Wednesday, December 30, 2009

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ME!!!

...or berthday, since i will be spending the day being carried around by a team of midgets while i throw fist fulls of glitter to the sounds of rush's "tom sawyer" (as is the custom in canada).

also here, finally, is the art for the special giveaway poster/print that we're putting together for people who order the MYSTERIUS THE UNFATHOMABLE tpb through dcbs.

it's getting type and logos and will be signed and numbered by both jeff and me. it will be available for free for the first 250 people to order through dcbs, along with 10 randomly inserted original drawings by me (i'll post those, along with the finished version of the above, a bit closer to the day).

i'd say that was a pretty good deal... wouldn't you?




ps... if you like podcasts where people say awesome things about ME! (...and jeff and mysterius and a couple of other things, i guess...) swing over to the truly awesometastic evie and aaron's awesomed by comics year end awards show.

thanks guys.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

happy xmas...

...bit early this year (due to popular demand)...

from all of us here at team fowler: tom, monique, graham, and zool

we thank you for your indulgence, and wish you the very best of the season...

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

new commissions: ra's al ghul and lex luthor...

... and they said i couldn't hide obelix in another post...

the joke in this luthor one is almost painfully subtle. can you tell what it is?*

and once again the grizzle-scazzizzles...





* (hint) he's drinking GREEN tea...

Friday, December 04, 2009

new commission: blue beetle...

fightin' THE SQUIDS!!!

and now in greyscale...


squid fightin'...

Thursday, December 03, 2009

new commissions deadpool and harley 'n' joker...

(i can't believe i now have two labels for "decapitation"...)

oh well... kids love killin'!



i've also included the greyscale versions of both, cuz that's how i role...




Tuesday, November 24, 2009

hey kids, ALLIGATOR!!!...

'cuz everybody loves a repeat of a step by step process post...

first: start with a dire need for a new portfolio.


next, dig around for some recent sketches. anything will do. say, a recent petarding of a close friend and creative partner...

now drain out all that comics junk, 'cuz art directors think they're oogy... and make it orange.
now paint it. paint it like there's a mortgage payment due. paint it like you don't want to have to wear a paper hat... ever. paint it like you've no intention of calling a thirteen year old "sir". paint it with love.*
now get your rep to try and sell it to some business magazine... or something... whatever... remember, you're a private dancer. a dancer for money. do what they want you to do...


* by "love", of course, i mean a mix of fear and panic...

hey kids, PROCESS!!!...

... and who doesn't love a little bit of procedural navel-gazing once in a while? now that i'm a regular-type illustrator i've been trying to build up some kind of cohesive portfolio again.

well, maybe not "again" as i never really had one to begin with. i went straight from college to alcoholism to animation to deeper alcoholism to fantasy/gaming illustration to penury to comics to... well, nothing really. i've done the odd "straight" illustration job here or there, but never frequently enough to build anything out of, and the real shame of comics is that after twelve years of doing primarily comics all you have is a portfolio full of... comics.

so it behooves me now to start developing a process by which i can meet deadlines and show some consistency on more conventional illustration jobs. after playing around a bit i decided to approach it very much like i do my comics work (at least it was valuable for something... *), and i'm really happy and excited about the results!

first: the sketch.

this is the cleaned up sketch. i'll save you seeing any of my scratchy, crazy-pants doodles. this would be what the client sees. just a simple pencil drawing on typing paper, once i've worked out all the compositional elements in the doodles.

second: a cleaner inked sketch.

this was done with markers right over the first. it's really just to clean everything up for me and incorporate any changes or added elements the client may suggest after seeing the first sketch. in this case "the client" being my european rep and the concept being his, there weren't a lot of changes to be made...

third: now here's the fun bit. i took it into photoshop and, fiddling around in utilities, turned the black ink line into an orange/sepia colour that i often use when laying down my underpaintings.

this is exactly the same technique i use when i'm bluelining layouts for comics and advertising work, just playing around with the rest of the spectrum instead. the benefit of this is getting a perfect transfer of what the client signed off on AND keeping all the spontaneity and energy of the original drawing. i blew this up and printed it off onto 2 ply strathmore with my tabloid printer.

four: ...er... then i painted it.


the final painting was done with whatever dead brushes were at hand and daler rowney gouache. (btw, if anyone knows a good online source for DR that isn't prohibitively expensive in canada please let me know. i'm starting to run out and there really isn't anywhere to get it in ottawa anymore). i like daler rowney paints because, as i think i've mentioned before, i find them to be "creamier".

if i've done my job the right the final should resemble something approaching what is to my mind the pinnacle of gouache paintings: the 1969 poster for "the computer wore tennis shoes" that's hanging in my studio.



(* sorry if that sounds a bit harsh or negative, but the last four months or so haven't left me terribly well disposed toward the industry. that said, for all my belly-aching, i'd probably jump right back into it if it gave me the slinky wink... )

Monday, November 16, 2009

new commission... and a question.

here's the latest commission. again, both in greyscale and bitmap. i really can't decide which i like better.




soooooo... one look at the sidebar will show that i really need an update of how this blog archives things (AND a little twitter window, AND a little followers window...) all of which i believe are readily available if i update to the new blogger. my problem is that every time i've started the process of updating, i get a little message that more or less says: " you may lose some content".... and there's the rub. i don't care if i lose the links in the sidebar (they can be replaced easily enough), but i do not want to lose any past posts.

has anyone out there updated their blogger blogs from the beta version? what/how much did you lose? did you lose anything? did you and blogger rent a cabin in the woods and spoon all weekend? did it touch you in an uncomfortable place? did it leave you in a puddle of tears and regret? did you have to sue it for custody of your pomeranian: admiral fluffikins mcwhiskerface? why hasn't it called? can't it see you love it? roughly? etc...

thanks for your help/experience in the comments...

Sunday, November 15, 2009

two new commissions...

here are the latest two commissions:

and here's how that last one looks when i play with my new (11x17 1200 dpi) scanner...


also, thank you to the astoundingly talented mr. guy davis for the shout out over at his marquis blog, where he includes a little blast from my past. (although the link he includes is to my portfolio, but i'm not picky...) EDIT (they're both there now. apparently i'm a little picky...)

when you're not reading and buying MYSTERIUS (available feb.9th) you should really be reading and buying something by guy...

Sunday, November 08, 2009

big monkey and 11 o'clock...

i sat in with the 11 o'clock guys on wednesday night. it was a lot of fun. i'm sorry i probably should have posted about it on thursday, but i got a bit distracted by sickness and work...

here's a picture of a big monkey from my new advertising portfolio. colours by keith garletts...

Saturday, October 31, 2009

happy halloween...

you know, the only really frightening thing for me about this drawing is that it turns out i'm not nearly as a attractive a person as i thought i was...

(and, yes, i am fishing for compliments...)

Friday, October 30, 2009

CBC asterix interview...

i got a call yesterday from the cbc to see if i could come in that afternoon and drop some asterix on them. so, after rousing myself from my sick bed and smearing purel on my every exposed surface, i did just that...

you can find it here.



(and i didn't swear or nuthin'...)

Thursday, October 29, 2009

parker's dream...

via twitter:

"@
jeffparker Dreamed last night that @tomfowlerbug drew a picture of me, and when I saw it, it was an alligator. Interpret THAT"

'kay.


Saturday, October 17, 2009

new commissions...

two new commissions...

first: batman and superman as they should be... friends.

... and a quick vogon for steve gettis' amazing hey oscar wilde! it's clobberin' time site...



i like vogons...

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

2009 sketchbooks for sale...





























2009 sketchbooks are now available for sale online (well... through me via email*). it's big boy at 24 pages with colour covers for only $10.00 usd. i'll throw in a wee monster sketch on the cover as well.

please include $2.00 postage inside canada and $3.00 outside.

ps... made a few changes to the portfolio blog. not done yet, but getting there...

* which you can find in my profile.

Thursday, October 08, 2009

salon de livre schedule...

i've received my schedule for this weekend's Le Salon de Livre de l'Outaouais: Rendez-vous International de la BD de Gatineau but first a sneak peak at one of the new images in progress for the mysterius trade:



now the schedule:

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8
6:30 pm to 8:00 pm Opening Ceremony
This is optional but we’d be delighted if you could join us!

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10
10:30 am to 11:30 am Autographs
12:00 pm to 12:45 pm Hosting Lynn Johnston’s LIVE DRAWING
3:oo pm to 4:00 pm Autographs

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 11
11:00 am to 12:30 pm Autographs
2 :00 pm to 3 :00 pm Hosting Ronn Sutton’s LIVE DRAWING
3:30 pm to 5:00 pm Autographs

MONDAY, OCTOBER 12
11:30 am to 1:00 pm Autographs

most of my signing will be with my friend eric gauthier, who wrote "feu blanc" and "terre des pidgeons" (illustrated by moi) which i've posted about previously.

the "live drawings" are on stage interviews with the artists as they... well, draw live.

other guests this year include: christophe bertschy, nicolas boucher, francis desharnais, christian durieux, lynn johnston, loustal, louis-philippe morin, gabriel morrissette, myriam roy, ronn sutton, lewis trondheim, daniel shelton, as well as some special appearances by others.

the whole thing starts friday at the museum of civilization and is all kinds of free.

Friday, October 02, 2009

11 o'clock podcast...

i sat in with vince, chris, david, and jason on the 11 o'clock comics podcast wednesday night... and just could not shut up! my unfocused, one might think coked-up, ramble can be heard here.

many thanks to everyone involved. it was a lot of fun.

here's a new commission:

Thursday, September 24, 2009

more news, more commissions...

NEWS: i'll be appearing again at this year's tenth annual Le Salon de Livre de l'Outaouais: Rendez-vous International de la BD de Gatineau running from october 9th to 12th. among the special guests this year are Loustal, Lewis Trondheim, and Lynn Johnston. i'll be conducting an on stage interview with the latter at some point over the weekend. i'll post a schedule of events including that interview (of which i am slightly terrified) and my own signings a bit closer to the event.

COMMISSIONS:



EDIT...

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

my portfolio...

hi kids,

i've just updated my links to include my new (and somewhat hastily thrown together) portfolio.

there's not a huge amount there right now, but it will change and grow to include a comics, and a design section among other things. i'm hoping to replace it eventually with something a bit more snazzy, but it'll do for now.

just click here (that is, if'n you're too lazy to scroll your mouse over to the link in the sidebar...)

Monday, August 17, 2009

some more recent commissions and some even cooler news...

this time the news first...

the Society of Illustrators has chosen one of my pieces from Spectrum to hang in their gallery for an upcoming show highlighting the Spectrum annual.

the piece of mine they chose was the perennial favourite of mums everywhere "bad panda".


i'm super excited about this. the show runs from september 1st to october 17th at the society's gallery. monique and i will be there for the official opening on the 11th of september (i know...).
more about the event here. i'd love to see some members of the Fowler Army there.

i'll also be at the montreal comic con september 19-20. i don't think i'm on the site yet, but i'll be there.

and now the commissions...


dat wascally wolverine....

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

some recent commissions, and some cool news...

first the commissions...
president martin van buren: the original wolverine...


an introspective thor...


supes giving bats a boost. this last one isn't really a commission (don't worry, dave), but more something i had to get out of my system before attacking said commission.

now the news: as has finally been reported i'll be appearing in disney press' the prince of persia gn. it's a tie-in to the new movie and it'll be on sale i april(?). it's looking like its going to be a quality book and i'm having a lot of fun with it. mostly though, i'm just happy to finally be able to talk about it... even though i can't actually say anything about it.... or show any images from it...

.... crap

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

messing about....

while i've been waiting for my new mystery gig to start up in earnest, i've had a bit of a chance to sit down and do some drawing/painting just for the sake of drawing/painting.

i was going to hold one of these back for a longer focused posting about orphaned jobs that can't be done now, but... who are we kidding?

enjoy...






some of =you= might like to note that the three of these were done on cartiera magnani's annigoni paper...