This was a blast even with a little deadline stress. I had a lot of fun but , I think I'll use this particular page to illustrate my plusses and minuses about my "style".

I'll just admit right away that because i was psyched about this ish, I looked around for some reviews because I had just been in some hellish deadlines with RE and this was a assignment where i could kinda breathe again with the pencils. Well, I kinda took it on the chin in the reviews that I find-- the main complaint being that I kinda made Rich gain about 30 pounds of muscle. Ok , fair enough-- I enjoy that stuff and Ill admit I did struggle with that because I really haven't followed the character but tried to pull back on that as the issue went on.

the main difference for me is that i always aim to do powerful figures but try to not them get to stiff or look they were plucked from a bodybuilding pose. Always try to get a natural but heroic look I guess.

But it did get me thinking, I grew up on things I thought were cool, I drew things I really was jazzed on, and I had my share of insecurities ( ask Tim Townsend for example, bout how much of an ego I DON'T have). So , I really tended when i was a little younger, because wasn't able to afford a proper art training, I had to search out the knowledge. I had to find out and apply proper anatomy ( regardless of doing comics and the stigma that goes with superheroes-- I learned as much as could form medical books, anatomy and bodybuilding mags and did my life drawing) , I learned about Lots of Perspective tricks and whatnot ( Thank you for the knowledge Mr.Stelfreeze ) , im still trying to get lighting and storytelling down....whew.
I admire guys like Ed Mcguiness, Adam hughes, Dale Keown, Dave Finch, Jim Lee, Frank Cho, god! the list is endless----

But I guess my point is, 1) its hard to know when to pull your style back and serve the characters. I can stylistically be in the vein of some of my heroes/peers and get a completely different reaction 2) when is having an ego or being excited and letting it pour onto the page a bad thing?

I guess these are some things I can tend to get conflicted about.

Take this page, would Rich be more heroic if i made him thinner? Would it look better if i changed the shot or pose with him being smoother or more "normal " ?

ah well, I hope that maybe I helped people dig deeper or let you see just how conflicted I was about being super happy about this stuff then to see others not as such.


take care,

kev



UPDATE:
I think the tone of the initial post might have been poorly worded or came off not the way I intended.

Generally, I was really happy with the book, but when you're under the gun deadline wise, folks tend not to see the fact that you may not have had a full month to do an Ish or you may not know some of the characters or are used to drawing them regularly but I did my best and was so revved up with it--- when it came out , I was really happy and just was curious to check out the reviews and had the air let outta my balloon so to speak.


all characters copyright Marvel Comics.