Animated Comic Book Covers

I have to admit that I love animated comic book covers. So, I decided to give it a shot. Here is my first issue of Prisoner of the Mind animated cover. Below that, you'll find a myriad of inspiration from other artists. You'll probably have to wait a few minutes for these Gifs to load, but it's worth it.

Prisoner of the Mind Issue Number 1 Allan Linder.

Batman Number 15, Animated cover by talented artist Kerry Callen.

Amazing Adventures Number 4, Animated cover by talented artist Kerry Callen.

Amazing Spider man Number 33, Animated cover by talented artist Kerry Callen.

Batman The Dark Knight Returns Number 15, Animated cover by talented artist Kerry Callen.

Daredevil Number 7, Animated cover by talented artist Kerry Callen.

Fantastic Four Number 51, Animated cover by talented artist Kerry Callen.

Ironman Number 128, Animated cover by talented artist Kerry Callen.

Justice League of America Number 6, Animated cover by talented artist Kerry Callen.

Jack Kirby Machine, Animated cover by talented artist Kerry Callen.

Lois Lane Number 29, Animated cover by talented artist Kerry Callen.

Nick Fury Agent of Shield Number 4, Animated cover by talented artist Kerry Callen.

The Incredible Hulk Number 315 by Jim Groom.

I just love Geof Darrows work, it is insanely detailed, completely politically incorrect, and sometimes awesomely raw. I am not the only fan of Geof Darrow, this one is from Michael Branson Smith. It's an animated cover of Hard Boiled, and I just had to share it.

If I missed anything cool send me an email and I will ad it.

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Hand Made PUMA PUNKU Inspried tile from Italy

The most amazing thing about art is that you never know where it will take you. If you've seen my work, you probably know that I am intrigued with architecture from all cultures. It just amazes me how people can create such elaborate and enormous structures from their imaginations, without allowing the lack of supporting technology to stop them. “Where there is a will, there is a way.” (Old English Proverb)

The more I learn about architecture, the more I learn about building materials and methods of construction. If you check out my projects tab above you’ll see that I don’t really put any boundaries on my work, my only limitations are my own skills. I like many creative outlets. So, near the end of last year a ceramic manufacturer in Deruta, Italy contacted me to design a wall tile treatment that was something new, something different.

We’ll what I came up with wasn’t really new, but it was different, well sort of.

I have always loved the beautiful tile with the Mayan design motif featured in the movie Blade Runner. This tile was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for the Ennis House in Los Angeles, Ca. Here is another great website about the incredible work of Frank Lloyd Wright if you want to learn more about him and his life.

 

Earlier last year, I designed a kitchen backsplash for a display featured in the Architectural Digest Home Design Show in New York City. 

 

The backsplash tile is also a hand made ceramic from Deruta, Italy with a metallic copper glaze over lava stone. This tile was also somewhat inspired by this motif.

For this new project, I wanted to go back to the roots of this type of design, so I studied some of the design of the handmade stone blocks of Tiwanaku, Bolivia.

These stone blocks have been dated to approximately 14,000 years old.

They are quite intriguing, from a technological standpoint, and for their design motif. Yes, there are many theories of who these people were, but the stone blocks of Puma Punku remain a mystery. What a great jumping off point for design inspiration.

Here are some of my sketches for the tile, and of course, the finished product.

Check back for new projects coming up this year.

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A Commissioned Painting for a Friend Final Update

If you missed my previous posts on this project, here is a link to catch the whole thing. A Commissioned Painting For A Friend.

OK, this is it, it's finally finished. I have been working on this painting off and on for many months. I am quite satisfied with the buildings, architecture, and cityscape as a whole. I am not so satisfied with the people in the painting  So, I went back to basics and broke out my sketch books, and compiled the drawing below of people that I have sketched on the street. I used a Dixon Ticonderoga erasable red pencil for contrast.

I am looking for a real variety of people just to keep things real like NYC.

Me hitting the canvas once again.

You can see above that I am blocking in a new set of people doing different things. Most of these were taken straight from my sketches above.

At this stage, I am using a much finer brush to work on the detail of each character in the painting. The thing about painting is refinement , you could go all the way to portrait style detail, or just an impression of a person. I like painting in a very rough style sometimes with very little detail, but this painting isn't one of them. Here I need to exercise finesse and detail.

This is a closer look at my loaded palette. You can see now how different it looks from when I started this piece.

Wrinkles in clothing, color contrast and a little bit of fashion play a part in distinguishing one from the other.

Here's a broader view.

Blown out contrast so you can see the figures emerge from the background a little better.

It probably seems weird to paint a person over the top of heavy texture like you see above, but that is part of my style of work.

Mostly, silhouettes turned into something else.

You can see the people on the left starting to look more detailed now.

 

Along with detail, the characters personalities emerge.

Here is a little better lighting on the whole image now.

Everything is starting to blend a little better.

This is it, shadow, highlights and reflections. I added a few bright leaves that are reflecting sunlight in the trees.

Here I added some nice spring flowers and my final signature.

Drum roll please ... Finished.

Stick around for more, my client commissioned me for another painting.

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