Comic Book Archives

The 30 Characters Challenge 2013!

The 30 Characters Challenge 2013 is Here!
It’s that time again, for the 30 Characters Challenge “Because the world needs new characters…YOUR characters!”. What are the 30 Characters Challenge you may ask? Tyler James has put out the challenge again this year to create 30 new characters in 30 days. This is the fifth year for the 30 Characters Challenge. It has taken place every November since 2009. I’ve participated in it every year. The event now has hundreds of participating artists and writers of all skill levels. It’s a total blast! Check it out at www.30characters.com.

As an alumnus of all the past 30 Characters Challenges, I’m very excited to participate again. The first year was the only time I actually finished, so this year I’m very determined to complete all 30. Each year the challenge helps to strengthen my drawing style. I like to approach the characters and biography like Marvel’s “Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.” When I think of Character Designs, I see my characters in that format. I loved reading about characters and their biographies this way when I was a kid. If I have time I might even add a few “Comic Panels” of the characters in action Like OHOTMU did.

Everyone is invited to “Join the Challenge”, Registration runs until 5 pm Eastern Time, October 31, 2013. The challenge begins starting November 1st, 2013. So make sure to check it out and join up if you like having fun creating and sharing your own characters!

Here’s a site Banner I created with one of my original characters from the challenge!
Join the 30 Characters Challenge Here.

Here are my past 30 Characters in 30 Days Character Designs.
30 Characters in 30 Days 2009
30 Characters in 30 Days 2010
30 Characters in 30 Days 2011
30 Characters in 30 Days 2012

This blog post was originally published on my other website Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Ralph’s Art Blog.

The 30 Characters Challenge 2011 is Here

The 30 Characters Challenge 2011 is Here!

November is coming and that means it’s time for the 30 characters challenge again! What’s the 30 Characters Challenge you ask? in November 2009 comic creator Tyler James put out a challenge to create 30 new characters in 30 days. He invited anyone that wanted to join to participate on a blog site he created (30characters.wordpress.com). I was among those that participated and had a blast. I then took the challenge again last year at the awesome new site (www.30characters.com).

A year has come and it’s time for the 30 Characters challenge again. This time it looks like there will be over 300 participants. WOW! As an alumnus of all the challenges, I’m ready to jump in again. I’m getting ready to bring my A-Game this time! I have a better idea of how to approach the challenge. Last time around I submitted pencil character designs (3 were inked). I’m planning on inking and digitally coloring all of them this time. (It will be a test of my time management skills). I’ve seen my style change in the last few years. Leaning more toward inking, so I’m excited to focus on finished colored designs this year.

All are invited to “Join the Challenge“, the registration deadline is Sunday, October 30th. And the characters will start going up on November 1st. Make sure to check it out!

Here’s a site Banner I created with one of my original characters from last year’s challenge! Check out my “Profile” page too! – SHAZAM!

Check out my past 30 Characters in 30 Days Character Designs.
30 Characters in 30 Days 2009
30 Characters in 30 Days 2010

This blog post was originally published on my other website Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Ralph’s Art Blog.

Penelope Chamber – Characters Inks

Penelope-Chamber-Inks — Penelope Chamber ink drawing by Ralph Contreras

Penelope Chamber – Characters Inks

A few months ago I participated in the second annual 30 Characters Challenge. We create 30 Characters in 30 days. It’s a very fun challenge. I had planned on penciling and inking all my character designs. As the months went by I only inked 3 designs. So I’ve decided to go back periodically to these character designs and ink them.

Here’s Penelope Chamber Characters Inks!
I used a 102 nib pen with black india ink. I’ve been enjoying inking with nib pens. I still need a lot of practice inking, but I feel like the nib pen is right for me. So far I don’t have much of a history for this character. Just that she’s some sort of adventurer. – Shazam

This blog post was originally published on my other website Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Ralph’s Art Blog.

Comic Page Inking! Thor vs. Taskmaster

Comic Page Inking – Thor vs. Taskmaster

I’ve recently started to enjoy inking with pen and ink. In the past, I’ve focused on inking digitally using either Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. But I decided to tackle inking in the physical world. I have found inking with pen and bush to be more satisfying to me personally. I still believe that digital inking is a great technique. But for the time being, I will try to sharpen my skills in more traditional ways. My tools of choice have been a 102 nib pen and a size 4 sable brush.

I’ve been inking my own work, and that has been a great experience. I’ve decided to try inking other comic artists’ work too. My hope is that this will help me learn new creative approaches to comic art. I looked all over for a penciled piece I’d like to ink, then I found this super awesome piece of Thor vs. Taskmaster by comic book artist Mahmud Asrar. It comes from Avengers: The Initiative #32 Page 4. I found this on Mahmud’s DeviantArt page. I had fun inking these pencils. I will definitely be inking more comic pages in the future. – Shazam!

This blog post was originally published on my other website Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Ralph’s Art Blog.

The 30 Characters Challenge 2010 is Here!

Last year in November I participated in an awesome challenge called 30 Characters which was found at 30characters.wordpress.com. The idea was to create 30 original characters in 30 days. The challenge was thought up by comic artist Tyler James. It wasn’t easy and there were days I would hit a creative block. But I’m proud to announce I completed the challenge of creating the 30 characters. I even received a cool digital award plaque. I meet a lot of other cool creative people interested in creating comic book artists like myself. There were even characters created in this challenge that I incorporated into my personal comic project.

Well a year has come and it’s time for the 30 Characters challenge again. This time it looks like there will be over 40 participants. As an alumnus of last year’s challenge, I’m ready to jump in and let my creative juice flow. I’m even more excited this year than I was last. I have a better idea of how to approach the challenge. The last time around I only submitted pencil-drawn character designs. I’m planning on inking them this time, and if I have time color them too. My style and ability have changed and improved since last year. So I’m excited to show everyone what I can do.

The 30 Characters Challenge

Tyler James has set up an awesome new blog site (www.30characters.com) to showcase this year’s 30 characters in 30 days. He’s even supplying a cool PSD template to put the characters into for posting on the site. All are invited to “Join the Challenge“, the registration deadline is this Friday, October 29. And the characters will start going up on November 1st. Make sure to check it out!

This blog post was originally published on my other website Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Ralph’s Art Blog.

Creating Cool New Characters for The REPLICANTS Project

I’ve been participating in a fun collaboration with some great comic artists in The REPLICANTS Project.

What we are doing is creating our own characters based on existing characters. Similar to how Marvel Comics Squadron Supreme was based on DC Comics Justice League, and how the Watchmen characters were based on the Charlton characters. We’ve mashed up half the 70s X-men and half the Justice League into a Heroes and Villains team.

The idea came from Dean Rivet who set up a blog on Posterous. The blog’s name is The REPLICANTS Project. We create the character inspired by that week’s chosen character. We design original costumes, character names, and back story. We then email the post to a Posterous email and PazoOoW it appears on the blog.

I’ll be posting the process I’m using to create my characters; from pencil drawing and inking to the final coloring in upcoming blog posts. Here’s a list of the characters that we are using as inspirations for The REPLICANTS Project.

Creating Cool New Characters for The REPLICANTS Project

The Heroes

Wonder Woman, Thunderbird, Sunfire, Storm, Nightcrawler, Green Lantern, Flash, Batman

The Villains

Wolverine, Superman, Martian Manhunter, Hawkman, Cyclops, Colossus, Banshee, Atom

This blog post was originally published on my other website Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Ralph’s Art Blog.

Sketch Card – Thor of the Avengers

I’ve decided to do a quick pencil drawing every few days. What better way than to draw on a Sketch Card? It gives me the opportunity to practice drawing different characters, and it’s also fun! Sketch cards are the size of collectible cards. They’ve become very popular in the past few years.

For this sketch card, I decided to continue with the Heroic Age theme and draw another Avenger. So I penciled a quick sketch of Thor. It’s cool because the Thor movie is being filmed here in Santa Fe. I even tried out to be an extra in the film. No callback, but it was still fun. This drawing took me about 18 minutes. I used an HB .05 mechanical pencil. I had fun with this sketch card. More sketches to come…Shazam!

This blog post was originally published on my other website Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Ralph’s Art Blog.

Sketch Card – Hawkeye of the Avengers

A few months ago I ordered some cool sketch cards online. These were trading card size, 2.5″ x 3″ Bristol board paper. Well, I finally got around to actually drawing on one last night. In the middle of cleaning my apartment, I was struck with the inspiration to draw. So I reached over and grabbed a loose sketch card.

The Avengers have been in the news lately with their Heroic Age reboot. So I thought, “Hey, I’ll draw Hawkeye“. So here’s my quick sketch of Hawkeye. I did this in about 15 minutes with an HB .05 mechanical pencil. I tried to keep it loose, but add shadows and highlights. I’m really happy with this drawing. I will definitely be doing more sketch card drawings.

This blog post was originally published on my other website Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Ralph’s Art Blog.

The Hunter – Character Design – From Sketches to Final Ink – Part 3

A few months ago I was looking through some of my old drawings. Ones I did while I was a kid up to when I was in college. I found my original sketches for a character named “The Hunter”. I had redesigned his history and biography a few years ago, so I decide to redesign his look too.

For the past year, I’ve been digitally inking my pencils. I usually use Adobe Illustrator using vector points. I like using the pen tool to create crisp sharp/smooth lines. But for this inking, I wanted to go old school and use a real brush and pen. A process I do not use very often. I had a real blast inking it by hand!I didn’t want to lose my pencils so I scanned the original and reprinted them on card stock. I used Adobe Photoshop to replace the original black lines with blue lines. This way it would be easier for me to ink them.

Here are my final inks of “The Hunter” I had a real blast with this piece. I started with very rough sketches to tight pencils and finally to a finished inked piece. In my next blog post (that’s right I have one more to go) I’ll show you what I did to vectorize my final inks so I can print them at any size without losing the quality of the inks. – Shazam!

This blog post was originally published on my other website Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Ralph’s Art Blog.

The Hunter – Character Design – From Sketches to Final Ink – Part 2

Hunter-Pencils — The Hunter by Ralph Contreras

The Hunter – Character Design – From Sketches to Final Ink – Part 2

While looking through some of my drawings from ten years ago I found a character design I did for “The Hunter”. From that original sketch, I redesigned his look and biography. The newer design sketches were a little rough, but they were intentionally quick to get my thoughts down on paper.

Once I had the look for The Hunter down, then I could start having fun. I decided to draw him in an action pose, jumping at a target with his gun and sword ready for battle. I tried playing with shadows, perspective, and highlights. I’ve been refining these elements in my drawings. They have been helpful in me finding my own comic book art style.

Hunter-Blue-Pencils — The Hunter Blue Pencils by Ralph Contreras

Now that I’ve got an awesome action pose drawing I was ready to ink it. I’ve been digitally inking my pencils for the past year. For this drawing, I wanted to go old school and ink with real ink, but I didn’t want to lose my original pencils. So I scanned the drawing and turned the pencil lines blue in Adobe Photoshop (being the crafty graphic designer I am). I then printed the pencils on card stock paper and was ready to ink traditionally.

Right on! My next post will show the cool inking of this Pin-up. So keep an eye out.
-Shazam!

This blog post was originally published on my other website Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Ralph’s Art Blog.