Fall is almost over.

I painted this little overcast scene the other day, from reference I shot a while ago. I'm still settling into my new studio, and this was the first piece done at the new house.

Done in watercolour, ink and gouache on paper.

Two More Commissions

Since I'm no longer accepting any more requests for commissioned sketches, I thought I'd share the last two I did before shutting it all down. I'm now going to be concentrating mostly on freelance assignments and my own personal projects for a while, but if you're in the mood for a custom sketch, you can still find me at conventions and get a sketch there.

Both of these were painted in gouache and ink on board, and are about 12" x 17" in size.

Black Canary and Hawkeye

Here's a couple of paintings I completed recently, featuring Black Canary and Hawkeye. I think these are first times I've ever drawn those characters, even though they're favourites of mine.

Both were painted in gouache and ink and are about 12" x 17" in size. While the final art is done in traditional media, I drew the pencil sketches for them digitally, in Sketchbook Pro, and you can check them out below.

A Game of Thrones

So I was watching that HBO series "Game of Thrones", and I decided to do some quick digital sketches of some of the characters. I was actually inspired to do so after seeing ultra-talented illustrator Sam Bosma's drawings of the characters from the books. Now, I've only started reading the 1st book, so my drawings are based on the TV series, not the literary source, but I thought I'd share them with you anyway.

While working on these drawings, I tried to imagine them as interior illustrations from an old paperback from the 1950's. They were drawn entirely digitally, in Sketchbook Pro on my mac.

First up: Jon Snow, the "bastard of Winterfell":



Jamie Lannister: "the Kingslayer":



Catlyn Stark (formerly Catlyn Tulley):



And finally, that creepy mom and the 10 year old breast-feeding kid. These two seriously creeped me out:

A Few More Fan Expo Superheroes

Here's a couple more painted sketches of superheroes that I'll be taking for sale to Fan Expo this weekend. I'm looking forward to the show. Look for me with my TX Comics pals at Booth 112.

These were painted in gouache and ink on board, and are approximately 12" x 17" in size.

Thor is Pretty Metal

This one was a fun one. It's actually a collaboration between Andy B (as in Andy Belanger of Kill Shakespeare comic fame). We've wanted to work on a jam piece for a while now, and Thor was a good pick as subject. Andy knocked out an incredibly detailed and kick-ass drawing (see below) which, since this was to be a colaboration, he graciously let me do whatever I wanted to. I changed up the background and lighting and re-cropped for effect before painting. The final art was painted in gouache and ink and it's another piece I'll be taking with me to Fan Expo.

I want to thank Andy B for doing such a bang up job on the drawing, and for being such a fun guy to work with. I should also add that to get in the mood of working with Andy, I listened to a lot of metal while painting this one.

Daredevil: The Man Without Fear

This one was a fun painting I did recently. It's one of a batch of new paintings I'm working on to take to Fan Expo, the big comic con coming up in August here in Toronto. I've always been a fan of Daredevil, especially during the classic Miller/Janson and Miller/Mazzucchelli run of comics, so I've posted drawings of him a few times other times before. This one was painted in gouache and ink, and is about 12" x 19" in size.

For those interested, you can check out the pencil sketch of the piece below.

A Family Portrait

It's been a long delay between posts, I know, and deadlines are to blame. To make up for it, here's a recent portrait of our happy little family that I painted in gouache. As a change of pace from the previous post, I kept the emphasis on two-dimensional design while working on this one. I like playing with various approaches to image making and adjusting the style here and there to fit the subject matter. And yes, my daughter is indeed wearing a home-made bunny costume while riding on my shoulders.

Our Lady of the Flowers

This is a one page comic essay I recently wrote and drew for Openbooktoronto.com. They're having a month long comic and graphic novel spotlight, in conjunction with the recent Toronto Comic Arts Festival. I was asked by the organizer if I wanted to write and draw a comic page about a book that I considered important or was a favourite of mine and I immediately knew which book I wanted to pick.

Our Lady of the Flowers, by Jean Genet has been a favourite book of mine for a long while now, and I was thrilled to finally be able to write a short comic about it's importance to me. I'd like to thank Openbooktoronto.com and editor Ian Daffern for giving me the opportunity and the freedom to do the piece the way I saw fit. It was posted online here.

You can read the one page comic above, or look below to see the original thumbnail drawing that lead to the final art. I painted both in gouache and ink, and you can compare the two and see the changes made along the way to the final. Please note that my comic, like the book itself, is for mature readers.

Madman and the Atomics

I painted this one about a little while ago, as a pin-up for the recent Madman Giant Sized Super Ginchy Special. I've been a fan of Mike Allred's for decades, so I was awfully flattered when he asked me to contribute something for the special issue. I tried to fit in as many of the characters as I could, and had a lot of fun painting my favourite member of the Atomics, Adam Balm.

The printed version was in red, but I thought I'd post it here in the original blue-tone that I painted it in. As usual, this was done in gouache and ink. You can check out my preliminary pencil rough for it below.

Madman Giant Sized Super Ginchy Special went on sale a few weeks ago, so you should still be able to find it at your local comic shop. Buy a copy today and join in the fun!

Wonder Woman

Why is it whenever I see the name "Wonder Woman", I hear the theme song from the old 70's TV show in my head? This is a recent painting I did to take with me to the Toronto Comicon that took place over the weekend. I actually painted this in just blue and black, but changed it up to a blue and red colour scheme after scanning it in. I think I was subconsciously trying to evoke a bit of the feel of those classic red and blue WPA posters of the 30's and 40's.

My thanks to everyone who stopped by at the convention. It was a nice way to start off the run of Toronto comic shows for the year (TCAF is just a month away!). Unfortunately, I could only stay for a half day on Sunday, so my apologies to anyone who was put out by my early departure.

Toronto Back Alleys 2011, Again

Another one in the series of back alley drawings. I think I've posted almost 20 of them on this blog over the years. This one was done a little while ago, and took a bit longer than usual. I actually completed it in 2 sittings, mainly due to the amount of detail. Like the others, it was painted in gouache and ink on board.

Koyama Press

Koyama Press is an wonderful local indie comics publisher, run by the one and only Anne Koyama, who is affectionately referred to by some folks as a patron saint of comics. They've put out some excellent and daring comics and have supported or launched the careers of many young cartoonists. As a friend of mine likes to say, "If there was an Anne Koyama in every city, indie comics would be unstoppable."

A little while back, Anne asked me to contribute to her art project of having various artists do their own takes on her "Kick Ass Annie" logo. So this one was painted as my contribution. It's a small painting, done in gouache and ink on 9" x 12" paper. And if you like this one, you should check out the other artwork that she's collected from contributors.

Toronto Back Alleys 2011

I've been working on several more paintings of the back alleys and streets of Toronto, some of which I've shared via twitter, so I thought I'd post one here. As with many of the others in the series, this one was painted in gouache and ink, and the colour choice was meant to evoke a feeling of early fall.

And for those who are interested, yes a book is still in the works. I am furiously painting away, completing more pictures for it.

Rajon Rondo

This one is a recent painting of Rajon Rondo, point guard for the Boston Celtics. I think that makes 3 NBA related posts out of the last 4 now. I love watching the Celtics, and Rondo is one the reasons - he's got such a unique game.

Like many other personal pieces I've done in the last year, I took the opportunity to experiment here. Unlike most of my work, this one was created almost completely digitally. I drew a proper pencil sketch, but the final art was painted in photoshop.

Crime Fiction

This was a recent cover that I painted for Quill and Quire magazine, for their January 2011 issue. The theme was on the rise in popularity of crime fiction. I worked out a bunch of different rough concepts, but in the end went with the idea of just putting a strong iconic image on the cover. The masthead is meant to cover the top of the image, obscuring the head of the figure.

The final art was painted in gouache and ink, with some slight tweaking in photoshop.