Two for Tuesday

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First up, a quick one from this morning. I had timed myself so that I wouldn't spend more than 45 minutes on it, so there's not much detail. I kind of like the mood of it though.

The second sketch is a commission for Steven Gettis' awesome collection in which he has artists draw their favorite literary figure, author, or character. I'm not going to post my contribution here, because I want you to go to his site and browse through the amazing array of talent he has commissioned over the past decade. You can see it by clicking the link below-

Hey Oscar Wilde! It's clobberin' time!!!

Beer Is Good

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I saw this Austin Briggs Illustration on James Gurney's blog (who posted it by way of Leif Peng) and had to laugh at the fact that beer ads haven't really changed much at all since the 1950s.

Captain America #42 is on sale today, featuring an unadvertised 3 extra pages of story for the same low price! Another added bonus is that these extra pages (in the form of the story's epilogue) feature art by Luke Ross, giving you a little sneak preview how awesome the next story arc will look.

Tank

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Just goofing around trying some new brushes and new techniques. When I first started painting in Photoshop, I wanted to replicate the feel of traditional media as closely as possible, partly because that's the look I wanted for the Captain America covers I've been painting, but also because some digital paintings look sterile and artificial to me. However, there are things that Photoshop can do that can't be done any other way. I've been consciously avoiding these digital techniques on most of the published work, but I'm doing more and more of them in the speedpaints.

I'm not sure where (if anywhere) this may lead, but I'm having fun experimenting.

By the way, I didn't reference any tank when painting this. It's completely made up, so try not to laugh too hard at how impractical or stupid it looks.:)

Captain America #45 Cover

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Marvel's December 2008 solicitations have been out for a few days, featuring Captain America #45. Here's how Marvel describes the issue-

CAPTAIN AMERICA #45
Written by ED BRUBAKER
Penciled by LUKE ROSS
Cover by STEVE EPTING
Villain Variant by TBA
It's Bucky versus Batroc and a mysterious foreign agent from his past as the Winter Soldier, as he fights to keep a secret super-weapon from falling into enemy hands! But the shocking ending of this three-parter brings a new twist to the mission... and sends our New Captain America in search of whatever is left of his old comrades, the Invaders.
From Ed Brubaker and Luke Ross - Part Three of Three
32 PGS./Rated T+ ...$2.99

This completes the trilogy of the thematically related covers, and next month we'll move on to something different.

Also, on sale this week - The Death Of Captain America: The Burden Of Dreams Vol. 2 trade paperback.

A Mess O' Commissions

Here's a few recently completed commissions, including the inked version of the sketch I used for this Rocketeer painting. By the way, for those of you who have asked, I still can't accept any new commissions just yet, but when I can I'll let you know.
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Red Sonja and Dean Cornwell

Okay, so my earlier post had to be nuked due to technical difficulties. I'll get it all sorted and repost it in the future. Hellboy will not be denied!

In the meantime, here's a Red Sonja speedpaint (done for fun) and a copy of a detail from a Dean Cornwell painting.

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My hope when doing things like the Cornwell copy is that by studying in detail the techniques of other artists, I'll look at my own efforts with a more open mind to different approaches. It's too easy to get comfortable doing what has worked before over and over again.