Tuesday, November 24

CURSE OF THE SNAKE GOD cover preview!




Its taken some time to find a new routine with my new schedule, but here is an early look at my inked version of the snake god cover. Im really happy how this came out (much thanks to both Mat and Marc for their input and direction when I would slip into old habits). Finally getting a handle on the brush work. Its a different world all together than pencils and Ill admit it, ...the two parts of my brain have been at each others throats.

UPDATE: new version with spotted blacks thanks to the expert guidance of Marc Morrell. Gotta love it!

Will P.

Thursday, October 29

Sneak Peak at upcoming cover

Marc Morrell has updated his website with an early look at the cover to issue #1 of CURSE OF THE SNAKE GOD. It can be found here.




Friday, October 2

Happy Halloween

My favorite holiday season is finally here....

Happy Halloween!

snake god pencils preview

Not sure what I can show and what I shouldnt...but here is a small look at the upcoming project from Nifty Comics. Written by Marc Morrell and Art by myself.


Wednesday, September 30

COPY STORE featured in UK


Just received word from Spyros that this month issue of Advanced Photoshop Magazine (issue 61) features an interview with Liezel Buenaventura concerning her expert digital coloring abilities. Included is our cover to COPY STORE #1. Very cool news. A bit tough to get my hands on a copy out in Western New York, but if you can find one, check it out. Its pretty cool. Glad more people are giving Liezel the recognition she deserves, because she blew us away with her take on our cover.




Monday, September 21

Pencils on First issue Done!

FINALLY! Doing a page-a-day of pencils is a lot harder than I imagined without losing steam. it took a lot longer than 26 days to get the 26 pages, but while working back at the Vineyards Wine and Spirits store in Canandaigua I managed to finish up pencils to my upcoming comic written by Former Marvel Bullpen artist Marc Morrell! Thanks goes to the manager of Vineyards to say the least for taking the brunt of the owners complaining while they paid me to draw the comic while the store was dead.

Also, we got a cool little mention in an August Nifty Comics News update a while back...here. about 3 paragraphs in. Should help push me through Inks in the next month. Once inked, and approved, I will start updating with sneak peaks and promos!




Monday, August 10

Gutters: Recession Blues

I know..I know...complaining. But this is included in my vague often selfish definition of things I consider "gutters". Aka....things that get in the way of my enjoyment as an artist.

Spent the entire day today coloring two 11 x 17 images entirely with my mouse. My right hand is just this side of a horrible claw and all I can do is be happy that I draw entirely with my left. During the whole process I kept complaining to myself "this would be done already if I just had a graphic tablet!" and then redouble my efforts as I realized...the only way I am ever going to get one of them is by doubling my payable jobs.

There is a sad truth in being an upcoming (thankfully working) artist in our current economic wedgie. The better the tools, the better the end product looks. The better the product, the more money. the more money, the better the tools.

It goes on like this for quite some time til you die a master, or sell-out and become a publisher I guess.

Tuesday, June 30

Artist Spotlight : Rochester Democrat and Chronicle


Huzzah! The Rochester D&C did a piece on me for their sunday column "Artist Spotlight: Rochester's Hidden Talents" and once I looked beyond the pains of being edited...Its pretty cool. Been getting flooded with Emails and site visits. Some are even people who are not related to me!

Im a bit depressed that some of the things I thought were most important were left out (sorry Tom MacPherson and Spyros) But a nice first step.

But for now, my big brother is coming into town tomorrow, and I have to get an entire page finished so I can take it a little easy the last 2 days of the week.

The good news is that with Mike in town, by the time he leaves, we should have yet another comic idea in the hopper and ready for pre-production. Exciting times.

Sunday, June 28

CURSE OF THE SNAKE GOD: Under Production!


Started this week on the pencils for CURSE OF THE SNAKE GOD. Written by Marc Morrell, and published by Niftycomics.com. Im really excited to get this one inked and out the door. Mark has groomed me a bit and helped me really grasp the intricacies of Story-telling ive have struggled with in the past. Cant wait to show you its progress in the coming week!

Both Marc and I will be regularly updating with sketches and info from this site and his.

Saturday, June 27

"Insert Michael Jackson Joke Here"

With very little telepathic ability I can make a reasonable assumption that you have been inundated by almost anyone you talk to with at least one low-brow pun and possibly hilarious Michael Jackson joke this week. But Honestly...With any artist of considerable worth, regardless of their medium, you have to take into consideration that a little craziness comes with the package. When they are gone, you just have to hope they gave more to culture than they took.

If you think I am crazy myself, just go listen to "Off the Wall" and "Thriller" one more time....Then decide.

Ill be enjoying my personal all-time favorite "Blood On the Dance Floor".



Will


At least we still have Feldman to carry the legacy.

Thursday, June 11

Plastic Man Pinup Project


For my second weekly project I figured I would do a better version of a previous sketch of Plastic Man. I always enjoyed him above Mr. Fantastic and even Elastic Man. Allows for a bit more artistic license and fun. This is the first day's worth of pencils not counting some sketching I did the night before. Final pencils soon. Still debating on Inking/coloring all of these. I figure I will use them as practice once it comes time to do my next batch of Inking work.

Ive already started sketching comp thumbnails for next weeks project while finishing up layouts for an upcoming project. Next week will be much more update heavy.

This drawing is much more in the style I want to do as a series.

Wednesday, June 3

Green Lantern Project

Just an update on Green Lantern Drawing. Finished most of the pencils for this project. The rest is up to inks. Good ol' Mogo pulling up the rear.

Sketch tangent

Was working on a real project and the pump just wasnt priming. So I got lost doing this sketch infront of my computer. Work went faster afterwards. Figured I would throw it up here for my daily update.


Monday, June 1

COPY STORE cover




Copy Store is a comic about 2 guys that live in Greece who are secretly Demons that spend their time between running a local copy store, and attending classes in a hell-school. Homework can be a bit complicated....

I recently used this and the sequentials for Spyros Evangelos Armenis (Copy Store's creator and writer) for a FREE COMIC DAY sneak preview that I threw together.

Art by Myself.
Colors by Liezl Buenaventura. She did an absolutely amazing job. Really captured the pulp-comic tone that we were going for and an absolute pleasure to work with. It was nice to see someone else color my stuff.

You can see the rest of her work at her site HERE.

Friday, May 29

I think....

Composition and Layouts .If you feel like there might be something that doesnt look right for even a second. There is. Get out the eraser and do it over. Every single time ive redrawn or started from scratch, ive ended up liking the new version more. You always end up learning SOMETHING.

Nobody ever got angry about extra effort.

First Project




Been Jonzing for a Green Lantern drawing (I sometimes forget I can now draw all the things I love...with minimal disappointment). So I designed a 2 page spread/ensemble drawing. This is the first page I started. Did the majority of rendering yesterday. Always was a fan of Kilowog. The second part of the spread will be my next project. Havent decided what it will be. I originally was going to have the left side be kilowog and the rest of the corps following Hal and Tomar-Re. But now...Im aching to draw some other characters. Maybe a "C-List" ensemble. More soon. Hoping to finish pencils today/weekend so I can do some more sequentials.

Peace Out Internet.

Wednesday, May 27

New Season, New Goals

Ive found myself getting into a bad habit today. As I sat at the drafting table slapping together character ideas or just warm up sketches, I realized that outside of formal paid work this past month or so (storyboards/character designs) I really haven't produced much formal completed art work. Nothing that I could put in my portfolio at least.

I feel like I am struggling constantly between my portfolio and my technical skills. While I really just want to be able to draw everything and anything as well as humanly possible, I also NEED to have something tangible to send to future clients and project partners. So Im adding an hour a day to my schedule for final drawings. once I start a drawing, I will be updating on its progress fully until it reaches completion.

hmm...not a bad idea. Let the great Experiment BEGIN!

Now I just need to find an drawing idea.....

WP

Tuesday, May 26

Sketchblog: couple of quickies...


Just a couple of quick sketches before jumping into doing some layouts for a project I am working on. I hope to update in the next week with more info on it. But for now...Metron and Plasticman!

Tuesday, May 12




Today's Sketch is really just a study more than anything. Just playing around with face and facial muscle I guess.

Friday, May 8



This is a sample page from Eric Williams and my short story included in Mysterious Visions Anthology. I know it doesnt count for the sketch blog,..but the true sketches will start monday.

I may be bias in this since it meant I didnt have to do much lettering on this page...but boy do I love giant silent pages. No lettering, no exposition. Just draw as much stuff on the page as possibly and let the art guide your eye. no making space for future dialogue....no sound effects. Im currently working on a similar page for Eric for our upcoming Super-hero/drama-thriller. It should be a blast and I hope to beat this one....

Friday, April 3

Its my birthday.....AND Failure Fridays!



I realise that it has been over a month since my previous post, but I have moved and umm.....(quietly whistles while looking at various other websites).


Today is my birthday...but also Friday. So I would like to try to start adding to my blog Failure Fridays. Where I can post Jobs that either I did not get, or did not pan out the way intended. I feel like all artists websites and blogs are so self-conscious that they act like some kind of evil dictator limiting the information and view that the public have of them. When in fact just about 90 percent of growth comes from these failures. I learn how to draw something when I screw it up, not when I accidentally do it perfectly the first time.

So this week...is a small project for a local company that I bid on and lost the project to another artist (an much more appropriate choice im sure). It was a cartooning job where I would have to do various 3 panel comics detailing two childrens exploits and the family that is forced to deal with them. Here is the family lineup/breakdown I came up with. I really do like how it turned out...But in the end "the call" came through and the client went another way. But I still like the characters and it was fun to do something other than grinding teeth/capes /and blood for a while.

Sunday, February 22

A Rob Liefeld Education


I love the fact that every time Rob Liefeld is interviewed at Newsarama.com or any news is released that has anything to do with him, a creation of his, or one of his past antics...you can rest assured that he will be in the comments section fighting fanboys and commentors alike.

I have never been a particular fan of Liefeld's personally.... But I have always found his work to be inspiring. It inspires me to work harder... and most importantly...teaches me to Never let my ego get in the way of my growth as an artist.

I think the most important thing any artist can learn to do is never consider themselves done learning. Never stop trying to improve. If you spend all day working on a project, and some small part of the drawing keeps drawing your attention away from it as a whole...then there probably is a reason. It is easy to say "its been a long day..its good enough" or even worse "they get what they pay for". But anytime you decide that something isnt just "your style"...but admit that you could have done better, you have already grown as an artist. Being an artist has been described as the constant pursuit of perfection. Plato explained that all things represent an attempt to create perfection. He used the example of the "perfect chair". That all chairs are an individuals attempt to create the perfect chair. They represent whatever attributes that one particular person interprets as perfect for that particular chair.

As artist we work with this same problem. We each pursue the perfect form of anything we draw. We see an image in our head, and try to recreate that on paper. That is our pursuit of perfection. When we are first starting out, we are held back by inexperience, lack of technique, and more importatnly a lack of significant failures. When I fail...I get embarrassed. I hate embarrassment. But when we take the easy way out...we avoid chances of failure by keeping things simple. And thus we cheapen the product.

This is what Rob has taught me. Sure...you can cut corners and focus on the more flashy distractions that are so easy to get caught up in when it comes to comics and comic art. But eventually....on a long enough timeline....it WILL catch up to you. And twenty years later...when the art is still saying the same thing it did before, how much closer to that perfection have you come?

Ill keep trying for mine.

Saturday, February 21

Doooooooove!

What a week. No posts really. I have tons of information and sketch work that I would love to upload...but I want to give it a bit more time before putting it up on the internet. Call me paranoid.

Also..I am in the process of moving apartments (in february...stupid I know) so I am almost totally enduring that daily.

On the plus side...I just received copies of Showcase no. 75 (the first appearance of HAWK AND DOVE) as well as Hawk and Dove #1 by Steve Ditko. Hotcha! Hawk and Dove are one of the funniest things in life.

Now that I think of it...I should start a list.

#1. Hawk and Dove.

Wednesday, February 11

ifanboy article

Recently the guys over at ifanboy.com asked Eric and I if we wanted to contribute to an article they were putting together concerning the struggles so many unpublished creators go through to see their product hit shelves. The Article used a rough approximation of what both Eric and myself had to say.

The little bit that follows is what I had sent to Eric before we Amalgamized (its a word now) our experiences during the ongoing production of Hastings. One of my major intentions with this blog is to recount for anyone interested in hearing just how annoying and eventually rewarding it can be to just just outside something you love so much.


"Why the Hell are we doing this? Ive asked Eric that several times. I ask myself almost daily. A main-stream comic is read by few enough people as it is. What chance do two unknowns like us have in this market? You throw yourself at least 12 hours a day into something that offers no page rate or promise for publication. All you have is the constant desire to see something of your own brought to life. Telling a story that means something to you. Fighting with the nagging urge that hounds you to put it on paper. You worry about working in a potential vacuum while still trying to be wary that everything and anything you may have seen before may possibly taint your own idea.

Do you work to serve your story and idea, or do you attempt to create an illusion just to bump sales? It is common knowledge that a good chunk of Serial Comic sales are based on a good cover. This fact has been exploited ever since the first issues hit the stands. A little intrigue and suggestive visuals lead you to expect anything and everything from a comic, only to get home open it up and realize there is nothing reminiscent between the pages. So do you serve yourself as a creator, or your creation through shrewd marketing tactics and transparent lies? Do you make a flashy cover that attracts the eye but does nothing for the final product? Do you write scenes that are controversial instead of serving the story? Where do you draw the line between the commercial product, and the reason you chose to make the product in the first place.

Normally these problems would be handled in house. A publisher or editor would make these decisions for us. But Eric and I have to see the lines for ourselves and choose a side. Do we try to get a sale, or do we try to make our comic?
So we hope to tap into the rush you get from your individual idea enough to translate it to a piece of paper 8 by 10 and relay that same feeling in some way to a reader who didn’t buy the product because of a name or a license. He wasn’t sold with Toys, logos, commercials or PR. The people who buy these comics are people looking for fresh voices and original ideas. The problem is that it is our idea to give them that. That is how you get noticed. They look for something new. And you hope you have it. But who are we kidding…it’s a lot of our friends and family. Every comic shop might mean 5 sales. Each family member and friend hopefully can be jokingly threatened into 2 copies. But at the end of the day, how do you push your message into the faces of the guy who loves comics but has been conditioned to the "present and feed" marketing structure that comics thrive in today.

But, the tighter the hole is to squeeze through, the harder you push. Because you're in creator owned properties, you are not peddling someone else’s baby. You are not backed by someone else’s dream. You only have your vision, your ideas, and the need to get one more out there. These ideas are solely yours. If you are lucky you find a small set of people who feel confident enough in these ideas to pull together and produce something that is your own. For most of us there will be no mug or lunchbox for our ideas…but when you are selling comics in the independent fields…there are always more people. Standing on the professional on-ramp, hoping you have what it takes to merge when the opportunity presents itself."

CopyStore Sequentials

As promised, here are the rest of the sequential pages for my most recent project.

Written by Spyros Evangelos Armenis


The pages lead into the previously posted Double-page splash. As the main character rushes to attend Hell-school. The pages were really fun to draw. I love the main characters best friend...( just wait til you see his demon form).

Tuesday, February 10

Mysterious Visions Anthology Available



MVA # 10 is still available for orders here.

Written by Eric Williams. Art, Cover, and lettering by myself.
Grab yourself a copy while supplies last! Read em'...burn em'...hell, you could just buy a copy to then burn it in front of me. I would still be honored. For a brief moment.

Why would you burn it?...I thought what we had was real.

Signed Copies also available at Pulp Nouveau Comix. Located in Canandaigua, NY.

Check us out! More Hastings news very very soon.

Saturday, February 7

COPY STORE 2 page-spread



This bad boy was a bitch to get finished. it started out as a single page splash in the script by Spyros Evangelos Armenis and the more I drew it the more cramped it felt. Before I knew it all my sketches were getting longer than they were high and I decided to just go for a 2 page spread instead. I like how a lot of it turned out. Some parts I cringe at...but that's just the way it goes. The idea was originally a much wider shot with Michael (the lead character and demon on the left) a lot smaller on the page being overwhelmed by the scenary. I decided to go for a more Mcfly approach since he is late for school and have the school be more important than Hell...he has been there after all.

I will have to scan some of my earlier sketches at a later date when I upload the rest of the pages.

More soon...for now I just have to drag more visits to this page.....all just a matter of time. Mwa-ha.

Your Pal,
Will

Thursday, January 15

Starting out....

Just created this bad-boy to get it off my long list of "things that need doing before you can have a sucessful career as an artist". Deviant Art is nice for a lot of things...but sending potential clients to look at old work is not one of them. This will have to be a stepping stone at the moment.