The Larsen Project

I finished this illustration back in August for the Elmwood Park Zoo 's annual Nightmare at Elmwood event, but I thought it would be best to post it for All Hallows Eve.

My first ever submission for this week's Illustration Friday topic (Burst). It's a burst of happiness! :D This was a nice break in-between jobs. Medium: Ink with PS Color. Some process pics below...

This winter I was contacted by horror writer Rachel Deering ( Anathema ) to do work on a graphic novel. That is still in the works, but in the meantime, I did a short story for a future anthology called In the Dark . Rachel wrote a great 12 page script for me, and being the fan of short stories that I am, I gladly tried my hand at it...

In addition to working on 3 different comics at the moment (which currently must remain under wraps), I have squeezed in a few personal pieces for Phantom Hand Gallery in Philadelphia. Here are some process pics...

Every year I make a Holiday card to send out to clients that I have worked with in the past year. It's a great excuse for me to do something whimsical and fun as a "thank you" to the nice folks I have had the pleasure to work with. The longer I have done these, the further away I seem to get from actual "Christmas" themes. Now, it seems, as long as I hint at a possibility of snow, the card feels appropriate. ^^

Digital file for a 2 color screen print. This is my piece for the "Dead and Dreaming" Lovecraft Show at Paradigm gallery this fall. Curated by the talented and macabre Sam Heimer . And the inks alooooonnnne... Bu-bu-but why are these inks in 2 colors? Good question! Read THIS POST for the answer.

I was recently asked by Ape Entertainment to do the back up stories for their upcoming Kung Fu Panda 2 books. This is page 4 in that 8 page story. The process for these pages is obviously much different from my usual fare, but I learned a few new tricks that I will definitely be incorporating into new work... Here's how they were done: I started with black and red line art (done with a mixture of rapidograph pens, micron pens and brush for the large fills). I wanted the lines to be even, and doing the art in 2 colors helped me to separate out the lines to color them (see this post for details on that technique). I then painstakingly colored in the flats and the line art, making sure to color the lines outlining the characters so they matched the fill color, giving the art a flat, "Samurai Jack" feel. I then selected sections and started laying in gradient layers to add subtle variation in color for the FG rats, darken the BG rats and color the sky in the first pan...

Because I've been asked about my coloring process before, I thought I would lend some insight to you folks who enjoy using linework and flat color... click any image to enlarge Above is a scan of my original line art. I use black and red ink, so I can more easily separate out the line. I then use the selective color palette to change the red line work to magenta, make the white pure white and the black pure black. I will usually need to repeat this step four or five times to make sure the line work has been converted to pure colors. (It is imprtant to do this when your document is in CMYK mode) After I have my pure colors, I use the channel mixer to separate out the magenta and black line work. I then have 2 documents that I convert to pure black lines by making the document a bitmapped document... black magenta I paste both documents into my template before I resize them (I select both layers and scale them down, as I do my inks at about 200% of final size). I still will use t...

I did a piece about four weeks ago for the Covered Blog based on an old cover for Tomb of Dracula. For anyone who hasn't been by this awesome blog, Covered featured reinvisionings of old comic book covers by various artists. It's a damn neat little blog, and should definitely be frequented by comic and art lovers alike. Here's the original cover I based this off of... Here's the ink and final piece that appears on the blog... And yes, tatas have been added from the original version...because, why not?

A little step by step of my piece for the PCS/Autumn Society Hallowed Halloween Show... Final Thumbnail Pencil Ink Color Show Info: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: This October 1st - 31st the Autumn Society of Illustration, the Philadelphia Cartoonist Society and Proximity Gallery present: HALLOWED HALLOWEEN Opening Reception - October 1st, 2010 October 1st - October 31st PROXIMITY Gallery 2434 East Dauphin Street Philadelphia, PA 19125 267.825.2949

A day of ink and color...

From Sketch to pencil to ink to finished color... CLICK HERE to read the La Morté Sisters on Zuda Comics

The following is a step by step for the process of creating my piece for the PCS Domo Arigato: Robot Show. I do very detailed sketches on graph paper to get a feel for the layout. The ink of the main image - the girl and mechanical bull - was done seperately from the type in ink wash on arches hot press watercolor paper. Everything was assembled and colored on the computer. I fudged with the type to make it simpler and fit in the space nicer. If you live in the greater Philadelphia area, you should save the date of May 7th and see this and many other amazing pieces at the PCS Domo Arigato Show, and join us for the PCS Art Crawl !