WORKIN' WORKIN'

It isnt easy...

Many times the dream takes a back seat to reality and many times the dream is never realized because reality often wins out. The bills, work, family, life period will put your dreams into the hospital.

It IS NOT a good idea to give up !!!

for the last few years I have been pluggin' away at this BROBOTICUS comic. These next few pages are from the 2nd issue of the series. I am enjoying working on this and I hope to finish this issue this year..

MAC

It has been quite a few years since the mc donald land characters have seen the light of day.

Maybe the eighties since Mayor Mc Cheese graced mc donaldland plates with his face. This character is a throwback to those days.

Mac is basically Batman with a cheeseburger for a head. He is created only as background filler in a larger group scene...

BEEZY

Here is young BEEZY in her cool colors. I always prefer cool colors to warm, but that doesnt mean I dont like warm colors. Reds, oranges and yellows are supremely awesome !!!

BEEZY 2

Designed as background filler in a large group scene, young BEEZY is quite attractive in her warm hues..

I did a similar design for the school newspaper when I was in college but, she was deemed too sexy by the powers that be... ( jerks)

GLOWIN' AN FLOWIN'

It is difficult as an artist to clearly express the ideas in my head much less express those in someone elses head.

For this reason I have not worked with many writers. Currently, the project Im working on in addition to BROBOTICUS puts me in a position to conquer my fears and give some visual prescence to the prose presented in poetic phorm ( yeah, my alliteration needs work, I know)

This chapter of a much larger comic is called " Glowing like the moon and flowing like the sea"

Illustrating someones poetry is difficult but the more I work on it the easier it becomes...

PAGE 2

This will actually be page one of the story. The page above acts more as chapter divider. This gives the reader some idea where this poem takes place.
I love the mythology illustrations where the gods are all standing around like they have nothing better to do.

They are all apart of the Pantheon or home of the gods.
You may find a couple of these guys illustrated further down this blog.

PAGE 3

I am really pleased how clean and crispy this page came out. Here our main character Africana gets her assignment from her advisor Leo. More often than not the hero in mythology has to complete some kind of quest or trial to prove themselves worthy of being a god.

Africana is just at the begining of her journey so she better lace up them sandals !!!

YIRKALLA

Yirkalla is an aboriginal god who has some control over the spirit world.

In trying to make the Pantheon of the Gods as diverse as possible I found the aborigines had very fascinating spiritual beliefs that were not something I normally run across in other cultures.

Im not sure I will use the Pantheon as more than background characters but, its always good to give some creations a little life in case you want to use them further down the line in another story.

the GRAVE KNIGHT 3

In selecting a characters colors it is sometimes good to do varied versions of what you think the visual should be.

Depending on what the characters background and purpose is can determine what colors you use. Those colors can also help define how the reader views the character. I originally wanted to use reds for the Grave Knight but, the first illustration of him below in color has little red in it.

the GRAVE KNIGHT 2

I needed an armored figure to oppose Africana, my main character in this chapter so the Grave Knight was born. His colors were simple in my thoughts..

Cool greys with touches of reds here an there..

COLOR THEORY

Right after completing Africana in gray, I started to wonder what a color version would look like sooooo I got down to burrizness with my markers
Good ol prismacolor, they get it done every time...

AFRICANA 2

After drawing that first sketch of Africana I thought I would do some tone theory in gray.
I particularly like her afro puffs...
The costume is pretty straight forward tribal warrior type design. Her spear ,however, has mystical properties to be revealed in the story.

AFRICANA

This is the main character of the story im currently working on. Africana is a little human girl who wants to join the Pantheon of Gods.

Usually in mythology the main character or hero is required to go through some trials or go on some kind of quest to earn their godhood.
The format of this story is not like any I have done before but, I still put Africana through some pretty adventurous situations.. I cant wait to start pencilling this story.

the GRAVE KNIGHT

The Grave Knight is the protector of the Treasure of Ages. He only appears once in the story but, I still needed to know what his whole costume looked like.

BOMBODAD

This guy was pretty awesome to come up with. I wanted him to be of polynesian background but, I ended up liking the big Easter Island head. His head is enchanted stone so I just decided his body would be made of the same stuff.

His name, as far as I know, doesnt have a meaning. Its just a non- sensical word I made up. Although most of these gods are gonna be in the background I still need to know what they look like full body an full costume...

AVIHS

When creating a pantheon I wanted to be as diverse as possible so I looked to several different cultures for inspiration. Avihs is basically the hindi goddess Shiva.

I thought to make my version a bit different I would spell her name backwards. The backward spelling then led me to make my version the opposite of the original. Soooo, Shiva being the hindu goddess of destruction Avihs is the goddess of life..

LEO

Leo, one of my multi-cultural pantheon of gods

was pretty fun to come up with. His son, Jaleo has a similar outfit its just smaller..

JALEO

This little guy is the son of the lion god LEO.

He has a small but, important role in a story im working on..

ARGO

This is a sketch of a character who will be used in a new project im working on. His name is Argo and I patterned his look after a roman soldier I saw in one of my mythology books.

the SPECIAL ELIXIR

Some comic artists are able to jump right into thier work others need that special liquid crack to get them going...

RICHMOND CON !!!

Yes, there is a richmond-comic convention. It was pretty cool. Two days sellin' comics and doin sketches.

The hotel restaurant was tight, the breakfast bar was niiiiiice... the DENNY'S across the street? the service sucked baaaaaaad !! They were about as useful as a pair of styrofoam boxer shorts. I did make back the money for my table rent at least. I saw some people that attended the baltimore- comic con so that was good...

coming soon more of my stuffs. yaaaaaaay!!!!