Creating a Graphic Novel : Art – Food – Photography

During the interview with featured artist Gwyn Perkins also drew a little Batdog sketch for me (modeled after Murphy the Beagle). A few days later, he emailed me a coloured version of it. Thought it’d be great to share this amazing piece!

Original Sketch :

Coloured Sketch :

Gwyn is an amazing illustrator who lives in Northern Sydney on Scotland Island with his wife Marie and daughter Georgia. I had the utmost pleasure to meet him and even take a sneak peek into his studio! His works have a fantastic level of detail in them. The below showcase was from one of his published work with Chris Hornsey, “I Could be a Superhero”.

Murphy the Beagle (from “I Could be a Superhero”) :

Thanks for your time to talk to me.
Could you describe the process in creating your work?

My current work is half way between animation and drawing. I think it’s important to always create a sense of movement in the work, usually starting with a scribbly drawing and then building on it. In term of illustrating children’s books I like to create a flow from page to page. I picked this up from my background in animation.

I see what you mean from your below showcase. There’s a definite sense of movement in the girl piloting the rocket ship. The amount of detail you have in the picture is fantastic! I noticed the dog driving one of the cars!

Preliminary Work :

Final work : (Click for larger image)

So how did you get into the industry?

My first job was working in Melbourne for Myer. In 1960’s I got into animation by winning a cartoon contest which leading to animation in Sydney at Hanna Barbara. Branching out 1970’s, I started my own studio even winning an award for best TV animation commercial.

That’s amazing! How did you move from animation to illustration?

Well . . I moved to Scotland island in Northern Beaches (north of Sydney CBD) and work became spasmodic. My dog got lost in a local national park. I drew an illustration of the dog and put up in the nearby Youth Hostel. The Youth Hostel liked the work and I did some illustrations for them which lead to providing images for a website. A publisher contacted me about the work and I now have 5 books published.

I came across your books in a book store and thought they were great. I bought one for my nephew and one for myself “I Could be a Superhero”. Was the beagle in that book based on your dog?

He was based on Ozzie who was fat and ate garbage. Somehow he always found way to get into trash, once coming home with leg of lamb!

Thanks so much for your time and wish you all the best in your future endeavors. I appreciate your time and allowing me to showcase some of your work.

or visit his site :
http://gwyn.com.au/

One of Gwyn’s work in his studio :

Gwyn working in his studio :

Gwyn with his lovely daughter, Georgia :

It’s been a while since the last showcase by featured artist Dion Hamill. This Wonder Woman showcase is gouache on illustration board. I like everything Dion creates and this one is no exception!

Also in keeping with the iPhone wallpaper for the home and lock screen, I thought it’d be fun to use the showcase on my iPhone. It does suit it very well! I think I might just use this image for a little while.

Lock Screen :

Home Screen :

Previously I had some fun with the iPhone lock screen wallpaper. One of the new features in the iPhone iOS4 is the ability to change the home screen wallpapers. I looked through some of the showcased artwork and decided to mock up some wallpapers. Would love to hear which ones you liked!

Phoenix by Kirk Lindo :
Classic Black and White.

Witchblade by Cedric Poulat :
I like the position of Sara’s eyes in this one.

Red Sonja by Sean Harrington :
Very different colour scheme, much bolder with the reds.

Spider-Man by Dion Hamill :
Much darker colours compared with the previous three.

In May, there was a showcase for Zombies vs Cheerleaders by Steven Frank. I love parcels in the mail (the last one was a Halloween Wonder Woman from Frankie Washington) and Steve Frank was awesome to send a copy of the comic to me! Although I had read the PDF preview copy, it feels so different to read it in print.

Featured artist Sean Harrington of Spying with Lana fame is showcasing the first crossover between Flare (Heroic Publishing) and Lana. The webcomic is serialised on Sean’s site.

Front Cover :

Interior Panels :

So Sean, how did the idea for the cross over happen?
A year or so ago, Dennis Mallonee who runs Heroic Publishing contacted me about doing something with Flare and Lana as a cross-promotion. I was drawing some other Flare stories for the Flare comic strip and the latest Flare annual so it didn’t happen right away, but I put the story together at the end of last year and I started posting pages online in February.

What’s the basic premise?
Flare has discovered that a wealthy philanthropist named J. Reginald Butte who’s famous for his charity work around the world, is using his charities as a front for smuggling drugs and weapons and a host of other criminal endeavors. She decides to attend one of his star-studded charity fundraisers as her alter-ego, supermodel Terri Feran, to find evidence of his crimes and shut him down. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Flare, Lana is working undercover at Butte’s estate, searching for his secret labs where he’s developing a new super-weapon. After a few mishaps, they run into each other and team up to take Butte down.

Will it be collected to a TPB?
Yes, it’ll be collected into an uncut print edition is available now and can be ordered at http://www.harrington-artwerkes.com/Comics.htm. It’ll have total of 9 extra pages including a bio of Flare for those that want to learn more about her history. In addition, Heroic Publishing will be releasing a print edition with a different cover (which I also drew) and some different extras including a bio of Lana.

Any more flare/Lana crossovers planned?
Nothing’s planned at the moment, but this one has been pretty popular online and if it continues to be successful I’d certainly be open to doing another one.

Thanks again for letting me showcase more of your work!
Click here to read the full webcomic.

Someone went to Supanova (Sydney pop culture expo) and got me this amazing signed photo from Summer Glau (Terminator – Sarah Connor Chronicles). Need to get this framed and find a place for it on my wall! As much as I loved Summer in Terminator, her cameo as herself on The Big Bang Theory was hilarious! Definitely takes the place as my favourite scene with her.

Summer Glau’s autograph :

YouTube (Summer Glau on The Big Bang Theory) :

It’s hot in here.
Must be Summer.

I wonder how many people will use that line on her now. I can imagine everyone at a convention saying it and just hoping . . perhaps . . it’ll work. (Hehe . . Raj actually had a pretty good shot at it.)

Micah has some of the most amazing artwork I’ve seen. He’s showcasing a drawing of UFC Fighter B.J. “The Prodigy” Penn. Although he normally doesn’t use a lot of reference in my comic work, he’s been doing a series of figure studies working from photos, and using them to practice some different techniques that he’d like to incorporate into my comic work in the future. Micah describes each of the steps below.

Step 1 :
Block in the the general area taken up by the figures, and then the simple shapes of the figures themselves within that space.

Step 2 :
Roughly establish values to describe the lighting and shapes.

Step 3 :
Using my Raphael #2 I pick out the areas of the figure that are darkest and also outline the majority of the central figure. I don’t use the brush for the background figure because I want him to recede.

Step 4 :
Using the same brush, I add in mid-tone values with a medium tone ink wash.

Step 5 :
I add more value with line. For this I used a dip pen equipped with a Deleter nib.

Step 6 :
Add effects with a toothbrush using a darker inkwash and also some white paint.

Step 7 :
Added a color gradient with Photoshop CS2 and also used a texture featuring various Kanji.

So how long have you been drawing?

I’ve been drawing my whole life and always planned to be an artist, but I didn’t hone in on any particular industry until I read my first X-Men comic when I was 14. As soon as I read it, I was hooked! Right then and there I decided to pursue a career in comics. When I was 23 I attended the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Arts, and after a year of hard work many people were telling me I was ready to make the jump to working professionally, so I decided not to return for a second year. The timing really seemed to be perfect, because that summer I was lucky enough to be chosen to participate in an online contest called Comic Book Idol, during which Aspen comics noticed me and asked if I’d like to submit some work to them. After a few submissions, they flew me to the San Diego Comic Con and decided to hire me, and I’ve been working for them for the past 5 years.

Besides drawing, what else interest you?

I have a fairly wide range of interests, ranging from of course art(of all kinds), biblical study and comparative religion, film, MMA, working out, playing sports, hanging out with friends, etc. I don’t have a lot of time outside of drawing comics every day, but when I do, these are the things I like to spend my time on.

This is always a tough question for most artists but how would you describe your artwork?

A work in progress! Someday I would love to be known as a versatile artist. One that is able to tell a variety of stories and tailor his style to fit the mood of the book. One thing I pride myself in is my ever-evolving style.

What advice would you give to any new artists?

In my opinion, no successful artist can teach themselves. All of them have studied from other artists and of course from life, whether it be in a school environment, or from looking at books on the subject, we’re all building on the experience and know-how of others. Most of my learning was done on my own until i attended a few drawing classes at a local community college, then attended the Kubert school for one year. Of course, when I moved to Los Angeles to work for Aspen, Michael Turner, Koi Turnbull, Marcus and I were all working in the same studio space. It was a great environment to start out in, and we all learned a lot from each other.

Who do you consider your artistic influences?

I draw from a number of diverse influences, ranging from Golden Age illustrators(Arthur Rackham, Franklin Booth, J.C. Leyendecker, Edmund Dulac), Manga and Anime (Ninja Scroll, Tatsuyuki Tanaka, Takehiko Inoue, Capcom Design Team), European comic artists(Claire Wendling, Moebius, Sergio Toppi, Carlos Meglia), and of course artist that draw American comics (Eduardo Risso, Mike Mignola, Travis Charest, Joe Madureira, J. Scott Campbell). That’s a lot of names, but there are many, many more that I look at and consider to be inspirational to my work.

What works of yours should we be on the lookout for?

In the past 5 years I’ve completed Soulfire: Dying of the Light(6 issues plus a #0 issue), Shrugged(8 issues plus a #0), and am currently working on issue 5 of Dellec, which is a 6 issue series. I’ve also worked on many of the online stories for NBC’s Heroes tv show, most of which have been collected in hardcover graphic novel format published by DC comics. In addition to my comic work, I also had the opportunity a few years ago to work on EA’s DefJam Fight for NY: The Takover, for PSP.

Thanks for your time (and the incredible breakdown)!

For more on Micah check out his :

• Deviant Art
• Blog

To contact him his email is micahgunnell [at] gmail.com

As a follow up the previous Iron Man post, I thought it would be great to showcase the final few sketch cards by Rémi Dousset. My favourite of the three would have the Nick Fury (the 616 universe version rather than the Samuel L Jackson Ultimate version). I did love how in Iron Man 2, they really expanded Samuel’s scenes.

As a follow up to the previous iPhone Wallpaper post, I thought I’d showcase Cedric Poulat’s amazing Supergirl piece in an iPhone mock up. It’s a fantastic piece and really quite partial with this as the background.

If you want to contact Cedric in regards to his work, please email cedricpoulat[at]aol.com

Base Wallpaper :
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