Tante Marta's Dog

The Tantes had a mongrel they named "Baron von Sputnik", hybridizing their ever present German heritage and the Soviet threat hovering high overhead. The poor mutt was a collarless pup that never saw a bathtub, other than the occasional Spring rain. Since my great aunts survived on canned sardines and Quaker Oatmeal, I don't think the dog had a diet of anything else.

These pieces are character studies for an upcoming pub with the D.C. Conspiracy's
Magic Bullet #5 free commuter comics newspaper.

The Hero's Call

This is a piece I just finished as a favor to an old co-worker. He gathered a bunch of artists together to do a black and white piece for a sketchbook that will be available to buy during this year's Comic-Con. Proceeds from the sketchbook will be donated to a charity to benefit autism.

Batman 853rd Century Version

Ok, maybe, just maybe, you've never heard of this Batman before, and maybe you have, but I just found out about him yesterday while reading Superman Batman # 80 and I loved the way he looked so much that I had to draw him. Pretty standard typical image here, a lot like my Big Fat Batman image, but I hope you still enjoy it.
Penciled in Manga Studio EX 4. Inked with Kuretake brush pen on bristol board.

Ratfist Video

Wanted to post this yesterday along with the Ratfist image I did but it was taking to long to post on Youtube. But better late then never. This is a 7 minute first person view of me inking Ratfist with the Kuretake brush pen and later the Kolinsky brush. I really enjoy this method of digital pencils and traditional inks. It's practically the best of both worlds.

Enjoy!

Ratfist!

One of the things I love about Twitter is discovering new artists I've never heard of before. Doug TenNapel's one of the many Artists I've come to find out about thanks to Twitter. Doug's been around for years creating a slew of graphic novels like Monster Zoo, which I happen to own. His art is amazing and his story telling is masterful. It was no surprise that I was excited when he announced he was going to do a web comic called Ratfist. If you haven't read Ratfist, then you're missing out. I highly recommend it. For today's warm up piece I decided to draw Ratfist himself. This was drawn digitally in Manga Studio EX and inked traditionally with Kuretake brush pen and Kolinsky brushes. I made a video of me inking this but I'll post it tomorrow.
Enjoy!

Big Fat Superman

I had so much fun with Big Fat Batman I wanted to follow it up with a Big Fat Superman. Both Batman and this Superman are inspired from the Frank Miller Drak Knight Returns graphic novels.
Drawn in Manga Studio EX. Inked with Kuretake brush pen. Colored in Photoshop and texture added via Flare App.

Big Fat Batman

Sketched in Manga Studio. Inked with Kuretake brush pen.
The original is up for sale. Details bellow.

Black and white inked version. Inked on 8.5 x 11 Bristol board. $25.00. Email me if you want it.

Robin

Robin from The Dark Knight Returns.
Penciled in Manga Studio EX 4. Inked on bristol board with brush and ink. Colored in Manga Studio EX 4 and textured in Flare.
Pencils in Manga Studio.

Inked with Kuretake brush pen and ink.

Colors in Manga Studio with textures in Flare.

Wonder Textures

Decided to add some textures to the Wonder Woman piece I did yesterday using Flare app for Mac. Love the vintage look it now has.

The original black and white ink art is available for sale. Contact me via email ( eric@ericmerced.com ) if you want to grab it.
Wonder Woman original art
8.5" x 11" on Bristol board. Inked with brush and ink.
$25.00 USD

Superboy 2

I've been on a Superboy kick lately, thanks to Young Justice (the comic series). Last night I got some away time from the computer after finishing my weeks work, and decided to hop on the old drawing table and use the old pencil to draw something on paper for a change. The result was the younger version of Superboy.
I inked this with my Kuretake brush pen, which is a pure dream to use. And it really got me thinking more about changing up my work flow from all digital to a hybrid flow, where I would pencil digitally in Manga Studio, then print out my art as light blue lines (so they will be easier to get rid of in Photoshop after inking) and inking with brush and ink on paper. A lot of artists use this method and I've done it on occasions.
Penciling in Manga Studio (or digitally in general) would be a plus because of all the changes you can make in half the time to the structural drawing. All I need now is a big enough printer and scanner.
 

Introducing Ouch!

The secret project is no longer a secret. Introducing my latest foray into the world of web comics, Ouch!
Starting this Monday, February 21, 2011, Ouch! will debut with the first strip and update every Monday and Friday.
What is Ouch! you ask? It's a fun little idea I came up with during my Toon Stories experimentation which I decided to carry on as it's own web comic.
But simply put, Ouch! is just a simple and fun short story which I decided to share with everyone as a web comic.
I had the choice to package up this short story and go straight to printing, or digital publishing, but instead, I thought it would be a better idea to go ahead and share it on the internet.
Unlike a regular ongoing web comic, Ouch! will run for a few weeks until it finally reaches the end. And I could not be more excited about sharing this story with you all.
If you're a fan of my work, and are excited to see this new project, please, I cannot stress this enough but, word of mouth is king. Please help me spread the news on as many social sites as possible. If you're part of a forum, please spread the word, if you're on Facebook or Twitter, please help spread the word.
Thanks in advance!
The fun starts this Monday, February 21, 2011. Click here to go to the official Ouch! website!

Digital Comics in Manga Studio #2

It's here. After some time working on it and making sure it was done, I've finally released the 2nd edition of Digital Comics in Manga Studio 2: Lettering. In the new edition I go through my process of using Manga Studio and Adobe Illustrator to letter comics. Also included in the download is a free Adobe illustrator example file which contains word balloons and caption boxes from the tutorial. And all for a VERY low price of $1.50
Get your digital copy now!

Black & White and 2008 Sketchbook Digital Comics!

I can't believe I neglected to mention this on my own blog. But here we go. Both my 2008 sketchbook and my line art art book, Black & White, are now available as digital PDF downloads for $1.99 each!

Here's a little info on each book.

2008 Sketchbook

Digital and traditional sketches created in 2008 all collected in this 40 page full color digital comic. Including a 5 page preview of Timmy The Killer Robot.

Price: $1.99

Format: PDF

Delivery: Instant Download

Buy Now

 

Black & White

Black and White collects the line art of Eric Merced. Including a color section of his vector art at the end. A must have for fans of his work now in digital format and at half the price of the printed version!

Price: $1.99

Format: PDF

Delivery: Instant Download

Buy Now

These are great books collecting some of my favorite works from 2008 and 2010.

Spaced Thing: Jenna

I've been on a Spaced Thing kick lately. I finished the entire story outline today and started the script. Plus I've been playing around with the look of the characters to get a feel for drawing them. I know the previous image of Vega, the main character of the story was a bit cartoonish, but this one is more what the actual style of the comic will be drawn like. This is Science Officer Jenna. She was in the original story and will be in the final story. As a matter of fact, all of the original casts made it to the current and final version of the story including, as you can clearly see, the Alien!

Drawn, inked and colored in Manga Studio EX 4. Texture added in Photoshop CS3.

It's a Spaced Thing

Just felt like drawing this last night before calling it quits. Nothing to get excited about though. While I plan to finish Spaced Thing someday, I'm not currently working on it. Other projects are taking up my free time. Still, this was incredibly fun and reminded me why I created Spaced Thing and why I want to return to it and finish it.
By the way, as a reminder, Spaced Thing is available as a free download at The Illustrated Section. Go grab yourself a PDF copy full of whacky goodness :)

Enjoy!
Spaced Thing is copyright © 2011 Eric Merced.

Billy Batson

I came across an interesting blog via Twitter a few days ago. The idea behind the blog, have artists re draw their favorite comic book panels, in their style. I liked the idea so much I thought I'd give it a try. So I picked up one of my many favorite comics, my trade of Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil by the awesome and inspiring Jeff Smith, creator of the Bone series.
Then the thought hit me. I love this book from cover to back cover. It's going to be REALLY hard to choose a favorite scene to re draw. But it didn't take long. One image popped out right away in the first few pages of the book. And that's the one I used. I never thought about it much but, this scene alone is VERY powerful and telling of little Billy Batson's character.
Hope you all dig.
God bless!

Hiccup and Toothless: Firefight!

After yesterdays Chibi'ish version of Hiccup and Toothless, I wondered what they would look like in my standard comic book style. So, you can say I'm a bit obsessed, but given the subject of my obsession, I don't mind :)
Drawn in Manga Studio EX 4.

Posted via email from The Art of Eric Merced

AWAKENING, VOL. II (Pin-Up)

www.chogrin.com

My Pin-Up for Alex Eckman-Lawn & Nick Tapalanky's Awakening Vol. II. Bring it! Pre-order HERE or click on the image below. And if you haven't checked out the amazing Vol. I, buy it here.

Here's one panel that we've been working on for our webcomic, Wet Raspberry.

So, Wonder Woman Day is fast approaching. WWD is an art show and sale that benefits Domestic Abuse Shelters and Hotlines. Last year was the first time I'd been a part of it, and it was fun. Apparently, they raised something like $26,000 and had Adam Hughes, Allison Sohn and Aaron Lopresti in attendance, doing sketches and signings.

This piece is my submission for this year. I decided to really step up my game this year and push myself a little. I think it turned out pretty well. This is all drawn in pen and colored with Copic Markers.