The Art of Don Cardenas

Webcomic Development #3: Sick Day

2012-02-29T21:44:00.001-06:00

Sooooo, despite my greatest efforts, I had a very unproductive weekend of sickness and immobility. My original post was intended to be detailing some of our supporting cast, but I could only get through the roughs on one of them.

BUT, rather then wait until i'm all done, I figured I'd show you this guy first. Y'know, since you are here already :).

Meet our first villian:
UNIMORTIS!

This guy (thing?) was fun and painful to think of. The concept is a Frankenstein's monster consisting of alien parts. The name Unimortis is a twist of a couple latin phrases, essentially meaning "combined into one death". I like to overall look, but I am not sure about the wings. I like the idea of it having flight, but the design does need some tweaking.

This is just a concept sketch and I really want to play with the textures of the varying pieces. The right "arm" is pretty close to where I want it, but the left arm needs more work. I like the tail, but may play with the scaling a bit. This creature is humanoid based, so I wanted to leave the legs and torso more "normal". I think the best monsters are the ones we see ourselves in. "Cracking the mirror" so to speak.

Next week we will have a look at the other baddies and if it works out, some of our supporting cast!

WifePick #6: Raphael!

2012-02-28T20:54:00.000-06:00

This is the first Sketch Card I have ever attempted, I really look forward to doing more of these. They present a unique challenge and are deceptively simple to do.

Fun fact, I had no idea my wife had an affinity for the TMNT! After 13 years together! With this newfound info, you can bet this won't be the last of them in this feature!

Challengers Assemble Week #8: Galactus Hungers!!!!!

2012-02-25T17:29:00.000-06:00

Well. This isn't my best entry, but I had a ultra busy week so I only had 20 minutes to slap this together.

Backstory for the piece: W. Dal Bush is the co-owner of Challengers Comics and is quite the Smores afficionado. It's a bit goofy but it was a fun 20 minutes.

Y'know, have the Fantastic Four tried giant smores? Seems like it would work, no?

Webcomic Development Part #2: Dash Who-kos??

2012-02-25T17:23:00.000-06:00

Ok, sorry for the delay, but the internets was against me this week. On to the post!

Welcome to Part #2! In this post I will show off my first concept sketch for Dash Lykos, our main character!
I call this the first concept sketch even though I did draw him in my 24hr comic. I do this because this is the first time I think I have gotten down what my brain sees for the character.

Meet Dash Lykos:

Though the purpose of this blog series is to shed some light as to what I am doing and how I am approaching creating this webcomic, I will be light on story and character details as I want opinions formed through the reading and not through out of context snippets. Also, so many things change one day to the next that whatever I may post today would change tomorrow and etc...

That written, I will be sharing some things of course, so let's get to those!

Basic Concept:

Dash Lykos is a soldier who fights for the United Galactic Council against the Rebel United Front. His missions take him to the strange and extremely dangerous corners of the Council's territory. Dash also had a secret, a secret that only his closest friends know. What Dash doesn't know is his secret is tied to the deep dark actions of the Council and once he decides to stop running away from it, he discovers the he may have the key to changing everything.

Main Cast:

1st Class Forward Dash Lykos
1st Class Technoliasion Ronko "Rock" Strongo
2nd Class Forward Operator Vintus Dage
1st Class Mover Canus "CC" Coralus
3rd Class Capital Operator Alora Veralus
2nd Class Medi-Op Lexivera Omn

You may notice some unusual names and miltary "ranks" for the characters. I wanted to really create a different feel for this and I thought using "earth" terms would be distracting. I will have a explaination of the rankings once I finalize all of them.

Now, there are villians, villians a plenty in fact, but the designs for these baddies need some more tweaking before I post anything. I will have a post dedicated to these folks and I know you'll dig it. These things are too much fun for it to be sane.

Next week, we will meet some of the supporting cast and more art!

What the what?

2012-02-23T16:45:00.001-06:00

Ok, for some reason blogger isn't letting me post from my pc.

Once I can resolve this everything will be put up on schedule.

Thanks!

WifePick #5: Hawkeye!

2012-02-20T07:00:00.001-06:00

So, I am trying to experiment a bit with both markers and Sketch cards, so for the time being, each WifePick post will a marker sketch card.

These things are a good amount of fun to do, but also pretty difficult to pull off as well!

This is my second attempt at a sketchcard, with my first being put up next week.

Challengers Assemble Week #7: Corporate Iconography

2012-02-16T22:00:00.000-06:00

This weeks topic is the Corporate Sponsorship of Super-Heroes.

For example, what would the Flash look like if he was sponsored by Nike?

I had a tough time with this topic, which could have been real fun but I think I stressed it out a bit too much.

After a few ideas I decided to go withone my Wife suggested, Storm and the Weather Channel.

Hope you dig it!

Webcomic Development Part #1: Finding the lightbulb

2012-02-15T21:15:00.000-06:00

Welcome to the first installment of the journey to creating my webcomic, Dash Lykos. This one is about how I went about finding the idea, this post will be light on details regarding story, but I hope you find it at least a little informative.

All things start with that germ of an idea, be it a name, scene, a small piece of dialogue or overall concept that just appears out of that magical ether we try to tap into to create.

This idea started simply enough with a question “What am I going to do for 24 hour comics day?”. Last year, though I try not to think too much about it, I could not help but think of what am I going to do this year? Keeping the details away as much as possible, I knew I wanted to do something very unlike the project I am working on. I started to think of the major influences in my nerdom and wanted to draw heavily from those. I compiled a list in my brain and thought about threads these things may share and how they would mash together into an interesting package.

The List:

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Monster Squad

Star Wars

Indiana Jones

X-Men

Transformers

This was my starting point.

Now, I have to back up a bit and make mention of one thing. My day job is located 35 miles from my home. So that means I have an average of 2-3 hrs each day to kill in my brain, so I get a lot of “thinking” done about various ideas and the such. So, a lot of stuff gets fleshed out whether I really focus on it or not.

Now, back to business.

With the list of major influences cobbled together, I started to pick and choose different elements that immediately jumped out at me.

Space-Monsters-War-Adventure-Teams-Alien

The obvious ones, right? Time to dig a little deeper. What did these things mean to me? What did I personally latch onto with each of these?

Morality-fears-facing impossible odds-loss-deception

Ok, we have a little more to chew on here. Now we can’t just put those things into a blender and out comes an idea, but with those things to draw from, the mind can start working.

Or so I thought.

Now it wasn’t that ideas were not coming, but that they were all random, no connective tissue to tie them together. The only thing worse than no ideas is no direction. I had to make some conscious choices to get this thing moving. Though what do you choose and what do you leave to “inspiration”? I needed something that would let all those influences be welcome, and not forced. Then it hit me, like a giant sack of obvious, the setting!

We are all ultimately influenced by our settings in life. So yeah, sack of obvious.

Now choosing the setting was ultimately the easiest thing, as what child of the 80’s wouldn’t want to do something set in….space. The endless void with endless possibilities.

With the setting decided, it was like a room full of dominos being set off. My commute became mental brainstorming sessions and within a week or two I had a main character, a supporting cast, and the first arc of a story loosely sketched out. Then came 24 hour comics day.

24 hour comics day went as smoothly as I could have expected, while not a completed 24 page comic, I got my introduction to the main character fleshed out, character designs started, and a opening scene I really, really want to redraw (because I like it so much I keep thinking I ripped it from somewhere but thankfully haven’t).

Most importantly, I know what this comic will be about, but we will have to get to that next week.

Next Week: The Concept Revealed! Also, some character sketches!

Challengers Assemble! Week 6: I Love you but I've chosen comics

2012-02-11T00:14:00.000-06:00

This week's theme coincides with Challengers Comics yearly sale of the same name. I had a bunch of funny little ideas and couldn't decide until the last minute what to do. This idea came to me and while not HAHA funny, it's very true and I kinda had to do it. It's pretty rough but not bad consider how I blasted through it at a Starbucks thursday night.

You see, music took over being my main creative outlet for about 10 years. I had put away drawing comics around early 1999 and didn't really pick it up again until 2007-08 ish. Music was/is a great thing and it will always be in my heart, but I had to make a decision on my free time, and I've chosen comics.

What's going on?

2012-02-04T19:46:00.000-06:00

I seem to get bursts of posting done and then fall away far too often. I appreciate every hit I have been getting, especially with the new traffic from Challengers Assemble! and my Line it is Drawn Tryout.

So, why is that happening? One of the reasons is that I have a limited time to actually produce things, and posting gets shifted from my priority too easily. I think I have a plan for this. Though I will mention that in a minute.

Another reason is what I am working is finishing the first chapter of the project that's been showing up in snippets here and there on this site. A lot of things have postponed and set back completion of this project. The main thing being the story itself. As this project started the vision of it was a shared one, but that has gone away and I am doing this solo. I struggled to find what to say with it and wondered if it I was in the project at all. After much searching and a few story changes/breakthroughs I have a new found drive to get it done. I originally was gong to post a preview and sell physical issues online and locally in shops. As the story developed and my interest in webcomics and the just plain wanting people to read it has changed that.

This project will be online. For free. If enough people read it, I will look into collecting a trade once the first story is finished. There may still be copies of the First chapter printed, though that will be as a entryway. I do not foresee printing the rest of the chapters unless there is demand for it (which I would be happy to do).

At this point, if you are still reading this, thank you. Also, you may be wondering, "What is this project about?" A perfectly valid question, and one I have not answered on this site. Ever. I have had trouble with the elevator pitch on this, one or two sentences that tell you what to expect. Only a "Blank meets Blank" description has come to mind, so I hope this is enough to stoke interest until I can get a satisfactory pitch out there for you all.

Here goes:
9/11 + Robocop + Gotham Central

Hopefully you are thinking "What?", "Hmmmm", and "Sounds crazy". Now, this is not a series about Robotic Detectives fighting Terrorists (though I would read that), but similar aspects of all 3 are prominent in this project and I am super excited to start rolling it out.

So, when is that rollout? Sometime this year (He says 35 days into the year). I have the story mapped out and have some panels to finish drawing for chapter one and then on to colors. While I am coloring I will be doing things for the next chapters the proper way and that will increase the productivity immensely. I could throw up chapter one in a month, but you would have to wait several more for chapter two. I would rather give you a something that comes out weekly or monthly on a consistent basis.

So that's the plan for that.

Now, as for posting on the regular, the schedule I have set for myself has given me the weekdays to work on writing and general sketching. I am currently producing weekly pieces for Challengers Assemble! and was/going back to doing my WifePick selections. As those have been happening, I have also developed a webcomic idea that I want to start developing. On this site. In front of everyone.

Now, major plot points will be classified, but everything else I plan on showing. This will be difficult but it is time for me to put up or shut up and that's what I plan on doing.

This begins on Wednesday, Feb. 15th.

The schedule for the blog will now be as follows:

Monday: WifePick - In which my lovely wife tells me who/what to draw.
Wednesday: Webcomic Development - Dash Lykos (That's right, already got a name for this one!)
Friday: Challengers Assemble! Process piece

As time permits, I will post additional items regarding my original projects and other items on varying days.

One last time, thank you for reading, and please consider adding me to you bookmarks, RSS Feeds, or enter your email for updates in the box on the right.

Challengers Assemble! Week 5: Image Comics

2012-02-04T18:43:00.000-06:00

This weeks theme is Image Comics, I have a long history with some image books, but I chose to go with the one title that's got me excited about that company again, and that is the Hyper Violent/Fun "The Strange Talent of Luther Strode". Check it out, it's awesome.

Only had time for Pencils and inks this week, but I hope to color it up soon.

Challengers Assemble! Week 4: Panel recreation

2012-01-27T10:42:00.002-06:00

This weeks topic was to recreate / reinterpret a panel from something we read last week. I went with 2. First up is a panel recreation from Luther Strode #4. I didn't try to revamp it as much as just drew the panel as I would have.

The second is a just for fun from Batman #5.

The b/w art (line art only) is for sale at $5 each. Sizes are approx 5"x7" each.

Challengers Assemble #2 & #3!

2012-01-20T18:39:00.000-06:00

Sooooo, sorry for the lack of updates. Here are the last two weeks of Challengers Assemble!

Week #2: Captain America

I had a rough week, so I ended up coloring the Kiss vs. Cap piece for this one.

Week #3: Daredevil & Spider-Man

Hey. Everybody's gotta eat right?

Side Note: If you are interested, the B/W line art is for sale for $15, 6" x 12" , email me @ infinitebass@gmail.com with the subject line DD & Spidey.

Thanks!

Challengers Assemble! Week 1: Long Live the Legion!

2012-01-06T14:00:00.002-06:00

So, here's some good ol' Lightning Lad. He's doing lightning stuff. Trying to work on my colors, what do you think?

See more awesome Legion art the Challengers Assemble! blog.

Wifepick #4: Doc Ock

2012-01-04T21:11:00.000-06:00

Just a quickie of Doc getting a newspaper. It's not all "Kill Spider-Man" y'know....

WifePick #3: Rogue

2011-12-21T21:03:00.000-06:00

KISS VS. CAPTAIN AMERICA

2011-12-15T13:34:00.001-06:00

A present for an awesome comics retailer:

This is an homage to Captain America Annual #9, go check out the original Artist Mike Zeck's website to
learn yourself something about awesome.

WifePick #2: Storm

2011-12-09T17:00:00.000-06:00

A quick one today. My wife has never seen Storm with the Mohawk, but that's how I was introduced to her after sifting through my older brothers comics when he wasn't home. She always seemed much more badass in that incarnation.

The Line it is Drawn #69: Never before done Team-ups!

2011-12-08T06:00:00.003-06:00

Ahh! So here is my second tryout piece for CBR's The Line it is Drawn !

The theme is character team-ups that have never happened. There were so many awesome choices, I had to combine a few. My inital line up was:

Iron Fist, Wolverine, Chuck Norris: Karate Kommando, Atomic Robo, Super Dinosaur, Snake Eyes, Batman, and TMNT.

VS.

Doomsday, Juggernaut, Bane, Amazo, and Super Skrull

1: That's a lot of dudes.
2: That's a lot of dudes I have never drawn.
3: I need a lot of paper.

Layout:

Sorry for the crappy photo, but hopefully you can figure it out what's kinda going on. I wanted the
Villians to be in the center since there are fewer and most of them are quite large folks.

Pencils:

Most of the time, I am a pretty rough penciller and I often jump between inks and pencils once the image is slightly more than roughed out. It's messed me up in the past but it's how I feel most comfortable working at the moment. You will notice some blocky building type things in the back, my intention was to have Batman and TMNT silhouettes on top of them, but time got the better of me here and they were removed. Also, you might say Bane is small here, but that's in comparison to Doomsday and Juggernaut, both of whom I like depicted as giant physical threats.

Inks 1:

Inks 2:

Colors:

I am still a newbie at coloring, so a lot of effects and such are not blended as well as I would like. I kept Super Dino and Atomic Robo the monotone color because of an accident that I ended up liking. The Mist/smoke thing was a excuse to play with some photoshop and as I mentioned before, time got away from me here, so I had to eliminate the background.

Well, that's it for this round. Thanks for checking this out and please consider voting for me to become a regular contributor to this fine assemblage of artists!

The Line it is Drawn Week #68: Superfy it!

2011-11-30T23:32:00.001-06:00

First off, I planned to do a process post with this but kinda forgot, so please accept my meager attempts to fix that.

Tyrannosaurus inks

Lincoln (some pencils), note the different leg postion. Not the best pose.

         Inks. I am ok with the layout chosen, I really wanted a "Face off" image but wanted to
         have some costume in there. I also tried to put the iconic Stovepipe hat on the torso.
         Lincoln was a wrestler, so I had his boots go up to his thigh to protect his knees for

shooting in. I also kept him gloveless because let's face it, he was a badass.

End result, I tried an aged cover feel and this is the first time I have colored something that

I am not deeming atrocious. Overall I am 100% happy with concept, 80% with result.

Thanks for looking! Process will be better next time!

Wifepick #1: Wonder Woman (NOW IN COLOR!)

2011-11-30T23:22:00.001-06:00

My wife's suggested character of the Week is also the star of my favorite new DC book (so good!) from the relaunch,

Wonder Woman

This book is fantastic, action, horroresque mythos, and plenty of stabbing and punching.

I picked a simple pose for this one, but next time, I promise there will be blood.

Color Update!

News + Punchy McKickface!

2011-11-27T17:57:00.001-06:00

So, I took the last month off to catch up on some things and now I am back with another preview page and some news:

First Bit: Starting January 2nd, I will be participating in my LCS (Challengers Comics + Conversation), Sketch blog, Challengers Assemble! . Check it out!

Second Bit: I will be trying out for The Line it is drawn, Comics Should Be Good weekly sketch blog. I will have a piece starting this Thursday, the 1st. After a couple weeks, you will get to vote for me to become a regular contributor. I will repost my pieces with some process stuff on the same day.

Third Bit: Here's some violence!!!

Desk Shot 2: Leonardo

2011-09-29T22:31:00.001-05:00

Great, now I want pizza.....

Webcomic Function Test

2011-09-28T21:50:00.000-05:00

Open publication - Free publishing - More comic

Testing function for displaying a webcomic. Why? No reason.....

Desk shot #1: Hammer time!

2011-09-26T22:16:00.002-05:00

Another concept for ya......

Update with scanned version....

Cutting it close....

2011-09-16T21:34:00.000-05:00

Ugh. Bad week full of back pain and other un-fun stuff.

Here's another panel from my upcoming book! (still untitled, which is annoying but difficult)

I'm working on getting a M-W-F post schedule with constant themes. Fingers crossed over here....

DCNU!

2011-09-14T22:40:00.000-05:00

One of the themes I am going to have weekly is copying the weekly topic of one of my favorite Art Blogs, Comic Twart (handy link on the side of the page). This week is DC characters and I have chosen Batwoman. Never thought I would be a fan of any Batwoman, but this one is pretty badass.

Not so fast.

2011-09-09T21:19:00.000-05:00

Here's a spread from my aforementioned book. I'm working on doing a set schedule for sketches and the such. Hopefully have it running next week.

FLASH! AH-AHHHHHHH!

2011-09-05T18:47:00.000-05:00

I never got into the Flash. Seems like a fun character though.

Photoshop CS3, Wacom Bamboo tablet.

Back from the dead?

2011-09-04T17:11:00.000-05:00

As a birthday pledge to myself, I am going to update this thing 3-5 times a week.

That's a super promise.

Here's a Zombie drawn in Photoshop CS3 on Wacom Bamboo tablet.

Here's some stuff!

2011-06-08T21:39:00.000-05:00

Nice try.

2011-03-04T16:13:00.000-06:00

A little different from the layout below, but it makes more sense since if Juggernaut was moving, it would make Wolverine a roadbump.

BatDoodle

2011-02-28T21:57:00.000-06:00

15 Min lazy Batsketch!

Fight!

2011-02-27T22:04:00.000-06:00

Working on some sample pages to submit to Marvel, so OF COURSE I throw in Wolverine.

How I feel.....

2011-02-18T21:32:00.000-06:00

Seriously, I need to update this thing more often. Often I know I have to add new stuff so people will come back, which according to Google, seems to be at least a few dozen people.

In the meantime, here's a snapshot of some trouble our hero gets into.......

Digital Time!

2010-12-24T18:39:00.000-06:00

So, I fancily purchased a modest drawing tablet to start working digitally. There is a bit of a learning curve to this, so I thought what the hell, I'll start posting these embarrassing things. Most will be sketches so expect slight amounts of sloppiness.

All work done on a Wacom Bamboo tablet w/Photoshop.

I am totally lame.

2010-11-06T15:20:00.000-05:00

Soooo.....here I am again, not posting often. Since 100% of my drawing time is spent on this book, all I have right now is another page. But I promise other items will appear soon, I Pinkie swear.

24 Hour Comic Book day 2010!

2010-10-04T13:56:00.000-05:00

24 Pages. 24 Hours. Only preparation allowed is thoughts.

This was my third year doing it, and the first time I actually finished! It was the toughest one as well, I really lost focus and track of time/consiciousness midway through, but thanks to the kind folks hosting the event (Challenger Comics & Conversation) , and my tablemate Ben Goodman, I soldiered through and finished by the hair of my chin. Here are a few selections:

What I have been working on....

2010-08-29T18:22:00.000-05:00

So, it's been 2 months again and if I have any delusions someone will actually check this out in any frequency, I have to get off my butt and post.

That said, here are some pages from the comic I am working on, these are not all 100% finished, so there may be changes. I plan to have this available March 2011.

Hope you dig it.

More Fist!

2010-06-14T18:36:00.000-05:00

Been a while, here's a rather generic Iron Fist!

Legacy

2010-04-21T21:47:00.000-05:00

Here is a concept for a character tentatively called Legacy.

Played with the toning markers to experiment with how to display his energy signature. Then I decided to keep on going.

I dig it.

5 Minute Faces!

2010-04-19T20:14:00.000-05:00

The rule: 5 mins to draw a random face.

The Tools: Blue Pencil and Inks with various brushes.

This is fun for clearing out cobwebs and getting the brain moving when I'm stuck on a certain image.

10th!

2010-04-03T12:45:00.000-05:00

This is a something I finished for the super awesome shop I go to (Challengers Comics + Conversation) as a gift for thier 2nd anniversary. Most of the characters were drawn here for the first time. I am probably 75% ok with it, but i'll let you be the judge.

9th!

2010-02-28T17:35:00.003-06:00

Now for something original...Just a concept sketch for something that's been rattling around my head for a while.

8th!

2010-02-27T18:47:00.002-06:00

Iron Fist V. Daken

Discuss.

7th!

2010-02-20T22:37:00.002-06:00

Some fun with color, it's not perfect by any means, just messing around before I crack open my offical "How to" for computer coloring.

Also, it's Wolverine, so....yeah.

6th!

2010-02-20T22:33:00.003-06:00

Here is some Invincible for you. Though I have a question:

Why does his little eye thingies break in every fight?

Answer: Because it's fun to draw.

5th!

2010-02-20T22:31:00.003-06:00

Long time since last time, so here are 3 posts all quick, like a ninja.

Here is the Flash, who seems to think you're looking at him in an upleasant way. So stop.

4th!

2009-10-16T12:56:00.004-05:00

Here's a sketch of the the Hulk, I added the dialogue because my intention was to have the Hulk be "hulking", but its more like he has a backache. Ah, oh well.

3rd!

2009-09-23T20:49:00.005-05:00

Here is another little something for a discussion @ challengerscomics.com

Co-Owner Patrick Brower as a Green Lantern (In fancy color!)

2nd!

2009-09-16T12:52:00.003-05:00

Here is a quick 30min something I did for a discussion @ challengerscomics.com

Iron Fist Vs. Goku (both powerless), who wins? Well, duh.

1st!

2009-09-10T15:01:00.003-05:00

After struggling with the question, "What should be my first post?" I have decided on this drawing of Wolverine from Mark Millar's "Old Man Logan" story arc. Being a huge fan of Wolverine I couldn't help it. The piece took about 30mins, loosely penciled then finished with copic pens.