Casual Friday #5

ELRIC

Ok, I've finally found a flaw on drawing anything I want. One key aspect about Fridays is that I'm only setting aside a short amount of time to do these drawings so I don't get behind on work. So, I get all excited like; "yes, I'm gonna draw Elric today and it's gonna be totally badass, yadda yadda." I sit down and would normally do a bunch of sketches to find what I think Elric should look like and keep doing designs till I get it right. But I don't have time for that and need to be happy with what comes out the first time around and that's not easy for me. Classic artist faults, "It ain't right till it's right!". (Yes, I'm probably a bitch to live with, too.)

Anyway, enough ranting.

This Elric was fun, but with this head shot, now I'm wondering what Stormbringer would look like. Maybe next time.

Later

WM

Casual Friday #4

This week, I'm a man of few words. Here's a few now.

Dwarf

Battle-Axe

Grim

Really nothing new in the way of news. I'm keeping up a steady pace on sketches right now. I've finished up the first set, started the third set, and am halfway through the second set.

I've been doing a little writing on the side for some future projects. The mind keeps going and I just try to keep up with it.

Later

WM

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Warren Martineck

D&D and Casual Friday #3 and Revamp #1

Sometime around late 1988, our small group of good friends, most of which I met through McDonald's where we worked, got together for what was my first D&D gaming experience. The other guys had played before and our DM had been running games since the 70's I think. I rolled out my character, learned all the rules, and got to know the Forgotten Realms very well over the course of what turned out to be a campaign that lasted years. Like a lot of gamers, most of the guys had or were getting their characters drawn up by the "local artist" and part time gamer himself.

When I handed him my $30 for a color sketch of my new character, I scratched my head afterward and said, "why am I paying this guy to do something I could probably do myself?" Don't get me wrong, he was really good and I think he even ended up doing paintings for some Magic the Gathering cards, but my juices were flowing, I knew I would go broke getting tons of pictures from him, and someone had to buy the Mountain Dew and Nachos. So I sat down with a pencil and paper and a few erasers and gave my character a go.

It was the first of many bad sketches for that game and others. I eventually got better, I added backgrounds, started doing sketches for many of the PC's and NPC's, made a little money on the side and soon became the new "local artist". Although that first finished piece was pretty bad, it was the catalyst for all those artistic seeds, planted throughout my life, to start sprouting and set me on a career course that I'm still following today and probably will for the rest of my life.

So, twenty years later almost to the day, I find the unavoidable reminiscing too strong to keep down and I did some digging in the old files. I eventually found that original character drawing, "Dorian Tobias" dated 4/5/89. For ol' times sake and seeing as how it's Friday, I put pencil to paper one more time to give that character another go.

Along with a scan of the original here's todays new "Dorian Tobias"

I still talk with some of the guys from the old group and hear about the others from time to time.

To Thursdays.

Later

WM

Casual Friday #2

Casual Friday, yaaaayy.

I like this. I didn't have to think of something to write or feel i had to come up with a witty posting, I just had to draw... and draw whatever the hell I wanted. Now I realize I really don't have time for this as I've got a pretty tight schedule on the cards I'm doing right now, but I find this recharges my battery.

For the next installment:

Darth Maul

Now back to work.

Later

WM

Casual Friday #1

  Occasionally, during some of my open commission runs, I would get an order that included " just draw whatever you want." Those were the hardest orders to fill as I found I had no clue what I wanted to draw, and if I did, I would question wether the client would like it or not.  So as I was sitting here at my desk, up to my cockles in sketch cards, it came to me what I would actually like to draw for myself.  As it was not for someone else, I found it very freeing, easy, and a warm fuzzy feeling ensued. (better than a high fiber diet) Things aligned and I came up with this new segment that I'm looking forward to keeping up with and hope I can manage as a regular posting... 

    Casual Fridays. 

 I'd like to set aside some time on Fridays to unwind a bit from the weeks deadline schedule and do a little something for myself. To do what I want to draw.      With the current job I'm working on, I've discovered I REALLY like Hawkman. I've drawn him before but something clicked this time and found the character extremely cool to draw and is pretty badass as characters go. I've got a bunch of issues, but will be looking to catch up on the character, grab some back issues and see where he is now.

  So here's the first installment of Casual Friday from here in the studio. Hope you like.

Hawkman.

  

Later

WM