Noble Savage

But he's crazy.

And evil!

Yup--now you know what happened. There I was, busily updating my art thread, when things suddenly got VERY busy. Praetoria's a big place, so I hope you don't mind that I've redirected most of my art mojo towards making it as awesome and beautiful as I can.

Got one! It's sort of unimaginative, but hey, it is red!

Thanks very much! Dying to tell you guys about all the new hotness we've been working on...but EMpulse would kill me.

Probably not at the show itself, but there may be time for sketches at the Meet n' Greet. Don't hold me to it just yet, but I'll look into it.

Brings back some great memories--thanks for posting.

Tons of GOING ROGUE goodness to come, guys. Stay tuned--this is just the tip of the iceberg...

Whenever I'm at a convention, I'm happy to draw these for you guys completely gratis. It's just something I like to do, and that's one of the rare instances when I've got the time to do them.

These days, there's not a lot of time for commissions outside of cons unfortunately, but since you asked about pricing: I used to charge $10-20 at conventions when I was working my own booth in Artists' Alley. As time went on and people asked for more and more elaborate pieces (full figure, multiple figures, large paper), the price scaled to a max of $100, but generally the average sketch stayed right in that $10-20 sweet spot. Whenever I did a commission at home and then mailed it to a client, I'd usually draw a half figure or something extra and call it $40 (plus shipping).

A lot of professional friends suggested that I might be undercharging, but I don't think so. I was trying to build a name in the comic industry, and I figured that reasonably-priced color sketches would be a way to stand out in the crowd.

Oh, don't worry. It's comin'. Plan is to start a separate 'David's Art Thread' for the more polished art (like Viceroyalty). But I figured I'd finish off the sketches first, and there're about 15 more of those at least with more trickling in every week.

Been a little slow with the uploads this week, thanks to a freelance thing I'm wrapping up now.

Anyway, stay tuned!

I think I've got all the art from that event, and eventually I'll get them all up on this thread, but at the moment I'm quite busy with work and baby care duties. Coming soon though, I promise!

Exactly. The female equivalent, to me, is the personality quotient I mentioned over on the other thread. Hughes does that better than anyone, and it gives his women that all-important lifelike quality.

A lot of pro comic artists are actually pretty bad at this. Taking any random comic off the shelves, you tend to see a lot of flat expressions and repeated paste-on faces.

I'd be happy to list my personal favorite artists who specialize in drawing the male figure. Someone start the thread, and we'll get that conversation started.

I like all the artists you've cited--quite a bit actually, but to me they're just not in the same league when it comes to drawing women. Again, it's very subjective, but none of these guys communicate the same level of personality, storytelling, or sheer sexiness that I see in a Hughes or Manara pinup. For me, those characters seem to live and breathe, whereas lesser artists rely on bland, expressionless faces and stock poses meant to show off T and A. There's a lot more to a great pinup than that, which is why I have to give Hughes and co. the edge.

Thanks for posting those. This guy basically perfected the modern pinup--any artist trying to draw the female form should really study him carefully. Taschen Publishing released an AWESOME hardcover of Elvgren's work a while back, and it's not hard to track down. Well worth the $50 or whatever they're asking for it.

Word.

Looks like they've got healing AND conversation starting powers...

Love that guy's work.

Legendary artist without a doubt, but not really known for drawing hot babes. On the other hand, he draws the smoothest, most free-flowing action scenes I've ever seen and has a real knack for posing figures in a natural, effortless manner.

Don't get me wrong--his women are certainly attractive, but I think we're trying to identify the artists whose renditions of women make you drool and howl at the moon, so to speak. Not just pretty but va-va-voom sexy.

I forgot one on my previous list: Milo Manara is a European artist who definitely belongs in the top 5.

Adam Hughes, to me, is the greatest pinup artist of the modern era, and second only to Gil Elvgren in the all-time rankings of artistic portrayals of beautiful fantasy women. He's certainly one of my biggest influences, and when I had the chance to do the cover for Issue 18, that's definitely the sort of material I had in mind--equal parts sexy and fun.

(And yeah, that's Pocket D btw--if you look closely, you can pick out DJ Zero in the crowd)

Frank Cho and Dave Stevens are right up there as well, along with newer guys like Stanley Lau, Chester Ocampo, and Warren Louw. Obviously, it's quite difficult to draw beautiful women and a very specialized skill at that, so there just aren't a lot of artists operating at that top tier level.

This is pretty subjective, eye-of-the-beholder stuff of course, but 2 million+ pageviews each on DeviantArt seem to confirm a certain level of popularity.