Wednesday, July 21, 2010

JAVCON Wednesday Night:Sketchbook pages, Shel Dorf and Bat-Mite!

Well, our first day of the first ever JAVCON has generated some great feedback (and traffic!). Thanks for checking it out.

So I'd like to show you some more pages from another one of my books. (Previously I shared with you some pages from EL MUERTO MISHMASH and MANGA MUERTO Vol 1). This time check out my brand-new THE COMIC POP SKETCHBOOK: 
 The SKETCHBOOK (which you can see the cover to in the JAVZILLA WEB SHOP) features 44 pages of b&w sketches from the last couple of years. Many of the pages come with commentary where I'm talking about my ideas and approaches for the individual drawings. There are lots of character designs and studies in the book, as most of my creative ideas start initially with a character, as opposed to a story. Sometimes the characters will immediately inform the story, other times I look at the character and start thinking of the reasons for it's existence, meaning that subconsciously I was probably thinking of story elements that informed my creation of the character. It's kind of like reverse-engineering one of my own visual creations.


The drawing of the alien from THEY LIVE (standing in front of the word 'OBEY') is actually drawn on the inside front cover of the COMIC POP SKETCHBOOK. Every book that gets sold will come with a unique drawing from me, created with black and gray markers. 


I'd like to show you another piece of art, this one a 12" x 12" acrylic painting w/marker outlines. BAT-MITE:
BAT-MITE's a brand-new painting, created as a donation to the Shel Dorf Artist Fund. They'll actually be holding an art show this weekend in San Diego to sell this and lots of other donated artwork. Shel Dorf started the San Diego Comic Con forty years ago. He passed away last year but his brother started the Artist Fund in his name to provide scholarship money to young artists. A great cause, and I'm honored to be able to participate. Thanks to Matt Lorentz for extending me an invitation. The AFTERCON Art Show is being run concurrently with the San Diego Comic Con, Thursday-Saturday from 8pm to Midnight at the Suture Gallery. 
So even though I won't be in San Diego myself this week, I'm glad I have some artwork showing in this very worthy cause. Several of my friends are in the show, and I have to tell you it's quite a  kick professionally to be listed on a show that also has Ray Bradbury! 
More JAVCON stuff in the next post!

2 comments:

Jim Lujan said...

I'm loving this JAVCON. Yesterday, a girl dressed as Demolition Dove asked me where the Muerto Pavillion was. I told her it was over there by the Weapon Tex Mex grill. People seem to be having a great time at this con. Not once did I hear anyone complain about the price gouging. I did, however, have to wait an hour in line for the Man Swamp "Beneath These Murky Waters" panel. It was totally worth it.

Javier Hernandez said...

HA! Bless ya, James Lujan! That made me laugh out loud!

I was totally inspired by the JIMFEST that you held back in 1978, when as a little kid you dreamt of an idea called 'Ghettomation'. Remember that? It was held in your backyard and you showed us all flip book animation of 'Security Man', 'Rage Dog' and something called 'Rev. Unicorn'. And now look at you! The King of Ghettomation.