Nights in White Satin

This post features the cast of characters from my latest project with the fantastic Andrew Rostan, of An Elegy for Amelia Johnson fame. We're in the long process of pitching and waiting now. Here's hoping! It's a great story of love and assassins all set against the historic beauty of Savannah, GA--and don't think I've missed the irony that I'm working on a story taking place in Savannah just after I moved away from it. The point is, it's a fantastic story with everything you need to have a great time:

We have our leading lady...

And the dashing hero...

As well as the guardians with ulterior motives...

Friends and family that get wrangled into action...

The sexy, corporate antagonists...

And the innocent substitute teacher...or is he...

And just like any project, there were a few characters that needed a revamp--nothing serious, just a few issues easily resolved with a second draft:

These characters do belong to Andrew and I so please be cool and DON'T STEAL. Just wait for the book--it's going to be worth your while!

Adventures!

So, I'm pretty easily distracted to begin with...but there seem to be more distractions than usual here in New York, New York...the biggest of which is my seemingly never-ending job search. But, excuses aside, I'm back with many sketches of--you guessed it!--animals!

The Bronx Zoo is actually pretty cool and pretty big. I didn't even get to see everything there, and I was there the whole day! I broke out a new sketchbook for the occasion. Witness the return...of recycled paper!

I have been drawing a bit for the last month, so hopefully updates will resume regularly post-haste. Tally ho!

Commissions!

Hey Internet! Did you know that I have opened commissions over at my DeviantArt site? No? Well what are you waiting for?!

These are just the sketches for the commissions I've been done thus far--think about how cool a finished piece might be! So head on over to my DA site (RomanyKate) to find out about pricing and whatnot and see how the finished pieces turned out! Hop to it! And if you don't have your own DA account--never fear! Just email me once you have an idea of what you'd like :)

First we have Steve Graves, an original character of Bryan, cartoonist and toy designer extraordinaire!

Next we have some Doctor Who themed pieces for Chris!

And here's the characters of DJ's Aerial Rave (along with some pokemon that aren't relative to the finished piece, but think about who you're talking to--when am I not doodling pokemon something or other?)

Aaand last but not least here's DareDevil and GhostRider, doin like they do, for Matt!

Not a one of these characters is mine but they were all still tons of fun to draw!

Since you're an artist...

It's obligatory self-portrait time!

Here's me on an ostrich!

And here's the sketch of the self-portrait that was featured alongside my interview in Evansville Living!

I colored the ostrich sketch for funsies and it's available for your viewing pleasure here. The finished self-portrait for the magazine can be found here at my portfolio blog. So many hyperlinks...so little time.

Artemis Iphigenea

Sketch for a personal work--planning on finishing in color soon-ish. These lovely ladies are the goddess Artemis (left) and Iphigenia (right) who will become the goddess Hecate (far right). The story goes that during the Trojan War, Agamemnon killed a deer within Artemis's sacred grove and boasted that he was the better hunter. Well once Agamemnon's ships were out to sea, the goddess stilled the winds, leaving he and all his ships stranded. By consulting an oracle, Agamemnon discovered the only way to appease the goddess would be to sacrifice his own daughter, Iphigenia. When the time came for the actual sacrifice, Iphigenia was spirited away by the goddess herself and a deer was left in her place. Artemis then transformed the mortal Iphigenia into the immortal Hecate, her partner in magic, and the triple goddess of crossroads.

In other news, drawing people actually using a bow and arrow is hard.

Book of Days part two

More characters from more stories that will hopefully someday some amount to something awesome! These are a from a little story I'm jazzing up called Book of Days, which is like a romantic comedy in comic-form. Enjoy!

These characters are in fact mine and do belong to me, so, as per usual, be cool and DON'T STEAL. Thanks!

Back again! Here are some ink sketches done as part of an assignment in one of my last ever classes at SCAD.

The first couple are done in brush pen:

The next two are done in permanent marker (in case you couldn't already tell by the hasty linework):

And this last one was sketched in PITT pen, the medium size, I think:

Peacocks are fun :)

Tolkien, how I love thee...

Here, in all its glorious nerdiness, are the character designs and thumbnails for my thesis project--also known as the beginnings of my adaptation of JRR Tolkien's The Silmarillion into an epic graphic novel. The first twenty pages were completed for my thesis, and you can see them at my all-things Tolkien-related blog: From the Lost Road. That's where I'll be posting all my Tolkien-related artworks so be sure to keep an eye on it!

Anyway, these lovely ladies are the Valier, Queens of the Valar:

And here we have the Valar Kings:

That last bit was a fun exercise to try and give each of the characters a unique shape. Try it sometime if you too have a massive cast that can sometimes be hard to keep track of.

Here's the main antagonist of The Silmarillion, a former member of the Valar and Sauron's predecessor, Melkor, who became known as Morgoth after he was discounted from the Valar:

Last, but certainly not least, we have the seven fathers of the Dwarves as well as the Two Trees!

You can read more about my ideas and conception of these over at From the Lost Road

These last couple of sketches are the thumbnails fro the pages I presented with my thesis--the pages changed a lot between these thumbnails and the finished versions...so don't be surprised to see them revised again one day...

Remember, Tolkien's characters, environments, and stories DON'T belong to me (even if I sometimes wish they did)

Thumbnail Express

All aboard the process train!

Thumbs for my logo!

Thumbs for my mostly-imageless comic! The final version can be viewed here!

Thumbs from my text-in-environment illustrations! The final products are here!

Last but certainly not least, the thumbs from my final project from hand-lettering class, the very dear to my heart StrangeHearted. See the finished pages here!

All of the ideas expressed here have been my own, so please be cool and don't steal!