Young Justice

I LOVED the Young Justice cartoon that used to come on Cartoon Network.  It was like a grown up, more serious take on the Justice League and the Young Justice team.  It was sad to see it go before its time and to have less than stellar replacements...but then season 1 found its way onto Netflix, and I fell in love all over again.  So...this happened:

Wonder Girl, Bumblebee, Miss Martian, Supergirl & Batgirl

I usually just draw one or two characters in a semi static pose, so it definitely was a change of pace to do something action-y and with more characters, even though I definitely wanted to fit more in there.  I think the next piece that I do with more characters, I want to do it big, and to have it be like a 2 piece poster type thing...but I'll have to look into the logistics of that working out print wise.

After the inks and the colors, here is the final image:

As always, this 11" x 17" print is available at my Storenvy site.  I'm hoping that Young Justice pulls a Family Guy and comes back due to the demand of fans...but given the direction Cartoon Network is heading, I won't hold my breath.  Be blessed.

Without Wax,

-Charles

Supergirl

Last year I drew a sketch of Supergirl that I originally wanted to ink and add a background to it.  I was in the process of inking it, and the whole thing just seemed real boring and static to me.  So, I just scrapped the whole thing.  This happens a whole lot actually...there are so many unfinished drawings that I have because I'm just displeased with them.

So I started over.

I wanted there to be this unseen emergency offpicture that has Kara dressing ready for action...showing that she's always ready for any situation.  

I initially finished this with a background that's based off of the initial sketch, but I still wasn't all that happy with it (plus I sort of messed up the perspective...something you can't do with backgrounds).  So I started the background over and came up with the one below:

This one I liked much better, plus I threw in links to other DC Comics universe related cities.  The one you can't see off the page is Central City, where Flash is from.

I initially posted this to Tumblr where its been very popular, but an unknown was finding out that people would repost this image without my signature or watermark and just completely crop it out altogether.  That irritates me because I've found so many people who love this image and wanted to know who the artist was...and if my stuff wasn't cropped out, they would know.  This is a much bigger issue, and something that I've been plagued by a lot lately.  I don't want to go full out and throw my watermark all over the image, and I even made it bigger and bolder than what it originally was, but I guess I'm going to have to find a way to put it elsewhere in the image.  It sucks that I have to do that for a.) recognition of my own work and b.) preventing people from finding my work and claiming it as their own.  

But I digress...

Anyways, as always, this print is available for purchase (as well as my old previous ones) on my Storenvy site in 11" x 17" aspect ratio.

Be Blessed.

Without Wax,

-Charles

A Storm's Coming

I've been kinda busy as of late getting pulled in different directions, and its just been draining and exhausting.  So its always good to take time out to put down some personal drawings to sort of take my mind away from the every day day to day stuff.  And who better to do that with than one of my favorite X-men, Storm?

I had some preliminary sketches that while I liked, there were some things about them that I ultimately didn't.  Take for instance the first sketch I did almost a week ago with the general idea in mind:

I liked the idea of the sketch, but there were definitely some proportion and depth issues there that I could have worked on to resolve, but I just scrapped it in order to use the same idea, but a more dynamic pose.  So I went back to the drawing board and came up with this:

I liked this layout a million times more, but there were still some adjustments that I needed to make which I could do in the inking process instead of redoing the entire sketch which is what I went with.  I also liked the general idea for a background I had in the first sketch, so I went with that as well for the final version.  And after some toying around with it and some details changed here and there, here is the final version:

And as always, you can click on the image to see it in higher resolution.  Overall, I like how it came out, but I'm sort of bummed that I worked hard on that foreshortened hand only for it to be covered up in the final.  But hey, I learned as I went along, so thats the main takeaway there.

If you would like to purchase this as an 11" x 17" print on high quality gloss cardstock, you can always do so on my Storenvy page where I have more of my prints available for sale as well.

Oh, and make sure to follow me all over so you can see my in progress stuff as well as other non art related things! (Facebook | Tumblr | Google+ | Instagram)

Without Wax,

-Charles

The Electric Lady

Lets just put this out there, I love Janelle Monae's Electric Lady album.  There, I said it.  Its like a different sound of R&B and just music in general that's just refreshing.  So, if I like something, chances are that fan art is definitely on its way.

Yep.

I decided to draw Janelle as a semi robotic cyborg after her other persona Cindi Mayweather.  I had this idea during the sketch that she would be sitting in this chair plugged into a stereo system, which probably didn't come off all that well, but the speakers are definitely visible in the final image.  I tried my best to put this image online and tag Janelle all over the place on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, and if she reposts it or shouts it out...I would seriously lose it.  Anyways, below is the initial sketch concept.

And here's the final image below.

And if you haven't done so already, check out her album Electric Lady.  You would not be disappointed.

If you would like to purchase this image as an 11" x 17" high quality gloss print, you can do so here on my Storenvy page.

Without Wax,

-Charles

2013 Remnants

I can't believe I haven't made a post here for the new year yet, which is a shame.  I somehow got this blog out of sync with my Tumblr one and my Facebook page (Google+ is all out of sync, I probably have to do a massive art post dump there as well to catch up).  This year I'm dedicating myself to keep this blog with at least parity to my other online spaces as well as adding some exclusive stuff to here that I don't post elsewhere.  Actually, for all of my online portals, I'm posting stuff to each one that I won't post elsewhere to keep me motivated to updating all of them with different content.  I guess that is a new year resolution, even though I'm not really big on resolutions.

Let's not bog this post down with a lot of talking though as there is quite a bit of new art I need to share.

A while ago I posted a sketch of Black Canary that I was hoping to compile into one mega image that really never materialized (maybe in 2014?), but I decided to finish it anyways.  So here's that:

Black Canary 2013

And even further back in the year, I posted a sketch of Alice in Wonderland that I just never really got back around to.  I guess in December I felt that I had a whole bunch of unresolved sketches that needed to be seen through, even though I didn't finish all of them.  And here is that one:

Wonderland

And of course with it being December, I had to do the requisite holidays inspired drawing, so here's that as well:

I also did several sketches and redraws of what eventually turned out to be a Dark Phoenix and Scott Summers illustration.  I made a preliminary sketch a long while ago and just sat on the idea until I decided to revisit it with a sketch that went in a slightly different direction:

I just took the best elements of both sketches and combined them into one.  And then after I did that, I couldn't decide on a single background....so I did two.  How's that for not being lazy when it comes to backgrounds?

And then I had an opportunity to do a Jem and the Holograms commission...and why would I not jump on that idea.  I used to watch the show (and maybe still caught a few episodes on Netflix), so this was right up my alley.  Plus it was a chance to exhaust all of the shades of pink and purple that I know...a stark change from the usual color palette that I tend to go with.  It turned out to be...wait for it....truly outrageous.

Jem and the Holograms: click for higher resolution

That turned out to be my last illustration of 2013...which looking back went pretty well art wise.  Looking back at how I started 2013 and how my art has progressed throughout the year, I'm more than excited as to what 2014 has to offer.  I'm definitely looking to new avenues to share my art and get myself out there, and 2014 will definitely be the year for that.  

All of the above illustrations are available for purchase on high quality semi gloss paper at my Storenvy store: Illumistrations.Storenvy.com.

And I guess as always, follow me everywhere: tumblr, twitter, instagram and yadda yadda....the user name is Illumistrations.

Without Wax,

-Charles.

Neo Sailor Moon

Fighting evil by a futuristic techno Neo-Tokyo moonlight.  Winning love by daylight.

She's the one called Sailor Moon.

Not too long ago I drew a Neo Sailor Venus, and I thought that it would only be right if I drew an accompanying Neo Sailor Venus.  I probably should just stop being lazy and draw a full image with all of the Neo Sailor Scouts...which I will...eventually.

Below is the initial sketch that I came up with.  I was going to draw in Luna as well, seeing as how I drew in Artemis for the Sailor Venus one, but she didn't make it in.

And below is the final illustration:

And as always, if you would like to purchase this as an awesome 11" x 17" print, I shall direct you to my print purchase page!

Without Wax,
-Charles

Jubilation Lee

Besides the X-Men issue #1 drawn by Jim Lee, the cartoon from the 90s was my introduction to the Xmen.  I loved that cartoon...even though the animation definitely doesn't hold up today.  Ah, I lied.  I used to be an avid Marvel and X-Men trading card collector.  That was my introduction to the Xmen...but that's neither here nor there.  

Jubilee was one of my favorites...well besides the mainstays of Wolverine, Gambit, Rogue and Storm...and whenever she appeared, Psylocke.  Her "uniform" on the show was soooo 90s, so I thought that it needed revamping.  And well, thats what I did.

This is a part of the original sketch that I did, but something about her face just seemed skewed to me, and instead of trying to fix it over and over, I just drew the whole thing over again.

This is the revised sketch that I came up with.  There are parts of the original that I liked and tried to incorporate into this one, but overall, the redraw is better.

And here's the final version.  I'm still trying to mesh together this cel shading technique with the original way that I color.  I tried to use some Kirby Krackle, but changed it to how I would do it.  Happy accidents I suppose.  

If you would like to purchase this as an 11" x 17" print, feel free to browse the other images I have for sale as prints here.  

Without Wax,

-Charles

Wonder Woman of Themyscira

One of my favorite DC Comics Super heroines is Wonder Woman.  I really like her feminist attitude, as well the fact that she's just as strong as the big guys and is a major player in the Justice League.  I initially did a preliminary sketch of her that I sort of liked, but wasn't in love with it, so I sat on it for a while.  Then I saw a screen caption of an upcoming Justice League animated movie with a new redesigned suit for Wonder Woman, and I just had to change my sketch to fit her new suit.  

And like I said in the previous post, I'm (hopefully) going to do a series of these women of DC sketches and illustrations and combine them all at the end.  I have some more sketching to do...as always.  

And if you would like to purchase this Wonder Woman illustration as an 11" x 17" print, you can do so either on here on my blog, or on my print purchase page!

Without wax,
-Charles

(Some) Women of DC

I've been seriously lagging behind my other social sites when it comes to posting sketches and drawings, so I'm going to do like multiple posts in a day to fix that.  I've been doing a lot of sketches recently of different women of DC comics that I can compose together for a larger image to post of them together.  So far, I'm thinking of Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Supergirl, Black Canary, maybe the Huntress, Zatanna and possibly Vixen....but we'll see how it goes.  And while drawing Wonder Woman, I had a thought of drawing them individually, and then compiling them together later with a separate backdrop...but we'll see how cohesive that all looks in the end.  I may end up just doing them as a series instead and calling it a day.

And if you're not following me on either Instagram, Tumblr, or even Facebook or Google+, you're missing out...so follow me!

Without Wax,
-Charles

Harley Quinn: The Joke's On You

I have a seriously bad habit of neglecting this blog...and I don't really know why.  I seem to post stuff on every other social network BUT the one that I started posting my art on.  I need to cut that out.  Anyways, a while ago I finally finished that Harley Quinn picture that I posted on here not too long ago.  I also made it available as a print, if you would like Harley to grace your walls or frame in all of her 11" x 17" splendor.

I have other newer art that I need to post, and I definitely will soon, but once I get on a creative roll, I have to keep that pencil busy.  And you should always do the same too!!  But I do have at least a little time to tell you to follow me on Tumblr if you haven't already, check out my Facebook page, or follow me on Instagram!

Without Wax,

-Charles

Harley Quinn WIP

As promised, here's a work in progress post of my Harley Quinn illustration via Instagram.  I decided to pull back the crop a little bit to show more of Harley, but the Instagram post doesn't show any of that really...like at all.  Whatevs.

Welp, enough selfish time for today, back to commissions I go.  Hopefully this will be completed sometime soon.
Without Wax,
-Charles

Harley Quinn Sketch(es)

So, I decided to do another Harley Quinn illustration, so I made a pretty decent sketch of her yesterday, or so I thought.  I liked it a lot yesterday, but I didn't really love it.  So I slept on it, and decided to do another one.  I took some elements from the first and put them in the second, while changing some, and came up with a new sketch.  Who knows, I may just finish them both, but cel shade the first and do what I normally do on the second.  Or maybe, the first one will forever live in sketch purgatory and never get finished.  Dah, oh well...at least I'm drawing right?  I mean, that is the important thing.

The first Harley sketch

Second Harley sketch

Without Wax,

-Charles

Storm

This took a little longer than I had anticipated to finish, but I'm happy with the final result.  I intended to do more to it, but I decided to keep it relatively simple and didn't want to overcomplicate the background, which would detract from Storm.  And as previously told to me, yes, I'm aware that the Sentinel in the background bears more than a striking resemblance to Megatron...that definitely wasn't intentional.  But I'm sure everyone familiar with X-Men lore and what not will know what that's actually supposed to be.

Its also been brought to my attention that sometimes purchasing my prints through Serve can be a somewhat convoluted process.  So I'm now offering the option to purchase my prints as well using Paypal.  That should be easier for most, as well as more familiar.  And what better way to test out to see if everything works than to purchase this very here print!  

Have a great weekend!

Without wax,

-Charles

I Feel a Storm Comin' On...

A Storm drawing has been long overdue.  In all actuality though, I've had several Storm sketches, and none of them I liked at all....so they all have been subsequently scratched.  But this one I like, so I may finish this one. I took some liberties with her costume that I may or may not change when I finally ink and color this.  And you can never go wrong with drawing any of the X-Men against Sentinels.

Progress shots coming soon.

Without Wax,

-Charles

Shera: Princess of Power

I finally finished this drawing after the initial sketch was sitting in purgatory for a little while.  Honestly, I never thought that I would go further with the sketch, but I'm glad that I did.  As much as they were considered to be "girl's shows", I was an avid watcher of both Shera and Jem & The Holograms.  Judge me.  Speaking of, I may just do a Jem drawing somewhere down the line.  

But onto this drawing: its obviously Shera with her mighty steed Swift Wind in front of Castle Greyskull.  And like I've mentioned on other sites, technically Swift Wind is a pegasus, but for me to be able to show the most of Shera that I could, I had to omit his wings.  But unicorns are still magical too on their own, so its sort of like a win win.

And as always, if you like this image and would like to purchase a print, feel free to head on over to my prints page, located at the top of this blog.

Without Wax,

-Charles

Supergirl

This one was definitely was a while in the making.  I did the original sketch sometime in like early August of 2012 and pretty much sat on it until now.  I liked it then, but I didn't love it enough to finish it, so it sat in the dusty corner of my hdd until I was going through some random folders and saw it.  And then I thought about how I could improve it...
But instead of erasing parts and pieces, I decided to do a completely new sketch without looking at the last one at all...and I ended up not liking that one either.  I liked parts of it, but not all of it.  Then I looked at them both, and decided to use the best of both and combine them into one...the face of the newer one, and pretty much the foundation of the first...well....pictures speak louder than words.

This happens a lot actually.  I'll sketch something out, and it will just dwell forever in purgatory until I randomly see it again and try to fix it.  

And I guess as a bonus, here is a work in progress shot of the final image:

This print, as well as others, are available for purchase here.  Also, feel free to become a fan of my Facebook page!  

Without Wax,

-Charles

Sailor Scouts Finished!

I can't believe that I finally finished this Sailor Scouts picture.  My laptop was hating me every step of the way while doing this picture.  I also found out that Photoshop CS4 is less of a resource hog than CS5...which is good to know if you're going to be doing extensive illos with lots of layers and working with limited RAM.  All in all, I think it came out pretty good.

Like I've mentioned before, unfortunately I couldn't fit in Sailor Venus because of paper aspect ratio constraints (meaning, that this is going to be sold as a print! Yay!).  But I'll definitely end up doing another drawing with all of them in there, at least, thats the plan.  I'll be making prints of this very shortly to coincide with a print announcement, so hopefully that will turn out fun...or not.  Anyways, enjoy the pic!  And as always, clicking on the picture will let you see it in higher resolution and such.

Left to right: Sailor Moon, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Mars

Without Wax,

-Charles

Samus Aran, The Bounty Hunter

Finally!!  I put this one off far too long.  I actually wanted to do much more with the background and experiment with it a little bit, but my laptop was having no parts of that.  I can't get more ram soon enough, sheesh.

Also, if you aren't following me yet on Tumblr, I'm currently doing a giveaway to two lucky winners: the grand prize winner will get 10 FREE prints from me of the best illustrations I've done all year, while second place will win 5.  Not too shabby.  You can enter by either reblogging my contest post, or liking my Illumistrations page on Facebook.  I mean, seriously though, this is stuff you should've done already, now there's just an incentive to do so.  Ha!

On to the next one...

Without Wax,

-Charles

Samus Aran, The Bounty Hunter (work in progress)

I sketched and inked this drawing a while ago, and amidst coloring it, I stopped working on it.  I think it was because I knew that it would involve a lot as far as time and computer resources (as in RAM) and it turns out, I was 100% correct.  I desperately need a ram upgrade in my computer, like seriously.  Not today, but as in yesterday.  Anyways, here's the work in progress of my favorite Nintendo bounty hunter, Samus Aran of Metroid.  I sometimes like to work without color for a bit to make sure that the shadows and values are right before going on.  Sometimes the actual colors trick my eyes and by the time I see it, its too late.  I'll make sure to document this when I make an actual coloring tutorial that apparently is grossly overdue.

Without Wax,

-Charles

Black Canary

Finally finished!  I just noticed now that I didn't post the updated sketch which shows the change in perspective.  Its a good thing that I sketched a new background too, because the last one was lazy and completely wrong on all levels.  I used to sketch something out, and ink and color it right away, but I found that sleeping on it and coming to it later with fresh eyes helps me greatly reduce errors and fix things that I didn't see wrong before. 

Also, I'm still working on the details of my online store.  In the past, I would just use a print on demand service for prints, but that means that I never really got an opportunity to see the quality of the prints, and I would get paid in pennies.  So, I'm going to be doing all of the printing and shipping myself, which should help out things a lot.  Of course, my blog will be polluted with ads about it when its done, so everyone will definitely know.  

As always, gotta keep that pencil busy!!

Without Wax,

-Charles