Captain America, Bucky Barnes Avengers Sketch Card – Day 1
2011 is a new year and I’m giving myself a new personal challenge. Last year I did a couple of sketch cards. I had intended to do one every day, unfortunately, I didn’t follow through. But this year I’m rechallenging myself! Heck yeah! My goal is to have 365 Sketch Cards done by the end of the year!
The cards I drew last year were of Thor and Hawkeye of the Avengers. This year I’m going to continue with the Avengers-themed sketch cards. I’ve always been a massive fan of the Avengers, in fact the first comic book I read was an Avenges book. Also, the Avengers movie is being filmed in my backyard of Albuquerque, NM this summer. So it just feels right!
Here’s my first Avengers sketch card for the year, the New Captain America a.k.a Bucky. It’s a quick sketch that took me about 16 minutes. I used an HB .05 mechanical pencil. The reflective nature of the costume was challenging, but I think it came out ok. I had fun with this sketch card!
Here are some pencils I did for fun. I was planning on creating it for the Bubonicon Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention held in Albuquerque, NM. The convention was looking for art to be added to their silent auction. I created one that was inspired by sequential storytelling, a giant comic book page! The drawing is on a 24″x19″ 2-ply Bristol board paper. I used a 9.0 HB mechanical pencil and kept to mostly quick and gesture line work. In the middle of working on the piece, I realized the con was looking for work around the size of 16 inches. Mine was a little too big. I decided not to enter it but still wanted to finish it. I was having too much fun working on a piece so big. The pencils were the first step in the piece I titled: Renegade. Next, I’ll ink it.
I’ve been a huge fan of zombie movies, have been since I was a kid. It’s cool to see so many new zombie fans in the past few years. When I first saw George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead back in the day, I was blown away. He created the modern-day incarnation of what a zombie is. More importantly, he uses these zombie outbreaks to explore the human condition. Something lacking from a lot of modern-day zombie movies.
I was very excited to hear he was working on a new zombie flick (6th), “SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD”. Unfortunately, it didn’t get a mass theater release. I was content with the knowledge I would see it, but probably not until it hit video (DVD). But on a random trip to Albuquerque, while hitting up the comic shop Astor Zombie, I can across a flyer for a 2-night special show of the movie. Yes, I would get the opportunity to see it on the big screen!
The showing was at the Guild Cinema on July 9 and July 10, with three showing only! I made it to the final showing on Saturday. The movie was a classic B-style horror film. A few great moments that made me jump. I even got the last free poster they were giving away! – Yeah!
The original cult classic Fright Night movie has always been one of my top favorite vampire flicks. So when I heard there was going to be a remake, I was very excited. Then I learned it was going to be filmed in Albuquerque, NM. That’s a 40-minute drive from Santa Fe (where I’m living right now), I was Super Excited.
It turns out the Assistant Prop Master on the film was looking for local comic book artists to work on the movie. They were looking for completely original work in the genre of monsters, demons, dark goth, swords/sorcerers, witches, devils, and all things scary. The film director would then review all the submitted samples. Wow, what an opportunity!
Shadows by Ralph Contreras
Not having a lot of this type of work in my portfolio I decided to do a jam session and create some. The samples need to be received by July 5th. So I spent all day of July 4th penciling and inking several pieces. I created some zombie comic pages and a few monster pinups. ( a Werewolf, Frankenstein type create, and a Vampire.)
To be honest, these weren’t my finest pieces, so I wasn’t overly surprised when I wasn’t chosen for the project. But I had a blast working in a different genre. It’s always good to get out of your comfort zone and explore new territories. It’s also really cool to know that a local comic artist will have his or her stuff in a major motion picture!
Here’s a sampling of the pieces I created in my 4th of July Horror Drawing Jam!
For the past nine years, the comic industry and comic book shops have joined together on Free Comic Book Day. What the shops and comic companies do is give away free comics, AWESOME! It’s a great way to introduce new readers to the exciting world of comic books. This year I drove down to Albuquerque, NM to hit up a couple of the shops participating.
The first comic shop I went to was Astro Zombies. It’s a very cool comic shop located across from the University of New Mexico. They had comic book artist Aaron Campbell signing comics for free. Campbell is the comic artist for Dynamite Entertainment, Green Hornet Year One, and Sherlock Holmes. It was cool to learn from Cambell that he actually lives in Albuquerque too.
Next, I went down to Lobo Anime & Comics. A great local shop with the largest selection of new comics I’ve seen in a while. By the time I got there they had given away most of this year’s free comics, but I was lucky to score some regular great comics titles for free. SHAZAM!
Lobos was fun because there were a few guys in cosplay costumes. Some Anime characters and a few comic books. I got a photo with a dude in a fun Wolverine costume. 7000 BC a local organization of independent comic book creators from New Mexico was there too. Signing and selling their cool zine-type indy comics.
It was fun to see both these shops filled with people talking and enjoying comics. When I owned my comic shop “Modern Age Comics” and participated in the first Free Comic Book Day, I wasn’t sure this event would last. Seeing the industry, comic shops, creators, and fans enjoying this super cool event, I know Free Comic Book Day is here to stay.
This year I participated in the annual 24-Hour Comic. The challenge is to create 24 pages of a comic book within 24 hours. This was the second time I’ve done it. I really had a great time doing it too. At times it felt like I wasn’t going to finish, but I did…..with 3 minutes to spare (WhaZa!). It has been a very popular and fun exercise for both writers and artists. The idea is to come up with no preconceived notions of what you’re going to create, and make a 24-page comic!
So here it is, my 24-Hour Comic entitled “infiltration” written, penciled, and inked by me Ralph Contreras in 24 hours and 57 minutes on October 3rd to 4th, for the 2009 24-Hour Comics Day! I did my pages with widescreen panels, I think it adds a significant element to the storytelling.
The Half-Way Point! Participating in 24-Hour Comics Day. Here I am 12 hours into the challenge. Not as far ahead as I had planned. But still having fun. I originally planned to have the comic done within the 1st 12 hours. I’m actually on pages 6 and 7 at this point. Not even the halfway mark. I honestly didn’t think I would finish, but I knew I wasn’t going to give up. (I did finish the 24-hour comic, at exactly 11:57 am…. with 3 minutes to spare. Shazam!)
As I started to fall back on the pages and the time was moving forward, I thought what can I do to catch up and finish? I decided to work on pages very similar to Marvel Comics’ new format of widescreen comics. That’s where you place your panels stretched out through 2 pages. Like several widescreen shots. Marvel’s title Dark Avengers is very well known for this.
Once I decided to use this technique I was able to catch up. It gave me a great opportunity to create some very dynamic angle shots. Once I gained my confidence that I could finish the comic the story just flowed out of me. It’s full of action and fight scenes. It was really a fun comic to do. The story ends up with soldiers, ninjas, villains, and even a giant monster.
My progress was posted on a few sites during the event. On both the local and national 24 Hour comic blog sites. Here are the links to these sites. 24 hours from New Mexico Blog – Hours 14 through 18 from New Mexico Official Nation 24-Hour Comic Book Blog – Hours 14 through 18 from New Mexico
This year I participated in 24-Hour Comics Day again. It was held from October Saturday the 3rd to the 4th. I had such a blast with it last year that there was no question I would do it again. The goal is to create 24 comic pages in 24 hours. It’s a very challenging exercise. You come to the table with no idea of what you are going to write and draw, and from there you create a 24-page story.
Last year there was a place to participate in 24 Hour Comic in Santa Fe NM (that’s where I live right now), but this year the closest place was in Albuquerque, NM. I decided to stay home and work on the 24-hour comic on my drawing table. I was committed to participating no matter where I did it.
Ralph Contreras inking a 24-hour comic page
The first few hours were tough, the year before I created my 24-hour comic with the help of my girlfriend as my inker. This year I was working completely solo. I was finding it hard to find a fast rhythm. I was really digging what I was coming up with, but I was just a little slower than I originally wanted to be.
My girlfriend helped me out by updating my Twitter, Facebook & Flickr pages. One of the Twitter updates caught the attention of the group in Albuquerque. They were updating their blog dedicated to the 24-Hour comic and told me to send them some photos of my stuff. You can check out the 1st of 2 posts showing my work progress during the event. 24 hours from the New Mexico blog (Hour 13 1/2 from New Mexico). What was cool is the blog post was picked up by the Official Nation 24-Hour Comic Book Blog too. – (Hour 13 1/2 from New Mexico)
This last weekend I drove down to Albuquerque for the Annual Collectors Con. It showcases comic books, anime, and toys. I went last year after moving back to New Mexico from Las Vegas, NV and I had a blast. This year I was excited to see what other cool and fun stuff would be there. The con is sponsored by Lobo comics, a local comic book shop in Albuquerque, NM.
I found a personal treasure this year at one of the booths. The Mighty Avengers issue #242! When I was a kid this was the very first comic book I read. A few years back when I opened my own comic book store, “Modern Age comics” in Las Cruces, NM. I used my personal collection as the starting inventory. I had comics from 17 years of collecting, about 8,500 comics and Avengers 242 was among them. I remember selling my copy during the first few weeks. I was happy it was sold to a kid who was starting to buy comics for the first time. That was actually really cool. So it was very cool for me to find a copy this weekend. This one will stay in my new collection.
There were a good amount of booths this year, with comics ranging from the Silver Age to current issues. Of course, there were those hard-to-find issues like the Amazing Spider-Man with President Obama in it. There were rows and rows of great comics, toys, and models. There was also a good variety of movie merchandise and collectibles. It was really fun to see a Kryptonian crystal from the newest Superman movie and lifesize green Kryptonite. My favorite collectible I saw at the con was a set of Star War Return of the Jedi glasses from Burger King. I remember having the full set when I was a kid until our dishwasher ate them.
There were some booths with super hard-to-find toys from G.I.Joe, Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel, and Dc Direct. Some of the older figures were out-of-print originals from the ’80s and ’90s. I’ve never been the biggest toy collector, but I was impressed with all the cool toys at this con. The sculptures on the more modern toys were so good, they look like they could be models and statues. I think the McFarlane Toy line that started out in the 90’s really brought up the bar in toy manufacturing. I found myself wanting to buy every figure there, so I could take them out of the packaging to play with…I mean put on display. :p
If I hadn’t given myself a $20 limit I think I could have spent my whole paycheck easily. I think I actually spent around $30 bucks though. I was close to my budget. It’s fun to just browse the cool backstock of comics. You never know when you’ll find that issue you’ve been looking for. It’s even more fun to find comics you’ve never heard about. I was able to find some great comics. The Mighty Avengers 242 was the most exciting for me personally, but I also found a whole set of Superman: the Dark Side (an awesome Elseworlds comic where Kal-El lands on Apokolips instead of Earth, he’s not a nice guy in it), I also bought Ka-Zar #16 for a buck. It’s a fun issue where he fights Klaw.
Comic books and toys weren’t the only things to see at this con, there was an “artist alley” of sorts too. It was really cool to meet people that not only like comics but like them so much they create them too. Andy Kuhn who draws Firebreather from Image comics was there. He lives and works out of Albuquerque, NM. His stuff is fun and very dynamic. Next to him were the guys from 7000 BC, a locally run comic book organization for independent comics in New Mexico. These guys are very cool, Paul Ziomek and his brother Peter Ziomek who were both at the con representing 7,000 BC. The group also teaches classes to kids showing them that anyone can have fun creating comics. Their booth at the Collectors Con showcased the great work of different styles the group puts out.
I had a blast at this year’s Albuquerque Collectors Con. I will be planning on going again next year. Maybe I’ll take some of the comics I still have from my closed shop or maybe I’ll try to get into the “artist alley” with my own comic book. Right on to everyone that was there and to all my fellow comic nerds! SHAZAM!!
