This was just a warm-up drawing at the January CCN Sketchbook Party. I haven't actively drawn for awhile, so I'm just trying to jog my memory about how I draw things! There's a million flaws here, but its just sort of a warm-up...

-Mark Stinson

Well, this quick sketch is one of four I did tonight on my laptop with my wacom. I thought the shading turned out interesting, so I thought I'd post it. I'm just trying to loosen up a bit (from a long period of not drawing), and get in the habit of sketching.

I also doodled about 5 sketches at work today. Mostly figures...

-Mark Stinson

Messin' with my wacom. Just trying to sketch everyday...and loosen up a bit. At the Sketchbook Party last night, I just felt so tight and anxious when I was drawing...

-Mark Stinson

I drew this illustration years ago for a horror story I was writing called "Writhing Hell." I finished many other horror stories, but I never finished that one...despite the three illustrations I completed for it.

-Mark Stinson

Another Lord of the Rings oriented sketch for the Sketch Challenge over at the CCN Message Board....

I'm fairly happy with this image. Its without a photo reference...just straight from the mind...and I went ahead and spotted the blacks. This is good practice for me. The Orc Overseer was probably my first real pencil-on-paper drawing since July, when I drew Bob Berdella. Making this my second pencil drawing since July, and the first time I've inked since then!

Click "Read More" below for a finished version of the sketch I'm not as happy with actually!

-Mark Stinson

Read more!

Seth Wolfshorndl started a bi-weekly Sketch Challenge on the CCN Message Board. He asked us to draw something based on imagery from the Lord of the Rings. Here is my Orc Overseer...

Took me about a half-hour. And here's a close-up of his face from the same sketch.

If I were to finish it with inks, I would give it a heavy outline, heavy spot-blacks, and then go in with a small micro and draw in some fine line details, like wrinkles, liver-spots, etc.

-Mark Stinson

A character in a RPG game that I play had a magical sigil placed on his hand. I wanted to whip up an image for that...for our message board. Anyway, I created this seal in about 10 minutes...

Mark

Jennifer made this Jedi costume by hand, and I thought...how would Nathan look pasted into a scene from Star Wars. Well...now I know!

-Mark Stinson

(To see the image at a larger size, click here or on the image.)

This is the first thing I've actually drawn in months. Pencil on paper...Sharpie...and then gray-tones with Prismacolor markers. Its a little rough, but not a bad "first-drawing-in-months."

-Mark Stinson

I'm reading the Wizard of Oz to my children, and when Dorthy first gets to meet the Terrible Oz, it is in his throne room...and he is simply a huge bald head floating over a throne in the center of the room. It made me think of this image when I was reading it...

Pencil on bristol, inked with Sharpie, colored quickly in Photoshop...just a quick experiment.

-Mark Stinson

Pencil on Bristol, quickly inked with a .05 micron, grey-scaled with prisma-color markers, scanned, and grey outside border added in Photoshop. Didn't bother with a rular or keeping it too neat. Total time...about 20 minutes.

While I was watching TV last night, I saw a scene shot from outside a window...using the window itself as the framing device. I thought I'd give it a try here, and draw a lonely man seperated from the person looking at the picture by the window...

-Mark Stinson

Pencils on bristol, inked with Sharpie, scanned and colored in Photoshop. I'm not 100% sure this turned out like I wanted it to. I knew I was going to use a blur filter from the moment I put pencil to paper...and I'm only half convinced that turned out exactly like I wanted it to. I am fairly happy with the flying-into-the-sun coloration on superman's form.

Part of my continuing efforts to beging drawing on a daily basis again. After all, a drawing away keeps the vultures away.

-Mark Stinson

Daily sketch...done on bristol with pencil, inked with a Sharpie, and then Prismacolor grey markers were used for the grey-tones. Third "finished" piece in the last 3 days...exercising those artist-muscles. I'm still feeling rusty...not particularly happy with this drawing....

-Mark Stinson

Skeched in pencil on bristol, and then inked with a crude but trusty Sharpie. I may grayscale this later...but here's the B&W for now.

I've been reading the Wizard of Oz to my children at night...and I had the Tin Man on my mind! I've never liked drawing metal, so this was sort of an experiment for me. I think its more of an "illustrated" style than I normally do.

-Mark Stinson

This is for the Art Jam (8/21 to 9/3) over on the Message Board. The subject is Christopher Reeves, and there are plenty of photo references posted there...but I sort of went off in my own direction with it. I tried to capture what he brought to Superman without neccesarily reflecting one of the photos...

-Mark Stinson

Jason Arnett is writing a story for me to draw for inclusion in the upcoming MOON anthology. Jason gave me some suggestions as for the look of the "male lead," and here are my initial sketches...

-Mark Stinson

We're trying some new things over at the KC Comix Board. Here's one of them. We're going to string together some panel-jams on the message board. For instance, this is Panel #1 of a six-panel-story...

I have posted it over on the message board, and any artist can come along, draw Panel #2, and post it on the board. Then another artist draws and posts Panel #3, and so on.

The challenge is to bring your own vision to the six-panel-story, while still continuing what has come before your panel. One of the fun parts is trying to bring the story to a conclusion that makes sense...with an ending that makes it feel like the story was planned out from the beginning that way.

The main goal is to have fun...if you would like to add a panel to this story...CLICK HERE and see which panels still need to be done....

-Mark Stinson

I have page 2 done...except for digitally cleaning it up a bit and coloring it:

And I have page 4 roughed in...but not fully inked yet...

I'll get the finished color versions up here soon.

-Mark Stinson

I've received some comments that using Arial for my lettering font is boring as hell. I actually agree. Its such a trade-off. You want a cool looking font...but you want it to be readable when you size the image down and the dpi down for web-publishing. I found that out when the font in Void Pulp #2 became almost unreadable when I converted it over to the web.

So I'm looking and experimenting. Anyone have a suggestion for a cool (but readable) font for this story?

-Mark Stinson

Movie Slide Show of 3D Ultrasound...CLICK HERE!

Joshua Stinson is due 6-9-05.

Its amazing to see him in there. He's been sort of a "concept" for 7 or 8 months now...but seeing him...well that's different!

-Mark Stinson