Keep an eye out.

Defect, Deface, Defy.

3 Point Spider-Tom

Sorry, to the 3 people who might read my website from time to time, for not updating in a while. I've been crazy busy.

Well, after spending roughly 3 hours trying to put this picture into color, I decided I'm sticking with grayscale. Originally the subject of this piece was someone doing Parkour, but instead I drew myself webslinging.



Thwip! I love that sound.

What I'm working on.

So this thing is the half completed version of the lineart for my banner, which'll be done soon. It's almost done being colored, but I figured I'd just show you my first attempt at digital inking.

Not much else to say. Guitar Hero III is fun.

Oh god, my shoulder...

Lugging my charcoal pad and laptop around San Francisco during the Olympic torch run was a bad idea. Pain, O pain!

Regardless, I managed to do a 5 minute timed digital sketch for you all. I've been playing with my graffiti art style, and I'm thinking of doing some actual comics in it. We'll see.



Just experimenting.

Anyway, I best get to work on some thumbnails for Jeremy's perspective class. G'night, all.

-Thomas

P.S. The presentation I gave on that comic panel I posted went over well. Applause be mine.

P.P.S. I took a look at Spidey once it'd been uploaded. I noticed there's a hole or a smudge on his eye. Wurd.

Been busy.

Well, I've been working my everlovin' thing off coloring that panel from Black Star. It's finished, finally, though I don't think I'm going to have this coloring style be a constant thing. This is more for covers or splash pages and the such.

Anyway, here it is.



As for Black Star, I'm thinking of incorporating him into another project I'm thinking about. We'll see how things go.

Later
-Thomas

Fifty two reasons I'm an artist

Happy 52nd birthday, Dad.

(Done with charcoal pencil on 80 lb drawing paper.)

Hello.

So I said I'd introduce myself this time. My name is Thomas Leigh, as of this post I'm 19 years old and studying traditional animation at the Academy of Art University. Though animation is my major, my true passion is and always has been comic books.
Roughly fourteen or thirteen years ago I thrust an issue of Action Man into my Father's field of vision, requesting that he draw the Kevlar equipped hero on the front cover. This is the earliest memory I have of both my love of drawing and comic books, and the more detailed version of this story is one I've told frequently to people who ask me about how I got started as an artist.
Currently, I'm working on my own comic book series, Black Star. Black Star is a superhero who harnesses the power of a pocket universe enclosed within his body, and can manipulate the radiation of this universe as well as the radiation of the environment around him. Here's an unfinished panel from the first issue.


As an artist, I'm still very much coming into my own style. I'm of course very young, and very inexperienced, but hopefully you'll see some improvements as I go along. I feel that developing your own style is a landmark achievement for an artist, and I feel a little burst of euphoria every time someone says they like the way I draw. I aspire to have my style recognized some day, when people will see my drawings and say 'Oh, that's a Leigh drawing', the same way people recognize Stuart Immomen, Alex Ross, Frank Miller or Jack Kirby.

ilu aau <3<3<3

I love being an art student.

So the perspective class I'm in, taught by Jeremy Saliba (whose blog you can find in my sidebar) got out early to go see Mick Gray speak. Mick Gray is an inker for DC Comics, and very approachable. He recently inked the cover to the newest issue of D.C. Comics' Arena, which has three alternate Earths' Batmans up against each other.
So, after he'd spoken about his career and the tools he uses, he asked if anybody wanted something inked.
Of course I leaped at the opportunity to be inked by a professional.

So, I whipped out one of my Spider-Man drawings and let him have at it. He only had time to outline it, but that's cool with me, the pencil lines are easier to paint with.



I'll actually introduce myself next post. Promise.

- Thomas