered a frontrunner for the Ugliest Man in Rock and Roll Award.  As a teen, I knew metal heads and I knew dungeons and dragons nerds...and both of them made peace over Dio, the hobbit wizard of metal.

I have no one to thank for suggesting this one, I just always knew I'd draw a picture of Dio one day.

Sketchbook Screamin' Jay Hawkins

Another ink sketch on the same bad rag paper as the previous post.  I'm enjoying drawing in pure b&w lately -- I haven't done much of that in the last few years.  

I have my buddy Alex to thank for suggesting the subject of this one.  

Sketchbook Son House

Another sketchbook portrait, this one of blues legend Son House.  Drawn in ink on paper.  

After years of always trying to draw on the right paper for the job, I'm actually more interested now in what drawing on the wrong paper looks like.  So this was drawn on a pad of paper I bought at the dollar store.  It's really high in rag content, so it gives a nice texture to drybrush.

Sketchbook Musicians

Most of the stuff I've been posting lately has been finished illustrations, whether for clients or for fun.  So I thought I'd take a break here and post the kind of stuff I draw in my sketchbooks during my down time.   Lately, it's been portrait doodles of musicians, as you can see from these scans.

All of these were drawn in ink and marker on paper, usually at the end of the night while listening to some nice music. My goal was to practice drawing in ink, as opposed to inking finished pencil drawings. Nothing fancy there.