 Over the next few days I've decided to post the process of a concept piece I did for the ADRIFT folks. They wanted an image that summed up the mood & feel of the story and I was of course happy to oblige. And starting off this series of images we first begin with the "sketch" phase.
For this project it's all about communication. Which goes for both the illustration itself and with those I'm collaborating with. So, I do my best to keep those doors between the director/writer and myself as wide open as possible. And for me this always starts with notes.
I do a lot writing before the sketch gets to paper because I want to retain as much detail as I can get from the image in my mind - and writing is the quickest way to get it out there. You can check out my notes based on Will & my conversation right HERE.
Then from there I move towards communicating those notes through quick pencil sketches - like the one we have here.
Hope you enjoy and I'll have part deux for you tomorrow,
-D
Hey whatsup eveybody,
Hope your holiday season is bustling along. Just thought I'd post this pic I stumbled upon of the first Cody & Eugene strip taken during a 2rw or EnergyVibe presentation. Pretty cool being a fly on the wall for this behind-the-scenes action.
Hope you enjoy and remember "Communicate, Communicate, Communicate!"
- D
Whatsup everyone,
Here we have a friendly, or perhaps not-too-friendly (I'll never tell which) alien designed for the potential graphic novel & film ADRIFT.
This is actually the second design I came up with for our extraterrestrial character here. The first was thinner, sporting a smaller head and was overall a bit more homo sapien in appearance.
After discussing it with Will & Joel it was decided we wanted to go with a more classic approach. Something more traditionally science fiction and could easily match the era of the 1950's - when the story takes place. And so, voilà! This is what we came up with.
Hope you dig it and I'll talk with you soon,
- D
If you're in the area the wonderful CCART Art Show will going on in downtown Salisbury, MD from 4pm 'till. It's featuring a multitude of artists from the area, including yours truly. This will be the second year I've personally contributed to the show, this time around showcasing a number of prints of my comic book and illustrative work.Also in the show are two extremely talented ceramicists and very good friends of mine - Robert Johnson (cool name, right?) & Sarah Halcott from Amused Studios. They have on display a number of they're works, from clay pottery & mugs to handbuilt sculpture & ceramic drums.
CCART is also partnered up with Downtown Salisbury's monthly arts event, 3rd FRIDAY - which is celebrating the opening of Mojos, as well as the November Tree Lighting.
 And in case you want to know a little more about CCART...
The Cavallaro/Cleary Visual Arts Foundation (CCART) is a 501 (c)3 charitable organization giving scholarships and awards to talented students pursuing professions in the visual arts. CCART serves nine counties in Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia, and is currently celebrating it's 12th year! 30% of ALL SALES go towards scholarship & award funds for up-and-coming artists. It's gonna be good times all around so definitely come on out.
Thanks all and I'll talk with ya soon,
- D
CCART (Located in the Powell Building on the Downtown Plaza)
218 West Main St.
Salisbury, MD 21801
410-546-1068 / ccart1@live.com
 Hey everyone,
Lot of good stuff going on these days. One of them being this. Later this evening from 7-8:30 pm I'll be participating in a panel on "The Many Media of Young Adult Narrative" at Salisbury University, which is in conjunction with the One Maryland One Book program. Truly looking forward to this.I'll be accompanied by authors Michelle Ray (author of "Falling for Hamlet"), Cynthia Leitich Smith (author of the graphic novel "Tantalize: Kieren’s Story"), and graphic novelist and National Book Award for Young People finalist Gene Yang ("American Born Chinese"). Should be a hoot.
Also, right before the panel from 5:30 - 6:30 pm I'll be conducting an Introduction to Illustrating Comics workshop . Where we go through the process of illustrating an actual comic page - from reading the script to roughing out the page, onto to drawing & inking the page. It's going to be a great time. If anybody's interested in being a part of the workshop check out the link to Salisbury University's website right HERE, though I think there's only a couple spots left so you'll have to hurry.The entire panel and workshop are free to the public and takes place in Room 153 of Salisbury University’s Teacher Education & Technology Center. So feel free to stop by and say hi. See you there!
 Doug
The Many Media of Young Adult Narrative
7 p.m. Thursday, November 3
Room 153 of SU’s Teacher Education & Technology Center
410-543-6030
www.salisbury.edu
 Trick r' Treat everybody,
Just wanted to pass the info onto you good peeps O' mine that BREAKFAST has just been published online over at Top Shelf 2.0. So feel free to turn out the lights, break out the jar of pig's feet and indulge yourself in a little horror delight.Oh, and as a headsup to you non-adult peoples out there this does have a bit of the "adult" content so you may wanna consider passing. But if you're feeling rebellious that's up to you. It is Halloween. No egging my house though. For serious.Anyways, hope you guys enjoy the comic and have a Happy and Creepy Halloween!Talk with you soon,- D
 Hey whatsup Ladies & Gents,
I'm extremely siked about a little bit of recent news regarding a short comic story with one Mr. Steve Ekstrom and Mr. Jesse Turnbull. Our bacontastic swine-filled horror comic BREAKFAST is getting published by the great Top Shelf Comics! It'll be available for all to gaze upon online at Top Shelf 2.0. AND just in time for the glorious All Hallows Eve.
BREAKFAST is actually what kicked things off for me sequentially by being my very first published comic. Brings back the memories. And in fact it's been brought to the masses, you kind folks, through publication three times previously, and now for a 4th time (the 8-pager that never dies!). What all of us are truly excited about is the subtly changes we made to it for this special publication - Steve's wonderful new lettering, Jesse's beautiful coloring, a couple visual modifications and maybe even an additional panel for you guys. As Steve puts it "This is our Final Director's Definitive Cut". And it's a cool follow-up to our previous TS2.0 story from Halloween last year, HAUNTED.Anyways, it'll be posted any day now and as soon it is I'll let you guys know. In the meantime here's a panel for your creepy enjoyment. Hope you dig it and I'll talk with you soon!- D
 Whatsup everybody,
Hope you're all happy, heathly and have been having a good time during this fine season of mischief. I know I have. In a fairly last minute decision last weekend I made up it up for the 2011 New York Comic Con to check out all the sequential goodness going on. Sadly I missed the first two days (deadlines, deadlines, sandwich, deadlines, rinse, repeat) but made the journey for Saturday and Sunday. So, here goes...
SATURDAY -
One the first highlights from the show was an opportunity to see some original paintings of Ashley Wood's on display - I believe from his Zombies VS. Robots books. Hard to start things off in a better way. Just incredible pieces as one would expect. There were also some fantastically bold and loosely drawn pen & ink pages as well. It's alway such a treat to see original art, most especially with paintings I feel. The nuances and subtleties are compounded ten fold when you're able to check them out face to face.
Upon seeing Wood's work I noticed sitting in the center of this art abundant table was a full page watercolor painting of Kent Williams from the BLOOD graphic novel. A gorgeous piece and if I wasn't getting bumped into by the giant mob of people every two seconds (it was crazy packed in there) I probably could've stood there all day. I've included a pic from the book itself, though after seeing the reproduction it truly does no justice to the original. Here it be (a quick warning for the wee ones out there. This does contain a naked human being of the female sex... which ironically probably constitutes more as "encouragement").
After the show I hung out with comic creating pal Mr. Bill Walko, (the creative mind behind The Hero Business) as well as recent Baltimore Comic Con friend Jeff and a few other guys and gals. Had an amazingly tasty and probably unhealthy medium rare burger from a little pub not far from the Javits, a tasty pumpkin spiced beverage or two and proceeded to head downtown to visit a good high school pal of mine by the name of David, as well as his leading lady and roommates, while also tipping my hat to the Occupy Wall Street peeps on the way. Later on played an amazing hand-made drum from South Africa for a bit, shredded David's soul on Mortal Kombat (my sincere apologies Dave) and then called it an evening.
 SUNDAY -
Woke up, ate cereal, had an espresso, bid adieu to Occupy Wall Street again, took a pic of the incredible work being done to the WTC and took the train to the show.
Also, stopped by the always impressive Archaia booth and picked up a book I've been wanting for a while the crime story TUMOR by Joshua Hale Fialkov and Noel Tuazon. I've heard wonderful things and really look forward to checking it out. I'll let you know what I think. Also grabbed The Engineer by Brian Churilla and Jeremy Shepherd. I picked up the first issue of this back in my New Yorker days and never finished the series. Now I can, and thus I shall.
On the way to Artist Alley I saw the original painting for the cover of CREEPY number... crap, I can't remember. But it was the very one Mrs. Simonson, editor of the original CREEPY, was talking about in a panel I had just attended. It was for sale for $10,000. If only I had change. Or a giant man-purse. I mean a satchel.
 Talked with a fellow named Kody Chamberland as well. Extremely friendly guy and was happy to talk about his experiences as an artist and his climb towards becoming a writer, as well as a bit about his original graphic novel, SWEETS - written, illustrated, colored & designed by himself. I'm halfway through it now and love it. Definitely recommend checking it out.
Stopped by the table of the creators of Blue Estate, which I've pimped out on my facebook page in the past. Love this book and was stoked to have the chance to pick up the 6th issue (after having to buy a coke from the falafel guy outside to make change) and chat for a sec with Viktor Kalvachev - writer, artist, creator and Andrew Osborne - scriptor. Great guys and before I left Viktor made me promise not to be angry about the possible cliffhanger. I told him I couldn't do it.
Also, stopped by the table of Ivan Brandon and grabbed what he referred to as "his baby", a book called VIKING. Ivan described it as a mob crime story with Vikings. Nice, right? Here's a video interview from C2E2 earlier this year about the book. Nic Klein's work looks amazing.
And the final act of NYCC was a panel on First Comics. First comics put out the comic from which I had my very first sequential art encounter with the TMNT (ah, memories). So I couldn't pass this up and I have to say the panel was just great. I really enjoyed listening to Ken Levin's tales of First Comics previous run, the various titles they put out and the stories behind those titles. I especially enjoyed the talk of the company's early, and current, intentions on being a publisher who wants the creators to create their own books the way they envision them - minus the revision upon revision upon revision until the story is no longer what they originally set out to tell. From the vibe in the room and the conversation between them it sounds like a pretty close-knit group of people seeking the best for the creators and I'm really curious to see where it goes. All the best to them.
After that I said the goodbyes, hit the turnpike and that's just about it. I'm sure there was more but my mind is numb after a show. Good times though and I look forward to doing it again next year.
Thanks all and talk with ya soon!
- D
 Hey everybody,
First off, a happy Friday to you all. It's actually raining where I'm at right now but it's kind of nice. I enjoy working in doors when it's raining outside. Something about the sound of the rain on the windows can really help your thoughts move easily.
Anyways, here we have it. The final drawing of our good pal Nantan. You may notice I focused just a bit more on light and shadow, this way the forms and shapes would come across as clearly as possible. With a composition as symmetrical and straight on as this one it's important bring out those forms, as there aren't any other devices to help create depth and dimension.
More noticeably you'll see I've added more detail to his environment to try and capture some of the qualities I mentioned in the previous post regarding character - something that would aid in reflecting his personality. A few leafs here, some grass there, a slight breeze and this is what we have.
Hope you guys dig it and I'll talk with you soon. Have a great weekend!
- D
Hey everybody,
And here we have the 3rd installment of our sketch of Chief Nantan...
I've moved onto to describing the details and design of the clothing, as well as refining his left hand - which I wanted to be doing something other than just chilling on his knee.
Native Americans have a fine reputation for being in tune with nature and sensitive to their surroundings, far more than we are today. So as you can see I decided to have him sifting through his hand the earth beneath him. Something slightly more emblematic of his character.
Hope you enjoy it and I'll talk with you tomorrow, as we'll have the 4th and final installment of our good pal Nantan.
- D
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