Following up on an earlier post, here are the results from the final round of competition in a set of "March Manga Madness" brackets I worked up back in 2018:
Alas, due to, ah, Real World Unpleasantness that's descended on me in earnest this week, I've no time today to get into why Be Free! was the winner for me circa 2018. The short versio...
2022-03-31 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Following up on a previous post's collection of loosely rendered (and loosely commissioned) DiD sketch sets featuring operative Yu-- nay, Lily imperiled in some vague and ill-defined office setting, here are a few more pages of sketches along those lines, once more jazzed up with some highly speculative scribbled text further exploring "Rose & Lily lore." (That's because I found the straight damsel images kinda boring, TBH.)
The first three page...
2022-03-30 13:31:34 +0000 UTC View Post
Behold, following up on my previous post of layout pages from Unnamed Robot Comic (better known as 2004's mecha-team miniseries Livewires), here are the work stages on the first few pages from issue #5 that I wound up penciling myself, as opposed to leaving the work to series penciler Rick Mays; I did so either for deadline reasons or because the pages in question were heavily technical.
So, in the image ga...
2022-03-29 13:01:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Once again, I'm doubling up with these latest (well, latest to post) sets of life drawings from random photoref. First above is an September 2017 sketch set heavy on the ol' high contrast, followed by a looser, lighter, "sketchier" set from May 2017.
Note that we've (rather a while ago) crossed an important threshold with these posts—both sketch sets are dated from 2017, meaning that the end of my once-formidable buffer of life drawings is in sight, if still rather a long ways off, as I cranked out life drawings almost ...
2022-03-28 13:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Following up on an earlier post, here are the results from the next round of competition in a set of "March Manga Madness" brackets I worked up back in 2018:
(BTW, the correct title of the #15 seed at lower right is To Your Eternity, of course. Whoops!)
A few words on the manga involved in the latest set of brackets:
*In retros...
2022-03-27 15:06:31 +0000 UTC View Post
UPDATE: Here's a link to our previous installment, in case you'd forgotten what the heck was going on in the series.)
Behold, the first set of my layouts for issue #5 of 2004's Marvel mecha-team miniseries Livewires (link no doubt rendered useless by the recent utter bollixing of ...
2022-03-25 13:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Following up on an earlier post, here are the results from the next round of competition in a set of "March Manga Madness" brackets I worked up back in 2018:
(BTW, the correct title of the #15 seed at lower right is To Your Eternity, of course. Whoops!)
A few words on the manga involved in the latest set of brackets:
*<...
2022-03-24 13:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
Behold, a mixed-bag bunch of loose DiD sketch sets from a year or two ago, featuring some sporadically decent images of Y**i--I mean, Lily imperiled yet again whilst undercover in supposed "businesswear." I found the results rather boring overall (some of the poses being notably stiff and lifeless), so I recently tried to jazz the sets up with some highly speculative scribbled text further exploring "Rose & Lily lore."
A few additional words, mostly re: the additional words I added to the sketches:
2022-03-23 13:01:03 +0000 UTC
View Post
You can check out I Am Empowered's previous installment here, or check out the entire archive of this defunct project here.
In case you'd forgotten, or are a semi-recent Patron and haven't had the time nor the inclination to look back though this site's sprawli...
2022-03-21 13:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Following up on an earlier post, here are the results from the next round of competition in a set of "March Manga Madness" brackets I worked up back in 2018:
(BTW, the correct title of the #15 seed at lower right is To Your Eternity, of course. Whoops!)
A few words on the manga involved in the latest set of brackets:
*Sonoda's ...
2022-03-19 13:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
Following up on a Work Stages post from February detailing the development of the cover illo for 2012's one-shot Empowered: Hellbent or Heaven Sent by excellent Guest Artist and frequent collaborator Ryan Kinnaird and myself, here are some design sketches and early CG renders for the issue's characters. UPDATE: Tacked that cover illo onto the end of the gallery for your reference conveni...
2022-03-18 13:01:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Once again, I'm doubling up with these latest (well, latest to post) sets of life drawings from random photoref. First above is an apparently challenging September 2017 sketch set featuring yet another appearance by cosplayer Jia Jem's version of my (early) version of Kei from Dirty Pair, followed by a cosplay-free set from May 2017.
Note that we've (rather a while ago) crossed an important threshold with these posts—both sketch sets are dated from 2017, meaning that the end of my once...
2022-03-16 13:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Following up on an earlier post, here are the results from the next round of competition in a set of "March Manga Madness" brackets I worked up back in 2018:
(BTW, the correct title of the #15 seed at lower right is To Your Eternity, of course. Whoops!)
A few words on the more obscure manga involved in the latest set ...
2022-03-15 13:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Despite a false alarm with a previous post, this page is prrrrrobably the last new major piece of artwork for Empowered vol. 12. I was originally planning to do the title page above as strictly a Photoshop font-based "graphic" dealie, but decided instead to do a hand-lettered version integrated with additional artwork.
Hope you'll pardon the flawed Empowered logo that I slapped into place as a mock...
2022-03-14 13:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Following up on an earlier post, here are the results from the first round of competition in a set of "March Manga Madness" brackets I worked up back in 2018:
(BTW, the correct title of the #15 seed at lower right is To Your Eternity, of course. Whoops!)
A few words on the more obscure manga titles that lost out:
<... 2022-03-12 14:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
Wellp, the ultimately tragic tale of Kei & Y-- uh, Rose & Lily's struggles against the hapless "Troops" wheezes to its welcome if inconclusive ending with these pages, as I haven't been able to dig up the remaining pages. Nor am I likely to spend much time looking for 'em, TBH, after our previous, now-deleted excerpt of Rose & Lily's tale wound up getting flagged by Patreon Trust & Safety as "content glorifying sexual violence." ( I should've guessed that this sketchier-than-usual commissioned story would've ended up...
2022-03-11 14:01:03 +0000 UTC View Post
You can check out I Am Empowered's previous installment here, or check out the entire archive of this defunct project here.
In case you'd forgotten, or are a semi-recent Patron and haven't had the time nor the inclination to look back though this...
2022-03-09 14:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
In a wacky new Patreon feature I'm gonna be dispersing throughout the month mostly on "off days" between more substantive posts, here are the "March Manga Madness" brackets I worked up and filled out back in 2018, when I apparently had the time to indulge such wacky diversions.
(BTW, the correct title of the #15 seed at lower right is To Your Eternity, of course. Whoops!)
Anyhoo, as the "competition" prog...
2022-03-08 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Behold, following up on my previous post of layout pages from Unnamed Robot Comic (better known as 2004's Marvel mecha-team miniseries Livewires), here are the work stages on the final two pages from issue #4 that I wound up penciling and inking myself, as opposed to leaving the work to series pe...
2022-03-07 14:01:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Once again, I'm doubling up with these latest (well, latest to post) sets of life drawings from random photoref. First above is an October 2017 sketch set featuring another cameo by Jia Jem cosplaying her version of my (early) version of Kei from Dirty Pair, followed by a not dissimilar (but, alas, cosplay-free) set from May 2017.
Note that we've (rather a while ago) crossed an important threshold with these posts—both sketch sets are dated from 2017, meaning that the end of m...
2022-03-04 14:01:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Kind Patrons, feast your eyes from what is very likely the last new panel to be drawn for Empowered vol. 12. Huzzah! (Trimmed for SPOILER reasons, alas.) A fine image to go out on, don't you think?
I still have multiple days of work on corrections and relettering and art patches facing me, but this probably represents the end of primary drawing on the volume. Woo hoo!
NEXT TIME ON THIS HERE PATREON: Not sure! Could be Life Drawin...
2022-03-03 22:43:47 +0000 UTC View PostUPDATE: Wellp, the Patreon is off Double-Secret Probation and no longer threatened with suspension after I deleted the specific posts flagged by Patreon Trust & Safety, along with a dozen or two others that I likewise removed out of the ol' "abundance of caution" before hearing back from 'em. (Something like 120 DiD hashtagged posts remain, so worry not, as I definitely did not nuke everything.)
The latter deletions look like a overreaction on my part, ...
2022-03-02 19:25:47 +0000 UTC View Post
UPDATE: Here's a link to our previous installment, in case you'd forgotten what the heck was going on in the series.)
Behold, the fifth and final set of my layouts for issue #4 of 2004's Marvel mecha-team miniseries Livewires, titled here as "Unnamed Robot Comic" as I'm more than ...
2022-03-02 14:01:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Today, I'm taking a break from the Distressed Damsels serialization of poor Rose & Lily's desperate struggles in favor of a somewhat unfortunate Empowered vol. 12 update. Yay?
As I draw and letter the final replacement pages, art patches & corrections for Empowered vol. 12 this week, I've had to leave out a bunch of existing pages from the original version of the volume to make room for the expanding sprawl of the revised version of the book's primary...
2022-02-28 14:16:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Once again, I'm doubling up with these latest (well, latest to post) sets of life drawings from random photoref. First above is an abdominally focused, movement-oriented set from May 2017 based on stills from a bellydancing video, followed by an October 2017 sketch that was my first attempt at working in charcoal since taking Figure Drawing class at the Kubert School back in the late 80s. Note that this was also my last attempt at messing around with charcoal in the modern era, as I quite thoroughly disliked the experi...
2022-02-25 14:00:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Following up on an earlier post, here are more pages from a commissioned Dirty Pair comic story in proto-Empowered format, created back in 2003 during a time when I assumed that I wouldn't be drawing comics professionally any more, due to my disenchantment with struggling through conventionally penciled and inked comic pages.
In retrospect, I clearly still wanted to draw as well as write com...
2022-02-24 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Wellp, here are the complete Work Stages on the cover illo for 2012's one-shot Empowered: Hellbent or Heaven Sent by excellent Guest Artist and frequent collaborator Ryan Kinnaird and myself. As with most of these one-shots' cover illos, I drew the Emp figure and the Guest Artist did everything else. Wheeeee!
UPDATE: Tacked on a collage worked up for wanly promoting this post on Twitter. Enjoy?
Spotted some pretty interesting files in this decade-old proje...
2022-02-23 14:01:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Behold, more scans of photocopies from my somewhat dwindling supply of early-2000s commissions. A few words:
Not that I was shooting for resemblances, but that sorta looks like Ed Norton if you squint your eyes a lot; I made no such effort on Brad Pitt, though. (That cartoonishly stylized bod on Norton kinda works, gotta say.)
Notable f...
2022-02-22 14:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
UPDATE: Here's a link to our previous installment, in case you'd forgotten what the heck was going on in the series.)
Behold, the fourth set of my layouts for issue #4 of 2004's Marvel mecha-team miniseries Livewires, titled here as "Unnamed Robot Comic" as I'm more than a tad dub...
2022-02-21 14:01:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Following up on an earlier post, here are more pages from a commissioned Dirty Pair comic story in proto-Empowered format, created back in 2003 during a time when I assumed that I wouldn't be drawing comics professionally any more, due to my disenchantment with struggling through conventionally penciled and inked comic pages.
In retrospect, I clearly still wanted to draw as well as write com...
2022-02-18 14:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
