Sketches

I've been busy filling up a new sketchbook with an eye towards making my art more realistic.

Planet Comicon

Last weekend I went to the Planet Comicon in Kansas City. I split a table with Mike Kennedy of Celtic Knights fame. My plan was simple; Backing boards, a fistful of sharpies and a tip jar. Basically I drew free sketches for tips and I did pretty good. Below is some of the better ones.

You may wonder why I drew several Wonder Women. Well, everytime I had a break, I drew a Wonder Woman sketch. I would sit it on the table and eventually a girl would come up, look at it and hand me $20. EVERY SINGLE TIME! It was like I was printing twenties!

I thought this Robin turned out great. I had to leave for a meeting (see below) and when I returned he was gone. I hope the right kid grabbed it!

A guy came up and asked for a Christina Hendricks (of Mad Men) in a Vamperilla costume.

I mentioned that I had  meeting. I was selected to meet with a Marvel Editor for a portfolio review. They didn't hire me, but the review went well. He told me I had potential and to keep working. Oh well!

New comic samples

Recently I have been talking to a publisher and they asked if I would be interested in trying something in more of a cartoony style. I've messed around with some sketches, but finally got serious and drew this 3 page sample of The Bug, a character I've used before. This plot is basically a remix of the sample I took to Wizard World Chicago '07. You can see them here http://scottsackett.blogspot.com/2007/08/daredevil-pages.html

I'm not superstitious, but this was the best received of any sample I've brought to a con and go to meet with a Marvel editor.

Anyway, the publisher seemed to like these pages and asked me to do some concept sketches for one of their books.

Warm-up Sketch

Working in a more cartoon style, I drew this in my sketchbook as a warmup.

More Zbrush!

Here's a skull I created while learning Zbrush. I wanted to render it like some sort of retro '50s kids plastic toy, instead of just trying to emulate bone.

Always the storyteller, I was looking for something a little creepy, like a Ray Bradbury tale of a long forgotten childhood Halloween.

Joker sketch

Sketch of the Joker.

Learning Zbrush

I'm learning Zbrush at work. This was my first attempt to do something in 3d.

Sketchbook

This is a 2 page spread from my med Moleskin sketchbook. I don't always like my own art, but I LOVE the drawing of the girl with stripes on the lower left. I think I nailed the attitude I wanted her to have

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Thanks you for visiting my blog. No matter how you celebrate it, I hope the holiday season was happy and that 2012 will be a better year for all of us and that you have a prosperous year both presonally and professionally!

The Process:

Step 1: I wanted to experiment a little with drawing in the computer, so I drew a rough in Autodesk Sketchbook express. At this point my goal was just to be loose, I was literally 'making it upa as I went along.

Step 2: I took my sketch into Photoshop and added it to a layer and traced over it. I did this step in Photoshop because I am more comfortable with the layers and sizing the print in Photoshop since I am just lerning Sketchbook. Once I got something I felt I could work with, I turned it light blue and printed it out at 11x 14.

Step 3: I inked directly on the light blue print. This was the most enjoyable step, becasue all the 'work' had already been done and I just focused on line weights and texture.

 

Step 4: I scanned the inks into Photoshop, dropped the light blue, then added colors.

More sketchbook stuff

Here's a few more sketches from the last month or so...

Drawing of a co-worker

Working on figures

Trying to capture a likeness of The Hulk

The Scarlet Witch!

Book Cover, part 2

Well, after everything was approved on the book cover and after I got paid, the writer wrote me. Basically he had decided that he wanted something a little more cartoony and he asked if I'd like another shot, so this is what I did:

The funny thing was I had thought he wanted something more realistic, so I steered my first version that way. Now I think everybody is happy and that's the most important thing.

Sketchbook

It's been too long since I updated my blog. My cover below didn't go as smooth as I had hoped (more on that in another post) but here's a few sketches for now.

My wife has an iphone and is checking her email while we are waiting for food. I would be annoyed, but I was drawing, so what can I say..

I had to go to the doctor recently to get chacked out after having some vertigo. Luckily, it just an infection. Also luckily, I didn't have to sit on this table!

Finished cover

Thumbnails for book cover

As mentioned in my perious post, I've hired to draw a book cover. The author, Aaron Pogue loved the chacter sketches so I did a series of thumbnails. Of the half dozen I drew I liked these three and sent them to Aaron.

I had met face to face with Aaron and he gave me the big picture of his book and the entire series. This cover was described by him as a girl thief, in a balcony garden.

(Incidentially, I asked f it was okay for me to use the art in my portfolio, blog, etc. and Aaron kindly gave me premission. You should always ask, not every client feels the same way.)

I haven't heard back what Aaron thinks, but I'll continue to post my steps in this process.

Character Sketches

I was hired to draw a book cover for a book called 'Notes from a Thief" by Aaron Pogue. As part of the deal, I did some sketches for Aaron, just to make sure we are on the same page.

The Thing

While getting art ready to take to the New York Comic-con, I have been looking through old art and I found this sample of a Thing story I created to take to the con a few years ago.

I think my Thing is a little small for current Marvel continuity & I guess they weren't blown away by a story about Ben not being able to sign an autograph, but I kinda like it.

New Comic book Pages

3 pages from a pitch I am creating for NYCC.

New art

A couple of animal drawings and a sketchbook page of figure construction.

Critiqued by ComixTribe

My Avengers samples were critiqued at www.comixtribe.com by Tommy Patterson and you can watch the video below. Someone commented to me they felt he was overly harsh, but I pointed out an editor has never sugar coated their opinion also he said he felt my work was professional level, so what more could I ask for.

The critique is pretty informative and worth watching.



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Zoo Drawings

I went to the Oklahoma City Zoo recently and did some animal drawings. Funny thing about drawing animals is they won't sit still for you so part of the challenge is to capture the animal in motion. These are roughly in order they were drawn.

The big new attraction at the Okc Zoo is the baby elephant and i was told to make many drawings of him. Also, this summer Okc has had record heat and so I was only at the zoo for a couple of hours.

What if PIXAR did a Rocketeer film?

The Rocketeer 20th anniversary from John Banana on Vimeo.

Blog broke!

Oh man! I guess my update didn't work too well with blogger, so i haven't been updating. Now I figured it out and I'll be back to posting more frequently.

Web page update

I just updated my website: www.scottsackett.org with a new design and lots of new art.

It's been awhile...

Sorry it's been awhile since I updated my blog. I was assigned to draw a story for Viper Comics. I drew Caged a story written by Ross May for Crytophobia, Viper's online webcomic devoted to cryptozoology.

This was my first professional job drawing comics. Now that it is done, I am searching for my next gig.