Around this time of year, I still get the itch. School supplies, textbooks, new classes… even if you’re not in school, fall is a great time to pick up a new skill, or work on one you’ve already started. And as it happens, we here at IMPACT and North Light Books are having a Labor Day weekend sale! We’re impatient, though, so we’re not waiting until the weekend. We marked down a bunch of great titles, already in effect today. Click through on the covers to see the sale prices for some of our favorite titles.

Of course, we like to provide a plethora of options, so you can find more just by hopping over to our shop, here!

FairyArt by David Adams teaches you how to paint fairies and the places they're likely to be found.

Girl to Grrrl Manga by Colleen Doran is a great source for learning shoujo manga techniques.

How about sparking your creativity with Journal Revolution, by Linda Woods and Karen Dinino! Like they say on the cover, rise up and create!

It’s out! I was pleased to work on Buddy Scalera’s Colossal Collection of Action Poses, bringing not only the best from his three previous photo reference books, but also brand new, never-before-seen material. This book lives up to its name, bringing a monstrous 320 pages packed with poses for comic and fantasy artists and step-by-step demonstrations for turning those photos into great characters!

Here’s a taste of what’s in store for you inside!

Teen Action Hero
BY JOSH HOWARD
I chose this picture of Chanel for my demo because I liked the tilt of the head and the position of the legs. I remained fairly faithful to the pose but went my own direction with the aesthetics. That’s what it’s all about—using the photo as inspiration without being a slave to it. Because I ink my own work, I can keep my pencils loose, knowing I’ll tighten the drawing during inking. This is one way I’ve learned to streamline my process.

Sketch Thumbnails

First, I sketch the pose with a regular mechanical pencil to capture the shapes, angles and general feel. I like to do several sketches before deciding which one to run with. I always have three or four sketchbooks going.

Pencil the Best Pose

I redraw my best sketch onto art board, then rough in the details of the clothing. This is where my illustration begins to deviate from the photo. I’m envisioning a teen hero dressed in a sort of hybrid punk/militaristic style.

Ink

I ink the drawing with fine-point pens and brush pens, then erase the pencil lines. As you just saw, my pencils are loose, so as I
ink, I have to “find” the final illustration in my mess of lines. It’s not really as chaotic as it sounds, but I almost always make a few corrections.

Color

I scan my inks, then add color on the computer. The final product is a piece I’d gladly add to my portfolio.

For more poses and demonstrations, pick up a copy of Colossal Collection of Action Poses today.

More on Drawing Comics:

• Creating Comics From Start to Finish, by Buddy Scalera
• Comic Books 101, The History, Methods and Madness, by Chris Ryall and Scott Tipton

More on Fantasy:

• DragonArt Fantasy Characters How to Draw Fantastic Beings and Incredible Creatures, by J “NeonDragon” Peffer

We’re all still a-buzz about Gen Con here at IMPACT, especially as updates from IMPACT artists who attended the event continue to roll in…

We recently learned that Emily Fiegenschuh’s original artwork for The Explorer’s Guide to Drawing Fantasy Creatures won first place at Gen Con this year! If you haven’t seen Emily’s amazing work yet, do yourself a favor and check out her website. You can also read more about Emily’s experience at Gen Con at her new blog, Fabled Earth.

For more information about The Explorer’s Guide to Drawing Fantasy Creatures, click here. Purchase a copy today, and start learning how to draw and paint your own fantasy creatures.

IMPACT author Brian Wolfe won first place in the face painting category at this year’s World Bodypainting Festival in Lake Worthersee, Austria. The festival took place in early July, and you can see pics of the winning entries in the face painting and bodypainting categories here.

If you want to make your own friendly or fiendish faces, check out Extreme Face Painting by Brian and Nick Wolfe.

Have a great weekend!

Mary

Hey IMPACT fans!

CLICK HERE for a free fantasy demo by Tom Kidd, author of the gorgeous landscape book OtherWorlds. He created the piece as the cover art for Hard Luck Diggings by Jack Vance, published by Subterranean Books in 2010. The demo is extra material not included in the book, so check it out for more awesome instruction on atmospheric perspective and working digitally.








Look for OtherWorlds in stores now. It’s packed with otherwordly fantasy art and awesome instruction by the amazing Tom Kidd.







…..

There’s a sale going on in the North Light Shop, which means you can get 20% off IMPACT Book titles if you order now through August 21st. Use code 81120 at checkout on titles like:

Just click on the photos to be taken to their page and checkout from there! It’s that easy!

Buddy Scalera’s most recent addition to the Comic Artist’s Photo Reference series, Colossal Collection of Action Poses, got a big thumbs up from Michael Wirth on ComicBooked.com. Here’s a taste of what Wirth has to say about Colossal Collection:

“As someone who dabbles in art, I highly recommend Buddy’s photo reference books. Though there are any number of reference books on the market right now, Buddy has managed to pin down what it means to be a comic book and fantasy artist. The images include a number of standard, everyday poses like standing and sitting, but he also gets extremely dynamic shots like a character not just throwing a punch, but taking a punch as well. And flying! How many photo reference books include flying?!”

You can check out the complete review here on ComicBooked.com. Colossal Collection of Action Poses is available here.

Have a great weekend!

Mary

Space cowboys? Cacti graffiti? Of course Dragons sun themselves on Mesas or fly through canyons!

Or maybe your comic is set amongst the ruins of the Anasazi?

We all know that the Southwest has a lot of amazing art and landscapes to explore, so why limit yourself? If genre-bending is your thing, we have the competition for you!

Impact’s sibling imprint Southwest Art, has a competition running with some fabulous prizes on offer. The Artistic Excellence Competition is running through August 15th, so go here to learn more and enter.

After all, there’s more to Middle Earth than Ents and Elves.

Just think of what you could do with those prizes! If you’re looking for suggestions, how about picking up a copy of Emily Fiegenschuh’s book and exploring all the different creatures that could hang out with the snakes and lizards?

So start exploring the Southwest and enter the competition, or pick up a copy of the book for more inspiration. Get drawing, we know you have the talent to win!

GenCon was a success this year as our editors came back with pictures, updates and ideas. From dressing up to meeting authors, our editors were busy getting the scoop on all the gaming. Here are Christina and Vanessa “working”

Here is Emily Fiegenschuh with her IMPACT book The Explorer’s Guide to Drawing Fantasy Creatures.

Jim Pavelec and Chris Seasman, authors of InkBloom, were also there as promised.

But all good things have to come to an end so our editors are safely back in office working on what’s next.

And for me, I am working the last day of my internship. So sad . It has been an amazing experience here at IMPACT and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I’m going to miss the behind the scenes action! Now it’s time to join you guys and wait on edge to see what they’re cooking up next! Bye!