Happy Aliens Day!

In celebration of Aliens Day (4/26, as in LV-426… c’mon, people!), I thought it’d be nice to finish the Colonial Marine spacesuit from earlier.  This is based on a Tony Akins design from 1993’s Aliens: Colonial Marines comic.  I added some sweet modifications…

I should have a color version to share soon, as well.

Just for fun.

I’ve been working on a superhero commission all weekend.  While the design we went with was ultimately different, I thought this unused design was pretty damn fun:

Super-bum!

I showed it to my buddy/fellow artist Cody, and he liked it too.  Enough so, that he took his mad digital coloring skills to it.  If you’d like to see the color version, by the talented Mr. Hagman, check it out here.

Send in the Space Marines!

There were some very pivotal encounters in my childhood that set the tone for much of the rest of my life.  Seeing the movie Aliens was definitely one of those encounters.  Finding out, a few years later, that there were also comic books based on the Alien Franchise, was just as profound but in a slightly different way.  At that point, I felt that I could not only enjoy the world those stories were set in, I could participate!

I started drawing the space (Colonial) Marines from the world of the Alien/Aliens movies.  Back then, in the late 80’s/early 90’s, references were hard to come by.  So, when I series like Aliens: Colonial Marines came out in 1993, I was ecstatic.  The first three issues, drawn by Tony Akins, inked by Paul Guinan, and colored by Matt Hollingsworth, were just… phenomenal!  The first three issues were chock-full of new spacesuit designs, space guns, star ships, and dynamic action scenes.

Having gotten a new lease on my drawing-life recently, I’ve been inspired to start drawing some of those designs myself.  Here’s a pencil sketch of the security from the Sungun station:

I’ll clean it up in the near future.  In the meantime, here’s a taste of one of the wonderful treats that series offered up:

Arrested development… thwarted!

Every freelance artist knows the pain of trying to be a business person when all they really want to do is make art.  The whole “getting paid” part is more about a desire for spending all your time getting to create instead of having another job to pay the bills.  It’s a tough proposition.  Either you spend more time ( a LOT more) operating the business-side of freelancing than one would want, or, like me, you end up getting another job so that the art-making doesn’t become just amount the money.  There’s many pitfalls with either, and the one I have fallen into for the past few years is spending so much time working elsewhere that my freelance efforts have suffered.

Recently, however, a series of events have coinciding in my life, giving me a second wind, and I feel a powerful push to do more freelancing.  One of those events have been an inexplicable upswing in commissions, encouraging me to keep going as well as giving me a good reason to draw more!

So, I’ve been in my studio a lot more lately, and I feel the desire to finish old projects as well as really dig into new ones.  In keeping with that, I want to start making available the long-awaited issue #3 of Father Robot:

Want one?  Well, you certainly can right here!

 

 

 

 

New (pur)suit.

So, I’m gearing up for a new project, requiring lots of new designs.  This one is really just some practice, trying a few new things; Most noticeably, I’m trying to get away clear, bubble helmets.  Also, I like space suits that could also be robots!

I work in a fishbowl.

Some people complain because they work in a cubicle. I feel like my desk, which sits in the middle of an intersection of busy hallways and has absolutely no privacy, is like working in a fishbowl. That being said, I’d gladly don a big round fishbowl-like helmet if it attached to a spacesuit for work. There’s just something about a techno suit that has everything you need to stay alive that I love.

New year, new gear.

I’m feeling spacesuits that are too heavy. Remember that movie Deadman? These cowboy-types are out in the wild, being cold, and one guy says, “don’t worry about your arms, they’ll take care of themselves. Keep you body warm.” I’ve always felt that way about spacesuits. The armor has gotta be on top.

Getting ready… for action!

Like a bolt out of the blue, the desire to create and produce new artwork just comes back. I've been wanting to draw for some time, but wanting to and feeling compelled to are different things. Life gets busy, priorities can change, and time becomes a thief. However, when that itch finds its way under your skin, there's nothing for it except to start scratching…

Breathe deep…

Up to a few months ago, I was working on a project about the experience certain children (young adults?) have when they have to go in the hospital for fairly serious procedures.  It was a difficult project because of the subject matter, and very personally challenging for me because it was a drastic change-of-subject for me.  No robots or spacesuits in this story…

Anyway, I posted a few panels from the pages while they were in-progress, but I wanted to share one of my favorite pages as well.  The finished page was colored and has some dialogue where the poor kid is being warned that he’s about to be put under (breathe deep!), but I kind of like just the cleaned-up line work.  I feel like the “fading” visual works better in black & white.

One funny thing, when drawing this POV, I used my own legs as reference.  I guess it’s not enough that the poor teen had to be in the hospital, but I had to go and give him 40-year-old-man-legs.

The new year.

Hey!  Busy, busy, busy.  I’m determined to get more posts out, though.  Lately I’ve been working like a madman and sleeping very little.  The weeks fly by and I find myself nearly into the second month of 2016 already, with no real recollection of what happened to the month of January.  I still find myself thinking of what I’m going to accomplish in the new year, and then realizing I’m well into it.  Accomplish I have, though!  Most excitingly, the printing (finally) of issue #3 of Father Robot.  I’ve been waiting for the publisher to put out the digital version, to no avail.  I have no idea what’s going on there…

Anyway, in the spirit of all things FR, here’s a sketch from way-back in the development days of the series.  I don’t know why he has no arm.

I’ve got to get back to work, but I hope you enjoy the drawing and please feel free to drop me a line here or at sam@samgarlandillustrations… especially if you’d like to acquire a copy of the new issue!