In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night...

Wow! Looks like it's been a little while since I've posted anything. In lieu of posting a bunch of in-progress stuff from a couple of my personal projects, take a gander at this pic here of Green Lantern, John Stewart.
A buddy and I decided to trade illustrations for our birthdays and we chose JLA characters for the swap. I did this in watercolor. The original (just arrived in Texas) is 18" x 24".

The Celestial Hurl

A friend of mine asked me to do a really quick (one day) turnaround for an illustration advertising a reading of one of her new scripts. I normally don't do this, but the title of the script gave me a fun idea. I looked to ancient star/constellation charts for inspiration. The drawing I did for the illustration was really rough, so I took it into photoshop for a bit of speedy finishing. The text was done in Illustrator and then I treated it to the same filter I used on the rest of the piece.

The Fall of Inkazimulo 6

 I feel that this page is one of the best I've ever done.

The Fall of Inkazimulo is a 2010 Copyright of Aaron Watts

The Fall of Inkazimulo 5

The Fall of Inkazimulo is a 2010 Copyright of Aaron Watts

IC Logo 18

The last run of logos with the white outline inevitably led to a simple color heart, with solid white letters inside it. The heart is a darker color to increase the contrast with the white letters. The letters and the heart also have a slightly darker, thin outline to aid the contrast.

And the black/white conversion...

IC logo 17

I have a small group of fellow artists that I trust and ask to critique my work. After seeing my efforts on this project, one of them suggested I use a white outline on the letters within the heart. So, I tried it out.

The Fall of Inkazimulo 4

The Fall of Inkazimulo is a 2010 Copyright of Aaron Watts

The Fall of Inkazimulo 3

Page 3

The Fall of Inkazimulo is a 2010 Copyright of Aaron Watts

The Fall of Inkazimulo 2

This is page two.

A buddy of mine entered the Zuda contest a couple of years before me, and has since decided to redo the entire look and pacing of his idea. Taking a cue from my friend, I've decided to lengthen the pacing of this story. This will also help to address a critique that I agree with from some who commented on my story while it was in the contest. That critique was that the comic was too wordy. I intend keep the same amount of descriptive narration and dialogue, only spread over many more pages.

The Fall of Inkazimulo is a 2010 Copyright of Aaron Watts

 

When Chickens Talk 6

When Chickens Talk 5

When Chickens Talk 4

When Chickens Talk 3

When Chickens Talk 2

When Chickens Talk 1

Here's the first part of a sample storyboard. The story is a fiction of my own.

The Fall of Inkazimulo 1

Back in March of 2010, I entered an online contest for comic book creators at Zudacomics.com. It was  DC Comics' short-lived, online farm for new talent.

Each contestant entered an eight page, original story. The editors at Zudacomics picked ten entries to be voted on at the beginning of a month. Visitors to the site voted on their favorites. At the end of the month, the entry with the most votes won, and the creator got a year long, paid contract to make one page per week to add to their eight page entry.

A good deal for a lot of exposure.

I came in third. Here's the first page of my entry.

The Fall of Inkazimulo is a 2010 Copyright of Aaron Watts

The Birth of Venus in Lederhosen 3

Being a chalk drawing, the piece got smudged. I went back to touch it up and add more detail. I did that and also drew two new panels.

Venus got some new lederhosen.

As did the two goat men.

Detail of the new left side.

Detail of the new right side.

And the best shot I could get of the whole thing.

The Birth of Venus in Lederhosen 2

Here are some details of the piece.

Venus

With a halo of sausages

Right panel

Left panel

The Birth of Venus in Lederhosen

Earlier this year, I got the opportunity to do a huge chalk drawing on a huge chalkboard, paneled wall. The only parameter was that the drawing had to have a German bier garten theme.

The visual theme of the rest of the place was whimsically sexual, so after some thinking, I decided to do a loose homage to Botticelli's "The Birth of Venus."

I named it, "The Birth of Venus in Lederhosen."

This is after my first 5 hours working on the wall. I placed the scene in a mountain valley because mountains seem more German to me than the ocean does. Accordingly, a mountain stream replaces the ocean, and goat-men replace the Zephyrs on Venus' right and the one Hour on her left. The cherubs pouring beer down from giant steins to create the mountain stream just seemed like a fun idea.

Here is the wall with a flash to better show the upper corners of the piece.

The Tree of Ra 6

This is the final attempt. I took away the bars because the client didn't like them. I enlarged the branches at the top of the tree and changed the large branches on either side of the Eye into smaller branches to make the spacing there more ambiguous and less awkward. Without the bars, the roots are simpler and provide a nice calm balance to all of the activity at the top of the tree. The client liked this version best of all, but when she saw it in person she felt it was too big, ha! It would have covered half of both shoulder blades and reached down to the bottom of her lower back.

We are in talks about another, smaller solution.