SKETCH A DAY 345-348: AVENGERS

This will most likely be my last group of headshots for my "sketch a day" project, but don't quote me on that, lol. I wanted to be fair and try to draw as many Avengers as I did JLA members. So, catching up, I decided to draw Hercules, Hellcat, Quicksilver and Black Panther. I always liked this group of characters for different reasons. And overall, I'm happy with the way they turned out. One thing I didn't realize is that Black Panther is a much harder character to draw then you think.

SKETCH A DAY 344: FIREBOMB

Rounding out the main members of the SENTINELS team, here is Firebomb. I really like the way this sketch turned out. Firebomb really changed a lot during the course of the SENTINELS series and had the most drastic costume changes. But her final look in the Book 4 was my favorite costume of hers. It was strong, yet feminine. Loved the belly tattoo too, lol.

SKETCH A DAY 343: TEMPLAR

Templar (the SENTINELS leader) is another character with a tough costume to draw. Curse you again, Luciano Vecchio! lol. JK. I'm pretty happy with the way this sketch turned out though and had fun drawing him. And all kidding aside, I really do love the amount of detail and originally Luciano put into all of the SENTINELS costumes. By the end of the series, I think they each had a VERY distinct look and uniqueness to them. In my opinion, Templar's costume was one of the best among them!

SKETCH A DAY 342: CRUSHER

Crusher wasn't really one of my favorite characters when I began writing Sentinels. But I tried really hard to give him more depth than being just the typical strong-guy. I ended up liking him a lot and think that by the end of the series he had a bit of a following. I had fun drawing him, I especially liked doing the hair stubble, lol.

SKETCH A DAY 341: SIN

Curse you, Luciano Vecchio! LOL. I kid, but still, he makes his costumes so complicated. Especially Sin from SENTINELS Book 4. You don't realize how much work goes into something until you actually do it yourself and that's exactly what happened here. I'd say I had fun doing this one, but I'd be lying, lol. I honestly thought Sin would be easy since I drew his story for the SENTINELS Anthology, but his costume is wayyyyy detailed. I had never drawn it before, only inked. Still, I am really happy with how this one came out. I think the pose is good and I feel like I kinda gave Sin a similar face to the one I drew him with in the Anthology. Didn't plan for that part, but I guess that's kind of how I see him.

SKETCH A DAY 340: GOSPEL

Of all the Sentinels characters, I think Gospel looks the most different by the end of the series. She looks more free and stylish. That's mainly due to Luciano Vecchio's art. My original designs for Gospel weren't that great, but Luciano's designs for her final look in Book 4 kicked butt. They're awesome! I had fun drawing her in this sketch, especially her hair, lol.

SKETCH A DAY 339: PHAZER

Phazer, from Sentinels, is easily one of the characters I hear the most comments about. It's funny how many people liked him and he was their favorite. For me, I wanted one character that was balanced much more than the others and was confident and secure. I decided that Phazer would be that person and that his sexuality wouldn't be part of that or identify him. He'd be gay, but it would not be what made him stand out on the team. Hopefully, I achieved that.

SKETCH A DAY 338: HARLETTE

Harlette was another of my personal favorites from Sentinels. I never had any problems writing this character and knowing what she would say. It was way too easy and fun to deal with her. I also liked how she evolved with each trade and how her looks reflected that change.

SKETCH A DAY 337: SERPENTA

Serpenta from my comic, Sentinels, changed a lot since I first created her. Originally, she was all mean looking and had this angry energy to her. But as I started writing her, things really changed and she became the light-heart center of the team. She was the upbeat one now. I think it was a good switch too. I can't see her working any other way.

SKETCH A DAY 336: ELECTRON

The second member of my Sentinels team I've drawn so far, Electron! Over the course of the series, Electron became one of my favorite characters to write. He had a lot of conflicts in his life that gave him some good drama. Luciano and I had a lot of fun with him over the course of the time we worked on the book.

VOTE FOR LUCIANO AND UNSEEN TRIBE!

So, I never really ask for people to go and vote for things and stuff, but I really have to this time. Artist extraordinaire and artist of SENTINELS, Luciano Vecchio, has his first webcomic online on Zuda. Zuda is DC Comic's webcomic site that allows artist to compete and have their webcomic voted on by the masses. Luciano's webcomic is called Unseen Tribe and I LOVE it! It's fun, exciting and perfect for many ages. Just what the comic world needs. So, please take a few mintues and go to [link], register and vote for Unseen Tribe by Luciano Vecchio! You'll be glad you did.

SKETCH A DAY 335: SPLASH

I originally didn't plan to draw any of my Sentinels characters for this "sketch a day" project, I mean, I did draw the 3rd Gen kids, but that was all I was going to do. But the other day I got the itch to draw them and decided that I would draw the main 10 members. Here is the first, Splash! I always love drawing her.

SKETCH A DAY 334: DARKNESS

When the Darkness comic first came out I thought it would in an interesting book. I liked that they were going to connect him to Witchblade too. But after a few issues, I kind of lost interest. Not sure why, but I did. Still, I wanted to add him to my "sketch a day" project and try to do him justice. I think I got the face right, but the body and one arm seem off. Had fun drawing his armor and face mask.

SKETCH A DAY 333: GHOST RIDER

To be honest, I'm not really a big fan of Ghost Rider. I mainly drew him because I thought he'd be a fun character to draw and visually, he's cool. I love the flaming skull head! The movie they made a few years back was awful. They did the flaming skull pretty good, but the story and cast were really weak.

SKETCH A DAY 332: CEREBUS

In my opinion one of the greatest self-published comic series has to be Cerebus. Written and drawn by Dave Sim, Cerebus began in the late 70s and finally saw it's final issue published in 2004. The series ran for 300 issues and was 6,000 pages long. There are so many stories about Dave Sim and his journey self-publishing and working on Cerebus that I can't even begin to list them all here. Some are good, some are bad, depending on who's telling the story. He's truly worth researching and reading more about. Dave was a pioneer in the industry and inspired many other creators (Jeff Smith, Terry Moore and Martin Wagner) and still continues to inspire new creators today. He's also a BIG supporter of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and even donated his entire paycheck for writing Spawn #10 (which featured Cerebus) to them. On top of all this, Cerebus is truly a GREAT book to read. It's extremely deep and thought-provoking and I still go back from time to time to re-read issues.

SKETCH A DAY 331: DARK PHOENIX

As I'm close to the end of my "sketch a day" project, I'm just now getting to a bunch of characters that I wanted to draw. I purposely kept some of them until the end because I wanted to have some fun characters to draw as I close out this project. Dark Phoenix is one of the best characters to draw. Really. She's just such a blast to do. She's the ultimate good girl gone bad! This is probably my favorite sketch I've done so far. I really like the way she came out.

SKETCH A DAY 330: HAWKEYE

One of my favorite Avengers is Hawkeye. He's just a cool character that I think they've developed very well. I know he's not "Hawkeye" anymore and now goes by a different name, but I always liked his old school uniform and wanted to draw him in that one.

SKETCH A DAY 329: DEADPOOL

Here's another character that I was requested to add to my list for my "sketch a day" project. And while he's not a character I know a lot about, Deadpool is interesting and a fun character to draw. I like how they portrayed him in the Wolverine movie too, even though he didn't have his mask and they change his face to look like the mask.

SKETCH A DAY 323-328: THE WATCHMEN

The Watchmen was groundbreaking. The series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons is classic and has shaped the future of comics ever since it was first published in the 80s. Multi-layered and full of characters so deep, the Watchmen sits alone as a series continually referred and compared to by comic readers. Of course, I had to include the cast from Watchmen to my "sketch a day" project. At first, I was planning on drawing one large teamshot, but I wasn't feeling that and decided on a series of headshots. I think that worked out better and, for the most part, I'm happy with them. I'm kind of getting used to combining my sketchy style with my smoother, more traditional, style.

SKETCH A DAY 322: STARGIRL

One of the best legacy characters to come out of DC is definitely Stargirl. Originally the star of her own series written by Geoff Johns, Stargirl later joined the JSA in their relaunched book and quickly became a fan favorite. Cute, perky and with an opinion of her own, Stargirl was based on Geoff's sister, Courtney, who sadly passed away in the crash of Flight 800 in 1996. For me, there is an odd connection to this character. The first story I helped a reporter cover for the NY Times was the crash of Flight 800. I remember that day very clearly and remember talking with witnesses and all the theories on what happened that day. It was really sad and confusing at the same time. I won't forget that day. But even more than that connection, for me, the fact that Geoff based Stargirl on his sister who was on the flight and used the tragedy to honor her and try to keep her memory alive resonates with me. I didn't know he had based Stargirl on his late sister at the time, but when I created SENTINELS, I wanted to do the same thing with one of my characters and based Agent Huggins on a very close friend of mine. For me, losing someone so important, it was very therapeutic to do this and I can relate to the reasons why Stargirl was created. I figured it was only fitting that I added this character to my "sketch a day" project.