SKETCHES ON A SKETCHBLOG?!?

Yup, just like the title states. A handfull of sketches from the back of my sold-out 2008/09 STAND THE LINE sketchbook.

WASH, RINSE, REPEAT...

Yeah there isn't anything too mysterious to how I do my thing and I'll prove it...

PROJECT: VEGAN CAVEGIRL

Alright, my buddy and amazing artist Boo asked me if I'd like to draw up his cheeky Cavegirl Bramble for her sophmore issue in my style. Now you all know that 'ol man Campos can never turn down the chance to draw a scantilly clad female especially one of prehistoric persuasion.

That being said I hunkered down to figure out what I was going to do.Here is a shot of my little sketchpad that I have lying around the table for the quick inspirational sketching or when I want to figure out the composition or layout of a pin-up such as this. I usually try to work out a few different ideas to get a feel for the work and the character(s) that will inhabit the world I'm creating on paper.

Out of the doodles I went with the one in the upper-left hand corner. The others had merit but there was too much of a Cho/Shanna the She-Devil feel to them that I wanted to avoid.
Once I've chosen my layout then I do a quick study just to make sure all the elements of the piece are going to work. As you can see I'm not going for a nice, pretty drawing or anything like that. This is just blocking the "scene" and working out the rough spots that would otherwise give me problems in the finishing stages.

Yep, I drew a horn on that T-Rex(ish) dino...I couldn't help it.Here I've moved onto the board now. I rough out the basic shapes of the figures and start hitting the spots that look easiest. I left Bramble in her sketched form and skipped to the dino already being rendered because he was just essentially a big ovalish box shape and not very interesting to look at.

You can see that I'm still working out some kinks, never really committing to any one shape or detail until the ink is slapped on but before we do that we gotta see the...
finished pencils or what passes for them when I ink my own work. Now while I'm sure a real inker would prefer to work off of something loose like this in order to add their own splash of personality to the finished piece I would never give something like this to an inker unless I trusted them totally. It's not that I think that there aren't skilled inkers out there (though the really good inkers are a rare breed now) but I as a penciller at heart could never let something as unfinished and raw as this leave my drawing table without feeling like I failed the team.

Luckily it's just me so my +10 Epic Fail skillz are a moot point.

So there ya have it folks, rather boring and not at all interesting but that's how I roll. If you'd like to see the finished piece by all means pop on over to my deviantART page Stalk on DA and check it out.

Thanks again to the Boo-man for letting me get my inky fingers on Bramble. :]

IT'S JUST A GAME!!!

"...not anymore."


I don't want to get too excited but I can't help myself. The fx reel that made it's debut at SDCC '08 then got a nice update at this year's show really gets my juices flowing. If you have no clue what I'm blathering about go check out the Tron Legacy trailer on YouTube.

I saw the original Tron waaaaaaay back in the 80's in my microcomputers class during middle school. This was back when the comps were huge and the screen was black with orange letters and the best thing you could hope to do was make a little triangle shaped pointer make shapes like a square and rectangle after writing about 200 lines of code. Yeah, I'm that old. Heck the floppy disks were actually FLOPPY fer chrissakes!

Bah, anyway, yeah Tron rocks and stuff.

I DO LOVE ME SOME BLUE...

I must be a weirdo but I love it when artists leave the bluelines on their work. It's neat to see the defined form of the finished piece and the blue (sometimes red or another color) linework underneath showing the framework that went into creating it.

I guess that is one of the reasons I collect sketchbooks from my favorite artists. I get a kick out of seeing the rough layouts and the problem solving that my peers and idols use to figure things out on the blank page. I personally feel it gives the work a gritty, earthy vibe-something about the building up of the lines and the narrowing down of the choices.

Or maybe I just like the color blue.

I inked over the bluelines here on this Nia Black piece. If you want to see the finished work just head on over to my deviantART page and check the gallery:

http://www.stalk.deviantart.com

SOMETIMES THINGS DON'T WORK OUT...

and sometimes that's a very good thing.

MINI-MUSES at Lulu.com

8.5"x11" paperback with 36 pages featuring a collection of pin-ups in full-color. If you like the work of Mel Ramos, or just drawings of cute little women then this title is for you!

Also featured in this book are some of DA's own lovely ladies:

Bakanekonei
DrawingRemy
Ederoi
Jolene-H
MarissaWilson
Peng-Peng
Sickstarr
TrashyDevil

They were kind enough to be my muses for some of the pieces in the book.

So if you've got some spare coin burning a hole in your pocket and you want to get a nifty little book of art head on over to Lulu.com, grab a copy and enjoy!

WHERE TO BEGIN...

When I start shading a piece sometimes I'll scan in the lineart and print out a few smaller copies to try stuff out like lighting, shading, negative and positive space all the neat artsy-fartsy junk that can make or break a shot. I'm no expert-blindly stabbing at the board until something starts to form that somewhat resembles the image I have in my head of what the finished piece should look like.

Mostly I fail.

Sometimes though I get lucky. This is some work for a commission that I was happy with on my first pass. That's usually not the case so score one for the hacks!

BOOGA-BOOGA-BOOGA!!!

It's not Halloween yet, is it?

Ah well, here's the chicken-scratch that is her majesty the Goblyn Queen Madelyne Pryor. I started inking it before I remembered to scan in the "process" so I guess it's more of a WIP.

Marc Silvestri drew the hottest demon possessed chicks, didn't he?

WHAT IF...

What if Tigra and Black Widow were part of an elite squad of Marvel Femme Fatales put together by the last person you'd ever imagine running a hit-and-run, hardcore action team?

What if the last member of the team was always rotating adding a new female character from the Marvel U to it?

What if the first person the team encounters is Frank Castle but he's not quite the Punisher we've all come to know and love?

Yeah...I love what ifs...

IRON SIRENS PENCILS

Here's a peek at the mess I make with a pencil when I'm trying to ink my own stuff to save some time.

For more info on the IRON SIRENS book please visit the links on the finished piece posted up over at my deviantART page here:

IRON SIRENS FINISHED COVER


_{IRON SIRENS © JMProductions}