SHOUT OUT TO RYAN MCLELLAND!

So, my buddy Ryan McLelland (the writer on Serpenta's story from the SENTINELS Anthology, PHILLY and WISE INTELLEGENCE) recently had surgery and I wanted to just post this quick shout out to him to get well soon. I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't even know that Ryan was having surgery until his fiance, Lauren, posted something about it on Facebook. Ryan was one of the first people to give SENTINELS a read and plug/review us for Newsarama. I still owe him big time. I'm not going to go into details about Ryan's surgery, but I have to say it seems like he went through a lot just to get a little nose work. lol. Just kidding, Ryan, I know if it was really plastic surgery you were getting that you'd have something done with those ears. Get well soon, dude.

3RD GEN SKETCH BY JAMIE FAY

Work has been pretty busy lately and I'm trying to keep up on the posting. Unfortunately, I don't always have the time I wish I did. So, this is just another quick post. Here's a cool montage of the 3rd Gen SENTINELS done by Jamie Fay. I really love the way he draws them.

NEVERMINDS PREVIEW ART

Just a quick post today. I know I've been teasing about posting some previews of NEVERMINDS for a long time now and it's really hard to decide what to show. I think the best thing to do right now is show some panels that show Jamie's art and Rey's colors. With this post is Paige and Gavin. They are Alanis's (our main character) friends and appear quite a bit in the story. Gavin is kind of a wild card type of guy and Paige is his "take-no-crap" girlfriend. They provide a lot of the comic relief in the book.

ANOTHER JESSE SKETCH

Here's another sketch of Jesse by the talented Rey Arzeno. This time he used orange for the sword. I think I'm still leaning more to the purple or green though. The star tattoos represent the "sisters" who protected him in SENTINELS Book 4 and there is a star for each one. I kind of like that idea. Also noticed the jacket that is a homage to the costume Luciano originally had him in. Of course, we're still just playing around with ideas. I'll start posting some Nevermind previews next.

MORE REY AZRENO ART

Since I mentioned a while back that I had some ideas for doing a story on Jesse, Lightbringer and Prophet, from the SENTINELS series, along with Rey Arzeno, I thought I'd post this sketch Rey sent me a while back. He just did it to start to get a feel for the characters. I think he got them dead on! Jesse is still a smartass, Lightbringer looks annoyed with him and Prophet seems to be the peacemaker that keeps them killing each other (or mainly keeping Lightbringer from giving Jesse a beating, lol). Above is the first quick sketch Rey did and the more detailed version he sent after below it. Pretty amazing, huh? We won't get to this for a while, when both Rey and I have the time. But I'm looking forward to working on it. It'll probably be the main part of a second SENTINELS Anthology. Thoughts?

WICKKID ART

Here's a sketch I was really happy with. It's another from my sketchbook and not many artists have decided to draw characters from the 3rd Gen SENTINELS just yet, but Holly Mongi surprised me when she chose to draw Brad (Wickkid). I think she did an awesome job. I'm a big fan of Holly's and have gotten a sketch from her in the past of Alanis from NEVERMINDS. Check out more of her work at http://luthien13.deviantart.com/ .

SPLASH SKETCH

Just a quick post today. Here another sketch of Splash from my sketchbook. I usually just let artist pick whoever they want to draw for my sketch book but latley I've been getting so many of Splash and Harlette, that I think the next con I go to I will tell artists who I'd perfer them to draw. This sketch was done by Marc McKenzie. Cute, huh?

ART AND UGH!

So, I just got back from shooting my Learning Annex video on how to self-publish your own graphic novel and I totally blew it. I don't know why but I felt completely off and think I did a horrible job. It's not like I was afraid of being in front of the camera, I wasn't. I've done that tons of times and from my years of acting I think I'm pretty comfortable with all that. But for some reason, I just felt off. I felt like I was blabbing too much and not giving enough information. Of course, I have no idea how it will all turn out and who knows, maybe it'll be great. But right now I think I screwed up a lot, lol. I feel bad about that because I really wanted to give out a lot of good advice. The video is only going to be 30 minutes, so I'm not sure how much good advice will get in there.

On the plus side, I did get some more sketches in my sketch book recently. With this post is a pic of Splash done by Noreen Rana. It's not finished as the sketch was supposed to be inked and in color. Unfortunately, she didn't get to the inks and color. I still think it's a cool sketch though.

WHAT'S HAPPENING NOW

Where have I been? Why haven't I been posting? What am I doing?It seems so long since I last posted, that even I ask myself that, lol. To be honest, I haven't had much new art to post and every time I go to make a post, I would think I'd just wait until tomorrow and post when I have some art to show. But that never happened. Sorry about that. I have been working on many different projects though and been extremely busy.

First and foremost is NEVERMINDS. I feel like we've been working on this book forever, lol, and we have. No need for us to be reminded, lol. But we are making tons of progress. I have the story, Jamie Fay is still drawing pages and we have Rey Arzeno doing the coloring. I have new art for that. but feel it's too early to show and that it gives away the story a little too much. I will post some panels from various pages soon though and try to show some sneaks.

I also completed writing a new OGN that is being drawn by Teyo. Teyo was the artist on Templar's story from the SENTINELS Anthology. The book will be 96 pages and full color. As of right now, I don't have a title for the book and have just been calling it ROACH. Of course the more I use that name, the more it sticks, lol. I don't want to give too much away about it, but it's a much darker book than anything else I've worked on. And of course there's a lot of humor in it too. I can't wait to see what Teyo comes up with for this book, his style fits it perfectly. And I'll show previews as soon as I can.

Luciano and I are still developing CASPIAN CURSES, but we both have full plates at the moment. Hopefully, we'll get to it next year. It'll be worth the wait though, just like NEVERMINDS. :)

In addition to all this (and work, you know the day job that pays the bills) I am also doing another class at the Learning Annex. Almost a year ago I taught my first class there and they asked me to teach again. Only this time it's different, it'll all be for their new online classes. I'll do a 45 minute class on camera for them and then it'll be available for download on there site for about $10. I think it'll be pretty cool, they plan to put our animated trailer for SENTINELS on it and all kinds of graphics.

I'd also like to take this time to ask what, if anything, people would be interested in seeing from SENTINELS. Right now I have about 5 different projects started, but if/when I come back to SENTINELS, would a second Anthology be a good idea? That's the way I'm leaning right now.

The art above was done by Jamie Fay at a convention and features Alex, BoBo and Elena from the 3rd Gen SENTINELS. Cool, huh?