For the past few years I’ve noticed a lot of comic artist creating sketch cards. You can find them on their personal website and Deviant Art. I think it’s a really great trend. You can both create and collect awesome art. I’ve been wanting to draw some sketch cards for a while now. I looked fall over the web for some blank cards. I found them at a comic art supply shop, and spend a little more then I wanted. But I was happy to have them. The next day I went to my local art store and found some for 90% cheaper. So I decided to create a free sheet for people print on their own.

I’ve created a Sketch Card sheet with 8 cards. I would suggest printing these on card stock paper. Card stock is very close to Bristol board and is great to draw on. I’ve put crop marks so it’s easy to cut the cards out with a ruler and an x-acto knife. I’ve also added a dotted line if you’d like to cut them out with scissors you can too. Each card measures 2 1/2″ by 3 1/2″, regular sized for collectible cards.

Here is a free high resolution pdf file. Go ahead and download it and have fun creating some Sketch Cards. I’ll be posting more Free Comic Book Resources every Monday.
- Shazam!

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Research is very important when working on a comic book. If I’m going to draw a car, horse or gun then I need to know what it looks like. The same can be said about the characters in the comic too. Back in the 90’s Marvel Comics published  “The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Master Edition” I believe this was one of the greatest references created for us aspiring comic book artists.  Per page in shows a character in a 180 degree view. We see the front, side and back view. This was a great way to know what their characters would look like from different angles.

What I’ve done is created is a Character Design sheet that helps in creating a 180 degree view of your character. This way you can have a solid idea of what they look like from the front, side and back. This is a more technical way to design a character, but I believe it is an invaluable one.

If you’ve picked up any how to draw comics book, then you’ll know that they explain that comic book heroes are usually 8 1/2 heads tall. I’ve incorporated this into this Character Design sheet. The left shows the head sizes, this will help in keeping all views of the character unified.

Here is an example of how this Character Design: 180 degree view sheet can work. I’ve taken Wolverine’s 180 degree view from “The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Master Edition” and superimposed it over the Character Design sheet I created. As you can see Wolverine is 7 1/2 heads tall.  We also see the design elements that make up his costume from all angles.

Here is a free high resolution pdf file. Go ahead and download it and have fun designing your characters front, side and back views. I’ll be posting more Free Comic Book Resources every Monday.
- Shazam!

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or click here to open in Web Browser

A few months ago I was looking through some of my old drawings. Ones I did while I was a kid up to when I was in collage. I found my original sketches for a character named “The Hunter”.  I had redesigned his history and biography a few years ago, so I decide to redesign his look too. Want to see the original designs and the rough redesign check out my earlier post The Hunter – Character Design – From Sketches to Final Ink – Part 1. I was very pleased with the redesign so I decided to create an action posed pin-up of my character.

For the past year I’ve been digitally inking my pencils. I usually use Adobe Illustrator using vector points. I like using the pen tool to create crisp sharp/smooth lines. You can see a great example of this in a past post Comic Book Digital Inking Techniques with Illustrator Vector Anchor Points. But for this inking I wanted go old school and use a real brush and pen. A process I do not used very often. I had a real blast inking it by hand!

I didn’t want to loose my pencils so I scanned the original and reprinted them on card stock. I used Adobe Photoshop to replaced the original black lines to blue lines. This way it would be easier for me to ink them. Check out the difference between the original pencils and what I inked. The Hunter – Character Design – From Sketches to Final Ink – Part 2.

Here are my final inks of “The Hunter” I had a real blast with this piece. I started with very rough sketches to tight pencils and finally to a finished inked piece. In my next blog post (that’s right I have one more to go) I’ll show you what I did to vectorize my final inks so I can print them at any size with out loosing quality of the inks. – Shazam!

One of the most important things when drawing a comic book is the background. You can have the most stylized or realistic characters, but if the background is weak then the whole comic can suffer. Things on your paper will just not look right. If the story takes place in a bar, a mall or even an apartment it’s a good idea to have a clear idea of what the backgrounds will look like.

I’ve created a Scene Design Page that can help define where the story is taking place. It’s a grid with a section for notes on the side. This grid is very similar to what architects and interior designers might use to make blueprints for their projects. As a comic artists we are both the directors and set designers. Using the scene design page can help you see the different angles you might want to draw.

I’ve included a sample of how I use the scene design page. On the bottom right I came up with a simple blueprint of what I wanted the scene to look like. It’s a Hall/Assembly room. On the upper left I’ve drawn the Hall/Assembly room as I would in a comic. I used 1-point perspective to get the general idea of what I want the scene to look like. Using the grid helped to keep the lines and spacing unified when designing the scene.

Here is a free high resolution pdf file. Go ahead and download it and have fun coming up with great scenes to tell your comic book stories. I’ll be posting more Free Comic Book Resources every Monday.

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or click here to open in Web Browser

While looking through some of my drawing from ten years ago I found a character design I did for “The Hunter”. Form that original sketch I redesigned his look and biography. The newer design sketches were a little rough, but they were intentionally quick to get my thought down on paper. You can see the original sketch and the redesign on my previous post The Hunter – Character Design – From Sketches to Final Ink – Part 1.

Once I had the look for The Hunter down, then I could start having fun. I decided to draw him in an action pose, jumping at a target with his gun and sword ready for battle. I tried playing with shadows, perspective and highlights. In the past year I’ve been refining theses elements in my drawings. They have been helpful in me finding my own comic book art style.

Now that I’ve got an awesome action pose drawing I was ready to ink it. I’ve been digitally inking my pencils for the past year. For this drawing I wanted to go old school and ink with real inks, but I didn’t want to lose my original pencils. So what I did was scan the drawing and turned the pencil lines blue in Adobe Photoshop (being the crafty graphic designer I am). I then printed the pencils on card stock paper and was ready to ink traditionally.

Right on! My next post will show the cool inking of this Pin-up. I’ll also have a video of me inking. So keep an eye out.
-Shazam!

Thumbnails are very important when your drawing sequential stories. To help with this you can use Comic Book Layout Pages to sketch down your ideas. It’s a great way to play with different angles and vintage points. You get a good practice before you decide on what your final pencils will look like.

I’ve created my own Layout Page Sheet, much like the ones you can find at online art supply stores. The difference between the one I created and the ones from these shops is mine have two pages per sheet instead of four. I did this because it allows me to draw a little bigger and not have my layouts to tight. I like to print these out on regular paper, I find it much cheaper than buying sheets online.

Here is a free high resolution pdf file. Go ahead and download it and have fun coming up with some comic stories. I’ll be posting more Free Comic Book Resources every Monday.

- Shazam!

Download the High Resolution PDF
or click here to open in Web Browser

When drawing your character designs it’s fun to do it on specialized paper. Ofcoure you don’t need a Concept Sketch Page to draw. You can use any type of paper, but it’s cool to have an organized looking paper system.

What I’ve done is created a Character Design Sheet, much like the ones you can find at comic art supply stores. What I like to do is print this on card stock paper. It’s a nice alternative to expensive sheets found elsewhere and it has a very similar feel to Bristol paper.

Here is a free high resolution pdf file. Go ahead and download it and have fun creating some new characters. I’ll be posting more Free Comic Book Resources in the future too, so check back regularly.
- Shazam!

Download the High Resolution PDF
or click here to open in Web Browser

I’ve received several requested to show the steps I used to create my digital inking of the Fantastic Four pin up I did of artist Ariel Padilla’s pencils.  I was looking for some art to ink and found the pencils on his DeviantArt page. This was a practice exercise I gave myself in the inking process of comic book art using Adobe Illustrator. I’ve been a graphic designer for over 9 years but this was the first time I used my design knowledge for comic book inking.

Points & Paths: Example 1

For this self assignment I decided to use Adobe Illustrator for inking the pin-up. I had used photoshop for a previous piece earlier I did of Batman 2.0, a character redesign. I had fun with that illustration but this time I wanted to do this digital inking in vector format. Why choose vector verse bitmap? Well in a vector image it is made up of anchor point that are connected by paths (lines) that connect them. A vector image can be re-sized without loss of quality to the illustration. So basically you can re-size the image as small or as large as you’d like without pixelation, it will keep it’s sharpness no mater the size.  Which is really neat.

Points & Paths: Example 2

For this illustration I choose to use my anchor points to create only straight paths (lines). I didn’t use any curved lines. The cool thing about using anchor points and paths is that you can make curved paths, resulting in less points This is shown in Points & Paths: Example 2. So why didn’t I use curve paths? Well honestly it was a self exercise to see if I could do it. I wanted to create the curved lines through straight lines. I found it to be a fun challenge.

Points & Paths: Example 3

I did not create lines or outlines of the original pencils. What I did was look at each line as a shape. I could have easy used the brush tool in Illustrator, but I found I actually had more control of what I wanted to achieve by using the pen tool.

With the technique I like to use of anchor points and paths I am able to get a type of jagged smooth shape. The strength of anchor points is you can use as many or as little points as you’d like to create your lines or shapes. I’ve illustrated this in Points & Paths: Example 3.

Points & Paths: Example 4

After I created the shape from the pencils, I colored it in with black. I’ve shown this in Points & Paths: Example 4. As you can see it’s a piece of a puzzle that makes up the inking. These shapes help to create the feel I was looking for when digitally inking this drawing. This technique really works well when inking the Thing’s rocky skin.

I have included more example of the anchor points and paths technique I use in inking these pencils. In Points & Paths: Example 5, we see how the wavy fire on Human Torch can be created without using curved lines. Every anchor point in the flames helps to create the illusion of line weight, depth, and movement.

In Points & Paths: Example 6, I’ve shown how I created what looks to be a line on the Invisible Woman’s arm. It is actually a curved shape created with paths. It is a shape that includes the bottom line of her arm and the shadows around her neck. You can see her hands and the background are already colored in.

Although this technique might not seem to be the most efficient, it allows for a lot of control. Looking at each line as a shape helped me to create a type of line work I would not have achieved otherwise.

Points & Paths: Example 5

Points & Paths: Example 6

This was my first comic book digital inking using Adobe Illustrator with the anchor points and paths technique. I have done a few more since this one. Although I have used curved line in those illustrations. This was a fun self exercise in learning to digitally ink the work of some else. I am very happy with the way this illustration came out, and I’ll continue to use Adobe Illustrator to digitally ink comic book pencils.

A few months ago I decided to draw Vader’s Fist, the 501st Legion. I’m a huge Star Wars fan and wanted to draw something cool. I usually draw comic book characters but I think it was a fun change to draw some sci-fi stuff. The 501st Legion are cool because they are in the prequels, the original trilogy and the extended universe. They are the highest most elite Stormtroopers in the Empire. First starting off as the best clone troopers then as Darth Vader’s personal squad. Check out this article at Wookipedia to learn more about them.

This is my final digital inking of my original 11″x17″ drawing. I used my graphic design skills in adobe illustrator to ink the 501.  The original drawing was done with an HB woodless pencil. I  posted it in an earlier blogpost, Vader’s Fist – The 501st Legion – Pencil Drawing. Check it out if you’d like. What’s really cool is if you do a Google image search for “Vader’s Fist” the original pencils show up on page one.

For this digital inking I decided to use Adobe Illustrator. I’ve done inking in Adobe Photoshop before, but I find that I really like the way my digital inks look in illustrator. In illustrator your inking are in vector, this allows you to enlarge the image with not pixilation. So if I really wanted to I could make a print the size of a building and it would look awesome and sharp.

The tool I like to use in illustrator is the pen tool. I do have a wacom table, but I feel I have more control with the mouse and pen tool. It lets me create a smooth/jagged line in my piece. I work with anchor points to create curved lines, straight lines and solid shapes. There was some line work were I did use the brush tool with my wacom tablet, but most of this digital inking was done with the pen tool.

I’ve very happy with the way this digital inking came out. Ever since I moved to Santa Fe last year, I’ve felt a real recharge in my art work. The penciling and inking of Vader’s Fist, the 501st Legion is a great example of this. I had a real blast inking it. Shazam!

With the original Batman’s death in Final Crises there were many theories of who would take on the mantel. With the conclusion of Battle for the Cowl we learn that Dick Grayson officially become the new Batman. Grayson is the original Robin who has been going by the the name of Nightwing for over 20 years now. In the new ongoing comic Batman and Robin “Batman: Reborn” written by Grant Morrison we get to see Grayson as the new Batman with Bruce Wayne’s son Damian as the new Robin.

A few months ago I did a character redesign of Batman. It was for an on-line contest by Project Rooftop tilted Batman 2.0: The Dynamic Do-Over. Check out the contest winners.  I’ve communicated with a few of the other contestants by Twitter, Deviant art and personal blogs. Although my redesign didn’t place I had a real blast with this project.

I posted my final redesign in a previous post. I’ve decided to post my sketches and show the stages of my work for fun.

These were my initial sketches of the redesign. I was looking for a way to incorporate Dick Graysons’ personality form his Nightwing costume into his new Batman costume. Playing with the bat symbol going across his chest, the colors of the suit and adding more compartments for the bat gadgets on his boots and gloves.

Here is my final pencil drawing. I had a lot of fun with this adding shadows and highlights.

This is my actual first digital inking of a comic character I’ve ever done. You’d think I would have done it before being a graphic designer for over 10 years. But I always seemed to keep my computer design skills and my comic penciling separate. For this project I decided to go for it and try inking in photoshop. It was fun and I think I did a good job. I’ve actually started digitally inking in Illustrator now. I like working with vector because the  inking never loses sharpness.

With the inking done I moved on to creating grey tone flats. Flats are done to help the digital coloring of the peice. this way you can select a whole area and color it quickly. For fun I tried different color schemes for Batman’s new look.

This is the final stage of my Batman 2.0 character redesign. Again this was my first comic digital coloring. So I’m very proud of how it came out. The drawing is competently colored with shadows and highlights.

I learned alot with this project, but most importantly I had alot of fun.  – Shazam!