Happy birthday Mr. Bill

My buddy Bill Presing's wife (Hi Ikumi!) wrangled up a bunch of artists to do drawings for Bill's 40th birthday. We all did characters from his top secret as yet unfinished graphic novel (which is ahhhh-mazing!). It was fun to do and really made me want to do some more cartoony style drawings.

Frank Cho draws some nekkid girls

I am a big fan of 'how to draw' books. Most are not too helpful, but there are a hand full that are great..you know, all the Andrew Loomis ones! But I can't resist flipping through any instructional art book, I am always hoping for some secret knowledge to be revealed I guess.
Comic artist Frank Cho just released his aptly titled; "Drawing Beautiful Women: The Frank Cho Method".
He was smart to stick to the topic (women)  that his fans want to see from him rather than broadening the focus to include more hands on how to draw information. 
I will bet that there will be a heck of a lot more fans of his art than aspiring artists that pick this one up. It is full of nice art for sure and has some interesting how to stuff for the actual artists. The book is kind of light hearted which is really a nice change from the seriousness of most art instruction books.
He covers anatomy, storytelling, painting, and even ball point pen rendering which is the first time I have ever seen that in a book.
There is some practical instructional info and there certainly are tons of scantily clad women, and some not clad at all
If you are a fan of his work or if by chance you might be an artist yourself, I think that you will like this book. I thought that the price was really decent too, for what you get.

NEW ART BOOK ON ROBERT MC GINNIS IS SWEET!

I love art books but I have become more and more cautious about buying them without seeing the contents in person. So, I was happy to see that the contents of this new book on the awesome artist Robert McGinnis are pretty great and downright cheap IMO  I picked up his previous book Tapestry, but this new one is even better. It shows the whole range of his paintings from pin ups to paperback covers to movie posters and western fine art paintings. If you have been on the fence about grabbing this one, consider this your permission to officially nab it...or add it to your Christmas list, you will not be disappointed 

THE RETURN OF ANDREW LOOMIS! REALLY!

I get asked all the time how to improve as an artist. I understand that people are looking for tricks and shortcuts, but I have looked far and wide and believe me, there just aren't any. All it takes is lots of pencil mileage. You learn to draw by drawing, it is a tired slogan but could not be more true. One thing that will help to keep you on the right track though is having good teachers. In this day and age, that doesn't necessarily mean in school. Great teachers can be found online, in videos, you tube and yes, kids in books. In my opinion there is no greater fundamental source of strong drawing teaching than there is to be found in the Andrew Loomis books. I get something out of them every time I crack them open. Luckily they are all back in print so head on over to Amazon and order them up...start with Figure Drawing for All it's Worth if you want to get a taste, but believe me you will want them all.
Today marks a huge event for me and art students (like me!) everywhere....a long lost unpublished additional volume called "I'd Love to Draw" is finally in print. Loomis prepared it during his lifetime but it went unpublished till today. Alex Ross (yes THAT Alex Ross) a big fan of Loomis himself, stepped in and added additional stuff to flesh out the project. I'll be watching the mail box till my copy shows up ;)

Leo pencils and inks

I've mentioned before that I don't pencil very tightly when I know I am inking my own work, but I am even looser with Turtles since I have my fair share of them under my belt by now ;)

Baltimore scribbles

Here are a bunch of the sketches I remembered to take pics of that I did at the Baltimore con. 

Crow from East of West con drawing

Pencils and inks/markers for a recent con drawing I did at the Boston Comic Con. I read the first dozen or so issues of East of West, but I never really got a handle on what was going on so I bailed. Maybe I'll revisit it once it is all done and I can read it all together.

Baltimore coming up fast

I'll be making my annual trek to Baltimore Comic Con next week. I'll be at #A171 in artist alley. This is usually a pretty bustling show, I will be curious to see how the the new 3 day format works out since folks have been clamoring  for a third day for ages now.

fun with watercolors

When in doubt, just draw Wonder Woman!
Just playing around with watercolors for a change of pace. The all red Wonder Woman was done with a red watercolor pencil. You draw like you would with a normal pencil then brush on water and it dissolves into paint...instant watercolor painting ;)

Both of these cons will be here before you know it. San Diego is at the end of July and Boston is early August. My pre-con commission list is now open. I like to do some con sketches before the con to lighten my work load at the shows themselves. So if you wanted to set something up to be picked up at either of these, just drop me a line.

Michael Dooney and Stan Lee together at last

Okay so here is my one and only collaboration with Stan Lee! A guy handed me a Guardians blank cover that was signed by Stan Lee and wanted Gamora drawn on it. I'll admit that sounded crazy to me. I was a bit intimidated but I jumped in and worked up a design that highlighted his signature.

Gizmo hardcover collection

A fan brought this by my table at Heroes Con to be signed. He gathered up all the Gizmo comic stories I've done and had them bound into a hardcover book with a shiny laminated hardcover to boot...way cool. I've actually thought that something like this would be a cool Kickstarter project to try.

Stan Sakai auction art is live

Hey folks, just found out that the piece I did for the Sharon Sakai/Usagi Auction is up on ebay this week.
I hope if brings in some decent $ for this good cause.

Next up, C2E2

I have been dragging my feet in keeping folks posted on my con stops this year but next up is C2E2 in just a few short weeks. I will be in Artist Alley booth Q 17. Yeah I will be drawing all weekend and I have a pre-con list going if you already know what you want!

CON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's officially con season again!

I will be attending Megacon this weekend and Emerald City next week...sheesh!

With so many comic cons happening around the country these days, it's unavoidable that scheduling will become an issue. Looking at the year ahead there will be several times that the cons I'll be attending will be on back to back weekends...ack! I try to avoid this since it makes for very little recovery/get ready time between shows but sometimes a guys gotta do what a guys gotta do ;)

If you're looking for me, I'll be in artist alley

Megacon  BLACK 11

Emerald City 12MM

ps. I don't know who this Powergirl cosplayer is, but she looks great, and I think that's her real....hair!

Usagi art for Stan and Sharon Sakai

Here's the piece that I did for the fundraiser for Stan Sakai's wife Sharon. I am not clear on the details of how and when things are being auctioned, but once I know I will post the details.
Stan and Sharon are great people and I have read every issue of Usagi since it started so doing this art was a pleasure.

The once and ALWAYS KING!

It is hard to believe that Jack Kirby has been gone for twenty years, today...whew.
I am lucky enough to have stood around with other young adoring artists at San Diego Comic Con on several occasions as Jack rattled off stories about street fights and comics and kickin' Nazi butts...seriously!
This video really brought that back to me.

He gave us the best advice I ever heard, "Just have fun with it!" Thanks Jack, I am ;)