It’s no secret. I like comics. I have flirted with comic-esque stylings in my artwork since pretty much day one. Not too horribly long ago, however, I decided it was time to get a bit more serious than my typical coquetry could afford.

As a digital artist, whose first line of offense are 3D apps (Cinema 4D and Modo), my two primary concerns were speed and style. The speed part was the primary hurdle, since 3D artwork just takes a fair amount of time. Not that non-3D art doesn’t, but the bulk of work in 3D is essentially a huge amount of “prep” work before you can begin creating anything resembling “art.”

Style wasn’t as much of an issue since I wanted to retain most of my existing look, but I wanted to imbue it with a similar warmth and grit found in some of my favorite graphic novel works. Some trickery needed to be implemented in order to combine the two.

So off and on over the past couple of years, I have been working on a number of techniques and habits which I could apply to my existing style to give it said warmth and grit, while not deviating too much from my existing workflow. The hope being that I would not only wind up developing a viable practical solution for storytelling, but also add a few extra flavors to my usual editorial and advertising fare.

I have been sneaking a few of these tricks into jobs for a while now, but have recently begun production on a project which finally brings all of this R&D to bear, and I thought I’d share. I have added some samples to my portfolio for your perusal and, with any luck, your enjoyment. Keep your eyes open for future updates and I’ll see you next time.