Monday, December 14, 2015

Coloring VeggieTales Super Comics Volumes 3 & 4!

VeggieTales Super Comics: Volumes 3 & 4 written & adapted by Aaron Linne & Mike Nappa, illustrated by Cory Jones, & colored by Cory Jones & Philip A. Buck

    Hey folks! For a while now, I've been hinting at how I've been doing some comic book coloring this year. Well here it is! Earlier this year, I had the great pleasure of working as a freelance Artist Assistant & Colorist for illustrator (and my good friend,) Cory Jones as he illustrated VeggieTales Super Comics: Volume 3 & Volume 4 for Big Idea Entertainment & B&H Kids publishing. The stories from the Big Idea VeggieTales videos were adapted by Aaron Linne (Volume 3) & Mike Nappa (Volume 4) & are collected with all new LarryBoy stories which were written by Linne & Nappa as well.


    Each volume of VeggieTales Super Comics contains 3 separate stories which are 32 pages each! I was so excited to do the colors for  all 3 stories in Volume 3 & 2 stories in Volume 4!


     All cover art was done by Cory Jones, while Volume 4's cover features some of my color work as well. Man, he did such a sharp job!

     Below are just a few glimpses inside the final printed copies of the books & our artwork inside. He has been great to work with & his fun line art made it a joy to add colors & effects everyday!





       Soon, I'll share with you all some examples of how Cory's black & white line art basically looked when I received it, followed by my digital color version of each page. Until then, you can check out such samples from 3 stories that are featured in Volume 3 over on my portfolio page.

    VeggieTales Super Comics: Volumes 3 & 4 can be purchased in most book stores and on Amazon here and here as well as in most other stores online & in reality. (Can anyone say perfect Christmas gifts?) :D Thanks for checking in & God Bless! 

Monday, December 7, 2015

Rough Sketch Dec 7

 
 

    Here's a really loose & rough sketch from last week after a Rog Walker photo on Pinterest. Practice makes better, right? I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! And those of you who celebrate Hanukkah, I hope it's of to a great start!


     I'll (hopefully) be putting up a longer post here soon about some of the comic book coloring work I've been doing this year, but until then, this is what you get. Haha! God bless and thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, December 3, 2015

New Sale Over at Society6!


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*FREE SHIPPING EXCLUDES FRAMED PRINTS & CANVAS PRINTS. ENDS 12/5/15 at MIDNIGHT PT.

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Happy Halloween 2015!


    Unlike last year, I actually got around to carving the pumpkin. Usually I make a character template or something, but this year I went old school! I just took a regular knife to it and carved away all willy nilly. Spooky eh?



 
    Here is what happened to last year's neglected & forgotten pumpkin that was never carved & what became of it.  I wasn't going to let that happen again no matter how busy I am haha! I hope you all have a fun and safe day today. If you carve any jack O' lanterns this year feel free to share them with me. I'd really enjoy getting to see them! Thanks for checking in. God bless!

Monday, August 3, 2015

Max's Dinosaur's Part Six: Pteranodon Nest


    As promised in my last post, here is the final dinosaur illustration for Max! What? You don't know what I'm talking about? I'm talking about the illustrations I did for my friends Ben and Ashley's son Max! Just click here or the label at the bottom of the post to see all four illustration and a "behind the scenes" look at my process creating them.


    Like I mentioned last time, I knew these illustrations would be hanging in Max's nursery. As I thought about them rocking him to sleep in their arms and gently laying him in his crib, I knew I wanted to make this one gentle and sweet.


   As you can see, after I figured out which expressions and heads to use, I drew and inked the final drawing. I then added watercolors (which really made it pop!) I know I've already said it a bunch, but it sure was lots of fun working with Ben and Ashley making these for Max last year. I'm really thankful for the opportunity.

    Another place you can see all of the final dinosaur illustrations for Max is over on my Behance Portfolio page. Thanks for checking in! I've got to get back to making more art, so until next time God bless!

Monday, June 8, 2015

Max's Dinosaur's Part Five: Graphite Wings

Click images to see them bigger!

     It's time, once again to continue my series of posts about the ink drawings & watercolors I did for Max! (Previous posts can be found here: 12, 3, & 4) Having nailed down a more cartoony approach for the first of the two watercolors, I needed to decide on a scene/subject for the next one. I think that knowing these paintings and drawings would be hung in Max's nursery, I couldn't help but keep coming back to the idea of a young, little dinosaur having fun. Above and below, you can see my very rough thumbnail sketches wherein I try to figure out the subject and composition.



     I was able to come up with a few frolicking dinosaur ideas that I liked, but the ideas featuring tender and sweet interactions between the baby and a parent dino were the ones that kept saying something to me. I knew Max's awesome parents would be rocking him and singing him to sleep as they held him tight in this room. The thought of a mommy or daddy dinosaur gently nuzzling or hugging its baby seemed perfect. But what kind of baby? Is it just hatching? Does it sleep in a nest? What's it look like?



    In this detail of the page above, you can see where I started to zero in on the final subjects and composition. Now, it was only a matter of figuring out how to actually draw an extinct winged animal wrapping its wings around its baby affectionately! Not the easiest thing to do, even in cartoon form.


    I did some research into the different types of flying dinosaurs and though, I honestly can't remember which species I chose, if my sketch pages are to be believed it was the pteranodon. I searched through everything from scientific articles to Jurassic Park III clips!


    While I was still trying to decide on species, I also began working on the anatomy of the animals. I needed to figure out how their wings worked and how to show them doing and action that I quickly realized was a fairly unnatural one for the real creatures. Above, is one of the times I used some loose paper, a kneaded eraser, and a piece of wood to make a model of what the wings would actually look like when wrapping around the dinosaurs. The kneaded eraser isn't meant for this, but its moldable qualities make it often the first thing I grab when I need a "3-D" physical reference and don't want to take the time to break out the clay. I think the piece of wood is the arm of one of these guys?


    Here, you see more of my attempts to figure out the anatomy of the head and wings and what positions to put them in, as well as how much space the dinosaurs would take up.


    And finally I figured out which expressions and heads to use! It was lots of fun discovering their personalities. I was ready to draw the final image, ink it, and paint! But we'll get into all that next time. Until then, God bless!!!

Monday, June 1, 2015

A Very Deadpool Birthday

Ink and color pencil on 8x10 inch Bristol board paper.
     Hey, everyone! My buddy, Wyatt L. had a birthday last week. Wyatt's a big fan of Marvel's character Deadpool, so I decided give him a drawing of Deadpool for his birthday. I also added a few inside jokes and things I thought he'd enjoy in the picture too. I also tried a fun visual technique with the word balloon that the great Dan Hipp often uses excellently. Below are the photos of the original pencils, ink drawing, and then a photo of the final illustration again.







     I hope you all have a fantastic week and if you know Wyatt, and haven't already wished him a "Happy Birthday," feel free to do so! Until next time, God bless!

Monday, May 25, 2015

Max's Dinosaurs Part Four: Watercolors to the MAX!

MAX by Philip A. Buck, ink & watercolor on 11.5x15.25 inch paper.
Click Images to See Them Bigger!

    Hi, friends! As promised here is Part Four of my series of posts about the ink drawings & watercolors I did for Max! (Previous posts can be found here: 1, 2, & 3.) After finalizing which cartooning style I would use, mapping out the composition, & designing the characters, I pencilled & inked the final illustration (below.)


    The title letters in the old School House Rock intro were a big inspiration for Max's name in stone. I also referred to the work of paleoartists such as James Gurney when determining what type of plant life was around when the dinosaurs roamed the earth.

    After everything was drawn & inked, I painted the image with Winsor & Newton watercolor paints on Strathmore watercolor paper. The following are some close up photos I took of the happy dinosaurs!










    I hope you enjoyed this quick look back at more of Max's Dinosaurs. There's still one watercolor I haven't shown you yet, so keep you eyes on this site for more dinosaur fun!  In the meantime, always feel free to follow me on TwitterInstagramTumblr, & Google+ for more frequent process photos, updates, & sales on my products & art! Until next time, God bless!

Monday, May 18, 2015

Sketchbook Find: Tiny Black Widow Sketch



   Here's a tiny sketch I did of Black Widow back around when Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier came out. It's inspired by a mix of actresses Scarlet Johansson & Margarita Levieva. I may do something more finished with it someday...

  
   I know I've been neglecting the site a bit lately and I'm sorry about that, but trust me, it's only because I've been busy making more things! Things that I hope to share eventually! I'm expecting to get even busier soon, (more coloring comics!) so I'm hoping to get more stuff lined up to post on here during that business. In the meantime, always feel free to follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr (all of which I tend to post things on a bit more frequently as I go.) God bless, and thanks for checking in!

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

The "DECK OUT YOUR DWELLING" Sale


20% OFF ALL HOME DECOR featuring My Designs! Now through April 18, 2015 at midnight pt.

Throw Pillows
Wall Clocks
Shower Curtains
Wall Tapestries (NEW!)
Duvet Covers
Rugs
Shop Now! (But only if you want to.)

Monday, April 6, 2015

Good Evening...


    For a little while now, I've had this silly idea in my head. So about month ago, I decided to make a comic strip out of it and use the opportunity to try out some new things in Photoshop while getting in some always welcome practice. Once I was done, I thought it'd make a neat gif (above.)

    Here are the original comic strip and some concept sketches below:























    I've been quite busy with some exciting freelance comics coloring work lately (which I can't share yet,) but I hope this dose of cartoony, vampiric news anchor goodness will hold you over until the next post!

    Did you have a good Easter/Passover? I surely did and hope you did as well! On my tumblr blog, PABDESK, I've posted one of my favorite film depictions of the story of Jesus, The Miracle Maker. The film beautifully combines stop-motion with hand-drawn animation (along with a great voice acting cast & score,) to portray the miracles of Jesus in a passionate a lovely way. Feel free to click the link here to watch and find out where you can buy a copy of the movie for your very own. Until next time, God bless, everybody!

Monday, March 9, 2015

The Get Sorted Sale with Society6


    Hey friends! Check out these deals I've got for you all week on my Society6 products! Just check the link HERE daily for a new deal every day.

Monday, February 23, 2015

Max's Dinosaurs Part Three: Fine Tooning


    Hello everybody! It's time for more of "Max's Dinosaurs!"  Last spring, my great friends Ben and Ashley were eagerly awaiting the birth of their son, Max. They hired me to do four original illustrations for Max's nursery. My last couple of posts (here and here) have been a look into my process creating the two black and white ink drawings of dinosaurs. For this post I'd like to start sharing how we approached the less realistic, "cartoony" watercolor paintings I made for Max. 


    As a fun way of figuring out which "less realistic" style Max's folks wanted me to use, I did lots of quick doodles and sketches of different types of dinosaurs in various levels of "cartooniness" and realism. Dot eyes? Big scales? Happy faces? Exaggerated anatomy?  These were just a few of the questions these drawings would help answer. Very little planning went into these and some were completely off the top of my head (which explains why some of them don't look that wonderful in my opinion! Haha!)


    None of these characters or drawings were necessarily intended to be used in the final paintings, but just as a way to feel out which approach to take. After sending scans to Ben & Ashley, they picked out their favorite ones and gave great feedback about why they liked some more than others.

What's your favorite type of dinosaur?

    I knew they wanted a triceratops type dinosaur in one of the illustrations for sure, so I sent them this page of baby triceratops sketches.  As you can probably tell, each one is a different approach to drawing the subject. Max's parents each chose their favorites, including which elements they liked the most.

    After that, it was only a matter of combining those elements together into "one stylistic approach" in the two watercolors. And deciding what, specifically, the paintings would be of. And landing on what the compositions, colors, and character designs for each would be. Ok, there was still quite a bit to do. But guys, this part is pretty fun!



    At the top of this page, you can see one of my first attempts to combine the different style and approaches into one that would be the most like what Ben and Ashley wanted. It's still not the final design, but everything that came after were only slight variations of this approach. All around the little guy, you can see thumbnails of possible subjects and compositions (including a couple that were for the stegosaurus drawing I shared before.)  I came back to this page and sketched out some possible lettering at the top, after we decided which scenes I'd paint.



    Above and below, are more rough sketches I used to develop possible scenes the cartoon dinosaurs could be in as well as which dinosaurs would they would feature. You may even recognize a few familiar dinosaur characters from other sources that I enjoyed when I was a kid. I drew these to help me get into that fun head space and to generate more ideas.


 
    You may have noticed that a lot of these sketches feature Max's name. What a good eye you have! That's because I knew that his parents wanted one of the paintings to incorporate his name somehow. I couldn't shake the idea of his name big, bold, and carved in stone with dinosaurs surrounding it. After sketching out some other ideas too, it was clear. This was the idea I had to use! Here are some sketches where you can start to see glimpses of what the final painting would look like. As I continued to design and add more and more dinosaurs, I continued to rework the composition. Sometimes, I could tell the composition needed something else and made another dinosaur character to fill that need.

    In the next post about Max's Dinosaurs, I share with you what steps I took to turn these rough drawings and doodles into a finished watercolor painting! I hope you enjoyed this look into my process. I had so much fun doing these paintings! Until next time, God bless!