Eric Basaldua Zombie Attack

 

This is a page from the ridiculously talented EBAS. I was using this as a warm up page before I started my daily page work. So I worked on it about 15 to 20 minutes at a time. There was no real reason behind inking this one other than it just looks so frikkin cool!

 

There was so much going on in this page, the real challenge was trying to keep all the amazing detail without making mud. So I went a little thicker with some of the holding lines than I usually would and concentrated on giving each mass it's own space to breath.

 

This one was so much fun that I didn't want to stop and start my work. But in the end I just dug in for some intense short periods of time and am very pleased with the outcome.

N.A.S. Studios

Well I thought I might share some of the ink work I have been doing for N.A.S. Studios over the last six months or so. No interiors as of yet but quite a few covers, pin-ups and promo pieces. So have a look and enjoy.

The pencils done by these artists in order:
Patrick Blaine
Savy Lim
Juan R. Leal
Bruno Ma
Savy Lim
Chris Cagle
Danny Cruz

All artwork Copyright and Trademark N.A.S. Studios

Keu Cha II

 

Here is another piece by Keu Cha. I just love his pencil work so much that I just printed this out and went to work on it and it was done in about two hours. It all just kind of came out of me pretty fluidly and naturally. This has actually pushed me into loosening up a bit and just trusting in the line I am throwing without over thinking it.

Jae Lee

Pencils by Jae Lee

Inks by Vic Moya

Keu Cha



Add caption

I am absolutely in love with the new stuff Keu Cha is turning out. I had to try my hand at some of his Hex The Lost Tribe stuff. Now these pages are not intended to be inked and are going straight from pencils to color. So my challenge was to keep some of that loose, organic feel and not make it too clean. I was so happy with the outcome of the page that I have already started inking on a few more of his larger pages, which are basicly a double page spread. Con season is coming up soon and with any luck I will be able to show these pages to him and get some feedback from the man himself.

Greg Capullo

Well, I wanted to start the year off with a few portfolio pages I am particularly proud of. I finally found the guts to tackle the pencil work of Greg Capullo, who is an amazing artist. I have been a fan of his work since I saw his installment in an old anthology called Gore Shriek.

 

Now some say,"Well Capullo is such an awesome artist that you can't screw up inking his pencils!" I disagree. Gregs pencils are filled with detail but once you get a closer look, he is also pretty loose with his lines. He gives you all the information you need to know what is there, but if you do not know how to draw, it can be very easy to get lost or misinterpret his lines. Oddly, this gave me quite some confidence while laying down inks and it felt rather natural. Having labored for hours upon hours over my drawing table learnig the basics of drawing and more, the more inked of his page, the more excited I was to continue!

 

I feel pretty good about the way they turned out and were included in my latest submission packed which has actualy landed me a few gigs. Well I hope you enjoyed and take care.

Tim Vigil

Here is another attempt to do some justice to ever great and powerful Tim Vigil. Now the pencils were not meant to be inked so I had make some decisions on how to interpret them. Hope I made the right choices. I feel pretty good about this one. I inked this with a 102 crowquill and a brush just to fill in blacks.

Jim Cheung

Here is another piece I did for the submission packet. I figured a double page spread would impressive and a double page spread by Jim Cheung would be twice as impressive. I got a few "wow that looks cool!" but no serious feeback. Still, I'm really happy with the way this turned out and it was tons of fun to ink.

David Finch

Here is a David Finch page I did for my portfolio a little while back. I was fortunate enought to get som feedback on this page from Norm Rapmund and alot of what he said I have to take with a grain of salt. For the most part everything looks crisp and clean and well done but...I did not convaey the intended feeling of the page. See, this pages is about loss and war and dirt and rubble and everything being broken. I cleaned it up and made pretty lines. He said war is not pretty. He wasn't telling me to be a "gritty" inker, just saying it's ok for thing to be not so peerfect all time. Do what's right for the page.

This was all very good feedback and it was something I had never really put any thought into. Wow. I think Ijust grew as an artist. How about that?

Ivan Reis

Arthur Adams

Here is another Art Adams page. I love working on his stuff not only because he is my hero and a god among men in the comic book world but I learn something about drawing with every page of his that I ink. Texture, form, composition and pacing are a few of the thing touched on in the lesson from this page.

Ivan Reis

Here are couple of amazing pages from Ivan Reis. I purposely picked these pages to round out the portfolio I am putting together to be reviewed at the Wonder Con coming up. It's been about fifteen years since I've had a portfolio review in person. So this is gonna be a sort of new experience. I'm hoping my work will speak for itself so that I will not have to speak much. I think these pages shout out for themselves.

I tried out a thinner line when attacking these pages. I figured it would help me capture the subtle nuances that Ivan put into the faces. Capture the facial gestures in "quiet" pages like these can make or break the page. I love the way it turned out. I also swithced from Micron Pigma markers to the Copic Multiliners and there was a huge difference in line quality. I think I found my new weapon of choice.

Ivan Reis - Aquaman

Convention season is around the corner so it is time to start gearing up my portfolio. I plan on having a few pages in there from Ivan Reis. His pencils are just so strong and dynamic and he plays with texture quite a bit which I think is one of my strong suits. So I feel this is a good match. I am rather pleased with the way this page turned out. I was able to play with wood, water, scales, hair and slimey water monsters. What more can an inker ask for?

Ivan Reis

I have been a huge fan of Ivan Reis since I first saw his work on Lady Death. His work has only grown more dynamic in the years that followed. So when I saw the pencils to this page from The Blackest Night from DC, I had to try my hand at them.

This particular page was going to based on mood rather than dynamic action. So I really let the heavy blacks just cross each other when I would normal make a clear separation of masses. I also had alot of fun with the cross hatching on the sky creating a heavy type gradient. For the trees I would normaly draw every leaf with the pen but opted to go with a whimsical blotting technique with the brush. It just seemed to add more life to the trees and foliage.

This was a fun page too work on and it will surely lead to me inking over more Ivan Reis in the future.

Tim Vigil

Can it get more intimdating than this. Tim Vigil, the single greatest influence on me artisticly paying homage to Frank Frazetta who is arguably one of the greatest fantasy artist of all time with hi rendition of Frazettas most iconic character, The Death Dealer. Hmmmm. No I don't think so.

But this is the year where I am going to push myself to the limit of my inking ability and beyond. I am very pleased with the way this came out. I sat down fully intending to use brush because, well, because that's what Tim would do, but I decided to make it mine and use my usual tools of Micron Pigma markers. I figured it would give it a feel that is not just trying to mimic Tims inking style. I stayed away from the usual crosshatching that I love to use because I figured it would make the imahe stati. So to keep the fluidity of the peice I tried to maintain a left to right and right to left movement while throwing my lines.

Maybe someday Tim will see this and give some feedback on how he feels it turned out. Until then, I will seek out more of his pencils and give them my all.

Joe Mad II

I wanted to kick off the new year with a bang. So here is a tri-fold cover from The Ultimates 3 penciled by Joe Mad. Honestly, This one flew out of me pretty easily. Granted, some folks do not like my approach to inking Joe Mad, using thinner line work and crosshatching instead of the big fat outline people are used to seeing with his stuff, but I still feel I was true to the pencils and kept a very Mad! feel.

Happy 2012!

Jim Lee

This is my second try at the amazing Jim Lee. I approached this as another excercise in keeping life through loose linework. I'm not quite sure how I feel about how it came out. By the end of the page I could feel myself exerting more and more control. This resulting in a conflicting feel throughout the page. I might try this one again in the new year. Or maybe a different Jim Lee peice. All in all, I feel this is as good a peice as any to end the year on.

Thanks to all of you for checking out my inks in the year 2011. Let's make 2012 a better year year for all things comic book.

Happy New year to all. 

Jimbo Salgado II

Here is another by Jimbo Salgado. This was done mostly to amuse myself because I liked the image and Jimbo is just a blast to ink over. Maybe someday I'll be able to work with him in a official capacity. Till then, I'll keep having some fun with his pencils on my down time.

Jimbo Salgado

This one just looked like a ton of fun. Jimbo has some super kinetic penciling and I hope I kept that energy with the iks. I really love the way this turned out.

Tom Mandrake

To say that taking on Rick Veitch was a huge challenge is like saying It's easy to play a Beatles cover song in you band. It's easy to learn all the chords but, you have to get the feeling right or it just sounds horrible. Sample thing here. I had to get the feeling of the page right. It's not enough just to clean up th lines.

That being said, I think my largest hurdle to overcome was my tendancy to be overcontrolled with my lines and stiffening up the image. I feel pretty good aboutthe page and will probably try some more of this like in the future. It was to push me beyond my comfort zone.