Author Archives: AFDStudios

Jackrabbit: Thumbnails

Posted on February 3, 2014 | Comments Off

Now that author Ian Thomas Healy and I have agreed on the costume design for the characters to be featured on the cover of his upcoming super-hero novel "Jackrabbit", the next step is to decide on a general layout/design. To do that, the designer (that's me!) will rapidly sketch out a number of rough, small drawings to convey the overall concept. These are called thumbnails and the idea is to generate lots of ideas in a hurry. It's not unusual to do dozens of these, but in the interest of time I'm only posting a few.

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Posted in Book Covers

Jackrabbit Cover Design: Costumes

Posted on February 2, 2014 | Comments Off

I've done a couple of covers for Friend of HeroMachine and author Ian Thomas Healy. The next book up in his "Just Cause" series is a more humorous super-hero story titled "Jackrabbit". We thought it might be fun to include you all in the cover design process, so over the next couple of weeks I'll be making posts here about how it's going.

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Posted in Cool Characters, Previews, Sketch of the Day, Super-Hero Stuff

Creating a Custom Illustration

Posted on January 30, 2014 | Comments Off

I thought you might be interested to see how an illustration goes from concept to final product. The client wishes to remain anonymous so I'll be leaving out their name and identifying characteristics of the characters.

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Posted in Digital Illustration Lessons

Strut Your Stuff!

Posted on January 29, 2014 | Comments Off

From time to time I like to make a place for you all to show off your best stuff. So in the comments, paste a link to your favorite HeroMachine drawing, or maybe one that you feel like hasn't gotten enough attention, or just something you have done that you think is awesome. It doesn't have to have been for a contest or anything, it can be any HM illustration you're particularly proud of for any reason.

Then we can all ooh and ahh over each other's work and feel good about ourselves!

Just one selection per person, please. I look forward to seeing your stuff!

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Posted in Cool Characters

Halftones

Posted on January 28, 2014 | Comments Off

I've just added the following two halftone items to Patterns-Standard:

I made it like the other gradients, where color1 and color2 fade into each other. If you don't want that and instead prefer a solid color background, you can set color2 to 0% alpha (color1 is solid). Or you can make both invisible and be left with just the dot line art.

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Posted in HeroMachine 3, New Item Releases, News & Updates

"I don't have time for this crap."

Posted on January 27, 2014 | Comments Off

A little image that might fit your mood some day.

From "Deathstroke" number 14.

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Posted in Daily Random Panel

Work in Progress

Posted on January 27, 2014 | Comments Off

I'm working on a custom commission for someone and thought you might be interested in the approved black and white sketch. The client prefers to retain privacy so I can't share any details about the characters but this is what they look like!