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!

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!

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or click here to open in Web Browser

The Daily Comic Sketch Challenge – 2010 Week 1. Last year I did a set of  quick drawing of only 30 minutes each. These drawing were of random comic book characters suggested by friends from Twitter.  I had a major blast drawing them. I really think it helped my drawing ability. I’m now planning on making this a daily self exercise in 2010. The original sketches were done on 8.5″ x 11″ card stock paper for 30 minutes each. I’ve decided to upgrade this to an hour. I”ll be drawing on 11″ x 17″ comic board paper too. So I’m very excited to get started on this daily exercise. I’ll be drawing 5 days a week, this way I can rest on two days.

Here is the list of the characters I’ll be drawing this week!

1. ROM Spaceknight (Marvel)

2. Mary Jane Watson (Marvel)

3. Man of Miracles (Image)

4. Jaina Solo (Dark Horse / Star Wars)

5. Johnny Sorrow (DC)

I’ll be posting the new Drawing every day. If you have any suggestion on who I should draw next, please let me know. – SHAZAM!

Check out my other: Daily Comic Sketches

I was going through some of my old sketches the other day. I have a personal treasury of character designs and comic book drawings. Back in the day I would live to come up with new characters.  It seems I don’t draw as much now as I did back then (and I draw a lot now). I’d draw and come up with a new characters every day.

On one of my inspirational days I can up with a character named Nemcromn. You can check out some redesign sketches I’ve done of him on a previous post “Nemcromn Character Design Sketches” On that day I came up with both Nemcromn and his main adversary “The Hunter”. Here are the initial drawings of “The Hunter”. I had just seen the move Blade and was really in to Brom art at the time. I think his design is very much inspired by both.

The original design of The Hunter was done sometime in 1998-1999. Ten years later in 2009 I found my sketch and decided to change it up a bit. I had redesigned  Nemcromn and wrote a new extensive biography for him and given him a new adversary “The Radiant Guardian”. I decided to change  “The Hunter” too. He was now an assassin/hunter who now worked for Nemcromn.  The Hunter and a new character I came up with, named the Grimm Creeper would now be Nemcromn’s most deadly assassins always trying to out do each other for his favor. You can check out Grimm Creeper’s original and resign on a previous post “Grimm Creeper, Hand Scythe Weapons“

With the redesign I made him a little bulkier. These are quick sketches to get the feel and general look of The Hunter. My drawing style has changed in 10 years When drawing a quick idea sketch I want to get his  look down. These drawings look a little rough, what I’m trying to do is get my ideas down on paper before I lose them. I’m not as concerned about making them look perfect on these initial drawings, that will come later when I draw him in a pinup of in some sequential pages.

In my next post I’ll be showing a Pin-Up drawing I did of “The Hunter”.  This will be a more defined drawing. So keep an eye out.

-Shazam!

In the month of November Tyler James created an awesome opportunity for creative minds to unite. He put forth the challenge of creating 30 character in 30 day. I of course answered the call. It was also answered by over 25 other artists. Every day for a month I’d set down an try to come up with a new character. It was a really fun challenge. I don’t think I’ve drawing so many character since I was a kid. If you’de like to see the other great character designs check out the website 30Characters.wordpress.com.

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!

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or click here to open in Web Browser

Here are the 4th weeks original character designs I created for the 30 Characters in 30 Days challenge. for these drawing I focused on using only an H2 mechanical pencil. I had a blast creating these! SHAZAM!

Day 30: Dark-Light

Day 29: Prelate Amsung

Day 28: The Huntsman

Day 27: Fire-Blaze

Day 26: Lightning Blade

Day 25: Derkxon

Day 24: Skull-13

Day 23: Cranium Blaze

Day 22: Andrew Keeper of the Seal

Want to see more:
Check out my other 30 Characters in 30 Days challenge pencils.

30 Characters 30 Days – Week 1
30 Characters 30 Days – Week 2
30 Characters 30 Days – Week 3
30 Characters 30 Days – Week 4