Entry 129: Mini-Blast

Here's a mini "Blast From The Past" entry.
Last week's Periscope studio sketch challenge was "favorite Musicians". I didn't have time to participate in the challenge, in fact it would seem that no one had time to participate since there were no entries for the week, but it got me remembering this drawing I did of Lou Reed back in 2002.

I'm a big Velvet Underground fan. I got a best of cd in 1999 that I liked a lot, but in 2001 I got the box set and that's when I really fell in love. Around the time that I did this piece I was listening to them a lot. It was a pretty lonely time for me and listening to the VU was like hanging out with a good friend. There were times, in the middle of the night when the world outside my apartment was asleep and the light on my drafting table seemed like the only light in a sea of dark, where it felt like Lou Reed was singing just to me across time and through my headphones.

When I did this piece I had just bought my first set of Radiograph pins and I was so amazed with how fine I could now draw lines. This drawing was done in a  5 1/2 X 8 1/2 sketchbook.

Here's another musician piece from that same sketchbook done around that same time.

 Elvis Costello was a big deal to me in high school. He's never had the kind of life changing impact that the Velvet Underground had on me, or like that John Lennon Anthology box set had on me. But I've always been a big fan.

That's it.
As my two year old daughter would say- "Catch you on the flippy, alligator."

Entry 128: Trekker and Dear Creature

Oh, Man! I've got so many blog entries I want to do right now I don't know what to do first.
Here are the choices:

-"Sneak Peek of S.H.I.E.L.D. Volume 2 #3"- I put a lot of work into this issue and I want to show you what I did.

-"Blast From The Past -Part 10"- Going back to the year 2001. I get one step closer to my dream of becoming a comic book artist, but does a drug addiction nearly bring it all crumbling down. It doesn't. Or DOES it?... no.

-"My Favorite Things- Part 4: The Metabarons"- I talk a little bit about why I love the Metabarons, show you some pages, and highly recommend it.

-"I Read Comics- Part 1" This would be a new kind of post where I just talk about stuff I'm currently reading... I'm actually not to sure I want to do this kind of post. I nether want to do real reviews of the things I'm reading because it would take to long for me, nor do I want to scan pages from everything I'm reading... Maybe this could just be a feature I put into other posts where I simply state what I've read and give a very brief review. I don't know.

What else? I guess that's it. Let me know what you think my next entry should be.

At any rate, you might have noticed that there is an image at the top of this entry. "What is that image about," you might ask. "Why that there is a drawling of one Ron Randal's character, Trekker," I would answer because that's the way I talk. You didn't know that? Yeah I talk way different then I write. I'm a cowboy who doesn't know how to properly say the word "drawing". Anyways- TREKKER! A long time ago, or what I call "back in the day", Ron created the sci-fi bounty hunter “Trekker” in the pages of Dark Horse Comics. Through the years, the character has appeared in various short stories, her own Dark Horse series, and other independent, single-issue stories. Now Ron's bringing her back as a web comic! He's starting by posting the original stories in order, and then continuing with new adventures. I whole heatedly support Ron in this endeavor. And this week for the Periscope sketch Challenge the whole studio is lending it's support to Ron by doing Trekker sketches.

So GO. Reed Trekker.  http://trekkercomic.com

And check out the other Trekker Sketch Challenge pieces here http://periscopestudio.tumblr.com/tagged/Trekker

Then there's this guy. Jonathan Case. Jonathan is another artist here at Periscope studio and his first Graphic novel "Dear Creature" is out on October 11th, it's going to be in stores across the country. Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Powells, comics shops, etc. And let me tell you, you should GET IT! Get it. I'm not joking around here. It's good stuff. Here just take a look at this-

This is the first page followed by a short sequence that happens a few pages in.

 

 I don't know where Jonathan gets off being so good. And you know what else, he's really nice. He's genuinely good natured towards everyone and it freaks me out a little. You don't know this about me but I'm angry. I struggle with jealousy and resentment and I think that deep down everyone is just like me in that they have those same problems. They cover it up with politeness and they've restructured there mental processes to bypass the ugly stuff and appear to not have the ugly stuff but it's there, and I can hear it back there, behind all the nice, and it's screaming at me FUCK YOU!... But not with Jonathan Case. With most people I want to say cut the crap. Tell me what you really think. Give me the truth. Out with it. But with Jonathan, the niceness seems to be real. He's some kind of freak as far as I can tell. Ether that or he's got some sophisticated processes by witch he hides his ugly side. That's probably it. At any rate, I like him. I like genuineness. I trust him, I'm intrigued by him, and I resent him a little because he's Mr. Perfect and because he has written and drawn his first graphic novel and it's really good. Go buy it.

See more of Dear Creature here and learn more about Jonathan Case. http://www.dearcreature.com/

Entry 121: New blog!

Welcome! to my new Internet home!
It'll take some getting used to, but I think it's going to do nicely.
I've moved everything over. It was an ordeal. I actually have a back log of posts I've wanted to do. So lets not waist any time. Let's just get to it.


Here's a piece I just did for the Periscope Studio sketch blog.

The subject for this week is Harry Potter.

I like Harry Potter. I've read books 4-7 and I'm looking forward to seeing the last movie. For me it's been good entertainment. But I never would have given any of it a chance if it wasn't for the Prisoner Of Azkaban movie. I guess it's where the story starts building into something bigger and gets more intriguing, but what really did it for me was the direction by Alfonso Cuaron. It's just a really great movie. The movies that have followed have been pretty good too, I especially liked Deathly Hallows Part 1, but for my money Prisoner of Azkaban is the best of the bunch. One of the best movies of it's kind. So, my piece is a tribute to that film.

These sketch challenge pieces are a lot of fun for me, and with each one I try something new. This piece was colored in a way that I've never colored before. There was no flatting done. I just rendered in gray tones and then threw some overlay layers on top of that. Also, the inking style is not something I to do to often.

Check out the other Periscope Sketch pieces here.

There you have it. First post of the new blog! I'll be putting up more soon.

Entry 120: THE RED WING

Hi, friends-
Did you see that? The image that I put just above this bit of text you're reading now? Or are you like me, where you skip over all pictures and get straight to the words, the sweet sweet words. Well maybe you've never heard that a picture is worth a thousand words... I bet you feel foolish now. It's okay, you can easily scroll back up, view the picture, get you're thousand words worth, and meet me back down here.
So that image is a variant cover I just did for Johnathan Hickman and Nick Pitarra's new Image series The Red Wing. And I mean I JUST did it. I finished it just a second ago... It doesn't matter when you are reading this, it will always have been just a second ago. My finishing that image exists in a dimension of time that is infinite and just one second off from the dimension of time we exist in... Time dimensions. Doesn't m-theory include 11 dimensions of space. What about other dimensions of time... I'll have to look into that- whether or not there are other dimensions of time. I'll figure that out this after noon and get back to you. Easy.
I was excited to do this cover for my buddy and co-creator on Shield, Jonathan. This series is just my kind of thing. I like sci-fi and I have a real fondness for time travel, which this story has. It's going to be pretty cool I think. Plus I like any opportunity to do a complete image myself.
Here is the official press release:

Berkeley, CA – 13 June, 2011 – The debut issue of Jonathan Hickman's new creator-owned miniseries THE RED WING will welcome S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Dustin Weaver to the fold as he joins Hickman and artist Nick Pitarra with a special one-time variant cover.

"I'm fortunate in that I get to work with a lot of extremely talented artists, and one of my favorites is my partner in crime on Marvel's S.H.I.E.L.D., Dustin Weaver," said Hickman. "When I asked him if he'd be willing to contribute a cover for our debut issue, and he responded with this little slice of heaven, well, we were all pretty excited."

THE RED WING #1 (MAY110423), a 32-page full color comic book for $3.50, will be in stores July 6. The Dustin Weaver Variant Cover (MAY118022) is available for order now.

But that's not all! There is more to this entry. There is this:

That's right, I drew Snow White.
This was for the weekly Periscope Studio sketch challenge. The challenge was simply "Disney Princesses." I'm not a huge fan of the Snow White film. There are other Disney films I like better, but Snow White is the most Iconic Disney princes, in the fact that she was the first but also in her design. The short black hair, the red, the yellow, the blue... She's Super Man basically. So based on the fact that she's such a great looking character design, I went with here. You can see all of the work from this challenge here.
That's it. Catch you on the flippy

Entry 107: Super Powered Lucy/ Mad Men

Hello again! and welcome to another Live Web-log by me, Dustin Weaver.
As you can see, Lucy has begun to manifest her mutant X-gene powers. Normally they don't kick in till puberty, but she's an exceptional kid. The doctor says it's perfectly normal in some cosmic energy manipulating omega-level mutants. That's right "cosmic energy." All I can do is make my eyes glow, which only looks cool. But guess what, when they're lit up, I can't see. Completely sightless!

Moving on.
This week on the Periscope Tumblr we are doing Mad Men pieces. No, not pictures of crazy and or angry guys. Pictures related to the popular TV show set in the early 60's, Mad Men.

I must say that I had never seen the show when I saw that we were going to be doing a week on it and I defiantly thought to myself, "Screw that!" "I don't watch that show and everyone who does must be stupid." But then I thought, "Wait. not everyone who watches that show could be stupid. In fact, logic dictates, that there is likely some percentage of that shows viewers who are smart. That means that I could watch it too and I don't have to feel like I'm stupid for doing so."  So I'm giving it a try. I'm a little more than halfway through the first season and I like it.

Here's my piece

This show makes me want to smoke.

Check out the other Mad Men pieces at the Periscope Studio Tumblr.... if you dare.
...It's not scary. I know people say "if you dare" when it's something scary. If I scared you away from doing it, I apologize. Seriously, nothing bad is going to happen when you click on that link. It's not some kind of thing like in the movie The Ring where you'll get a message telling you that your going to die in seven days. It's nothing like that. It's just pictures inspired by the show Mad Men. So click on the link. It's fine.

Once again, it's time for the corner that is taking the world by storm! The corner that is making everyone say, "I didn't know a corner could be so good." Lucy's Poetry Corner!!!!!!!

In closing, I would like to share with you a revelation I had the other day: Justin Bieber is the bizzaro Dustin Weaver... Think about it.

Entry 106: Periscope Weekly Sketches

Hello, friend.

The past few days I've had the chance to get caught up with my pieces for the weekly Periscope studio sketch blog. The first week was where everyone did a Spider Girl sketch. I posted my Spider Girl in the last entry of this very live blog.

Week two the subject was the Thunderbolts. Here's my contribution for that.

This is the first time I've done anything with half tones. I wanted to make it look just like zipatone. It doesn't. But it's close.

Week three's subject was Miyazaki.

My favorite Miyazaki work is his Nausicaa manga series. I like it because, well because it's phenomenal. But everything he's done is phenomenal. What makes Nausicaa my favorite is simple. It's a comic, and as a comic maker there is so much I can learn from it; and it's a much bigger story than anything he could tell in a movie. There's just a lot there to like. But my first Miyazaki love was Kiki's Delivery Service. Kiki was the first think of his that I saw. It totally amazed me. For me it holds a special place. So, I decided to do a Kiki piece rather than a Nausicaa piece, and here's how it came out.

This weeks sketch subject is Mario Cart. I'll sit this one out. If it weren't specifically Mario Cart and instead just Mario I'd be tempted. But I have drawn Mario before. You can see that Mario piece in this old post. Entry 9: Past Jellies

Now, go here to the Periscope Studio Tumblr to see all the sketch contributions and so much more. 

In other news my best friend, D.J. Bryant, who was the subject of my post two entries ago, has got a brand spanking new Live Journal blog. Check it out at djbcartoon.livejournal.com  Friend him, bookmark it, make it your home page, you won't regret it.

That's it. Over and out.
...no poetry corner this week. They're there on the fridge, I just haven't taken a picture of them yet. Next time.

Entry 105: S.H.I.E.L.D. # 5

HELLO and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

That's right, Happy. This whole year be happy. Ya think you can manage that? You know what, maybe lets just take it one day at a time.

Anyway, SHIELD #5 is out! Please go get yourself a copy.
read more for a preview of the book and more...