Where nothing is what it seems

Ends the year. Ends this first episode of Elder and Roc. What your eyes had seen as a human army, now reveals itself as a group of reptilian humanoids. Only Elder, whose eyes are different from ours, could see beyond that appearance and fight them.

Now is the time when I will shake hands with each and everyone of you, and wish you, all my firends, a Happy New Year. Thanks for following this blog.

See you in 2010 --

(Pre)historic mayhem

Ok. I have to press the accelerator to finish showing these pages before the year ends. On one page is the classic disaster from a heroic fantasy gore pushed to the limit, and the next we see Roc findindig the last survivor of the army that was hidden under a large beast.
In the last panel Elder is asking Roc not kill him ... still ... We can see the strange Elder's eyes, and we realize that, hey, he's not blind at all!
Very soon the last page.

A Christmas Eve massacre

Well, my friends. Here I'm showing you another couple of pages about my favorite barbarian: the giant troll with no brain, and the old man specialist in melee combat. Drawings may not be the best suited for the day before Christmas Eve, but I have not time to prepare anything special for these days.
I wish you so much happiness!

Trolls keep falling on my head

Two more pages from Elder and Roc. We can see the skill of an old blind man with his stick and the emergence of the giant troll named Roc. After so long, I still like much this first appearance of Roc, jumping over the cliff. It would look so good in slow motion for an epic movie ...

Pointing the fate

Third page of the Elder and Roc series. I still realize the amount of detail used in each panel. When now I see the amount of brocaded in the sleeves of grand vizier, I feel a little sorry for the loss of energy and effort involved, especially if we consider that at the time I was drawing 32 complete pages (pencil and ink) per month.
Old times, good times.

An old man and his beast

When we finished the Mool series (abruptly, I must say, because the magazine changed its format and we had to summarize 16 pages in just 8), my brother and I created a premise for a new series: Elder and Roc.
You have already seen a couple of pages of this first chapter, but this time I will post the whole 8 full pages. The quality of reproduction is medium, as I only can find scanned copies in black and white in a very poor resolution.
P.s:- All the blank space above the first page was reserved for the title and logo...

Waving goodbye

These are the two last pieces from Engaging the Belial. A struggle between the protagonist and a pirate zombie, and a farewell into the horizon with sunset included.
In the next post, something different.
I'll wait for each and everyone.

Engaged and displayed

This time I brought two illustrations that have been displayed, but now in a better resolution in order to get most of the details. These are two more illustrations for Engaging The Belial. Soon I'll post the last two andit will be time to start with other drawings. Until then, good voyage, my cabin boys!

Cartoony

I've always been a big fan of caricatures. My favorite authors are Jean Mulatier, Jan Op De Beeck and Sebastian Krüger. My style doing caricatures for my friends is more cartoony, but a few times I have tried to make caricatures in the style of these great artists. This is one of them. The sitter was the editor-in-chief of the Comic-book division of Planeta-DeAgostini Editorial, where my brother and I contributed with articles, pin-ups and series such as Sage.

Vindictiveness

"This fog comes from Evil, and the soul of the crew is on the burning wood until nothing was left but ashes..."
In the history Engaging the Belial occurs a clash between twelve Knights and a lot of pirates' dead bodies from the Black Galleon.
An epic and mystic tale of pirates, miracles, demons, faith and fire. And a bloody big illustration for all of you.

Duel of Fates

I also illustrate a pirates history for Sulaco Ediciones. It was called Engaging the Belial. You may have already seen a couple of drawings from that series in previous posts.
Now I will show you one of my favorites in that story.
It is a pencil illustration about a duel with swords. I enjoyed so much the scene, that I drew details from all sides.
I'm posting it in a high resolution so you may enjoy it.

Creatures of the Night

Bats, Owls, Vampires, and other things that go bump in the night reminds me a little poem (in freestyle!) about Halloween that fits perfectly with the illustration I'm posting this time....

"Having Witches cast their spells
an absolutely frightening night
living vampires roam about drinking innocent peoples blood
lights can very well go out without being shut off
Owls hoot ominously in the night air
Werewolves eat the flesh of any animal
eating bears and raccoons alike
evil spirits fly about with the intention of bringing fear.
No where to hide,and no where to run"

And the original goes to...

The drawing has ended, my friends.
The winner is Elisabeth Bathory. Please, feel free to contact me and let me know your real name and the address where I can send the original Daredevil page. Congrats!

Now I'm posting an old model sheet for the main characters in Sage series.
Brand new day, old stuff.

Have no fear (or a litlle...)

Well, here it is! This is the original page (A3) I'm going to give for free tomorrow. Only for all the registered followers of this blog (if you're not, register now!).
It's a pencil work from a Daredevil submission.
I'm posting it in a high resolution for you to see.

Do you feel lucky?

I have thought that to be grateful for your loyalty, next November 13th --first birthday of Loren Jr.-- I will give one of my original drawings to one of the friends who follow this blog (I mean: only for the registered followers).
I still haven't chosen the drawing itself, but I truly believe that it will be a good occasion to share friendship and art.
Good Luck to all of you!

Ruddy and Dark Countenance

In my professional career I was tied a lot of time to Sulaco Studios (now it's called Malaka Studios). One of my works there was to illustrate a book on vampires. I drew several illustrations, some of which already have been showed. Now it's the time to do the same with the rest.

Vampire Bats: Although many cultures have stories about them, vampire bats have only recently become an integral part of the traditional vampire lore. Indeed, vampire bats were only integrated into vampire folklore when they were discovered on the South American mainland in the 16th century. The literary Dracula transforms into a bat several times in the novel, and vampire bats themselves are mentioned twice in it.

Pirates boarding!

Another Conan's pin-up. This time, paying more attention to Bêlit. Who is she? In the fictional universe of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian, Bêlit is a pirate queen who has a romantic relationship with Conan. She is Conan's first serious lover. She appears in Howard's Conan novelette "Queen of the Black Coast". And now, she is here, fierce, asking for boarding an enemy's ship...

Learning to fly

"Into the distance, a ribbon of black
Stretched to the point of no turning back
A flight of fancy on a windswept field
Standing alone my senses reeled
A fatal attraction holding me fast, how
Can I escape this irresistible grasp?"
(Learning to Fly - Pink Floyd)

Third illustration for the magazine...

Didn't see the stop?

Another erotic illustration for the Swedish magazine. This time, a gorgeous police stopping an absent-minded driver. And, yes, the man's face is an homage to Glenn Fabry's cover for Preacher #4 (I've always loved Fabry's facial expressions, so I used it and put the copyright on the t-shirt as a logical joke!)

Hot business

Some time ago (oh, my God: it seems that everything happened too much time ago) I was hired to draw a few erotic illustrations for a well-known Swedish magazine. I drew -and they were published- 6 of them. You have seen one of the bunch here. Now I have found some of them in an old CD. The scanning was not very good, so the reproduction is not faithful to the original. But it is the best way I can show them.

Four minutes

Well, this is a quick convention sketch I did some time ago for a spanish site called Los Manuscritos Perdidos. By the time I was doing Rogues!, so I drew Bram and Weasel posing for my friend Oscar. It was a four-minutes-sketch, with no blue-pencil line.

From time to time

Some of you have asked for the illustration from the very first post of this blog without the text. Here it is. Ghost Wolf in all his brilliance and fierceness. The original character design came from Siku, but I felt terribly comfortable drawing him in my own style. I really I like the three-dimensional sense of this drawing. I hope you do as well.

Conan the pencilled

This one is one of the first examples that I sent to the publishers to show my artwork. Probably about 1994-1995, and it's Totally drawn in pencil. I drew it on 2 oblong A4 and took advantage of this size to draw little details as the hair of the girl, Conan's axe or the scaly skin of the monster.
I sent the original ones to the publishing house and I only kept a photocopy of the work, where there were lost the majority of these details. But what is worse: the two a4 were not fitting good and you can see the shade that appears where they join, as well as certain twisted image... Anyway: I got the job.

Remembering the Wizard

Jaime Brocal Remohí was one of the greatest spanish comic-book artists. He was one of the very first artists to draw Sword and Sorcery comics. Some of his characters has been the most powerful visions of Heroic Fantasy: Katan, Ögan, Kronan, Arcane, Taar...
I was lucky because I met him in several occasions and we talk about comics, drawing styles and music (he was a terrific rock'n'roll fan). Also, my brother was collaborating with articles in Taar's last spanish edition and I was asked to do an illustration about the character in a special number. And this is what I did... 11 years ago!

Little big HORNS

More from Elder and Roc. Some time ago posted a couple of pages. Now I'm showing other two. The plot was really fun to drawing, and I enjoyed a lot with both main characters, 'cos they were like a Tarantino's vision of Hyborean heroes.
Probably one of these days I'll draw a pin-up about them only for my own enjoyment.

Stormy weather

"Storm (Ororo Iqadi T'Challa) is a fictional character that appears in a number of comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975), and was created by writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum. Best known as a longtime member and sometimes leader of the X-Men, Storm is currently the reigning queen of Wakanda, a title held by marriage to King T'Challa, better known as the Black Panther." (from Wikipedia)
Another drawing I was asked for Marvel's trading cards. I really don't know it this was used and published. If someone knows about it, I'll be glad to hear from you.

A matter of face

Do you remember the drawing for the Wolverine trading card?
This is the original drawing for that. The publisher asked me "to "smooth" Logan's face to give a more identical tone to the image from the X-Men movie, so I did it, although the card -as far as I know- was never printed, and I self-rejected it.
But my idea of Wolverine is that of a wild being led by his animal instincts. And I believe that this one is the face that should have a savage, wounded x-men, surrounded by enemies.

Punishment Time

"The Punisher (Frank Castle) is a fictional comic book character, an antihero in Marvel Comics' main shared universe. Created by writer Gerry Conway and artists John Romita, Sr. and Ross Andru, the character first appears in The Amazing Spider-Man #129 (February 1974)." (Wikipedia)

I drew three roughs for the Punisher trading card. I sent them to my publisher and they inked digitally one of them (not my favourite) and published it as a card.
If I only knew that they were going to use it as a definitive artwork, I'd finished it in other way... at least, I would have drawn a good neck on him.
Punishment, punishment!!

Mystical Paralysis

"Ahh, the exquisite triumph of this moment is beyond description..."
Doctor Doom dixit. (Victor von Doom is the archenemy of the Fantastic Four, as you can see).

Flying out of the closet --updated--

"Northstar (Jean-Paul Beaubier) is a fictional character, a superhero who appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Through his mutation, Northstar gains superhuman powers, which he uses for the betterment of society. Although originally a member of Alpha Flight, a fictional team of Canadian superhumans, Northstar is later portrayed as a member of the X-Men. He is one of the first openly gay superheroes in American comic books." (Wikipedia)

Just found the original pencils and added to the entry.

Surfing the web --updated--

Amazing... just type your name in google and see what you can find! I had forgotten this Archangel card.
I gave the original for free to a friend and just forgot it, and now, it comes again.
Bad resolution, good memories.

(Just found the original pencils and added to the entry.)

A force of nature

Hello, my friends.
I have just seen the documentary on Frazetta, Painting with Fire, and only I can say that the great Frank continues being an inspiration for everyone that wants to draw great art. I have looked for a few drawings that I did after reading the book Icon, long time ago, and I've selected this one that I'm posting now. Certainly I do not want to imitate Frazetta --you know: Frazetta is inimitable. Everything he does, he does terribly well--. I only try to show the very much that his work can inspire and guide to the ones that want to achieve artwork for his own pleasure.

Manfred and Cappa

Some years ago, a group of comic-book fans -which I belong to-, offer an honoring to the great Spanish draftsman Manfred Sommer. For the occasion I drew a great poster with the figure of one of his more famous characters: Frank Cappa. (In fact, I drew the upper figure, while my friend Mariano Saura drew the lower part). I also designed and realized a sculpture of Cappa (a golden Cappa!), which was very celebrated. That was my first sculpture. Later I realized other about both characters of Rogues! Also I have photos of these. If I locate them, I'll post them for you to see.
Bye now!

To the end of Hell (or Love Is A Burning Thing)

End of the trip.
These are last Hellina's two pages that I'm posting. A beautiful woman, a little of sex, a disgusting demon and a bit of gore. Is this what they call Hell? Probably.
Happy summer to all of you, my friends.
Be happy.