Here is the 7th and final Bloomsday Finisher comic cover. This two-year series of ads has been a hoot!

Now I need to come up with a new concept for 2011 and beyond…

Whether my skills are getting better is subject to debate, but it’s certain that these ads are getting more fun to do. I had a blast drawing the latest ad.

I’m finding that my inking skills, though improved, still need lots of work. There are essentially three steps to these comic-book covers:

1. a 13 x 19 pencil sketch which serves as the basis for
2. an ink rendering of the same size, which is scanned and opened in Photoshop in order to…
3. add the color under/overlays

Of these steps, it seems the ink rendering is the most critical. If the lines lack confidence, or if the anatomy is unclear in the artist’s mind, it will show most prominently in the ink drawing. This is my greatest weakness currently. Part of the problem is that I’m doing inking on cheap onion skin tracing paper using some cheap pens. That’s the technical aspect of the problem. The other missing ingredient is a solid anatomical knowledge.

I might need to pick up a reference book on anatomy somewhere, because I’m winging it just a little too much sometimes. Any suggestions?

At any rate, here is the third ad in the 2009 Bloomsday series. One more remaining. Enjoy…

As you may remember, this year’s Bloomsday ads are taking a turn for the incredible. With the concept of Comic Book Art and a hero called “The Bloomsday Finisher©”, your humble blogger has been delving into the bombastic and adolescent fantasyland that is the modern comic book. As much as I detest the trend of superheroes that have taken over the movie theaters, I remain a huge admirer of the artists behind the pulpy printed pages. In the course of this project, struggling to execute pale imitations of comic art to promote this year’s race has taught me just how little I know about the skill involved in creating dynamic, dramatic, and believable (sort of) comic characters. It’s a skill I would love to have, in greater quantity than I currently possess.

Nevertheless, I feel I’ve learned a lot by plunging in with the first two ads. The first ad gave me a chance to dive into the concept and produce something reasonably reminiscent of the traditional comic book cover from years past.

In the second ad, I’ve upped the ante.

I wanted to portray something a bit more action-packed and colorful. I wanted to boost the drama significantly while maintaining a slightly humorous tone, in order to create a cover that one could actually imagine seeing on a shelf in a comic store right now. There’s still much to learn, but I’m quite pleased with this latest iteration.

What do you think?