Tumblr!

Apparently tumblr is how the cool kids are exposing themselves on the internet. So now I have a tumblr, which I plan to update on a daily (yup!) basis.

http://rossradke.tumblr.com/

I still may use this blog once in a while as a journal or for "behind the scenes", drawing process stuff. But for arts, follow the tumblr and my deviantart page.

Thanks,
RtR

ECCC Portfolio: Hellboy Returns

I wanted to include some looser, more moody pages in my portfolio that were a little bit more natural "me" feeling than some the other stuff I did that I probably over-thought to the point of making some poor storytelling choices. This is supposed to be Hellboy returning to Earth from Hell, only to discover that Hell beat him there.

 I love drawing animals.

 I think that last panel is one of my better renditions of Hellboy. In his panel at ECCC, Mike Mignola said he designed Hellboy to be a character that A) he'd never get tired of drawing and B) he could draw really terribly and have the character still be recognizable.

That Ogdru Jahad (based on Mike Mignola's design) was a lot of fun to draw, but overall this piece feels rushed to me. I wanted to do a lot more with the sky.

ECCC Portfolio: Breakfast with the Avengers

This is the most elaborate set piece I've ever drawn. For some reason I thought it would be hilarious to draw the Avengers in their civvies, with the guys making breakfast for the ladies, only to be rudely interrupted by a swarm of MODOKs. The cast (in order of appearance): Luke Cage, Steve Rodgers (Captain America), Clint Barton (Hawkeye), Natasha Romanova (Black Widow), Jennifer Walters (She Hulk), Jessica Jones, Baby Cage, Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel).

If those bacon and eggs don't get me a job at Marvel, I don't know what will...

I'm not sure if the panel flow, or implied carnage really work in these middle pages, but I needed to get from breakfast to MODOK somehow and also really wanted to draw She Hulk leaping out of a sky scraper.

I'm happy with how this 2-page spread turned out. But I hate drawing buildings.

ECCC Portfolio: PLATYPUS

Here are is the "finished" line art for my 12-page "Bill the Platypus" short I'm including in my comic book portfolio for the Emerald City Comic Con. I plan on showing these (and some more traditional superhero stuff I hope to finish this weekend) to as many artists, writers and editors at the big comics publishers as I can. The ultimate goal is to eventually earn a living illustrating comics and while I've got a long way to go, I feel like I've worked with more focus in the last three months to improve my drawing than I have in the last three years. Please be brutally honest with your critique, I've still got some time to polish these before I print them off and head up to Seattle for ECCC.

A few things to keep in mind. People looking at these won't know these characters (and neither do you, really) so this is sort of an introduction to what a "Bill the Platypus" comic might look like, without being a proper origin story. Hopefully you can follow the action, even without the dialogue (which I may add later). Feel free to point out specifics that work or mistakes that need fixed (like in page 9, first panel, guy isn't wearing  a jacket).

1

2

 Text would be: 3 weeks later, somewhere in Mexico.
Dialogue is Mr. Goodfellow (glasses, works for Bill's boss) introducing Bill (platypus, bounty hunter) to Dr. Sanchez (hat, veterinarian/paranormal investigator). They are here to capture a creature that is slaughtering livestock. Locals are calling it the "chupacabra".

3

 Dialogue: Sanchez tells Bill he was attacked by the creature. Says it's twice the size of a grizzly bear. They are driving out to the site of the last attack.

4

5

 Bill: Think the doc might have been exaggerating about your size a bit.

6

7

8

 Originally the Doctor wasn't a character, there was just the farmer, so that's how I forgot to draw his jacket on this page. Will fix before comic con.

9

10

11

 I'm not sure what sound a tranquilizer gun makes.

12

So this is the condensed version of a full 24-page comic script I wrote. Eventually I'll add a flashback scene of Dr. Sanchez's first encounter with the creature (spooky, cliche horror movie night scene) and a few pages at the end of the Doc getting a blood transfusion, thanking Bill for the help and Goodfellow's men packing up the chupacabra's to be transferred to a research facility.

Dwarf Commission Process

Commissioner sent me a very detailed description of a dwarf character with a burning lava hand. I was scratching my head for a bit but he said he liked my first pass at the character so I got lucky.

Initial rough sketch

Made a few slight changes per request, such as redesigned hat and larger beard, and began to tighten up the line art slightly. Added a little fire elemental as well.

Revised sketch, rough background

At this point I'd usually jump to doing flat colors and then shading/rendering those layers, but I wanted the final piece to have more of a painted vs. comic book look, and I wanted to try something new, so I did the whole thing in grayscale before coloring.

final lines and gray scale

Jumped back and forth a lot between grays and colors after a while and had a real tough time getting the colors to balance. Not sure if I succeeded, but this is still probably one of the most elaborate things I've drawn. The pose is a little static, but I had a hard time figuring out how to include all the elements of the character's description without having him basically standing there on a rock. Commissioner was happy with the final piece, which was a relief.

final colors

I'd usually charge $35 for a piece like this ($20 for colored character + $10 background + $5 fire elemental), but I did it for $25 as part of a holiday price special. Now I'm back to drawing comics.