Captain America #48 Cover

(click image to enlarge)
Yes, it's that time again: when Marvel leaks out some previews of upcoming books, in this case for March 2009, featuring Captain America #48. Here's how Marvel describes the issue:

CAPTAIN AMERICA #48
Written by ED BRUBAKER
Pencils & Cover by STEVE EPTING
The New Captain America faces the crimes of his past as the Winter Soldier as the Sub-Mariner and the Black Widow struggle to stop a new foe from unleashing a deadly attack on the world! By the best-selling Eisner, Harvey and Eagle award-winning team of Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting.
32 PGS./Rated T+ ...$2.99

This cover presented a new challenge in that I haven't ever really tried to paint fire before (at least not this close up). All in all, I don't think it's quite as successful as another recent painting challenge I had with splashing water, but it's always fun to try something new. Anyway, the focus of the image is the Invaders, and that's always a good thing.

Sketchbook 013

(click image to enlarge)
More of the same. I broke out the old crowquill pen for the three smaller faces on the right side.

These pages are all starting to look the same to me, but you can never get enough practice drawing faces. On the other hand, the same thing applies to figures, so I think I'll try to do more of that on future pages.

Alchemy Space Lizard!

In a previous post I mentioned Alchemy - a free sketching program that is geared toward spontaneous visual experimentation, and since then I've spent the past several weeks slowly transforming an Alchemy sketch into a finished painting. I say slowly because as usual, I only work on stuff like this a little bit at a time - usually 10 or 15 minutes in the morning while I'm trying to wake up.

Here's the initial Alchemy sketch. It's not totally arbitrary in that you can get certain shapes to go in specific directions as you draw, but a lot of what happens is completely random. In this case it is supposed to represent some sort of armored soldier -


(click image to enlarge)
I used this as the starting point for the painting below and as you can see, quite a bit of what was in the initial sketch survived to the finished piece.


(click image to enlarge)
What's cool is that there are dynamics with the shapes and how they interact that I would have never come up with on my own and I think they add a lot of visual interest. On the other hand, none of it looks very practical and I would hate to have to attempt to draw that armor over and over and from different angles.

Also - Alchemy Space Lizard would be a kick-ass name for a band.

Sketchbook 012

(click image to enlarge)
More heads. A couple were from reference, the rest are made up.

Also, if you're interested, another Fallen Son sketch cover is on eBay here. Have a great weekend!

Sketchbook 011

(click image to enlarge)

Captain America #47 Cover

(click image to enlarge)
Marvel has released a preview of their February 2009 Solicitations, including Captain America #47. Here's how Marvel describes the issue:

CAPTAIN AMERICA #47
Written by ED BRUBAKER
Pencils & Cover by STEVE EPTING
The New Captain America in the hands of the enemy in China! His secret past as the Winter Soldier in danger of coming to light! And what are his old Invaders teammate the Sub-Mariner and the Black Widow doing while Bucky Barnes faces his darkest past? By the best-selling Eisner, Harvey and Eagle award-winning team of Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting.
32 PGS./Rated T+ ...$2.99

A pretty straightforward cover with a symmetrical composition, but I'm fairly happy with it. I remember back during my Crossgen days I sort of got stuck in a rut doing several covers in a row with this same type of composition featuring a central figure until Butch Guice snapped me out of it. I'm certain it won't happen again here though, because I've already done the cover to issue #48, even though I can't show it to you yet.

Alchemy

From the Alchemy website:

"Alchemy is an open drawing project aimed at exploring how we can sketch, draw, and create on computers in new ways. Alchemy isn’t software for creating finished artwork, but rather a sketching environment that focuses on the absolute initial stage of the creation process. Experimental in nature, Alchemy lets you brainstorm visually to explore an expanded range of ideas and possibilities in a serendipitous way."

You may have already heard of this program. I first discovered it a month or two ago but haven't had much time (or any time) to experiment with it. It's free to download and looks like it will be fun to explore. After opening it and figuring out the basic interface, I did these two quick sketches (with a little photoshop flourish here and there)-



(click images to enlarge)

Like I said, this was a month or two ago, and even though the nature of the program makes the sketching quick and spontaneous ( both of these took about five minutes each) these are the only two pieces I've done so far. Hopefully I'll get a chance to play around with the program some more soon. Download it here.