Batman: Gotham Knight pages.

So here's the Batman: Gotham Knight pages I did a few weeks ago. S'Not much, but it's a start.

I finished the Twilight pages I've been working on these past two weeks today and I've been busy as ever. I've managed to draw about 35 hours this past week while working a 40 hour a week job. I remember when I thought this would be impossible. But it seems that the more busy I become, the more efficient I am.

However, now that those pages are done, I'm going to take the next two weeks off before I start the Torchwood(or Doctor Who. Haven't decided yet and I love both) sample pages. I'm moving into my first apartment next week and I haven't even started packing. Plus, I still have to drive out to my Dad's to get my furniture and my books out of storage.

This week will most likely be spent getting ready for the move, drawing up a few comic strips for a friends up and coming web comic, and getting some reading done. I've had the "Breaking Dawn" book for almost a month now and I'm only a hundred pages into it. Most of my friends have managed to read it twice now. And I also have a large stack of comics begging to be read.

I'll post the Twilight pages as soon as I can make it down to the nearest Kinkos. Until then, I'm posting a lil' youtube video so that people who don't know what Twilight is(i.e., most of my comic book peoples) can get a gist of it and see what the characters are supposed to look like. Not sure how well I did on capturing a likeness, but lemme know when I post the pages.

Lemme know what you think of the Batman pages! Please feel free to leave me a comment and tell me what I did right and where I failed miserably ;)

Until next time,
Rachael

It's Been A Long Time Coming...

Hello one and all of the two people who might still read this blog(me being one of the two, the other being my friend Ashley who threatened bodily harm to me if I don't start updating my blog on a weekly basis soon.).

Once again, sorry that it's been forever since I've updated. What can I say, other than life has been crazy and hectic as always--but also to much fun to spend to much time in front of a computer. I got a job at the "Comcastic" Convergys call center( Which seems to me to be a text book case of how NOT to run a company. ), I've been getting ready to move into my first apartment(with my Cool Beans roomie/best friend and scarey-as-hell editor, Ashley :) ), I've discovered the awesomeness that is a British TV show called DOCTOR WHO!!!, and I've been increasing my efforts to make a living as a comic book artist by about 300%--I even helped tech a workshop this past week on Comic Book layouts AND I've even had a date(well....It wasn't really a date, but still. :P). I'ts been a crazy summer. Alot in my life has changed and is pushing me in the direction to finally grow into a more independent, responsible, and confident person.

All in all, I feel like I'm moving into the next stage of my life. From the low self-esteem, irresponsible, and lazy teenager and into the low self-esteem, irresponsible, and somewhat-less-lazy young 20-something. :P j/k

I'm honestly am going to try and update this blog more often--either with sketches or submission pages from my portfolio. Lately I've decided that if I want to work in comics, that I need to get used to working two full-time jobs first--Working 40 hours a week at convergys and then working 40 hours a week studying and drawing sample comic book pages from home. So I'm not getting much sleep(except on the weekends.), but I do feel like I'm finally moving in a faster pace towards what I want to accomplish. Soon I'll be making enough from my art so that I can go part-time at Convergys and eventually I'll quit my "day job" all together and work from home or in a studio with my other artist friends. I know that at first I won't be making alot of money in comics but, even if I only make as much as I do at Convergys every month, it will still be worth five times more to me than my usualy paycheck is.

So yeah, busy as a bee. And, actually, I probably need to be getting back to work. So I'll end this little update here. I've included some more rect art in this post that I hope you enjoy. The Ood is a slave race alien that's in an episode or two of Doctor Who and David Tennant is the Guy who plays the Doctor, and then also a caricature of actor Robert Pattinson(EDWARD!!!), and last, but not least, is Time-Agent Mack--My own creation, inspired by the Doctor Who and Torchwood series.

Later peoples! B)

Rachael

Update: Wizard World Texas Portfolio Samples and notes

(If you just want to see my artwork as well as the following critiques and could care less about my explanation for my long absence from blogging land, then just skip the next few paragraphs. And please....ignore the numerous typos. ;))

Hey, sorry for the long looooooooong leave of absence. Due to the fact that I haven't had acess to a working scanner/printer(until today, thanks to my friend Will Terrel :) ) and also due to the fact that life has just been....busy(studying, working on portfolio samples, Wizard Wold, a vacation to Hawaii, and working full time at Sams club), I haven't been keeping up with anything online. But now I'm going to start making the time to at least give a brief update every week. :)

About three weeks ago, I attended the Wizard World Texas convention in Arlington, Texas with my friends Will, and Luis. It seems that the entire Lubbock comicbook community(Radio Free Metropolis radio host guys, some Sketch Club people, and the Star Books and Comics guys) made the journey down to the convention and a fun time was had by all. I'll try to go into more detail about the convention experience in my next post once I uplod the photos from my digital camera. But for right now...

I took my portfolio and a notebook for critiques to the WWTexas convention and did my best to keep a detailed report on who said what about my artwork and what I needed to improve. I did three different samples this time: a four page Huntress sample, a three page Batman Sample, and a three page X-Men sample. I ran around the convention floor the entire November weekend trying to get various artists to review my portfolio and to rip me a new one with whatever they felt really needed to be improved upon. It was a humbling experience. I had worked on my samples, feeling as if I had really made a big improvement in my artwork and I went away from the convention realizing that I still have aLOT to work on.

So, for the enjoyment of the two people who probably read this blog, I thought Id post my portfolio and my critique notes for your entertainment and pretend interests. ;) If you have anything extra to add, feel free to leave me a comment. Praise AND flames are both welcome.

(NOTE:Click picture for larger image)

BOP/Huntress Sample
script by Gail Simone
11/12/2007

Batman Sample
Script from Penciljack.com
10/18/2007

Ultimate X-men Sample
Script by Brian K. Vaughn
10/30/2007





The critiques(in the order that they were received)

Mitch Brietweiser:
*Pages are overly detailed. Put less detail in the background and economize panels.
*Anatomy is a little stiff
*Cleanup artwork and tighten pencils. Tips:use Interior Design perspective grids. Draw on back of bristol board with the lightbox.

Ethan Van Sciver:

*It's still going to be about two or three years before your ready to work in mainstream comics. Theres a lot of improvement from last time, but it'll still be 2-3 years.
*Figures are stiff.
*Artwork is muddied.
*Action should take up entire page. Huntress pg1 panel 1, X-men pg 1 pn.2, and Xmen pg.2 pn.5 for example, theres a LOT of wasted negative space that the action should have taken up. Work on making action sweep entire panel. Work on dynamics. Xmen sample page 3 panel three is a good example of covering the entire panel with action.
*Your good at backgrounds and at establishing, but your overestablishing. Huntress page 1 pn. 2. Focus more on the important parts of the scene. You could have just zoomed in on the gun going through the window.
*Your at a point now where you really should be using photorefrencing faces.
*I've seen your portfolio alot of times at Megacon and that head(Batman pg.3 pn.4)--I don't like that head. Never draw that head again! :P It's to bulbous...correct it.

Joe Benitez:
*Work on your anatomy. Study "Brigmans"
*Move "camera" angles for more drama.
*Use reference on backgrounds.
*Work on Dynamics
*After awhile, go back and look at your work for mistakes. If your old work seems bad and it's easier to spot your mistakes, then you'll know that your getting better.

Kody Chamberlain (with input by Michael Lark):
*Use photo reference for your figures and anatomy.
*Draw all important details within the "live area" of the prelined bristol board.
*You lose the form at times. Erase your rough drawing completely.
*Your brain is not involved in the procress. Learn to excluse it and just draw what you see--not what you think you see.

Editor w/ Viper Comics:
*Work on proportions.
*characters are stiff.
*Vary body types--not everyone has to be muscular.

Tommy Castillo:
*Study anatomy.
*Work on page design. The page should flow in a 'z' patter. Leading the eye through the entire page ans into the next.
*Watch for tangents in artwork.
*Get more training. Draw through "Bridgmans Complete Guide to Anatomy" and Andrew Loomis' "Figure Drawing for all it's worth and draw through them two or three times and get a skull or plaster cast to study.
*You need to start developing your own style. Right now I can see where alot of your influences come from and thats great--but find your own voice. Your style varies to much and your straddling being cartooney and realistic. Now you need to decide which was to go.

Angel Medina:
*Keep working on turning out sample pages. If your artwork has improved this much in a short period of time, then your mistakes will hammer themselves out.
*Take whateveryone tells you at this convention with a grain of salt and don't let what they say take your focus off of trying to turn out as many pages as possible. I could tell you alot of thing to work on here, but in a few months it won't matter and the problems will have corrected themselves.

Adam Kubert:
*Your figures are stiff. Take as many life drawing classes as you can. Drawing from life is an essential part of any artists' training.
-Assignment: Take 5 pieces of paper of any type--notebook paper, napkin, printer paper, contructionpaper, stationary, etc--and fill each sheet of paper up completely with figure drawings from life(from beach, cafe, school, work--anywhere). Back AND front. Leave as little black space on the page as possible.
*Watchout for tangents--Huntress pg.3 panels four and five-the staircase rail goes right into the couch and gun on the next panel. Be more consious of your layouts and avoid this as mush as possible.
*Mix up character sizes. Vary their size from panel to panel.
*On Pg.1 panel five on the Batman sample you could have overlapped the falling Two Face with the building
to add more depth to the panel.
*When showing portfolio smples, it's important to fill in the black areas and make your portfolio look as polished as possible. you can take the little shortcuts and leave spotting blacks up to your inker(if you so choose.) once you've got the job.
*there are alot of panels where you should have zoomed in on your characters to add emphasis and dynamics to the scene.
*great background detail.

Topcow Editor Filip Sablik:
*Work on your rendering
*Maximize your layouts and your panels. Make characters lager in certain panels and vary sizes.
*You have anatomy issues. Work on them.
*Try to focus more on your finished pencils than on your layouts and try to maintain as much energy in your final art as you can.

James O'Barr:
*Work on your storytelling and page design--see michael Golden while your at this convention if you want tips from a real master.

Humberto Ramos:
*Your anatomy needs work.
*Work on your heads. they're a little to rounded out on some panels.
*Keep turning out pages and keep working on your samples.

Mark Silvestri:
*Work on making your art more dynamic.
*Study and pay closer attentio to your anatomy.
*Figures should have been bigger in certain panels.
*Anything black will come forward--remember that rule when working in comics. Throw some blacks on or behind your characters and it will make them pop and bring some depth to your page.
*Work on spatial variety.
*Work on your storytelling.
*On your figures/chracters--focus more on body roation and fluidity. Again, make them as dynamic as you can.
*Pull back on your backgrounds--you show alot more than you need to.
*Loosen up on your layouts, it will suck all the energy out of your final artwork if your not careful.
*keep submitting your samples.

Michael Golden:
*You need to work on making your work more bold and Dynamic.
*Lost dynamics on Huntress sample page 3 panel 4 and pulled back to far. Gun should have been more prominent in the panel. I barely noticed it. Panel 5-throw shadows on the fore figure to add depth.
*Huntress sample page 4 panel 2-panel could have been a close up on Huntress and the smiling thug and on panel 4 you could have zoomed out.
-in Panel 6 you need to work on the rendering. Throw some shadows on the couch.
*Batman sample page 1 panel 5-you could have added up-lighting from the streets below to create shadows on the building and make the panel more dramatic.
*Batman sample page 2 panel 2-you could have added more motion lines to indicate mpore clearly that that Batman and Two face were falling.

-Panel 1 is a good example of a dramatic and dynamic camera angle. Good work! But again, you could have added some dramatic lighting caused by the city lights below to indicate more clearly that it's night.
*Batman Sample pg3 panel 4-instead of creating a'halo' of light around Batman to separate his black costume from the black backgroung, you could have just let them blend together to creat more of a mood for the Dark Knight.
-the characters should have been bigger in this panel.
*X-Men Sample Page 1 panel 1- Could have rendered more grass in the foreground and spot blacks on the tree in the foreground.
*X-men Sample Page 2 - characters could have been bigger in some panels.
*X-men Sampe Page 3 panel 3- Wolverine could have been more dynamic in this panel. The figure could have been twisted more until his claw and the sparks coming off of Colossus' chest were right in the readers face.
*In comicbooks you can't be to subtle or 'shy' with your artwork. Become more dynamic and bold with drawing. When your ready to ink your sample pages, make non-photo blue copies and use a sharpie to ink them. This should help alot.

J. Scott Campbell:
*Tighten up figures.
*Your linework is sketchy.
*Work on spotting more blacks.

Mike Choi:
*Your art needs to be more dynamic.
*Take more lifedrawing classes. Don't draw from memory. Draw from life as much as possible.
*I can't stress enough that you need to work on your anatomy. Draw only what you see! Work on developing your own style later. Draw from magazines, take figure classes, draw peope at the coffee shop or at the pool.
*Improve your foreshortening.
*In some panels you could have made the perspective lines curve into 'fishbowl perspective' because it sometimes looks to forced.
*Don't draw comic books for a while. Put it all aside and just focus on building a foundation of solid anatomy. Your strengths are alot of other new artists' weaknesses. Your weakness is your figure work. Learn that and everything else will snap into place.
*Work on your heads. I won't point out which haces are poorly structered--thats for you to figure out and improve. But just start working on the structure of the head.
*SUCK!(Note: He actual wrote that in my notebook. :P He was kidding....erm, I think. <.< >.>)

Everyone was really nice at the convention and every critique was very infomative and good natured. Though I was told of a lot of mistakes in my work, it was all told with the right intentions and by great artists who definitely have the experience and knowlege to know a flaw when they see one, so it was all very much appreciated and well recieved. These are just my notes and the gist of what I was told--so it's not verbatim. I definitely have a lot to work on, but I'm looking forward to this process. :)

Whew! This is one long post. I'll try to be shorter with my next update,which should come in a few days. See you guys later. ;)

Rachael

Sunday Sketch Dump

Just a short post today. I'm giving ya three sketches today since I haven't updated much this week. The first is a quick ten minute sketch last night I did of Tim Drake/Robin, second it the Ultimate version of Wolverine, and the last is Powergirl. I'm happy with how the first two turned out, but I got a little frustrated on the Powergirl sketch. Ah well, live and learn. :) They can't all be 'good' sketches. Bad mistakes are just as important as the happy accidents--they serve as lessons. :)

I'm really liking how much more cartoony my work is getting(Compared to my older stuff where I couldn't draw a body or even a face without a photo next to me). I have more fun drawing like this --and now it seems unbelievable that just last year I was whining about how I couldnt draw in a more 'cartooney' style because of my obsession with detail--even though all of my favorite artists are minimalists with a more animated style. I would spend hours working on a drawing just to get the facial features "just right" and now....

Heh. Thats life though, I guess. Things change without you even noticing it sometimes.

Alrighty now....I'll try to post something tomarrow. Promise. ;)
Rachael

Entry 5

I'll have to make this a fast post tonight...

No pun intended. :D


I spent almost all day today in Lakeland and I got the chance to visit my old art teachers from Harrison at the Polk Museum of Art(Where all of my highschool art classes were held) and see some old faces. It was great. Being back in the class studio was like coming back home. It hasn't changed one bit. There was also this great gallery downstairs by this Cuban artist, Carlos Luna. His paintings were insanely amazing. He was there to talk abot his work with the students, so I came at just the right time. :) Thats what I always loved about having classes at the Museum instead of on campus--there was always some new gallery up by some amazing and uber talented artist whose work was on display all the way up to the studio. There was always some sort or inspiration or new visual input to be had to motivate and encourage students to try new things. Luna, through his son who translated, said something that I thought was very poetic: "You have to be dedicated to your art and live with it everyday. A painting is like a woman. She won't give you her body, unless you give her your soul. " ...It's moments like that that make me wish that I had never quit Harrsion, but ah well. Live and learn, I guess.

So, being out on the town today, I didn't have time to finish a sketch and get it to a scanner. So instead you get this: Impulse. I did it a day or two ago. Another favorite character of mine that I was introduced to in the pages of Young Justice. In an age of grit and dark storylines, he was always a fun and light character. Something I think DC Comics is missing these days. I wish they could bring him back again as Impulse and just retcon the last two or three years away. Maybe have a YJ revival. Theres already enough dark in the world--and I don't mind it in my comics,--but theres also room for a little escapism and a good laugh. Impulse was the creation of Mark Waid and the late Mike Wieringo, someone I have always been a huge fan of.

Wieringo is one of the reasons I started this blog. I have a lot of things I could say about him that others who actually knew him have already put in more eloquent words, so I'll just say that my prayers go out to his friends and family and that I hope Wieringo can see the huge impact he's made throught hundreds of tributes to him all over the net.

But...erm, yeah...Impulsey goodness. Enjoy.
Next week I'll start drawing recommended characters, so drop me a comment and lemme know you folks want.

Thats all folks,
Rachael
entry 3

Barbara Gordon: Batgirl

I found a scanner today! :) lol. I was getting some typing paper from my grandmother's printer (to draw a layout page with) when I realized she has the same scanner/printer that I have back at home. I've been visiting my Grandma for four days now and I just now noticed it. >.< Oy.

I decided to post a Batgirl sketch I did last Sunday. I actually really liked Cassandra Cain as Batgirl. I know a lot of people don't care for her, but I thought she was pretty cool; however, Barbara Gordon will always be Batgirl to me--whether she's in a wheelchair or not.

Babs is my favorite comic book character, so I thought it would be apt for this to be the first actual "sketch" for my blog. I'm actually happy with the way this one turned out, especially the head shot. Feel free to lemme know what you think and to critique anything I put up on this blog. Any input, negative or positive, can only help. :D

Alrighty then, thats it for now.
See ya friday!
Rachael

entry 2

Intro

I did an Impulse sketch today that I really wanted to post; however, I don't have access to a scanner at the moment. So I dug through my old artwork that was in my portfolio for college and found an old Ult. Fantastic Four double page spread that I did last year from a Brian Michael Bendis script.

Click on the image to view a larger version of it on Flickr.


I've probably started at least a douzen or so other blogs before only to forget about them and let them fall by the wayside, but now I'm determined to keep this one going. So now to get this intro stuff out of the way...

My name is Rachael Simmons. I'm 18 years old and live in Lubbock, Texas. Although, this post is currently coming from Lakeland, Florida where I'm staying with my sister.
I love anything Batman related and I love comic books and art even more. My goal is to break into the comic book industry one way or another.

As of right now, I'm not going off to college. I'm taking a year off to study by myself and with my friends at the local Sketch Club in Lubbock. In my free time, I love to read(books and comics), draw, paint, meditate, cook, waste hours on the internet in the name of procrastination, and go out for coffee(I need that caffiene fix). I'm a self-described spiritualist, idealist, and hopeful romantic with horrible grammar and spelling(Which is why I express myself with pretty pictures and not words. :P). I spend most of my time at home drawing, sleeping, and playing with my dashhound, Peanut. When I do leave my cave, it's usually to attend the Saturday Sketchclub or another art event with my comic book friends. Right now I'm in Florida visiting family and friends and sleeping on the couch of anyone who will let me. :P<

I'm looking forward to posting sketches on this blog every other day and keeping it updated as much as possible. I have a few sketches I'm currently working on, so as soon as I get to a Kinkos and get my hands on a scanner, I'll be sure to post em'. I'm looking forward to this ride. This is it...

Welcome to my blog.

R.L.S.
entry 1