IRON MAN 2: sketch trading cards!

I did these for Marvel/Upper Deck-they'll be randomly spread amongst other movie related cards and other sketch cards by several different artists-they should be out around the time the film IRON MAN 2 is released to theaters.





Of course,because they'll be placed randomly,there's no knowing which pack they'll be in-good luck!





If you look closely at the THAT'S ALL VOKES logo picture you'll notice that it's my drawing table with the IM card sketch ideas list under my hand- and a couple reference books nearby...;o)





I wish I did more-they were fun...;o)

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• 'Iron Man 2′ Trailer Is Here (VIDEO) (blippitt.com)

New Stuff: Barlow!

SALEM'S LOT is my favorite Stephen King novel and unarguably my 2nd favorite vampire novel after DRACULA - so when I was asked to do a commission of the lead vamp from the book (albeit Tobe Hooper's TV film version) I was more than happy to.

Here are a couple thumbnails I did before settling on the final image and then the piece itself - I hope you like them...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY,BORIS KARLOFF!

http://frankensteinia.blogspot.com/

http://boriskarloffcollection.blogspot.com/

Zombie Bomb!

What is Zombie Bomb?

You may well ask-it's an upcoming anthology comic book ( due in January 2010 from Terminal Press & Rich Woodall) featuring many talented writers and artists all doing short stories on the popular (tho I still don't get it) theme of flesh hungry dead folk shuffling about with little on their "minds" save a good snack...;o)

I've already posted a pin up here that i drew for the book - now i want to show you a few pages from my 7 page story (only p1-5 as i don't want to give it all away-it is also yet to be lettered)














You can also see what the Zombie Bomb folk are up to over on their Facebook page...;o)

Happy Birthday,Steve Ditko!

Image via Wikipedia

Happy Birthday,Mr.Ditko!



You've always been an inspiration to me and I hope you have a great day,sir...;o)

Pinup for Zombie Bomb! anthology

I've done a 7 page story with writer Jack Herman for Rich Woodall's ZOMBIE BOMB! comic - this is a pinup based on a scene in the story- tho i actually did the story in a more "cartoony" style...;o)

George Tuska- R.I.P.

Image via Wikipedia

We've lost another comic book legend: George Tuska...

BALTIMORE CON '09!

...nuff said...;o)

WONDER WOMAN DAY '09!

Yes it's that time of year again- the annual Wonder Woman Day celebration- pleas pop over to the site and check out the wonderful things they're doing there - and if you can afford it,bid on some beautiful artwork...;o)

SOLOMON KANE!

Robert E. Howard's SOLOMON KANE!

New Stuff: LSOH #23-the sequel

I've already shown you my exhaustively long winded process of doing a color cover for my old buddy Dick Klemensen's LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS upcoming ish-here are my two interior B & W illos.

First we have the pencils for John Gilling's FLESH AND THE FIENDS (not a Hammer Film) -the infamous story of Dr Knox and Burke and Hare:




followed by the finished piece in inkwash:




Second we have a scene from Gilling's PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES:








Another ish of LSOH bites the dust...That's All,Vokes!

New Stuff - LSOH #23

So...for nearly 20 years now I've been doing illos for my old buddy,Dick Klemensen's Hammer Films fanzine Little Shoppe of Horrors.

It has been a complete and utter joy to do so as I adore the original films-also,since then I've made several friends thru the fanzine who are very good artists in their own right- Adrian Salmon,Bruce Timm,Dan Gallagher Jr.,Frank Dietz,Jeff Preston,Mark Maddox,Shane Oakley and others.

Many of these gents are what I consider "complete artists"- in other words they can pretty much do anything-including beautiful color work-I however am primarily a B & W artist...which leads us to today's post.

For the upcoming 23rd ish of LSOH,Dick asked Ade and I to contribute inside back and front covers in color-no great challenge to Ade as he is an amazing colorist-but i have only done a handful of projects in color in my entire career (one of which is the background of my blog's title above) and feel much more at home with my blacks,whites and greys.

The subject of my piece is from the film THE MUMMY'S SHROUD-directed by John Gilling (a featured writer/director in the new ish.) I originally chose an action scene,showing the mummy throttling members of the cast...






I then thought it might be fun to show the scene where the heroine uses the shroud of the title to destroy the creature-causing it to crumble to dust...





After careful consideration of the need to show the lady in a gratuitous shot from behind,accenting her ass-sets...ahem...I decided to concentrate on the mummy's decaying form instead...sorry lads...;o)





Tho I thought it might be fun to include a panel of her with the shroud (above) I realized the point of the piece was the mummy crumbling to dust.

I placed tracing paper over the pencils and did an inkline to have a solid base for whatever colors i might add-I also added some "splatter" FX via my trusty toothbrush (an old used one of course ;o)



I then scanned the art and played around with some filters in Photoshop-i wanted an interesting effect-something that evoked decay-after a few hours of experimenting this is what i ended up with...




Then I spent several days,on and off,frustratingly trying different color styles-i wanted some of that "Hammer color" that they did so well-but my coloring abilities were found wanting.

I tried color pencils,water colors and some wash (done on a lightbox over the inkline)...








It occured to me that i could scan these various color trials and combine them in Photoshop,then overlay them with the inkline-the reason that I didn't start with that plan is that I prefer to use the computer as little as possible in my work-I'm old fashioned that way-but this problem was too frustrating and I thought why not?

So I combined the various color pieces with the filtered art (there were MANY different variations) until i settled on this...




I printed this out and added more bits of color with water colors and pencils and some solid black in the BG...





I scanned that and played around a little more with color hue saturation and contrast-what finally caught my eye was far from what I thought I was going to do at the start,but it seemed to work-I added a little title for the piece and then sent it off to Dick for approval...




...amazingly he loved it (what was truly funny is that Dick and his lovely wifey,Nancy,wanted to buy the original from me-the long winded explanation that there wasn't actually an original that looked like the final work was amusing to say the least-lol) and I was able to finally go back to my B & W work in peace!