Portfolio Showcase: Herding Cats

A few years back, I was approached by a potential client who wanted me to create an image based on a phrase, for a book on business terminology. While the job ultimately didn't happen, I was fairly happy with my interpretation. I'm never 100% satisfied with my work (and hope never to be, to allow for growth as an artist), but I think this worked reasonably well. The phrase was "herding cats," as in, it's tough to get everyone's thoughts going in the same direction on an assignment. Hence, it's as difficult as herding cats. Or something like that. Anyway, here it is:



I'm missing San Diego's Comic-Con this weekend, but I'm happy to be home with my family for a change. So, I'll be enjoying this weekend. Hope you all do as well!

Best,
Rich

Portfolio Showcase: Another Car (Going Waaaay Back)

Things have been pretty crazy here, so I need to keep this brief. This piece is yet another car, a BMW M1. I was reminded of it because while this car looks pretty modern, it was actually a 1979 production model, and BMW is doing an updated version of it. I read that in a car magazine, and the new car is pretty cool. Anyway, that's not why this goes way back. The reason is that the photo I referenced is one I took at a car show around 1982 or so. I'll let you all in on a little secret: the following illustration, while updated in 2002, was actually drawn while I was in high school, nearly 15 or so years before that! I think I originally drew it while a senior, which would put it circa 1985-86! When I was redoing my illustration portfolio in '02, I decided that the drawing was still strong enough, and with a few small tweaks, professional enough to use. I still like it anyway, so here it is:



The original piece is around 3 feet long, and was a real bear to scan! I hope you like it.

Have a nice weekend!

Best,
Rich

Portfolio Showcase: Baseball in Pastels

This one is a pretty old one. When I was attending the School Of Visual Arts back in the early '90s, one of my assignments was to create a collage from pictures found in magazine ads, then recreate the entire collage in pastel. This is from my foundation year, which was 1990, and as you can see, I leaned toward photorealism, even then. This particular piece is a detail from a larger work. The original pastel is about 24" x 36," with this detail being around about 12" square. The ball itself is around 8" wide, so it's fairly large.



I don't think I've worked in pastel since then, but I have a lot of pieces I did in my illustration classes, and I really enjoyed the medium. I might have to try my hand at it again someday, although the mess from the pastel dust always drove me crazy...! Oh well.

I hope you have a nice weekend. I'll be back next week with more art, and hopefully, my HeroesCon report.

Best,
Rich

The Art of Sequential - Following Up

Last month I posted about this juried exhibition in which I was invited to participate. As you'll see from the previous post, I entered the sequence of pages I drew for NASCAR Heroes. The exhibition was co-curated by my friends Rich Harrington and Jamar Nicholas, and the juror was another good friend of mine, Mike Manley. Mike wrote up his observations about the afternoon here, so I'm going to just give the highlights of my time there.

Despite the fact that this show was judged by a buddy, and curated by two other friends, I really didn't expect to win anything. Mike is a discerning art critic, and is not easily impressed. After 15 years of friendship with him, I know this intimately. That being said, he is one of the first people I trust with critique about my own work. He's a phenomenal artist, and I completely respect his opinions.

Which is why I'm so humbled by the fact that he selected my work for an Honorable Mention! That award really means a lot to me, particularly as I know Mike's standards. In reality, the award should also be credited to my partner-in-art, John Gallagher. John provided the rough layouts, and while I did the drawings, he did a lot of the really hard work, making sure the story was being told in an interesting way.

Jamar and Rich really made the event fun, and I want to publicly thank both for their invitation to participate. I can't wait for the next show!

Ok, I also have pictures to share from the day, so here they are:


Jamar, Rich, and Mike announce the awards.


Rich, Mike and Jamar looking smooth!


The guys ham it up, after they've handed me the certificate.


The award, and my artwork.



Jamar and me posing with the pages.

It was a fun time, and I hope I'll have the honor of participating in the next show!

Check back soon for my overdue report about Heroes Con.

Best,
Rich

Portfolio Showcase: Animation Creation

I was trying to think of something a little different to show. I've played around a bit with some very basic animations in Photoshop and Image Ready in the past, but I don't think I've ever posted them, so here's one I thought would be fun to show.

This is the first one I ever did, with the help of my good friend Howard Porter. Howard walked me through the step-by-step of creating an animated gif, which I then used to do, well, a step-by-step... of how to draw Roboy Red. I posted the original tutorial a while back. Here's the result of this experiment(click the link below the screenshot to see the animation):



http://www.richfaber.com/Howyagonna_Roboy_animation.gif

Obviously, I'm no pro at this, but it is something I plan to do more of, and as I do them, I'll post them here.

I hope you all (both...?) have a very happy and healthy Independence Day.

Best,
Rich

Independence Day

Ok, I know you've all been just clamoring to know where I've been the past two weeks, right? Um... hello...? Is anyone still there..?

Just kidding. Sometimes I wonder if anyone beyond a few people actually read this thing. I think my Mom does. Maybe my Dad too. Oh well. I guess I'm just feeling a little dependent today, which is ironic, since it's Independence Day!

Anyway, my family and I just returned from a two week vacation tour of the south, seeing friends in Raleigh, North Carolina, moving on to HeroesCon in Charlotte, then onto Baton Rouge, LA and Hammond, LA to see some of my wife's wonderful family, a couple of side trips to New Orleans, where appropriately enough, my son threw up (not for the usual reasons people barf in NOLA), and then to a town near Nashville, TN, where we stayed with our friends, Scott and Donna Sava, he of the terrific Dreamland Chronicles. From there, it was home, through western Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and finally back to Pennsylvania. Whew! That's 3000 miles of driving, and I'm still exhausted, even after two days of being home.

So, all that to say that I'll be posting more frequently soon, including the follow up to the Philadelphia Sketch Club event, as well as a report on HeroesCon with pictures. I hope to get to that this weekend, but please forgive me if I catch up on sleep instead. My intentions are good. One thing that will be up in the next few minutes in a new Portfolio Showcase. I had extremely limited internet access while away, so I wasn't able to post my regular Friday offering. I should be back to doing that each week now, and for the foreseeable future.

For now, I'll leave you with this flag image I created for the background of the cover of NASCAR Heroes #4, out in stores now:



The image was created completely digitally, using the pen tool in Photoshop.

Hope you have a great holiday weekend!

Best,
Rich

The 'Ringo!

I'll be in Charlotte, North Carolina for HeroesCon this weekend, where I'm going to have the opportunity to participate in something unique and wonderful. Here's the press release, with all the details:

Mike Wieringo Scholarship “The ‘Ringo” Announced

Wieringo’s Friends and Family to Host Special Fundraising Booth at Heroes Con


CHARLOTTE, NC (June 16, 2008) When Mike Wieringo abruptly passed away last August, the comics industry lost more than a great artist and creator – it lost a friend. Now, Mike’s family has teamed with the Savannah College of Art and Design to create The Mike Wieringo Scholarship or “The ‘Ringo” to help keep his spirit of generosity alive.

Created by Mike’s brother Matt and his sister-in-law Suzanne, the ‘Ringo is designed to help provide similar help to artists at the Savannah College of Art and Design or SCAD. Domestic and international students with have a minimum 3.0 grade point average who demonstrate financial need and display a serious interest in pursuing comics as a career are eligible. The scholarship will take effect in the artist’s second year of classes, and is renewable for up to two additional years, provided the student continues to meet the criteria.

The recipient will be chosen from three finalists determined by the college in a portfolio review by Matt and Suzanne Wieringo, along with a rotating group. The ultimate goal for the ‘Ringo is to raise enough funds so that it can cover a full year’s expenses at SCAD, approximately $30,000.

Toward this end, a table staffed by Mike’s family and friends will be set up in his traditional spot in Artists Alley at Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC. Heroes was a big part of Mike’s life and career, and was the industry event he most looked forward to every year.

The table will raise funds through donations and the sale of remaining copies of Mike’s sketchbooks, copies of comics featuring Mike’s work, selected pieces of Mike’s original artwork, sketches by Mike’s friends in the industry who will be appearing at the booth, and items donated by other comic professionals. Pros appearing include Jeff Parker, Rich Faber, Craig Rousseau, Todd Dezago, Mark Waid, Cully Hamner, Richard Case and more to be announced.

“SCAD is one of the most impressive programs in the world to focus on the medium of comics,” says Jeff Parker, creator of The Interman and Agents of Atlas, who worked with Mike at Artamus Studios. “I’m pretty sure Mike would have loved to have attended such a place in his student days. It would make an excellent legacy for him if we can grow the Ringo scholarship into a launch pad for the future greats of comics.”

Despite his success on such books as The Flash, Fantastic Four and his own creator-owned Tellos, Mike Wieringo never forgot what it was like to be a struggling creator. For many up-and-comers, Mike served as a mentor and friendly voice, whether it was providing free covers, advice, or just the encouragement to keep going.

With your help, the Mike Wieringo Scholarship can continue to grow and help a new generation of creators get the training and connections they need to start their careers. Mike’s talent, enthusiasm and generosity inspired many in the comics industry to be their best as both creators and as human beings. With your help, Mike will continue to be an inspiration for creators in decades to come.

I'm very pleased and honored to be included in this incredible tribute to the life of my friend Mike. For more on how this came to be, please check out my friend (and Mike's brother) Matt Wieringo's blog here. This one really means a lot to Matt, obviously, so go over there, leave a comment, and show your support! Thanks!

I hope I'll see you in Charlotte!

Best,
Rich

PS: For those wondering about the Philadelphia Sketch Club event, I'll post some pictures and news soon!

Juried Exhibition Alert!

In my previous posts, I've neglected to mention that my sequential work for the NASCAR Heroes comic book has been accepted in the Philadelphia Sketch Club's Annual Juried Exhibition of Sequential Art, "The Art of Sequential." This is the second PSC exhibition in which my work has been accepted, and the last time I won in my category! I'm not sure lightning will strike twice, but it'll be fun to find out. The reception is this Sunday, June 15 (yes, it's Father's Day). If you're in the Philadelphia area this weekend, please stop by. You can find directions to the Sketch Club on their website, http://www.sketchclub.org.

Oh, and here's one of the pages that made the show:



I hope to see you tomorrow at the Sketch Club!

Best,
Rich

Portfolio Showcase: Feeling Super

Ok, I'm back onto the Portfolio Showcase kick, so here's something I did a few years ago for a client. They were looking for something "Super" looking, if you catch my drift. I'm sure you will, once you see the images. Anyway, I had to put the character in a few poses, and here's the initial shot:



I've included the final inks here, and with the flying pose below, I also wanted to show a variation on the outstretched arm. The client asked for the arm to be raised a bit from the pencils, so that's what I did. Here's the final inked version:



... and here's the original pencil rough:



Finally, I was asked to create some variations on the facial expression from the original pose. Here's what I came up with:



I really enjoyed this job. I always love being able to work on character designs, and am actively seeking to do more at all times. If anything new comes up, I'll be sure to post it as well.

That's it for now. Have a great weekend, and happy Father's Day to all those Dads out there!

Best,
Rich

In Progress: 1959 Ford Thunderbird Sketch

Since my blog seems to have become "Portfolio Showcase" all the time, I thought I'd do something just a bit different this week: an in-progress sketch. I rarely show my work before it's finished, but I thought this might give a little insight into how I begin my process. The sketch below is how I begin most of my car illustrations. I generally begin with a rough of the car, and refine the sketch to something resembling the actual car. This is an example:



Believe it or not, this will eventually become a fully rendered photo realistic car illustration. It might take a while to do this one, as I have other work on the table, and this is a personal piece. However, I will share, and I'll post more progress as I go.

Have a great weekend!

Best,
Rich

Portfolio Showcase: Bugged!

Back in 1997, I was hired to ink my very first Marvel Comic, called "Bug." for those who might not be familiar, Bug was a Micronauts character, and while Marvel no longer had the Micronauts license at the time, they still retained the rights to any characters that weren't toys, and were specifically created for the Micronauts series, published some years before by Marvel. It's a long convoluted story, of which I'm sure you can do a search on to learn the history, but the bottom line is that Marvel got to keep the rights to Bug. Lucky for me! Not only was it a fun comic to work on (one which very few people even know exist. I think I might have more comped copies of it than were actually sold!), but it also marked my first work with my now longtime buddy, Todd Dezago. It was a heck of a lot of fun to work on, and I really enjoyed inking my other pal, Derec Aucoin,who is now called Derec Donovan (another long story). The drawing below is NOT from that issue, but rather, a fan-requested sketch. If anyone is interested, I'll actually have copies of Bug, as well as some original art from the book, for sale at Heroes Con next month in Charlotte.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the drawing:



Speaking of conventions, while I won't be set up at a table, I will be tooling around at Wizard World Philadelphia this weekend, so if you see me walking the floor, feel free to stop me to say hello. Unless I'm in the men's room. Then you should wait. ;-)

On that charming note, have a nice weekend!

Best,
Rich

Portfolio Showcase: Ice Sculpture Design

Just a quick one today. I missed Friday, due to my wife's birthday, but I wanted to be sure to post something for the week.

Three years ago, my grandfather turned 90, and my family had a big surprise party for him. My mom wanted to do an ice sculpture for the party, based on an old photo of him, so she asked me to come up with a design. Here's the sketch we sent the sculptor:



This sketch is based on a photo of my grandfather in front of a 1933 Ford, and because of the nature of ice sculpture, I had to pare down the details, in order to make it easy on the sculptor to work out the construction. This sketch is also actually the basis for another illustration I plan to do sometime. If I can find the pictures of the ice sculpture itself, I'll try to post that too. Enjoy the rest of this long (at least here in the U.S.) weekend!

Best,
Rich

Portfolio Showcase: MinoriTeam

Back in late 2006, my pal Mike Manley was working on a cartoon called MinoriTeam, for Cartoon Network's Adult Swim lineup. It was a politically incorrect take on superheroes, and the character designs were based on Jack Kirby's Marvel Comics style. As production progressed, it became clear that there was more work than Mike was able to do, and he recommended me to work with him on the show. It was my first time working on a cartoon, and it was a terrific experience. Although the content was definitely not for the kiddies, it was work that I'm still proud of. My job was to take the pencil drawings of characters and other assets, and not only ink them, but redo them a bit to get them "on model." This meant that any design that didn't look like Kirby had drawn it, had to be redrawn to capture that Kirby flavor. I can't tell you how much fun this was, and it was an incredible time of training for me. My output had to be fast and prolific. I did about 80 illustrations each week! The drawings were then scanned and sent in to be animated using Adobe's Flash program. I've since done a bunch of other jobs in this way, although in those cases, I generated the drawings from start to finish, but none has been seen by so many people. Anyway, enough talking. Here are some of the illustrations I worked on (I should be clear, and tell you that I didn't generate the original drawings, but I did redraw a lot of them. These are some favorites):


This character was the toady of the main bad guy (sorry, I don't remember a lot of the characters' names)


A nice group shot of the bad guys.



The above two are obviously a Frankenstein's monster/Hulk type. He was also a bad guy. Love the Hawaiian shirt! I love the look of this character, and truthfully, I didn't do much to the pencils, as I thought they were really well done as they were.


A stuffed killer panda. I don't know either...




The above three images should give you a basic idea of my process. On the left are the pencils I was provided, and on the right are my inks/finishes. A lot of the changes are somewhat subtle, but I think you'll get the overall idea.

Well, that's it for now. Have a nice weekend! I'll be back next week with more neat stuff, and maybe even an announcement!

Best,
Rich

Portfolio Showcase: Union Station Illustration

Several years ago a friend of mine named Ande Parks, then fairly well-known as a comic book inker, began a second career as a writer. At the same time, I, being fairly well-known as a comic book inker, began a second career as an Illustrator. Ande was the first friend I'd made in comics, outside of my buddies from the School of Visual Arts who had become comics pros, and he and I talked frequently. When Ande started writing his outline for a new graphic novel, he shared it with me, and I had the pleasure of realizing that this talented guy was going to be an incredible writer. While he was busy writing, I was busy drawing, and had begun to develop what is now my photo-realistic pencil style. The graphic novel outline eventually became the book called "Union Station," which is about a massacre that occurred at Kansas City's Union Station during a prisoner transfer of Pretty Boy Floyd in 1933. The tale is historical fiction but gives some insight into the beginnings of the F.B.I. as well as a terrific story of love, betrayal, and gangsters and lawmen. When Ande had gotten a few pages drawn by a penciler he knew, he was going to submit the script and pages to some publishers to shop it around. He and I discussed the idea of me doing a pencil illustration as a cover piece for the proposal, and here is what I came up with:



Although it was intended to possibly be used as the frontispiece to the graphic novel, the idea was nixed by the book designer, so it never saw print. However, it's still one of my favorite pieces, and I plan to do at least one more companion piece to it someday. Hopefully, that'll be something for a future Portfolio Showcase.

As for "Union Station," it's a wonderful graphic novel, with beautiful art by Eduardo Barreto. If you haven't read it, do yourself a favor and pick it up. It's something I don't think you'll regret.

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

Best,
Rich

Portfolio Showcase: Rex Steele

Since it's the eve of Free Comic Book Day (don't forget to go to your participating local comic book shop!), I decided to showcase a comics pinup I did a few years ago. My friend Bill Presing works as an artist for Pixar Animation. He's a really talented guy, and has this incredibly cool adventurer character called Rex Steele, Nazi Smasher. As the name implies, Rex doesn't tolerate fascist, racist hooligans, and his comic adventures prove this. a few years ago, Bill asked me to contribute a pinup to his Rex graphic novel, and here's the piece I came up with:



As is typical, I couldn't resist throwing a car into the mix! I drew and inked this traditionally on 11" x 17" board, scanned the art, and added the gray tones in Photoshop. I hope you like it, and I hope I'll see you in Delaware for Free Comic Book Day!

Best,
Rich

Free Comic Book Day - May 3, 2008

This Saturday, as I have for the past few years, I'll be appearing at Captain Blue Hen Comics, in Newark, Delaware for Free Comic Book Day. I'll be there along with my friends, Mike Manley, Jamar Nicholas, Scott Neely, and of course, John Gallagher. There will be some other artists there as well. You can check the Captain Blue Hen website for more specific details. We'll also be doing workshops, and a bunch of community outreach stuff. Joe Murray, Blue Hen's owner, always has a lot of great things set up for families. John and I will have two FCBD books to sign... Our Kids Love Comics anthology book, "Comic Book Diner," featuring a brand new Roboy Red story, Buzzboy, and a number of other all-ages stories from our KLC friends, as well as the FCBD issue of NASCAR Heroes (the covers to both books are below). It should be a great day, and I hope we'll see you there! If you're not able to make it to Newark, I hope you'll look for these two books at your local comic book shop:





Best,
Rich

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