Pendant Halloween Desktop

A few weeks ago I posted the line art to a desk top image that Peng-Peng and I have been working on for Pendant Audio. We finished it up and here it is for your viewing pleasure! Peng had the great idea to put Kara, Kal and Krypto in Halloween costumes and to have them trick or treating. I think it came out as a pretty fun piece. If you are interested in using it as your desktop just hop on over to the Pendant site, click on the "Let me see some Superman art" link inside the pink box and it's right there.

Goin back to Cali

I'm headed west to California to be a part of a very good friend's wedding. I'll be gone for about 5 days so I wanted to post some art I've been holding onto that I never got around to sharing. These sketch card commissions are some of the first I ever did with markers. I had been pretty reluctant to try them out, but the finished look I think was worth breaking my old color pencil habits.

I'm working on some pretty cool stuff right now that I can't talk about just yet, but by the time I get back I will be able to post some Marvel Heroes and Villians art as well as some Clone Wars season 2 sketch card art. Stay tuned!

Show Some ID

IDentityComics.com is back up and running! Peng was able to put together a new site that will be in place until we can finish our brand new site. Check it out and let me know what yall think.

Now that Halloween is around the corner the great folks at Pendant thought it would be a great idea to do a Desktop image for the season. Peng and I are working on it now and I thought I would throw a peak at the line art at yall.

I'll be posting more art tomorrow!

getting down to the biz

Still working hard. I worked some events over the weekend with pretty long hours, now I'm back in the lab finishing up some layouts and sending some e-mails so I can hit the hay. It is great to actually be doing what I love for a living. Sometimes I have to step back from my work just to take it all in and realize that I am actually doing what I always dreamed I would be doing when i was a kid.

I don't have much work that I am allowed to show right now. I'm working on some stuff that is pretty hush hush. So I'll show a pin-up I did for a friend for his Zombie of the Month comic. This character's creator is an old friend of mine, Don Kunkel check his DA page if u get a chance.

Still Going

The world has been going pretty non stop for me for the past few months. the projects just keep rolling in. I finished up my 300 Star Wars sketch cards, 100 Marvel sketch cards, 40 Hack/ Slash cards, and picked up a really cool project tht I can't really talk about yet. The Baltimore comic con was amazing. I got to meet my all time art hero Jose Luise Garcia Lopez. He even signed my art board and did a quick Batman sketch for me. The Identity Studio did really well as a group and we had a great time chatting with the crowd and doing sketches.

I'm in for another busy weekend, but before I get nose deep in caricatures and Birthday parties I wanted to share a sneak peak at some new concept art I'm doing for Identity Studio's "The Brotherhood" comic. The whole group is buzzing about bringing the concept back to the front of our project list. We have come up with a really great story and I'll be keeping yall posted as more develops. The art is of my character Impossible (formerly Mr. Impossible). check it out.

Jose Luise Garcia Lopez!

Oh snap! I just found out that my all time favorite artist and single largest influence on my work Jose Luise Garcia Lopez is gonna be at the Baltimore con this weekend! He is the artist who did the design work for the Galactic Gaurdians Super Friends show (the final season of Super Friends) and did pretty much all the major marketing art for DC comics over the last 25 years or so. Remember Superman peanutbutter or have you ever seen a Superman lunchbox? Yup, he is the guy that did all that stuff and it looks like I'm gonna have a chance to meet him. I have to scramble to find something to get him to sign. I have a few comics that he has done, but I gotta find something really cool for him to sign. I can only hope that when I speak to him I don't get star struck and can still form sentences.

The piece I'm posting today is good example of how his work has impacted my style. I think I just may give him a print of it when I see him at the show.

See yall in Baltimore!

Back to Baltimore

I'm coming down to the wire with the Star Wars sketch cards. I won't even say how many I still have to do. All I can say is that it's clear to me that I'm gonna have an all nighter in my future.

The good news is that The ID crew is all set and ready to rock the Baltimore Comic Con. The show is this weekend Saturday, August 28th -29th at the Baltimore convention center. The entire crew Domonike Stanton, Jose Jaro, Bryan Turner, Peng-Peng and myself will be holding it down at tables 111 and 112.

I'm looking forward to selling a bunch of prints and doing a bunch of commissions. So if you are gonna be at the show come on down and say hello!

Never give up. Never Surrender

I am falling behind! I have over 300 sketch cards to complete in under 3 weeks. I seem to be at the mercy of the world around me for the moment. It just seems like I cant string together any consecutive ours of work to really get into a groove. I'm gonna have to rethink my strategy to get everything done in time and still hold onto my sanity.

In the mean time I figured I would post some cards I did for March of Dimes charity auction. I decided that from now on whenever someone asks me to do charity work I'm gonna draw the SuperFriends. I figure they are my all-time favorites so I'm bound to do good work and hopefully bring in big bucks for charity.

Later!

iI'm working on STAR WARS!

So after months of networking and knocking on doors I finally have a shot at working on an officially licensed Star Wars project! It is the Clone Wars season 2 sketch card set. I'll be working on a bunch of cards that will go straight to the hobby market and a bunch that will be headed to retail stores across America. I have been doing sketch cards for a while now working on characters i have loved since I was a kid, but to actually have an opportunity to work on Star Wars is more than I could have hoped for.

My deadline on the project is pretty tight though. I'll be doing about 17 cards per night for the next 2 weeks straight plus a bunch of caricature gigs next week and a few other projects that need my attention. Then at the end of the Month is the Baltimore Comic con.

I did the sketch of chibi Anikin as a warm-up before I jumped into sketch cards last night. I figured I would throw some quick colors on it and share it with yall.

Wish me luck!

Stitches

I am really pressing up against some tight deadlines on some sketch cards, but I gotta post this real quick. Peng-Peng and I did up some Stitch personal sketch cards for a friend and she posted hers so I can't let her one up me. So here it is! I really had a lot of fun working on this. Lilo and Stitch was such a great movie with amazing character design work that it made drawing Stitch a breeze. Hopefully you all out there in blog land will love it too.

Otakon!

So Every year Peng-Peng and I go to Otakon (really big anime show) in Baltimore and we always have a great time. Normally We will hit the dealer room for almost the entire show and buy a bunch of cool anime related knick-knacks and other goodies and generally soak up all the anime culture. This year we had toyed with the idea of getting a table in artist's alley and setting up to do the show like we would a comic con. We applied on the first day that the show opened registration, but, the show is so popular that we didn't make it in. We ended up being put on the waiting list, and we didn't have much hope that we might actually get a table.


So months pass and the date for Otakon arrives. We head on out to Baltimore to attend the show as fans and BOOM! We find out that we are able to get the Artist Alley table after all. It was great, but terrifying. We had to scramble to put our stuff together for the con, plus I had scheduled a caricature gig during the second day of the show. It all felt like a huge gamble. We had never done an anime show before and we couldn't be sure that our art would be received in a positive way.

Well, let me tell you.... The show was amazing! The fans at Otakon showed us so much love that Peng-Peng and I could hardly believe it. We got so busy that we had to close commissions on Saturday! I did have to leave for about 5 hours to do my gig, but Peng was a trooper and powered the day on her own (there was also this whole thing with someone pulling the fire alarm and let me tell u it SUCKED!).


I know for a fact the we will do everything on our power to do the show as artists again next year, and hopefully some of the other members of ID will be able to make it as well. We always seem to have a greater impact when we r all together.


anyhow, I hope u all enjoy looking at these pics of commissions I did at the con as much as I enjoyed sketching them up!

All's Fair...

I have been all over the place this month! I did a fair in Virginia, and drew tons of caricatures and put a lil money into my pockets at the same time. I thought I would share a few pics with yall so u can get an idea of what a day at the fair is like. wish I had more to say,but I guess the photos will have to speak for themselves

.

Sketch Cards all day long!

So I am currently in Roanoke VA doing caricatures with my homeboy Dan "The Man" Smith at the Salem Fair. The fair is pretty much the only retail caricature work I do every year (with the exception of the Super Pet Expo which I hope to do every year). The fair gives me a chance to hang out with Dan and an opportunity to flex my selling skillz. It is thrilling to watch sales add up at the end of the day to prove that I still got it.

Now the fair is great and all, but it is really slow for the first few hours of every day. It gives me plenty of time to goof off, or work. This time around I have chosen to work. I have a ton of sketch card projects to work on so I brought some new Marvel cards with me to get a jump on my deadlines. I knocked out rough lines on 50 cards today and I'll do another 50 tomorrow. I'm trying some new things on these bad boys so I'm hoping you all like them as much as I do. I can't show much of that art right now, but I do have permission to show one card from the Pulp Girls set I worked on recently with Super Real Graphics and 5Finity Productions. You can find out more about the Pulp Girls set here .

Enjoy the work and I'll be in touch soon.

Come see me at HEROES!

I just put the finishing touches on this new Spidey and MJ piece. If u r gonna be at Heroes this weekend keep an eye out for it as a print. I'll be at the table all weekend long so don;t be shy come and check me out. I'll also have a few of my 09 sketch book on hand so don't forget to pick one up!

Heroes Con is this weekend! This is my favorite con of of the year and I couldn't be more excited about it. Peng-Peng and I will be in attendance along with my homeboy Domonike Stanton . We will be holding down the Identity Comics table AA-241. If u r gonna be at the show come on by and check us out. we will be doing a raffle for 2 free inked commissions. All u gotta do is come by and give us your name to enter. We will also have the last of our "Inside the Box" studio art book for sale featuring the art of Jose Jaro , Bryan Turner , Peng-Peng, and me theFranchize (jerry Gaylord) ,and lots of prints. Plus We will have Marvel 70th anniversary, and Iron Man 2 artist proof cards available for commission. And of course we will be giving away free head sketches with every purchase. So come on by and chat with us for a bit. it is gonna be an unbelievable event. I can't wait to see yall!

Bad Dudes

I have been wanting to post this image for a while. I have been doing character designs for the Superman Universe just for fun and these two characters just jumped out at me. I have always liked Darkseid since my days as a youth watching the Superfriends. Doomsday is a character I warmed up to recently. I think he was a great idea, but now whenever he shows up in the comics Superman beats him with one punch and the cool factor is out the window.

Any how. I just wanted to drop this art on yall. Let me know what u think

Getting the Work in

I spent most of today working on my goals for the year. I had already worked them out, but I'm reading a book about sales and marketing that has really gotten me thinking of new possibilities. I have never been one to set low goals or have low aspirations, but now I find myself thinking that I have been thinking too small after all.

After having crunched some numbers and feeling pretty comfortable with my new goals I thought I would do a quick sketch to stay on my toes. I have never really drawn Goku before, but I was really into Dragon Ball Z for a while. I had always wanted to see what he might look like in my style so I said to my self " there is no time like the present."

Enjoy.

More Pendant Covers and Heroes Con

Hey guys! I just finished up my latest Pendant Superman cover and I think it looks pretty cool if I do say so myself. Too bad I can't share it yet. However, I can share a couple of older ones that I haven't posted yet though. I had fun working on these and I think they came out pretty cool looking. Hopefull yall will dig them too.

The big news for me right now is Heroes Con. The show is in Charlotte, NC and it is my all time favorite con. I always have a great time (and the sales aren't too shabby either!). I plan on having some new prints and a new sketchbook (I'm keeping my fingers crossed on this one) for the show. If you are gonna be in the area you gotta stop by.

see ya there!

Get Green

I posted this on my deviant page back on Earth Day, but I figured why not share the love here too? I loved Captain Planet as a kid and I always thought he would be a great comic to read. This is what I would do if I was ever offered the project. Bad guys and polluters watch out!

Brand new header again! and me on Marvel.com!

I just updated my header to be something more colorful. Hopefully yall out there in Blog land will like the new look. I also wanted to say I'm super excited about my art being featured on Marvel.com . My art was used to promote the Marvel 70th anniversary sketch card set and I couldn't have been more surprised to find out. I'm still in the clouds about it. So if you are a sketch card collector or just interested in seeing the full set of cards I did for marvel just check out the link

New Header!

I don't have much to share this time, but I have been pumping out a ton of new art... like the new header! I fell in love with the sketch so I hope u all like it too. Plus It is gonna serve as the cover for my 2010 sketch book so keep an eye out for that too! Also, here are some thumbs for new DC samples I'm working on. I'm really having fun working on these.

New day job, but still rockin' the pen

I just finished my second week at my new job and I gotta say it has been a challenge. I'm still doing parties and events, drawing comics and doing some pieces for family and friends though. For a bit I didn't think I had the stamina or will power to keep going and follow my dreams, but I realized that the only thing that has ever been in my way is me. I know that the key is to work hard and be persistent. I will have to be more selective about the projects I take on in the future, but that is hardly a bad thing. I'm looking forward to seeing what I will accomplish with my new focus and determination. 2010 has already had a ton of changes come my way. I'm ready for whatever is next.

The first image above is the newest cover I did for Pendant. I think this has been my best version of heat vision ever. and the second piece is a chibi of Superman and Clark. I just had to do something for me to keep my skillz fresh.

sketchin it up

hmmm.... I don't really have to much to say today. I'm finally getting closer to being caught up on a bunch of projects and I'm starting to feel pretty good. I just finished up and mailed out these 2 personal sketch card commissions. I really had fun working on these. It might have been because I have never really drawn these 2 before. Anyhow I think I did a pretty good job and so I'm sharing them with all of you out there in Blogger land!

Happy V-Day!

Yup, I know I'm late, but I thought I would post this all the same. My wonderful wife and I just had a great Valentines day date. We had to do it a day late because we both had to work on Valentine's day. So to anyone and everyone a big ol' best friend hug from theFranchize!

DRAW LIKE ME!

I'm under super tight deadlines with about 5 different projects right now, but I felt like I had been neglecting the blog (it's been like 3 months!) so I thought I would drop in and show some of what I've been up to.

Here is the process of how I put together the cover for issue 59 of Pendant Audio's Last Son of Krypton drama. After I read the script I grabbed the closest graphite pencil and roughly sketched out what I thought would be a cool cover. I even through in a quick color guide to help establish the mood. After the thumb was approved I broke out a piece of 11x17 blue line bristol and started to pencil the page. From there I inked the lines with micron pens then scanned the art and did the colors on photoshop Cs3. I try to stick with simple cell shades and push the contrast to create a dramatic piece. And there u have it! Now I gotta get back to work!