A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #36

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from January of 2007.

I have dozens of these, but I'll only be posting this one page. This is one of a series of thumbnails for the aborted opening sequence to Olympians-- the Assembled Olympians sitting around discussing the absent Zeus.  Clearly visible here are Hera, Demeter, Poseidon and Dionysos.  My next batch of sketches is from a sketchbook from January of 2007 and marks the transformation of my proto-Olympians idea to what would eventually become Zeus. This sequence was the last hurrah for the old idea.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #35

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

Here's a design I've barely had a use for yet. When Hera comes out July 19th, take a look to see a couple of panels of Centaurs, but until then, you'll have to content yourself with this.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #34

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

Today's piece is perfect for this lazy Memorial day weekend Sunday. Pan, kicking it back while a satyr dances nearby.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #33

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

Today's piece is a couple of scary and nightmarish studies of the Frenzy of Fighting himslef, Ares. He hasn't had all that much to do in Olympians so farm but once he finally gets the chance to strut his bloody stuff, this is how I'll be depicting him.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #32

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

Today's piece is a sketch of warrior goddess Athena, from before a period where I realized how important it is that she be wearing robes along with her armor. Even though she's the greatest warrior on Olympus (sorry, Ares fans) Athena is also the goddess of weaving. The juxtaposition of hard and soft is essential to her character.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #31

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

31 days in a row! No matter how you slice it, that's a full month's worth of Olympians sketches. Woot!

To celebrate, I found this goofy drawing of a Cyclops. It looks kind of like this guy from earlier in the month but, y'know, goofier.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #30

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

30 days in a row! If this were September, April, June or November, we'd have a full month of Olympiansy sketchy goodness! But, alas, it's May...

Anyhoo, today's sketch is a smokin' hot Hephaistos, wearing some rather fetching clogs. I wonder if Aphrodite picked them out for him?

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #29

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

29 days in a row! If this was February in a leap year, this'd be a full month of Olympians sketch-tanza! Today's piece is a shot of a glowering Hera, looking across the table, presumably at her hubby Zeus. It seems this is a companion piece to this table-centric group shot I posted last week. You can even see what appears to be part of Demeter's cornucopia in the right foreground.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #28

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

Wow, look at that! 28 days in a row! If this were February, that'd be a full month of sketchy Olympians goodness! Today's piece is an early, rather haughty looking Hades. He's a bit doughier here than he looks in the finished books, but aside from that I'm amazed how on-model he looks for such an early date. Speaking of Hades, I just got first proofs for the upcoming Hades: Lord of the Dead this past Friday, and it looks swee--eeet! You folks are gonna love this one.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #27

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

Today's piece is a kind of funny-looking Hermes, doing his best bunny rabbit impersonation. I should have run this one on Easter. Worth mentioning is that these sketchbook doodles are the only place you will see the God of Liars' eyes in Olympians, at least until his own book comes out, when I'll finally reveal their color. Any guesses?

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #26

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

Another across the spread of my sketchbook piece today. Sorry 'bout the crease. When I'm working on a book, the first step for me is draw "key scenes"-- just doodles of images that I'd like to include in the story. After I draw a bunch of these key scenes, I take them and try to assemble them into a panel by panel page layout. This drawing, of Ouranos the sky above Mother Earth, ended up making it only slightly altered as part of teh spread on pages 2-3 of Zeus: King of the Gods. Go on and check your copy, I'll be right here.

Carousel!

Tomorrow morning, from 11 to 12, I'll be performing a slide-show reading of comics from Zeus: King of the Gods, as well as a sneak preview scene from Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory as part of the NYPL's centennial celebration. Not only that, but if you come you'll be able to see and hear other great cartoonists like Nick Bertozzi, Bob Sikoryak, Dave Roman and Susan Kim! Info above, I hope to see my NY peeps there.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #25

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

Today's sketch is a near-complete assemblage of the gods. Unfortunately, as you can tell, I drew this across the spread of my sketchbook, so we have a big ol' crease running down the middle. From left to right we have Poseidon, Dionysos, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaistos, Hera, Demeter, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes and Athena. At this point in time I was toying with the idea of Hestia not having a human form at all, but just being personified by a hearth (that's her in the middle). Eventually, I compromised and made her a humanoid figure composed of flame. Conspicuously absent is Big Daddy Zeus himself-- that's because this drawing is done from a Zeus eye view. We're viewing this family get-together from his seat at the table.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #24

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

Two drawings in one! On the left, an early design of Aphrodite, dressed as she often appears in ancient sculpture (but not how she'll ever appear in Olympians-- too skimpy); on the right, another shot of my so-far unused design for the half-snake mother of monsters, Echidna (you can see another example of her design here). Note that Echidna's curled her long snake neck around itself like a scarf-- she looks like a scaly Cruella deVille. I have to use this design somewhere.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #23

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

Today's sketch is yet another doodle of the Queen of Gods. I must really like drawing her or something. There's something about the expression on Hera's face here, coupled with the slab of beefcake in the background (Is that Zeus?) that says "yum" to me. Anyway, though it was a funny drawing, and worth sharing. Enjoy!

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #22

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

Takes dat! Pow! Today's sketch is a goofy little piece showing Goddess of War Athena totally decking God of War Ares with a very loud punch. Elsewhere on the page, a dark-haired Zeus looks taken aback by the proceedings. He must not like it when his kids fight. This drawing really popped out to me as I skimmed my old sketchbooks due to the sound effect. Shades of my first picture book Kapow!

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #21

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

Today's sketch is a real oddity. It's a humongous Cyclops (just look at the trees sliding off his back) apparently waking up from some sort of subterranean slumber. What's weird is that I already had worked out the designs for Brontes, Steropes and Arges (the original 3 Cyclopes) by this time.  I'd also been working in a certain direction for the eventual appearance of Poseidon's son Polyphemos and it didn't look like this guy, though both designs do owe a lot to elephant skulls (scale-wise, this guy is just way too big for Ployphemos anyway). So who was I drawing then? I guess just a random cyclops (I love me them Cyclopes), but still, I thought it was pretty neat, so I'm sharing it with all of you.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #20

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

Continuing with yesterday's theme of dark-haired Zeus, here's another shot of the King of Gods, atop a cloud and about to hurl his lightning bolt. Now that I've rediscovered this drawing, I find I quite like this pose. Don't be surprised to see this pop up in a future volume of Olympians.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #19

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

Today's post is going up very late because, well, I was running around all day and forgot to do it in the AM due to Saturday morning laziness. Which is a shame, because I really kind of dig this doodle of early Zeus, even if it does look like he's punching a giant floating eye . The King of the Gods pictured here has now safely moved past his cartoony face period, but is still in his his hair-turns-to-dark-storm-clouds when he's angry phase. Man, looking back, I wish I had kept that idea in the final books.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #18

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

This sketch is up a bit later in the day than is usual due to the fact that blogger was down until after I left the house. If you're one of the, like, 3 people who follow me on Twitter (despite my constant begging for you to do so) you might've seen this already as a twitpic, the only option open to me this AM. Anyway, its' Hera, and it has a bit of writing with it for an idea that went nowhere. Enjoy!

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #17

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

This was a very fun find for me. I had remembered it taking a very long time for me to find the look of my version of Hades, but I was evidently mistaken, as here was this doodle of the Lord of the Dead, looking very much like how he appears in Olympians, in one of my earliest sketchbooks of Olympians related material. Added bonus was Hades giving the heavy-metal devil sign, and an even addeder bonus was the drawing of a super-early design of Kronos the Titan (before I figured out to make him all enormous and shadowey). Fun stuff.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #16

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

Today's sketch is of Ares, bloodthirsty god of war, and a favorite of little boys everywhere (though Athena could totally kick his butt, and in fact does in The Iliad). I've done many school, library and bookstore appearances in support of Olympians, and met many young fans who share names with an Olympian. Strangely, I've met way more Ares than any other. Go figure.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #15

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

Today's drawing is a couple of shots of Hera herself, from a point in time when I was playing with a more cartoony style of illustration for Olympians. Looking through my sketchbooks as I've been doing, and I can see that my whole... what's the word I'm looking for here? My whole career(?) has been a bouncing back and forth between my more cartoony and more 'realistic'styles. I quite like these doodles, if I do say so myself.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #14

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

Today's piece is of the Kind of the Sea himself, Poseidon. He was one of those designs that I arrived at more or less completely right away-- though he's since lost the crown. Too Triton-ey from Disney's The Little Mermaid. I've been drawing a lot of the Earth-shaker lately, as I'm in the middle of writing Olympians Book 5, all about Poseidon.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #13

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from sometime in latish 2006.

Why, it's another Pan. Well, the dude on the bottom is Pan, at least. I decided early on that there would be some sort of visual hierarchy between the horns of the great God Pan (a full-on set of ram's horns) and you basic garden variety Satyr (normal pointy goat horns). That being said, this is an old model for Pan-- when he appears, his face and horns will both be significantly different. So now you know.

A-Sketch-a-Day-Until-Hera #12

Olympians Book 3, Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory is finally coming out July 19th. To commemorate this momentous occasion I will be posting a drawing from my enormous cache of sketchbooks each weekday until Hera hits the shelves. I'll be going through them chronologically, with today's piece coming from a sketchbook from, oh. let's say September of 2006. I honestly don't remember right now.

Today's piece is a kinda groovy group shot of a bunch of the Olympians. It's kinda loose, but I think I can make out, from left to right: Demeter, Poseidon, Hera, Athena, Hephaistos, and I think that's Artemis and Apollo on the end. The figures up front would seem to be maybe the Muses. Kind of a neat little drawing, if I do say so myself, somewhat reminiscent of the illustration in the header of this very blog.