Kickstarter Sketch Card – A New Power

An unfamiliar and fearful new power.

Pentel pocket brush, Prismacolor and Copics on card stock.

-RD

Original Art is © 2015 Randall Drew
Rydia is © SquareEnix

Kickstarter Sketch Card -Ora ora ora oraaahh!!

Sabin from FFVI showing you his heart through his fists!

Pentel pocket brush, Microns, Prismacolor on card stock.

-RD

Orignal art is © 2015 Randall Drew
Sabin is © SquareEnix

Kickstarter Sketch Card – Rydia

Another popular request with this Kickstarter was FF IV’s Rydia. So much green! She was great fun to draw!

Pentel pocket brush, prismacolor and copics on card stock.

-RD

Original Art is © 2014 Randall Drew
Rydia is © SquareEnix

Granite Con Sketch Card – Dagger

Princess Garnet is still probably one of my fave FF female characters. Most of it is nostalgia for sure, but at the time when FF IX came out, she impressed me as a fun, ambitious, and brave protagonist in a world where the ladies were usually damsel fodder or simple love interests.

Pentel pocket brush, prismacolor and copics on card stock.

-RD

Original art is © 2014 Randall Drew
FF IX Characters are © SquareEnix

Beyond Mode 7: Deadline Approaches!

This update has been a long time coming! It’s time to officially get excited about Beyond Mode 7 as the final art submission deadline is just a mere 2 weeks away! To whet all those video game art loving appetites out there, today I’m going to share a few nibbles of some of what has already come in from our STILL GROWING list of contributors!

First off, I’d like to announce that the book will officially launch at MeCAF 2014, in Portland Maine on May 18th! Jesse and I were accepted for the sixth year in a row to table at this amazing, growing and evolving indie comics show! It’s got a great history of solid attendance and being great for the whole family, exactly the intended audience for the anthology.

Second, if you missed any of my Post-MAGFest Reports (read them here and here) then I’ll once again announce the addition of the amazing Kevin Bolk, 8BitMaximo and Hex Martinez to the Anthology roster! Each brings something unique and powerful to the table and we’re overjoyed to have them on board! Hit those links up and check out their work!

Now, for the newcomers to Beyond Mode 7, let me introduce the anthology real quick: The brain child of my table mate and fellow ink-slinger Jesse Durona (artist behind the popular Despondent Mega Man comics) Beyond Mode 7 came to be after MAGFest 11 in January of 2013. The book will be a full-color, 6×9″, perfect-bound homage to all things Super Nintendo.

With more contributing artists than the system had Bits to work with, it will cover a broad spectrum of experiences, games and memories from arguably the 90’s greatest video game console and game library. It will feature comics, illustrations, essays, and other works of art all honoring a device that brought interactive art and creativity right into our living rooms every day of our childhood!

Some of the games covered by Beyond Mode 7 include: (Art represented are works-in-progress!)

Super Mario World


© Scott Baer

Kirby’s Dreamland 3


© Matt Aucoin

Super Metroid


© Amanda Ruddock

TMNT Turtles in Time


© Bill Volk

Mega Man X


© Michael Ruggia

The Legend of Zelda: LttP


© Matt Aucoin

Earthbound/Mother2


© Randall Drew

…and many many more!

As a note to creators still working: The deadline for final art submissions is the end of this month! As of March, Jesse and I will be compiling the artwork together and preparing a Kickstarter for April! Then it’ll be a Super Nintendo Blitz to get as many people contributing to the campaign as possible! We want to put your art in as many hands as possible, so keep and eye out for requests to help spread the word!

Thanks, and game on!
-RD

Above original artworks are © their respective creator, all rights reserved!

Sketch Card – Kupo!

First sketch card I did for 2014, on the road at MAGFest! A classic Moogle, I’ll do a lot more of these little guys as their designs have changed a lot over the years, such variety!

Pentel pocket brush, prismacolor markers on card stock.

-RD

Original Art © 2014 Randall Drew
Moogles © SquareEnix

Sketch Card – Tri-Headed

Technically this is not a sketch card, but a commissioned full illustration from GraniteCon 2013. I posted it with my convention report, but it hasn’t gotten it’s own full post yet into my art archive, so…in lieu of a sketch card today, here’s the three forms of Bahamut from FF VII!

Microns, Prismacolor and Copics on card stock.

-RD

Original art is ©2013 Randall Drew
Bahamut and FF VII is © SquareEnix

GraniteCon 2013

GraniteCon 2013 by far was my best convention ever. Table-mate Jesse DuRona would probably agree, this show was awesome to us! I’ll be honest, I heard mixed reviews from a lot of the other tabling artists and such, some were more successful than others, but for me, GraniteCon offered a steady mix of interested parties who often opened their wallets after seeing something they liked!

The Venue was the same, but the location within was very new and different. The con was really showing off just how much it had grown even since last year! The aisles were long, full of variety in terms of talents, styles and offerings, and there was plenty of space. Like any show there were peaks and valleys during the two day event, meal times and popular programming pulled the crowd away sometimes, but the floor was never completely empty, there was always some activity very near by! The hotel staff were cool, friendly and put up with a lot of antics, I’m sure!

Because my table was so busy, I didn’t get too much of an opportunity to check out other cartoonists work this year! I’m a bit bummed by this, but I did hang out with a few familiar faces and grabbed some comics I had been meaning to! I also had some really cool tabling neighbors…so, onto the artists section of the post!

Blair Shedd is a fellow Vermont based cartoonist and really needs no introduction to the folks that come here. He’s done amazing work for IDW’s Dr. Who and his self-published The RAPTOR is some quality, gritty super hero action! I didn’t get to talk with him terribly much at the show, but he looked busy every time I stopped by! Had a good time catching up at the hotel bar after Day 1, can’t wait to see what’s coming from him this fall/winter!

Brandon Barrows hails from Burlington (It was a regular ol’ VT cartoonist meetup at the show!) and is one of the best writers I’ve met since I started doing conventions! He’s published works all over the place from comics to poetry to prose and back again! Brandon also gets to work with some of the coolest artists working today and the matching is frequently perfect! His comics work includes the Detective comic for superhero fans, or maybe vica versa, Jack Hammer, and Voyaga; a homage to 1950’s pulp scifi!

Mathew Dow Smith is a busy guy and he was at GraniteCon in addition to tabling at FantaCon just a few weekends ago! Another Dr.Who artist, catch him while you can!

Sara Richard is at every GraniteCon, she’s awesome and I only got to say hi for 5 seconds before she flew off to fulfill someone’s dreams, but definitely check out her amazing, loopy and painterly work! She did the con badges this year!

I very briefly got to meet Ben Templesmith at the pub after the show! What a guy he is. Personality to spare and some incredible talent! If you’re into creepy gothic styling and award winning writing, dive in!

The wonderful Sue and Everett Soares were at GraniteCon again this year with the freshly printed second volume of Sky Pirates of Valendor! They are good people with big ol’ hearts and a lot of love for comics! Sky Pirates of course is great fun reading too! Hope to see them again very soon!

I first heard about writer Ron Marz’s comic RAVINE from a very excited Dawn Best and since he was at the show I couldn’t resist grabbing a copy! He was super friendly and Stjepan Sejic’s art looks amazing! As a wanna-be fantasy cartoonist, I figure studying the form from a working master is a good place to start!

JK Woodward is seriously one of the funniest guys I’ve met. As another Who artist, it’s almost no surprise. Those guys all have wit to spare! Some of his Star Trek pages were jaw dropping to see in person! He makes drawing complex ships in space seem easy.

Erik Burnham is every kid who grew up in the 80’s friend. He is a talented writer on both TMNT and Ghostbusters! A quiet guy like me, it was a pleasure to meet him and partake in some of his industry wisdom!

Here’s some other cool stuff that was at the show, in picture form!

The Actual Delorean used in Back to the Future III!

All sorts of Piratey goodness! (Or bad-ass-ness, I guess?)

A view of Manchester, NH from our hotel room Saturday night.

And that just about wraps up my experience at GraniteCon 2013! Again, I had a great time and had the most successful show I’ve ever had! Thanks to all the people that make it happen every year and all the great cartoonists who continue to come year after year! See you in 2014!

-RD

p.s. – Original artwork featured in this post is a custom commission I did of the three Bahamut forms from Final Fantasy VII! 11×14 on vellum drawing paper, Pentel Pocket Brush, Microns, Prismacolor and Copic markers! Thanks Hao for the awesome commish!

Original art is ©2013 Randall Drew
Final Fantasy Characters are © SquareEnix

Production – XII

Here’s a little preview of a certain insane, villainous take on a recurring character in every Final Fantasy game! For an upcoming project at OCRemix!

Ink on Bristol Board
Colors in Photoshop CS6

-RD

Original Art is ©2013 Randall Drew
Cid and Final Fantasy are © SquareEnix