Sketching!

So, I went to a great sketching evening with some new friends from the Bay Area chapter of the ArtOrder group (found at http://artorder.ning.com/ ) A wonderful time was had by all (Alexis, our hostess, Brian, Mike, MuYoung and me). We also procured the services of an awesome model Francine Mean, who brought many costumes and even put on a short Fire show for us after the session was over.

In the interests of full disclosure, I now present to you the sketches I did that evening. It was not only fun, it was a great chance to do something that I hadn't done for MANY years, and stretch those artistic muscles we all need to exercise once in a while.

2-minute warm-ups:

5 - 10 minutes:

(Here's where I started using some 4B and 8B pencils on top of the HB and 2B)

And finally some 20-minute pieces!

I think I was getting into a groove over the last hour or so, and I'm pretty happy with how the evening went. I'm looking forward to a lot more live drawing now that I'm back in the Bay Area and there are more opportunities for this sort of thing.


Usually I show off my finished stuff here or elsewhere online, or at least a sketch leading up to a finished piece so you can see the progression, but here we have just practice, plain and simple, with numerous warts to amuse you. Let me know what you think!

-Patrick

fun thing - Avengers

So. I was Googling for something or other, and up came this:

I thought to myself, "Hmm... I've seen these pictures somewhere before.. But WHERE? And it soon occurred to me: Oh yeah, I DID THEM!

That's right, I'd completely forgotten about one of the many Marvel special projects I did. Duh. I had drawn these like a year before the show came out, then absolutely never thought to check the show out. Someone else went in and did the inks and colors, but I'd done the drawings. It's always cool to see something like that finally released! So many of my Marvel pieces never get out to the general public.

So, for the first time - my Avengers Animated drawings!

©2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.

©2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.

©2011 Marvel Characters, Inc.

The Blue and Red overlays are an indication to the colorist of where shadows and highlights could go. You can see they sort of followed them, but not always (for instance Cap's shield is very different). Oh, and I didn't draw the Hulk.

I also did Ant Man and Hawkeye, but they aren't on the cover... If I ever see them somewhere I'll post those drawings too!

One more thing - I should mention that after I discovered this I took a look at the show (on Netflix streaming) and it is AWESOME. Started a bit slow, but it really took off, with small arcs coming to a huge, satisfying conclusion at the end of the 26-episode first season. This is what Heroes desperately wanted to be, I think; great, epic storytelling. And, even better, it works for kids AND adults, too.

Well, that's it for today. Just thought you might want to see some behind-the scenes stuff. Leave a note if you thought it was interesting!

New things, new commissions

Hi all!

Well, things have been hopping! I'm officially art directing a new online game from Dark Skull Studios, I'm doing some work for Marvel, starting a new iPad project AND still working on World War Kaiju. Busy enough? Not really - I've got some commissions too!

Here's what I've done lately on the commission front. I'm having LOTS of fun drawing these days...

Neil Gaiman's Death:

Scott James Taylor as Starkweather (& Solomon the lizard!):

Mary Watson, née Marston (from Sherlock Holmes' "The Sign of Four"):

Need I add that I want you -- yes YOU -- to drop by my online store and order a commission of your own? :) click here!

OK, T.T.F.N - talk to you later.

-Patrick

More commissions

Not a lot to report today, but I thought I'd share the latest commission work I've done. Everyone's getting pen and ink lately, which is fine with me. I haven't done much of that in recent years, so it's great to get back into it. (And it's going faster with practice, too!)

Lobster Johnson:

Judge Death and Judge Fish:

Rorschach:

If you're curious, I'm doing all of these on Strathmore smooth bristle, using a combination of Deleter and Pitt pens, a Windstor & Newton #1 sable brush, Titanium white acrylic, and Higgins Black Magic ink. And they're all 9" x 12".

If you want to order one of your own, don't be shy - I love doing them! Find out all about them on my new online store!

-Patrick

Epic Gladiator is out!

Hi again!

Wow, what about all these posts lately? I'm trying to be more diligent about posting with news and interesting stuff as it happens.

Case in point: the release of an iPhone app I did the art for several months back. EPIC GLADIATOR! (The game is free!)

It's a social game for iOS devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch) where you train and equip your stable of gladiators and fight against your friends (or enemies) for glory and fun. Yay! And I did all the art - hundreds of icons, backgrounds, characters, etc. Believe me, there are a LOT of weapons to get, each one unique.

Let me know what you think! I'm pretty happy with it. And I even did the logo. Check it out:

(This is the splash screen for the iPhone version).

In other news -- have you been to my online store yet? I'll be adding more stuff to it each day, so give it a try! http://www.megaflowgraphics.com/store

- Patrick

Online store ho!

Hey folks,

Well, I've finally gotten a real online store together. Excitement abounds!

http://www.megaflowgraphics.com/store

There's also a link to it from my main Megaflowgraphics.com site and here on the blog.

So, what exactly is there? Glad you asked. (Or, more precisely, I'm glad I think you asked...)

First, importantly, I have commissions available! Pencil and Ink now, and I'll be adding color soon. All the different options (sizes, backgrounds, number of characters) are available with E-Z pulldowns. Just order what you want, and put the description of your picture in the "Additional Notes" box during checkout. Couldn't be easier! :D

Also, I'll be adding some original paintings and drawings that I've done in the past for various assignments. The first piece that's up is my Forest Elemental painting. I'll be putting up some more of those on there soon. These are one-of-a-kind pieces, so don't miss out!

And finally, there are some prints available. I'll be adding more soon!

(By the way, did you know there is A LOT more of my art for sale through DeviantArt? Just go to my gallery there and look for any picture with the little shopping-bag icon next to the name. You can buy prints of different sizes, mouse pads, magnets, mugs and cards of all of them. I know, it's like you died and went to heaven, right?

Thanks, and please let me know what you think of the new store. I love to get feedback!

-Patrick

What I'm up to lately

Hey folks,

Thought you'd like a short update on my current projects. Would you? Darn this turn-based communication! Well, I shall simply assume you would and proceed from there...


A couple of interesting things came out recently. I did the illustration for an article in the new Dungeon magazine (#189) called "Killing Ground". You can see a preview here. Also out now from WotC is the "D&D Heroes of Shadow" supplement book. I did a few pictures in there that were quite fun.

Next up, I did the art and graphic design for an iPhone app that came out recently called "Police Scanner Radio" (yes, it's just what the name says!). The same company, Critical Hit Software, is in the very, very final stages of game-tuning for a new app called "Epic Gladiator", which should be lots of fun. You can find previews of the massive amounts of icon and other art I did for it here.

Lots of cards in the Legend of the Five Rings "Dead of Winter" set a few months back, and more in next month's "Before the Dawn". Read about that game on the AEG site.

In addition, I'm working on an awesome new Graphic Novel called World War Kaiju. Find out about it here, or check my DeviantArt account for updates! I think you'll be blown away by the ideas.

Speaking of DeviantArt, I'm updating that account more often these days, with both brand new art and favorite oldies. Take a look, give me faves, watch my account... Whatever makes you happy. :)

Aside from that, lots of development work for various iPhone games, concept art, and other stuff that I can't show for various reasons.

Oh, and did I mention I'm doing commissions these days? Let me not forget that!

That's it for now - talk to you soon!

Commissions - what they look like!

Well, I've completed the first three commissioned drawings, and I thought I'd share. I had lots of fun doing these, and hopefully there will be more in the future. I thoroughly enjoyed doing some quick work just for the fun of it.

(By the way, these were all ordered without backgrounds. The minimal backgrounds are included when I feel the figure needs them for a good composition, as all three of these did!)

*****

To recap, here are the types of pieces available and prices. NOTE - there's one addition now. Color! Yes, I'll be doing color pieces too, if anyone needs such a thing.

Here are the prices for a 9" x 12" picture -

Single figure pencil: $30

Single figure inked: $40

Single figure color/ink: $80

These may or may not include a bit of background or other elements, depending on how I think the composition works best. Also, the single figure could be a bust if you like. (Same price as a full figure, because I'll be putting extra work into the face detail, hair, etc.).

Add-ons -

Background: add $20

Each additional character: add $20

11" x 14" size: add $20

Shipping is included for U.S. - extra for other countries, based on actual cost.

Send your requests to me by email: contact@megaflowgraphics.com. For payment, Paypal is preferred, but I can accept a check if you have to do that.

Starkweather character sketches

It's time for a little bit more about my process on Starkweather: Immortal, the graphic novel!

Originally, we were going to print an issue 3 and 4, but as I mentioned in my previous Starkweather post, those plans were changed so we'd just fold that all into the hardback GN collection. And for issue 3, we were starting with a scene that introduces several new characters at a mysterious meeting place.

New characters means "new character designs" of course. My partner-in-infamy Dave Rodriguez is very good about writing vague descriptions of characters and letting me design them visually pretty much as I like, so this is always a fun part of the process. I don't spend a lot of time making the pictures look 'great', per se (or even 'good'!), since they are just for me and Dave. However they do have to serve as a model for future drawings. Here are some of the new characters that are introduced in the first few pages of the former "issue 3"...


Barak


Decarte


Mr. Nyps


Persephone (She's sort of based visually on a movie star from the 1920's & '30's, Brigitte Helm).

I usually fill up a few pages with ideas before I get to this point, and then do a page like this with some front and side views and a bit of distinctive emotion or action the character might display. With that done, I am able to work going forward with a good idea of how these characters look and feel. I did a couple more pages of sketches of each before starting the final drawings, just so I was comfortable with them.

And here is where we first meet Mr. Nyps and his boss, Persephone. This is the first page of chapter 3!




As before, I'd appreciate any feedback you might have, questions, comments, etc. Thanks for stopping by.

Starkweather: Immortal!

It's finally done. It's in the can. It's completely finished.

"Will Ferrell's career" you ask? No, we wish. Rather, I speak of the Graphic Novel that I've been working on with writer Dave Rodriguez for (off and on) 2-1/2 years!

STARKWEATHER: IMMORTAL

This hardback edition from Archaia will contain 138 pages of story, four covers, a complete original prose story by Piers Anthony, and lots of contemporary fantasy fun! It compiles Starkweather: Immortal issues 0 - 2, and the unpublished issues 3 and 4 (with the fourth part coming in at 35 pages alone!)


Here's a first look at the wraparound cover for the book:



The logo, "trade dress" etc. goes on the right side, and the left side is the back cover, where Dave will no doubt write some gloriously wonderful prose to sell the book to prospective buyers. Such as you!!

We hope that the book will be published and ready for the San Diego Comic-Con in July. We were hoping to have it out in time for Wonder*Con in San Francisco (in April) but unfortunately our fine publisher Archaia didn't have a place for us on the schedule for then. So July it is. I think it will be worth the wait.

And we've already waited a long time as it is! After a good start with the zero issue (based on a story written for us by Fantasy great Piers Anthony) and then two main issues, we sort of hit some snags. Archaia Studios Press had some ownership shakeups, and took a year off from publishing, to re-emerge last year as simply "Archaia". In the meantime I personally had some ongoing money problems which greatly curtailed the time I could spend on what is basically an unpaid labor of love.

However, during that extra time Dave was continually thinking about, and improving the script. After a few plot sessions we actually ended up with a very different animal than we'd started with, and Dave re-scripted much of chapter 4 and added some pages to chapter 3... Which gave me a lot of extra work, but I think you'll find it was well worth it.

Also - of interest to those of you who have already read issue Zero (the story of Cartaphilus, immortal Roman bastard), Dave went back and extensively tweaked the script, so the version in this volume will read (I think you'll agree) MUCH better than the original. We're still using Piers Anthony's story, but now I think the dialog works better for the comics page, thanks to Dave's expert massaging.

[Quick aside - you will probably love Dave's web comic Shadowgirls, with art by Dave Reynolds. I know I do! www.shadowgirlscomic.com]

MY BIG PLAN
So right here, on this very blog, I plan to do a series of behind-the-scenes process posts. Showing sketches, drawings, render process, 3D models (I used a few for recurring sets!) and hopefully some interesting thoughts about the series in general.

As a start, here's a previously-unpublished page from the fourth chapter. No big spoilers on this page, I think (and I won't be including any word balloons anyway on these previews) but I think it's a fun one. Definitely one of my favorite pages from the chapter.





OK, more to come soon, including some steps through my work process for panels. Hope to see you here. Please leave a message if you like reading about this.

-Patrick

Lovecraft Primer

Hey, that book I illustrated several months ago is out:


Click here and here to see the black and white pictures steps I used to create some of the art for this book. I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out!