Spike variant cover, issue 1 of 5

Dark Horse requested that I use a more comic bookish look for these Spike covers, to create a better visual separation between my variants and the main cover art. I essentially used my sequential style, but I drew/colored it all in Photoshop rather than Illustrator, which had been my typical means of drawing sequential art. After finishing this cover, I realized I had gone a little too thick on some of the line art...so subsequent covers, for this series, will be on a line-weight diet.

By request, I'm adding the original line art, click through to see it...

My work at Topshop

Some more info here , along with some picts here .

Angel & Faith Comic Cover Issue 1

Dark Horse posted my Angel & Faith cover, in their WonderCon recap, today...so at long last I'm posting it. I wasn't given any specifics other than the city (London) and the Clock Tower of St Stephens (aka Big Ben) should be under construction (due to its date with a spaceship). There was one other bit of info that they mentioned, after I had finished the drawing...take a guess on what the addition was :)

So I set about creating an issue-neutral image that could still impart back story about the characters.

Falling Skies TPB Cover

This will be the Falling Skies Trade Paperback cover for Dark Horse, more info here. I don't like using a single picture as a reference for likenesses, but since the studio sent the image directly and it was the angle I needed, I worked straight off their image for Noah Wyle's face.

Upcoming Angel Comic Covers

I've been sitting on this news for quite a while, but Dark Horse made the announcement at WonderCon last night, that I'll be the cover artist for their "Angel" or rather their "Angel & Faith" comic coming out in August 2011. There's a short article on FEARnet and also a mention on CBR. They haven't released my art yet...the covers that are currently circulating are Jo Chen's and Georges Jeanty's, which are variants. I took a screen grab of the tfaw.com video which shows my cover:

Meanwhile, I'm working on finishing up another cover this weekend, bringing the total to 7 covers which I've done, that are currently under wraps, three of which are Angel covers. Can't wait until they start rolling out.

Little Red Riding Hood and The Big Bad Wolf Final

Title:"Hushed Demons Belie in Pleasantry Strewn Gardens"

I managed to produce this over the weekend, which was much faster than I expected. I spent the rest of the week cleaning up and stray lines and refining curves. I'm glad I had done the smaller botanical piece first,  as I think it really helped my time on this one. The wolf took some experimentation, my first attempts made the fur too detailed, but I finally found a happy medium.

The completed size is 18"x24" and is for sale here. I may also offer it as a diptych, with each print being a detail of either The Wolf or Little Red Riding Hood.

Little Red Ridinghood WIP

I just finished up a wrap-around cover for Dark Horse, which I'll post when they release the art. Meanwhile,  this weekend, I've started work on phase 2 of my botanical pieces...above is a small detail of the larger image.

Botanical Art

I had some time yesterday so I decided to test out an idea I've had for a while. I started with this smaller piece as a way to experiment before I moved onto a larger image which will incorporate figures into it.

Dendriform Fig.1 drawing WIP

A detail of some progress on the first Dendriform drawing. The foreground subjects are finished, so I'm moving on to the background...just trying to decide how far I want to go with the detail and stylization. I planned to make the background float in the center of the picture, but I think I may take it to the edges, since the main figures are already close to some of the edges.

Verboten pg 2 WIP

Page 2 in the  Illustrator faze of converting the old black-and-red style to the full color style. The second panel is only partially converted. After I get the second panel completed, I'll bring the page into Photoshop for coloring bells and whistles.

Finished Verboten page 3

Verboten page 3 with the additional Photoshop finishing. I decided to bump up the initial Illustrator colors as they were too dull. I also added some more details and the dog.

The taffy pullers WIP

This will likely be a new Butterbroda picture.  For a change, I decided to sketch out an idea by pencil, rather than stylus. Quite a few times I reflexively thought I could zoom, undue or move part of the drawing...it's funny how wired the brain becomes to certain tasks. Years ago I once found myself trying to "command-z" my way out of a spill on the kitchen counter...in my defense, I think I had a bit of monitor burn from many hours of nonstop computer usage.

Paolo & Francesca finished art

Title: "Vertiginous Our Love"

Finishing this "Paolo & Francesca" piece, just cleaning up some of the shapes now.

Paolo & Francesca were historical contemporaries of Dante and appeared in his "inferno," more info here and here. The couple has appeared in many works of art over the centuries, inspired by their characterization in the "inferno".

The Occultist cover

This is the latest cover I did For Dark Horse, for the book "The Occultist," due out in December. More info is at CBR

finished pict

I haven't titled this one yet, I have one in mind that sounds like a proverb and another that's more straight forward..."Young Claude's Dinner Date". (I updated this image on 10/29, there had been something bugging me about it, so I changed the clouds and the mother's face and that did the trick.)

Dollhouse comic cover

Info on the Dollhouse comic adaptation was just released in the last day or so. I created this cover shortly after I did the "Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale" cover. This isn't being released as an individual comic but is being bundled with the Dollhouse season 2 dvd release. More info here .  Having been a fan of both Serenity and Dollhouse, I was really excited about providing art for their comic incarnations.

Up and away

I finished off the Dark Horse cover and decided to go back to an old sketch. The colored part is still very much in the "slop" stage, so the shapes haven't been refined and the colors are subject to change, depending on the background that gets used.

Cosmos invaders final

Title: "A Youth Better Spent in an Luddite's World"

Cosmos Intruders WIP

This is another WIP for the Westerly Strut sub-series. I wanted to add some scifi elements, a robot was my first thought, but then I had this Space Invaders style idea the other night.

Dendriform Fig. 1 sketch

This is a detail from my new series, "Dendriform", which will contrast the synthetic-modern world with the natural world. The style will be more editorial than my regular digital paintings and I'll probably be using a  restricted palette. I also want to introduce some old experiments from college, specifically geometry and the human body.