Thought I’d combine a couple more of my sketchcovers together for this blog. Last time I showed you my Adam West Batman and John Astin Riddler Batman ’66 sketchcovers. Since Independence Day is just around the corner this time it’s my Reb Brown TV Captain America toon and Star Wars tank driver from Rogue One.
If you’re new to the sketchcovers game, they are pretty much just regular comics with a cover you can draw on. The cover stock can very in thickness and tooth/finish, and can either be a front only, front and back, of a spot window to sketch in.
I have some Harley Quinn ones that have a picture frame on the cover for you to draw in. I did this one for my toy dealer friend Eric Crimmins.
My friend Lonnie Easterling did a special edition “Super Puds” Spud Comics sketchcover for the Superman Celebration a couple years ago with a window area that turned out looking amazing. I got a Batman with a cordog and lemon shake-up one.
For this week’s blog entry the first new sketchcover up is my Imperial TX-225 GAVw “Occupier” Combat Assault Tank Driver from the movie Star Wars: Rogue One.
I’ve done a few Star Wars sketchcovers, and they all pretty much start out with a yellow #2 pencil, and then end up colored in Copic, Letraset, and Prismacolor markers, Pigma Micron and Gelly Roll pens, and some white Prismacolor pencil.
Recently I did a few other Rogue One covers, too. Bistan was one of my favorite characters we didn’t see a lot of, and K-2SO was one of my favorite characters we did get to see!
This Star Wars: Rogue One tank driver started off in pencil, too- just a plain yellow #2. I like the lead hardness- and they’re inexpensive! Since I spend a lot on markers I need to save a few pennies here and there where I don’t need to spend it.
I started working on this cover several weeks ago at The Cellar Table Top Games & Comics during one of my weekly Wednesday night drawing sessions at the comic shop. (I won’t be there this coming Wednesday because it’s the 4th of July.) I used my Star Wars: Rogue One Visual Guide for reference. They’ve got a ton of these books out there on every Star Wars movie. I used them a lot when I was drawing sketchcards for Topps.
I started off with the front trooper first. The shape of the helmet was a bit tricky. It took me a few tries to get it to where I was happy enough with it to move on.
I wanted it to look like the front stormtrooper was their lookout on point.
Took a bit longer to get the pencils done. Worked a few nights at the comic shop and at home on them. Was hoping I got the perspective down right..!
I did the figures in different shades of gray and some khaki Copic Markers. Then used some light yellow and some flesh to tint the armor a bit. Then it was time to add the background with my wider yellow Copic marker.
I added a couple different rust/brown colors, but still wasn’t happy with the background. It seemed a bit too bright and yellow-mustard’ish to me.
I then went over the entire background with a wide warm gray marker. That seemed to work and kill a bit of the color. Started to look more like a Dave Dorman background, which is the direction I was trying to go in.
Once the background was finished, I inked the drawing with some Pigma Micron pens (I normally ink with an .03), then highlighted using a white Gelly Roll pen and a white Prismacolor pencil. Protected it wish some Krylon Matte Finish spray-fixative.
A while back I did a Reb Brown Captain America sketchcover based on the ’70s TV movies. Yep, the “motor-cycle helmet/clear shield” Cap. I was inspired by my friend Dave Beaty and his co-host Jan Marc Quisumbing‘s Captain America episodes of “In the Studio: Retro Retrospective” on YouTube. I ended up buying the DVD 2pk and drawing this cover while watching the flicks.
Like many of my other sketchcovers, it was done in pencil, markers, pen, and colored pencil.
A few months back my friend Ken Murphy who is the promoter/organizer of the Cape Comic Con in Cape Girardeau, MO called to see if I still had that comic, since Reb Brown was going to be a guest at his show. Well, I sold it at the Memphis Comic Expo a couple years ago. He asked me if I could maybe do a painting of Reb for him instead.
I had done a cartoon version of William Katt as The Greatest American Hero a few years back when I had set up at Cape-Con back in 2011.
Ken bought if from me for his son’s room, and had Bill sign it for him. I had a blast getting to meet him and asking him about Butch And Sundance: The Early Years.
This year we did the same with the painting, but I ended up just giving the painting to Ken. He’s always been super nice to me and very supportive of comics creators.
Reb was incredibly nice (and tall!) and seemed to be smiling every time I saw him throughout the whole show. (Thanks to my wife Nicki for letting me borrow her Captain America Geeky Jersey for the day trip.)
I did a Captain America sketchcover to give to Reb. He really seemed to dig it, and thanked me. I meant to get a pic of him with it, but you can kind of see it in one of the pics above.
I enjoyed drawing Cap in that style (I call it my ‘Super-Kid‘ style), so I thought I’d draw another one but go more ’70s with the background and change up the pose slightly. I’m working on a painting of this, too. Should have it and a few others on display and for sale at The Cellar by the end of the summer or early fall.
Here’s the finished Cap 1 & 2 sketchcover. The back cover (L) is from the first Captain America TV movie, and the front cover (R) is the costume from Captain America 2: Death Too Soon. You can see a definite difference in the costume!
This was back when Easy Rider and Evel Knievel had been really big, and I had an EK bike and toys- so I dug that Cap had a motorcycle. I don’t know if they meant to do an homage to this Cap when Chris Evens puts his shield on the front of a motorcycle in the 2011 Captain America: The First Avenger movie or not- but I got a kick out of it!
Well, that’s it for this week. Hope you all have a fun and safe 4th of July this week. Think I’ll be here in the Batcave drawing. I’ll let you know what I’ve been up to next week! As always, you can find my sketchcovers for sale at The Cellar out in Bartlett, TN.
Lin
The Cellar: Tabletop Games & Comics
2737 Bartlett Blvd
Bartlett, TN 38134
(901) 382-8623
Store Hours:
Monday-Saturday 12pm – 9pm
Sunday 1pm – 6pm