Titans, GO!... to Baltimore Comic-Con!

I haven't had much time to post here lately, due to both work, and the upcoming (as in within a week or so!) birth of our first kid.

Also as a result of that happy event, I'll be missing my FAVORITE comic convention, the Baltimore Comic-Con, for the first time since I began exhibiting there a few years ago. Marc Nathan, the con organizer, runs the best show I've attended. His cons are well-organized, family friendly, and just plain fun! Marc's one of the best in the business!

In my absence, my good buddy and frequent collaborator, John Gallagher, will be pushing our new Buzzboy miniseries "Buzzboy: Sidekicks Rule!", as well as the previous trade paperbacks. He'll also have all of our cool Roboy Red merchandise, including the Roboy Red Sketchbook, "Greetings From RoboyLand" and Roboy T-shirts. (was that enough hyperlinks for one paragraph...? ) =)

If you have a free weekend on September 9th and 10th, please consider attending the Baltimore Comic-Con. If you stop by the Sky-Dog Comics booth, John will be sure to fill you in on all the latest Buzzboy and Roboy news, and I'm sure he'll also have some cool free goodies to hand out too!

Last year, John and I produced these cool Teen Titans bookmarks to help promote both the Comic-Con, as well as Graphic Novels in libraries:

Above are John's pencils.

Here are my inks.

And my colors.

And finally, here are the actual bookmarks, front and back. Click on any image for a larger size.

Thanks for looking, and I hope you'll go enjoy the Baltimore Comic-Con! I'll try to post again soon!

Best,

Rich

Working With Women

Since my last post, it's been nonstop action here in my studio. Work has kept me very busy since I returned from Comic-Con, not to mention some cleanup from some storm damage while I was away. So, getting back into the swing, below is the illustration gig I finished up before leaving for San Diego.

One of the cool things about working on comics work with my buddy John Gallagher is that a lot of times we get to work on non-comics stuff together too, as well as on Buzzboy and Roboy Red. The great part about that is that it pays better... ok, actually, it just PAYS, period! Although it makes staying on our comics deadlines difficult sometimes, in reality, this is the type of work that allows us to do our comics in the first place. I've found that this is typical in the world of self-publishing.

As for the work, in this case, John brought us this client. The assignment was to create a series of female characters who were considering having children. So, John had to design a few different character types. He did the designs and rough layouts, and I did the finishing art and the colors. The coloring was a particular challenge, as I had to match a style of art provided by the client, and convert the black line art to color, where I would normally just fill in the blocks of color within the black line art. I really like the look of this though, and may explore doing more work like this on my own.

So here they are (click the pictures for a larger view):

That last one is my favorite. I had to do the most work on the coloring for this one, but I was very happy with the results. I was pleased with the combination of colors. This was the one that convinced me that I should do more work in this vein.

That's it for this week. Hopefully, I can continue to post more frequently, but if not, you'll know where to find me... eventually!

Best,

Rich

San Diego Comic-Con

As you might have guessed from the subject line, I'll be exhibiting at Comic-Con International, from Wednesday July 19th, until Sunday July 23rd. I'll be set up with my Roboy Red partner, John Gallagher, at the Amelia Rules/Buzzboy/WJHC booth, #1637. John and I will be promoting his Buzzboy books, which I ink, and have previously written about here and here. We'll have both of the Buzzboy trade paperbacks, as well as issue #1 of Buzzboy: Sidekicks Rule! in its Comic-con premiere!

As I mentioned above, Gallagher and I also work on another creator owned character called Roboy Red. We'll have plenty of Roboy Red merchandise as well, particularly the development Sketchbook, "Welcome To Roboyland!" Here's a preview of some of the art:

We'll also have this cool new Roboy T-shirt:

In addition to all of the above cool stuff, I'll have my original comic book art, including new Buzzboy pages! If you're planning to attend Comic-Con, I hope you'll stop by and say hi!

Best,

Rich

Educational art

To round out the brain theme I've had going for a couple of weeks, here's another medical illustration:

This depiction has something to do with the way the neurons in the brain work, but I'm not exactly sure of the science behind it. The client was happy with the drawings, so I guess I did a decent job. ;-)

And since the topic is educational art, I thought I'd post this Roboy Red drawing tutorial I did last year for last year's Buzzboy/Roboy Red Free comic book Day book (click the picture for a link to something you can actually read!):

Below is the link to an animation I did to demo the tutorial online (click on Roboy Red). Roboy Red is an all ages character I created with my pal John Gallagher, and both of these will eventually be on our Roboy Red website (www.roboyred.com)

Best,

Rich

Same client, different brain...

So, I got a call today from the client that had me do the "Brainguy," in yesterday's post, and asked if I could do a realistic brain also. Of course, she knew I do photorealistic work too. This isn't quite photoreal, but it is my first medical illustration ever.

I did the pencil work on a piece of tan mat board, figuring it would give me a nice base tone to work from. The colors and lettering were added digitally. This was another quick turnaround, and I did it in about 4 hours, start to finish.

Best,

Rich

Brainguy

I did this goofy little illustration for a corporate/pharmaceutical client yesterday. I was directed to make it quick and quirky, so it was a fun little job. It has something to do with how the brain receives auditory signals from the ears.

More art soon!

Best,

Rich

Weird Verification!

For the weekend, I'll leave with this strange little bit... In the previous post, I responded to some nice folks who were kind enough to visit and comment on my little endeavor here. When I signed in to post my response comment, here's the form I found. Keeping in mind my last name, check out the word verification "word":


Random or conspiracy...? Hmmm...

Have a nice weekend!

Best,
Rich

Buzzboy: Sidekicks Rule!

The latest comics project I've been working on is the brand new Buzzboy limited series, called "Sidekicks Rule!" Since I showed the cover image for Buzzboy: Sidekicks Rule! #1 last week, I figured some might be interested in seeing a preview of the interiors. "Buzzboy:Sidekicks Rule!" is a great way to introduce young readers to the magic of comics, and features all new stories, comic tutorials for kids of all ages & more! John Gallagher wrote and drew it, and I did the finishing inks (and colored some pages). Below is my favorite page:

Buzzboy: Sidekicks Rule! #1 by John Gallagher, Rich Faber, & Friends. Meet Buzzboy, the "World's Coolest Super Sidekick!" When the Earth's greatest adult heroes disappear, Buzzboy and his other sidekick buddies must keep the world safe from alien invaders, time-traveling ducks. and evil robot wiener-dogs!? "Buzzboy: Sidekicks Rule!" features all-new full-color fun, comic tutorials for kids of all ages, and more! Find out why the critics call Buzzboy "...One of the best independent superhero books!" Plus: A Fun, new Roboy Red adventure-- thermonuclear powered, boy robot fun! (I'll post some Roboy Red stuff soon!)

To see a free online preview of issue #1, click here:

http://www.skydogcomics.com/skr.html

Hey kids! Click on the picture below, for full details about a cool new contest!

For more information about Buzzboy: Sidekicks rule, as well as the "Create your own hero" contest, please visit Sky Dog Comics: http://www.skydogcomics.com

Best,

Rich

Wizard Weekend

If you're near Philadelphia this weekend, I'll be appearing at the Wizard World Philadelphia comic book convention. I'll be set up from Friday through Sunday, with my pal John Gallagher, at the Sky-Dog Press table in Artists Alley. For more info on the show, click here:

http://www.wizarduniverse.com/conventions/philadelphia.cfm

If you're in the area, please feel free to stop by our table. If you do, John and I will be happy to tell you all about Roboy Red, Buzzboy, and all the other cool things we work on. As an added bonus, you can also get this FREE(!) Buzzboy poster, drawn by our friend, Mike Wieringo, inked by me, and colored by Gallagher:

If you think this image looks cool here, you'll be blown away by how nice it is at 11" x 17"!

I hope to see you sometime this weekend!

Best,

Rich

Torre, Torre, Torre!

I did this drawing of Joe Torre last year, as a demo for my Drawing In Ink class at Delaware College of Art & Design, but was recently inspired to do a color version of it in Photoshop. Here's the inked version:

Below are some of the color studies I did. I still haven't figured out which one I like best, but I felt it was a good exercise in color harmony.

I'll probably be posting more stuff like this in the future, as time allows.

Best,

Rich

Webwork

I have a few clients who ask me to do illustrations for their Flash websites. Above is the background I drew for a job I recently did for a Mexican restaurant website. The project required me to take a character that was already designed, and place it in different scenarios. Here are a few examples:

This was the first image I did for the client. It had been a while since I'd drawn a horse, but I was happy with the way this one turned out. This shot was placed into the background (above), and the character was animated using Flash, to appear as if he is moving from the background to the foreground.

The above is for the "About" page. the restaurant is called Agave Grille, so the guy is holding an agave plant.

I was asked to do a bunch of page markers featuring the sombrero head character. This one was for the "Events" page.

This one was for the "Newsletter" page.

This is a coyote that can be seen darting throughout the above background on the website. To see the rest of the illustrations, in color, and in context, click below:

http://www.agavegrille.com/homepage.asp

All the illustrations on that website, with the exception of the sombrero guy sitting with the guitar and the logo, were drawn by me. Although I normally color my own work, the coloring was done by my client, who did an excellent job!

More soon!

Best,

Rich

Taking Care of Business

Ok, so the daily thing didn't stay on course, but, really, I didn't expect it anyway. Work always has to take precedence, and fortunately, I have work. And to that end, here are a few select shots from a recent job I did for a corporate client:

The premise is that a customer comes to a service rep with a problem, and the rep works with her to solve the problem. There were a lot more illustrations, but these are the highlights. Why the phone and envelope? Well, I liked the way they turned out, and they're only being used as icons roughly about half an inch in size, so I thought I'd post 'em at a decent size, just so someone will see the work! =)

I'll probably post again in a week or so. Busy times!

Best,

Rich

Still Drawing Strength

I'm not sure if anyone is actually out there reading this, but I thought I'd try to keep up with the daily posting, at least for now.

Last September, in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, John Gallagher and I produced a benefit sketchbook for the Baltimore Comic-Con, called Drawing Strength. It featured work from nearly all the guests of the show, as well as a few who weren't in attendance. All proceeds from the book go to Habitat For Humanity's "Operation Home Delivery," and I believe we still have a few copies left, if you'd like to contribute to this great cause. I know the rebuliding effort is ongoing, and with this year's hurricane season fast approaching, I'm sure the folks down there could still use lots of help. To find out more about the book, and how you can order a copy, check out this link: http://skydogcomics.com/drawingstrength/

Here's my Roboy Red pinup from Drawing Strength:

Sweet Monkeys!

This is an expression my good friend, Mike Penick (http://www.penickart.com/) uses when he's excited about something. I don't know why, but it always makes me laugh. It's also apropos of the following image, which I sketched with a ballpoint pen, on the back of an ad flyer a few months ago.



Okay, so it's a gorilla, not a monkey, but at least it's still a primate!

Best,
Rich
http://www.thinkinkstudios.com/

Free Comic Book Day 2006

There's a terrific event called Free Comic Book Day, where fans can go into their local comic book shops and procure a free comic from a batch of titles specifically printed for the event. For the past two years, my publishing partner John Gallagher and I have put out a comic book featuring John's Buzzboy, and our character, Roboy Red. This year John and I, along with some other friends/colleagues spent the day at our friend Joe Murray's Captain Blue Hen Comics, a fantastic store located in Newark Delaware. There was an incredible stream of people, mostly families. It was great to see so many kids enjoying their first comic books! All told, over 1000 people came through the doors of the store, a new record for Blue Hen!

Here are some pictures from the event:

This is Joe Murray, the owner of Captain Blue Hen, with his beautiful daughter, Erin. It would seem she is the youngest reader of our Buzzboy: Sidekicks Rule comic! Joe and his wife Danielle run one of the best comic book stores I've ever visited. It's family friendly, always well lit, and the staff could not be nicer. If you're anywhere near Newark, Delaware, drop by and say hi to Joe and the gang!

Here's John Gallagher, doing one of the many, many sketches that were created throughout the day. Between John and me, we probably drew around 20-30 sketches of Buzzboy and 'Becca, as well as a few Roboy Red sketches. 'Becca was clearly the most popular request with us! Joe told us that the Buzzboy book was the most requested of the FCBD offerings in the store.

This is my pal, Mike Manley, editor of DRAW! Magazine, and Cartoonist Extraordinaire, pleasing yet another happy young fan. Mike did so many drawings on Saturday. Nobody walked away disappointed. Here's a link to Mike's report on the day:

http://drawman.blogspot.com/2006/05/free-comic-book-day-happy-free-friends.html

This is my close friend, Jamar Nicholas. He's looking a bit shell-shocked here, no doubt from all the hours of drawing he put in. Jamar is one of the most generous and talented artists I know.

He goes all out for this sort of event, as you can see here. I can't even imagine how he packs so much into these FREE sketches he does...

... and my lousy photo doesn't do the gorgeous colors he did justice, but trust me, it's a terrific job!

Above are a few examples of some of the sketches I did. As I said, it was a lot of fun!

I'll leave you with this final shot of Joe looking tired, and John looking, well, I'll let you draw your own conclusions...