duanenicholsart

Garbage Pale Kid

2011-10-21T08:58:00.000-07:00

I normally don't draw in this style but at my last convention I was asked to come up with a Garbage Pale Kid for this guys collection. He was collecting original art and he wanted some sort of theme. I thought it would be fun so I agreed. He already had these generic cards printed for the artists to draw on. I wanted to keep record of it, so I had my wife Crystal take a picture before handing it over to the customer.

So the Garbage Pale Kid I came up with is "Sid the Skid". I had the idea of doing a twisted version of a Norman Rockwell piece. There was this image he created of a puppy pulling on a babies diaper (I think that was Rockwell), anywho, I thought, what if something was waiting in the diaper for the puppy, a POOP MONSTER!!!

Enjoy.

Teaser -Cityscape

2011-08-29T05:13:00.000-07:00

Another teaser for my upcoming webcomic "The Xaefarian Tales"
My wife used this image as a temporary header for the website. (which is currently under construction (www.thexaefariantales.com))

The Xaefarian Tales copyrighted 2011 Duane Nichols and Levi McCormick.

Xaefarian Tales -Teaser Image 2

2011-08-03T03:35:00.000-07:00

Another teaser image from my webcomic "The Xaefarian Tales"

"The Xaefarian Tales" copyrighted 2011 Duane Nichols and Levi McCormick.

Teaser Image 1

2011-07-26T05:51:00.000-07:00

I still have quite a bit work to do on this comic before I can start posting, but this is an image I almost have completed.
I figured I would take a small snippet from it to show how things are coming along.

I'm hoping to start posting by the end of this year.

The Xaefarian Tales copyrighted 2011 Duane Nichols and Levi McCormick.

New Webcomic

2011-06-30T07:45:00.001-07:00

Coming this year...

Written and created by Duane Nichols and Levi McCormick.

The Xaefarian Tales copyrighted 2011 Duane Nichols and Levi McCormick.

Sirens colored

2011-02-21T14:05:00.000-08:00

Here it is, finally, in color.
This ended up taking longer than I expected it to.
My apologies to Anthony over at ANA comics ([link]) , he has been waiting for this one for a while now.

Thor

2010-12-15T20:08:00.000-08:00

Finally got around to painting my Thor pencils.

Hope you enjoy it.

Plug and Play

2010-10-30T14:26:00.001-07:00

UPDATE: OK, finished up the characters. I'm still not sure about the logo, but it seems to be pretty decent for now. I will sit on this for a while, let it stew.

Plug & Play _WIP

2010-10-25T04:40:00.000-07:00

OK, so.. Here is a warm up piece that ended up becoming its own little product. Currently I have some friends who are working on creating some T-shirt designs and I was asked to come up with something. All I was told is that they wanted something funny. I don't know why but instantly this image popped in my head and voila, I have a new product.

Now since this is WIP Im not asking for critiques.
But as soon as its finished I will let you know when T-shirts will be available. I plan on doing several pieces with these characters.(Plug, and Play) I hope you enjoy.

Plug and Play characters copyright Duane Nichols 2010

Free Shipping graphics

2010-10-12T13:08:00.000-07:00

I know this isn't flashy but I'm proud of it.
As a graphic designer I'm always having to come up with "filler" for my employer's catalog; space that is designated for some sort of advertisement.

I have designed the catalog to have an art deco design to it.
Referencing old catalogs I decided to design some "free shipping" icons that could be used throughout the book.

I am posting what icons looked like before I added the text.

The company I work for only prints in black and white ( blegh ) thus, my palette had to be simple.

Sirens

2010-10-11T05:43:00.000-07:00

Here are the pencils for a new piece I'm working on.
Its my second image that will be featured in a Swimsuit edition comic put out by A.N.A comics.
All proceeds go to the Breast Cancer Foundation.

Pin-up color

2010-08-29T00:19:00.000-07:00

Colors for the Pin-up. Just finished tweaking it. Prints will be made available for anyone interested.
Update: added a frame for final printing.
Update 2: OK, the colors were wretched, it needed a monochrome treatment.

Pin-Up Girl

2010-07-24T18:52:00.000-07:00

Here are the pencils for a project I'm currently working on for Anthony Hary [link]
It will be part of a swimsuit book where all proceeds go towards a breast cancer foundation.
This is one of his characters and her likeness is based off of deviant artist virtualgirl6654 [link]

As soon as the colors are done I will go ahead and post them.

Deco Robot

2010-04-26T10:12:00.000-07:00

My first robot design that helped kick off the design aesthetic I was looking for for my book.
I didn't post this design until now because I was still tweaking it and playing with some of the mechanical elements. I think the final will be a mix between these two designs. As you can see the chest design on the right robot is more automotive(deco), something I want to continue with throughout my robot designs.

Robot Miners

2010-02-20T13:52:00.001-08:00

Here is another character I whipped up a few months back.
It's a character I hope we can get squeezed into the book.
Maybe I can just squeeze them into the background.

The book will mostly have an Art Deco design. For this character I was referencing trains from the 1930's but the more I look at it the more I feel his tummy looks like that of a new VW Beetle.

Robot Design

2010-02-05T11:23:00.000-08:00

OK, so here is a design I created for Conceptart.org Team CHOW contest. The tarot card was King of Swords. I was trying to keep these characters based in an Art Deco/future setting. I used the contest as an exercise for creating content for my book. I will post more of this concept work as we get closer to posting the story.

We are posting the work in a web comic format and work from there. For those wondering, yes, it will be in color.

Hope you enjoy what you see from me this year.

The Empress

2010-02-05T10:50:00.000-08:00

Here is a piece I did for a contest on Conceptart.org for Team Chow. The project was to take a couple of tarot cards and reimagine the characters. This one was supposed to be my entry for the Empress card. Unfortunately due to unexpected events (thats life for you) I wasn't able to finish.

But here are the pencils, I will eventually digitally paint it so I can sell it as a print.
I mostly took on this contest as an exercise to get some design ideas out of my head. Im currently collaborating with a friend to put out a book. So this character will probably be used.

I haven't been the most prolific artist but I'm hoping to change that this year. I have few projects I'm dedicating myself to; so hopefully I will have some work up very soon and avail. for sale.

May The Force Be With You

2009-10-08T11:05:00.000-07:00

Recently I submitted some work to Darkhorse comics. I haven't heard anything back yet, but I will keep at it. Anyway I look at these pages now and see too many problems. There are a few panels I like here and there but overall I think it could be better. This page is probably my favorite of the 4 pages.

The top half I tackled as if I was working on a movie poster. I'm a big fan of Drew Struzan's work; I have the Star Wars posters up on my wall, which came in handy when figuring out this composition.

If you want to check out the other pages you can view them at my Deviant Art site. http://duanenicholsart.deviantart.com/
I hope you enjoy.

2010 Camaro........BUMBLEBEE!!

2009-07-15T13:34:00.000-07:00

OK, so I know I haven't posted any new artwork in a while but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy. I have quite a few pieces I can't post due to contractual agreements and other pieces I'm just not ready to post. But I swear more are coming soon. In the mean time I'm posting pictures of my new toy, my new 2010 SS Camaro. It's a huge distraction, and when I'm at the office or at my drawing board it beckons me to drive it. I pre-ordered it almost 2 years ago and it was finally delivered June 24th (coincidentally the opening date of Transformers 2). I have wanted this car since 2006 when it debuted at the Detroit Auto Show. There are a few things I was upset weren't included in the trim I chose but after I sat in the driving seat they seemed miniscule. Anyway, more artwork to come soon I promise this time. Later kiddies.

A Moment of Silence

2008-10-30T06:36:00.000-07:00

Before I started sending out my war piece to editors to try and rope up some work, I decided to add this page to the mix. It serves as an opening that leads into the other pages. Not originally part of the script, I wanted to show that our hero was sharing his experience with others, giving us a flashback. I will have some new material soon. I'm working on new material that I want to send off to the folks at Dark Horse comics, stay tuned kiddies.

The Louis Treatment

2008-08-11T10:26:00.001-07:00

I decided to re-upload the Superman collage. After looking at it carefully I noticed I really messed up Louis' face. It just wasn't right. I just can't figure out how I missed it the first time I was proofing it. Oh well, it's fixed now and I'm pretty happy how it turned out.

The makings of a God

2008-08-11T09:54:00.000-07:00

Here is the original sketch of Thor. There are some things that get lost from sketch to finish, one being the softness my sketches tend to have. As you can see there are some things that needed to be fixed on the finished version. In the sketch I didn't have his hammer drawn in properly, it was sitting at the wrong angle in proportion to the handle.

The God of Thunder

2008-08-11T09:39:00.000-07:00

In the midst of getting the work done on the WWII Piece (see below) I had an image pop in my head of Thor. Immediately I scrambled to put the image in my head to paper. I'm quite pleased with the finished piece and I am happy to say that it got some praises from the big man himself Mr. Jim Lee. I can't express enough how much I would love to work at Wildstorm, just to have the experience of working with Mr. Lee. Anywho, I hope you like it as much as I do.

The Invincible Iron Man

2008-08-11T09:36:00.000-07:00

After seeing Iron Man in theaters, I was pumped to draw something up. Hopefully I can get some colors done on this soon. I really enjoyed the scenes in the movie where the audience gets to see Tony's pop-up display inside his suit.

Beaches of Normandy

2008-08-11T09:31:00.000-07:00

Here are pages #2-#5 of this script. A project I was attached to temporarily. In the end I was forced to bow out due to scheduling conflict

Out of boredom

2008-04-07T21:14:00.000-07:00

Just for the heck of it I decided to upload the pencils to the samurai piece I created. To see a larger version of the colored piece check out my deviant website http://duanenicholsart.deviantart.com/.

Getting down, getting dirty.

2008-04-03T22:30:00.000-07:00

Well, I think that's enough of a sneek peek for now. Stay tuned, I should have these pages uploaded very soon. Hope you all enjoy.

FIRE, FIRE AT WILL!!!

2008-04-03T22:28:00.000-07:00

IT'S WAR!!!!

2008-04-03T22:24:00.000-07:00

I thought I would post some pages I'm working on currently, my work in progress. I figured it gives my audience something to look at until the pages are complete, what few audience members I have out there.

Superman Mythos

2008-02-13T21:18:00.000-08:00

I finally got around to getting this piece done and posting it. Its off to the next project, which I hope goes much faster. Working on this has recently got me motivated. I need to get my portfolio together so I can get some descent work.

So far so good

2008-02-04T22:46:00.001-08:00

Here is the finished part of the collage that involves Kal-El's Kryptonian parents. I referenced the architecture from Leinil Yu's designs in "Birthright". I really didn't want to take the time to redesign Krypton and besides who am I to change the architecture design already established for this world. Anywho, this piece should be done soon. I only get a couple of hours here and there to actually draw and it really wears on me. Too many times do I find myself going back and fixing things I thought I could live with. Anyways, as I was saying the piece should be done soon and you can expect it to be posted here.

The follow through

2008-02-03T20:26:00.001-08:00

I figured I would show a little bit of what I'm currently working on. This is a small piece from a Superman collage that is currently in the works. Before I draw the planet Krypton I wanted to make sure both figures looked correct, therefore I always draw through. This way nothing appears odd when foreshortening or objects start to overlap one another.

Warmup

2007-11-13T11:14:00.001-08:00

As I start my day, I'm trying to do more sketching to warm up.
Unfortunately, today I feel a bit off but here is my warm up sketch.
This took entirely too long, 50 min. approx. Good lord, I hope the rest of the day goes better than this.

Graveyard Scene

2007-10-17T08:04:00.001-07:00

I just sent off a submission I did for Devil's Due. I hope all goes well, cross your fingers for me. Anyway along with some Avenger pages I also did a couple of pages featuring some work I did on my own. The character is one that I designed but the script is from a project that I was temporarily attached to.

Man in the Iron Mask

2007-10-04T06:45:00.001-07:00

Hey all. I figured I should start using this site more and let anyone know that cares what I'm up to. So here is a conceptual design for a book I'm currently working on. I pitched it to my editor and he seemed to like it and wanted to run with it. Of course now the property is being negotiated with a publisher and I have no idea if they still want this design. Anywho, I guess if they don't use it I may be able to apply it somewhere else later since conceptual design wasn't in the contract. I can't post any pages yet until the book is confirmed but I figured I would at least post this for your viewing pleasure.

Welcome!!

2007-08-15T07:51:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone, welcome to my blog site. I figured I'd start the posting off with one of my college pieces. I just graduated this last May and this was that cover I designed for my story called "Demons Within". If you would like to see the interior work just refer to my website www.duanenicholsart.com