47th Post!

Commissions!

here's a couple recently finished commissions. both were watercolor on 9"x12" watercolor paper.

first up Scarlett and Baroness from G.I. Joe. (I've been a gi joe fan since I was a kid, so I always enjoy drawing these girls.)

and a couple progress pics:
starting with the digital sketch

then pencils:

then inks (brown and black faber castell pens)

And another commission...this time Gwen Stacy and Carnage. I've drawn Mary Jane and Venom before but never this combination so it's always great to draw new things:

and a few progress pics (same tools as for baroness/scarlett)

and the first digital sketch was Gwen and Venom. why? because apparently I wasn't paying enough attention. And that's why it's always important  to send progress pics while working on commissions. just to make sure you haven't drawn the wrong character by mistake ;)

here's the fixed up gwen/carnage sketch:

and next up, pencils and inks:

42nd Post!

Here's a commission I recently finished.

She's based off an anime character...whose name I can't remember right now :).
Art was done with acrylics and watercolor. 11x17 on comic art paper

Started with the digital sketch...

then printed that out and using my lightbox, traced it onto the 11x17 paper. (using col-erase pencils, of course)

and here's a few photos of the painting in progress...

and a close up of the finished piece (the pink in the background is a favorite color of mine, but it's too bright for the scanner to pick up).

32nd Post!

A couple recent commissioned pieces...

A James Bond themed piece this time. 11x17 Copic markers with watercolor background.

and this was a fantasy type Demon character. 12x16 acrylic on board.

20th Post!

Here's a Lady Blackhawk (from DC comics) commission.

11"x17" bristol paper, with copic markers and watercolors for the background.

Started with a few sketch ideas...(drawn in photoshop)

We decided to go with B (though it was a tough choice between B and C...which I still may draw someday). Why does she have an MP-40? just because it's a cool looking gun :) and will easily give it that WW2 era feel.

Next up is the tightened up digital pencils...(still in photoshop)

Then it's printed out and traced onto the 11x17 paper...

(and if you've been following my other posts, you know I love my  col-erase pencils.)

From here I decided to ink the skin tones (with a light brown Faber-Castell pen) and inked her uniform with a black Micron pen (01 and 08 thickness)

Then I break out the copics...

and then used watercolors for the loose feel of clouds and sky to help separate the background from the tight rendering on her. (scroll up top to see the finished piece :))

-Joe

16th Post!

Pirates that don't wear pants are the best :)

This was a Heroes Con 2011 commission that I drew at the show but took home to paint (and subsequently mailed out). Red and Blue Col-erase pencils on 11x15 watercolor paper.

and the watercolors...

13th Post!

Thought I'd post a few images from a recent commission. I just had a headshot of a photo to work with for reference, but it was a lot of fun. The final painting was 18"x24", I haven't painted anything that large in a long time.
Started out the usual way, did a digital sketch in photoshop (did a few different poses but this was the one we settled on):

Next up was the pencils. Since I knew going in we wanted to keep the color range in the pinks and purples, I did the pencils in purple col-erase pencil.

Then onto the painting. I had planned on taking some in progress photos and promptly forgot :(.
The when I had the painting finished, took a quick photo with my camera. I had also planned on taking a better picture...but realized that after I had mailed out the art. doh!

Final painting was acrylic paint on illustration board.

7th Post!

Since I'll be at HeroesCon next week, thought I'd start posting some of the commissions that were set up ahead of time.  (I'll still be doing sketches at the show...so if I remember to take pictures of them I'll post those next week.)

Here's DC's Huntress.

11"x14" Copic Markers with watercolor background.

5th Post!

For today's post I thought I'd show a couple steps from a Hawkgirl commission (based off the Justice League cartoon look).
(unfortunately I didn't take any progress shots of the actual painting, sorry!)

first up, digital sketch. drawn completely in photoshop.

next, I print out the sketch. Then I use a lightbox to trace the pencils off the printed piece. making adjustments here and there.

Then we just add some paint...acrylic in this case, and ta-da!

4th Post!

Here's a couple sketches I did at Free Comic Book Day last month in Jacksonville, Fl at Gotham City Limits.

DC's Huntress

 and Jinx from G.I. Joe (who I wasn't familiar with...and I was a pretty big G.I. Joe fan growing up.)
I was asked to put her in the classic coppertone ad with Snake Eyes' wolf.

both were done with Copic Markers

And since it's Wednesday, that means I post new art on The 2 Point Perspective Blog
Here's the pencils for the piece I posted there. (so go check it out!)

DC's Mary Marvel done with col-erase pencils on watercolor paper.

3rd Post!

I thought I'd put together a little walk through on how I created the Gotham Bad Girls girls commission I posted on the first day of the blog. (here)

I first did a few sketches with different ideas. These were all created digitally in photoshop.

After the first image was selected I went ahead and tightened up the sketch (still in photoshop).

The following step was added just so I could get a feel for each character and make sure things weren't too confusing. I usually only do this on multiple character pieces.

Then we get to the actual pencils. Drawn with my favorite pencils, col-erase pencils (red, blue and purple). Not as messy as graphite and I just like having some color on there for when I move to the color stage.

Now the coloring stage. This piece was colored with Copic Markers and some white colored pencil and a touch of white acrylic here and there for highlights.

Next shot shows where I was asked if it was possible to make Catwoman's goggles Red instead of Green. Which worked out rather well (even if I wasn't completely sure it would work :))

I was also asked if I could make her catsuit black instead of purple. Which ended up being an easy fix. Usually when working on a commission with a character that's had multiple looks I usually ask ahead of time if there's a preference for a certain costume. This time I forgot. doh! But it all worked out so no problems. whew!

And here's the final photo before I went ahead and scanned it. (see first blog post for that version)

anyway, hope you enjoy the look behind the scenes. and maybe one of these days I'll do a progress shot on a watercolor piece.

-Joe

First post!

I figured it was about time I started a blog that I actually update more than once a year. My regular website (www.joepekar.com) has some issues...mainly the gallery and blog on it are broken and I have no idea how to fix it :). And since I don't update my Deviant Art page that much, I wanted some place that I could upload all kinds of art, not just finished pieces, but sketches, concepts and other things like that.

So here, we go!

First up is a recent cover for Zenescope's Alice comic (#6)

Next up are two recent commissions.

Catwoman, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy are done with Copic Markers. The gal in purple was done with acrylic paint.