I worked with designer Jillian Wilschke to develop a line of bags based on characters inspired by properties like Hello Kitty. What we came up with was Together Wonderful. A bunch animals that find adventure in their own backyard. Each character has his or her own personality.
There’s the bashful Winston the Fox, the adventurer Amelia the Cat, good ‘ol Gus the Pup, the grumpy Sunny the Bunny and of course the bookish Bluebeary!
Here’s their little bios:
Team Portrait:
Some more pics:
Although I’ve been going to Botcon since 2000 this was the first year I had a table in Artist Alley. It was a fantastic experience that resulted in making a lot of new friends with both fans and professionals.
I had a bunch of new prints including my homage to “Weird Al” Yankovic featuring his Transformers Animated character Wreck Gar and his My Little Pony Cheese Sandwich!
Some pics from Botcon 2014:
A few of my Generation One Transformers sketch cards:
Whirl needed to step on some bugs.
I have some Transformers appearances coming up and figured it was about time I had some bot prints. And what’s more fun than a little girl shooting up some Insecticons? Nothing…that’s what!
I loved drawing the Uzis. I need to draw more guns. Hooray for violence!
Here’s the inked version:
Alas my cover for My Little Pony #16 is out on shelves! Here’s the original comic art so you can see under the logo. It was used as a retailer incentive cover.
Here’s the pencils and inks as well as a fun pic of it on the shelf at my local comic retailer Emerald Knights in Burbank, CA.:
Gimme Paws designs asked me to make some accessories to complement their selection of whimsical yet fashionable animal ears, paws and tails. So I created a line of leather collars and leashes adhering to Gimme Paws’ fluffy and furry style. Here are some pics!
This February I have a My Little Pony cover coming out for issue #16 featuring Daring Do and a buncha jungle animals. I think I may be the first Pony artist to draw piranha in Equestria. You can’t see him very well, but there is a pretty cool looking snake hiding under the logo. When the book comes out I will post a better image with and without the logo.
I considered having Gummy make an appearance with the gators but it detracted from Daring Do’s carefree attitude in the face of danger.
Read the solicitation for issue #16 at Equestria Daily: http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/11/covers-and-synopsis-for-february.html
With the one exception of the owl, I have had pets of all these critters. Yes, even an alligator! (Long story!) Originally I was going to do a pinup of Pinkie Pie and her silly pet gator Gummy, but being an animal lover I decided to do a group portrait of all the ponies’ pets. Counter clockwise: Winona, Angel, Owlowiscious, Opalescence, Gummy and of course Tank.
Here is the original sketch with Pinkie Pie, the pencils and the inked page.
See? I told you I had a pet alligator.
Here’s me with Spot.
Unlike Gummy, Spot had teeth!
I decided to make a cover sample for Ben 10 and there are a lot of different aliens to choose from. I ended up going with Shocksquatch for two reasons. 1) He was designed by my friend the great Derrick Wyatt for the Omniverse cartoon. 2) He looks like Ookla the Mok from the old show Thundarr the Barbarian! Oh, how I love quoting that cartoon.
“Lords of light! Demon dogs! Ookla! Ariel! To the horses! We ride!”
Anyway… the cover is an homage to Jack Kirby’s cover for Hulk #1.
Applejack is taking the rest of the family for a nice, peaceful ride in the country.
Unlike in math class, I like to show my work.
1. This is the initial sketch. Usually these sketches are nothing more than scribbles to help me visualize the idea. This is one of the better ones. Often they are comprised of stick figures, notes and randomness.
2.Then my first attempt at the pencils. I realized that Applejack wasn’t as dynamic as I wanted her. Also, she doesn’t fill the page and the design has no “flow” to it.
3. That led me to redo the pencils. Here I made her bigger so she looks like she’s running off the page. She’s also lower than the cart which divides the page and adds some depth to it.
4. Lastly, the inked page.
I originally created this image of Cobra Commander to be the cover for the G. I. Joe: Field Manual Volume 1. But ultimately we decided we wanted a good guy on the cover and went with a great image of Duke waving the American flag by the Sharp Bros. None-the-less, this image was used for Amazon and other promotions before the book came out.
I was sitting next to master artist Livio Ramondelli at a signing in a comic store one day and began asking him about his methods and process. Afterwards I went home and applied it to this piece. Basically I penciled it in full detail (shadows, textures, etc.) and then digitally colored it with no inking.
The image reflected in Cobra Commander’s mask is the character model for Roadblock that is used in the book. Contrary to my Transformers work, there are no hidden messages or meanings in the numbers. However, the opening dialogue from the cartoon, “G.I Joe is the code name for…” etc, appears. Also that’s where I signed my name. Seemed appropriate considering normally my signature is backwards.
You can check out Livio Ramondelli’s art here: http://www.livioramondelli.com/
And you can get the G.I. Joe: Field Manual Vol. 1 here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1613773501/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d3_i2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-4&pf_rd_r=08BM6QVW0F974CQZVF1E&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938451&pf_rd_i=507846