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?

EVEN MORE SOUL CALIBER CHARACTERS

Here are the last of the characters Jamie did on Soul Caliber V. This time it's the villains from SENTINELS and Sanria from NEVERMINDS. And yes, before anyone asks, lol, Jamie is working hard on NEVERMINDS. These were done a while ago. Some of them really turned out pretty cool.

READ IT! MR.SCOOTLES TRADE!

A while back I wrote a post about Howie (HCNoel) Noeldechen's awesome book called MR. SCOOTLES. I really love this book and finally Howie is releasing the first trade!!!! I can't recommend enough that people check out this book. The trade is 160 pages and contains the first complete storyline (issues 1-5). The main part of the book is black and white, but there is also some color in there. The trade is going to be published by Alterna Comics and is in Diamond's Preview catalogue right now. The item code is SEPT083690. Ask you local comic shop to order it for you now. Believe me, you won't regret it. And I'm not just saying that because I wrote the intro for the trade! :)

3RD GEN SENTINELS ON XBOX

Okay, so maybe Jamie is getting carried away creating these, lol, but I still love seeing them. Here are the 3rd Gen SENTINELS on Soul Caliber, kind of grown up. Overall they fight pretty well and even give me some idea for future possibilites with them.

MORE SOUL CALIBER SENTINELS

Here are some more pictures of different characters Jamie Fay created on Soul Caliber 4 for X-Box. Sorry that they are a little blury, but these were taken off of the TV. As you can see, some of them worked out better then others, but I think they all look great.

I'm working on NEVERMINDS still and a number of different projects (which I hope to post on soon) but in the meanwhile, I thought these would be cool to show more of. I hope to be back to posting on here regularly starting next week.

VIDEO GAMES!

I'm not that familiar with X-Box (actually, I suck at all video games and my young nephew is always beating me whenever I try), but there is a pretty cool game called Soul Caliber 4 that allows you to create your own characters to fight with. NEVERMINDS artist, Jamie Fay, has the game and created a few characters based on SENTINELS (Firebomb, Harlette and Templar) and our lead character from NEVERMINDS (Alanis) that I wanted to show here because they look so awesome. The game really brings them to life and allows you to even pick personality traits for them. Harlette acts just like I thought she would and Templar is very proper and noble. The animation is also incredible and everything from the hair blowing to the eyes blinking is there. The one weird thing is that sometimes when a character gets hit really hard by their opponent, they lose some of their armor or it gets chipped away. In the case of Alanis from NEVERMINDS, she really doesn't have any armor and when playing her, she got hit and instead of armor falling off, she lost her clothes! Doh! Lol, no worries though, she had a bikini on underneath somehow. Anyway, the game is really cool and I thought I'd share these quick pictures I asked Jamie to take of them. Thanks, Jamie.

BEEN A WHILE...

It's been a while since I posted on the blog here. I kept meaning to, but just couldn't find the time. Sorry about that. Also, I really don't have much to post on here as far as Drumfish projects. Mainly, I don't want to show too much of the stuff we're working on too early. But we are working on stuff. Jamie Fay and Rey Arzeno are working on the NEVERMINDS pages and I am busy trying to finish another project I'm writing so that I can get it to the artist by the end of next week. Hopefully, I'll get to show previews of that soon.

The other day I found something from my past on the net. I thought it was kind of funny and might be cool to share. Back in my acting days I did a few music videos. I found one on youtube. It's a video by Rosie Gaines called "I Want You". Rosie was one of Prince's back-up singers for a while and then he produced her solo album (I think). The song is actually good and she has a great voice.

How I got into the video is that I was actually shooting another music video for a singer named Jimmy Somerville. In it I was bouncing through the meatpacking district of NYC on a hippity hop ball. Crazy, right? It was really weird as there were like pig hoofs and junk all over the street as I bounced. On top of that it was like 10 degrees or lower outside.

As we were shooting the Somerville video the director came up and asked if anyone can play the piano. One of the first things I learned back then was always say you can. So, I raised my hand and said I could. The next thing I know is I'm shooting another video late the same night for Rosie Gaines. Now, it's not a big part at all and I only appear from like the middle of the video to the end. I play the piano in the middle of the westside highway as cars were speeding by. That was very cool and a little scarey. They had a smoke machine at my feet and a walkie-talkie inside the piano to tell me when to play. It was freezing and all I could kind of play was "my country tis of thee", lol. If you want a laugh, go check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dns737iwyfY.