Latest Posts

Aurora Light – Character Design for The REPLICANTS Project

By
Ralph Contreras
 – August 4, 2010Posted in: #makecomics, Character Design, Colored, Digitally Colored, Featured Posts, Featured Slideshow, Graphic Design, Inked, Pencils, Photoshop, Pin-Up, Sketch


The idea of Aurora Light came from a challenge to create a superhero team based on an existing team. The REPLICANTS Project created by Dean Rivet. The inspiration for Aurora Light came from Wonder Woman. What I did was look at what makes Wonder Woman a cool character. She has a rich history centered around Greek mythology. She’s an amazon warrior for peace. She’s also in this world, but not of this world. I took these core elements in the creation of Aurora Light, Sylvia Knightley. She is from another world, a world of monsters and angels. but she is on earth as a protector of humanity. Instead of looking at mythology I centered her world around folklore. She is the daughter of Lilith, also know as Adam’s first wife. Like an amazon, Sylvia comes from a world of warrior women. She choose to protect humanity from the dark evils that wish to harm it.

Here are the different steps I took to create my character design illustration of Aurora Light. First I penciled out the original drawing. I used .05 HB mechanical pencil. Then I scanned the pencils and turned them into blue lines in photoshop. I printed the blue line version on card stock paper. I used a nib pen and a Kohinoor Rapidograph Technical Pen .50mm to ink it. I did most of the inking with the nib pen though. Once I finished the inking I then scanned it again and sharpened the contrast in Adobe Photoshop. Then I created flats in photoshop and used them to help in digitally coloring the illustration. It was a fun challenge. – Shazam

Creating Cool New Characters for The REPLICANTS Project

By
Ralph Contreras
 – April 4, 2010Posted in: #makecomics, Character Design, Comic Book, DC Comics, Marvel

I’ve been participating in a fun collaboration with some great comic artist in The REPLICANTS Project.

What we are doing is creating our own characters based on existing characters. Similar to how Marvel Comics Squadron Supreme was based on DC Comics Justice League, and how the Watchmen characters were based on the Charlton characters. We’ve mash up half the 70s X-men and half the Justice League into a Heroes and Villains team.

The idea came from Dean Rivet who set up a blog on Posterous. The blogs name is the The REPLICANTS Project. We create the character inspired by that weeks choosen character. We design an original costumes, character name and back story. We then email the post to a Posterous email and PazoOoW it appears on the blog.

I’ll be posting the process I’m using to create my characters; form pencil drawing and inking to the final coloring in upcoming blog posts. Here’s a list of the characters that we are using as inspirations for The REPLICANTS Project.

The Heroes

Wonder Woman, Thunderbird, Sunfire, Storm, Nightcrawler, Green Lantern, Flash, Batman




The Villains

Wolverine, Superman, Martian Manhunter, Hawkman, Cyclops, Colossus, Banshee, Atom




Check out the fully colored characters I’ve created for The REPLICANTS Project.

Sketch Card – Thor of the Avengers

By
Ralph Contreras
 – March 29, 2010Posted in: #makecomics, Comic Book, Marvel, Pencils, Sketch, Sketch Card Series

I’ve decided to do a quick pencil drawing every few days. What better way then to draw on a Sketch Card. It give me the opportunity to practice drawing different characters, and it’s also fun! Sketch cards are the sized of collectible cards. They’ve become very popular in the past few years.

For this sketch card I decided to continue with the Heroic Age theme and draw an other Avenger. So I penciled a quick sketch of Thor. It’s cool because the Thor movie is being filmed here in Santa Fe. I even tried out to be an extra in the film. No call back, but it was still fun. This drawing took me about 18 minutes. I used an HB .05 mechanical pencil. I had fun with this sketch card. More to sketches to come…Shazam!

Sketch Card – Hawkeye of the Avengers

By
Ralph Contreras
 – March 25, 2010Posted in: Comic Book, Featured Posts, Marvel, Pencils, Sketch, Sketch Card Series


A few months ago I ordered some cool sketch cards on-line. These were trading card size, 2.5″ x 3″ Bristol board paper. Well I finally got around to actually drawing on one last night. In the middle of cleaning my apartment I was struck with inspiration to draw. So I reached over and grabbed a loose sketch card.

The Avengers have been in the news lately with their Heroic Age reboot. So I thought, “Hey, I’ll draw Hawkeye“. So here’s my quick sketch of Hawkeye. I did this in about 15 minutes with an HB .05 mechanical pencil. I tried to keep it loose, but add shadows and highlights. I’m really happy with this. I will definitely be doing more sketch card drawings. – Shazam!

Book Store Page added to Blog – How To Draw Comics and Resources

By
Ralph Contreras
 – February 15, 2010Posted in: #makecomics, Book Review, Character Design, Comic Book, Comic Book Resources, Comic Book Review, DC Comics, How to Draw Comics, Marvel, Pencils, Sequiental Art, Tutorial

Like most aspiring comic book artists I look to books for instruction, inspirations and resources. Almost as soon as I started reading comics I wanted to create comics too. My introduction to comic creating was Marvel Comics Try-Out Book. This book taught me so much in the process in creating comic books.  As I got older I would regularly visit my local book store and buy any new how to draw comic book they had. Every book was a treasure of knowledge and encouragement.

I decided to create a special page on this blog to help other aspiring comic artist find the knowledge and encouragement I received when I was first starting in my drawing education. These books will help set you on the right track. So take a look have fun and enjoy. – Shazam!

Free Comic Book Resources – Sketch Card Sheet

By
Ralph Contreras
 – February 10, 2010Posted in: #makecomics, Comic Book Resources, Featured Posts, Graphic Design, Illustrator, Sketch, Sketch Card Series

For the past few years I’ve noticed a lot of comic artist creating sketch cards. You can find them on their personal website and Deviant Art. I think it’s a really great trend. You can both create and collect awesome art. I’ve been wanting to draw some sketch cards for a while now. I looked fall over the web for some blank cards. I found them at a comic art supply shop, and spend a little more then I wanted. But I was happy to have them. The next day I went to my local art store and found some for 90% cheaper. So I decided to create a free sheet for people print on their own.

I’ve created a Sketch Card sheet with 8 cards. I would suggest printing these on card stock paper. Card stock is very close to Bristol board and is great to draw on. I’ve put crop marks so it’s easy to cut the cards out with a ruler and an x-acto knife. I’ve also added a dotted line if you’d like to cut them out with scissors you can too. Each card measures 2 1/2″ by 3 1/2″, regular sized for collectible cards.

Here is a free high resolution pdf file. Go ahead and download it and have fun creating some Sketch Cards. I’ll be posting more Free Comic Book Resources every Monday.
- Shazam!

Download

Download the High Resolution PDF
or click here to open in Web Browser

Marvel Comics – The Heroic Age – Fan Blog Site

By
Ralph Contreras
 – February 8, 2010Posted in: Comic Book, Comic Book Review, Marvel, Pin-Up

This last week Marvel Comics has been promoting their new event called The Heroic Age. It was hinted last year with a teaser showing Thor, Captain America and Iron Man in shadow. the last few years in the Marvel Universe have been very dark. There was Avengers Disassemble, Civil War, Secret Invasion and the Dark Reign. But in May Marvel will bring in the Heroic Age, There’s going to be a new spirit of hope, courage, and the selflessness at the heart of heroism will rise up. Marvel’s most elite characters will be at the center of The Heroic Age, including Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers and more.

I’m personally excited about the new direction Marvel plans on taking. I grew up reading Marvel Comics and think this new story line will be awesome and full of great adventures. I’ve decided to use my blogging skills and create a fan blog site dedicated to The Heroic Age. I’ll be putting any and all new info up on the site including news, promo art and future Solicitations.

So if you want the latest info about Marvel Comics The Heroic Age check out my Fan site: www.TheHeroicAge.com

-Shazam!

Thor Movie Open Casting Call in Santa Fe

By
Ralph Contreras
 – January 30, 2010Posted in: Comic Book, Marvel, Movie

Disney/Marvel will be casting for principal roles and extras to appear in new Thor feature film when it begins filming in Santa Fe, New Mexico this March.

Open Casting Call Details:
Ages 18 and over may attend. You are welcome to bring non-returnable photos of kids interested in being extras in the film. Please bring a pen. Photos will be taken at no charge.

Where:
224 E. Palace Avenue
Marion Hall 1st Floor
Santa Fe, NM 87501

When:
Friday, February 19 2010
2:00pm – 7:00pm

Saturday, February 20, 2010
9:00 – 4:00pm

You may be able to submit your information to:
Thor Casting
1698 Galisteo Street
Santa Fe, NM 87505

For more information click here:

Free Comic Book Resources – Character Design 180°

By
Ralph Contreras
 – January 26, 2010Posted in: #makecomics, Character Design, Comic Book, Comic Book Resources, Featured Slideshow, Graphic Design, How to Draw Comics, Illustrator, Sketch, Tutorial

Research is very important when working on a comic book. If I’m going to draw a car, horse or gun then I need to know what it looks like. The same can be said about the characters in the comic too. Back in the 90′s Marvel Comics published  “The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Master Edition” I believe this was one of the greatest references created for us aspiring comic book artists.  Per page in shows a character in a 180 degree view. We see the front, side and back view. This was a great way to know what their characters would look like from different angles.

What I’ve done is created is a Character Design sheet that helps in creating a 180 degree view of your character. This way you can have a solid idea of what they look like from the front, side and back. This is a more technical way to design a character, but I believe it is an invaluable one.

If you’ve picked up any how to draw comics book, then you’ll know that they explain that comic book heroes are usually 8 1/2 heads tall. I’ve incorporated this into this Character Design sheet. The left shows the head sizes, this will help in keeping all views of the character unified.

Here is an example of how this Character Design: 180 degree view sheet can work. I’ve taken Wolverine’s 180 degree view from “The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Master Edition” and superimposed it over the Character Design sheet I created. As you can see Wolverine is 7 1/2 heads tall.  We also see the design elements that make up his costume from all angles.

Here is a free high resolution pdf file. Go ahead and download it and have fun designing your characters front, side and back views. I’ll be posting more Free Comic Book Resources every Monday.
- Shazam!

Download

Download the High Resolution PDF
or click here to open in Web Browser

The Hunter – Character Design – From Sketches to Final Ink – Part 3

By
Ralph Contreras
 – January 25, 2010Posted in: Character Design, Comic Book, Featured Slideshow, Graphic Design, Inked, Pencils, Pin-Up, Sketch, Video

A few months ago I was looking through some of my old drawings. Ones I did while I was a kid up to when I was in collage. I found my original sketches for a character named “The Hunter”.  I had redesigned his history and biography a few years ago, so I decide to redesign his look too. Want to see the original designs and the rough redesign check out my earlier post The Hunter – Character Design – From Sketches to Final Ink – Part 1. I was very pleased with the redesign so I decided to create an action posed pin-up of my character.

For the past year I’ve been digitally inking my pencils. I usually use Adobe Illustrator using vector points. I like using the pen tool to create crisp sharp/smooth lines. You can see a great example of this in a past post Comic Book Digital Inking Techniques with Illustrator Vector Anchor Points. But for this inking I wanted go old school and use a real brush and pen. A process I do not used very often. I had a real blast inking it by hand!

I didn’t want to loose my pencils so I scanned the original and reprinted them on card stock. I used Adobe Photoshop to replaced the original black lines to blue lines. This way it would be easier for me to ink them. Check out the difference between the original pencils and what I inked. The Hunter – Character Design – From Sketches to Final Ink – Part 2.

Here are my final inks of “The Hunter” I had a real blast with this piece. I started with very rough sketches to tight pencils and finally to a finished inked piece. In my next blog post (that’s right I have one more to go) I’ll show you what I did to vectorize my final inks so I can print them at any size with out loosing quality of the inks. – Shazam!

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