SKETCH A DAY 48: ALANIS MUNROE

I've been trying to stay away from drawing any characters from SENTINELS for my "sketch a day" project, but I realized that I could totally draw the main character (Alanis Munore) from NEVERMINDS. Seeing so much of Jamie's art and Rey's coloring on the book, I kind of wanted to draw my own version. We decided early on that throughout the series, Alanis's dress will change at different points. She'll have many different versions of it and it would be cool if we (Jamie, Rey and I) each designed one. So, lol, here's my take on her.

SERPENTA BY RHIANNON OWENS

It's the last day of the month and this is the last sketch I got while at the 2009 Megacon. I think I saved one of the best for last though. This sketch of Serpenta was done by the talented Rhiannon Owens. I met Rhiannon last year at Megacon but didn't get a chance to get something from her. This year, I found her early and made sure to commission her. I really love her rendition of Serpenta. The apple is a truly great touch. When other people saw my sketch, they went over and commissioned Rhiannon too. See more of her at http://comicartfans.com/GalleryDetail.asp?GCat=34803 .

SKETCH A DAY 47: SPIDER-WOMAN

I'm kind of happy with this sketch. I need to practice more on my hands and feet. After drawing Ryan's characters, that I posted yesterday, I realized how bad I am at them. Also, drawing one character is much easier than a crowd, lol. But this is all part of the process and hopefully I will get better by the end of this exercise. I've never drawn Spider-Woman, before but I've always liked her. I'm interested to see what they do next with her in her new series by Bendis. She got a raw deal in Secret Invasion.

SPIKE BY AMANDA KAHL

This sketch of Spike from the 1st Gen SENTINELS was done by Amanda Kahl. Amanda was sharing a table with Merianna Guerra who drew the Savanna sketch for me. Amanda was charging a dollar for sketches. How could I pass that up? I think she did a pretty good job on him. I like the style of her art. My only thoughts are that the inking is a little uneven. She definitely put a lot of detail in to this as you can see she even got the fingernails right, lol. Amanda has a really cool webcomic called AGE OF NIGHT that shows off her art even more. Check it out at http://www.ageofnight.com/ .

FLARE BY...SOMEONE

I'm almost through posting the sketches I got while at the 2009 MEGACON and since I didn't want to end on a low note, I'm posting this sketch of Flare now before I post the last two. I often ask people to recommend some artists to me to get sketches from and the guy who drew this was someone that Jamie Fay had seen and said to check out. I saw his art and when I got my sketch book back, I asked Jamie to drop it off to the guy. Now this wasn't an amateur artist or someone new. This was someone who had two tables and an assistant with him (and his wife too). So, I figured I was in pretty good hands. The day went by and he wasn't at his table, then later I stopped by and he hadn't started. Finally, near the end of the day I went over to his table and I see my sketch book and his ASSISTANT is drawing Flare in it. Not him, his young female assistant. Now, I'm not sure who she was or how her art is, it could be excellent, but I commissioned him to draw something for me, not her. Needless to say, I was pissed and asked what was going on. They gave me some lame excuse saying he had gotten backed up and she was helping. I told them that I wanted his art, not hers and no offense to her. I didn't want to get upset so I went back to my table and figured I would check back later. Later, I went over to get my book and there was the drawing that you see with this post and a page that had been drawn on but was erased. So, the page was a mess. (Luckily Andrew Charipar worked his magic and draw the Coil on that page and covered the mess, lol). I decided not to mention the artists name with this post as not to cause any problems, but I will let the art speak for itself. Not one of my favorite drawings or experiences though, lol.

SKETCH A DAY 46: WISE INTELLIGENCE

Since I'm plugging friends today, here's another sketch I've done as part of my "sketch a day" project. This time it's from Ryan McLelland's WISE INTELLIGENCE. Ryan is a very funny writer and W.I. is a comedy set at a college and centers around a bunch of beer loving frat guys. Knowing Ryan, lol, I'm sure it's a little auto-biographical but that makes it even funnier. Ryan asked me to contribute to the latest W.I. that is coming out soon, so I decided to draw one of the main characters (Servo) surrounded by a bunch of fantasy girls. I'm not sure he could get them in reality, lol. Check out Ryan's blog for more info on WISE INTELLIGENCE at http://www.eyewannabe.com/ .

SERPENTA AND COIL BY ANDREW CHARIPAR

At Florida's Megacon last month, I was happy to see my good buddy, Andrew Charipar. I met Andrew a few years ago now and he's one of the nicest guys you'll meet at a Con. Andrew is always happy to be drawing and is constantly doing sketches, so it's no surprise that I had him do a few for me. Since Andrew had drawn the Serpenta story in the SENTINELS and he had already drawn the triplets in my sketch book, I figured I'd have him round out the family and draw the Coil and Serpenta. I really love the way these came out. They both look awesome. Thanks again, Andrew! Of course, you can follow more of Andrew's art in his OGN series TALES FROM THE CORNERSTONE. It's an awesome book that people really should be reading. Check out Andrew's blog and see more at http://www.misfitcorner.blogspot.com/ .

SWITCHFAST BY WILFREDO TORRES

This sketch of Switchfast was drawn by Wilfredo Torres at the 2009 Megacon. Wilfredo has worked on a number of different series including Salem: Queen of Thorns, Demon's Regret and Gnome and the Boogeymen. He got a great clean style that caught my eye as I walked around the Con floor. Since I was trying to get some different characters from SENTINELS this time around, I had prepared some character sheets for artists to choose from. Wilfredo picked Switchfast to draw and I gave him the reference and told him his powers. The one thing I forgot to mention was that the things Switchfast wears in his hair are kind of focal points for his powers. Like hair clips I guess, lol, but not really. As you can see in the sketch the clips weren't really clear I guess and Wilfredo thought that they were animal ears, lol. He kind of looks like he has fox ears here. I still think it's a great sketch though and Wilfredo's art is top notch. I love the power effect he drew for him too. Check out more Wilfredo art at http://www.mightyfineline.com/ .

SKETCH A DAY 45: GREEN LANTERN

Like I said yesterday, I'm a little behind in my sketches. I hope to catch up soon, after my move is done, lol. I have to admit that this sketch of Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) could have been better. I mean, I'm still happy with the way he turned out, but I rushed a little. That's okay by me though, I consider it all part of the process of drawing again and trying to get better as well as getting faster.

BLASTER BY CORY EVAN LAUB

Here's another great sketch I got at the 2009 Megacon. Blaster was drawn by Cory Evan Laub. I didn't get a chance to chat with Cory much, but I really like that he choose to draw Blaster. I had given him the choice of any of the 1st Gen SENTINELS and he picked him. Cory is still in the process of setting up his website, but it should be up soon (I hope). Check it out at http://www.corylaub.com/ .

SKETCH A DAY 44: BATGIRL

I've been a little behind on my "sketch a day" sketches. Mainly because I'm in the middle of moving. But here is one that I meant to scan last week. It's Batgirl (Barbara Gordon). I'm pretty happy with this one. I think she turned out better than I thought. I heard there is a rumor that she might be back in action again soon. I kind of like her as Oracle now and think it would be a step back for her to become Batgirl again. But that's just my opinion.

In other news, I plan to start posting some more previews again soon. Look for stuff later in the week maybe.

HEARTACHE BY DIRK STRANGELY

At the 2009 Megacon, one of the artists who's work caught my eye was Dirk Strangely. Dirk has a really unique style that's somewhat dark, yet light too. I thought he'd do something really interesting in my sketch book and he didn't disappoint. I love this twisted sketch of Heartache that he did. It's so different than anything else I have in my sketchbook. There's totally a story in there, you can just see it, lol. Check out Dirk's website at http://www.dirkstrangely.com/ . Be sure to read his "Dramatic Story About A Schizophrenic Blue Haired Grandma..." , it's creepy cool, lol.

WIPEOUT BY JAMES BUKAUSKAS

Here's a little different sketch. This one is Wipeout as drawn by James Bukauskas at the 2009 Megacon. I really like James's style and think he did a great job at drawing Wipeout. As I mentioned previously, I was trying to get more of a variety of characters at this con. When I saw James's art, I figured he'd do a awesome Wipeout. Maybe he's a little on the muscled-upped side, but who knows, maybe after what happened to him in SENTINELS Book 4, he started training hard, lol. I really think James's linework make this skecth shine! Check out more of James Bukauskas's art at http://www.bukshot.deviantart.com/ .

SKETCH A DAY 43: CLOAK AND DAGGER

I haven't gotten as many sketches finished this week as I had planned or wanted to, but I have a good excuse, lol. I am currently in the middle of moving. I found a better and cheaper apartment and have been moving stuff for the last few days now. And although I have a bunch of sketches semi-finished, I didn't get them done just yet. Here is the latest one I was able to ink, it's Cloak and Dagger from Marvel Comics. I'm torn on these two characters. I mean, I remember them from when I first started reading comics and always liked them. I liked them because of their origin, their personalities and they had fun kickass costumes. But I admit that I didn't read their book too much. From what I read, it always seemed to be the same storyline, drugs, runaways, blah, blah, blah, lol. Now, maybe I just picked up some really bad issues and it burned me, but that's how I remember them. Still think they are cool though and have awesome powers, etc. I really think that even though just the two of them are a team and work very well together, I think they should really be part of a bigger team. It would give them other characters to play off of and interact. Just my two cents. Still great to draw them.

WICKKID BY AMANDA CONNER

Anyone who has been following this blog knows that one of my favorite artists is Amanda Conner. I really love Amanda's style and energy. She's a very underrated artist in my opinion. She should be on more of those "top artist" lists. She's one of the nicest, coolest people I've met at any convention. She's currently working on the new Powergirl series that DC will be launching soon and I'm really looking forward to it. As I did with the 2nd Gen SENTINELS and getting George Perez to draw each of them, I plan to get Amanda to draw all the 3rd Gen SENTINELS. It will take a while, but hopefully it'll happen. Until now, she's only drawn the girls so I actually asked her to draw one of the guys this time. I really love her interpretation of Wickked. She gave him some attitude, saying that he looked "dicky", lol. She really got his character I think. Following Amanda's art and projects at http://www.amandaconner.com/ .

SKETCH A DAY 42: OMAHA THE CAT DANCER

So, I've been told a few times that I need to draw some characters other than DC or Marvel. I'm trying to do that, so this time I sketched someone a little different. Many people might not have heard of her but Omaha the Cat Dancer has been around for over 30 years now. First created by Reed Waller in 1978, Omaha was at first a political satire for indecency laws in Minneapolis. Shortly after he created Omaha, Reed met Kate Worley and she became the writer of the series. It was then that Omaha really took off and became something huge in Indie comics. Being that the star of the book is a stripper, of course the subject matter is adult. There is a lot of nudity and sex in the series, but that's not all that this series is about. It's about relationships, family, love, politics and mystery. And even though the characters in Omaha are all animals, they're more humanly written than most comics. If your old enough, lol, you should check out the series. I really like the way this sketch turned out. :)

SAVANNA BY MERIANA GUERRA

Here's another of my favorite sketches I got while at the 2009 Megacon in Florida. This picture of Savanna from the 1st Gen SENTINELS was drawn by Meriana Guerra. As I walked around the Con, Meriana's sketches caught my eye, so I inquired if she was doing commissions. I was pretty shocked to find out she was and that they were so inexpensive. I've been trying to get some of the lesser seen characters from SENTINELS drawn this time, so I immediately knew I wanted Meriana to draw Savanna. Her style just seemed perfect for it. Once I got my sketch and showed it to some other people at the Con, at least three of them wnet over and commissioned sketches from Meriana, lol. I'm pretty good at pimping out other artists work. Check out more of Meriana's awesome work at http://www.ryugurl0083.deviantart.com/

AGENT HUGGINS BY MIA PALUZZI

Now that I've posted all the great sketches I got in NYC, I can finally start to post the sketches I got while at Megacon. One of my favorite sketches that I got has to be this sketch of Agent Huggins by Mia Paluzzi. I got this sketch the last day of the convention and wished that I had noticed Mia before. I really love her style. In some ways it reminds me of Luciano Vecchio's art, with that manga influence and their own personality mixed in. At this con I decided to tell some of the artists who I wanted them to draw. I haven't gotten many of the lesser seen characters in Sentinels yet, so I thought it'd be good to do that. I gave Mia a reference for Agent Huggins and just told her that she has mental powers, chain smokes and is a government agent. I was really happy to see how this sketch came out and Mia said that she wanted to give Agent Huggins a sort of female James Bond look since she was a secret agent. I think it rocks! I wish I could have gotten more art from Mia, but sadly the con ended. Next time I'm going to seek her out early. Check out more of Mia's awesome art at http://www.rocketshoes.deviantart.com/

SKETCH A DAY 41: SILVER SURFER

I really don't know much about the Silver Surfer, but I wanted to give a try at drawing him anyway. I like the whole cosmic aspect of him and how he travels through the cosmos on a surf board, lol. He was fun to draw and I think the space in the background really adds to him. Doing more full sketches like this takes more time than the others I've done. I'm going to have to get faster if I want to do more like this and still keep up my pace, lol.

CLOCKSTOPPER BY DAVID LAFUENTE

This is the last of the sketches I got at the 2009 NYC Comic Con. Clockstopper from the 3rd Gen SENTINELS was drawn by David LaFuente. I actually didn't get this from David, Jamie Fay did for me. I had asked him if there were any artists he had seen in Artists Alley that he liked and had him get this for me. David was doing quick sketches while you wait at the Con and they were a decent price. He decided to draw Clockstopper and as he was drawing him he asked Jamie what his powers where or something, but he didn't say he, he said she, lol. He thought Clockstopper was a girl until Jamie told him he wasn't. He quickly changed the figure on the drawing but you can still kind of tell by the face that he draw him as a girl. That's totally an easy mistake given Simon's costume I think. I really think this sketch came out awesome and was very happy with it. David recently finished up the Patsy Walker: Hellcat mini-series from Marvel and is scheduled to be the new penciller on the relaunch of Ultimate Spiderman! His style is perfect for that! Check out more of David's work at http://www.davidlafuente.com/ .