Happy New Year / Studio Journal Entry #5

 It's 5:41 in the morning, I'm trying to shake off the cotton-headed sleepiness, and my Itunes has decided to play an odd mix of Loreena McKennitt and Tenacious D. Odder still is I find I don't really mind.
It may be a belated "Happy New Year" to the rest of you but for me it came over the weekend. No, I don't have a hang over, but I do finally have that feeling of a definitive ending and clear beginning. It's something that I found to be a rare occurance as a Freelancer with jobs, life, and all the stuff on your "to do" list that seems endlessly intertwining. But, this past weekend was wonderfully different.

  I've been working on the Marvel 70th Anniversary card set for the past few months researching, referencing, and rendering 150 Sketch card case incentives. Although I was hoping to get them done by the end of the year, On the whole, this retrospective of a card collection was coming out really good (if I do say so myself) and I didn't want the last few to look rushed. But I finally finished them up and shipped them off this weekend.

 I didn't have a pressing follow-up job that I might have been already late in starting, albeit I was working on putting something together, so this gave me the chance to get to my year end office work.
My computer desperately needed a cleaning and I spent most of one morning and a lunch time filing, burning, transferring, and trashing over 2000 files. Posted here for more on that process.
(would "Bi-annual" mean twice a year or once every 2 years?)

  I then attacked my studio. I had 3 jobs, a bunch of commissions, and about 2-3 months worth of paperwork, convention excess, and piles of reference scattered across every open space, shelf, or floor board available. I spent the rest of the weekend getting most of it organized or put in it's place. I rearranged the room a bit and put up a new handy "within reach" reference book shelf, vacuumed, dusted & Swiffered the whole studio.
      Weekends off are tiring.
  So now I'm sitting here in a perfectly clean and organized space ready to take on the challenges of a new year. That even sound better since some of my caffeine has started kicking in.

  Now being ready to start some new work, amongst the few commissions I will be getting to shortly, I just recently signed on to pencil an issue of Blue Water Productions "Fame:" comics line. It will be based around Kristen Stewart, most notably from the Twilight movies, and I believe will be issue #2. I've already got some script to work with and will start referencing it today.

Here's to a good start for the New Year and I hope yours will be safe and prosperous.

Later
WM

_________________________________________________
Warren Martineck

The Boston Comic Con Report.

Time for a little review of this past weekends Boston Comic Con.

Having the name "Comic Con" attached to your title is a hard thing to live up to, especially when your only 3 hrs away from New York and there are really big Cons with that in the title. It wasn't as big as the New York Comic Con but it wasn't a small local con either and it's only in it's 3rd year. I have no clue of the numbers that came through the door, but I do know I was busy all weekend. Although Saturday was busier than Sunday, I did equally well for both and was very happy I attended this year. I noticed an large number of costumed patrons at the show and I'm not sure if it had something to do with it being so close to Halloween or from the popularity of it from shows like Dragon Con and San Diego. I was a bit surprised there was little fanfare, reviews, or news about the show before or afterwards. Not even a mention on Newsarama which usually over-covers these types of shows to death.

Other than the last few hours on Sunday, I basically sat at my table drawing all weekend chiseling away at my sign-up sheet and sucking down Diet Pepsi's. Being a comic convention I did more comic sketches than PSC's but it was expected and welcomed. I met a lot of new fans

(which is the whole point of getting out of the studio) and the

commissionees all seemed very happy with what I sent them home with. I missed some and a couple were unrecognizable but here are a few of the commission pics I took, a Clint Eastwood "Hand Em High", and a Jonah Hex.

I also did a color Dark Phoenix

PSC for Bob Almond to go towards the Inkwell Awards funding of a scholarship for the Joe Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art in which I attend a few long years ago.

More on this card and how you can get your hands on it in an upcoming post. Bob and I go way back and it's always good to see him and his family and he was only 2 tables over.

Although I didn't get out of the artists room I was set up in, (There were artists everywhere, this room, that room, down the hall, in the hall, and filling up the entryways) I sneaked out every once and awhile to catch a stretch and visit with buds I haven't seen in awhile Like Norman Lee and Mark McKenna. I didn't get to see everyone I wanted to but I got to talk with Walt Simonson for a bit . (Thanks to Jan for taking the pics and yelling at me to smile more.)

Norman Lee and I...

...and here's Mark McKenna who created a great childrens comic called Banana Tails that my son just loved.

The info I got on the next Boston Comic Con, in which yes I have signed up for, is that it's moving to a new and larger place next year. The Westin Boston Waterfront in April. It's much bigger and when you've got names like Jim Lee and Mike Mignola already signed on, you need a big place.

So there it is. A great show and I'm happy to be writing about it now. I've had a good and successful time at the past couple of shows and I've got the convention bug again. So it looks like I'll be hitting up a few more shows this coming year and hopefully hitting places I haven't been to yet.

Until then,

later

WM

_____________________________________________

Warren Martineck

Casual Friday #6.5

"Huh? " you ask. I know it's Tuesday but this early Casual Friday #6 Posting has always bothered me. Although it was a Friday that Wolverine was drawn for a completely different reason, it's the wrong size, and just didn't fit the spirit nor was it anywhere near casual.

My schedule is starting

to open up a little as I've been able to finish up a bunch of jobs this past week and catch up on other crap I've had to put off. So I'm trying to get to things like this that I'm looking forward to crossing off the list.

So, while catching up on old episodes of "Alf", here's the first one to get crossed off.

"Wolverine 6.5"

Later

WM

___________________________________________

Warren Martineck

Casual Friday #15

Another fast & busy week and overall, things are looking good. I sat down last night, put my feet up, and watched a movie while I worked on that days Casual Friday. I was in the mood to go bloody, gory, and all horror like but was also in the mood to try my hand at some Cerebus. Combining them wouldn't normally be hard but I drew this while we watched Benny & Joon. Great movie but it doesn't exactly bring out the blood lust in a person.

So here's my not so bloody rendition of Cerebus.

Later

WM

__________________________________________________

Warren Martineck

Casual Friday #14

I can't believe it's Friday already. I got down to the studio this morning, had my caffeine, went over the stuff I should be doing, and grumbled about having to stop everything I'm trying to get done and do the Casual Friday piece. But, after getting some work done, I sidelined and started the Friday drawing and actually got into it. I felt so much better after doing it and I'm glad I took a break and made time for it. Plus now I have something to actually blog about as it's been a slow news/activity week.

I've been working on some different drawing techniques that are new to me as I'm somewhat tired with the way I draw or render stuff. As new card sets start being released, you'll be able to see I've actually been working on new style techniques for awhile and it's still a work in progress. This new Hellboy piece has some hints of things I'm trying out.

Probably more on this in another post.

Casual Friday #14

"Bodyless"

Later

WM

____________________________________________________

Warren Martineck