Blast from the Past #291: Michelangelo swinging 'chuks pin-up drawing

Here's one of my pin-up drawings, this one from 1986. It's another one from the days when I inked with a real brush and bottled ink.



I like the way that Michelangelo is swinging his nuchaku with apparent wild abandon here. -- PL

A drawing for Emily

My daughter turns twenty-one shortly, and when asked what she wanted for this significant birthday, she responded with a request for two things, one of which was an original drawing of the Turtles celebrating her birthday.

I thought "I can do that!" and set to work. I started with blue pencil and no preliminary sketches, as I pretty much had the layout clearly worked out in my head. Here's a photo of the finished blue pencil drawing:



About the time I finished the penciling, I started thinking maybe I should go a step further with this piece and do it in color, perhaps using watercolors to add the hues over the inkwork. With this in mind, I decided to eschew my preferred inking tool -- the Pitt brush pen -- and go with a real brush and India ink. I didn't want to run the risk that the brush pen ink might run under the watercolor. It was the first time I had done any inking of this nature in a while. Here's the drawing half-inked:



And this is what it looked like when fully inked:



I wasn't sure what to use to color it, but then I remembered a nifty portable watercolor set I'd picked up at an art supply store in Bennington, VT last year on a motorcycle ride. I went out and bought a few new brushes, and got to it. I was more than a bit trepidatious, as I hadn't done anything like this in some time, but once I got into it, the process went quickly, and it was fun. I think it took me about an hour and a half to finish it to my satisfaction, and here's what the completed piece looked like:



I put the drawing in a "floater frame", and gave it to Em at her pre-birthday party, and she liked it! -- PL

Blast from the Past #212: Archie TMNT Adventures #3 cover pencils and inks

Here's another Kevin Eastman-penciled cover to the Archie "TMNT Adventures" series that I inked. First, Kevin's pencils...



... followed by my inks.



I always find it interesting to note what gets changed during the inking stages. -- PL

Blast from the Past #211: Archie TMNT Adventures #1 cover

Here's another penciled cover for the old Archie "TMNT Adventures" book, this one for the first issue. The pencils are by Kevin Eastman.



And here are the final inks, by yours truly. -- PL

Kevin Eastman, Peter Laird and Steve Lavigne collaborate on a "Jake Black Benefit Print"

A few months ago, Steve Murphy had the cool idea of getting me and Kevin Eastman to work together on a drawing (something we had not done in many years) which would then be used as the basis for a print, the proceeds from sales of which would go towards helping our friend Jake Black out with his medical expenses. (Readers of this blog may recall the other Jake Black Benefit print that me and the other Mirage artists produced (http://plairdblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/jake-black-benefit-print-at-fcbd.html) and sold at "Free Comic Book Day" in New Hampshire.) Murph managed to convince Kevin to pencil up this drawing...



... which I proceeded to ink...



... and then that version was zapped off to Steve Lavigne so that he could do his digital color magic on it, as you see here in the finished 11 by 17 print.



(Please note that this is a somewhat poor quality digital photo of one of the prints -- the colors are much more vibrant in the actual copies.)

And here, direct from Murph, are a few more details about the print, which will be premiered at this years's San Diego Comicon:

"There are only 100 of them, each is signed by Peter Laird. This group of 100 is SDCC exclusive and will cost $25 each. All proceeds to benefit Jake. In addition, since Kevin is attending the con, people will have the chance to get Kevin to sign it as well.

We will also be selling the "Mirage group jam" prints at SDCC, for $20/each, also benefiting Jake."

(Note: Steve Lavigne will also be attending the SDCC, so buyers of this print can get Steve's signature on it, too.)

And here's a fun little thing -- while inking the piece, I would stop about every minute or so and take a digital photo of the art. When I was done, I put all of those photos together into this (somewhat shaky) "time-lase" movie of the inking process. -- PL

Blast from the Past #210: Archie TMNT Adventures #33 cover

This is one of a series of covers I penciled for the Archie "TMNT Adventures" comic. I remember having a bunch of fun doing these drawings. Here's my pencils...



... and here's the finished version, inked by Ryan Brown with his brush of renown. -- PL