The Road Warrior

Alright, until I get this properly photographed, this will have to do.  It's a giant, 30" across, 40" tall.  I'll give some making of shots, with a few close-ups, until I get a real pic of this thing.

Here it is after the underdrawing and blacks were completed.  This time I went back in with some white to bring back in the sun glare.

This has most of the warm colors painted, skin tones and costumes...

...and the the full color.  This was achieved both with the airbrush, and a large brush, used to create the yellowish orange wash coverage.

This is the first pass of colored pencils on top of the paint.  Everything is covered and detailed, and at this point it's really a matter of finding balance, going back and forth with paint, pencils, and airbrush to get to the final at the top of the post.

This is a pre-final pic of the Gyro Captain, painted and penciled, but still unbalanced.

Same with Max's best friend here.

So there you have it, bad photo and all.  On to Superman...

Transformers Prime : Rage of the Dinobots #4

Grimlock vs. Ser-Ket, as the other Dinobots look on.

The editor, John Barber, suggested a fight scene for the cover of the final issue, pitting these two against each other.  I did a few sketches, and we both settled on this one, portraying the clash at the point just before impact.  The full weight of Ser-Ket is bearing down on Grimlock, stinger poised, and Grimlock has his sword extended, ready for a downward slash - who will draw first energon?

Well, that was the idea anyway.  I hope it comes across...

OK, on to the making of and technical stuff:

Here's a look at the thumbnails, 1 and 2 are essentially the same, a closer-up shot of the two grappling, the 3rd is a front shot of Grimlock getting choked out by Ser-Ket, and the fourth is the one chosen - just as dynamic, but leaves some room to put indications of the other Dinobots.

This is the layout sketch to get approval to move on to the final, with the temp logo added in, so I can get the best composition.  I had drawn the other Dinobots silhouettes separately, so I could tweak them here and there to get the right balance.

And so here is the final pencils/inks to take to final.

And that wraps it up for this series, I think issue one finally hits shelves tomorrow!!!


This cover art, and the art for the rest of the series is on sale on the Bad Flip Productions Facebook page, along with leftover convention prints and sketchbooks, in the Original Art Gallery and Convention Artwork albums.

EU Trooper 04 - Final!

Done.  And I'm pretty happy with what I achieved in terms of goals for this one.  I do think the canyon walls are a little weak - I think I need to do some environment practice again - but the character (and around him) work was the main focus, and putting in the extra time for small details.  Getting to the point where I usually stop, I went back and added more nicks and scrapes, rough-edged the fabrics on the wraps, and did another overall detail pass.  I also spent a lot of time with the foreground rocks, using a brush to create general blobs, and then going over it again and again with detail passes.  I like the technique I learned from it, but I think there are areas that are a little too busy.

I also tried to push the color a little more than usual, notably bringing in the blue tints up in the sky, and working with an alternate shade color, with a low saturated purple, rather than just darker oranges.  And, for the first time probably since the 90's, I used a lens flare for a little punch up.  I think I got away with it.

Above, those a technique nitpicks, but overall I really like this piece, and it certainly bridges the gap between what I taught myself in 2012, and my goals for 2013.  Looking forward to the next one...

I'll add in the others, so readers can scroll through the step by step - I think it's super fun!

Happy Thanksgiving!

EU Trooper 03

OK, here he is with a lot more details refined, and a secondary color added for the shadows.  I also brought down the saturation a bit.

On to the second detail pass, focusing on the background...

EU Trooper 02

OK, here's the sketch with some color thrown in there, ready to start the rendering!  I did something different this time - I usually keep the characters and background separate, this time I flattened the image to see if I get better results - but I know I'll go back to layers off and on - it's a process, after all.

EU Trooper 01

EU?  Expanded Universe.

So, the Death Star II got blown up...now what?  This guy is NOT going to get picked up any time soon, so he's going Native.  On Tatooine of course, since it's the only important planet in the galaxy.

I've been pretty busy lately, so I'm going to post this in parts, just like the old days.  It's time to push the style one step further.  I think it culminated in the Cap piece, well enough that it's what I use for paid work now, comic covers, etc., but this blog is all about pushing myself.

I can get something comprehensive done quickly now, but it's time to add another finished layer to these pieces, and see what I can come up with.  I need to push my lighting, and experiment with different brushes.

So I started 2012 with goals of working on painterly styles, and more environment work.  Now it's time to push it to the next level, and this will be the transition piece to take me into 2013.

Here's something I believe in.

I never ever post anything other than my own work on here, but here's something that I think is pretty special...

Shockwave

New print!  Shockwave, taking a stroll through his path of destruction....

This image was built on the drawing that was in the Vol. II sketchbook:

But since it was...you know...a little sketchy, I needed to redraw it a little tighter, making small tweaks here and there, and add in more detail:

So this is what I used to render out the actual final.

Leftover convention prints and sketchbooks, along with original art, are available for sale on the Facebook page !

Rumor? Shockwave says NO.

Well, I was going to debut a new image on the blog today, but given the Disney/Hasbro rumors swirling - originating as a rumor (I'm looking at you financial news aggregates, nice sourcing) from MTV Geek News of all places - but I thought I'd tweak it just a bit in a quasi-response.

I wouldn't be sad or upset or anything if it were true, regarding Hasbro's properties being taken over, but I would be even more disappointed in how pathetic the once mighty Walt Disney Company has become, in terms of leading the way in story telling and IP creation.  When I was there, we had to put up with crappy sequels of classic animated films, then they started buying up IP and companies like Pixar, the Muppets, later Marvel - the Lucasfilm purchase does make a lot of sense, but again...I know there is a massive talent pool at the company that is continually overlooked by the clueless MBA's running the place these days, looking down at marketing trend spreadsheets for answers, with no vision of where fresh ideas could go.  To ignore what those people are capable of doing, and cultivating and retaining those concepts and building the creative core of the company like Walt did back in the day, is again, pathetic.  Sitting around buying other companies successes is a shame, when you have the exact same resource already on the payroll.  As a creator, it's very exciting to have the opportunity to play with the new acquisitions, but it's also bittersweet knowing you have to shelve your own internal development to handle the intake.

Of course it makes great business sense to do these things, but it's a little sad to me, knowing they have great talents working for them already, dying for the chance to create those new worlds and characters for Disney.  It makes me wonder, in the long run, if we as fans are going to be getting less out of these companies and properties due to the abundance of riches?

So, it's not really a statement of Hasbro/Disney being a bad thing - I love Disney, Marvel, Star Wars, and Hasbro, look at the majority of stuff in this blog the last four years! Why not have my four great loves under one roof? - it's more a lamentation of exciting things from Disney that will never see the light of day due to the consolidation of these businesses, there's just no room.

Any ways, those are my thoughts on this rumor - the real Shockwave image goes up tomorrow!  If you can't wait, just imagine no Mickey Mouse Club hats, and Autobot symbols instead of Mickey heads.

Long Beach Comic & Horror Con this weekend!

Did I mention this yet?

I'll be at the Long Beach Comic Con, Nov. 3rd and 4th, you can find me at #1401, Ken Christiansen/Bad Flip Productions.


I'll be selling prints, sketchbooks, and original artwork, come by to see me!  I do have one brand new print on hand for sale at the show...here's a tease:

I'll reveal the full image next week, and post for sale details for any leftovers.


Hope to see you there!