 Whatsup everyone,
Tomorrow. Is. The. DAY. That's right it's the 1st Annual Eastern Shore FAN CON! A convention filled to the brim with AWESOME.
I'll be set up ALL day so come by and say hi. I'll have comics, original artwork, the trusty portfolio to flip through and of course I'll be working up a gaggle of sketches upon the request of you kind peoples.
Also attending is famed comics illustrator Greg Laroque, Buz Hasson & Ken Haeser of The Living Corpse, the good fellas of PLB COMICS, Illusions Games & Comics, Twilight Zone Comics, Capital Comics and much MUCH more. Check out the site at www.EasternShoreFanCon.com for more info.See you at the show!- Doug
 Whatsup everybody!
Just wanted to pass along some cool news to you. I'm extremely excited to announce I will be the "Featured Artist" at today's 3rd FRIDAY. This month's event is Comics-Themed and will be the first outdoors 3rd FRIDAY of the year.
In going along with the theme I'll have a select number of comic book pages on display from my past work AND my most recent (and soon-to-be-published!) comic book, LAST CARESS. And if you enjoy flipping through portfolios I'll also have that leather-bound fellow present for any eager fingers. Along with this I'll be getting my hands dirty doing sketches of any and all varieties. You name it, I'm drawing it!
And of course, like all 3rd FRIDAYs there are many other excellent things going down - including my pals, and masters of the medium, PLB COMICS. Continuing with the comics celebration the good guys of PLB will be doing sketches, selling their comics, displaying their artwork, teaching how to draw comics to the wee ones, and many other comic-related activities that fall under the category of "FUN".
There will also be the most enjoyment one can have with a ping pong ball and a wall of amazing pottery - this they call, Pottery Pong. My good friends at Amused Studios will be setup with Pottery Pong. Simple rules: Toss the ball in the pottery. Pretty easy, right? Once you start though, you can't stop. It's addictive in the best way possible.
Along with all of this there's an anime screening, live music from the Interesting Monsters & The Larks, food from Higher Grounds Espresso Catering, and... ROBOTS. Yeah, the US First Robotics Team 3389 will be there with actual real-life robots. How can one resist that?! If I wasn't setup I'd be going. And yet there's still more but my fingers are tiring so...
Come out today and enjoy the festivities. I'll be setup, along with PLB, in the Powell Building right downtown on the beautiful Salisbury Plaza. And with this being the first outdoors 3rd FRIDAY of the year the weatherman is predicting gorgeous weather. Even more reason to stop by.
See you there!
- D
 Whatsup everyone,
here's another sneak peek at LAST CARESS, Sam Costello's and my newest horrifying effort.
This time we have a 3 panel shot of Sybil taking on chicken sectioning duties. Always a fun job - if you like getting your hands dirty, that is. However, remember to wash. Nothing's more horrifying... than salmonella.
Hope you enjoy,
- D
 If anybody knows my dad's side of the family you'll know that they're all big outdoorsman. It doesn't take long to figure it out either, as at least one of them will be wearing some kind of camouflage or talking about hunting or fishing. At any given moment on any given day this is a guarantee. And if you ask either my dad or his two brothers, Neil and Mike, what they're fondest memories of childhood are they'd all tell you the same thing - going down to "The Country".This is the nickname given to the family farmhouse where my grandmother was raised. It sits on a small amount of land on the outskirts of the town of Cambridge, MD, out on the swampy flatlands where the smell of marsh never leaves the air. This is where they'd all go together with they're dad (my grandfather) and hunt, fish and anything else they could get themselves into. Now myself, I'm not a hunter. The pencil and the paper is where I've always gravitated. But you can easily see the positive affects this place has left on the Draper brothers. You can see it in their eyes and hear it in the tone of their voice as they perk up with excitement whenever the topic comes up. This is one of the reasons I'm happy to be part of an ongoing series of short stories written by my uncle, Michael Draper, as he briefly recalls the memories of his own childhood experiences with my uncle Neil, my grandfather, my dad and all the other characters who were fortunate enough to spend time in "The County".I'll be doing an illustration for each story in the series, which will then be published alongside the story on my uncles website. Above is the piece I came up with for the first installment, entitled "A Ride to The Country". If you'd like to read the story itself you can click right HERE.Hope you enjoy and I'll talk with you soon,- D
 As I'm sure you've heard by now, April 28th is the 1st annual EASTERN SHORE FAN CON. I've been kindly invited as a guest by the good people heading up the event, and will be there armed to the teeth with comics, artwork & sketchbook at the ready.
Many good things are going on including all things comics, gaming, film screenings, panels and live music after the show. A little something for everybody. Plus some great exhibitors like Illusions Games & Comics (my own LCS), Capital Comics from downtown Annapolis (excellent kid-friendly store) and Twilight Zone Comics (the shop I hit up the most in college) just to name a few. Plus artist great Greg Larocque will be in attendance too, as well as our local makers-of-the-comics, PLB COMICS. So if you're curious come on by, it's going to be great.See ya at the show!
- D
 Whatsup everyone,Just wanted to post a quick panel from LAST CARESS, the upcoming comic collaboration from horror-master Sam Costello of SPLIT LIP COMICS and yours-truly, taking on the duties of the visual.I'm immensely excited about this and can't wait for it to come out, which is just right around the corner. I'll keep you posted on an exact date and any of the "noteworthy" details.Hope you enjoy and I'll talk with you soon,- Doug
Whatsup everybody,
Happy Alla Hjärtans Dag. Or, for you non-Swedish English-speaking ladies and gentlemen Happy "All Hearts' Day".
Enjoy the chocolates,
- D
Whatsup everybody,
I hope your New Year is off to the best start possible. I've high hopes that this is going to be a good one for us all - ya know, despite the whole Mayan calendar end-of-the-world thing.Sure hope not though. I've kinda got some things to do this year.
Definitely stick around for this 2012 spectacular because I've a slew of exciting news and projects coming up that I'm really looking forward to sharing. I've also got some upcoming plans for displaying my work in a new way that I think you'll all really enjoy, courteous of our modern age of technology. Not only that but the ever-so-strong possibility of an item for sale directly from the artist (that’d be me) that I've been hard at work on and am very excited about. I think you’ll all dig it as well. More on all these soon enough!
Now, as to this giant bird on the left. To start the year off I did get some rather pleasant news yesterday. Apparently my name has been placed on the initial EAGLE AWARDS ballot for nominations for "Favourite Newcomer Artist". As has my writing collaborator Mr. Steve Ekstrom for Favourite Newcomer Writer. Probably in regards to our recent Top Shelf publishing of BREAKFAST this past October, with of course outstanding coloring by the one & only Mr. Jesse Turnbull (where’s the Favourite Newcomer Colourist category btw?).
For those that don't know... the Eagles, introduced in 1976, are the comics industry's longest established awards. Acknowledged as the pre-eminent international prizes, they have been featured on the covers of leading US and UK titles across the last 30 years. Unique in that they reflect the people's choices.
Pretty exciting news I must say. If you'd like to vote for yours truly I'm listed amongst a gaggle of extremely talented makers-of-the-pictures. Just click HERE (or on the big eagle fellow) to vote, find Favourite Newcomer Artist and scroll downward for moi. Though not required you can also vote in the rest of the categories. So here's your chance as the people to take the reigns and say what's what. Enjoy!
Have a great beginning to your New Year and I'll be keeping my nose to the grindstone, along with updating you fine folk on new works & news. Cheers to 2012, I'll talk with ya soon!
Doug
 Whatsup ladies & gents, here we have the final stage of the ADRIFT concept piece...
As you may already be able to tell this is created using that weird substance known as "paint". It's been quite a little while since I broke open the acrylics and gave them some attention so I thought this would be an opportune time to do just that.
I love working in color and I love working with paint, despite believing they're two of the most difficult areas of art-making, but from start to finish I had nothing but fun on this. There's a curious quality to paint that allows it to just give a work life, especially if you've been on a black & white binge-fest.
So starting off I tried to keep the process as simple as possible - with laying the ground down, using simplified versions of the color scheme, and then as things progressed narrowing in on the details, the light laying on the various surfaces, the shadows that light casts, and any reflected light bouncing around. Mix that together and this is what I came up with.
Hope you've all enjoyed this sneak-peak at my creative process and I'll talk with you soon.
- D
 In this stage (part deux) the goal is to clarify the original sketch. This is done in a few ways. One is by cleaning up the line work and identifying where the light lands on each particular subject, as well as where the shadows fall. Another area I bridge into is reference photos. Not knowing precisely what the walls of a canyon look like or what the design of a 1950's house boat is I span the all powerful google, or any other resource, for answers.
I've also decided to move the composition up an inch or two to allow for room for the text that's to be included later on - an extremely important part of illustration (one I've learned the hard way a couple of times)
As you can see too I've left out the shading from the previous sketch. The reason for this is that the "drawing" stage is meant to support the stage that follows. By leaving the shading absent I find it easier to reproduce this stage into the next. And it also allows for a sense of improvisation, which is incredibly important for keeping the image feeling fresh with vitality and life. Always a consistent goal.
Hope you enjoy and I'll back on Monday with the completed illustration,
- D
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