SKETCH A DAY 365: POISON IVY

Here it is! My final sketch for my year long "sketch a day" project! I can't believe I'm finally finished. How crazy was it that I did this? lol. VERY! But I'm really glad I did it and I truly learned a lot. I decided to draw the first character I did for this project, Poison Ivy, over again and think it turned out well. Just compare the first one http://drumfishproductions.blogspot.com/2009/01/sketch-day-1-poison-ivy.html to this new one. Big change! Thanks to everyone who continued to check out these sketches as I did them through the year. I appreciate all the support and encouragement you've shown and I'm really excited to put my new trained skills to work! 2010 should be an interesting year and I can't wait to get started on new projects and FINALLY finish ones that have been in the works for what feels like forever. Thanks again, everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the sketches and hope you all have a Happy New Years Eve!!! Don't party too much. Uh, nevermind, lol, that's what I plan to do. :)

SKETCH A DAY 364: ARSENAL

One of my favorite comic characters is Roy Harper. I think he's one of the more interesting characters because he has such an diverse background and history. He's a single father, a former sidekick, former government agent, former drug addict and all around ladies man who was raised by an American Indian. There are a tons of story possibilities there. He's also had a few different costumes and names throughout the years, but my favorite, and the one I always thought was the most unique, was this look when he was Arsenal. Of course right now, Roy Harper is not in a good position. DC recently allowed his arm to be riped off in an issue of JLA: Cry for Justice. Totally done for shock value and I hate it. I'm sure they'll give him a mechanical arm or something, but still, why couldn't they just write interesting stories with all that history he has instead of maiming him? Rumor has it that he might become a villain due to all this. Ugh! I hope not. Anyway, lol, had fun drawing him and think he came out pretty good. Only one more sketch left now!!!

SKETCH A DAY 363: MISS MARTIAN

Ugh. This is what happens when you rush, lol. I wanted to redraw some of the sketches that I wasn't happy with over the course of this year and Miss Martian was definitely one of them. And now, lol, I guess she still is because I'm not wild about the way this one turned out. It looked good pencilled, but I messed up on the inking and over-inked it. Doh. I guess I'm just to excited to be finishing this project up and got ahead of myself with this one. I like this character and think she has a lot of potential. Someday I'll have to take another try at her and do a sketch that I'm really happy with.

BATMAN BEYOND COLORED BY LUCIANO VECCHIO

Even though I just posted this sketch today, the talented, Luciano Vecchio, just surprised me with this colored version of Batman Beyond! How cool is that?!!! Thanks, Luciano. What a great surprise. I love the way he turned out.

SKETCH A DAY 362: BATMAN BEYOND

After the monster grouping I just finished, I purposely left Batman Beyond to do next. I figured I needed something a little easier to complete, lol. I loved the animated series when it was on TV and think they did a really cool job updated Batman, keeping ties to the original and bringing in something new and fresh. I miss the series a lot and wish they had continued it a longer.

SKETCH A DAY 361: INDIE GROUPING

During the course of this "sketch a day" project, I had a list of characters I really wanted to get to. Unfortunately, for one reason or another I never got around to all of them. Now, as I'm down to the final few, I had to make some cuts. Then it occurred to me that I could just do a grouping of some of those characters. Man, what the heck was I thinking? lol. This was more work to do then I thought. It took a long time and I'm not even sure if I like it, lol. But, I tried. Here in a George Perez style shot, are some Indie characters that were either requested or I thought were great characters that needed to be shown. Included are the Tick, Miss Victory (from FemForce), Judge Dreed, Astro Boy, the Spirit, Mr, Natural (by Crumb!), the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Nexus, Miracle Man and Optimus Prime. All of these characters have a special place in Indie Comic history and I would have felt bad if I didn't try to get them in this project at least in some form.

SKETCH A DAY 360: TIGRA

Here's another sketch of a character I drew early on when I first started. This time, it's Tigra! I really had a lot of fun with this one and felt very free drawing her. I liked the first version I had done, but this one is just much more alive.

SKETCH A DAY 359: EMMA FROST

Another redo! Emma Frost was another of the early sketches I did when I started this "sketch a day" project. And even though I kind of liked that first attempt, I thought I could do better. I switched it up a little by drawing her in her old Hellfire Club costume and hair style. Not too bad, I think. :)

SKETCH A DAY 358: TIMBERWOLF

I've only drawn a few of the Legion of Superheroes characters, but I wanted to try to get at least another in. I picked Timberwolf for two different reasons, One he was requested by someone on Deviant Art and two, I wanted to try to add a little beefcake since I've been drawing so much cheesecake, lol. As with my recent female characters, I wanted to try to see if I could add a little sexiness to him. I'm not as good at that with male characters as I am with female. He turned out okay though, I think.

SKETCH A DAY 357: SUPERGIRL

I hope everyone had a great holiday! Catching up a little with my posts here. I drew Supergirl way back when I started this project and I was never really happy with her. I decided to give her another try, only this time drawing the 60s/70s version with the hot pants. In pencil form, this sketch looked really good. I was very happy with it. Then, stupid me, totally over inked it. Duh. It still turned out okay, but I think the pencils looked much better.

MORE COLORED SKETCHES

Today I got even more colored versions of some of my sketches! So cool!!! Dark Phoenix was another of the colored pics Jamie Fay had done for me, it's colored by Vest, who's work you can see at http://www.vest.deviantart.com/ .The SENTINELS grouping was put together by Luciano Vecchio and colored by him too. And Jem was colored by Noel Short at http://www.kanoely.deviantart.com/ .I lOVE them all and love seeing my work colored. Thank you so much, guys!

SOME COLORED SKETCHES

Since I won't be able to scan any new sketches for a few days, I thought I'd share these awesome colored versions of some of my sketches that Jamie Fay has done for me as a gift for Christmas. All of these sketches were colored by artists on Deviant Art. Medusa was colored by "Vest" at http://www.vest.deviantart.com/ and the others were all colored by Chris Poppe at http://www.soulrailer.deviantart.com/ . Cool, huh? I love the way they all turned out! Thanks again, Jamie!

SKETCH A DAY 356: BLACK CANARY

I know I did a headshot of Black Canary a while back when I did the JLA grouping, but I wanted to draw a solo pic of her. To me, she's classic. I love her history, look and attitude. I loved Birds of Prey before she left the title and haven't really been following Green Arrow to see her. Had fun drawing this one and I'm pretty happy with it. You gotta love the fishnets, lol.

SKETCH A DAY 355: METAMORPHO

I have to say that the last few sketches have gone much easier and been a lot more fun to work on. I think that's because I'm working larger and not killing myself to get the entire body in. I also think they're looking better too, lol. Metamorpho is a character that's been on my list for a while now and I wanted to get to him because he represents a nice period in 60s DC history. Created by Bob Haney (who also created Doom Patrol and Metal Men) and drawn by Ramona Fradon (longtime artist on Aquaman), Metamorpho was supposed to be a light-hearted parody book, but I think the character is a little tragic. Still, he's a great character with a long history in the DC universe. He was the second hero to ever turn down membership in the JLA and one of the charter member of the Outsiders where he finally found a home. They updated him a while back, but I prefer his classic look, so that's the way I drew him.

SKETCH A DAY 354: NARUTO

I realized a while back that I hadn't done any Anime characters and wanted to try to include at least one. I wasn't sure how my style would work with it, but I figured I'd give it a shot. Naruto is one of the biggest characters in Anime and I admit that I like the series. It along with Death Note are my favorites. I was surprised by how this sketch turned out. I kind of like it, lol.

SKETCH A DAY 353: MS. MARVEL

Okay, so I said that I would not draw this character as part of my "sketch a day" sketches, but I was only teasing. I did that because she's one of Jamie Fay's favorite characters and I'm mean sometimes, lol. But I always planned to draw her near the end of this project. I was originally going to draw her full body and even did a few loose sketches that way, but none of them were singing to me. So, I decided to steal Jamie's 3/4 shot style and draw her that way. I think she came out much better that way.

SKETCH A DAY 352: JEM

Here's another request I got for my "sketch a day" project, Jem! I actually got a few requests for her, so I figured I'd give her a try. Jem was the star of an 80s cartoon marketed towards girls and was a joint effort by Hasbro, Marvel and Sunbow Productions, the same companies that put together GI Joe and Transformers. I felt a little cheesy drawing this one, but I still like the way it came out.

SKETCH A DAY 351: UNSEEN TRIBE

For everyone who hasn't heard yet or gone to the Zuda site and voted, this sketch of Luciano Vecchio's team, Unseen Tribe, is a reminder for you all to go to http://www.zuda.com/ right now and vote! Luciano's characters are energetic and exciting! They're unique and the story of Unseen Tribe is great for all ages. Like all the projects he works on, Luciano has poured his heart into this and it shows. I wanted to add him to my "sketch a day" project and be the first to draw fan art for him. Hope you like it, Luc. Now everyone, go vote! Support Unseen Tribe!!

UPDATED! I sent this sketch to Luciano this morning and by noon, he sent me this colored version of the sketch. Cool, huh? I think he liked it. :)

SKETCH A DAY 350: MOHAWK STORM

Even though I drew Storm way back when I started this project, I always wanted to try drawing the mohawk look for her. She had that look when I first got into comics and I always thought it was distinctive and cool. I can't think of any other female characters in comics who could pull off this hairstyle. The other thing I noticed while drawing this sketch, is that Storm is one of those characters that so easy to draw. She's just a lot of fun.

SKETCH A DAY 349: IRONMAN

The last of the big Avengers, I finally decided to tackle Ironman! I admit, I'm not a huge fan of his, not that I have anything against him. I love the movie and I'm really looking forward to the second one (even though I wish they had waited for Emily Blunt to finish her movie and stay on as Black Widow). But I just never got into his book. I like him though and think he's an interesting and conflicted character. Maybe I should try to read some of his comics again? Anyway, lol, only one more Avenger I still plan to do. One guess who that is, Jamie, lol.

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.