Insectoid [Galaxy Prime]

 Here's the final illustration that I created for the Sector Treks anthology being published by Epic Age Media. The deadline on this one was super, super short (in other words, I was behind schedule again). So I repurposed an older character study and updated it to fit the format for this book. The problem was, all I really had was an alien standing menacingly in front of a starfield. 

I thought about adding another ship back there, but I really didn't have anything ready and none of the ships I had available looked "alien" enough for this race. So, I opted to do something simple that would harken back to the 1970s and 80s: The giant head floating in space.

© 2020 Mike Mitchell

As you can see, it's really just a simple render with the shadows being set to vanish (I used the Screen Blending Mode in Clip Studio Paint – this makes the solid blacks disappear). All in all, pretty good for a quickie (definitely less than an afternoon's work).

Claim Jumper [Galaxy Prime] selected as a Poser Staff Pick of the Week

I did five illustrations for the interior of the upcoming Galaxy Prime: Galaxy Treks rpg supplement. And I'm pleased to say that one of them has been selected by the staff at Renderosity as a "Staff Pick of the Week." In this case, it is the one that gave me the most trouble: Claim Jumper.

© 2020 Mike Mitchell

As before, this is a nice honor to be recognized from among the many great illustrations that are posted to the Renderosity website. This week they selected six illustrations, and as usual, I'm the only one working in b&w. Although this time there was another "artistic" render in the mix, which was rather nice. 

The entire list can be seen here: https://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/?thread_id=2949374

If you'd like to see my illustration at Renderosity, you can find it here: https://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/claim-jumper-galaxy-prime-/2949721/

Why do I love comics?

The other day, someone on Facebook asked this question:

What is your philosophy? Why do you do comics? Whats your biggest motivator, and why do you choose the genre you do?

This is my reply:

I do not have a philosophy, but I love the medium because it is the perfect fusion of word and image. You can show things faster than you can describe them in a novel. Likewise, you can go deeper into thoughts than you can with film. A perfect comic book story cannot be told only with pictures or only with words: It takes both.

As for genre? I don't work in only one genre – that would be too limiting. I have too many stories to tell to be limited to just one.

I certainly could have gone on longer, but I didn't feel the need. I think I summed it up fairly well.