New Work

So I haven't updated in a while due to some major computer issues and with work and the holidays. The good news is that I've been working pretty steady drawing, writing, and coloring. Below are my first cover colors (and process) for 10th Muse, a book from Bluewater Productions (bluewaterprod.com) that should be out in the next few months. I am also uploading some personal work as well. I hope you like them!

This is the final for the 10th Muse cover. I'm not sure who did the actual drawing, I did the coloring. You can see some of my process below.



This is some of my process in creating the colors for the cover. Zoom in to read my description of each step.



This is a teaser for my upcoming book , "Bout" that I writing and illustrating. It will be a 5 issue, 125 page story about a boxer here in Chicago. This was done entirely in Photoshop with a tablet, about 3 hours total.

This is a quick sketch I did in Photoshop while having coffee and talking with several people about books and storytelling while at my favorite coffeeshop, the Grind, near my home here in Lincoln Square. I'm really pleased with how it turned out, especially compared to my earlier digital painting attempts from just a few months ago (trust me, they were NOT good!). Eventually I would like to do some comics and more illustrations entirely on the computer.




This is an older drawing an a teaser image form the sequel to "Bout" (I know I'm a little ahead of myself with a sequel since Bout isn't even drawn yet!) I'll upload the full finished piece when it's done.

Blast From The Past

These are the pages form my first published work from my school days at SCAD. I wrote the story as well but haven't included he word balloons since Top Shelf might sue me. The story was okay, but then again it was only 4 pages long. You can check the book out at
http://www.topshelfcomix.com/catalog.php?type=3&title=531 . My story, "No Good Deed" is on page 252.

ATLAS Pages

These are the first 5 pages of ATLAS, a miniseries that I'm coloring for Bluewater Productions (link) I believe it will be a 4 issue series and will come out in March of '09. I'm very happy with the pages since it's a complete 180 from the color I do for my own work and matches the animated style. I might be doing another book for them as well but it's all very top secret right now. Stay tuned!

Godless Pages

So I have been pretty busy lately, first I had a great trip to Phoenix to see my family for my grandma's 80th birthday which was a lot of fun. I also started a new day job and have been using all of my free time for drawing. I'm posting here some inked pages from Godless and the final colors for page 6. This page marked a big leap as I started painting the backgrounds directly in the computer with no hand drawing to go from, specifically in panels 4 and 5 (the top 2 of the triple stack). I'm, pretty happy with how it worked and I think works well to separate the foreground and background elements.



These are pages 9 and 10, the big finale before the big fight scene plays out. These were intended to be the last pages for submitting to companies but I'm actually already working on page 20.

Godless Page 5 Color

So here are the final colors for page 5 of Godless. I'm pretty happy with it, I opened it up the other day and thought I had more work to do but decided that it was done. The file was so large (over a gig) that I had to do the last panel on it's own so that my laptop could handle it! I've been working on keeping layers to a minimum but that big panel was a beast. I will also have some more inked pages up soon and colors for page 6 should be done this week as well.

Godless Page 4 Color

So I finished this up the other day, I might make some small changes but I'm pretty happy overall. I've been really branching out, trying to push the work past any preconceived rules or regulations. After all, I think an original style is an artist's main selling point. I hope you like it.

Sneak Peek

This is a peek at the colors from Page 4. I should have the color for pages 4 and 5 both done within a few days. I'm pretty happy with how it's going, I've been learning a few new tricks and it doesn't take that long either, if it was published I could do a full page drawn and colored every 2 days I'm sure.

Crazy Character

I did this really quick last night to demo how I work for a friend. This is one of the main characters from a graphic novel that I'm currently writing. He's pretty insane due to a gunshot wound to the head (the scar is on the other side of his head) but he's actually my favorite character to write due to his imperfections. He was also and aspiring artist like myself before the "incident".

300 Print

So I finished the colors for this 300 drawing that I did last year so I could sell the print at Wizard World Chicago. Unfortunately, my buddy wasn't able to share his table so I couldn't sell anything, but I actually had a great time and met tons of cool people. I'm pretty proud of it, especially the fact that I buckled down and redesigned my website and colored this in the week before the con.

Thor redux

So I took and older color version of this Thor drawing that I did then ran it through a bunch of adjustments and layer styles in Photoshop and came up with this.

You can see the original version and the inked drawing too at my deviantart page.

http://thedanhale.deviantart.com/art/Thor-Color-79627902

Godless Page 3 Color

So I finally finished the colors for page 3 of Godless. The difference between this page and the last 2 is pretty drastic. I'm going to go back and make some adjustment to 1 and 2 to make them match up more. I guess at least it means I'm getting better :)

Tone Highlights

This is a greatest hits of sorts. My favorites from the last few weeks of sketching.

Godless Pages

Here are pages 7 and 8. Only 2 more to finish drawing and then a few more to color before we send it off to publishers.

Sketch Time

These are some quick sketches I did, no pencil drawing underneath, just starting with a thin Micron and then using bigger pens and brush pens. A few I toned using Copic grey markers.



These are more quick ink sketches, the top 2 are toned pencil drawings made using 4B lead and a blending stump, then erasing with the Tuff Stuff eraser.

2 small panel drawings. The ninja one was a lot of fun trying to imply the sea below.



Very loose brush pen sketches and a toned samurai guy.

Mo Sketches

Here are some sketches that I finished recently. The Indian was rendering practice using the Pentel brush pen to do some fine hatching and feathering which I have all but abandoned as of late.

These 3 toned sketches were all done on the same sketchbook page, I just isolated then from the other junk. They were all done with no pencil under drawing, just went from a loose 005 Micron sketch to bigger Microns and then to brush pens and Copic grays. The 2 character on the end are from Godless and the middle guy is from a book I'm working writing now.

Collage Sketch

This is a sketch of a book I have planned down the road. I am still finalizing the sequence of events but I have the main themes and characters all planned out. This is one of the "panel" sketches, original size is probably 3.5" square.

More Godless Pages!

So I finally sat down and finished both the color for page 2 and the inks for page 6. I feel like getting up to page 10 all drawn and up to page 5 colored won't be a problem for the end of May. Looks like June will be submission time.This page was difficult since I had to draw horses and riders at all kinds of angles and I really wanted to give a sense of place with a wide open desert. Not to mention fitting 7 panels, lettering is going to be a challenge.

Page one is Done!

So after two weeks (and a 1.2 gig file) of on and off coloring I finally finished page one of Godless. I spent way to long on it but i figure the first page is the most important for grabbing the readers (and editors!) attention. I might make some small changes here and here before we send it out but this is probably 99% final. I hope you like it.

3 Techniques

I forgot to put up some of these sketches and color experiments that I finished recently. I'm also including a digital layout I did for a story called "Moriarty" that I am working on with the local writer MG Farrelly. I enjoyed doing the drawing completely in Photoshop and it was great for resizing panels and might be a nice change from the traditional pencil and ink Godless.

This is the layout, the story is there are two cops chatting near a police station located at Belmont and Western (only a mile or so from my house actually) when a Semi comes barreling down the overpass smashes though the guardrail and careens towards our doomed officers. Definitely grabs the attention.


This is an experiment with a small pencil sketch (maybe 2.5" square) I spent a half an hour or using a dark 4B lead and smudge stick and then use my Tufff Stuff eraser (my most used tool by far) to erase out highlights and details. I really like working in this method and actually did a 4 page WW2 story in school using the technique. I prefer it for highly detailed illustrative work though as it takes forever and is extremely messy. Anyways, I slapped some flat colors on it in photoshop and 10 layers later came up with this. Oh yeah, it's kinda supposed to be Frank Castle( aka the Punisher).
This is yet another technique I've begun to use recently involving tech& brush pens, as well as Copic grey markers (30% and 50%). This is probably the best example of the technique so far. The color version is a few hours in Photoshop, tried to mainly use the values I already had and only added a strong rim-light and background.

Godless Pages

These are pages 4 and 5 from Godless. I had 4 almost done for about a week and I finally drew the figures and background in the last panel yesterday. I also did a lot of work on 5 yesterday, finally buckling down and inking the mountains and horses. There are a few problem areas but I'm confident all will be well once I get the color done. Speaking of which page 1 is almost totally colored, I'll have it online by the end of the week.

Godless Pages

These are the first 3 pages of Godless, the book I have been working on for the past year. I want to finish around 7-10 pages to send off to companies, including several colored and lettered. I will post colored versions and the next pages as I finish them.

Process Time

So i wanted to post this illustration I did for the Stranger Things story that I'm working on. I already posted the sketch form earlier but wanted to share the different variations that I made when I colored it in Photoshop. Overall I am very happy and can't decide on which I like best.

Panel Update

So I inked and toned this "panel" the other day, using the gray tone markers to do some of the actual drawing this time, which worked out great in the color phase. I'll post that up tomorrow. I used some Microns, the Copic grays, and the Japanese Pentel brush pen.

Color Stuffs

This is Mick, the main character from the boxing comic I'm writing/ hoping to draw one day. You can see the prequel pages at my Website. I'm actually pretty happy with this, although the background sucks but that's because it was just a figure sketch. I'm starting to get a process for digital color although it still takes lots of messing around to get anything good. This must be like 30 layers.

This was a quick (~1 hour) test I did at the "The Grind" coffee shop (my second home/studio) the other day. I like the luminous quality although it does look pretty digital. I drew a really quick arm sketch on the tablet with a strong contour line then laid in flats and rendering underneath. So far my process has been to 1- lay in flats 2- glazing on shadows, starting light and adding new layers of darker shadows on top. I also made it a point to merge layers often to keep my file sizes down (and to prevent 5 minute file saves). 3- I do the same as 2 but with highlights. 4 - Finally I copy the layers I have and try different layer styles and various dirty little photoshop tricks I've picked up over the years until I have something I like. I actually had a boxing glove begun on the hand when my laptop's battery died.

Panels update

I inked the boxer and some of the ruffians in the bottom left panel (the front guy's body is too small, I'll fix that in Photoshop, however, I am happy with the improvements to the face). I also did some more work inking Stever, not my favorite of him but good practice nonetheless.