Broken Pencil Studio

Screaming Tiki 2008

2008-10-19T21:59:00.003-05:00

So we're back from the Screaming Tiki Con in Niles, OH. The show had some bumps, which is to be expected for a first year show. We had a good time though, and that's the important thing. I also had a chance to work on some character sketches for a comic that I'm working on with Mario.

2008-05-25T22:07:00.000-05:00

My Twitter

Iron Man

2008-05-03T13:27:00.003-05:00

Saw it. Loved it. Want to see it again.

PS - Fanboys, stay until the very end.

Live Trace

2008-03-22T13:53:00.002-05:00

It's been a while since I updated my sketch blog. I've been playing around with the Live Trace function in Illustrator CS2 recently. I used a quick sketch I did on a Post-It note and this is what I came up with.

Character sketch

2007-09-13T22:24:00.000-05:00

A little face time

2007-08-27T12:13:00.000-05:00

Happy accidents

2007-08-23T13:54:00.001-05:00

I sketched these in my sketchbook during lunch and wanted to post them, but all I have is my camera phone. Just for the heck of it, I took pictures of some sketches and sent them to myself. I kind of like the distortion/blurriness of these two.

Click Click BOOM!

2007-08-18T17:08:00.000-05:00

Here's a little piece I whipped up using a picture I took with my camera about four months ago. I put some filters over it in Photoshop then played around with it in Corel Painter.

Skinny

2007-06-08T18:48:00.001-05:00

Suit up

2007-05-29T23:31:00.001-05:00

Doc Ock!

2007-04-10T22:01:00.000-05:00

Last week, I was on the phone with a woman from a bank and jotting some notes, when all of a sudden, Doctor Octopus was crawling across the paper. This is what I used to do in school; I'd start taking notes in class and the next thing I know, 80% of the page is a doodle, a sketch, a comic page, etc. I guess old habits die hard.

Hellboy

2007-04-03T23:23:00.000-05:00

I missed a Hellboy sketch jam that was going on over at the Indie Spinner Rack message boards, but I didn't let that stop me from whipping up a quick/rough rendering:

Sketch Blog Challenge, #10

2007-03-25T21:59:00.000-05:00

Can I lend you a hand?

Get it?!? Lend you a HAND?

Okay, lame joke over. Today's skech blog post was done purely in Corel Painter.

Sketch Blog Challenge #9

2007-03-24T22:30:00.000-05:00

I went with a rough and loose sketchy style for today's contribution.

Sketch Blog Challenge #8 or "My Dog Ate My Wacom"

2007-03-24T10:05:00.000-05:00

I present what was supposed to be yesterday's sketch blog contribution. I have no good excuse, so here are a list of bad ones:

"I couldn't find my drawing shoes."

"Catwoman was on."

"Your mom kept calling me."

"Wood doesn't chop itself, you know."

"I was busy rereading my entire collection of Youngblood comics."

Sketch Blog Challenge,#7

2007-03-22T23:58:00.000-05:00

Today's sketch blog post of a first appearance Iron Man was done with a combination of Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop.

Sketch Blog Challenge, #6

2007-03-21T23:51:00.000-05:00

No Wacom graphics tablet, no Corel Painter, no Photoshop, just a pen and a sketchbook for today's sketch contribution.

Sketch Blog Challenge, post #5

2007-03-20T23:50:00.000-05:00

More experimentation with Corel Painter, this time playing with colors and effects.

Sketch Blog Challenge #4

2007-03-19T22:47:00.000-05:00

Sketch Blog Challenge #3

2007-03-18T23:56:00.000-05:00

Today's sketch is a rather over-flattering self-portrait. My jaw is not nearly that square.

Sketch Blog Challenge #2

2007-03-17T22:37:00.000-05:00

For my second sketch I decided to have some fun with Corel Painter IX. The sketch is no particular character or anything, just a generic, modern-day magician.

Sketch Blog Challenge #1

2007-03-16T12:17:00.000-05:00

Josh Sager, who I met at last year's PodCamp Pittsburgh, is having a short, 14 day sketch blog challenge. Even though I'm coming in four days late, Josh was nice enough to include me when I asked to participate.

Here's my first sketch, inspired by last night's viewing of 300. If you haven't seen it, go now.

The Educators of Justice!

2007-03-01T03:29:00.000-05:00

My mom works at a local elementary school and the theme of their next staff meeting breakfast is 'super heroes'. I'm the go-to guy in my family when it comes to superheroes, comics, etc., so she asked me if I would help her with some graphics/decorations using pictures of some administrators, portraying them as costumed characters. Everything was done in Photoshop CS2

EDIT: The running joke among them at the school is that they all carry walkie-talkies.

22 Panels

2007-02-19T02:33:00.000-05:00

"Ask any working comic book artist who has been in the business for more than ten years about "Wally Wood's 22 Panels That Always Work", and they know of it like it was the bible. Google "Wally Wood" and "22 panels", and you get over 150 hits. Once shrouded in secrecy, Wally Wood would selectively give assistants and those close to him three 8x10 photocopies of comic panels that bore the absolute essence of drawing comic book panels. 22 images in total, they held the secret to a comic book illustrator's success, and those who learned from them benefited from the master's wisdom. The panels were gold, but were not packaged in such a way that was easily disseminated.

Years later as an Editor at Marvel, Wood's former assistant, Larry Hama, needed a tool to give direction to his would-be artists. He had two copies of the three sheets. With the help of another ex-assistant of Wally Wood's (whom he recalls may have been Paul Kirchner), Hama reassembled the "Tri-Force" of Wally Wood sheets. On the back of a Marvel art Bristol board, Hama wrote the now-famous caption "Wally Wood's 22 Panels That Always Work", and had Robbie Carosella and Elliot Brown stat down the sheets. He ran off 50 copies from the board, and handed them out to potential pencilers. Pretty soon, other editors were sending pencilers and even some old pros down the hall to get copies from him. Eventually, he had more master copies statted and gave them to other editors so they could make their own copies to pass out. The original paste-up, with Hama's original hand-lettering, was eventually tucked into an envelope and put in the back of a flatfile, where it stayed for more than a decade. Second, third, fourth, tenth and twentieth generation copies continue to be made and handed down. "

What is the point of this history lesson? Well, I found the 22 Panels a few years ago and since then have had it taped above my desk. Aside from a useful tool, I never gave it much thought until recently when I read a post in a comic book-related community. Peter Venables came up with the idea of using the 22 Panels as an exercise; the challenge is for artists to recreate the 22 Panels in their own style.

So far I've done four panels. Here's the first one:

Once I finish all 22 panels, I'll make another post. I'm additionally challenging myself to come up with a cohesive story using only the panel styles.

Dead Love sketch

2007-02-07T12:56:00.000-05:00

This is Lyndon, one of the main characters from my comic Dead Love.