Sometime in the late '90s assignments had become erratic and short term in nature for me. Tom Derenick was also trying to pick up new projects and one way to do that is with art samples. Tom rendered three pages with the Avengers and, through our mutual friend color artist Tom Smith, he then connected with me since he liked my ink work and thought we'd make a good team (with Smith as colorist). At this time Tom was blending a little Neal Adams with some Alan Davis so I figured I could pull a Mark Farmer style over his work. These portfolio samples didn't convince the editors to call us but I thought they were nice enough to post here. Since this work Tom has been rendering in all pencil tones the last few years as seen in NIGHTSIDE while I have not been using the brush as much as I did here which was the majority of the art. I have added some special effects at the last minute before posting such as most of the zip-a-tone applied as well as the Iron man Layton-style sparkles and the light white-spattered sections of page two. You can click the pencil & ink thumbnails to enlarge.
The art of Tom Derenick
(below) A '99 or '00 Derenick pencil rendering of the Scarlet Witch for my personal sketchbook.