SKETCH A DAY 128: CLOCKSTOPPER

Clockstopper (Simon) from the 3rd Gen SENTINELS is one of those characters that took on a life of his own. He's definitely his father's son. Next to Beatdown, he was the toughest to draw. Luciano gave him a very unique costume. I think he turned out pretty well though.

SKETCH A DAY 127: PSYCHED

Almost finished with all the 3rd Gen SENTINELS as part of my "sketch a day" project. I'm really finding drawing these characters very easy and fun. Weird how there is less pressure on yourself when you're doing something you created, lol. Pysched was a very last minute addition to the 3rd Gen time and I think she rounds them out perfectly. Great design by Luciano!

SKETCH A DAY 126: BEATDOWN

Beatdown is the last of the triplets from the 3rd Gen SENTINELS and, so far, he was the hardest to draw. I wasn't sure what kind of pose to put him in because his powers aren't as visual as the others. I decided to just go with a classic stance and focus on getting the details in his costume and skin right. I think he turned out okay, not as good as the others, but still okay.

SKETCH A DAY 125: KICKBACK

One of the funniest characters to write in SENTINELS was definitely Kickback. I don't know how he turned out to be the crazy way he is, but it just fit. I originally had him jumping upside down in this sketch but once it was inked, I thought it looked better right side up.

SKETCH A DAY 124: VIPERELLA

Here's the first of Serpenta's triplets from the 3rd Gen SENTINELS, Viperella. I love how she has a really unique costume. I don't really show off too well here, but Luciano put some alien style into her that fits perfectly.

SKETCH A DAY 123: HEARTACHE

Here's Heartache from the 3rd Gen SENTINELS. I really like the way she turned out. I wasn't sure how to draw her powers. We really haven't shown them too much in the books. So, sorry, Luciano, lol, I kind of did my own interpretation.

SKETCH A DAY 122: WICKKID

Here's the last of today's posting of the 3rd Gen SENTINELS. I like drawing Wickkid (Brad) because he's such a angry character, lol. It fit in with my mood over the last week! But seriously, I liked how the energy effects turned out. So what if he looks like Adam Lambert from American Idol.

SKETCH A DAY 121: ELECTRO-CUTE

Here's Electro-Cute (Elena) from the 3rd Gen SENTINELS. I think I went a little too crazy on the electricity around here, but otherwise I'm pretty happy with the way this sketch turned out. I'm having fun drawing all the 3rd Gen members and it's a nice break drawing some younger characters.

SKETCH A DAY 120: CASCADE

When I started this "sketch a day" project, I decided that I wouldn't draw any of the SENTINELS for it. I figured I had drawn them enough. Over the course of the four years Luciano and I had worked on the book, I probably inked each character a few hundred times and drawn them a lot before that too. I was kind of sick of them, lol. But recently, it occurred to me that I had never drawn or even inked any of the 3rd Gen SENTINELS. The only time I had drawn them was when I first sketched them out when I came up with the idea for the series. And the characters hardly resemble those first rough sketches. So, what the heck, I'm drawing the 3rd Gen SENTINELS, lol. Here's the first of them, Cascade (BoBo) who was one of my favs and the most fun to draw.

IGNITE BY AMANDA CONNER

Just as I had gotten George Perez to draw all the main characters in SENTINELS, I've had the luck and honor to get another of my all time favorite artists, Amanda Conner, to draw the 3rd Gen SENTINELS. So far she's done 5 of the 10 members. She's at the midway point! At last months Wizard World Philly Con Amanda did this awesome rendition of the 3rd Gen SENTINELS resident brat, Ignite. She really captured that innocent look he has (even though he's kind of rotten, lol) and I love the way she did the flames bordering him. As usual, seeing Amanda at the Con was one of the highlights for me. Her and Jimmy Palmiotti are two of the nicest creators you'll get the chance to meet. Amanda even emptied her bag looking for a benydrel for me because I had bad allergies. (Thanks again, Amanda, lol). Right now they both have some great work coming out including Powergirl that they are collaborating on with Justin Gray. Check out more of Amanda's work at http://www.amandaconner.com/ .

SKETCH A DAY 119: HE-MAN

I wanted to do some more non DC or Marvel characters and He-Man fit the bill. I remember watching the old He-Man cartoons after school when I was a kid. I loved all the different villains that were created and have to admit that I liked the villains more, lol. Orco annoyed the heck out of me. Even as a kid, I didn't like him. Tried to do a quick background for this one. Kind of adds to the feel of the pic I think.

BOLT AND TEMPLAR BY TOM WHALEN

I met Tom Whalen a few years ago at a convention and really admired his work. Each time I'd see him, I think to myself, "why haven't I gotten a sketch by him yet?", lol. I dunno, for one reason or another, I just didn't. But I always wished I did. Well, this year at the Wizard World Philly Con, I made sure to find him and get something from him. I gave him his choice of 1st Gen SENTINELS and he picked Bolt and Templar. I love Tom's line work and style. It's really different than a lot of artists. It has that silkscreen feel to it. And his color work is even more amazing. He's done some awesome poster designs for things like Army of Darkness, Return of the Jedi and even Weird Al's UHF, lol. They're very cool, but don't take my word for it, go see his work at http://strongstufftom.blogspot.com/ .

SKETCH A DAY 118: DUST

I'm trying to get back into the sketching mood after a few days off. Here's Dust from the Young X-Men. I liked the idea behind this character when she first appeared. I think it was Grant Morrison who created her. Her background, culture and personality have a lot of story potential. But I feel like they never really got into any of it. They started to in New X-Men, but then dropped the storyline and started with the "no more mutants" thing. Anyway, cool idea. Easy design, lol.

RECHARGED A BIT

Thanks to everyone who wrote about my needing a break. I totally vegged this past weekend and feel a bit recharged. This summer has been so busy that I think I just burned myself out and let things get to me too much. But all is good now and I hope to try to sketch some more soon. I might have some new announcements to make soon too. Nothing in stone yet, but maybe by the end of the week.

SKETCH A DAY 116: GRACE AND SKETCH A DAY 117: PROWLER

These two sketches were done for my friend Martin Eden over in England. Martin is another Indie creator who writes and draws his own work. His first series was called O Men and has been going on for a few years now. It's a very cool series that has been nominated for an Eagle award. And later this year, Martin plans to start his second series called Spandex. I drew these two sketches for him last week before I became burned out. I hope they came out okay.

The first is Grace from his series O Men and the second is Prowler from Spandex. I really applaud Martin for being a self-publisher. It's a lot of hard work and he's not only putting out his own stuff, but he's also doing everything on his own. Writing, drawing, inking, coloring, lettering, etc. Don't get burned out, Mart! lol. Check out Martin's work at http://www.comix.org.uk/theomen/ .

BREAK FOR A FEW DAYS

I had another post on here earlier that was kind harsh. Sorry about that. I took it off and figure the best thing for me to do is just take off for a few days and not post anything. I'm rethinking a lot of things and projects and will try to see what the future holds soon. I think I'm burned out today with comics, creators and the industry right now.

SKETCH A DAY 115: SPEEDBALL

One thing I really miss about current comics is the upbeat, light-hearted characters that used to exist. Whatever happened to them? Almost every character that I can think of is either dead, in comic limbo or has been totally changed and made darker. Here's an old favorite, Speedball, who used to have his own title back in the 80s and was a member of the original New Warriors. He's still around, but his name is Penance now and he wears a leather costume covering him from head to toe with spikes on it. Sad.

KICKBACK BY MATTHEW FLETCHER

I'd gotten a sketch by Matthew Fletcher before at the NYC Comic Con, so when I saw him at Wizard World Philly it was a no-brainer that I'd get something else by him. I really like his style. It's clean, energetic and unique. I love his rendition of Kickback from the 3rd Gen SENTINELS. It's perfect and really captures the character well. See more of Matthew's work at http://www.mjfletcher.com/ .

SKETCH A DAY 114: MEDUSA

Trying some different things here. I wanted to show some more perspective and still have it look interesting. I'm pretty happy with the way this one came out. I really don't know much about Medusa from the Inhumans except she has lots and lots of hair. I just went with that. :)

FIREBOMB BY GREG MOUTAFIS

Here's another of the great sketches I got while at Wizard World Philly. This time it's Firebomb in her costume from SENTINELS Book 3: Echoes drawn by Greg Moutafis. Greg has a really clean simple style that I think captures the essence of the character nicely. Greg was one of the Xeric winners a while back and has drawn such books as the Rookie, Boom!Squad and Johnny Raygun to name a few. Check out more of his work at http://www.gregmoutafis.com/ .