SKETCH A DAY 174 - 189: X-MEN

These sixteen sketches are of various X-characters that I've liked over the years. Yes, some of them I've already drawn within this "sketch a day" project, but I wanted to do a nice set full of the big X-Men and my favs from the series. I'm pretty happy with how most of them turned out. Phoenix, Storm, Psylocke and Sunfire are my favorites. Next I'm going to take on some of the more popular Titans and my favs among them. Then it'll be back to fullbody sketches once again.

SIN BY MARK HOLMES

Believe it or not, but I still have a few sketches that I got at the Wizard World Philly Con that I haven't posted yet. This is one that surprised me. I met Mark Holmes through artist David Quiles and Mark wanted to add to my sketchbook. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I gave him the choice of drawing whoever he wanted. I was surprised that he picked Sin. I don't have many sketches of him in my book yet, but I'm glad he choose him. I think his take on Sin is unique and has a very supernatural feel to it. I also loved that he added some color in there. The scan doesn't really show the gold in the original, but it's there and really makes this sketch work. Check out more of Mark's work at http://www.enigmaworks.net/ .

ANOTHER CURSED PREVIEW

By now it seems like everyone is sick of my "sketch a day" pics, lol. So, I'll lay off posting those for a little bit. I figure it'd be cool to show another character from Luciano and my new project (tentatively titled CURSED). This character is named Akvan and will play an important role in the series. Cool design, huh?

SKETCH A DAY 173: MERA

Aquaman's wife is finally getting the spotlight again in DC's Blackest Night series. This character has been around for decades and even appeared in many cartoons along side Aquaman. It's about time she got her due. I always liked Mera and can remember her in the old Aquaman cartoon show that they used to repeat on TV when I was a kid. (Not that old to remember when it aired live, lol). At the time, I actually thought she was Aqualad's girlfriend though, lol, they made her look so young. Of course, nothing compares to Tusky in that cartoon. Maybe I'll have to sneak him into one of my sketch a day pics somehow, lol.

SKETCH A DAY 172: HUNTRESS

I really didn't plan on drawing this pic of the Huntress, but as I was doodling poses, I came up with this one and it seemed to fit her. I wasn't a big fan of Huntress when they first brought her into the DC "unified" universe a while back. My Huntress was the Earth 2 one and this version felt forced. But over the years, this new Huntress, Helena Bertinelli, grew on me. I liked that she wasn't let into batman's inner circle and kept trying to prove herself to him. She developed character. Then she was in Birds of Prey for a long time and kicked butt. I miss that book. The costume I drew her is the one designed by Jim Lee. I think I like her old or newer one better, but this one was fun to draw.

SKETCH A DAY 164 - 171: NEW MUTANTS

Still doing some headshots and since I did a DC team last time, I figured I should do a Marvel one. I decided to try my hand at drawing the original New Mutants. I used to love that book back in the day and have a fondness for the team. Sunspot was way too easy to draw, lol, I almost feel guilty about that. But Warlock and Wolfsbane were a lot of fun to draw. Over all, I'm pretty happy with how these have been turning out. As I mentioned when I first started this "sketch a day" project, I'm planning on starting my own webcomic next year and I wanted to draw once a day as a sort of warm-up to doing the webcomic. It's been great practice and I think these headshots have started to serve their purpose. I've really been trying to draw different looking faces and have them be unique. Hope it looks that way at least, lol.

SKETCH A DAY 163: KID FLASH

One of the reasons the Geoff Johns relaunch of the Teen Titans lasted so long and was successful was due to the main teens from Young Justice jumping ship. In about issue two they switched Bart from Impulse to Kid Flash. Totally hated it at first, but I think he really grown in the role. Once Geoff Johns left the book, it's really been sinking for so long. They killed off Kid Flash and Superboy and added too many characters that no one cares about to the team. But in the Legion of Three Worlds mini-series, both of those guys were brought back. I'm hoping they have them rejoin the team soon. I was inspired to draw Bart here. This sketch was surprisingly fun to draw .

SKETCH A DAY 157 - 162: SECRET SIX

One of my favorite current books out today is the Secret Six by DC Comics. It's one of the very few books I get monthly. It's written by Gail Simone and drawn by Nicola Scott, who make an incredible team. Gail has quickly become one of my favorite writers. She's just so damn talented. Her grasp on the DC universe is perfect and she mixes a nice blend of fan appreciation and original storytelling in her work. Yet as much as her writing is that of a fan that truly seems to love what she is doing, she never crosses into that cliched writing of doing fanish things. Instead she uses her fandom of the DC universe to strengthen her stories. But what's best about Gail's writing is her dialogue. Each character really has their own voice and I love the vocabulary she uses for them. It's very inspiring! And Nicola is really a hidden gem at DC. Her art is breath-taking at times and her character are on a Perez level as far as facial consistencies. I can't recommend this book enough. Go get it! Here's my attempt at drawing the members of the team. Had fun with them all, except for Bane. He didn't turn out as good as I had hoped.

SKETCH A DAY 147 - 156: DC VILLAINS

Here's the second batch (no, not you, Noel) of headshots I've been doing. This time I picked ten DC villains. In random order: Killer Frost, Shade, Mr. Freeze, Silver Banshee, Sinestro, Two-Face, Cheshire, Joker, Lobo and Deathstroke. These were really fun to do. I think I might do more headshots.

FIREBOMB BY BRENDON AND BRIAN FRAIM

This sketch of Firebomb, in her costume from SENTINELS Book 2: Masks, was done at the Wizard World Philly Con by Brendon and Brian Fraim. The Fraim brothers are an art team that have done numerous covers and comics through the years. Some of their most recent work can be seen in Knights of the Dinner Table. Their work caught my eye as I was walking around the con, so I stopped and chatted with them for a bit. When working on sketches, one of will pencil and the other will ink. I thought that made them a really good team, so I decided to get something from them. I let them choice whoever they wanted to draw and they picked Firebomb. I liked the way they drew her. She has a real "old school" feel to here. It reminds me of the Silver Age. Check out more of Brendon and Brian's work at http://www.brosfraim.com/ .

HARLETTE BY GREG MAYER

This sketch of Harlette was done by the talented Greg Mayer. Greg is a fellow artist on Deviant Art and we've gotten the chance to hang out and talk shop a few times. He's a great guy who's got a ton of enthusiasm about comics and has a few different projects he's working on. His art is extremely detailed. I don't think I've seen an artist this detailed since Perez or Jiminez. Really, he goes into it that much. And Greg has recently decided to try his hand at doing a sketch a day like I have. Since he said I kind of inspired him to do it, lol, he choose Harlette as his first sketch. Pretty cool, huh? I think it's awesome! And his second sketch of Doctor Doom is really kickass. But don't take my word for it, check out more of Greg's work at http://gregmayer.deviantart.com/ .

SKETCH A DAY 137 - 146: MARVEL VILLAINS

I decided to try to do some headshots with my sketches and see how they turned out. I wasn't sure I was going to like them, but I actually think they look pretty good. I picked ten Marvel villains to do and will draw ten DC ones next. In random order, they are: Mojo, Magenta, Doctor Doom, Selene (Black Queen), Red Skull, Madame Masque, Enchantress, Green Goblin, Mr. Sinister and Hela.