Portfolio Showcase: Power Couple

This will be a quick one today. Due to an injury to my son (he's okay. It's a separated shoulder, but with a few weeks in a brace/harness, he'll be fine), I wasn't able to post the Free Comic Book Day info this week, but I'll be updating that info next week.

Anyway, another Friday, another event (this time it's a car show; Cars at Carlisle), so briefly, I did this piece as a gift for my cousin's wedding:



I like the way it came out, and she and her husband liked it too. It also works as a character design for my website, so that doesn't hurt either!

I'll be back next week with more art and information.

Best,
Rich

Portfolio Showcase: Orpheus Club Caricature

Ha! I'll bet you thought that my being in New York today would preclude me from keeping my Friday appointment here. Well, through the magic of a new feature on Blogger called "Blogger in Draft," I can create a new post, store it, and have it uploaded to my blog whenever I'd like.

So, here I am with a brand new Portfolio Showcase!

First I need to say that caricatures are difficult. I give all due respect to those who do it for a living, including my friends Stephen Silver, Ted Tucker, and Keelan Parham. I don't know him, but Tom Richmond, of Mad Magazine fame, is also a master. These guys REALLY know what they're doing. I'm a novice. that being said, I was hired a few years ago by Philadelphia's Orpheus Club, a prestigious and historical singing organization, to create a caricature of one of their members, as a tribute. This piece went through several revisions to get it right. the client wanted something along the lines of an Al Hirschfeld (speaking of MASTERS)design. I did my best, and I think I was able to capture the style a bit, as well as the essence of the subject, a man named Syd. I'll let others be the judge, but here is the illustration:



This isn't the actual final version, but I like this one just a little better than what was displayed. by the way, I'm told the image was displayed on a huge banner flanked by two enormous Maxfield Parrish pieces! A friend of mine has pictures, which I still haven't seen, but if he ever gets them to me, I'll be sure to post them. Parrish is a favorite of mine, so that was a real honor!

I'll be back next week with more. Have a nice weekend!

Best,
Rich

More Roboy Preview Pages!

As promised, here are some lettered pages from the 2008 Free Comic Book Day story:





I don't want to spoil the ending, so I'm keeping the last two pages to myself for now. Also, I know the colors look a little garish here, but the print colors will look more like what I posted on Monday. I'll have a printout of the full story at the New York Comic-Con this Friday through Sunday, so please be sure to stop by Kids Love Comics booth #2242 this weekend for a peek! I'll spill some more details about FCBD, where I'm appearing, and some other tidbits next week.

See you in New York!

Best,
Rich

New York Comic-Con April 18-20

As promised, just a quick announcement to let you all (both...?) know that I'll be exhibiting as part of Kids Love Comics at the New York Comic-Con this weekend. The booth number is #2242. For further details, check out the KLC Blog.

And since this is a visual arena, here's a quick tease for our upcoming Roboy Red story for Free Comic Book Day:





If I can, I'll post more from the story tomorrow, or Wednesday. After that, it's off to New York! I hope to see you there!

Best,
Rich

Portfolio Showcase: Baseball Nostalgia - Gehrig and Mantle

My apologies for not posting the comic book work I promised last week. I'm waiting for some files from someone, and that's delayed my ability to post the work. However, I'll definitely be posting some new work, in advance of the New York Comic-Con next week. More on that on Monday.

For today's Portfolio Showcase, I wanted to highlight some work I did a few years ago that's close to my heart. I'm a big baseball fan, and my roots are deep. I'm a third generation Yankees fan (no apologies, folks, I'm from New York), and back in 2002, I was looking to submit some work to a Yankees-related trade magazine. I did a number of samples, both to get myself back into the illustration game after ten years of doing comics exclusively, and with the greater goal of getting work.

The first piece is a favorite because Lou Gehrig is a personal hero of mine, and has been since I read a biography of him as a young boy. By all accounts, he was a good person, and having to battle a tragic disease which sapped him of his legendary vitality, strength, and athleticism makes his story all the more compelling. His disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis was so devastating that it ended his career prematurely, and his life even more prematurely. Never did a man go out in as dignified manner as Gehrig though, with his famous speech at Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939. Here's my tribute to Lou Gehrig:



Mickey Mantle was also a hero to many, including my Dad, who has a roomful of memorabilia devoted to The Mick. When trying to decide who my second subject for an illustration would be, there really was no doubt. I'd have to do one of Mickey, both for his iconic swing, as it makes for such a dynamic study, as well as for the fact that I knew my Dad would love to have a copy of the piece for his office wall. This is the illustration:



If you like these, and want to see more similar work, you can go to my website, www.richfaber.com and click on the "Baseball Illustrations" button (or you can just click the previous link here).

Thanks for taking the time to look, and I hope you have a nice weekend. I'll be back next week with more art and news.

Best,
Rich

Portfolio Showcase: Sketchy creatures

Another week already, wow! I'll have some new work to post next week, as I've completed the newest Roboy Red story, and I'm also working on another comic book right now. More on that in a future post, but while I'm on the subject, I realized I post a lot of comic book work, as well as finished illustrations, but I don't think I've posted any of my sketches. Sketching is an important part of the process for me, and while I certainly don't do it as much as I'd like, I do have a lot of sketch work that most people never see. To that end, below are a few "creatures" I've sketched. My favorite is the Frankenstein monster:



I also enjoy sketching my cat. He's usually sleeping, so he makes for an easy subject:





Below is the preliminary sketch I did of a polar bear, trying to get the feel right for the Golden Compass job.



Next week, look for some new comics stuff, and then I'll be back Friday with a new Portfolio Showcase. Have a great weekend!

Best,
Rich