THANOS Sketch Variant

So I'm falling in love all over again with illustration the past few weeks as I've worked on a handful of blank Sketch Variant comic books I picked up.  The wonderment of childhood really does fill my time at the drawing table creating custom covers for these.  Thanos was one of the subjects at the top of the list when mulling over what to lay down on these covers.  This first batch were all Marvel titles and Thanos is really one of the ultimate baddies around that neck of the woods.

My idea turned out to be a pretty involved illustration.  With a mesh of visionary and surrealism, I wove a field of eyes into the space background.  The colors of the eyes match the Infinity Stones of the Gauntlet our villain wields.  The Infinity Gauntlet story line documenting the Mad Titan himself is one of my all-time favorite arcs.  I really had a gas capturing him not only on paper- but on my own custom cover of The Heroic Age New Avengers #1!!!

Click HERE to see my WOLVERINE 

and SECRET INVASION Sketch Covers!

Fancy Fowl dOOdle

"Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings."

-Salvador Dali

"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song."

-Maya Angelou

"Be as a bird perched on a frail branch that she feels bending beneath her, still she sings away all the same, knowing she has wings."

-Victor Hugo

SiNG ALONG in the dOOdle ARCHIVE!

#GoodnightLava

Alex Pardee over at the ZeroFriends art collective out west posted the line work of his "Goodnight Lava" art recently for other creatives to color in, draw on and otherwise bastardize for their own purposes.  Here's my own version I hatched out this morning on a piece of blue paper I used for the print...

"Pen on Blue Paper / 2014"

KICKSTART THIS: Works and Days by Miranda Herrick!

Selections from Works and Days

I need your help over the next week folks.  You see, I really really really need a copy of Miranda Herrick's Works and Days book!  I've already reserved mine at KickStarter but you have to help out in order to make everyone's dream a reality.  Miranda is almost at her goal of raising enough money to publish her collection of 365 daily drawings.  Each illustration is a daily meditation- a journalistic mandala documenting the entire year of 2007 and moving through the entire color spectrum month by month.  As an owner of originals from her series, I've dreamed right along with the artist about the reality of making a book which encompasses this body of work.  This will be a reality with your help!  CLICK on over to KickStarter and pledge a reservation for your copy of Works and Days (among many other cool incentives!)

Wolverine and Secret Invasion SKETCH COVERS

Several months back I scored a pack of 10 random Marvel Sketch Covers off of eBay.  After collecting a bit of dust, I wiped them off the past couple of weeks and braved laying some markers down on a couple.  They turned out very trippy and I learned a lot from working on the surface which was a bit foreign at first.  My markers didn't lay down like they do on my trusty bristol board but I've quickly grown smitten with the covers.  Keep an eye out for more as I'll surely be back on another one of them sooner than later! 

Marvel along with many other comic companies create limited runs of certain comics with blank Variant covers for artists to draw their own versions of their characters on.  It's a very cool thing to see an industry support creativity and give a wide spectrum of artists the chance to "live the dream" by putting their art on the cover!  Here are some process pictures from my versions of Secret Invasion #1 and Wolverine #1...

Not Much to Say about It...

"He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words."

-Elbert Hubbard

"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music."

-Aldous Huxley

"The true genius shudders at incompleteness - and usually prefers silence to saying something which is not everything it should be."

-Edgar Allan Poe

~ HAVE a MOMENT of SILENCE 

in the dOOdle ARCHIVE ~

Belcher No. 7843

BLaaaaaaaaaaAAAwwwRRRrrrrrrrrrP!

~ A Special Broadcast Message from DREGstudios ~

My First 1st at Riverfest's Tour D'Art!

I've been a regular for years now at the local Tour D'Art which is held at the Smith-Trahern Mansion as part of Clarksville's annual Riverfest.  Until tonight however, I've not taken the top spot for any of my entries.  This year I entered "Guernica in Blues and Roses" into the Professional Drawing category and "Imperial Octopus" into the Professional Painting category.  Unfortunately, the crazy-cool octopus painting (read its story HERE) didn't even make the cut to be exhibited.  Guernica made up for things though by placing 1ST!!!  ...and of course I'm shocked...