Will Eisner's John Law

No, Nick Fury hasn't switched to smoking pipes... these two pieces were done for Will Eisner's, 'John Law- Detective' website, and their 'Mugshots' gallery. The website is ran by fellow Australian and comic artist, Gary Chaloner- a pioneer of Aussie comics in the 80's and 90's. You can check out his online comics featuring John Law, here.

PICTURED:(1) Digitally Inked in Photoshop (2) Pencil, Painter Classic and Photoshop. 2003

It's a mad, MAD world!

Here's a collection of my MAD covers from the past decade of working with Australian MAD magazine.


I began working with them after approaching their editor at a Sydney comic convention with my comicbook portfolio and not soon after that, was drawing interior art for the magazine.



Eventually I made the leap into drawing covers, originally painting them with gouache, then markers and coloured pencil and these days pencil and digital.





I'm currently working on two more at the moment, so there'll be more to come.

Friday's Monster

Yeah, I know it isn't Friday. This was posted for the great people over at Illustration Friday. This week's topic is MONSTER.


The monster in this pic is more of a metaphor, portraying a man obsessed. His obsession is represented by a barrage of cupid's arrows piercing his heart. So the title, 'Cupid's Semi-Automatic' seemed to be appropriate.

This piece was actually done a few years ago for a themed calendar on 'Love'. If you think thats weird wait 'til you see my submission for their 'Kiss' calendar.

...but what have you done for me lately?

At risk of this blog turning into nothing more than a showcase for my back catalogue, I thought I'd better post some recent scribbles.


First up is a sketch from a drawing jam over at the Drawing Board. This one was a good exercise for drawing cloth folds. An area I could always use more practice on.




Next is a sketch from Pulp Faction's, 'Draw me a...' challenge. After drawing what's asked, the artist then suggests something for the next artist to draw, and so on... this was, 'draw me a swamp creature with his merry mosquito marching band'


Lastly, is a demonic clown sketch from an 'Evil clown' thread over at Pulp Faction. I'm going to ink and colour this eventually for a tshirt.

Black, White and Unread...

...or alternatively titled, 'Australia's most unpublished comic artist'- at least that's the way it felt for me throughout most of the 90's . It seemed that most projects I took on, ended up being shelved. This was mainly due to the common problem in Australian comics of our population not being able to sustain an industry. As a result, comic publishing ends up being an expensive hobby rather than a profitable business.

Don't read this as bitterness towards the publishers though. Having produced a line of comics myself, and running out of money by the end of issue #3, I can totally relate and empathise with the struggles involved.

But that still leaves me with hundreds of pages of unpublished work. At the moment I'm trying to rectify this by putting together a book of unpublished and published comicbook work through POD (print on demand) publishers Lulu. It's taking me a while, but by crikey this stuff WILL see the light of day...

Eventually.

PICTURED: Some unpublished samples from (top) Bug'n'Stump, A Stranger Danger, (bottom) Zero Assassin and Rudy Angel.

ThreeeDeee

For those of us who don't have mathematical degrees, mastering a 3D modelling program can be a tough slog. A few years back I bought Cinema4D and I still don't know what I'm doing with it half the time. That's why when a little program called Zbrush came along, an intuitive 2.5/3D modelling, texturing and rendering program, I was quick to embrace it. It's a wonderfully easy 3D program to get used to, more like modelling with clay than dealing with algorithms.


There's something about creating 3D art that's really exciting to me. When you press that render button and all the lighting, shadows and textures bring the picture to life- It's just magic.

All of these pieces were produced in Zbrush, with some post-editing in Photoshop.

PICTURED: (1) The Thing. Published in the Ledger Awards 2005 Benefits Calendar. 2004 (2) The Eye of Ogdru Jahad. Hellboy facing his nemesis. 2005 (3) Pinhead. 2004

Caricatures

My art career could have begun so differently. During my last years of highschool I developed a passion for caricaturing. This led me to doing 2 weeks of work experience at News Ltd, a major newspaper publisher in Sydney. Even though the artist's office was tucked down some dark alley in the basement of the building, there was a great atmosphere working with caricaturists and cartoonists (and even the guy who handwrote the answers to the crossword puzzles- yes this was before computerisation). Upon completing my work experience, I expressed great interest to their art director of starting a cadetship upon leaving school.

PICTURED: (left) These caricatures are samples from my late teens. Brush. letratone and inkwash. 1991

But fate stepped in, and over the following months News Ltd.'s two major newspapers merged into one, resulting in their trimming of the art staff and resulting in no more cadetships.

Soon after that I found employment at Disney and the rest is history...

These days, I still do the occasional caricature for friends and family, and also recently did a whole bunch of them over at The Drawing Board forum's, 'Caricaturists' Caricatures' thread, where fellow cartoonists post their photos to get caricatured. Here's my contribution from that...

What I do for a crust. Part 1- Illustration

Over the past 8 years or so I've been freelancing primarily for an illustration agency called 'The Drawing Book'. The kind of work I've produced during that time has varied greatly, but has mainly encompassed storyboarding, character design and illustration. The illustration side of it has included work for magazines, television and general purpose advertising campaigns. I'll firstly start with the latter, but will eventually explore more facets of my work in future blog entries.

Here are some select pieces from past advertising campaigns...

PICTURED: (1) One of my first jobs for Drawing Book for client Strongbow. Ink. Circa 1998. (2) A poster campaign done for Greenpeace. Ink/Photoshop. 2002 (3) A self promotional piece for Drawing Book Studios. Ink/Photoshop. 2004 (4) A promotional piece for Foxtel. Pencil/Painter/Photoshop. 2004

10 Faces

This was done as part of a challenge for charity, called 300 Faces in 30 Days. Mike Delight, the publisher of Makepeace Media, asked me to do 10 faces in a day as part of a multi-artist challenge for that month.

I coloured up my favourite especially for the blog- the face I fondly call 'dedtedhed'. Enjoy...




PICTURED: Pencils and Photoshop for colours. 2005

So who the hell is Chris Wahl?

I'm glad you asked...

I was born in Murwillumbah, Australia in 1973.


I'm a self-taught artist who's always had a passion for drawing. Upon leaving high school (after a brief stint in retail) I began working at Walt Disney Television Animation as an Inbetweener. During my time there I published three issues of my own comicbook PLATINUM under my insignia X-Press Comics. This went on to win a few local awards including the prestigious 'Stanley' award in 1994.


Currently, I work at home as a freelance commercial artist through my representative The Drawing Book Studios. I've also contributed to many MAD magazines over the last decade with loads of interior work and about fourteen covers under my belt.


These days I live nestled between The Nepean River and The Blue Mountains with my wife, son and two dogs.

PICTURED: (1) Self Portrait from a recent Drawing Board Caricature thread. Pencil/Photoshop. 2006 (2) An unpublished cover from Aussie comic 'Cyberswine'. Pen. 1996. (3) One of my many MAD covers. Pencil, Painter and Photoshop. 2003

Where to begin...

Hi, and welcome to my blog of daily sketches, illustrations and some personally selected older pieces.

Since I don't have an official website (even though people keep poking and prodding me to get one) this blog will showcase not only new sketches, drawings and illustrations but will include many of my older favourites. I must warn you though, there's a tonne of work in my 'archives' so you're all in for the long haul. With such a backlog I'll be posting regularly, so be sure to pop your head in now and then and check it out.

So sit back and enjoy the journey and by all means let me know what you think...

PICTURED: (1) My recent contribution to the 'Mighty Mouse Superhero Jam' over at Drawing Board. I'm aiming to ink and colour this eventually. Pencil. 2006 (2) A cover illustration for a newspaper supplement magazine. Inks and Photoshop. 2001 (3) A 3d piece done for fun in Zbrush with postwork in Photoshop. 2004