So here are two more portfolio pages for y'all to see.

First up we have a Gen 13 page which I picked because I've never coloured anything even remotely mangaesque before, so I figured I'd give it a shot.

Why was a Gen 13 book was done in this style, you ask?  Well truth be told I don't really follow the book so I haven't a clue actually (though I am fairly certain it's not normally done like this..right?).  However this was taken from an annual instead of a the regular series, so maybe it was sort of a "What if?" one shot type of thing.

Pencils by Kaare Andrews

Inks by Mark Irwin

Colours by me

Click the pic above to see the full sized image

Next up we've got a Green Lantern page that oddly enough doesn't have a single member of the GLC on it (though it does have Alan Scott, so at least that's something). Can't really remember why I specifically picked this page, but I'm guessing it had something to do with the fact that it allowed me to colour Superboy Prime, Cyborg Superman, and Sups himself all on one page. Sadly, no Krypto though, but no page can perfect I guess.

I should also point out that I spent way too much time tweaking this page once it was done. Don't get me wrong, I think it's always good to take another pass at something that just doesn't look perfect to you, but there comes a point for me where if I obsess about a page for too long I lose all sense of perspective and begin to second guess everything I've done. That's where I'm at right now. So in the end I figured the best thing for me to do at this is just post it, move on, and then look at it again in a couple weeks with fresh eyes.

Pencils by Ivan Reis

Inks by Júlio Ferreira

Colours by the man sitting here wearing nothing but a smile and a wacom tablet

Click the pic above to see the full sized image

Alrighty folks, that's it for me.  Have yourselves a wonderful weekend and I'll see y'all when I have more to show you.

Later,

-Ed

Sorry for the long delay between updates. Most of the time I get so wrapped up in doing the work I have laid out in front of me that I forget to take enough time out to actually show it to y'all.

Anyway, here are a couple more pages from the colorist portfolio that I'll be carpet bombing editors with in the next couple months.

First up, much like the last one, we have page inked by Tim Townsend. This is one of those pages that really shows the unbelievable talent of Townsend, and how he can take an already beautiful page and then turn that bitch all the way up to 11. Seriously, for those of you out there who still think inkers are just "tracers", I dare you to check out this man's work and not be blown away.

My only regret with this page is that I wasn't able to get a clearer high-res version to work from.

But enough blabbing, here's the pic...

Pencils by Chris Bachalo

Inks by Tim Townsend

Colours by some jackass who doesn't update his site often enough

Click the pic above to see the full sized image

The second page I've got for ya is the first of two Green Lantern pages I've done up (I'll post the other one in a week or so).

When I pick pages to do for my portfolios I always try find ones that will be a bit of a challenge, or that'll allow me to work on one of my (many) problem areas. So this next page I chose because I figured it would be a real bitch to light properly.

As well I have a horrible habit of going off the deep end when I need to add any type of glow effect to something I colour. I try my best to keep this tendency under control, but sadly it often gets the better of me. In fact I can easily point out a couple dozen of Brad's strips that I feel I went totally over board on. I won't mind you, but I could if I felt like putting my numerous past mistakes on display for your entertainment.

Anyway, I knew that this particular page could do with a bit of a glow here and there, so I figured this might a perfect opportunity to show some restraint on my part.

Pencils by Ivan Reis

Inks by Julio Ferreira

Colours by me

Click the pic above to see the full sized image

Well that's it for now I think. I'll see you guys in a week or so when I finally get around to posting yet another portfolio page.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a tattoo to get back to work on.

Later,

-Ed

Well I'm finally getting around to posting some of the portfolio pages I've been working on this year.  For those of you who read this who may not know, a lot of artists create portfolios to send around and try and help drum up work for themselves and catch the eyes of potential employers.  Think of it as sort of a resume with pictures rather than words. 

In my case I'm currently working on a colouring portfolio that I'll be sending out to various publishers as well as handing out at this year's San Diego Comic Con.  SDCC is one of, if not the best show for artists such as myself to try and find work, as there are dozens of publishers represented there that are constantly looking for talent.  As well, it's one of only two shows of the year where DC comics accepts open submissions (which they refer to as their "talent search").

Anyway, over the next couple weeks I'll be dropping by here and posting different pages from my portfolio for y'all to look at, which you'll hopefully get a kick out of seeing.

So the first one I did up for 2009 was a two page spread from the House of M series that Marvel did a couple years back (be sure to click the pic below to see the full sized version). 

Pencils by : Olivier Coipel

Inks by : Tim Townsend

Colours by : Me

Click the pic above to see the full sized image 

Most of the time when I pick a practice or portfolio page to colour I do so because I want to try my hand at a specific pencilers work or comic title (which is why I will always have at least one Green Lantern page in my arsenal at any given time).  My picking this page however had way more to do with the inker than anything else.

I never really used to pay that much attention to the work of the various inkers that are out there busting ass each and every day to make the pencilers look good (and in some cases, look better than they really are) until I started seriously working towards a career in colouring.  Now that I have however, I've got to say that Townsend is by far one of my favourites.

Alrighty folks, that's it for me for now.  I'll be back in a couple of days to post another page for y'all to take a peek at.

Later,

-Ed

Yeah, I know it's been a while, but I'm hoping to make up for my lack of activity by posting multiple art updates over the next couple weeks.  Before I do that though I just I wanted to do a quick plug for a project I did some colouring work on late last year which has since come to fruition...

Brad Guigar's Evil Inc Annual Report Vol 4 is now up for pre-sale over at Evil Inc.  Now if you've never bought one of Brad's Annual Reports in the past there are a couple things you should know.  First off, unlike a lot of webcomic collections, Brad doesn't simply throw all his strips in a book and be done with it.  What he does is completely reformat a years worth of material and lay it all out so that his books have the look and feel of a proper graphic novel, which results in an impressive new reading experience.

The other thing I wanted to point out about this particular book is that for the first time ever the Annual Report is being presented in full colour.  Not only that, but the strips you'll find inside are all from the year before I even started colouring the webcomic, so they've never actually been seen in colour before now.

Brad and I put a lot of time and effort into this project so that it could be available in colour, and I think all that hard work and dedication have resulted in book that you folks will really get a kick out of.  So if you have a bit of extra coin kicking around, please head on over to Evil Inc and pre-order the Evil Inc Annual Report Vol 4 today.

Alrighty folks, that's it for me for now.  I'll be back on either later tonight or this time tomorrow at the latest to post one of my portfolio pages for y'all to look at.

Later,

-Ed

PS: I am insanely tired right now as I write this, so kindly forgive any typos you may have found.

Been a long time.  How ya been?  Really?  Awesome! Now lets get back to talking about me, shall we?

A while ago, Lar, put the idea in my head of trying out caricature work, and ever since then I've been sort of batting the idea around, but never really followed through on it.  Well, to be honest I have made a couple passes at this art form in the past, but I never really felt comfortable with the results, so I quickly abandoned the idea.

Then recently I noticed another artist who's work I've enjoyed for a couple years now stepped out of her comfort zone and tried her hand at some caricatures, and posted the (quite impressive) results on her blog.  So in the end I decided maybe it was time I grew a pair and gave it another shot.

Now, being the conceited guy that I am, I decided the best subject for my first attempt would of course be myself.  Also, I figured if I was going to offend anyone with a piss poor likeness, it would be best if that person wasn't someone who would either inflict bodily harm, or withhold certain intimate favours from me (or quite possibly both).

And so this is what I came up with in my first attempt...

Not exactly perfect, no, but I think it shows a lot more promise then the stuff I did a few years ago.

Anyway, I guess it's time for me to wrap this up with another comment filled with good intentions and hopeful promises to update this blog again soon, but which will eventually prove to be completely false, and then get back to work.

Later,

-Ed

PS: I recently added more links to my links page, but I'm still far from done. So if you're not up there, and you're pretty sure you should be, please don't be offended.  I'm sure you'll find yourself kicking around there sooner or later.

It occurred to me today that even though I've been doing a fair amount of colouring as of late, I haven't sketched anything in quite a while.  So I figured it was about time I dusted off my digital pencils and threw some shit down in Photoshop.

Oddly enough, once this one was all said and done, I found I was more happy with the sketch itself rather than the job I did on the colours.  Granted I didn't spend a whole lotta time on this piece, but that's kind of a lame excuse. I just feel the colours here are a bit too bland, and rather...I don't know...kinda pedestrian I guess. So I'm thinking of maybe using this piece as a sort of a practice zone for me to try out as few different things.

More often than not when I'm working on Brad's stuff I tend to play it pretty safe and use the same bag of tricks over and over instead of getting too experimental.  Mainly this is because I know that Brad has worked hard over the years to develop a very specific style to his artwork, and despite the fact that said style has changed, it has done so at a very natural and gradual pace.

This has allowed Evil Inc to have a nice consistency to it that I feel people have come to appreciate and expect.  So out of respect for that consistency I do my best to augment it rather than destroy it.  Which means that even though I have tweaked and altered a few things with my EI colours over the past year or so, I tend to shy away from using his strip as a testing ground for drastically new techniques and colouring methods (unless of course a specific storyline requires it).

As well, the other project I'm working on right now demands a very particular colouring style that I have already worked out with the writer, and therfore I can't really deviate from it.  Which means that if I want to do any type if experimenting at all, I best be doing it on my own time, and on stuff that no one else is really gonna care about or see.

And trust me when I say that I really want to get some extra practice in.  After all, San Diego is only a few months away, so I best be getting my ass in gear and do all I can before I need to start putting a new portfolio together.

Anyway, to make a long story longer, I might be posting a few versions of this particular piece over the next couple of weeks, so keep your eyes open for either that or maybe even some more new work.

Alrighty, time for me to try and grab some sleep.

Later,

Ed

PS: Sorry about the big copyright symbol gumming up the visuals a bit, but given all the infringement stories I've heard over the past couple of years, I figured it was better to be safe than sorry.

Just a quick note to say that if you're even half the Half-Life fan that I am, then this should pretty much blow you away.  Enjoy

 Later,

Ed

A couple days ago I noticed a journal entry on my buddy Lar deSouza's website that really caught my eye. Now you can always head on over there and read it yourself, but if you're only allowed to visit one site a day, and you've already chosen mine;

1) Wow. So I beat out like a zillion porn sites, huh?

and 2) Allow me to give you an abridged version of what Lar wrote.

Basically he talks about how while there are a number of busy, successful artists out there who are also able to keep up with a fairly constant update schedule with their own blogs (not to mention a whole host of other daily activities), he himself finds it difficult to even so much as return e-mails in a timely fashion.

And I gotta say, when I first read that, my initial thought was,"Wow. I know exactly how you feel, man!"

Granted I don't have the whole "successful" artist thing holding me back quite yet like Lar does, but I do have a full time "non-art" type job that takes up a lot of my time.  However, just like Lar, despite that fact I honestly do think that I've generally got my shit together when it comes to knowing what's important in life, and get what needs doing, done, I do think I could stand to be a bit more disciplined.  At least as far the smaller (and unfortunately at times, not so small) things in life are concerned.

Y'know, all that stuff that never seem to do itself, and as such can really build up over time till they become vast time sucking vortexes that swallow up an entire day.

So why am I bringing all this up?

I do it because I know there are some of you out there who drop by here from time to time looking for updates but often go without.

I do it because there are whole bunch of incredibly patient folks who tend to wait an extraordinary amount of time for e-mail responses from me.

I do it because I have friends and family who don't ask for much of my time, but often end up settling for less then even that.

I do it because Grace, who despite only getting to see me a couple times a week (if that) still manages to not make me feel bad when I fall asleep midway through a date.

I do it, because I want all of you to know that I plan to spend a little more time in my life each day trying to get my shit together, so that eventually in the future I'll have a lot more free time overall. Time that I can then use to pay you all back for all the patience you've shown me over the years by giving a little more of it to each of you.

Mostly though, I'm doing it because I wanted to say, "Damn you, Lar, for ruining my day and making me think about all this crap!" And, y'know, thanks.

Later,

Ed

Just over a year ago now, a lovely woman by the name of Grace, was kind enough to give me a wonderful little gift.  She set me up with a subscription to the sci-fi / fantasy digital art magazine Imagine FX.

Now aside from being a spectacular looking magazine, ImagineFX is also an incredible resource tool for anyone who wants to know more about the how-to aspect of digital art.  And ever since I received my first issue I've been wanting to really dig in and to try my hand at digital painting.

Unfortunately I've always been too busy, tired, or just plain intimidated to give it a go.  Still, I knew that eventually I'd have to suck it up and give it a shot.

Fast forward about 12 months to November of last year.  I had been doing the colorist thing over at Evil Inc for about nine or ten months, and in that time I felt Brad and I had developed a pretty solid working relationship.  On top of which I had finally reached a point where I felt that my work was really becoming quite solid, and at long last I figured the time was right to try and expand my skill set.

So one day I sent an e-mail off to Brad with an idea.  I told him that if he'd be willing to do up a few rough sketches of some of his characters, and in turn trust me enough to really go to town on them, I'd kinda like to try my hand at painting them.  After which, if he liked what he saw, we could figure out some sort of way to maybe incorporate the paintings into the Evil Inc empire.

Now this may not seem like a big deal, simply e-mailing someone with an idea, but for me I saw it as a big step between Brad and I as collaborators.  You see this would mark the first time that I presented an idea to him regarding his work since I first sent him the offer to colour his work, and I wasn't 100% sure how it would be received.

Thankfully the response I got was enthusiastic to say the least.  I think it was the next day that Brad sent me off three sketches that he'd whipped up, along a few ideas as to where we could possibly go with this should it work out.

And so, after a couple months of me spending a few minutes here and there trying to teach myself the ins and out of digital painting, I present you with this...

 Miss Match from sketch to paint.

As you can see I tried to stay as faithful to the original sketch as possible, but I did make a couple of small changes.  Granted there are still a few touch-ups I need to do here and there, but basically it's done. And despite being my own worst critic, I find myself being pretty damn pleased with my first attempt.

I'm kinda hoping that now that I sorta know what I'm doing, and no longer have to spend hours playing around with various brush setting instead of using that time to actually paint something, that I'll be able to do more of these in a much shorter period of time.  As well, I'll do what I can to give y'all sneak peeks at the various "work in progress" stages of future projects.

Alrighty, that it for me folks. Time to get my ass to bed!

Later,

-Ed

The video may not play right after I post this, but just as soon as YouTube adds the "Watch in High Quality" link to it should be fine.  In the mean time you can check out the lower quality version by clicking HERE.