The Daily Comic Sketch Challenge! Here’s the 4th quick 30-minute daily sketch. This drawing was done on Friday, October 9th of Modok (Mobile Organism Designed Only for Killing) from Marvel Comics. I took one day off the challenge, but came back with a really fun sketch!
The last sketch I did of the Enchantress didn’t come out as well as I’d hoped, she came out a little too stiff. So for this one, I decided not to get to stressed and just had fun with it. This was actually the sketch I’d been looking forward to drawing the most. I worked with an H2 drafting pencil and a simple eraser. Started off with very loose lines and added details along the way. To be honest, this drawing took a little longer than 30 minutes, it took me about 45. But I think that’s ok. My goal with this exercise is to help in speeding my drawing but also to loosen up.
When I started reading comics it was Marvel comics. So I totally knew and have read comics with Modok. Modok’s just a supergiant head on a hover chair, that’s fun and cool. I didn’t realize there was such a fanbase for the character. I found numerous websites dedicated to him and Marvel Comics even has an official Modok blog. When Marvel created a new Super-Villain Team-Up limited series, Modok was the main character. I had lots of fun with this drawing and I think it shows. – Shazam
The Daily Comic Sketch Challenge – Enchantress (Marvel)
The Daily Comic Sketch Challenge! Here’s the 3rd quick 30-minute daily sketch. This drawing was done on Wednesday, October 7th of Amora The Enchantress from Marvel Comics.
This sketch was very challenging for me. It took me a little longer than my allowed 30 minutes, about 45. I started with a real rough sketch using an H2 drafting pencil. I was trying to give her a soft look, but I think she actually looks a little stiff. This is why I’m doing this daily exercise. To help me get a loose and softer drawing style. I find that there is stiffness in my illustrations sometimes when I work on them too much.
The enchantress was one of the first female characters I read in comics. The second comic I ever read was Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars, but it was the 1st series I actively read. I remember hitting all the gas stations looking for the latest issue. So it was fun drawing a character I’ve been familiar with most of my comic reading and drawing life.
The Daily Comic Sketch Challenge! Here’s the 2nd quick 30-minute daily sketch. This drawing was done on Tuesday, October 6th. The Maxx by Sam Kieth was suggested by my friend Carlos Parra via his Twitter account @carlosparra
This was a fun character to draw. I knew I wanted to make him big and exaggerated. That’s the way I remembered him. Never drawing the Maxx before I was very excited to have fun with this. I was able to get the sketch done in 35 minutes. I used an H2 drafting pencil. I think I had better control of it than the HB I used for the last quick sketch.
I remember when I had my comic book store, The Maxx Comic was always a very popular character. I literally could not keep the comics in stock. This was years after its publication too. I think it was so popular because of Maxx, MTV Cartoon. Which was great because it brought the character and comics to a more mainstream audience.
The Daily Comic Sketch Challenge – Manhunter IV (Marc Shaw)
Last night I drew the 1st in a series of quick 30-minute daily sketches. I’m calling them The Daily Comic Sketch Challenge. After asking for suggestions on Twitter and DeviantArt the first drawing is The Manhunter IV (Marc Shaw).
I had fun with this drawing. I’ve never really read any comic with this Manhunter, but the costume design is very cool. I actually took a little longer than 30 minutes, I think I took about 45. I used an HB drafting pencil, Only sharpening it once. With this drawing, I tried to be quick, but not lose detail. I also tried to use shadow and reflection of light. Thanks to @BlaqueSaber on Twitter for the great suggestion!
Digital Inking with Illustrator Vector Anchor Points
I’ve received several requests to show the steps I used to create my digital inking of the Fantastic Four pin-up I did of artist Ariel Padilla’s pencils. I was looking for some art to ink and found the pencils on his DeviantArt page. This was a practice exercise I gave myself in the inking process of comic book art using Adobe Illustrator. I’ve been a graphic designer for over 9 years but this was the first time I used my design knowledge for comic book inking.
For this self-assignment, I decided to use Adobe Illustrator for inking the pin-up. I had used photoshop for a previous piece earlier I did of Batman 2.0, a character redesign. I had fun with that illustration but this time I wanted to do this digital inking in vector format. Why choose vector verse bitmap? Well, a vector image is made up of anchor points that are connected by paths (lines) that connect them. A vector image can be re-sized without loss of quality to the illustration. So basically you can re-size the image as small or as large as you’d like without pixelation, it will keep its sharpness no matter the size. Which is really neat.
Points & Paths: Example 2
For this illustration, I choose to use my anchor points to create only straight paths (lines). I didn’t use any curved lines. The cool thing about using anchor points and paths is that you can make curved paths, resulting in fewer points This is shown in Points & Paths: Example 2. So why didn’t I use curve paths? Well, honestly it was a self-exercise to see if I could do it. I wanted to create curved lines through straight lines. I found it to be a fun challenge.
I did not create lines or outlines of the original pencils. What I did was look at each line as a shape. I could have easily used the brush tool in Illustrator, but I found I actually had more control over what I wanted to achieve by using the pen tool.
Points & Paths: Example 3
With the technique, I like to use anchor points and paths I am able to get a type of jagged smooth shape. The strength of anchor points is you can use as many or as few points as you’d like to create your lines or shapes. I’ve illustrated this in Points & Paths: Example 3.
Points & Paths: Example 4
After I created the shape from the pencils, I colored it in black. I’ve shown this in Points & Paths: Example 4. As you can see it’s a piece of a puzzle that makes up the inking. These shapes help to create the feel I was looking for when digitally inking this drawing. This technique really works well when inking the Thing’s rocky skin.
Points & Paths: Example 5
I have included more examples of the anchor points and paths technique I use in inking these pencils. In Points & Paths: Example 5, we see how the wavy fire on Human Torch can be created without using curved lines. Every anchor point in the flames helps to create the illusion of line weight, depth, and movement.
Points & Paths: Example 6
In Points & Paths: Example 6, I’ve shown how I created what looks to be a line on the Invisible Woman’s arm. It is actually a curved shape created with paths. It is a shape that includes the bottom line of her arm and the shadows around her neck. You can see her hands and the background is already colored in.
Although this technique might not seem to be the most efficient, it allows for a lot of control. Looking at each line as a shape helped me to create a type of line work I would not have achieved otherwise.
This was my first comic book digital inking using Adobe Illustrator with the anchor points and paths technique. I have done a few more since this one. Although I have used curved lines in those illustrations. This was a fun self-exercise in learning to digitally ink the work of someone else. I am very happy with the way this illustration came out, and I’ll continue to use Adobe Illustrator to digitally ink comic book pencils.
