INKTOBER SKETCHES

ULTIMATE SKETCH COMMISSIONS

Probably one of the funnest sketch commission jobs i'll ever do! A lovely person came up to me at Melbourne Oz Comic Con this past July with a list of movies of which i had seen and loved pretty much all of 'em! Well this person had actually been involved in each of the movies and wanted something of a keepsake for each one to put on their wall. Humbled that he'd chosen me for such a thing, i busted out the sketches before I left for India and i enjoyed the hell out of every single one!

If you're interested in getting an original sketch done drop me an e-mail at louiejoyce.art(at)gmail.com

MISHMASH & HODGEPODGE

I've recently just published the first issues of MISHMASH & HODGEPODGE, two companion books that i will be releasing annually.

MISHMASH, is a collection of comics i've illustrated (and some i've written too). HODGEPODGE, a collection of drawings, sketches and illustrations.

The first issues are available at my online store here: http://louiejoyce.storenvy.com/

Collected in this issue: 

The Many Harold Holts of Space & Time (Written by Ryan K Lindsay, lettered by Nic J Shaw)

The Corner Store (Written by Louie Joyce)

Buckets (Written by Alex Chung, lettered by Troy Peteri)

Got some fun things planned for future issues too, so keep your eyes peeled :)

AMERICAN VAMPIRE

Felt like working on something fast and fun this morning to loosen up. Chose American Vampire (Pearl in particular) as a subject because it's an amazing comic book series & Rafael Albuquerque's work on the series is incredible and inspiring. If you haven't read it, do it.

Started out with a quick sketch to get my overall image, trying to get everything in as fast as possible at this stage with as much energy & expression as possible.

Initial rough

With inks i'm refining the details/lighting/proportion etc. but always trying to maintain as much of that energy that was in the initial sketch as possible. It's always easy to get caught up in rendering & detail so much so that the image starts to look static & lifeless.

Inks

Then i'll experiment with colours and textures/brushes (that i've created with traditional mediums) to drive home the overall mood & feel i'm going for with the illustration.

Final illustration

SAGA PROCESS

Every so often as an exercise i sit down and thumbnail as many image concepts and compositions as i possibly can. Anything and everything that comes into my head. It's a nice way to loosen up my hand before a big days work, and a good resource to look back on when i'm looking for inspiration or ideas (that is, if i can decipher the scribbles). So when i was thinking of something to draw for the OzComics Saga draw-off a few weeks back i remembered this little rough i'd done and thought it'd be the perfect fit. And it was! Having that third element (Hazel, the baby), added something that was missing from the original composition, that really sets off the image nicely.

I'm a big fan of this series and these characters, so this was a pleasure to draw. Everyone should be reading Saga!

Initial composition sketch

Saga Inks

Saga Colours

THE CORNER STORE

A short comic i just finished :)

100 BULLETS PROCESS

OzComics has reached it's 100th challenge! 100 Bullets, one of my favourite comic series, which artistically has an incredible standard. Eduardo Risso and Dave Johnson? Hard to find artists better at their job than these guys.

I chose Dizzy to work with because, y'know, she's Dizzy, and a simpler composition because i didn't have a huge amount of time to spend on this one.

Pencils

Inks

As you can see i originally had a reflection of Graves in the attache but decided to scrap this as it was too busy and taking attention away from the top of the image too much. Replaced instead with a more subtle typographic element.

Final version

I think i started contributing to OzComics somewhere around the 20th, in the Spider-Man Challenge and I've been pretty consistent in entering since then. Basically because i always have a great time doing it. It's a great excuse to do something more on the fun side, experiment if you want, maybe test out some new techniques or flex some older creative muscles. Anything from a quick sketch to fully finished illustration. So if you're looking for an excuse to do something like that, check it out. Also there's heaps of other great artists contributing each week so plenty of pretty pictures to look at :)

THE SHINING PROCESS

The theme for OzComics over the last week has been The Shining, which is really a great theme. Very visually stimulating and just a fantastic movie, full of iconic moments to draw inspiration from.

I knew straight away i wanted to draw Shelley Duvall cause she's got a great "terror" face and i always remember that scene where she's backing up the stairs with the baseball bat, and says she's "very confused right now" (which always makes me chuckle a bit, i'd be confused too). Looking through some images of the film, i had the idea of including the type into the axe and went from there.

I did the pencils, especially around her face,  really quickly and loosely which helped capture the emotion and likeness quite well i think.

Pencils

Inks

Wanted to use a very simple colour scheme to guide the eye through the image. Really drive home that terror on her face.

Colours

Overall quite happy with how this one came out :)
Check out the other entries here. It's a great group this week.

RAINBOWS COME FROM OUTER SPACE

I did this drawing the other day for a friend, and decided to colour it up and add some type. 

Because people deserve to know the truth...

GOTHAM

Did this whilst playing around with some new textures and brushes i've made.

GREEN ARROW

This Green Arrow sketch was one of those nice times when it comes together quickly and easily. I wasn't even intending for it to be the sketch i'd use more just quick practice. But it's got a nice sense of energy and movement (which most of the time you only get from working quickly) so i developed it further into my final illustration.

Original Sketch

Final Illustration

Noticed a little too late that i forgot his domino mask. But i've got the stache and goatee, and that's whats important. I hate that they've gotten rid of it!