Art Dump- Batman, New Ideas, and Random stuff

Hello all, been busy for the past few weeks so sorry for the lack of posts.  I've managed to work on a few projects here and there as well as coming up with a brand new one.  Jesse James Comics was also nice enough to invite me to contribute some art for a fundraiser to benefit the victims of the Aurora CO shooting (https://www.facebook.com/events/207889002673724/).  So here is some of my basic test drawings for my new children's book that I will create soon- Amelia Blairhart, a Katniss painting for some contest that I was too late on entering, some random practice/ reference drawings and The Batman for Aurora.  

New Stuff and SDCC

So, just as I predicted, I did not post anything new for quite some time.  I spent most of my time the past few weeks drawing test pages to turn in for portfolio reviews at San Diego Comicon and finishing up a few other drawings and paintings.  I also managed to log about 35 hours of Star Ocean on the PS2 as well some how.... But anyways,  here are 2 of the paintings I spent some time on recently.  I don't know if they are actually "done" yet but for now I'm not going to do anything else to them without some deep thought. (besides fixing the eye on the one to the right here... holy uneven Batman)   


So on to the big show, my 1st experience at SDCC as a "professional."  I unfortunately did not have an artist alley table or a small press table but since I've been lucky enough to have a couple of little books published by Spazdog I had the opportunity to go to the show for free.  SDCC is overwhelming to say the least.  I didn't have enough time off of work to go all 4 days but I wish I could have because the one full day I did go was not nearly enough to see everything I wanted to see or spend the time I wanted to spend talking to artists, friends and of course editors for jobs.  I spent most of my time in artist alley talking to some of the greats standing there or just eavesdropping on there conversations with other fans about their work.  It was nice to get spend some time with David Petersen there as well.  I've known him forever and his work is amazing so I was happy to see his booth in artist alley.  I bought a super awesome Mouse Guard shirt and caught up for a bit with him... He chided me for doing the portfolio review which was funny but I told him I wanted to see what the editors thought of my stuff.  
   I will say the portfolio review was an interesting experience but I don't know if I will spend the time doing that again in the future.  I got some nice critiques where they focused on telling me what I need to work on and where my strengths lie so I look forward to trying to implement what they were saying.  But overall I think Dave was right, i was the about the 30th person for each of the guys I saw and I think they were a little burnt out and wanting to be somewhere else by the time they got to me.  So next time around I will just focus on having fun and try and get into some panels!  Which have insane lines by the way.  There is no way I would wait 10 hours to see a Superman or Iron Man 3 panel... 
   So thats about it for now.   I will now (finally) start on the next issue of Buddha Monkey and then hopefully work on finishing up Sonic Youth with Shawn one of these days.  (and maybe I'll even create a new character in the mean time...)

Whats New

So I don't have too many new pieces to show this week.   I pretty much decided since I just did 11 paintings in 3 days that I would take it a little easy this past week.  I did get a new watercolor done though and I'll post a little teaser of it since I have yet to scan it.  I probably won't post too many new things in the next few weeks either because I'm going to be working on some pieces for my portfolio to show at SDCC... I think it's time to finally get some feedback from the big boys....

Anyways, in other news I was invited by TRIBE Studios to appear at Hero Comics for this fundraiser here-

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=484473944902153&set=a.105344579481760.11403.100000186544921&type=1&theater 

so come on done and join us for a good cause!

So until next time

sketch cards

Here are the 11 new sketch cards that I was recently commissioned to do.   It was a fun mini set to do, I have never really worked on any of these characters besides Batman, The Joker and Superman so it was interesting to try and capture their likenesses.  Thank you to my comic collection and Google for helping in those areas.  All of these paintings are watercolor paint and india ink on sketch cards (thin bristol board).  This was not wet into wet painting though, I tried to keep my brush as dry as possible to cut down on warp and paper failure since it's not really built for watercolor.  Overall the paper held up well and the customer likes them so thats all that is important in my book!

Post Phoenix Comicon

So sorry i haven't posted much as of late, been keeping busy after Phoenix Comicon by finishing up some commissions and work for some friends.  The commissions are not all done yet but I'll post them next week when they are all complete.  However, I did finish a new painting recently for my friend Eric Esquivel's new super secret project.  This will be a cover of sorts so this is all pre lettering and Adobe Illustrator. I also put the final scan of Black Widow doing Laundry on here just so you could get a better idea of the finished product.   Anyways, sorry to keep it short but I need to go to bed so I can make it to the "real" job.

Thanks Phoenix Comicon

Thank you to everyone that came out to make Phoenix Comicon such an awesome event this year.  Thank you to the the people behind the curtains that set up such a wonderful convention and to all of the workers and volunteers that made things run smoothly.  I also wanted to thank all the other vendors and creators who stopped by to say hi or sold me awesome new art and toys.  And most of all, I also want to thank all the great fans and people who stopped by and looked at or purchased my art, you helped make this a terrific experience and motivate me to keep on working harder at my craft.

Thank you again and please just message me if you need any new art.

Matt

New Everyday Hero painting and more!

Large post today!  So I've been posting for awhile now that I would do a fairly comprehensive description of my painting process and now I have somewhat made good on my threats.  But first, in other news, Phoenix Comicon is 2 days away!  I will be at booth 1001 with Spazdog Press which is prime real estate right across from the Zenescope Booth.  My latest contribution to the interior work is also being released this Thursday in Unite and Take Over: Stories Inspired by the Songs of the Smiths Volume 2.  I did all of the art for the story Oscillate Wildly (written by Chris Murrin and Andy Jewett) so come buy one if your in town for the con or order one from Spazdog Press.  I will also be taking commissions and I'll have several prints available for purchase too.  Hope to see you all there!

Oh and I forgot to add- I will be participating in one of the sketch offs on Friday from 12 to 1pm, so come and yell at us to draw some fun stuff!

Here is a painting from start to finish. This is Laundry Day... until I come up with a more creative title

Pencil drawing, I believe a number 2h lead.  The drawing/ painting is on 10x 16 Arches hot press paper.  I removed the paper from the block of paper because I like the freedom of the paper being directly on the board, rather than attached to a bulky stack of paper and having my wrist drop off the side as I paint.  If you aren't familiar with watercolor blocks they are usually the best way to paint with watercolor because the sheets are tightly packed together in a block with some special glue.  The glue that tightly packs the paper together really helps cut down on the paper warping as you keep applying water.  However, if you use enough tape and good enough paper (heavier weight the better) you should also achieve success going with my method of taping it to a large drawing board.

the general layout of colors.  For the most part this is all done with a lot of water and a mop brush.   I'll use a flat brush here and there for edges that I don't want to bleed.  The whole paper is not covered in water though, just the areas where I know I'm going to keep building richer colors into.  Areas that I'm going to have a high white/ light reflections are left white for now... also the areas where I'm not sure what I'm going to...   Also notice that really nice streak on the right?  Thats what happens when you don't pay attention to your materials and use a dirty rag to clean up an unwanted bleed.  Luckily I was able to cover most of it and it didn't ruin the piece...

Building a little more, working on the areas I know are going to be darker, the dryer and her purple pants... Why purple for Black Widow?  I don't know, I just figured she would be tired of black and gray outfits all the time and want some color in her life on her down time.  Plus they remind me of my wife's favorite pajama bottoms.

Getting some more dark hues in and some black for her outfit.  This is down with some grays I've built up and by mixing in ultramarine blue and orange.  I later cheat and use winsor & newton black because I'm lazy.  Hair is also darkened by adding some burnt sienna and burnt umber in with my orange...  Not all at once but in phases.

More areas worked on, starting to flesh her out some more, some work done on the shirt...

The clothes piles finally get a little detail.  Her face,  neck and shoulders get the details added in.  Also decide to go with black house shoes because the blue was matching my choice of cool shadows on the floor.  The belt, gun and Widow bite wrist bands get some work done.

Sorry, still haven't scanned this one yet, but final touches are added and I'm done.    Or I should say I'm afraid to take it any further because it's the look I was going for.... which is how I usually decide somethings done.  Or I swear and throw stuff and say stuff is done because I hate it. This one turned out fine though.