Steve Howard's Illustration Blog: Welcome to the WORKSHOP

Master and Student (Character Design)

2010-12-16T20:48:00.001-05:00

This piece was a submission I sent to Animation Rigs, a company that provides 3-D modeled characters for it's members to use in their CGI reels. They flagged a couple of us down at SDCC this summer, and told us about an upcoming character design contest in the fall. The theme was "Master and Student." (I didn't win, but unlike some other contests I've been in, the entries that were chosen were definitely deserving of the prizes. That being said, I kinda like the way this doodle turned out.)

Avatar time yet AGAIN!!!

2010-11-07T21:32:00.000-05:00

Just another avatar is all...

For Cancer Awareness Month: Billy Tucci's SHI

2010-11-07T21:23:00.001-05:00

In recognition of Cancer Awareness Month, my friend DJ inspired me to throw down this pic. I'm dedicating this to his wife Pam, Mrs. Deborah Tucci, and the memory of my Aunt Addie Howard, who lost her battle with Pancreatic Cancer this October. If you haven't been tested, please do so as soon as possible. There's no cure for the Big C, but it can be prevented if detected early enough.

Wonder Woman Day 2010

2010-11-07T21:03:00.002-05:00

For the second year, my bro-in-arms DJ has managed to cajole yours truly into submitting a piece for the Wonder Woman Museum's annual Wonder Woman Day charity auction to benefit victims of domestic abuse. As I did last year, I drew the piece, and then digitally colored it, but did the final touch-ups with white paint (a licensing stipulation required by DC comics.) And just like last year, I then re-touched the original scan in Photoshop, with which I'm a bit more comfortable:
Just before sending in our entries, we learned that this would be the last year for the auction. I don't know why, but I made sure to get a piece in this year. I hope it does well at auction: good causes that I can actually contribute to are a rare treat.

SDCC Cont... the Storyboard Showdown!

2010-11-07T02:45:00.006-05:00

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One of the most rewarding portfolio reviews I've ever had at SDCC took place this year with a wonderful woman from The Cartoon Network. We basically went into detail over one of my sets of boards panel-by-panel, and needless to say, she 'took me to school!!' She really opened my eyes about some of the panel decisions, and at the same time told me that had I lived on the West Coast, she'd have had me enrolled in a special kind of 'training camp' for storyboard artists ready to go to that next level:

I spent so long talking to her, that my three buds gave me crap for almost an entire day afterward. But I have no regrets. How can I?

SDCC time... And AWAYYY WE GO!!!

2010-11-07T02:34:00.005-05:00

Ah, and it was time for the 2010 San Diego Comic Con, where the aspiring artists pack San Diego's Upper Pavilion in droves while their fanboy contemporaries swarm the convention floor, desparately craning their heads over one another for just a glimpse of Olivia Munn. Being one of the former, here's the obligatory last-minute-done-on-site color piece, which gave quite a laugh to one Mr. Carlo Soriano. Ah, Carlo, you know me too well:
This shot of the kiddie Boba Fett was the first combination of my Wacom Cintiq and Corel Painter Essentials, the software that came bundled with the tablet. (I included the pencil piece just because...) I may try again with the old Photoshop, just to get a different look...

The Great Comic Strip Contest!

2010-11-07T02:11:00.005-05:00

So in the summer, I became aware of a contest co-sponsored by both the Washington Post and some webcomics site. they were looking for a comic strip artists with a novel idea to submit six sample strips. The main prize was too good to pass up: A cool grand in cash, and a 30-day stint on the Post comics page, with the option from one of the big Syndicates to pick up the artist permanently! I went to work on a long-overdue concept, and came up with a pretty decent entry (well, I think it's decent.) I tapped into my experiences as a bartender, teacher, artist, and coach here in DC and came up with "Last Call!"

Alas, I didn't make the final cut. (In my opinion, only a few of the ten finalists had marketable ideas; in fact, one even had a gag that was stole from someone else!) And while the Web guy promised to give me a detailed critique, I haven't heard from him yet. Nonetheless, I'm EXTREMELY happy with what I did, and I'm seriously considering putting together a submission of my own for the Syndicates to judge...

Robo-Sketch!!

2010-11-07T01:57:00.002-04:00

In my continuing quest to keep drawing while coaching what had to be the single most dismal wrestling season I'd ever been a part of, the guys at the Sketchyscribbles blog were (as they've always been) a lifeline!! Right on time, they announce d a new round. This time it was Robots.

Robots? I can do robots. (Okay, this one kinda just shot out of my head, and now I'm wondering if I've seen too many robots in my life. Now it looks like a hodge-podge of every Robotech Mech I've ever seen, Marvin from the "Hitchhiker's Guide" movie, and a dash of C3p0.) I ruined a corncob pipe while I was doodlin' this rascal...

Avatar time AGAIN!!!

2010-11-07T01:37:00.004-04:00

Jump ahead to Spring 2010... What with the long winter being over, I was overdue for Spring Cleaning (in my head, anyway.) And what better way to shake off the cobwebs than to throw a new avatar out into the ether? Since I was feeling like I'd been neglecting my Cintiq, I decided to show it some love and get to work. To that end, I came up with a decent little avatar design:

Satisfied with the basic idea, I laid some Inks down over the old bear:

And then, I just needed to take some time and feed it to the Cintiq. It took a couple of weeks, but then wouldn't you know it? i had to pull a double shift at the old overnight job. Now nothing sucks more than having to work during the day when you're a nocturnal type of guy. If you wanna throw gas on the situation, make that day shift a double; then you're talking about the recipe for instant-Steve-lunatic soup! Fortunately, I had four things going for me:

A.) I was jacked up out of my gourd on caffeine.
B.) I had my trusty Cintiq at the job with me.
C.) I'd just watched a YouTube Video of Reinaldo Quintero coloring, and was hyped to color!

I opened up my B&W piece, and went to work, and VOILA!!

(Methinks I may get the hang of coloring on ye olde tablet yet...)

And the Sidekicks just keep on comin...!

2010-11-07T01:20:00.002-04:00

Having started the eleventh Sketchyscribbles round with the first Sidekick drawing, I felut I had to do at least one more. I won't be surprised if people have to look this up on Wiki and Youtube...

Back when I as a kid, Sid & Marty Kroft used to have these wonky old seventies shorts (H.R. Puffinstuff and "Land of the Lost" were the two most popular.) One of the shows I remembered was a knock-off of the old 60's Batman show, Electra-Woman and Dyna-Girl. Electra-Woman was the main hero, and Dyna-Girl here was her teen jailbait sidekick!!

(Okay, I confess this is true "Old School" here. Heaven help you if you can remember this, because it means that, like me, you're as old as dirt...!)

Lord love a Sidekick...

2010-11-07T01:15:00.002-04:00

Having hit a lull around the holiday season, BRP sent out a call for new sketch ideas for our blog group. And as the guy who opened his yap and suggest that the Sketchyscribbles blog mob do a round on sidekicks, it was up to me to start the ball rolling. My first contribution was one of my all-time favorite literary characters, the incredibly ordinary RON WEASLEY (aka, the guy standing next to the Boy-Who-Lived for 10 years and 7 books!)

This sketch is mostly done in Prismacolor marker and colored pencil, with a touch of Photoshop in the BG.

Sketchcard Practice!!

2010-11-07T01:14:00.004-04:00

The Saga Continues...!?

Having a set of pro-sketchcards underneath my belt, I decided to get a little more practice in with the media I'd focused on in doing them. So I took another few tries at them on my own. I heard about another company which had a Marvel license looking for 'Hero vs. Villain' samples. So I gave it a shot:
Mixed results, IMHO. But heyu, you never stop learning...!

TOPPs Sketchcard fandango!!!

2010-11-06T23:46:00.003-04:00

When we last left , I'd just gotten my first big sketchcard gig (from TOPPs, no less!) I decide to stick for the most part with the media I'd used to get the gig in the first place: graphite and color pencils, and design markers. Here are the best of the 50-card set:

Now by now everyone knows that during the 2009 holiday season (during which my deadline happened to fall) the East coast got enough snow dumped on it to cause another damn Ice Age. While the main bulk of the storm fell during my deadline (of course) I was still able to get the pieces in on time. HOO-RAH!!!

I'M BACK...(Sorry about that!)

2010-11-06T23:10:00.005-04:00

Okay, sorry it's been so long. Almost a year; I need my ass kicked in for not posting before now. So let me slowly try to get the page up to speed. I guess the first thing I need tio do is post what stuff I've done over the last year. Bear with me, guys...

Let me start (or try to) in order. Back in the winter, my chum DJ and I got to talking about the sketchcard industry, and what it would take to get some done. I went to the Scoundrel forum website, and ended up sending a few emails questioning some of the major companies as to whether they had some sketchcard work available. Imagine my surprise when I heard from TOPPs (yeah, that TOPPs!) They asked if I were interested in doing sports cards, and like a good little starving artists, I said I'd give it a try. As a test, they sent me a jpeg of Orioles stud Adam Jones, and asked me to shoot them back a sketchcard-worthy piece. This is what I sent:

They responded with a compliment, and my first sketchcard job! Stay tuned...!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR, MERE MORTALS!!!

2009-12-23T07:23:00.002-05:00

I just felt like it was time for another seasonal avatar. (I confess it does gove me an excuse to fool w/ the Cintiq every once in awhile...)

Jedi Pin-up!

2009-12-02T01:05:00.000-05:00

I've just gotten caught up on the first season of "Clone Wars", and I'm in a Star Wars frame of mind, I guess. (The weapon of choice is my Cintiq; the ammo is Photoshop!)

Potter Model Sheet

2009-10-13T13:08:00.002-04:00

OOP! I almost forgot to post this model sheet I did just before SDCC. While I was pencilling those Potter pages, I just got to noticing how cartoony they were looking (I was inspired by the work of Matt Humphreys, who has a "Dirty Harry Potter" gallery on deviantArt that is incredible, to say the least.) So naturally, I thought, "What if I DID make Model sheets for Harry Potter characters?" More to come... maybe...

A stray logo...

2009-10-13T13:04:00.001-04:00

Here's a logo I did for Kelle Masten, a lovely and charming young lady who I knew back in college...

Wonder Woman Day IV

2009-09-15T20:47:00.004-04:00

On October 25th, 2009, the Wonder Woman Museum will hold it's 4th annual WONDER WOMAN DAY in Portland , OR and Flemington, NJ. The event is a charity which includes both art showings and silent & live auctions of original WW artwork; 100% of the proceeds go to benefit shelters for victims of domestic abuse, which is a damn good cause. Check it out at: http://www.wonderwomanmuseum.com/WWDay4/WWDay4.html
Although I first heard about it last year by way of Rashad Doucet, my friend DJ Jackson was the one who persuaded me this year to contribute a piece. It was a bit of a headache (mostly because due to DC Comics' being kinda itchy about digital pieces, they were adamant the submissions had to be hard copy w/ original work; I had to print up a digital copy, then retouch it w/ paint and marker!) Still, it was fun to do, and cool to see DJ get some of his work out there (motherfucker did THREE wicked-ass pieces in marker in the time it took me to do one!) Once I sent the original off, I went back into my digital version and added the same highlights using Photoshop; I like it much better this way.

A Public Service Announcement: DON'T DRAW DRUNK!!

2009-08-29T05:07:00.002-04:00

Here's a sketch I did for my dog Tom Kelly while we were at Hennessy's Drink-and-Draw in San Diego last month. The place was packed, and they gave us these cool coasters to draw on while we knocked back Jim Beam & Cokes.

I came up with the idea of a recruiting poster for the old Shi'ar Imperial Guard from the Claremont/Cockrum X-men books. I used the old character Fang (I know the costume isn't right, but The Jim Beam was a-pouring, so you must forgive me!)

Thanks to Tom for sending me a scan to post. I may re-work this; it's a pretty interesting idea (as drunken ideas go!)

Bobo Sketch for Wendi!!

2009-08-18T03:57:00.005-04:00

Oops! I almost forgot!

This year at SDCC my boy Tom Kelly brought his girlfriend Wendi, who's cool as hell. When she wasn't working w/ the Hero Initiative, she was the life of the party (which is saying a lot, considering she was hanging with us!) In addition to that, she is (like myself) an avid fan of James Robinson's STARMAN comic run from the 90's; she even has a sketchbook of artist's renditions of characters from the book. Of course, I said I'd add a sketch, but never had a chance while we were all out west. So one of the first things I did once I got home was to draw up a shot of my favorite character from the series, Jake "Bobo" Benetti...

I wasn't going to post this until I was sure she got the original in the mail. It got there just in time for her birthday, and she's happy with it, so I am, too. Happy Birthday, Wendi!

Mullins Anthology piece

2009-08-18T03:50:00.005-04:00

So here's the submission I sent in for the anthology they're doing for Jeremy. I swear to God this actually happened a year and a half ago, when Jorge De La Cruz and I were having breakfast with Mullins at Clary's cafe in Savannah, GA...

Damn, I miss that Unclefucker...

Back from DA' CON!!!

2009-07-29T00:46:00.010-04:00

Man, where do I begin?

I just got back from a helluva Comic-Con. I saw some old friends, met some great new ones, ate great food, drank beer, ate gelato, finished and showed the first sequential pages I've done in years!

I picked up some great software advice from Durwin Talon, one of my true mentors, and shared a funny story about my good friend Jeremy Mullins with one of his old students, Rashad Doucet. I saw a ton of celebs, showed work to Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, and Disney Ink, and even went to a casting call for a friggin' reality show!

I went into this year's Con in a different place mentally. Having recently been made painfully aware of just how precious life is, I was in kind of a "don't care, just enjoying life " mood; I didn't stress (much), and I 'll admit got a lot more enjoyment out of the entire experience. What's funny is that I put some pretty decent work out there, and made some decent networking moves to boot. I even helped my new friend Natacia Manabusan with fleshing out a great business idea she has. While I do regret that my friend Lee wasn't there this year, and would've liked to hang out with my boy Zak a bit, it seems that the Comic-Con I went into sweating the least turned out to be one of my best.

Go Figure, huh?

WONDERBOY!!

2009-07-15T01:11:00.004-04:00

A while back, I was contacted by a friend of mine, Dave "the Big Wheel" Wheeler. Dave is putting together a book of different artists' sketches of his character, WONDERBOY; the proceeds will go to the HERO INITIATIVE in the memory of three people: the late great artist Mike Wieringo, Dave's old Prof. and my dog, Jeremy "Sweetwater" Mullins, and last, but not least, his father, who recently passed away. (If you're reading this and don't know what the HERO INITIATIVE is, then you should be ashamed. Get off your funny-book lovin' ass, look it up, and give, bitch!) As soon as he asked, I was in...

As you can see, I'm still having a ball with my Cintiq. I still haven't got the hang of it to my satisfaction, but Dave was happy with it, and that's what's the most important to me...

2009-07-10T13:05:00.004-04:00

So, a while back I blue-lined out an alternate avatar for the web. It spent time on the clipboard, in the backs of various and sundry magazines and sketchbooks, Starbucks, the weekly Poker game, the Bar, EVERYWHERE!! I finally got down to putting some real detail to it; I figure it should be my first real project using the Wacom Cintiq I picked up a few months back...

...Not bad for a first try, As I write this, I think I'll come back occasionally and re-work it as a test of my proficiency. Ya think?

A tribute to one of the truest friends a guy could have...

2009-06-16T23:55:00.008-04:00

We lost a lot this weekend. The students and faculty at SCAD lost an endlessly driven teacher, who loved his students and yet drove them to constantly achieve their best with the no-nonsense style of a taskmaster. Those who knew him lost a kind and generous soul, who never turned his back on people in need, who gave his all for his friends and loved ones. The genre lost true a Sequential Artist, who always kept the Faith, and never gave up.

Me, I lost a brother.

Rest easy, Unclefucker. We'll see each other again.

Rough Sketch/and the Portfolio Review lie!

2009-06-06T22:03:00.004-04:00

A quick study for an illustration I'm planning to add to my portfolio for SD this year, just in case The Lucas folk decide to show up. Last year, I had the misfortune of a.) Not having any SW pieces, and b.) having the bad luck to be in line at portfolio review behind a guy smart enough to make a portfolio FULL of outstanding SW pieces. I won't get caught sleeping this year...

I should never have believed them when they say that it's okay if you don't have Star Wars stuff; the chick at portfolio review actually got angry when I showed her my stuff and there was no Jedi or Stormtroopers. She looked at me like I had a taken a dump on the floor or something.

And for the record, I'm starting to learn that comics people who say you shouldn't bring pin-ups to a portfolio review are full of shit. I know a guy named Carlo, one of the best artists I've ever seen. His portfolio contains one or two sequential samples, and a lot of single illustrations. He's gotten rave reviews like you wouldn't believe from editors of all shapes and sizes! They recognize his ability, and respond accordingly.

Talent shows through, no matter what...

The Dioskouroi

2009-05-21T16:55:00.002-04:00

The latest from the sketchyscribbles blog; the subject matter was "Deities", so I chose Castor and Pollux, the twin demigods from Greek Mythology...

A couple of conceptual color pieces...

2009-05-21T16:53:00.001-04:00

Start w/ the ART, already!

2009-05-21T16:47:00.004-04:00

Well, since I am supposed to be using this as a sort of Alternate site to post my latest work, I suppose I'd better get crackin'!! Here's a less recent design I did for the local chapter of the Flaming Knights MC ..

Deadpool sketch.

2009-05-15T01:21:00.003-04:00

Here's another one for the Sketchyscribbles mob. I'm really glad I got hooked in w/ the group (thanks, Zak.) There's always an opportunity to get some grunt work in.

The last few years have been wicked difficult in terms of trying to stay motivated more than 3 months out of 12 (those being June, July, and August, which all rotate around Comic-Con.) This last year, I've been slowly shaking the cobwebs out of my head, thanks in no small part to my old SCAD schoolmates, and some of the kids who've come after. Thanks to all of them, I never again feel like I'm separated from the creative world...

Barbarian sketch

2009-05-05T00:04:00.000-04:00

Here's my inaugural sketch! (I actually did it for sketchyscribbles, but maybe it'll serve as a sort of mental kick in the ass for me. Note to self: GET IT IN GEAR!!)

Inuagural Post

2009-05-04T23:05:00.000-04:00

Okay, so this is my first blog. I'm here for quite a few reasons.

I need someplace to start putting up my artwork, and evidently a lot of potential employers no longer want to look at deviantART pages (Dunno why...)
I suppose it might be nice to have someplace to vent my spleen where I can't be slapped, arrested, or put on administrative leave.
All the other kids are doing it. (And there don't seem to be any cliffs around DC off of which we can all jump...)
I need new and interesting ways to take up time, a commodity which I do NOT have to spare.

There are a whole lot more reasons, but I have burgers and beer waiting. My artwork will be up soon!