And what could be a more fun way of depicting Bronze Age Wonder Woman than in a Lynda Carter inspired Wonder Spin?  Another way that I like to depict Wonder Woman, is smiling.  I like the idea of a Wonder Woman who loves life and enjoys what she does.  My ideal Wonder Woman is happy.

This artcard and all the other artcards I’ve done are all original hand-made works and can be purchased or $15 plus shipping ($4.95 USPS Priority Shipping – international shipping will be calculated upon an individual order).

4.25 x 5.5 inches cardstock.

Pencil, ink, Prismacolor pencil, Prismacolor marker.

Wonder Woman ©DC Comics 2010

Because February is such a cold month where I live, and because Ice is such a caring person, I thought she’d be perfect for a Valentine’s Day card.  Ice was stupidly killed off at one point, but has been thankfully resurrected by Gail Simone during her first run of the Birds of Prey title.  I am very glad Tora was brought back, because there aren’t enough loving characters like her in the comics.  Not every character needs be be tough and hard or sarcastic and bitter.  She even charmed the heart of a hardened character like Green Lantern, Guy Gardner.  Ice brings personality diversity to the characters in comic books, and I like to give her features a more diverse look as well.  While I was doing this card, I really liked the idea of making her eyelashes white as well.  I think they give her a very fantastical quality.

This artcard and all the other artcards I’ve done are all original hand-made works and can be purchased or $15 plus shipping ($4.95 USPS Priority Shipping – international shipping will be calculated upon an individual order).

4.25 x 5.5 inches cardstock.

Pencil, ink, Prismacolor pencil.

Ice, Tora Olafsdotter ©DC Comics 2010

For me, this piece was also an opportunity to go back to the rural small towns and farm areas that were nearby where I went to college.  I had the opportunity to go back there earlier this year for a wedding, and I think it really helped me in depicting the small town/rural setting.

8″ x 10.5″ on Bristol Board
Prismacolor Color Pencils
Superboy & Krypto © DC Comics 2010

Artemis has proven to be a popular character in the Wonder Woman franchise.  She’s more headstrong and less compassionate than Diana, but her heart is in the right place.  She ended up becoming the leader of the Bana Mighdall Amazons on Themiscyra.  Aretmis has just returned to Themiscyra in the Wonder Woman title, and her future roll remains to be seen.

For this piece, I went back to Ed Benes’ original drawings of Artemis in the Requiem miniseries, as well as Nicola Scott’s take on the costume in the recent Secret Six storyline.  In some of Benes’ early drawings, he had the green lining at the decolletage make a “w” shape.  I like that element to help visually tie Artemis into the Wonder Woman family, and as a former Wonder Woman, I believe she’s entitled to wear a “w” symbol – even a simplified one.  I left of the skull on her headband because I thought that element was excessively 90′s.  Instead, I opted to repeat the tripple-arrow “A” symbol that the Requiem costume has on the sternum area.  I really liked the seams and the side-lacing that Nicola Scott added to the costume in the Secret Six issues, as well as the kneecap armor she gave the boots.  The sword is the special demon killer sword that Artemis ended up having in the Byrne run of Wonder Woman that was also included as an accessory to the Artemis action figure that DC Direct made.

This artcard has been sold, but all the other artcards I’ve done are all original hand-made works and can be purchased or $15 plus shipping ($4.95 USPS Priority Shipping – international shipping will be calculated upon an individual order).

4.25 x 5.5 inches cardstock.

Pencil, ink,  and Prismacolor pencil.

Artemis ©DC Comics 2010

I don’t often put political pieces and views on this website, but Green Arrow has been established throughout his years of comic book publication as a hero who takes up liberal political causes, and has even performed same-sex weddings in his comic book title.  Because the character has already come out in support of this issue, I didn’t feel like it was inappropriate or trying to make the character into something that he wasn’t.  My visual inspirations for my depiction of the character come from his costume from the 1970′s-80′s era with coloring influences from his appearances in the Justice League Unlimited cartoon.  I really like the Robin Hood inspired lace up vest that the character had in the 70′s and 80′s, but I also like the “G” belt buckle that the character has been sporting in the past few years.

This artcard has been sold, but all the other artcards I’ve done are all original hand-made works and can be purchased or $15 plus shipping ($4.95 USPS Priority Shipping – international shipping will be calculated upon an individual order).

4.25 x 5.5 inches cardstock.

Pencil, ink, Prismacolor pencil, Prismacolor marker.

Green Arrow ©DC Comics 2010

I’ve always enjoyed the few times I’ve drawn “spacescapes” in illustrations, and this piece was no exception.  I wanted to use photographs of some of the planets and moons in our solar system for inspiration when coloring the ones depicted in this artcard, but I wanted to make it clear that this was not our solar system.  As photographs from the Hubble Telescope has shown us, space can be quite colorful, and I definitely wanted to incorporate that into this piece.

For Green Lantern, I used Ray Caspio as a model for the pose.  I also took visual cues from the updated costume in the comics.  For example, I had the Green Lantern symbol on his chest actually project itself as a lazer light projection hovering over his chest.  I always liked Hal Jordan visually because green has always been one of my favorite colors, and also because he was one of the few superheroes who had brown hair.  Most superheroes when I was growing up had blond or black hair, and I liked that he was different in that respect.

This artcard and all the other artcards I’ve done are all original hand-made works and can be purchased or $15 plus shipping ($4.95 USPS Priority Shipping – international shipping will be calculated upon an individual order).

4.25 x 5.5 inches cardstock.

Pencil, ink, Prismacolor pencil.

Green Lantern ©DC Comics 2010

This artcard is has been SOLD, however all the other artcards I’ve done are all original hand-made works and can be purchased or $15 plus shipping ($4.95 USPS Priority Shipping – international shipping will be calculated upon an individual order).

4.25 x 5.5 inches cardstock.

Pencil, ink, Prismacolor pencil, Prismacolor marker.

Batman ©DC Comics 2010

4.25 x 5.5 inches cardstock.

Pencil, ink, Prismacolor pencil, Prismacolor marker.

Supergirl ©DC Comics 2010

I wanted to do a picture of Wonder Woman being happy and having fun – something that I don’t think happens nearly enough in the comic books.  I also really wanted to draw She-Ra and Catra, as well as Wonder Woman’s enemy, Cheetah.  Most pictures I’ve seen that have Wonder Woman and She-Ra together have them fighting each other.  I really don’t care for that, because I believe that Wonder Woman and She-Ra would get along really well and a tremendous sense of camaraderie, and I wanted to show them being friendly and having fun together.  I also wanted to play on the fact that they both have well-known enemies with a cat theme.

While I take a lot of my cues for Wonder Woman and Cheetah from the way that Terry Dodson depicted them when he drew the Wonder Woman comic book, I also take a couple of Lynda Carter elements that I sneak in here and there with Wonder Woman.  Cheetah also has a few George Perez elements in her design, especially when it comes to her facial markings, which Dodson mostly abandoned.

She-Ra and Catra were really fun to draw.  I’m a big fan of Mattel’s Masters of the Universe Classics action figure line.  It’s a melding of various canons of their franchises into one cohesive line.  My approach to She-Ra and Catra was along that lines.  I wanted to depict them with the familiarity of the Filmation designs of the cartoon that everyone knows and loves these characters from, but also bring in some of the details that the action figures had, whose designs were very different from the cartoon designs.  The result give detailed and interesting looks that easily stand up well alongside Wonder Woman and Cheetah.

The background is inspired by the Whispering Woods background paintings that were featured in the She-Ra: Princess of Power cartoon.  They are lush, flamboyant and magical looking.  As I was planning out the background, I thought it would be fun to have Lookie in it.  Lookie was always hiding in the background of the cartoons, and at the end of the episodes, he would reveal his hiding place and explain the episode’s moral.  Once I decided that Lookie was going to be in it, I wanted to balance the picture, and tried to think of a character in Wonder Woman’s lore that could serve as an analogue to Lookie.  The two franchises are pretty rife with analogues:  Ares/Hordak, Circe/Shadow Weaver, Giganta/Scorpia, Steve Trevor/Bow, Nemesis/Sea Hawk.  When it came down to it, I settled on the whimsical and fun Wonder Tot, who is Wonder Woman as a small child in the Silver Age comic book stories.  Wonder Tot often had “impossible adventures” right alongside Wonder Woman as an adult and Wonder Woman as a teenager (Wonder Girl), and I thought that the magical nature of the Whispering Woods, and the fact that She-Ra’s planet of Etheria was likely in another dimension, would provide a narrative that would allow Wonder Tot.

Here, Kitty, Kitty!
8.5″ x 11″ on Bristol Board
Pencils, Inks and Prismacolor Color Pencils

Wonder Woman, Cheetah and Wonder Tot ©DC Comics 2010

She-Ra, Catra and Lookie ©Mattel 2010