Sketchbook: Supergirl cosplayer...

A quick digital sketch of cosplayer Jessica Nigri as I work out a new approach to superheroes while drawing on the Cintiq.

Original Art Sale...

If you haven't seen already, I've added a whole new batch of pages to my original art for sale blog, including lots of pages from my run on Crossgen's THE PATH, and two pages from Randy Bowen's DECAPITATOR featuring my pencils and inks by the great Mike Mignola. You can check them out here.

Sketchbook: Doctor Occult/Blue Devil...

The finished Doctor Occult/Blue Devil piece I've been using as a warmup the last couple of days.

Sketchbook: Wolverine...

A quick Wolverine sketch on the Cintiq.

Work In Progress: Yet Another WHO Warmup Sketch...

Another quick warmup sketch on the Cintiq, another random drawing of the Eleventh Doctor.

On The Art Table: Pinup Layout...

Can't show you what's really on the art table today (secret things), but here's a look at a quick layout I worked up on the Cintiq for a Doctor Occult/Blue Devil piece I might use for warmup next week.

Sketchbook: Doctor Occult...

Another quick Cintiq sketch, and another DC supernatural character -- Doctor Occult.

Sketchbook: Blue Devil...

A quick Blue Devil sketch on the Cintiq. I've always loved "Big Blue", as Geoff Johns calls him. One of my favorite DC characters.

On The Art Table: Another WHO Warmup Sketch...

Another digital warmup sketch in progress as I work on getting more comfortable drawing on the Cintiq.

On The (Digital) Art Table: WHO Warmup Sketch...

Another look at the Doctor Who piece I've been playing with this week as a warmup and to practice drawing on the Cintiq. I suspect I'll drop in some kind of background and some colors at some point and add it to my portfolio.

On The (Digital) Art Table: WHO Warmup Sketch...(UPDATED)

I've never really done much in the way of warmup sketches. Usually I start the day by just jumping right in on whatever I need to do. It's why I try to always have a page half finished at the end of the night, so that I'm never having to start a page from scratch in the morning, which makes starting the day a lot easier. But this week, I've been drawing on a Cintiq for the first time and still getting used to it, so I've been slowly working on a Doctor Who piece a little bit at the start of each day, just to warm up. Here's a closeup look at a small section of the piece, featuring the Doctor's current companion, Clara.

UPDATE: And here's a look at the Doctor from the same warmup piece...

So You Wanna' Be a Comic Book Artist, Part Three...

I saw a report a few months back about the Screen Actors Guild which mentioned the average yearly income their members made from acting, which was $5,000. Now, I've never been particularly good with math, but if that's the average, that means for every multi-millionaire actor, there are far, far more actors making far, far less.

I've also been fortunate to know a lot of working, published novelists. And while some of them have made quite a bit of money writing, the vast majority of them have made far, far less.

A few years ago, a fairly well-known comic book writer who had several movies made from his books took to Twitter to raise money to help pay for a beloved pet's medical expenses. The writer was flooded with responses of support and donations of money and art that could be sold on ebay to raise funds, but there were also a few responses that struck a less positive note...

"You're a big comic creator, why do YOU need money?"

"Maybe you should have saved all that Hollywood money."

Reading those responses made clear the disconnect between the realities of being a comic book creator and the fantasy of it that many readers and aspiring creators have in their heads, particularly in the wake of the incredible success of people like the Image founders and the creators of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

But the days of getting rich writing or drawing a comic were over. They ended with the collapse of the collectors market in the '90s. There were (and still are) elite creators making large amounts of money with their work in comics, but like the Brad Pitts of the acting world or the Stephen Kings of the writing world, they were the exception, not the rule.