Dirty Inks

Mushroom finished

2012-01-31T15:37:00.000-08:00

Finished messing with the grays and textures in photoshop.

Mushroom pencils

2012-01-22T13:11:00.000-08:00

I've been working on different pieces of artwork all weekend and did this sketch for fun. I'm gonna be digitally putting grays over the next few days and will post the finished piece then.

Playin' on the Train Tracks

2012-01-11T21:57:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to get into digital painting for a while now and I sketched up this monster / thing a few days ago so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I did the drawing with a pencil on sketchbook paper and the grays were all dropped in using photoshop with a WACOM tablet. I love drawing monsters and this was a hell of a lot of fun to do. Digital coloring my friend, we will meet again.

Playing with Markers

2011-12-26T14:03:00.000-08:00

I did this drawing a few weeks ago on some marker paper and just got around to throwing the color on it. This is the first time I've used Copic markers in about 5 or 6 years and normally don't work in color so I don't think it turned out too bad.

Bridgman Sketches

2011-12-19T20:58:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while I break out the old drawing anatomy books to take a look at some sketching and drawing. I took out my Bridgman's Life Drawing book today and it inspired a few Asha sketches. I love the gesture in his drawings and wanted to try and capture some of that without using a model. I spent about 15 minutes per sketch and had a great time.

Saturday Drawing

2011-12-10T16:00:00.001-08:00

Just finished drawing this up. Didn't do it for any particular reason, just seemed like fun.

Flip of the Coin

2011-12-01T21:58:00.001-08:00

Just finished working on this sketch. I'm planning on going back into it a little with markers. I'll post the Markers when I get em done.

I've also been working a lot on new Asha stuff including some comic short stories so I'll be publishing quite a few things over the next few months featuring this little lady.

Asha and the Severed Head

2011-11-20T14:38:00.001-08:00

Just finished this up. I started the drawing a while ago and after a little time away from my drawing table, I needed a warm up drawing to get me back to work. Finishing this sketch up seemed like just what I needed.

I like art nouveau and hadn't really used much of it's influences on my work up until this. I'm pretty happy with how this one turned out.

2011-11-03T19:34:00.000-07:00

Gonna be behind a table at Mix(mpls indie expo) this weekend at the Soap Factory in NE Minneapolis. Stop by and say hello.

Sat 10-5
Sun 10-5

http://mplsindiexpo.com/

Fallcon 2011

2011-10-20T19:45:00.000-07:00

Had a great show this year. Thanks for everyone who stopped by and below are a few fun things from the con.

Did this Garbage Pail Kid sketch. Guy wanted recreations of different cards from the popular collection. These things are a lot of fun.

Spiderman takes aim.

These people are awesome. Badass costumes.

Pin Ups and Monsters

2011-10-03T15:25:00.000-07:00

23inx39in Acrylic on Canvas

Just finished this commission up. Hope you dig it.

Tattoo colab

2011-09-18T13:25:00.000-07:00

Tattoo designs on flesh. This was a fun collaboration with the tattoo artist Bambi from the Holy Mackerel in St Paul. Below is the chest piece and the original line art.

Rooftops Update

2011-09-07T17:56:00.000-07:00

So I've been working on the graphic novel Rooftops and Masquerades again recently. This is a book I've been working on with writer Matt DeGennaro off and on for a little while. It will be 120 pages when it's all done, and Matt will be getting me the second half of the script soon so we can finish this thing up. Hopefully it will hit book shelves sometime in 2012. Below are a couple sample pages from the first half of the book.

Page 4. Olivia at a young age new she wanted to fight crime.

Page 41. On the stake out on a rooftop in hopes of seeing a real life superhero.

Pinups and Monsters!

2011-08-09T15:51:00.000-07:00

This is a painting for the Tattoo artist that did my last piece. Her name's Bambi and if you're ever in the St Paul, MN area and want some new skin illustrations, she's a great artist to check out. You can find the Holy Mackerel where she works on a Google search pretty easy.

So yeah, she wanted me to do a painting for her. All she said she wanted was a portrait of her in my style. Hee hee hee. I don't think she was expecting this.

Below is the final composite of some drawings I'm going to transfer on a 24x39 inch canvas I hand built. I'll be posting in progress shot of it as I work on it over the next couple weeks.

This is the final composite of the drawings the for the painting. Monsters and Pinups are just a few of my favorite things. I'm really happy with how this turned out and my next step is the transfer. To transfer drawing to canvas, I scan them into my Mac and enlarger the image to the size of the final piece. Next I make the painting into a bunch of 8x10 inch sections and print each out. Piece them together with a bit of tape, get a piece of carbon paper that fits over your canvas and trace over all your pencil lines with the carbon paper between your pieced together prints and the canvas. A few hours later and you have a perfect transfer. Never use graphite transfer paper! The graphite paper leaves a waxy mark that will repel any water based media you try to paint with. A giant pain in the ass.

For the pinup, I had Bambi come over to my place to take a couple photos. Originally she was only going to be holding a treat for the monster, but she did a little improve and grabbed my cat as a prop. Brilliant.

I love monsters. Any time I can find an excuse to draw one I take it. My style for drawing a creature is to not have a preconceived idea, draw a few organic shapes, and start to texture the shapes. Do a little compositional hocus pocus and you have a monster.

New Tattoo

2011-07-23T14:40:00.001-07:00

Normally I don't post much about my personal life, but I just got this new rockin' Tattoo from Bambi over at the Holy Mackerel in St Paul, MN. In my last post I talked about my favorite video game of all time being the Shining Force series and this guy starts the apocalypse in the Shining Force 2. The character is awesome and now his face is on my arm in all its 16 bit glory.

Another warm up sketch...

2011-07-11T16:44:00.001-07:00

So I'm getting another tattoo in the next few weeks of one of the characters from the Sega Genesis video game Shining Force II and I started thinking about some fan art/ character re-designs that I did a couple years back. The character I drew here is Sheela and when I looked at the original sketch I saw a bunch of flaws in my old style of drawing and corrected a few. I know a lot of artists have personal rules about going back to fix drawings, but I don't.

Skull Tats

2011-07-02T14:49:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago my wife started to have some issues with the breaks on her car. The total bill for the thing was kinda big so before I threw down the money for it, I talked to a buddy of mine, Ben, who is kinda a wiz with all things automobile. It was going to cost quite a bit less going through Ben to do the work than the auto shop, but before I paid him I asked him if he'd like to just do a trade for some artwork. He let me know that he had an idea for a tattoo that he'd been wanting for a while, two pirate skulls with the crossbones behind them. In no time flat, the barter system worked out great for the both of us.

This is the final image for the tats. In place of the cross bones, we came up with the the concept of using the tools that he normally uses in his line of work to make the X. Soon, these will be permanently on his chest. Below, I've added some images of the process I went through with Ben to make the final image.

This and the page below are a bunch of rough sketches I took a couple minutes on to see what kind of a style he'd like me to go with. He went with a slightly realistic skull combined with a little comic book styling.

Before the inks or tools were drawn, these are the drawings for the final approved skulls.

Took this on my phone. The tools behind the skull on the left didn't work so well because of how flat they are behind the skull. If you go back to the top of the post, you can look again at what the finished inks look like and see more dynamic tools.

New Finished Awful Bliss Pages!

2011-06-15T20:45:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty pumped to be showing these. These are 3 of the finished promo pages for Awful Bliss.

Woe Is OZ sketchbook

2011-06-09T19:56:00.000-07:00

So last year I contributed some inks to a to be soon to be published sketchbook for Woe Is Oz. I drew a pirate named Regos for the book and inked a couple of the books artist, Kelly Brown. Check em out below and you can see the whole sketchbook at http://www.woeisoz.com/.

I've posted this before, but I like it and now the books out, so here it is again. I drew and inked this guy.

This is the dragon Qoax A from the Oz stories. Kelly Brown with the pencils and I did the inks with india ink. I used a brush, a Rapidograph Tech Pen, crow quill pen nibs and a couple copic marker pens. Those are the tools I use for about every inked piece I do.

I have no idea what this characters name is. I used to, but at this very moment I'm drawing a blank. Pencils by Kelly Brown and I laid down the inks.

This is Vinjur. Pencils by Kelly Brown and I made them dark.

Awful Bliss Cover

2011-05-31T17:01:00.001-07:00

Here's the cover image I came up with for the graphic novel proposal AWFUL BLISS (a pod people sci fi war epic) written by the amazing Michael Mongillo. I can't take all the credit for the colors though, Kelly Brown did a bang up job putting them on the page.

SpringCon 2011

2011-05-23T15:05:00.000-07:00

SpringCon 2011 ended up being a great one. I know I didn't post the fact that it was last weekend, but thanks for everyone who came out and said hi anyway!

About a month ago I got contacted to do a commission based on the lyrics of 'Iron Man' by Black Sabbath. The guy, we'll call him Mike... cause that was his name, asked me to do drawing based on the feeling I got when I read the lyrics. Right away this seemed like an art assignment from high school, but I thought what the hell. It could be fun. I started out drawing a ton of different machine men that looked all badass in fighting poses and thought -- naw. If I'm going to be true to what Mike asked me to do, the lyrics reminded me of being young when I used to throw on a pair of headphones and zone out. So that's what I drew.

The con itself ended up being a lot of fun. On Saturday I made a few sketches for people and even though it was down-pouring outside, we kept a good vibe inside. As usual I forgot to bring a camera and my phone camera isn't very good so I don't have images of most of the sketches I did for people. I do however have a floaty monster sketch that I did during a little down time over day one of the con.

I got a chance on day two of the Convention to talk to Steve Kurth and Barb Schulz. He's currently the penciller working for Marvel Comics on New Mutants and Barb is the head of the comic department at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. They're both damn good artists and you should check out Steve's work at http://stevekurth.blogspot.com/ and Barb's at http://studioschulz.wordpress.com/. They gave me some great advice and called bullshit on some of the decisions I make while drawing my own comics. He made me think a bit more about how I'm drawing and re-sparked my passion for drawing comics. I never lost my passion, but he gave me a much needed jolt to shake off the rust. I've been getting a bit lazy with some of my drawing and I don't get critiqued too often by someone who's already gone through the ringer. This isn't to say that I'm not trying, but I believe that I was making conscious decisions to not put in as much detail as I could or not take a little extra time to find one more reference photo while drawing panels. I was trying to save time by cutting corners. I hadn't though of it that way, but Steve called me on it as soon as he saw some of my current work. I appreciate all that was said and it made an impact that will push my work forward. Thanks to both Steve and Barb.

Day two was also a bit more relaxed as people tended to stay home during some severe weather that came through. You probably heard about the tornados that ripped up Minneapolis on Sunday. We didn't get hit in the Grandstand at the fairgrounds, but sirens were going off for about 20 minutes. My thoughts and well wishes go out to all who lost their homes to that storm.

ART CRAWL!!!!

2011-04-28T22:34:00.000-07:00

It's the Spring Art Crawl and this weekend I'll be opening up my studio to show all my newest artwork with my wife Megan and fellow comic artist Jared Martin. In the building we'll have 20 units open with over 40 artists showing work so come on over if you're in the Minneapolis/St Paul area and say hi.

2285 University Ave W

B408

St Paul, MN 55114

fri 6-10

sat 12-8

sun 10-5

New Comic: Awful Bliss

2011-04-12T21:12:00.000-07:00

So I haven't been to active posting for a while and I think I have a pretty good reason. I was contacted a few months back to do the artwork for a book called Awful Bliss. The amazing writer, Michael Mongillo, came up with the idea of a sci-fi/alien invasion storyline that once I read it I instantly became hooked. Here's a sneak peek at some of the penciled pages...

inks coming in the next week...

Prep Drawing

2011-03-20T14:19:00.001-07:00

So every once in a while I have to take a break from drawing comics for a few days or a week. For whatever reason it happens. When I try to go back to drawing, I'll sit there and stare at the pages with a glossed over look on my face not knowing what to do until I draw a sketch. It doesn't have to have anything to do with what the comic is about, but it gets the left side of my brain going so I can get some real work done. This is what I made today. Now I'm ready to draw some comics.

Con of the Mars

2011-03-09T14:16:00.000-08:00

MarsCon 2011 is now in the past and we came out of it extremely happy. We were treated really well by all the volunteers at the con and met tons of great people. These are just a few of the pictures we took and we can't wait to come back in the future. Thank you to all the people who attended and all the dealers and volunteers!

Table time for me and the Mis'us.

Yeah, I met Wonder Woman. What'd you do last weekend?

Worf sketch for my friend Joel at the Con. If you don't know who Worf is you can leave my blog.

Good book. Good movies. Good costumes.

The costumes were ridiculous this year! I took some shots of the accessories that one of the Steampunk guys above was wearing and it flat out blew me away. The detail was sick and I can say I was very impressed. Below are a few of the detail shots I took of his equipment.

Night vision goggles. I tried them on and they seriously worked. You'd hurt yourself if you tried to walk around with them on though. No depth perception what so ever.

These pistols actually remind me of design of the weapons in the 5th Element. One of my favorite movies of all time.

It's like a Steampunk version of a Ghostbusters backpack. He actually installed some recycled fuel and pressure gauges in this thing. Very slick.

And that's a little of what you missed if you didn't make it out to the convention. This doesn't even scratch the surface of everything that went down. I drank and made Science happen with Klingons. You can't make this up.

Joe

Good times ahead...

2011-03-03T13:40:00.000-08:00

Well the time is upon us, MarsCon 2011 to be exact. It's this weekend! Megan and I are exited for the honor the folks over there are giving us with the titles of Artists Guests of Honor and we'll be having a ball all weekend long while we're there. I'd like to say that I'll be posting throughout the weekend, but I'm not sure I'll have the time. If you're going to be attending this weekend stop by Meg and my table in the dealer room, check out the artwork we're having hung in the art room, or stop by one of the panels we'll be in. No matter what, we'll take a few pics and post them next week.

The doors are still open too. Feel free to check out their website for more info.

http://marscon.org/2011/index.php

Cheers,

Joe

No Touchie

2011-02-15T21:36:00.000-08:00

A new sketch for the blog. Just felt like drawing.

More Artwork for MarsCon

2011-01-29T10:41:00.000-08:00

These illos are all for the interior of the convention book for the Con. Hope you like em!

MarsCon 2011 Illo

2011-01-08T13:44:00.001-08:00

Well, here it is. I'm very happy with how it turned out. This is the second collaboration that my wife Megan and I have done together. We work well together and came up with something that neither of us would have done on our own. Hope you like it cause I think it's the bees knees!

MarsCon 2011 near finished

2011-01-03T15:33:00.000-08:00

Just about done with this one. I just need to add a few magical oohs and ahhhs and it'll be all done. This is just part of the finished piece for MarsCon 2011, and I'll post the finished bits when its all done in a few days.

Huh, oh really... I have a blog? Well I guess I should post something

2010-12-19T19:34:00.000-08:00

Before you get all judgmental on me for not posting for a few weeks let me set the record straight. I'm not lazy, I'm just busy. In a good way. My wife and I have been working on the program cover/t-shirt design for MarsCon 2011, I've been working on a new comic book project, and it's the holiday's. Now let's get to the artwork...

It's been a while since I've drawn Asha and I started to get a hankering to see what I'd put on a blank sheet of paper. I'm diggin that severed head myself. Finishing this isn't a huge priority for me right now so I'll probably re-visit it in a few months to make something out of it.

The next few images show the progression of the illustration for the MarsCon 2011 Program/T-Shirt. Megan and I are both working on this like we did on the poster last summer and we're using some of the characters we created for the poster too. I've been working on the witch and I'll post some more pictures of the full illustration after next weekend.

Sucka Free Art Sale: Christmas Edition

2010-12-01T19:36:00.000-08:00

The snow falls, the temperature drops and people seem to have forgotten how to drive... but what does this all mean?!? It's time for the 2nd annual SUCKA FREE ART SALE! (christmas edition). We all have those people that are tough to find a gift for and now you're in luck, 18 local artists are gathering in one location this weekend to provide you with the spot to find all the perfect gifts you've been searching for. I'll be setting up shop with all my most current artwork and books, but there will also be Jewelry, Clothing, Photography, Stationary, Horror, Paintings, Comics, Handmade Books and lots more!

Tarnish & Gold Gallery

Saturday, Dec. 4th 10am-7pm

Sunday, Dec 5th 12pm-5pm

1511 Marshall St NE, Minneapolis, MN 55418

www.tarnishandgoldgallery.org

check it out on facebook

I hope to see you there!

Joe Rheault

dirtyinks.blogspot.com

dirtyinks.deviantart.com

joe_rheault@hotmail.com

Dr Sketchy Strikes Again

2010-11-28T16:08:00.000-08:00

Another day, another Dr Sketchy session. I love going to these and I think it comes through in the drawings. This months model was named Kitten Van Der Snatch. Awesome name. Below are three 5 min drawings that I did and a 15 min drawing.

For this last one, I won for best shading in a drawing and took home a nice 331 tank top for my wife as a prize. Good times.

Creature Drawing

2010-11-06T14:36:00.000-07:00

Started to draw this the other night and finished it today as a warm up to working on some character designs I'm working on tonight. I think it was pretty successful and I had a lot of fun drawing it. This was one of those drawings that started out as a couple of circles on the page with no idea where it was going or what I was trying to draw. When I'm drawing monsters I like to treat it more as a sculpture that forms out of mark making on the page. Put something down, take a little away, repeat. I also believe that you will get your most interesting designs like this instead of having a pre-conceived idea of what the monster should look like.

New Sexy Sketch

2010-10-28T20:53:00.000-07:00

I guess I got a little inspired to draw more scantily clad woman after this last weekend at sketchy's.

Dr Sketchy's or Bust

2010-10-25T16:23:00.000-07:00

Dr Sketchy's

Figure drawing with a Burlesque dancer... yeah, I'll be back.

First 10 min drawing

Second 10 min drawing

30 Minute final drawing of the day

Again if you haven't heard of this event check it out at http://www.drsketchy.com/.

Inked Pirate

2010-10-23T13:43:00.001-07:00

Not too much to say about this. It's a pirate.

FallCon 2010 Recap

2010-10-17T17:45:00.000-07:00

This years FallCon in Minneapolis was a huge success! The crowds filled the halls of the convention as soon as the doors opened and the crowd was shoulder to shoulder for hours. I want to thank everyone who came out to show support and all the new people I had the pleasure to meet. Below is the monster sketch I created with a ball point pen between conversations.

Fall Shows 2010

2010-10-06T21:16:00.000-07:00

So I can almost hear the gears in your mind cranking around as you wonder, "How and where will I be able to check out Joe Rheault aka Dirty Inks artwork this fall?" Well stop waisting all that energy moving those mindwaves thinking about it and keep reading because I'll be showing work over the next two weekends!

First up is the --

St Paul Art Crawl

Carlton Artist Lofts

2285 University Ave W Unit B408

St Paul, MN 55114

Oct 8 6-10

Oct 9 12-8

Oct 10 5-8

The Art Crawl is when artists open up their homes and studios to the public and offer wine and cheese to you fine people while soliciting sales of the arts. My wife, Megan Rheault, and I will be setting up shop and turning our home into a gallery space for the entire weekend so stop by, have a drink, and lets talk art.

Second...

FallCon 2010

Minnesota State Fairgrounds - Process Center

1621 Randall Ave

St Paul, MN 55108

Oct 16 10-5

The one day wonder is Back! 360 minutes what comics are all about. Both Indie and Mainstream comics are represented at this festival of sequential art. Stop by my table and say hello!

http://midwestcomicbook.com/

Now doesn't that feel better? All you need to do now is stop by for one of these events or if you're feeling really rambunctious why not come to both? I'll see you soon.

-Joe

Black Beard Pencils

2010-09-29T19:56:00.000-07:00

I did this piece for my friend Kelly Brown who is doing a sketchbook issue of his comic Woe is Oz in the near future. He asked me to do a drawing based on a character he made and this is it so far. I won't be able to get the inks done right away because of a busy schedule, but as soon as they are I'll post em.

Dr Sketchy - Cure for the common Sunday

2010-09-28T18:36:00.000-07:00

First let me talk about Dr Sketchy. Every forth Saturday in select cities around the world a burlesque dancer takes the stage. She walks up to that stage not only to perform, but to pose as a muse for an audience of artists. At this point my wife and I took out our sketchbooks and began to draw. If you've never drawn a live model, it's one of the best ways to learn how to draw the human figure or to just keep your drawing skills sharp. As far as materials go, I just used an old 11x14 sketchbook, a Copic brush marker, and a H pencil.

Our dancer, Cherokee, came out wearing a stereotypical Native America costume equipped with a bow and suction cup arrow. Think of Pocahontas. She wasn't making fun of the culture, but paying homage to her own cherokee roots in a fun way. The session started off with a few 30 second warm up sketches and that's when I noticed it's been a while since I've drawn a live model. Below are a few of the drawings I made at this point.

After those first sketches, we had a couple 5 min drawings. I was still warming up at this point.

And then the dancer, Cherokee, gave us a small break while she danced up on stage followed by a 10 min drawing. Still warming up.

And then the 30 min drawing. All warmed up and having a damn good time drawing.

Dr Sketchy was just flat out rad. I had a great time and got a good sketch out of it. I'll definitely be going back next month. And did I mention this all took place at the 331 club down the street from me? It's a bar. When I went to school it was frowned upon to have a drink or two during class. Not at the 331. They also serve sandwiches.

You can take a look at what my wife, Megan Rheault, thought of the show by clicking below pixiegirlstudios.blogspot.com

Check out more on Dr Sketchy's by clicking the link below.

http://www.drsketchy.com/

Pencil Sketch

2010-09-22T19:46:00.000-07:00

Just another pencil sketch of a dude with a sword. I never get tired of drawing these guys. Things are movin' along career wise, but I can't talk about it until a book hits the shelves. Which might be a while. So in the meantime I'll be posting a bunch of drawings in pencil and pen.

Creepy Monster

2010-09-07T16:58:00.001-07:00

Another sketchy sketch sketch with a ballpoint pen! And yes, I did not draw genitalia. PG-13 people!

Most Awesome Con Ever

2010-08-25T20:23:00.000-07:00

Honestly, I don't know the last time I had this much fun at a comic convention.

MIX (Minneapolis Indie Xpo) was last weekend and it was the most fun I've ever had at a convention to date. This was my first experience with an Indie convention and it was both what I expected and never thought it would be. I know that's a bullsh!t way of dodging a real answer, but it somehow feels like the truth. I knew that there would be about 65 comic artists of different experience levels debuting their handcrafted paper stories. I knew that Marvel and DC would have zero presence at this convention. I knew that there would not be toys or old issues of the X-Men sold by different vendors. On the other hand, I knew that people were supposed to come to an Indie convention with a passion for comic books, story telling and interesting artwork. I just didn't realize how many people would actually show up with their passions. Or how strong that passion would be. I also didn't realize how much I would regret not bringing my camera.

I was blown away by the first person who came by my table to check out my books. I honestly thought he was an artist walking the rooms and checking out what people had to offer before the doors opened. The show went from 9-5 and to me this seemed a tad bit early for a convention to start. Most of them start around 10 and the first people to come by an Indie table show up around 11. At 9:05 this man was looking at my books. He got up early, made up his mind to go to MIX right away, and was at my table first thing. And he wasn't an artist. He was a fan. He was a nice guy and liked my Asha book enough to buy a copy. I knew at this moment that I was part of something special. Not because I made a few bucks, but because this guy came to MIX as a true fan of comics and to find something he hadn't seen before.

The rest of the day didn't change much except for the pulsating heat that slowly hacked away at my energy. MIX was located at The Soap Factory in NE Minneapolis. The Soap Factory is a gorgeous location with a bunch of personality running through it's old wooden walls, but it has no AC. For the most part I didn't even notice because of the good time I was having with the audience and the other artists. They 5 hr energy I swallowed helped a little too. One artist that stood out was the guy I was sitting next to. He went by the name of Timothi Godek. Tim impressed me with his 35 ft long comic that fit nicely into an 8x10 book via an accordion fold. You can check out his stuff by clicking here. Not only was this a cool idea that he managed to pull off, but the comic itself was great! The show was full of pure entertainment and a few moments made me sit back and contemplate how I view myself and others. Comics are wondrous in that way. I like my mainstream book and all, but Indie books are truly the sh!t.

Thank you to Sara and Andy for putting on this carnival of storytellers. I'll be back next year.

This is my tentacle and eyeball monster sketch I made during the convention. Straight bic ballpoint pen with no erasures.

Another sketch started at the con and finished later. This is why I love sketching, I don't know who this dude is or why I drew him and I most likely will never use the guy in a book. I don't care because it was fun to draw.

Inkin and Sketchin

2010-08-19T19:57:00.000-07:00

So I do sketch sometimes. I know it never happens as often as I'd like, and I talk about how I need to do it more often, but here are a few samples of what my sketchbook has looked like lately.

Not sure where this comes from in my subconscious, but a dinosaur head on a guy with a tie. This was a straight out pen drawing. I think it's good for any artist to ditch the eraser every once and a while to see what happens.

Spaceman. I love these suits. They're bulky and lead to all sorts of other awesome costume designs.

Now this isn't one of my sketches. Those of you who follow my blog have seen my buddy Kelly Brown's work. We have a good working relationship where I've written stories for him and I've inked a whole lot of pencils. He did this drawing based on my Asha character and I made the inked version below. You can check out more of Kelly's work by clicking here.

MIX 8/21/10

2010-08-18T19:33:00.000-07:00

This weekend... Saturday only... Catch all the local comic artists you can take at the Minneapolis Indie Expo! Over 65 amazingly talented artists sitting behind tables just waiting to talk comics. A dream come true? Why yes, yes it is. Mix is located at the Soap Factory over by St Anthony Main in NE Minneapolis this Saturday from 9-5.

518 Southeast 2nd Street

Minneapolis, MN 55458

I copied the directions off of the website for your convenience.

Directions

The Minneapolis Indie Xpo will take place at The Soap Factory in Minneapolis, which can be reached by boat, plane, train, bus, foot, car or bike.

View Larger Map

by boat

Construct a raft of wood or plastic. Place it in the Mississippi River. Point the bow in the direction of Minneapolis, north or south depending on your starting point. Paddle furiously. Go ashore once you see the University of Minnesota, then head west on University Avenue. Take a left on 5th Avenue and you’re there!

by plane

The Minneapolis International Airport is located just south of the city in Bloomington, MN, and is connected to Minneapolis by lightrail transit. You can often find good prices for package deals on flights + car rentals + hotels on sites like cheaptickets.com or expedia.com.

by train

St. Paul (Minneapolis’ twin city) is located on Amtrak’s Empire Builder route. Did you know that for a small fee, you can also bring your bicycle on the train with you? Ride to Minneapolis, then bike all over town! The Amtrak station and The Soap Factory are connected by about 3.5 miles of University Avenue. VisitAmtrak online for more details.

by bus

The Soap Factory is connected to the metro area via several major bus routes. Use the metrotransit.orgwebsite to plan your trip using Trip Planner. Then use the site’s Find Service feature to see where each intersection is in relationship to The Soap Factory. Use “518 2ND ST SE” as the address when searching on their site.

Minneapolis is also on the megabus route that connects Chicago-Milwaukee-Madison-Minneapolis. Tickets for the megabus start at $1! Go to http://us.megabus.com/ for more information.

by foot

Bind your laces tight and whistle a happy tune. You’re heading for the Minneapolis Indie Xpo! Get out your GPS tracking system and walk towards (44.983473, -93.249585).

by car

The Soap Factory does not have a lot. You must park on the street. Luckily, street parking is free! There is also some metered parking and time-limited parking in the area as well. Watch for the signs!

by bike

The City of Minneapolis has a website for bicyclists that you can visit HERE. You may find more information on the Bike Walk Twin Cities site which is HERE. Best of all though is the Hennepin County Bike Map pdf (published January 2009) which can be found HERE.

http://mplsindiexpo.com/

July and August So Far...

2010-08-08T10:58:00.000-07:00

Alright, it's been bit since I've posted to my blog and I apologize for not having anything new. July and August were a blur after Convergence happened over the forth. I worked on some commission pieces that business-wise fell apart at no fault to anyone and I hit a slump artists block. Just like an author with writers block, sometimes artists hit that wall as well. Different factors led to it and I think I just started to feel a little burnt out. I did 6 shows in 6 months and am going to be a part of Mix on the 21st of August in Minneapolis at the Soap Factory. So make it 7 shows in 7 months. I'll post more on that show on a later post. I've been hit with artist's block before and it lasted for several years. I'm not gonna ever let that shit happen again. To get over my block I've been talking to other artists and business owners to gain knowledge of some of the things I need to get done in order to get the work pumped out again.

A really good conversation I had was with my friend Pat. He's a guy who's worked at the big 2(Marvel and DC) and even had the prestigious title of 'Editor'. Pat had a lot of kind words to say about my work and gave me the one thing I haven't had since I was in school in 04'. A swift kick in the ass and a good honest critique of my work. He had some great advice on the lettering for my Asha book. The words and balloons didn't mesh with the artwork at all. Not his exact words, but this is my blog and I've decided to paraphrase. He gave me some pointers to Adobe Illustrator (the program I use to do my lettering) and listed off a bunch of typography terms that lost me at first. Needless to say I figured it out and re-lettered the story. I'm not planning on reprinting it, but it was a great exercise to due so I could learn to better my stories. I put the before and after below for page 1. I increased the space in the balloons around the lettering, created a more hand drawn feeling for the balloons and tails, gave the tails more personality, and payed more attending to the proximity space for the lettering inside the balloons. Proximity space is the space between the edge of the balloon and the closest piece of lettering. The goal is to try and get the proximity space on each side of the balloon the same.

Original Lettering

Revamped Lettering

Next he talked about how to make a living making this nonsense called comics. It's all about persistence. Don't get me wrong, you need a boat load of talent too, but to make it in comics you first have to 'pay your dues'. For me this is self publishing, working on the graphic novel Rooftops and Masquerades, and doing the legwork of attending shows constantly. This is what's working for me and anyone out there who wants to be going in the same direction of working in professional comics needs to due the same thing. CREATE! There's no time to get burnt out. There's no time to get bumbed about getting stiffed on a payday for a commission or whatever it is that's standing in someones way for anything. So for right now I've sucked it up and believe I'm just about done with this stupid artist's block.

Lastly, Pat borrowed me these really cool Bernie Wrightson books from the early nineties called 'CAPTAIN STERNN'. These books are amazing! and if you haven't heard of Bernie before you should definitely check him out. I highly recommend Bernie Wrightson's 'Frankenstein'.

all artwork in photo (c) Bernie Wrightson and Kitchen Sink Comix 1993

Interview

2010-07-19T15:05:00.000-07:00

No images for right now, but here is an interview that my wife and I did for a fellow artist. She goes by the name of Abundant Empress and you can check out her blog and the interview at the link below!

http://abundantempress.blogspot.com/2010/07/local-artists-joe-rheault-and-megan.html

CONvergence 2010

2010-07-06T08:45:00.000-07:00

Just finished an awesome weekend at CONvergence and had a blast! It's a four day scifi and fantasy convention in Minneapolis, MN. My wife Megan and myself got a table in the dealer room to sell artwork and talk to all the cool people attending. We met tons of people of all ages and saw some wicked costumes.

Those are only the ones I got pictures of. I saw an eight foot tall perfect replica of Chewbacca! I'm pretty sure the person inside the costume was on stilts, but no matter what, it was sweet. A lot of the best costumes were on display after the dealers room closed up and we didn''t have passes to the rest of the convention so we missed out on those. Next year we'll know better.

The one day I did stay a little later was on Friday. Meg couldn't make it so I helped the good people at the MarsCon party room set up and attended a panel where a professional costumer and makeup artist converted a woman into a Klingon. It wasn't something I was planning on seeing, but I'm glad that I saw it. These people are so creative with the tools they have and how they make all the textures in the clothing and makeup. I used to think that all that stuff was handmade for film and TV, but found out most of the costume is made of found objects that are cut up and spray painted.

While I was promoting ourselves and MarsCon 2011, I had my sketchbook out and created a few fun images. A new goal of mine is to get more sketching done just like this on a more regular basis.

Now it's back to work until MIX. Mix is an independent comic expo that's taking place August 21st at the soap factory here in Minneapolis. Thanks to all the people who came out and said hey this weekend and I can't wait to see you at all the other shows I'll be at over the next few months!

Crom

2010-06-29T13:10:00.001-07:00

After I finished up the MarsCon 2010 promo work and some commission pieces I wanted to go back and finish some drawings I started. This is Crom.

2010-06-17T13:27:00.000-07:00

Just finished this commission up. It was for a musical therapist that contacted me. The portrait is of a kid from Rwanda that she had worked with and he passed away in a boating accident. To pay tribute she asked me to paint his portrait and rapper name on the guitar and she's sending it to his family. This is the first time I've worked with enamel paint and it's a little tricky to use. I found it's best to use in spray form and even then it can get away from you. I never got into graffiti when I was younger so my skills with a can could use a little practice, but I thought that the portrait was solid. The most difficult part of the piece was the clear enamel coat. It's like a liquid plastic you spray from a can and burns the lungs a little. It all came out in the end so I'm happy with the final piece.

MarsCon Individual Pieces

2010-06-16T10:11:00.000-07:00

Here's a look at the characters I designed for the MarsCon 2011 poster.

This unicorn wasn't used for the final poster because compositionally it just didn't fit. The look of it is pretty nice, but it didn't make the cut.

Check out the other pieces my wife Megan Rheault did at pixiegirlstudios.blogspot.com

Unused drawing

2010-06-16T10:06:00.000-07:00

I did this drawing for the Bell Museum in Minneapolis, MN. They decided not to use it so I didn't end up finishing the piece. I like the look of the drawing and some day I'll probably take a few hours and finish it up.

MarsCon 2011 finished poster

2010-06-09T11:42:00.000-07:00

After a whole buncha work, here it is. This is the first time Megan and myself have worked on a large piece together and we had a blast. Overall I think this poster was a great success and even more so I hope that it brings more attention to MarsCon in March of 2011.

MarsCon Poster Designs

2010-05-22T17:47:00.000-07:00

So I made the announcement that my wife Megan and I were asked to be the Artist Guests of Honor next year for MarsCon here in Minneapolis and one of our tasks was to create a poster. In this poster we were asked to include a witch, wizard, unicorn, mermaid, princess, a castle and some fairies. So Meg and I got to thinking and we split up the task of drawing all these character and these are the ones I came up with.

This is my version of a witch. As you can see, I made her pretty sexy and gave her a bit of a Joe styling.

This is the mascot of the convention, Snarky. I haven't drawn someone else's character in a while and it kicks a lot of ass! Usually I character design the hell out of everything I draw and this was a big relief to just take the design that was already made and create a pose. Lots of fun! You can't tell yet, but he frog is a prince looking up at the princess Meg drew and Snarky wants the crown. You can check the princess out at pixiegirlstudios.blogspot.com

Unicorns kick ass. Just draw a horse and give it a horn.

And the Steampunk wizard. This was my idea. I noticed at MarsCon this year and at the SpringCon Comics Convention in Minneapolis that one of the most popular genres of costume people were wearing was Steampunk. Steampunk is a mix of victorian style, punk rock and steam power for anyone who's not familiar with it. I haven't seen anyone dressed up as Gandolf the Grey so I decided to make the Steampunk Wizard. My Marscon contact was a little skeptical of me not drawing a traditional wizard, but she agreed with my suggestions for why this worked. I don't think the drawing hurt my case either.

To check out the rest of the characters go to pixiegirlstudios.com. If they're not up yet, they will be shortly because I can see them drawn right next to me. All these drawings are being composited into the poster design and I'll post that finished piece when it's all done.

-Dirty Inks 'The Art of Joe Rheault'

SpringCon 2010!!!

2010-05-13T22:19:00.000-07:00

SpringCon Comics Convention THIS WEEKEND! Somehow it slipped my mind to tell everyone, but stop by the Grandstand at the Fairgrounds to say hi and buy a book!

Sat May 15: 10-5

Sun May 16: 10-5

Asha and Dragon finished

2010-04-24T13:18:00.001-07:00

Just finished this painting up a few days ago for the Art Crawl this weekend and I'm thinkin it looks quite killer. Exactly what I set out to do and 'BLAM' there it is a few weeks later. I should be a little more humble about my own painting, but screw it, I think this rocks!

Final Process

2010-04-21T09:38:00.001-07:00

Taking shape quite nicely if I say so myself. All I have to do today is ink the painting which creates a ton of depth and do whatever clean up needs to be done. I also found out that this painting and the Asha and the Worm painting will be in the foyer of the Artist Lofts I live at for the duration of the Art Crawl this weekend. So if you don't have plans for the weekend get your butt over here and check it out! Between me and my wife Megan we have a ton of new work and you can take a look at my new book too! If you can't make it and don't want to pay for shipping to get my new book, just go over to the Source Comics and Games in Falcon Heights to pick up your copy, I just sold them 20 copies of it yesterday!

Asha and Dragon Painting Process 2

2010-04-11T17:20:00.000-07:00

As promised, here's another glimpse into the creation of this painting. Eventually I'm going to need to invest in some lighting equipment because some of the painting was blown out with the natural light, but overall this photo catches most of it pretty well. Since the last post, I've worked on the tree line and the cliff in the bottom left. The form of the cliff is really starting to take shape nicely, but the trees still need a little bit of work. I'm getting pretty pumped to finish all that up so that I can start on the really fun part... the dragon.

Hot Off the Presses!

2010-04-09T12:01:00.001-07:00

Asha in Thievin Ways/The Burbs is now available thru Amazon.com (link below) or you can't stop by during the St Paul Spring Art Crawl to see the newest artwork and have a glass of wine. The dates and times are in the previous post. Thanks!

http://www.amazon.com/Asha-Thievin-Ways-Burbs-1/dp/145155415X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270839852&sr=8-1

2010-04-09T11:57:00.000-07:00

The Spring Art Crawl is just about here so come join me and and my wife Megan when we open up our home/studio so people can see our most current work and just have some fun and wine. We're not the only ones opening our doors either, there are over 25 units that will have their doors open in our building alone! April 23-25 Fri 6-10 Sat 12-8 and Sun 12-5

2285 University Ave W unit 408

St Paul, MN

Asha and Dragon Painting Process

2010-04-02T13:13:00.001-07:00

So its been a little while since I've published some new work and I gotta say it was starting to get to me. I like posting images and hearing what everyone has to say about them. Lately I've been tied up trying to get that Asha book printed and am very close to announcing the release date. I've also been doing a ton of inking on the Rooftops and Masquerades graphic novel, jumping back into this painting and starting a commission painting that is very time consuming. But enough excuses! I'm going to get back into the habit of posting actual artwork again and that's my plan.

One of my first posts to this blog was a mishmash sketch of the idea for this painting. Like the last Asha painting I did (check it out at dirtyinks.deviantart.com), I'm going to use an acrylic wash on the foreground elements as well as just plain ink them. The thing I'm changing up is that instead of inking the background and using a wash on that, I'm going for a more painterly background with hints of pencil that you can see to pump detail. I'm guessing I'll have about two more process photos before it's all done, so let me know what you think along the way.

Another day another post

2010-03-24T22:29:00.001-07:00

I don't have any art to post this time, but hopefully I will sometime soon. I'm currently in the process of submitting my book to the printer for the second time. The idea I had to print the book so that you flip it upside down to read the other story was nixed. The printer claimed that their machines could not 'technically' print upside down images and text. I can still smell the funk from that bullshit, but I held it together and my wife Megan had a good idea on how to go back into the files to make something I'd be happy with. Try number dos has just taken place and within the next two days I'll hear back from them on whether or not I have to make more changes to the files. In the meantime, I'll be working on a commission painting and maybe put up a few images I'll be using to create the painting. It's gonna consist of a whole lot of portraits of my clients family so there will be a lot of prep work before the actual painting hits canvas. And now that the Asha story is in the bag, I'll have more time to crank out some Rooftops pages! So cheers and I'm gonna get back to work.

Final Covers

2010-03-15T11:53:00.000-07:00

So I said there would be two covers and here they are. Kelly did an amazing job and I'm very happy with how both turned out. I took a couple days to get the Asha book done because I hadn't colored on Photoshop in a few years, but like I said, I'm very happy with how they turned out. I'll be sending the book in to the printer here in the next few days and when I get an idea of when it will be for sale I'll let you all know.

Marscon 2010

2010-03-08T11:37:00.000-08:00

Another convention over and it was a fun one. Meg and I had a great time meeting new fans and getting out there at a convention we'd never attended before. Three days after getting there and we'll definitely be there again next year. I'm not going to announce it until we have it all official, but there may be some big news coming about us and Marscon 2011!

Use at our table. This is what everybody got to look at when they came by for conversation and to look at some art. I've also posted my three favorite costumes of the con. Frankenstein may just have won because not only did he look awesome, but he stayed in character which was bad ass. I also put a couple of the Marscon sketches that I made while there.

Comicbook Covers

2010-03-05T21:12:00.001-08:00

Here's the real side A cover. I posted another image that I said I was going to use for the cover, but I was never in love with the image I created. It was a case of looking at something for too long without taking a step back and really giving it a hard look. When I did that I noticed dissatisfaction and made this new drawing. I'm much happier and am proud to use this image for the cover!
For Kelly Brown's amazing cover that he drew, I finished up the inks on it and here's how it turned out.

Asha cover pencils

2010-03-02T15:50:00.000-08:00

Here's the cover design I came up with for the second half of the upcoming book I'm publishing. The inked and colored version will be coming soon.

Asha and the Faries page 1-3 Inked and Lettered

2010-03-01T15:09:00.000-08:00

I'm back to posting. I had to take a little hiatus from posting new work because of some health issues, but I'm back to feeling good and being productive. Below I've put the first three pages from the Asha story fully lettered and inked for you to check out. I've got the whole story done, and I'm shooting for the end of March to have the new book printed. Things got pushed back a little because of life, but that's just the way things work out sometimes. I'll post the cover in a few days when I get it all complete.

The Burbs Cover Pencils

2010-02-20T21:11:00.000-08:00

I did not draw this! It was the amazing Kelly Brown, which you can check out at comicvolt.blogspot.com. He illustrated this awesome cover image for the upcoming comic I'll be publishing. This will be one cover and I'll make a cover for the other side of the book. What I'm doing is making a comic that contains two short stories, 'Asha and the Fairies' and 'The Burbs', that you flip the book over to read the other comic. If you want to check out The Burbs, go to dirtyinks.deviantart.com. I'll have a cover image done by the end of next week for Asha and all of the Asha comic pages are now inked (big thanks to my intern Jack) and once they're lettered I'll publish some of those as well.

Hawaiian Shirt Sketch

2010-02-18T21:59:00.000-08:00

Alright, so I don't have a whole lot to post this week because all the pages I'm working on between the Asha story and Rooftops aren't ready to be posted. So to have something to show I sketched this guy up real quick just for fun. I like him and I think eventually this will be a good sketch to do a quick coloring to fresh up my skills for photoshop. I haven't got around to coloring anything else either because this week I've been finishing up a grant I've been working on since last August. Near completion and I'm a happy dude. Next week I'll get something a little meatier to post then a sketch.

Asha and the Faries page 11

2010-02-11T18:29:00.001-08:00

And I'm done penciling! The story is done and now on to inking. I'm going to take a day break from this story to work on Rooftops and Masquerades, but the inking shouldn't take too long. After the inks and the letters are put on, I need to reteach myself Indesign so I can send this thing off to get printed. Indesign is an Adobe program used to lay pages out and other things. I'll just be using it to lay out my pages to get them ready to print. Hopefully I'll have a finished comic in my hands by the end of the month. Fingers are crossed.

Asha and the Faries page 10

2010-02-11T09:52:00.000-08:00

So this was the second ending I actually wrote. This was supposed to be it, but of course I wasn't satisfied with the ending so I'm working on page 11 right now and will have it up on here soon. The story isn't the easiest thing to follow with just the pictures, but I'm going to bust ass on the inks and try and finish all of them by the end of next week. Wish me luck.

Saturday Inks

2010-02-07T11:23:00.001-08:00

So yesterday I got a text message from a good friend and fellow artist about a show at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts Museum. This show was unique because they were accepting any artists work to put up. He also told me that the deadline was less than 24 hrs away. In haste I created the piece above using a drawing I did a little while back and transferring it to a wooden canvas board. I like the way it turned out and have decided to do a few more of them in the future when I have time. The show is from Feb 19 thru June 13th. Go check it out, there will be a ton of work up.

Again, the same Asha drawing, but like I said in an earlier post, I wanted to Ink this and the Warrior drawing I did so that when I get some free time I can color both of them in photoshop. For the image above on wood and this one, I did have to ink both of them. The transfer was in carbon and in order for the ink not to bleed down the woodgrain, I had to seal it with matte medium. For those who don't know it's a milky gel that drys clear. The ink went on it perfectly and I when I get the original back, I'll get a good scan of it to post.

Warrior

2010-02-05T12:50:00.001-08:00

I drew this up as a redesign for the character Luke in the RPG Shinning Force for the Sega Genesis. This is by far my favorite video game of all time. I did another one of a centaur called May that you can find on my dirtyinks.deviantart.com page. Hopefully I can ink this and one other drawing I did of Asha in the next week so I can start coloring them in photoshop. You can probably notice by looking at my work that I don't use color very often, so I feel it's about time I added some to my resume. I'll post when I've got them lookin pretty.

Asha and the Faries page 9

2010-01-29T14:10:00.000-08:00

Another page taken care of. The little man is named Shal and I created him a few years ago for another story, but never used him. This will only be the first appearance of the little man.

Asha and the Faries page 8

2010-01-28T10:48:00.000-08:00

I finished up this page last weekend, but just got around to posting it. Call me lazy, call me what you will, but I've got a million excuses if you do. This whole working for yourself thing keeps you damn busy. I'll post up page 9 soon, hopefully tonight. I've been working on the Rooftops book trying to finish a page of pencils a day and keeping up with it pretty well. After I hit my quota I allow myself to work on this story or other projects I've got. Eventually I will post some real Rooftops pages to tease a little for what's to come, but for now I'll work my ass off and keep on multitasking. Even though I'm always busy working for myself now, I wouldn't trade it in for the world.

Asha and the Faries page 6-7

2010-01-22T21:10:00.000-08:00

Page 6

Page 7

Decided to work straight through the weekend to try and finished the pencils to this Asha story. Page six was a pain in the ass. Last week I taught myself how to do three point perspective for the Rooftops book and gave myself the challenge of making a round building in 3-point. It wasn't easy and I destroyed a few erasers, but I'm happy with how it came out. The rest of the pages should role out pretty quick.

Weekend Monster Sketches

2010-01-18T16:06:00.000-08:00

I'm pumped about getting into my sketchbook and doing a couple of drawings. I spend most of my time working on comics and other projects that have been going on for months so I don't really make time to just sit down and see what happens on a blank piece of paper. This weekend was nice because I was out of state and made sure that I only had my sketchbook. With a need to make some monsters ... Tah Dah!!!

No-Buffalo Final

2010-01-18T15:55:00.000-08:00

After a few days for Dan to talk to his business partners, this is the final design for his logo and business card I came up with. I ended up taking a little longer on it because I also took the challenge upon myself to learn how to use Adobe Illustrator a little better. I'm not thinking about doing a ton of work in Illustrator from now on, but I'm glad I know it a little better. This is a great business I'm glad to be a part of and hopefully it means a discounted price on the buffalo seasoning!

Asha and the Faries page 5

2010-01-14T13:48:00.000-08:00

Page 5! I'm just happy to have something to post this week. I came down with a nasty cold last Sunday which made being productive a pain in the ass. I toughed it out and with the help of 5 hour energy, finished these pencils up.

Asha and the Faries page 4

2010-01-08T13:46:00.001-08:00

Another page towards Asha and the Fairies. This was a fun page to draw and I was very pleased with how it turned out. I've also been working on the finished penciled pages for the Rooftops book and have been getting about one page a day completed. Once I get a little further with it I'll post a few pages to give a taste of what the story and artwork are looking like. The holidays are now over and getting back to work has been a blast!

Asha and the Faries page 1-3

2009-12-30T10:22:00.000-08:00

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

These are the first three pages of a short story I've been working on for a while. They got put on the back burner for a while, but I decided to throw another project into the mix of my already busy schedule. This is the first story I've put the Asha character into and I'm still trying to feel out her character as far as who she is and why she is the way she is. The story will be ten pages total and I'll keep posing the images on here as they get finished. My goal is to get this done and printed with 'The Burbs' (a short story I wrote, inked, and lettered you can see at dirtyinks.deviantart.com) in a small short stories comic by early March 2010. I'm going to be showing at Marson in Minneapolis, MN March 5-7 and know the Rooftops book won't be out by then so I'd like to have something new in print.

ET

2009-12-30T10:09:00.000-08:00

I'm now able to post this ET portrait I did for a gift to a friend. It was a christmas gift so no spoiling the surprise by putting it up here to soon, right? The humor behind the drawing is that his girlfriend has a small phobia about ET. Am I a jerk for introducing a piece of artwork into their home that will probably cause this girl is little mental anguish? Probably.

No-Buffalo

2009-12-16T09:54:00.000-08:00

More process! These are some sketches I made for my friend Dan. He's starting a business called No-Buffalo and under the name he's going to have several different services like dry rub for buffalo wings and computer tech support to name a few. After making up these sketches, he chose the middle buffalo with it's mouth open because of the attitude. You have no idea how happy I was that he chose this. I believe too many businesses are timid when choosing a logo or brand. Throwing a little humor in things helps people remember the brand when they see it and on top of that I'm gonna have a great time drawing the final version. I won't be getting the finalized version done until after the holidays, but I'll post it when it is complete.

JMR Construction

2009-12-16T09:41:00.000-08:00

I drew this deck my brother built and designed the card for his new business he just started up. We're both really happy with how the card turned out. My main goal with his business card was to add color and make it stand out from the other construction cards I've seen that are white with red and blue type on them. I've got nothing against these cards, but they all look exactly the same to me and I believe I came up with a nice look using work that Jesse has created as well.

2009-12-03T21:29:00.000-08:00

So this is the sort of the beginning of a new painting I'm working on with my Asha character. I had an old painting with her on a rooftop with a monster that you can see at dirtyinks.deviantart.com, but I was never really happy with it. I had work on it a lot since what you can see at deviant art, but the process I used to just 'wing' the monster while doing the painting didn't work too well for me and I just couldn't get its anatomy right. So I painted white over everything but Asha. Drew a dragon. And wallah! I just have to work a little more to flesh this out and then I'll transfer it onto the 30x36 canvas to start painting. Like most artists, I've got several things I'm working on at once so don't expect the finished painting to get posted too soon. I will post images to show it throughout the process so I'll let people see a little of how I work on a painting this size.

Promo Piece

2009-11-30T21:12:00.000-08:00

First Post! I'm working on my new book 'Rooftops and Masquerades' written by Matt DeGennaro. I'll post more sample pages from the book as they come out and hopefully the book will be out in stores by late spring early/summer.