Froggie and Friends Comic Book on Sale Now!

Sorry for the lack of postings since November--but I have been busy with work projects, and finalizing the Froggie and Friends comic book at the printer. The book is done and I received the final copies Wednesday. There's still time to buy a copy for those last minute Christmas stocking stuffers...head over to indyplanet.com to order! Paste this link in your browser: 

http://indyplanet.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=44&products_id=4575

Below are some behind the scenes character concepts...

Book Sketch

I thought I would post this little sketch I did for a possible book. I thought he was an interesting character...what would he be thinking?

Zombies!

I did this zombie for an editorial cartoon and I liked it so I decided to add some color...because we all know zombies are better in color!

Froggie and Friends is almost here!

Work is almost complete on the very first issue of the Froggie and Friends comic book

A project almost 10 years in the making. Here is a sneak peek at never-before-seen images of the progression of the cover...

Original Sketch

First Design

Final Cover

Creative Blueprint

Wow! I can't believe I haven't posted since September 22...well, today I thought I would put up a piece I did for a promotional card last year. It was designed to show that I can help clients from concept to completion with their ideas. Now you know where cartoon bears come from...

I liked how it gives the impression that it's coming off the drawing board..

Final Page for first issue of Froggie and Friends Comic Book!

Hi everyone--sorry for the delay in posting--I was out of my office for much of last week meeting with some new clients.

Today's posting is a look at the final page to be drawn for the first issue of Froggie and Friends Adventures. This page reveals the first glimpse of the castle of the evil king Pyron located on his home planet. His castle is actually built over a shaft that leads to the center of the planet where he gets his power from the energy crystal core.

I am rendering the inside pages of the comic book in a detailed pencil sketch style.

Original T-shirts from Lightspeed!

I thought it might be a good idea to let everybody know about my T-shirt store over at Cafe Press.com I am selling original designs based on my comic strip Hoosierville, and some stand alone shirts as well. You can get a quick look at them here with this image, but if you would like some great ideas for some early Christmas gifts...head over to my store at http://www.cafepress.com/lightspeedstuff

This is an ad that I created to promote the store

Peyton Manning Project

Happy Labor Day! I thought since the start of the NFL football season is almost almost upon us..I would share a step by step progression of a Peyton Manning magazine cover I have been working on for my portfolio. Below is the rough sketch I started with...

Next, when I had it looking like I wanted with the right Peyton cockeyed smile, I tightened up the sketch...

At the last minute, I added some cross hatching lines, then I scanned it in to do the coloring...

I was pretty happy with it, but it just didn't look finished. After thinking about it for awhile, I thought it would be neat as a magazine cover. However, since Sports Illustrated hadn't called me to do a cover for them yet, I created a fake magazine called Sports, and dropped the illustration into it. With some added text and some tweaking of the eyes to make them look at the reader, here's how it turned out.

 

Meet the Artist

Hi everyone...since artists sometimes can easily become cave dwellers because of spending long hours in their studios, I thought it might be good to put up a pic of myself in my home based studio, here in sunny Whiteland. As you can see, I haven't begun to grow a protruding brow, or massive amounts of body hair. Some of you might have fun picking out interesting items in the background (yes, that is a skull on a stick). Well, I have to go now... I'm off to hunt mammoth...

The artist at work

Justice Machine Conclusion

Some of you might have thought what happened to the second part of the Justice Machine that I promised to put up a few days ago. Well, to tell you the truth, I couldn't locate the artwork, so I actually had to go to the actual comic book and pull it from there. After tearing up my storage files..I started to wonder if I had the second part, or if it was given to someone else. That's what happens to artists after all those years of exposure to pencil dust, paint and markers...Well, without any further delay--here it is...

Blast from the Past - Comic Book Story

This is a walk down memory lane for me--this comic page is one of the very first professional comic book illustration gigs I had. If I'm not mistaken, it was back in the early 90's. The story was very interesting--it took place in the future when civilization had grown tired of the imperfect process of the justice system in their society. So in response, they built for themselves a robot called the Justice Machine. Then, so-called professionals would program the robot's memory to make the right decisions...you might imagine what happens...this is the first part--I will put up the conclusion tomorrow.

Part One

Unused sketches for Editorial Cartoon

These drawings were a couple of the ideas I was toying with for this week's editorial cartoon in the Daily Journal Newspaper in Franklin, IN. The cartoon was to be about how much marijuana and the street legal drug called Spice are pretty much the same thing, and can be just as dangerous. My first thought was to show some pot head smoking a Spice joint and saying it was just as good as pot...but it started to remind me too much of a Cheech and Chong image and I didn't want to look like we were making fun of it. The final version ended up being a more serious comparison between the two drugs--showing that they were basically the same, and pointing out why one was legal, and the other was illegal. Check out the final cartoon in this Saturday's edition of the newspaper.

Cheech and Chong pothead sketch

more modern type with some color

New Comic Book for Kids on the way

I will be finishing the first issue of a comic book series for kids in the month or two. The title is my own concept and is called "Froggie and Friends Adventures". The main characters are a frog, a blue furry monster, and a girl. The first story will be a space adventure that starts here on Earth and takes the characters far out into the galaxy to stop an crazy space alien king trying to gain control over the most powerful force in the the universe. Sound exciting? Here are a couple of drawings I did for the book...enjoy!

This is a colored version of Professor Fairbanks-a friend of the main character.

Here is a drawing of the main characters being confronted by a very angry teacher.

Several weeks ago, I began self training, and using online tutorials to teach myself SketchUp...a free 3D modeling software from Google. Below is the first project I created in the program - The Starship Enterprise. This is an incredible tool to use if you need multiple angles of an object or product for drawing, or to feature in a brochure or website. I will be offering this to my clients soon as a service along with my illustration and design services.

Modeled in SketchUp with some details and starfield background added with Photoshop

Monday, August 16

Hi everybody! Well, I've done it...I've have officially entered the blogging world. My hope is to post all kinds of neat art on here to show you what goes on in the world of Lightspeed Studios, and what kind of cool stuff I'm working on...

So stay tuned for more!