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

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

Portfolio Showcase: Logo-motive Train

Wow, a week already! Ok, so I'm on schedule, at least this week! Here's Friday's Portfolio Showcase:



This piece was a logo illustration I drew for a local client. It was used as a logo for a new housing development. I'm not sure what the connection was to trains, but I'm guessing the site was probably railroad-related in some way. Anyway, it's one I hadn't posted here before, so I thought it might be nice to show it. If you're wondering, the train was drawn in pen and ink, with a little brushwork here and there. Although I drew this around 5" x 7", it was used primarily on letterhead, about an inch or so high! That's small!

Speaking of logos, here's a little bonus for today: I had to create a logo for the t-shirt one of the characters is wearing in our new Roboy Red story. The little girl in the story is something of a drama queen, so I came up with this:



I'm thinking of having some t-shirts made with the logo, so if you're out there thinking, boy, I (or my wife, girlfriend, etc) might like to have this, please let me know in the comments. I'm trying to decide if it's feasible to do it. And just so you'll know what it might look like on a shirt (if you looked like a comic book character, that is!) here it is in context, on the girl's shirt:



Pencils by John Gallagher, inks and colors by me. I'll be posting some actual pages from the story soon.

Have a nice weekend!

Best,
Rich

Portfolio Showcase - Storyboards

So, it's been nearly a month again...

In an attempt to begin posting on a semi-regular basis, regardless of whether I have new work to show or not, I've decided that I'm going to use the time between illustration jobs to show some of my earlier work. I'd like to make this a regular feature, so for now, Fridays will be "Portfolio Showcase" day. Each week, I'll post a piece of work I've done in the past, in order to highlight some of the work you might not have seen before.

To that end, here are some storyboards I drew a few years ago:




These were for a pharmaceutical client, and are heavily edited to take out the product info, which I believe might have been proprietary.

In any event, the boards were drawn in support of a sales meeting for the pharma reps, in which they learned how to properly market and promote the product. The guy on the jet ski is the narrator, and as he shoots in and out of the frames, he's talking about the product. The idea was that this particular product would allow all sorts of outdoor activities that were previously difficult for people with the specific symptoms of the ailment that this product helps alleviate (how's that for vague...? ;-) )

I have some other new work I'll post sometime soon, but in the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this episode of "Portfolio Showcase!"

More to come, next week!

Best,
Rich

NASCAR Heroes - Free Comic Book Day Cover Art (UPDATED)

There seems to be an automotive theme here lately! In keeping with two of my interests, cars and comics, I've been fortunate enough to be able to combine the two in my career. Here's the latest example:



This will be the cover to the Free Comic Book Day edition of NASCAR Heroes (follow the link for info about this comic series). Design, roughs, and layout by John Gallagher, finishing inks and colors on the figures by me, and the cars were rendered by Smiley Guys Studio.

I'll post some other new art soon, maybe even some non-automotive stuff! ;-) Also, more info soon on this year's Free Comic Book Day event. Watch this space! Thanks for keeping up with my work!

***UPDATE!***
I just received my copies of NASCAR Heroes #3, the issue that features the pencil art of the cars in the previous post. It's now out in stores, and you can get your copy by going to your local comic shop! If you're not sure where that is, click here: Comic Shop Locator. Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention about those illustrations: I drew them in pencil (an "F" pencil, if you're curious), and colorized them digitally in Adobe Photoshop. Here's an example of what the original pencils look like:



And just for fun, here's a preview of the page as it appears in the comic:



I hope you'll pick up both comics. I can tell you, from my copies of issue #3, the quality of the printing is excellent, and I'm really proud of the work. Thanks!

Best,
Rich

Cars

Well, my work schedule has been non-stop in the past month, and appropriately enough, befitting my pace lately, I've been drawing cars. Fast cars.

A colleague of mine recently hired me to draw a 1969 Chevy Chevelle for him. He had an assignment to do a movie poster, to be featured within an actual movie, and it required a car drawing. Now, my friend is an incredible artist, but really hates drawing cars. Anyone who knows me, knows that not only is drawing cars a specialty of mine, it's also one of the things I love doing. I was thrilled to work on this project, and am very happy with the result:



Immediately following this project, I was hired by Starbridge Media,the company doing NASCAR comic books to draw a short backup story about the inaugural Daytona 500. This was really cool on a few fronts. First, this is the 50th anniversary of the Daytona 500, and this comic will be available at the actual race. Second, the race itself was unbelievable, ending with an incredible photo finish! I won't reveal the results here, but it was one of the most exciting finishes in all of NASCAR's history. Third, not only was I able to draw the actual cars involved, but the story also required me to draw the drivers as well, so I got to do something else that is both a passion and a specialty, portrait illustrations. Last, as I was finishing the story it occurred to me that in my fifteen years working in comics, this was the first story I'd actually drawn (from layouts by John Gallagher), rather than inked. So, now that you've read this far, here are some of the images:













There's a pretty good chance that there will be more of these "History of NASCAR" stories, so hopefully, I'll have another opportunity for this type of work soon!

As always, I'll try to post some new art soon! Thanks for reading!

Best,
Rich

New Year, New Work, New Website!

I know I'm coming in late on this (what else is new?), but it's 2008 already? Where did the last two months go? Well, for me, it mostly went into a lot of design work, some illustration, and finally redesigning my website, a task that was LONG overdue. I'm trying to make this year my biggest ever. I've expanded into doing some design work to go along with illustration, and I'm attempting to branch out into a few different new fields. My latest work reflects that. So without further ado, here's some of what I've been working on:

First, some of my design work. I've been working on a number of projects for the Washington Speakers' Bureau's Impact Channel. Most of this work is for some very interesting people; financial gurus, and motivational speakers who specialize in creating a more efficient workplace. Among them are luminaries such as Tom Peters, Chip Bell, and Mike Abrashoff (if you haven't heard of them,try looking them up online. You'll find a lot of info). Here are a couple of graphics I provided for Mike Abrashoff's section of the Impact Channel:





Next, while I did this last year, it's timely in that it's work based on the movie "The Golden Compass." I was hired to do some style guide art for Scholastic, based on the movie, and these are two of the images I drew:





Last, but not least, here's a screenshot of my newly designed website (I mentioned a few months ago that I'd post it here):



To see the whole thing in action, just go to www.thinkinkstudios.com. I have the navigation of my site categorized a lot differently now. I've added about ten new categories to look through, including "Portraits," for all of the likenesses I draw, "Sketches," for anyone who's interested in seeing the raw material, and some insight into my process, and for those who just want to get to the meat of it in a nice neat (although large) package, you can simply click on the buttons for "Black and White Work" and "Color Work." Additionally, you can now go to a section entitled "Recent Work" to see some of what I've been doing lately. I'll be updating that one pretty regularly, so feel free to check back often.

For those of you who have stuck with my long posts, and sometimes even longer gaps in times posting, thank you. I plan to post more frequently this year, so I hope you'll continue visiting my blog. I look forward to sharing much more work here this year. I hope you have a truly happy, healthy, and productive 2008!

Best,
Rich

Me, My self(-portrait), and I...

So, it's been pointed out to me (Hi Brian!) that it's been over a month and a half since my last post, so I thought I'd do a quick one today, while my son naps.

It's been a really crazy month or so. My wife and I both freelance out of our home offices, so when one of us is working, the other is doing the childcare. When both of us are working, well, things become somewhat problematic, and that's when all free time flies out the window. As we've both been really busy of late, the juggling act has been constant, and between her work travel, and my teaching, there hasn't been too much time for extra activities of any kind. Hence the delay here.

However, we did manage to sneak away for a weekend a couple of weeks ago, just for some quiet relaxation. We went to a place called Shelter Island, which is between the North and South Forks of Long Island, where I grew up. While we were there, we happened upon a small gallery called Wish Rock Studio which is owned by a guy named Peter Waldner, and his wife Sandy. Peter is a syndicated cartoonist, and does a very funny strip called Flight Deck, found in a number of major newspapers. He's also a heck of a nice guy. He and I talked about the possibility of having me show some of my work in his gallery next year. That would be pretty cool.

That night, I also did something I hadn't done in a while. I drew just for the sake of drawing. It's very hard to find time these days to draw just for pleasure. Most of the time, when I finish work I'm really not in the mood to do more drawing, as it feels like a continuation of my work day. About a year ago I was doing a demo of ink wash techniques for my students at DCAD, and started a self-portrait in class, which I always intended to finish but never did. Well, on this trip I spent a couple of hours finishing the piece, below, and also working on another portrait, which I'll post at a later date. Here's the self-portrait:



This piece will be the new homepage image for my website. That's another reason I've been slow to post lately. Any free time I've had has been spent on doing a much-needed revamp to my website. I'll be posting the update on that soon as well.

I'll try to check in again soon with new art. Thanks for stopping by!

Best,
Rich

Groucho on my Birthday!

"Before I speak, I have something important to say."

"I must confess, I was born at a very early age."

Yes, it is my birthday, and no, I'm not going to continually quote Groucho Marx for the rest of the year...

However, here's a piece I did recently as an in-class brush and ink demo, featuring the great Groucho:



Now, before I go eat some cake, I'm going to end with two more appropriate Groucho quotes:

"Getting older is no problem. You just have to live long enough."

And on a more serious note: "I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it. "

Best,
Rich

PS: "Go, and never darken my towels again." Ok, ok, I'll stop now...