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!

 

 

 

 

How do we do it?!

Cody Hagman and I are working on a new project. You’ve seen a few things I’ve been working on for it, but I thought folks might enjoy seeing the steps it takes for us working together.

To the rescue.

Just when you thought I was down for the count, here I am again, stronger than ever.  These words are brought to you by the following superhero, who I worked-up from a rejected commission sketch recently:

It’s been a busy month, relocating myself and business to Oklahoma City.  I haven’t lived in this part of the country for 20 years, and it’s been a little readjustment.  I don’t mean that sarcastically, it’s only taken a small amount of effort to be comfortable here.  It helps when there’s family nearby (I was born and raised not too from from here) and when the culture is a familiar and welcoming one.  This area seems to be exploding right now, but it’s still incredibly affordable and roomy compared to the cities I’ve lived in on the West Coast.

All that aside, the freelance work has really picked up and I’ve had to hurry to keep pace.  When combined with a new day job, I’m all-of-a-sudden out of the free time I’ve been enjoying for the past 8 or 9 months.  So, enjoy this little piece I did last night, while a bout of insomnia had hold of me.  I’ll post more as they sneak their way out.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I know you were all hoping for mushy words from me, but those are reserved for my beautiful Sarah.

The last suit you’ll ever wear.

Here’s another “reject” from an old sketchbook.  Often I just like the shape of a drawing, and that was the case of this piece.  The pencils behind this when I found them recently were very vague, but the shape was blocky and round, and I could see it had promise.  So, I threw some tracing paper on the page and traced this out in technical pen.  It’s a little plain, but it makes me think of what might have been the fashion in space-wear if we’s continued on with the superior power-source of steam.  An astronaut wearing this may not be able to see anything, but at least they’ll be tough!

Digital love

The past month has been very busy. I wish I could say that it was all drawing, but it was just the opposite. Very quickly, my girlfriend I decided to quit our jobs, pack up everything in our San Francisco apartment, and move out east into a cute little house in Rochester, NY. So, I’m pretty far behind on several projects. I always tell myself that I’ll draw en route and bring lots of supplies with me, but I rarely do. Here’s what happens when I try to draw on my iPad while traveling:

Reggie is ready.

Working on issue #4 of Father Robot, and I had need to whip up this little piece to reference Reggie facing straight at the viewer.  Just thought I’d share…

New, deluxe model.

With this rig, you’d be ready for anything.

I wanted this space suit to have the look of “too much” room inside the helmet.  One thing that always bugs me about the space suits I see in movies, comics, and even my own artwork is that it always looks like the person’s head is going to bounce off the inside of the helmet if they got a good shakin’.  Unless the neck is being secured by some kind of collar, there’s still many degrees of head movement, and in the rough environments these suits are made for, one is going to end up getting a bruise from numerous smacks against that protective covering.

This design would not only keep that from happening, but leaves lots of room for screens, cushioning, windows, and communication equipment.  Since the technology involved with such suits would be able to see the surroundings better than the human eye (through thick glass), the front-facing port is above the wearers head and service a camera.  The person inside has a screen in center-view, and would be able to take advantage of a range of vision types.

I got the look I wanted for this one by drawing the suit by hand, scanning it into the digital realm, and then printing out several copies of the lifework on marker paper.  I then did the value and local color separately, with Copic markers, combined them in Photoshop, and did a little clean-up and tweaking to get the image you see here.  It was lots of fun.

Father Robot tries self awareness.

Issue #3 is just about ready for mass consumption.  In this chapter, FR comes face-to-face with the reality of his identity, and both he and Reggie have to make sense of the robot’s truth of existence.  What will Clarabelle do?  Can they all escape becoming casualties of war?!

I collaborated with the mega-talented Cody Hagman on this one.  I did the line work and Cody brought life to the drawing with awesome, digital colors.

Happy Father(Robot)’s Day!

The writer and co-creator of Father Robot, Kristopher White, came up with a great idea to promote our book for Father’s Day.  Basically, Father Robot should participate in an old-fashioned photo op for the holiday.  I couldn’t help but taunt Reggie (the real father of Clarabelle, the heroine of the story) in the piece, as seen below.  Both Kristopher and the publisher like a friendlier version, but I still like this tongue-in-cheek version.