Half Past Tribute!

Been a while, I know...

Havent been slacking off, I SWEAR. But more on that later.

For now, heres a piece I did for The Half Past Danger Tribute week organised by the HUGELY talented dudes of the Sketch Paddys blog, to celebrate the week leading to the launch of the VERY promising Half Past Danger by Stephen Mooney, on IDW.

Anyway, here it is!

Right-click and open on separate layer for the bigger deal.

blue lead, Pentel brush pen on Bristol and quite more photoshoppin' that usual ;)

Going back to do layouts now.

Cant wait to read HPD! ORDER IT NOW!!!

L.

Final OHOTMU entry: Scourge!

And heres my final entry for the OHOTMU Redux project. The names Scourge, not really familiar with the guy at all. Only thing I seem to remember, he appeared as a mystery villain towards the end of the original Busiek/Bagley Thunderbolts run quite some time ago, with different costume and powers.

Since I didnt know the character well (I admit I picked him simply for the pulpy "Shadow" feel hes got) there was nothing too smart or creative I could do with the look, so I decided to use it more as a Photoshop exercise/practice than a proper drawing one.

Thats it, basically. Played around with layers and stuff and I have to say, Im quite happier with the overall result than with the drawing itself, I have to say.

Heres the scanned original, just to give you an idea of how much was on the pae and how much was done digitally (not too much, as usual):

THANX again to the wonderful Jon Morris for having me for this project. It was FUN!

L.

OHOTMU - Baron Blood

My fourth (count them!) contribution for the more and more amazing Handbook of the Marvel Universe Redux project. If you never heard of it, first of all go read all my previous entries in which I talk about it, and then check it out but only when youre not under deadline coz, I guarantee you, you WILL spend hours unable to click away.

ANYWAY.

This time is a classic Captain America villain, from the Kirby period -I think: Baron Blood, the nazi vampire!

OF COURSE the first impulse was to indulge in the whole "Indiana-Jones'-nazis-adventure" kind of trope, but then I caught a glimpse of his bio and it said he was a Victorian gentleman and Im a huge fan of Hammer movies, so yeah -bye bye WWII nazi, welcome Phantom of The Opera with a Venice Carnival bat mask guy (also had a cool idea about the same mask for a Batman story, but I have a feeling thats gonna sit in my drawer for a loooong time).

Cheers.

L. 

The Fish King

Little drawing I kinda rushed for a competition on the Multiversity Comics website.

They asked artists for their own interpretation of Abe Sapien, an all-time fav of mine.

I was in the middle of inking Dave's story and I found out about the competition like, 2 days before the submissions closing date, but the opportunity was too big to pass coz they had Dark Horse editor Scott Allie (a guy with a GREAT taste in comics) and Mike Mignola (a guy with a GREAT taste in... everything) personally pick the winner.

Didnt care much about winning, but I REALLY wanted Scoot and Mike to look at my stuff (coz seriously, when else am I gonna show those guys my work?), and decide I was the best thing ever, and become best friends, and gimme all the comic jobs that exists.

Somehow that didnt happen. Probably coz a)the piece was rushed b)the other artists involved blew me away

Oh well. 

L.

Inks!

So, remember the pencils shown here not too long ago? Well, these are the inks.

The writer, Mr. Dave Hendrick, seemed quite pleased with the result, so yeah, theres that.

Inked from bluelines printed on smooth Bristol with brush, nibs, pens and whatever else gets the job done.

I have to say, I DONT completely hate'em, which is not uncommon.

Also, Im preparing layouts for a short superhero sequence for portfolio review, in preparation of the next comic conventions season. Ideally, it shouldnt take too long and Id be able to post stuff soon.

But again, ideally I should be working in the field right now, so yeah, theres that...

Feeling a bit grumpy today. Got absolutely NOTHING to do with this great, fun short story, I swear ;)
Mr. Hendrick, if you read this, thanx again for the trust and the countless pats on my back ;)

L.

Who watches the watchmen?

Hey, it's Watchmen week down at Nerd Invasion blog, and my piece -as usual- is here.

Enjoy!

L.

"Finish Him!"

My piece for this week's Nerd Invasion blog theme is up here.

Another videogame. Can you guess which one before clicking the link just from the post title?

Inked pages coming btw. God, my daily schedule has become ridiculous. RIDICULOUS, I tell you!


L.

"You are not a warrior, you're a beginner!"

My entry for this week's Nerd Invasion theme is up here.

If you dont immediately recognize the character, you had no childhood and I feel utterly sorry for you.

Now, back to pages.

L.

PAGES!

So, I got a busy and all with some things Im doing at the moment, but  got a moment (it actually took the whole fucking morning) to scan these pencil pages and prepare them for inking (turn them into blueline, fit them in a print template, add digital panel borders). Which means, finally theyre here.

I posted a long/useless process entry some time ago, with explanations on how I work from layouts to preliminary sketches to finished pencils. Its here.

Well, now you can finally compare those with the finished pencils. Inks are coming too. "When?" You ask. Fuck you.

Again, theyre from a collaboration with the VERY talented Dave Hendrick, hopefully the first of many more to come.

Btw, Ive also been penciling pages for a 20-smthing pages long crime story that should be out hopefully this year from Markosia publishing. Its gonna be inked by somebody else, which is new for me an Im kinda curious/excited to see the final pages. Im basically 2/3rds into the pages, and once Im over, Im gonna post the whole thing here. Like, the whole story, from start to finish. Unlettered and not inked, but hey, better than nothing. 

Thats it, now Im back to doing stuff.

L.

Im weird like that...

Last night we saw Casablanca in a cinema. Today I did this.

Make sure to open in a separate tab if you wanna have a clear view.

L.

PS: "And what about the pages?" - I hear you asking. I actually DID finish them, but I figured Id rather spend a couple more hours drawing today than scanning all that shit.

Nerd Invasion entries

I know, I know, I had promised pages, and I AM DOING THEM, I SWEAR!

Hopefully sooner than expected Ill be able to post some stuff here.

In the meanwhile, Nerd Invasion blog is up and running again, and this week the topic was COOL, man: Secret Avengers, a book I IMMENSELY enjoyed since fellow Italian Matteo Scalera started drawing it.

Anyway, see my entries here.

See ya soon, yo.

L.

No, Im not dead + Finally! PAGES! And a lot of them!

Been criminally absent from these shores for a while now.

In my defense, you have no idea what PAIN and SUFFERING are if you never moved from one flat to another before. Took me more than two weeks to be back 100% operational in my new place. Plus, of course, an almost-penumonia which left me bed-ridden for more than a week. But now Im better.

What have I been up to in the meanwhile? PAGES, finally!

I finally got around a personal project of mine that MIGHT see the light earlier that I thought (at least in this) first incarnation and whaddayaknow, its the same project that gave this very blog its name:

Ladies and gentlemen, without much further ado, I hereby introduce you to... SPECTOR! The trailer! Pencils and inks!

Still not finished (the complete mini-story is 6 pages, so Im not THAT behind) and YES, that is my first two-pages spread, which took more time and pain to physically build and tape than actually draw...

Id like to explain more the concept and inspiration of the whole thing, but if youre familiar with the AMAZING fellow Italian artist Francesco Francavilla and what hes doing with Black Beetle at the moment, well, my project basically comes from the same humid and pulpy backstreet of pop culture ;)

Anyway!

+ BONUS! Two pieces I did to get in the right mood BEFORE the mini story: it started with one simple scene, imagined as a one-page teaser/ad for the story, then I decided to do another as a story-telling exercise in how to tell the same sequence in a different way. Then I decided to color them coz hey, why not. My first proper foray in to coloring. Cant shake the feeling its a bit amatorial but they were fun. And just to keep with the exercise, lettering is on its way!

Take care,

L.

Another Nerd Invasion post

Here's my latest piece, the theme was Power Rangers this week.

Not too happy about the result this time. I guess Im not that good at drawing stuff I didnt grow up adoring..

oh, well.

And I know Ive been saying this forever, but from tomorrow: pages! Pages! PAGES!!

L.

Nerd Invasion entry

My entry for this week "Spider-Man Villains" theme is up here.

Go check it out, its pretty cool, I swear, and everybody else on that blog is ACE, seriously.

LuCa.

OHOTMU - Ulysses Bloodstone

And heres my latest entry for the amazing Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Redux project.

Due to my love of vintage pulp adventure, I picked Ulysses Bloodstone, monster hunter. In my eyes hes the quintessential Marvel version of the classic Doc Savage adventurer...

It should be up on the website soon, Ill put an up update as soon as I see it.

Again, Blue lead, Pentel brushpen and some Zebra thin pens on Bristol, and Photoshop colorin'.

Tomorrow Ill finish a sketch for the Nerd Invasion blog Im collaborating with, and then Im FINALLY back to doing sequential pages...

L.

"...Altrimenti si arrabbiano!"

REALLY quick piece today, no time to do more. A bit of pure fun, no frills 100% Italian cult stuff.

Inspired by a series of Dvd reissues coming out these days here in Italy..

Wont even bother explaining what is this about, either youre Italian and you just KNOW who these guys are, or youre not and you and you have no clue.

A dream project of mine, these two guys kicking the ass of Lovecraftian deities, one punch on the head at a time...

Again, blue lead, Pentel brushpen and 10 mins of Photoshop.

L.

Blast from the past!

Discovered a really cool '80s mohawk Storm Tumblr today, put up by  X-Force writer Sam Humphries

I was just wondering what to do as a daily sketch, so there you go...

Blue lead, Pentel and Photoshop.

L.

*EDIT: Decided to add the original b/w lineart, for those who might care.

"...It's ALIVE!"

Another piece for the Nerd Invasion blog.

This week was videogame-themed. Those guys really hate me ;)))

Anyway, I remembered the main villain from Crash Bandicoot was an evil scientist and had minions. Another obvious one ;)

Here is the original black and white, if you wanna see how big of a disservice 5 mins of sloppy photoshoppin did to the piece, go see it at the other blog.

As usual, blue lead and Pentel brush pen on Bristol.

L.

*insert epic rant in Elvish here*

Second weekly post for Nerd Invasion is up here.

Just noticed that so far I picked the most obvious heavy metal choice of each week's theme. God Im so awfully predictable.

L.

Cowabunga!!!

I am now part of an illustration blog called Nerd Invasion, with 3 other amazing artists.

Go on, check them out. I'll wait.

Every week we'll choose a topic, and each of out will create a piece on a specific day. Mine's Thursday.

This first week's topic was Ninja Turtles, and you can check my contribution here.

Thanx again to Chris Duffy for the opportunity!

L.

"Come closer, kids, and I'll tell you more about my process..."

So, another rather big gap of updates...

Though I havent been slacking around, your honour, I swear.

Im in the process of drawing a short story written by the REALLY cool Dave Hendrick

Really fun and open script, a pleasure to work on, seriously.

Anyway, I thought Id take the chance to talk more about my process to those 2 or 3 chronic insomniacs who probably follow this blog (IF anyone does, that is).

After I read the script I do my thumbnails, usually on templates I saved on photoshop or even on the edges of the script papers, if Im struck by sudden enlightenment (it almost NEVER happens). At this point the focus is on making choices about how to tell the story in terms of camera angles and shots, and the drawing itself is little more than stick figures, probably only fully comprehensible to me. But I heard thats pretty standard, so I dont worry too much. Theyre around 5cm x 7,5cm for now. Anyway, for example the layouts for the first 4 pages for this story looked like this:

Once Ive sent them to the writer/editor and got approval, I go back to them and "fix" them: add digital panel borders, appropriate photo refs or 3D SketchUp models that I either make myself (for simpler things) or snatch off their AMAZING library, perspective grids when needed, bla, bla and fucking bla.

From here I used to simply print them to A3 and lightbox them for the penciling stage, but lately I slightly changed approach: since at this early stage of my career I really wanna keep ALL my pencils to show on my portfolio it's important that theyre pretty clean and tight, so I added an intermediate stage of pre-penciling (or roughs, or prelims) in which I just go loosely to block the shapes and get anatomy and gestures right, so that Im free to erase and properly ABUSE the paper to a pulp until Im happy, without having to worry about how the page is gonna look to posterity. These are A4 coz I found out that at this stage, still working out the balance and "elegance" of figures and postures, the smaller is STILL the better for me. The roughs for these 4 pages look like this:

Once Im happy with these (and Im usually NEVER happy with them, but OK) I scan them again, blow them up to full artwork size and print them on A3 paper. Then I lightbox them AGAIN, but this time free to focus on nuances and details like textures, facial expressions and having proper, nice graphite marks overall.

Because dealing with deadlines is ALL about creating unnecessary, redundant steps in the workflow, isnt it?

Also, OF COURSE this post is incomplete for now, coz Im still not finished with the roughs stage so I have no pencils whatsoever to show, but theyre coming. I swear.

And thats it. Thanx for watching and all that ;)

L.

Portfolio pages - X-Force

Also, just came back from a really cool weekend at the Thought Bubble convention in Leeds, in which I -among other things- managed to score a portfolio review with Marvel Comics editor Stephen Wacker, so I spent the previous week preparing smthing to show. Doesnt matter how much stuff Ive got going on, doing superhero pages is always fun and a VERY welcome break from day-to-day projects.

Anyway.

Heres the results: a 4-pages short of a completely made-up roster of one of my fav X-books "X-Force". Since these were just to showcase my art and didnt need to be in continuity, I decided to have fun redesigning some of my fav mutants to make my own all-star team ;)

Wolverine is a staple, OF COURSE, and Ive always been fascinated by the cool Errol Flynn-like version of Nightcrawler in the Warren Ellis/Carlos Pacheco BEAUTIFUL Excalibur run. And Domino is just TOO cool.

So, here they are.

Thats it. At least 3 different pencils on Bristol boards.

L.

"Finally: American Vampire! Now with more blood!"

After a STUPIDLY long absence from this blog, due to working on several little things at the same time, I can finally breathe a bit and catch up with posting up here.

So, I can finally show some test pages that I did for the REALLY cool Vertigo editor Mark Doyle after meeting him at DICE con in Dublin. Mark sent me the script of an early issue of one of my fav books, go figure -American Vampire- and asked me to do a couple of pages from there. Again, just the fact that he found some time in his (I can only imagine) uber-busy schedule to write an AMAZINGLY detailed feedback email was astonishing, and of course hugely helpful for me to understand how some things I had never considered before can be added (or removed) to make for a better page.

Well, so here are the pages, in pencils...

...and inks (again, W&N 7 no.2 brush and a couple of small nibs):

Obviously, had a GREAT time with these. Hope to do some more soon, its great for the ego ;)

L.