Behold my 1st Storm commission! But only as a solo character. I’ve inked her a few times either as a member of client Damon Owens’ “Brotherhood” team or alongside Black Panther or as the amalgamation entity Amazon. For Michael Rankins’ 40th job to me he sent me my 1st Mark Beachum sketch. Mark is known for his erotic and occasionally hard-core girl art. Michael got Ororo in what I would call a hooker pose and a see-through or wet outfit. Also, the sketch was on paper, not board. So I was called in to scan the image and print it up on 2-ply 11X17 board as a blueline image and to finish the work, making her more sexy than peekaboo centerfold material, and to correct her classic uniform. For finishing jobs I often do a marker prelim on a photocopy. They’re not much to look at but they show my process of planning ahead. Usually by the final inks I’ve made some changes along the way. I inked all the main lines and areas with my Raphael Kolinsky 8404 size 2 brush and my Pitt brush marker. In order to capture the many intricate details and shading in the original drawing I decided to utilize both drybrush and graywash. I also used my micron & Pitt markers for fine details and a Copic wide brush maker for the strokes on the material covering (better) her breasts. For her sweeping coif I used a blunt, short-hair, large paint brush for the dark areas (similar to what I did for my solo Poison Ivy job on page 17 of this gallery…it should have been on page 2 chronologically but a few entries were repositioned in the website transfer process). I frisketed off the hair and made strokes in the background with a China marker for the crayon texture. And I used a white Milky Gel pen for the fine, white, stray hairs. Lastly, I applied the graduated zip screen for her cape. The final image was polished off on 3/2/2009. All the way through I wasn’t always sure exactly how everything was going to play out but, for the most part, it worked. A truly interesting and fun experiment! One that would be repeated somewhat in our next entry, dear gallery viewer…same client, same penciller, same character, same Inkwell- so take a dip won’t you!
About Me
Bob is the inking half of the Sal Velluto art team collaboration on such projects as Marvel’s critically-acclaimed BLACK PANTHER,’99-’02 leading to a 2003 Comicboards “Ooks” Award for “Best Inker” & two “Squiddies” awards for “Best Inker” (2001 along with “Best Creative Team” win and 2002 tied with Mark Farmer and tied for “Best Multi-Part Story”), and many other projects with Sal since 1997 and other artists at Marvel, DC, Acclaim, Malibu, Penny-Farthing Press, Power Comics, IDW, Kingstone, Thrilling Nostalgia Comics, Harris Comics, Topps, Wildstorm, New England Comics, Valiant and several others. While he’s been primarily an ink artist he’s also been a columnist for Sketch magazine and First Comics News. Bob’s a comic book collector and unofficial historian who has acted as a “Master of the Obscure” at the Marvel Appendix site, been a longtime member of the “Jarvis Heads” and a “group expert” at Facebook groups. He’s the founder/director of the official non-profit Inkwell Awards and advocate since 2008. Bob has been credited with “Special Thanks” along with his “Storyteller” colleagues Christopher Priest & Sal Velluto in the record-breaking film BLACK PANTHER (2018) and BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER (2022).
Contact Me
180 Park Street
New Bedford, MA 02740
dmralmond@gmail.com