Spider-Woman Art has moved to Variant-edition.com

Just wanted to let everyone know that I've posted all my work now at variant-edition.com.

JC

122806: Finally finished the cover sketch. And this is going to be an inking chore.

122706: So I've finally decided to do my own illustration. And to get me back into the flow of things, I've decided to do recreation of previous covers from Spider-Woman. Here is the coner box from MS32. Just finished the inks and working on the cover...

Carmine Infantino

092406: Finished one of my favorite SW covers.
073006: Steve Leialoha really did an exceptional job on this first Infantino cover of SW. I think Leialoha is one of the few that really knows how to handle Infantino's sketches. Again, I really had fun with this piece.

091706:Finally finished. I changed the colors here to reflect dusk.
080206: This is an incredible piece by Infantino and Leialoha. Though is one of the series where SW is chained up or tied up it's one of the best Infantino pieces. I'll try to get this one finished up first.

090906: I can't believe I finally finish this color vairiant. I ended up changing the color of Jerry Hunt's pants and shirt. The original were magenta and orange. What was that all about?
080306: I remember being so disappointed when SW9 came out, not because of the cover but because Wolfman left and would change the direction of SW forever. What's worse was the character Wolfman created specifically for Spider-Woman went to her male counterpart. Though I still I love this cover especially with my favorite Infantino inker, Bob Wiacek. Though the building perspective is a little funky.

082006: Though I would have preferred the front end, it's still a great Infantino classic. Here SW's hair is extremely exagerated in length, an Infantino trademark I might add.

080606: An interesting character (Gypsy Moth) created for SW. The arc was a little too short. The Infantino cover somewhat didn't look right. SW's right breast seems to be flat or nonexistent. I've tried to manipulate the shadows to bring it forward but it's not enough. I'll attempt to re-illustrate it when I finish the coloring. Also she has heels on this scan while she has no heels on the printed cover.

080106: Another classic Infantino-Leialoha piece but after reading the issue, it could have shown Spider-Woman with SHIELD taking down PYRO TECHNICS INC. Here, I used a mask in Illustrator rather than Photoshop, so I did not have to create 2 layers in Photoshop to mask out the banner for the talk balloon.

063006: This 1978 Carmine Infantino fully rendered pencil piece was intended for the first issue of original Spider-Woman series but we all know Joe Sinnott's piece was used instead. Over the years the piece was up for auction for awhile and many comic book art collectors passed it up. When Fred deBoom (comicartfans.com) acquired the piece, he he commissioned Bob Wiacek to ink it in 2005, and he added "Wiacek literally saved the piece.."


I was completely obsessed with this piece. This should have been used for the first issue of the original series. Don't get me wrong, Sinnott's version is an encredible piece, but I was detemined to see how it would have looked like should it had been used. It was for this reason I started the Spider-WomanArt.blogspot.com. So after a few attempts, it finally started to come together. I really suprised myself. I think this is my best work so far.

I forwarded the copies to Fred and Bob and they were pretty surprised as well. Fred emailed the copies Joe Quesada at Marvel and he indicated that he would forward it to the sales guy to see if there were any interest. How awsome would that be. This piece would make a great variant for the new Spider-Woman Series in 2007. I wonder if Bendis would like it...

062606: I emailed Marv Wolfman asking if he had any other concept sketches of the Black Cat that was intended for Spider-Woman (40s Femme Fatale-slouch hat and black dress), I got a response indicating that the cover was the only sketch. Though I was disappointed when I read from his BLOG that he was never happy with the stories and never enjoyed the book, I've recreated the cover and I'm finally letting go of this obsession for the time being. Unless I can get someone to work with me on the 40s Femme Fatale concept ;)

062206: I completely refined the shadows and highlights and added midtones. After using the tablet awhile, I've used practically no blurs to soften strokes.

061106: This is my first attempt coloring Comic Book art with Photoshop. The artwork is from an unpublished cover of Spider-Woman #9 by my favorite Spider-Woman artist Carmine Infantino with Steve Leialoha on the inks. It was a challenge coloring this piece because I did not have a wacom tablet yet. It was all done with mouse clicks. The highlights are a bit weak and the overlook is a little muddy. I may redo the shading with I get the tablet.

Bob Layton

090406: This turned out well. Had a great time putting it together. I hope Bob Layton will illustrate for Marvel again in the future.
090306: This came together quite well. Just have to finish up the Avengers' icons and voila...
090206: This Bob Layton recreation/variant commission is based on Michael Golden's splash page in Avengers Annual #10. In this variant it centers Spider-Woman as the center point of the storyline (written be Chris Claremont) and highlights the power of Rogue. A great piece by Bob Layton. Here is the beginning of a mockup and color version of the piece. It will eventually be finished soon.

Frank Cho

081906: This Frank Cho piece is from the Baltimore Comicon. Here it's partially colored and mocked up as a cover for the long awaited release of Spider-Woman 2007 release.

081206: Frank Cho is one of the most incredible illustrators today. This piece in particular (NA15) is absolutely detailed. Coloring it just flowed so easily. I just hope I gave it justice. Here's the piece mocked-up with the Spider-Woman banner. The possibilities are endless. Hope he'll get the chance to do a cover(s) for the new Spider-Woman series coming out in 2007.

Dave Cockrum

080606: Here I've added color to the Magnus character and toned down the colors from the original.
072306: Here I added color to the Excalibur character and I was able to consolidate layers reducing the file size from 500MB down to 150MB. The tricky part is with the consolidated layers, I need to make a selection for each of the colors when applying tones.
070306: This classic piece from Cockrum is one of my old time Spider-Woman favorites. In this color vairant, I tried a new technique of using one fill layer with two sub-layers of clipping paths for the red and yellow of SW costume. This enabled me to use the same midtone, shadow and hightlight (other sub-layers) layers for both colors. Look forward to finishing this one up.

080206: Thanks Mr. Postman for knowing EC is Ernie Chan. I'll have to lookup his other work...He actually did pencils in SW29.
072906: At first, I didn't think this was a Cockrum piece but it is. Still trying to figure out then inker with the initials EC. I was a bit disappointed because the SW's gliders were not include. Probably because of the weird position she is in. Still had fun coloring the piece.

072306: Another Cockrum classic with my favorite inker Bob Wiacek. This cover seems to be a start of trend where SW is tied up or chained up. It's another fun piece, hopefully I'll finish it up.

071006: This is another favorite classic from Cockrum. He really knows how to render SW in an action position. Here I had to redo the shadows a couple of times. Though I may have to mute the colors on the Brother Grimm character since they are a dark blue and red. I want the focus to be on SW.

Brian Postman

072306: I mocked up this piece from Postman as he indicated that it could have been a variant to SW50. I had to recrop it to fit the cover format. This piece was a little rushed. I may go back to redo some of the colors.
062206: All the color, midtones, shadows and highlights are in. After coloring SW, I kinda rushed the other characters and background. I may go back and do so refining. As I work on other pieces, different techniques improve so I've been going back and forth tryingout different methods.
061406: Here two additional characters are colored and the layers in the Photoshop file are building up and the file is getting larger and larger.
061106: Brian Postman indicated that this could have been a variant of Spider-Woman #50. Here is my attempt to color it. I'm having problems smoothingout the blends for some reason. I may have to apply more blur on the shadows and highlights.
070106: This turned out pretty well. Learned a couple of tricks with making masks and compound paths, but I think I did it the hard way. I literally hand lettered the new banner and the new "avatar" almost had to be resketched electronically.
062806: Here's another Postman recreation of SW48. It was a bit of a challenge coloring the fabric. It took 3 tries and lots of Gaussian Blurs. Still need to recreate the bew banner and "avatar."

Michael Golden

071506: Michael Golden was very popular in the 80s. And in Avengers Annual 10, we get to see his unique style with Spider-Woman. Too bad he did not do the cover. But here is page 1, with SW's daring rescue of Ms. Marvel. I had to redo the Golden Gate frame. It's somewhat difficult it know detail are on the bride, I had to refer to an actual photo.

Sal Buscema

071506: The issue that started it all, Marvel Spotlight 32, Sal Buscema and Jim Mooney really did an incredible job. It seemed back then (1976) Sal Buscema seemed to be one of the major Illustrators for Marvel. In this page 1 re-color, I've decided to give more color details to the shadow images and play with the lighting from the moon. I think it's working pretty good so far.

Ed Benes

070906: This Benes piece is a beautiful sketch. Though it was not inked, I was able to manipulate the curves and levels to give me enough contrast to color in the sketch. This was a fun piece to do and this would make a great variant for the upcoming new series.

Joe Sinnott

070806: I was hesitant to do this Sinnott masterpiece, thinking I wouldn't be able to give it justice. I suprised myself again. Though I have a hard time finding a black and white version to color and the SW Essentials had a real bad copy, I had to pull out my CGC 9.8 (my personal rating) SW1 for a high resolution scan. I'll probably go back and clean up the halftone dots some time in the future. But it's looking pretty good so far.

Bill Sienkiewicz

070506: The original coloring of this Sienkiewicz piece had a blue, yellow and orange tri-tone which is uniquely different. Though I've always wanted to see a variant in full-color with an over exposure of highlights to exagerate the light source. I'm pretty much happy with how this has started and it will be interesting how it will look finished.