When in doubt, draw an ice giant. Drew this over the weekend to have a smaller toned paper drawing to sell while displaying my work for free comic book day. The drawing is 5 inches by 8 inches. The giant has different horns then I would usually draw, gave the giant deer antlers. And other details set the look that I currently use for Ice Giant designs. Over all was fun practice piece.
Ice Giants are one of those monsters that I could draw day in and day out because of the variety of designs I am able to create. This Ice Giant is of a high rank due to having more sophisticated clothing of the leather chest plate, cape, and tattoos.
I drew this Ice Giant a while back to include into my new book Conjured Thoughts: Volume 1. Conjured Thoughts is a collection of ink drawing, toned paper drawings, and full color digital pieces compiled into a 32 page book. I'll have copies of the book at MoCCA Fest in NYC in April as well as Asbury Park Comic Con. The book includes never before seen drawings like the one above that have never been posted or published on the internet.
Because of the holidays, I've been spending less time at the drawing table creating full pieces and spending much more time in the sketchbook planning pieces for the new year. Since my final semester of college wrapped up a couple of weeks back, I wanted to start off strong and get into the habit of creating more pieces as well as continuing to be self motivated.
Since winter is now upon us, I figured it was a good time to take my old Ice Giant watercolor and bring it to the level I originally intended.
I also want to continue to improve on my digital coloring techniques since that is the direction I want to take my work in. I see my pieces as 75% traditional (piece planned on paper, sketched on bristol, and inked with a brush) and 25% digital (coloring the piece, changing lines colors, and cleaning unwanted ink up). For a while I didn't want to go digital because I liked the fact that I had a one of a kind piece, but my new method gives me an original ink drawing and a digital piece that brings my work to the next level. I get the best of both traditional and digital.
Since the convention season is looming in the spring time, I'll also be creating more little zines like Goblin Guild (soon to be a full color version) as well as putting together a book of many of the toned paper drawings I've created over the past year. The book will be professionally printed and will only be available at cons and comic shops I attend events at (if by popular demand maybe available online... kickstarter?). I will be attending Illuxcon again next year and even got a table at the showcase on Friday and Saturday nights, where I'll be selling prints, books and originals. It's not even the new year and I'm already planning 5 months ahead of time. But I think that's normal....
The first piece of the new year will be my final illustration I created for my independent study. It's pretty awesome.
This week's monster is an Ice Giant. This drawing is a character study for an illustration I am conceptualizing at the moment. I'm taking the idea I used for the watercolor Ice Giant I did a while back and taking it to the next level.
Soon I hope to open an online store where I will sell drawings as well as books and prints. It will most likely happen after the new year.
Finished the illustration earlier in the week. My summer job was/is keeping me busy. But that doesn't mean I'll be slowing done my illustration work. I'm excited to start saving money to get both 'The Other People' and my new 'Legendary Monsters' book printed for the next Con season. All those days standing in the sun, helping tourists pays off.
Remember to pick up 'Against the Slave Lords' to see my hobgoblin illustration