Today I did start the day with a “personal 30”, thirty minutes carved out of any viable work time, because I needed to draw something – anything – just for myself. What I draw for myself:
Sometimes a cover is best as a simple picture of the person standing there, or a dynamic action shot. Other times, a completely different approach works out better and leads to more interesting places. Here’s a case of the latter working out better. How didI end up with these circles?
I had a few directions for this one, from the maximalist “just put everything in there” to a 3D one (using the model I made sometime in the middle of issue four of Skulldigger and Skeleton Boy and then promptly forgot to actually use for reference for the rest of the book.)
The second hardcover omnibus volume is out now, collecting the last (and best) volume I did with John Arcudi, Pirate’s Ghost and Metal Monsters of Midtown, as well as the first book, The Iron Prometheus by Jason Armstrong and Mignola, and short stories that were originally collected in the fifth paperback, A Chain Forged in Life. Roughly 470 pages of Lobster.
Continuing Lobster week and stepping a year earlier with this one. All the covers back then started as watercolor thumbnails. That was a pretty satisfying way to figure things out, as well as a good method of keeping it simple in terms of color.
Hey, pencil and paper. I don’t remember why this one wasn’t finished (or why it was started) – maybe I gave up when I got to the part that included any actual drawing – but it’s a view into how things were (not) done circa 2014.
This one could qualify as archival too, since it was drawn in 2021, but it’s personal work, and not out yet, so instead it’s a peek at the ongoing present, as I rework some of it this morning.
Last year I spent a fun afternoon coming up with some “home-made” costume concepts for an IKEA ad. The idea was that the girl in it progresses from making cardboard outfits as a child to growing up into a career in 3D and VFX. The final commercial mashed together pieces of my other ideas, but these were my favorites as drawings.
(Free Halloween idea, and maybe the green screen one can work in some sort of St. Patrick’s Day scenario too.)
