SKETCH A DAY 36: COLOSSUS

I've always been a fan of Colossus from the X-Men but I never really tried drawing him too much. I didn't think I could get the metal to look right. I think he turned out okay though. I think I need to start getting back into doing more detail in my drawings, like I did with the Terra one from a while back. The only thing is some days I can't finish one like that so it's not really once a day, lol. I have a few sketches that I have to scan but forgot to, so more tomorrow and next week. I forgot to mention but Andrew Charipar gave me a great idea at Megacon. He said I should put all these drawings together into a sketchbook and sell them at cons once I the year is over and I have 365 done. Might be cool to see the progress between all that time. I just might do it too. Thanks for the suggestion, Andrew!

MEGACON 2009 REPORT

This past weekend was the 2009 Megacon in Florida. I went to the con for the first time last year and even though it was a little slow, I decided to give it a shot again this year. This year I did a bit better then last year, but still overall, I expected to do more. I really think the economy came into play this year. I talked with a lot of other people at the con and they were all saying the same thing. I still had a lot of fun at the con though and I got some really great sketches by some Indie artists. I want to thank my friends Todd and David for all their help and Andrew for the awesome sketches. I got to go to a live Slacker and the Man show, which was very cool even if I didn't get to stay for the whole show. (They got kicked out of their space right after we left though, lol).

There were a LOT more Anime fans at the show this year and, I'm sorry, but they scare me. I just don't get them. I couldn't tell who was a boy and who was a girl. They dress so androgynous and then there was the "free hugs". WTF is that? Am I just too old that I have no idea about any of this stuff? lol, I don't know.

After the Con, I got to check out Disney's Epcot, which was cool. My feet are still sore from walking through the whole place. That place is huge! I'll post more about the Con later as I post the sketches I got. They're all pretty sweet. Of course I still haven't posted all the NYC sketches yet, lol, so, soon!

KICKBACK BY DENNIS BUDD

This sketch of Kickback (Mop) from the 3rd Gen SENTINELS was done by Dennis Budd at the 2009 NYC Comic Con. Poor Dennis had the unfortunately luck to be sitting next to us. By us, I mean he had to deal with Jamie Fay, Rey Arzeno, Noel Short and I all coming back and forth from behind our table. We must have driven him crazy. Sorry, Dennis! Even if it bothered him, Dennis never said a word and was a totally nice guy. I was lucky enough to get this sketch of Kickback from him when he had some down time. It's perfect! He really captured Mop's personality. Thanks again, Dennis, for the awesome sketch. Check out Dennis's work at www.mechanicalpencil1138.com/index.html. He has lots of different galleries on there and even shows off his personal collection of Jadzia Dax art that he's gotten over the years.

SKETCH A DAY 35: X-23

Here's the latest "sketch a day", this time it's X-23 from Marvel's X-Force. X-23 is a clone of Wolverine and a female scientist. Apparently, they tried to make clones of Wolverine but none of them ever survived. Adding the female scientist's DNA into the mix allowed X-23 to be born and be the only Wolverine clone to survive. Lame, I know, lol, but she's actually a cool character. She sort of reminds me of Batgirl (Cassandra) with her attitude toward fighting and death. Anyway, I was happy with how this sketch came out.

OFF TO MEGACON

We're off to Megacon this weekend. Anyone attending, please stop by Artist Alley and visit us at table White 5. We'll be there with all 5 SENTINELS books, our daily raffle and Jamie Fay will be doing awesome sketches! I'm really looking forward to seeing all our old friends and meeting new ones too. Hope to see you there!

SKETCH A DAY 33 AND 34: RED DEVIL AND SUPERGIRL

This will be the last "sketch a day" pics for a few days as I won't have access to a scanner until next week. I decided to post these two together as they're both pretty quick and easy ones, lol. First is Red Devil from the Teen Titans. I like this character a lot and had fun drawing him. to me, he's one of the better things to come out of DC's "One Year Later" storyline. I drew him in his original costume as I hate the new one, lol.

Next is Supergirl. Although I prefer the original classic Supergirl, I decided to draw the current one. I know they're the same person and both are Superman's cousin named Kara. But to me the original will always be the one who sacrificed herself during the first Crisis. This one is growing on me though.

WICKKID BY CHRISTOPHER UMINGA

One of my favorite sketches from the 2009 NYC Comic Con has to be this sketch by Christopher Uminga of Wickkid from the 3rd Gen SENTINELS. I love Christopher's style. It's so unique. And he picked the perfect character when he choose to draw Wickkid. On top of all that, Christopher is a super nice guy. I can't recommend him enough, so check out his site at http://www.cuminga.com/ .

SKETCH A DAY 32: JERICHO

Here's a request that I got from my buddy, Ryan McLelland. I had no idea he was a Jericho fan, lol, but I like the character too so I decided to draw him. The only problem was I forgot that Ryan asked for "old school" Jericho. Doh. Sorry, Ry, I drew him as he looks currently. I hated that old school look though, lol, well at least the sideburns. Yeah, I hated the goofy sideburns. Even though I drew the wrong version, I'm pretty happy with the way he turned out. With all his switching sides, good, evil, good, then evil again, the character is pretty much a mess. I wish they'd just have left him in comic limbo rather than bring him back and do the same thing over and over with him just because he's Deathstroke's son. But oh well, lol. It was fun drawing him.

MEGACON THIS WEEKEND

This weekend I'll be at the Megacon in Florida along with artist, Jamie Fay. It'll be our second time at Megacon and I'm really excited to see all the old familar faces again. Two other creators from the SENTINELS Anthology will be there too, Andrew Charipar and Todd Latoski. At the Con, we'll be continuing our daily raffle with a chance to win an original sketch by Jamie Fay. With each book you buy, you get a raffle ticket and at the end of each day we'll be drawing a winner. On top of all that we have a Convention special price deal that will make people happy and Jamie will have his first ever sketchbook. Come visit us in Artist Alley at table White 5.

TERRACE BY ROB REILLY

Here's another of the sketches I've got at the 2009 NYC Comic Con. This one was done by the talented Rob Reilly. I've known Rob for a while now and always see him at the Pittsburgh Comic Con. Last year he did an awesome sketch of Robust from the 1st Gen SENTINELS for me. So, when I saw him at the NYC Con, I knew I had to have him do another sketch. I was surprised that he choose to draw Terrace from the SENTINELS Anthology. He's the second person to pick her which is cool. Ryan and Andrew should be as happy with this sketch as I am, Terrace is their baby. Check out more of Rob's work at his blog at www.skatoonproductions.blogspot.com/ .

SKETCH A DAY 31: EMMA FROST

One of my favorite villains in the X-Men back in the 80s was the White Queen. How could you not like her and all her evilness? lol. So, when they started to make her one of the good guys/gals in the 90s, I wasn't too wild about it. But they did it slowly and it made sense. It also wasn't an over night change in her character. Since then Marvel has really put her in the limelight and I have to say I love what they've done. I also really like her and Cyclops together. To me, they're much more interesting then Jean and Scott were. Plus, when they bring Jean back now she can be with Wolverine, lol. I tried to draw Emma with a bit of sexiness yet not too risque. Hope it came out that way.

SKETCH A DAY 30: TALES FROM THE CORNERSTONE

Back to sketching! As I wait for art to come in from the various artists working on Drumfish projects, I'm keeping up on my "sketch a day" promise. This pic is of Andrew Charipar's characters from his self-published graphic novel series, TALES FROM THE CORNERSTONE. I really love this book and have plugged it on here in the past, but I had also promised Andrew that I'd draw something for him last year and since I'm seeing him this weekend, at Megacon, I knew I had to get this done. Hope you like it, Andrew! I had fun drawing these characters.

CRUSHER BY JAMAL IGLE

This sketch of Crusher was done by Jamal Igle at the 2009 NYC Comic Con. I'm a big fan of Jamal's work and he's another really nice guy in the comic biz. Currently he's drawing Supergirl for DC and I think he's doing an awesome job. I asked Jamal to pick whoever he wanted to draw and was kind of surprised he drew Crusher instead of one of the women. I liked that as I have tons of sketches of the SENTINELS ladies already. Crusher looks tough here! lol. Check out more of Jamal's work at http://www.jamaligle.com/ .

RAPTURE BY SCOTT WEGENER

This sketch of Rapture was done by Scott Wegener at the 2009 NYC Comic Con. Scott is the artist on the Indy hit, ATOMIC ROBO. I really love Scott's style and was happy to get a sketch by him. I think his line work is unique and he's also a super nice guy. For anyone who hasn't check out ATOMIC ROBO, I recommend it. It's a fun and interesting book. Check it out at http://www.atomic-robo.com/ .

SKETCH A DAY 29: THE CREEPER

This sketch of the Creeper was done super quick. I wasn't sure whether to post it or not, as I'm not really wild about it. But that's the purpose of this "sketch a day" thing. Some you like a lot, some you might not, lol. So, I decided to post it. I did try to do something a little fun with his pose. I don't want to do every character in the same pose, so I'm trying to shake things up. I have some other sketches to post, but no scanner until next week.

SKETCH A DAY 28: MAGIK

Jeez, I've been posting a lot on the blog lately, lol. I know it's mainly been a lot of my sketches, but we are still working on lots of things. Soon I hope to get some more art for preview. In the meantime, hopefully I'm not boring everyone with my "sketch a day", lol. I'm mainly doing it to up my skills and hopefully get good enough by the end of the year so that I might do something written and drawn by me. Not sure how that will go just yet, but we'll see. This sketch of Magik from the New Mutants was fun to do. Love the horns and armor. I always thought she was a cool character and they never seemed to use her enough. She's back now though and I hope she'll appear regularly once her mini-series is over. The portal was fun to draw too, lol.

IGNITE BY REY ARZENO

Here's another sketch I got at the 2009 NYC Comic Con. This was done by Rey Arzeno. The first day of the Con, before the doors opened to the public, it was a little slow. So, I handed my sketchbook to Rey and told him to draw whoever he wanted. I was surprised he picked Alex from the 3rd Gen SENTINELS. I don't think I've ever seen him draw a kid before and I think he got Alex's personality done perfectly. Just look at his eyes, lol. You know he has something smart to say. Thanks again, Rey!

SKETCH A DAY 27: BATWOMAN

Still going strong with the "sketch a day" project. Here's the new Batwoman from DC Comics. I wasn't wild about them introducing her back in 52 and I hated that they used her sexuality as a media campaign. But seeing the preview pages of the new series that's coming out soon, I have to say I'm really interested in the book. The art in it looks beautiful. I tired adding just the red to her like they do in the book. I kind of like that.

SKETCH A DAY 26: VINCENT, THE PAINTER OF DEATH

This sketch is of HC Noel's character Vincent from his new series, Vincent: The Painter of Death. Currently a webcomic, Howie (HC) plans on releasing Vincent as an anthology later this year. Check out his site at http://www.hcnoel.com/ for more info on Vincent and to read the first few pages. I'm pretty happy with the way this sketch came out, it was different and a lot of fun to do.

PSYCHED BY AMANDA CONNER

One of my current favorite artists is Amanda Conner. I just really love her style and the energy she puts into her art. On top of all that, Amanda is one of the nicest people in the comic biz. She always has a smile on her face and is happy to chat with fans. In the past I've gotten two of the 3rd Gen SENTINELS from her (Cascade and Heartache) that I've posted in past blogs. This time out, she chose to draw Psyched from the 3rd Gen. I really love the way she turned out. I like that she added a little extra color to her costume and it fits right along side of the past sketches I've gotten. Amanda's next project is the long anticipated Power Girl series from DC. I'm not big on a lot of DC books right now, but this is one I'm not going to miss. Check out more of Amanda's work at http://www.amandaconner.com/ .