Project Waldo

While helping my mom move to a new place last week, I discovered a portfolio full of old drawings. Most of it was pretty iffy stuff, but I did find this unfinished Captain America sample (please excuse the smudginess and crappy scan quality): The year was 1995. I'd just driven back to school in Chicago after having my portfolio shot down by the Marvel editors at San Diego Comic Con ( that story is told here ). As soon as I got my drawing table set up, I funneled all of my embarrassment and anger into this new page. I wish I could find the sample I'd shown at the con, because it would make a nice contrast -- this version is sort of a watershed moment in my development as a draftsman. It's definitely got some problems (Cap's musculature is... creative), but it was a giant leap forward in quality from what had come before. For the first time, I told myself to forget about speed and to just work on a drawing until it felt right. Until that point, I'd prided myself ...

I've been seeing lots of pretty art lately. How about I pull a royalboiler and just, you know, show some of it? Here's M.C. Barrett : You have to see this guy's sketchbook . Watching him go to town on that thing last week, I felt simultaneously inspired to start a sketchbook of my own and ashamed to even make an attempt. I love his composition instincts. It's like he's constitutionally incapable of making an uninteresting image: One more by Mr. Barrett: Next up,  John Kantz . One day I want to write a comic and have him draw it. But can he draw environments? Yes. Here's Marcel O'Leary , who is going to be famous someday: Check out this page from his 24-hour comic. I can't believe this guy graduated from art school this month. This next thing is from  Clement Sauve , a brilliant artist from Montreal who passed away a few months ago. He left us some rare gems: What a tremendous loss. It's all so beautiful: Oh, and I found B...