The TORCHBEARER STUDIOS BLOG is the place for news and updates about Torchbearer Studios! Here you will find semi-daily illustrations, photos, and How-To's from author/artist Steve Miller
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Everybody was kung-fu fighting
Those cats were fast as lightning
In fact it was a little bit frightning
But they fought with expert timing
They were funky China men from funky Chinatown
They were chopping them up and they were chopping them down
It's an ancient Chineese art and everybody knew their part
From a feint into a slip, and kicking from the hip
Everybody was kung-fu fighting
Those cats were fast as lightning
In fact it was a little bit frightning
But they fought with expert timing
There was funky Billy Chin and little Sammy Chung
He said here comes the big boss, lets get it on
We took a bow and made a stand, started swinging with the hand
The sudden motion made me skip now we're into a brand knew trip
Everybody was kung-fu fighting
Those cats were fast as lightning
In fact it was a little bit frightning
But they did it with expert timing
(repeat)..make sure you have expert timing
Kung-fu fighting, had to be fast as lightning
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Amargasaurus was an unusual looking dinosaur. It had a set of double sails running down its back which may have continued up its neck or may have tapered off into a double row of spikes. It is one of those dinos which scientists and artists are working hand in hand to come up with a logical appearance for. This is what is so fascinating about being a paleoartist, it allows you to play mystery sleuth and piece together the clues to come up with a complete animal. Bryan Baugh knocked this illustration out of the ball park, as he did with everything he contributed to Thunder Lizards!: How to Draw Fantastic Dinosaurs.
Monday, August 29, 2005
Giganotosaurus by Brett Booth in its penciled/digital inked stage.The wonderful thing about working with so many great artists is I learn tons of tips and tricks in the process of putting my artbooks together. By the time a project is finished I look back at my early pages and think, "I could draw that better now." Brett was especially helpful with providing insight on how to apply details without allowing them to over dominate a piece. You can see how Brett seperates the underbelly from the rest of the dino by how much detail he puts in.
Sunday, August 28, 2005
I sometimes get asked why I don't just do all the drawings in my books myself. If you had the opportunity to work with some of the best comic artists in the world wouldn't you take it? I was a huge fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when I was growing up. Besides their creators Eastman and Laird, Jim Lawson was the artist I loved to see draw the shelled butt-kickers the most. He put out a terrific sci-fi comic book mini series called Dino Island before creating a wonderful dino centric series called Paleo which he is still producing. I was thrilled to line Jim up for a couple pieces in my Thunder Lizards! book.
Friday, August 26, 2005
Thursday, August 25, 2005
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
This is the first image you see in Thunder Lizards! when you open it up; this is the page I usually sign and do a quick sketch on. I've had tons of fun coming up with all sorts of sketches and stuff to goof off with around this guy. I should have saved a copy of the version with the party hat and noise maker.
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
I'm going to try to alternate showcasing artwork from my current book Thunder Lizards! with a few sneak peeks from my upcoming book Gung Ho! This is a bad guy drawn by the one and only Dan Norton who did tons of work on Gung Ho! I know you guys are going to go ga-ga over all the great designs he did.
Monday, August 22, 2005
Sunday, August 21, 2005
Here is a real treat. This is a Kung Fu character from next year's book Hi-Yah: How to Draw Fantastic Martial Arts Characters. This power kicker is by Steve Hamaker the colorist of Jeff Smith's Bone and my old cubicle neighbor from my Resaurus Toy company days. Steve is one of the best colorists I know and he is a delight to work with, hunt down his indie comic Fish'n'Chips if you want a tasty treat for the eyes.
Friday, August 19, 2005
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Monday, August 15, 2005
Here is one of my favorite characters Brett Booth drew for my first book "Freaks!: How to Draw Fantastic Fantasy Characters." Brett owns 16 dogs, so he really knows his canines. He is one of the truly great artists to come out of the Image comics boom of the 90's. I wouldn't be surprised if Marvel or DC threw him a nice exclusive contract in the near future.
Sunday, August 14, 2005
Here is an image from my upcoming book "Gung-Ho!: How to Draw Fantastic Military Characters and Vehicles." It should be out in October. This is a picture of an F-14 flying below the horizon line. The perspective lines go back to the two vanishing points, making this an example of two point perspective, pretty easy, huh?
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Here are the original pencils to the Brett Booth Spinosaurus in Thunder Lizards! (page 52.) Spinosaurus is called "spiny lizard" because it had a series of large neural spines up to 6 feet (1.8 m) long coming out of its back vertebrae, probably forming a sail-like fin that may have helped in thermoregulation, mating rituals and/or intraspecies rivalry. Spinosaurus had a relatively flexible upper spine (these vertebrae had modified ball-and-socket-joints) so it could arch its back somewhat, perhaps being able to spread the sail (like opening the ribs of a fan).
Spinosaurus was bipedal (it walked on two legs). It was about 40-50 feet long (12-15 m) and weighed 4 tons or more (some paleontologists estimate it weighed up to perhaps 8 tons); it is the largest known spinosaurid (a type of large, meat-eating dinosaur). It had a large head with sharp, straight, non-serrated teeth in powerful, crocodile-like jaws. Its arms were smaller than its legs but were larger than the arms of most other theropods. It may have gone on all fours at times.
Friday, August 12, 2005
Thursday, August 11, 2005
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
A weird thing happened on my second book Scared! (Co-authored with Bryan Baugh), I got to draw Frankenstein's monster for the first time. I was equally influenced by Bernie Wrightson's work and the MAD cartooning style of Jack Davis (remember his 6 foot wall Frankenstein advertised in most comic books during the early 80's?). I never had given Frankie much thought, but I discovered I really did enjoy drawing this man-made monster. I think the strength of the character lies in Mary Shelley's original depiction of the creature as a sorrowful reanimated monstrosity of nature. The story's central warning of man should not play God also holds great appeal for me. Since that initial drawing I've received lots of interest in my depiction of the monster which have resulted in me landing a few new jobs, so that pale faced patchwork man has been pretty good to me.
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Here is one of my favorite characters from Freaks!: How to Draw Fantastic Fantasy Characters. I thought if would be funny and appropriate to costume a raccoon as a Pirate since they are both known for their thievery. I was reminded about this on our recent camping trip when several "masked bandits" made off with the contents of our treasure chest (well, actually it was our Igloo cooler.)
Monday, August 08, 2005
Here is an example of what you'll find in Thunder Lizards. Anatomically accurate skeletons and stunning illustrations with easy to follow steps. This is an Acrocanthosaurus (meaning "high-spine lizard" because of the spikes growing out of its spine.) It was a fierce predator that was roughly 30-40 feet (9-12 m) long and weighed about 5,000 pounds (2300 kg). It had a big head, with a 4.5 foot (1.4 m) long skull and 68 thin, sharp, serrated teeth. It had 17-inch (43 cm) spikes extending from its vertebrae, along the neck and tail, that may have formed a thick, fleshy sail on its back. It had powerful arms, and each hand had three fingers, equipped with long, sickle-like claws.
Sunday, August 07, 2005
About the size of a housecat, Compsognathus was a bird-like dinosaur that walked on two long, thin legs; it had three-toed feet. A long tail acted as a counterbalance and for stability during fast turns. It had short arms with two clawed fingers on each hand. Compsognathus had a small, pointed head with small, sharp teeth, hollow bones, and a long, flexible neck. Here in this example drawn by Bryan Baugh you can see just how thin and wirery the Compsognathus was. Hopefully from this and the other examples you can start to recognize some of the common anatomical shapes that appear over and over again in Theropods.
Saturday, August 06, 2005
At zazzle.com in the left side index click on Animals, Pets: Animals: Pre-Historic: Jurassic: Brachiosaurus to find the print.
or try the link below:
http://www.zazzle.com/products/product/product.asp?general%5Fcategory%5Fid=103288959224668130&general%5Frecs%5Fper%5Fpage=48&caching=on&product%5Fid=228961884991872005&index=1
Zazzle.com now has the cover to Thunder Lizards available as a huge poster. It would look great in a bedroom, studio, or a classroom. You should be able to find it by searching using key words dinosaur or lizards. If you have trouble locating the print drop me an e-mail and I will send you a direct link.
The cover to Thunder Lizards! went through many changes and variations during the editing process, here is a look at how originally I had planned it to appear. You'll notice from my website the final version is a little more chromatic and cropped quite a bit, it makes it a bit more eye-catching and for that reason a better cover. I thought you might enjoy this alternate version as sort of a look behind the scenes on how an image evolves from conception to print.
Dilophosaurus was a fast-moving bipedal predator that had a double crest on its head. Although it was depicted as spitting poison in the Jurassic Park movie, there is no fossil evidence that it did so (it was also pictured far too small, with an incorrect skull, and with a frill it did not have). Sadly this is another entry that got removed because of space limitations in my book Thunder Lizards! The first example is from artist Bryan Baugh (cryptlogic.net), the second is from artist Brett Booth. I supplied the coloring. I also inked the Booth piece. Dilophosaurus will definately be in my next dino book, but for now you can view it right here; sort of like a deleted scene from a dvd.
Pleisiosaurus was a marine reptile that lived in the open oceans at the time of the dinosaurs. Known to have swallowed rocks for ballast and for grinding food. The largest of the currently known marine reptiles. Originally this pleisiosaurus skeleton was going to be in Thunder Lizards! but I ran out of room for the aquatic reptiles chapter. I'm busy orgainizing this picture and others for a second volume of How to Draw Dinosaurs to hopefully be published in a couple of years (I have tons of other books coming your way first.)
Friday, August 05, 2005
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)