Dots and Rockets

HUGE fan of the Hernandez Bros, and yet I couldnt come up with a better tagline...

Anyway.

Heres the 5 pages for a short story written by @AdlaiM that I really enjoyed myself doing. Even took the opportunity to experiment a bit on a new distressed halftone technique, a honour I usually bestow only to the finest of projects.

No pencils this times, I inked directly from print size layouts, a process i found interesting, even if a bit more time-consuming than my usual thumbnailing. But thats just coz Im not used to visualise story-telling at that size right away. DEF wanna try it again.

Pentel brushpen on Bristol, couple of new supercool Kuretake markers, and too much Photoshop.

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.