New Swaggernauts, & Improvements

Hey everyone, it’s time for another week of artwork and of course, THE SWAGGERNAUTS! Be sure to go over and check out the new page that is up right now! Click the link below to check it out. You will also see a nice homage to something really cool this week as well. Hope you movie buffs pick up on it. 

Page 3 teaser of The Swaggernauts by Ian D.Walker
Live now at: http://www.theswaggernauts.com

I have been pretty inspired as of late to get my art going as well. Making money is really essential right now, and so the best way to do that is to show off more of my artwork, and do pics and get them sold.

I talked with a friend who saw my art sales site, and gave me some advice that I think I’m going to start following. Initially the work I had up there is for the collectors, and the ones able to shell out the cash to collect the artwork I draw. But I am finding that I do need to realize where we are in the economy and that original fan art is a luxury and not a necessity. But if I make it affordable, I will not have to feel like I’m making someone choose between feeding their kids or picking up my awesome Teen Titans Robin piece. So over the next few days, if you go to my site, you will notice subtle changes. I will be integrating the Facebook page with my blog site, making it easy to view my art work and easier to purchase it as well. Commission products will be available as well. So look for that really soon as well.

One thing I’m going to be making sure I do, is put up more of my sketches and artwork on a regular basis. I need to make sure I stay in you guys faces, and build up a presence! My first con will be in July, over in San Jose, and that gives me plenty of time to make sort of a name for myself, and become that professional that I know that I can become. You’re not going to see me take on lists of commissions on DA sites or any other site like that. I will just do everything through my blog here, the art store blog, or the Facebook page. I’m talkin streamlining it up!

Well with that said, I’m going to take off for now. I’m sure you guys all see my Instagram feed, so be sure to take the time to check out my pics, and follow my Instagram account. Make sure you follow @theswaggernauts as well. They need some love. They are on a strange planet after all. See you guys later!

Been away for a minute, but I'm back! New Swaggernauts Print!

It's been a while since I have been on the interwebs. A lot of things are going on which I can't say is too good, but hopefully after the dust settles, it will be for the best. In my ongoing efforts to get Obsidian Studios up and going again, I am continuing the work on the Swaggernauts. This coming 2013, there will be promo blitz regarding this comic series, and a lot of things are in the works.

For the comic conventions we plan on doing this coming year, I am doing 6 themed Swaggernauts prints, a new sketchbook, and hopefully a new promo booklet from Obsidian Studios highlighting the projects that we will be coming out with, detailing some previews for these stories. The announcement for the next story will be coming out soon, so be on the lookout. For right now though, I want give you guys a small taste of the first print that I did. The first of the six Swaggernauts prints!

Enjoy!

The Black Dame... Coming in 2012

She's coming back for 2012... The Black Dame. 

More information to follow. Stay tuned...

Movie Review: CHRONICLE

So I took some time this weekend to go and see this movie, and I have to say, with a few exceptions, those being the Batman series, this was a real breath of fresh air to me. Now we all know that superheroes and supervillains are nothing new. The origins of such are not new either. But the way they went about the telling of the story, the style the film was shot in, and the development of the characters was really fun. This movie had an excellent mix of everything that makes a movie entertaining. It had drama, it had love, it had comedy, and more importantly it was rife with angst. The moral subplot of the film was done very well. I feel like it took every question in our minds as to what WE would do if we had superpowers, and made them come to fruition in this film. I can't count how many times I said to myself, 'I would TOTALLY do that!'

The main plot of the film focused on one character in particular... Andrew. That recurring theme was, "What's wrong with Andrew?" and by golly this movie told us what's WRONG with Andrew. The character though very cliche in origin was told and built up very well. I feel the approach that was taken made him very appealing. He made a few mistakes but was the quickest to harness and control his power. All of this played into the role he would play as a character. For all comic fans out there who have their favorite villains, this film succeeded in making you have a ton of feelings for the character who later becomes the villain. You understand him, you feel for him, you love him, and you also hate him. That's all I'm gonna say on that, or else I'm gonna end up telling you parts of the film, and I don't want to spoil that for anyone.

Just like any story, the film has a few plot holes in it. The biggest one is the moment after they received their powers. I feel like they simply just decided to forget about it, and move forward. You will figure out what I am talking about when you see this movie for yourself. But it's something that made what could have been an AMAZING story, only a good one. There are many more throughout the film that will admittedly have you scratching your head wondering what ever happened to...? The most amazing thing about the film that I can say is what all huge superhero fans look at, and that is the POWERS! There was not one single time where I didn't feel that I was with those guys each and every step of their journey. The special effects were so amazing, and clean, it's really hard to nitpick at certain things, though it does have very few things you will notice, but they aren't really important. 

All in all, Chronicle was a very well done film, with a cohesive cast that definitely had chemistry and worked well together making the whole movie believable. And for the type of film this was, I think believebility is very important. And for every second I was watching, I thought there were 3 dudes out there somewhere with superpowers. This is a GREAT date movie, because there's not so much bang bang beat em up, and there is just enough drama and romance to keep your girl entertained. And it even passes the muster as a superhero film, as it met all the criteria we see in the comics translated very well onto film. If I have to give this movie a rating, I give it a 4/5. I will be seeing this movie at least one more time and then buying this piece on DVD.

Talk to you guys later,

Ian W.

eBay Art Auctions for the week of 1/29

This week I've got tons of artwork to sell because I need to earn some cash for personal reasons, and also get my studio off the ground. I hope these auctions appeal to different fans out there, because a few of these I have never drawn before to the best of my knowledge.
Big Barda from DC Comics, one of Darkseid's former furies, She-Hulk, Black Widow (who is ALWAYS fun to draw), Psylocke, Black Canary (had the auction up before and sold for $60, but the buyer didn't pay.), and Selene the Deathdealer from the Underworld movie series.

I also raised some prices of my artwork as I found that I was losing money, due to shipping costs. I have been mailing EVERYTHING Priority Mail, and have been dropping $5 a pop US, and $16 a pop international, just on shipping alone. That means with my old pricing, I was only making $5 a drawing for US and $0 for international. NO BUENO!!! So I have raised the prices, to a flat starting bid of $25 w/ FREE SHIPPING, and unfortunately for those outside the US, they pay shipping of $10. Again, this will be priority shipping w/ a tracking number which will be emailed when shipped.

View all of the auctions here on my eBay page! Good luck and Happy Bidding!
eBay Auctions for week of 1/29

eBay Auctions for the week of 1/16

So this week I got 3 auctions up right now on eBay for sale. We've got a burlesque pinup, Black Canary, and old school Firestar. All of these pieces are original art pieces done by myself on 8.5 x 11 high end cardstock paper. The starting bids for each auction are really low. All the pencil, ink and greytone auctions this year are going to have starting bids of $.99, and the full color auctions are always going to be $5. I want to make my artwork affordable for those that can't just drop $100-300 on my bigger pieces. All the money made off this artwork will be going toward the production of The Seven comic and Obsidian Studios. So if you can, please go and bid and support my cause! You can follow this link here ------> eBay Auctions for 1/16/12 or you can go to the eBay link at the top of the page here!

Thanks folks, I'll talk to you later!

Black Canary and Black Cat

Here are some new drawings that I did to put up on eBay really soon for auction on my personal site for selling my original artwork pieces. These will be on sale soon. They are 11 x 17 pinups of both Black Canary from DC Comics, and Black Cat from Marvel Comics. Sexy aren't they!?