23 Ways for a Comic Artist to Survive and Thrive in any Economy
By Jason Thibault This was originally a to do list that I wrote for myself. I was trying to think of as many things that I could do as an artist to expand my reach and get the word out there. Some were stupid so I immediately omitted them and tried to chisel this list down to only the good stuff. This isn't meant to distract you from your goal of becoming an uber successful comic book artist. I understand that you need to dedicate the bulk of your time to your craft and comic pages take long enough to finish as ...
June Contest #2 - Win a HUGE ass piece of black and white art
We've almost hit the end of June. Summer's on and the year is half up. We've got our book now sitting in the July issue of Previews. You may have spotted this postage-sized image in it. It can be found in the independent comic section under Optimum Wound. Order code for your local comic shop is JUL09 1019. It's hitting shops in early September. You can pre-order it at your comic store and soon on Amazon. Congrats to Margo for winning our first contest a few weeks ago. Your package finally went out and you should be receiving your artwork and Rex ...
Five Reasons to Draw with Pen and Ink on Paper (and sometimes big)
by Jason Thibault Now that computers and the internet have overtaken the world I sometimes fear that a lot of the traditional things that we take for granted will slowly begin to disappear. It may be an irrational fear as the internet has also brought to light amazing factions of creators in different pockets of the globe. I've been noticing new practices taking hold in the comics, manga and illustration professions. Digital inking, Wacom tablets (yes they are cool) replacing pens, vectors overtaking hand-drawn artwork and a strong reliance on Illustrator and Photoshop. Don't get me wrong, this is not a ...
A bunch of new pen and ink sketches, illustrations and an acrylic painting
Richard Serrao has been doing a pile of Movie Review illustrations We’ve been keeping busy on the artistic front here at Optimum Wound. Richard has ground out new pages for Memento Mori and a bunch of new illustrations that he’s been doing to accompany movie reviews that he’s been posting on his blog. It’s a novel concept and one that’s been garnering a lot of positive feedback from his fans. There’s already a million movie review blogs out there that feature the same trailers, movie stills and poster art in their articles. Rich thought he’d mix it up by adding pen ...
Lee Bermejo - Master of Pencil and Ink
by Richard Serrao I was first introduced to Lee Bermejo's artwork in a Wildcats annual and since then I've been an avid fan of every single thing he does. Not only does he impress with his line work but he continues to grow as an artist while he works constantly in the industry. Not an easy task. First professional work (piece / year) and maybe a quick story behind it. I think it's probably better to keep that one a mystery, or at least as much of a mystery as one can these days where any bit of information can be found online. ...
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June Contest #2 - Win a HUGE ass piece of black and white art
We’ve almost hit the end of June. Summer’s on and the year is half up. We’ve...
Longbox Digital Comics, Life after Diamond and the new Whiteout Trailer
The weeks keep getting hotter and crazier. A huge thanks goes out to Richard Caldwell...
Hart Fisher on Marvel and the Most Controversial T-shirt in Comics History
In 1995 Hart had a few hundred “Marvel Can Suck My Cock” t-shirts made up and...
June Contest #1 Win an Original Pen and Ink Drawing
We`ve finally arrived at the first contest ever held at this website. We’re...
Weekly Roundup: Bleeding Cool, Chuck Palahniuk and French Batman
Comics Most of the talk in the comics blogosphere and news sites centered around...
Hart Fisher on Comics Journalism, Frank Miller, Running Danzig’s Verotik and Life in Los Angeles
by Hart D. Fisher In the early 90’s Hero Illustrated (Wizard’s main competitor...
Read More Posts From This Categorymasters of ink
Brian Denham, Master of Digital Ink
By Richard Serrao Just last week we posted 5 Reasons to draw in pen and ink, however...
Masters of Ink with Mitch Breitweiser: Reinventing the Classics
by Richard Serrao Once artist Mitch Breitweiser gained access to the Marvel kingdom...
Lee Bermejo - Master of Pencil and Ink
by Richard Serrao I was first introduced to Lee Bermejo’s artwork in a Wildcats...
Darick Robertson Does a Drive By
By Richard Serrao Darick Robertson makes comics fun to read again. I can’t...
Jason Shawn Alexander: Master of Ink and Paint
by Jason Thibault Jason Shawn Alexander has worked very hard to get to where he...
Ho Che Anderson tells it like it is
by Jason Thibault I first read the work of Ho Che Anderson back in the 1990’s...
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23 Ways for a Comic Artist to Survive and Thrive in any Economy
By Jason Thibault This was originally a to do list that I wrote for myself. I was trying to think of as many things that I could do as an artist to expand my reach and get the word out there. Some were stupid so I immediately omitted them and tried to chisel this list down to only the good stuff. This isn’t meant to distract you from your goal... [Read more of this article]
The Submission Guidelines for every Comic and Manga Publisher in the Universe
By Jason Thibault Late in 2008 I was curious about which comic companies were still accepting submissions. In an act of pure masochism your friends at Optimum Wound visited the websites of every known comics publisher over the past two months. Back in 2004 Tom Spurgeon over at The Comics Reporter had posted an insanely useful resource page on getting... [Read more of this article]
ANATOMY OF A PAGE: A PROCESS BLOG FOR PAGE 22 OF BATTLES
This was an older process blog that I had done in early 2006. It was sitting out there lost in the Myspace archives. I had a lot of fun putting it together so I dusted it off and put it back up. I wanted to discuss the process behind a page that I drew for my online graphic novel. Things were about to get rather violent in the story and I wanted to... [Read more of this article]
Photorealism technique with pen and ink part 1
By Jason Thibault, This article was originally posted on Myspace back in 2006. It was sitting lost in their archives not doing anyone any good so I ported it over here to our homepage. This was one of the techniques that I was playing around with a few years ago. I now use a digital camera to take most of my reference these days and miss using my old... [Read more of this article]
4 books to help inspire you to get off your ass and create something
When I’m up against a creative brick wall or need a little push I’ll often return to a core group of books that have inspired me over the years. They’re not heavy on tech or even “how-to” chapters. They get straight to the heart of the matter. Breaking through resistance, procrastination, summoning the muse, remaining consistent and achieving... [Read more of this article]
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