NOK, NOK? Who's there? Jason!

Indigo Tribe - Green Lantern © DC Comics
Colors by Jason Embury
Art by Corey Breen
Photoshop

When I joined Twitter, I never thought it would click with me like it has. The vast community that it is, has really expanded every aspect of career and my life in general. Since joining, I have grown my fan base ten-fold, gained so many new friends in and out of comics, and my creative juices had been flowing non-stop! Being a part of a online community where you can talk shop and share endlessly with some of your biggest influences and heroes, has driven me to work harder then I ever have before. I can't even imagine life without this amazing technology.

I think from being a Production Artist all these years, I have a real respect and admiration for colorists, and them for me. I understand what kind of stress and deadlines they are under, with little to no recognition to show for it after it's all done. These guys and gals work their butts off on these comics, and sometimes more so then the actual penciller and inker, are called on to turn pages around, literally overnight. I think because I've worked with so many colorists and how I dabble with coloring myself, I as able to connect with one in particular because of Twitter and Facebook. One of the amazing new friendships I've gained has been with Jason Embury.

Jason and I started talking shop almost as soon as I joined Twitter, and we've become great friends through it. We shoot ideas and advice and stories, and links back and forth all the time. Although we've never met, I'm sure that will change soon, too. Jason is a hard working colorist on the rise to superstar-dome, in my eyes! He has already become a real inspiration to me, and not just his incredible work ethic, but his skill as well. He strives to be better all the time, and is open to advice and ideas all the time. I think he is the epitome of why I get along with most colorists the best. As an artist, it's very hard sometimes to get along with other artists because of that competitive nature we all have. But colorists are a different breed of artists and they tend to be more friendlier and open to experiencing so much more then your average artist.

Since becoming friends with Jason, he has shown a great interest in my art, and I his. For some reason, he likes my work, and I think he is going to be the next big name in the field, just you watch! You heard it here first. Because of this, I've had the pleasure of him wanting to color some of my pieces for me! I sent him some art he thought would be really cool to color, and above is one of the first ones he did for me.

I think it is really AWESOME! He did an amazing job with it. This was really just a quick drawing I did back when Blackest Night started, but Jason digitally inked it, and colored the HELL out of it. I can't thank him enough for this, and can't tell him how cool I think he made it (especially with the rendering on the staffs and the landscape/ background). I LOVE when other people color my work, it makes me feel like a million bucks, and I am honored that Jason did this! I hope he remembers me when he gets all rich and famous!

I hope you like it, and if you want to see more of Jason Embury's AWESOME colors and what books he is coloring right NOW, please check out his website at:

http://www.jasonembury.net/

I'll be back later in the week with more goodies to share!

Until then,

Corey Breen

Indigo Tribe - Green Lantern © DC Comics
Original Art by Corey Breen
Pencils

Riot Act 2!

Riot Shell #1 Cover Contest Entry REVISED © Nicita Designs

By Corey Breen
Photoshop

Riot Shell #1 Cover Contest Entry REVISED sans LOGO © Nicita Designs
By Corey Breen
Photoshop

Riot Shell #1 Cover Contest Entry Grayscale sans LOGO © Nicita Designs
By Corey Breen
Pencil & Photoshop

Creating a Riot!

Riot Shell #1 Cover Contest Entry © Nicita Designs c/o comicidolonline.com
By Corey Breen
Photoshop

Riot Shell #1 Cover Contest Entry © Nicita Designs c/o comicidolonline.com

By Corey Breen
Photoshop

Riot Shell #1 Cover Contest Entry © Nicita Designs c/o comicidolonline.com
By Corey Breen
Pencil & Photoshop

The above covers are for Comic Idol Online's contest to create the cover to issue #1. The winner gets his/ her artwork on the actual cover to the first issue. The contest has been going on all month, and I decided to throw my hat in the ring and enter. This was a really fun piece to do, actually. I didn't ink it at all, just played around with levels and digitally inked it, touched it up, and finally colored it all up in Photoshop. I payed around big time with filters, especially the mechanical arm, and finally settled on the chrome like filter, "bas relief".

This was a really great idea by Nicita Designs and if you go check them out on their Blog and Facebook page, you will see a lot of really great entries. Below is the contest entry form, Riot Shell #0 cover used as reference, and the entry text.

Hope you like it!

CjB

Riot Shell #1 Cover Contest Entry Form © Nicita Designs c/o comicidolonline.com

Riot Shell #0 © Nicita Designs c/o comicidolonline.com

www.comicidolonline.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/WORLDWIDE/Comic-Idol/110909752261?ref=ts

Riot Shell #1 Cover Contest Upgraded

Riot Shell is an all NEW online comic series, created and inspired by Adrian Nicita (from Nicita Design). Riot Shell revolves around a woman who can transform her arm into any kind of weapon she desires. Nicita Designs and Comic Idol have put together a 7 page preview (#0) as a jump on point and the best part is...the rest is up to... FANS!

The next phase will begin with an online contest (starting May) where anyone can take part by simply submitting their completed comic page to continue the story. Contestants will be given a certain time span to create and upload their page and then the voting begins, which allows the story to progress via the choice of the readers themselves!

After the revealing of the winner of the pin up Contest winner (whose art will be featured in #0) it was announced that a new contest was set into plan. The new prize was to be featured as the cover artist to Riot Shell #1.

After an overwhelming response however, after the start of the contest in the beginning of March, Adrian decided to Upgrade The Contest.

The winner of this contest still gets their artwork put on the cover and goes down in Riot Shell history as the cover artist for the FIRST explosive issue!
However, the FIVE Runner ups will see their artwork featured as Chapter Art for each 6-page chapter!

Download the high resolution logos to give your cover the look and feel the official product: http://www.nicitadesigns.com/CIO/fankit.zip

TO ENTER, EMAIL YOUR HIGH RES ENTRY TO: fans@comicidolonline.com

Enter as many times as you want with as many styles as you like there are no restrictions

Contest closes 30th April, 2010.

Blu in the Face!

Neytiri from Avatar © 20th Century Fox

By Corey Breen
Photoshop

After watching Avatar on Blu-Ray for the first time (fourth time seeing the movie overall), I knew I needed to spruce up my latest Neytiri pin-up! With the help of my friend, and colorist extraordinaire, Jason Embury (http://www.jasonembury.net/), I threw in a ton of filters and special effects to the piece. Jason threw me some advice and ideas to really make the piece pop, and as you can see, the effects add so much to it.

Thanks for that Jason, and I hope you all like the finished piece now. Sometimes I forget that just coloring something is not the end of it. You really have to go in there and throw in some really dramatic lighting, and mood, and SFX to make it even cooler!

New material to be posted on Monday, so stay tuned (and no it's not another Neytiri piece- I'll save the new one I'm working on for sometime in the future, lol)!

CjB

Gonna Watch Avatar on Blu-Ray til I'm BLUE in the Face!

Neytiri from Avatar © 20th Century Fox
By Corey Breen
Photoshop

Neytiri from Avatar © 20th Century Fox

By Corey Breen
Pen & Ink & Whiteout

Neytiri from Avatar © 20th Century Fox
By Corey Breen
Pencil & Phtoshop

So guess whats out on DVD/ Blue-Ray?! Unless you live in a cave, you know it's Avatar, right? Now I know it's just the regular no-frills edition (the 3D Special Edition comes out in November, even though NO one has a 3D TV yet or ever), but I don't care, I ran to the store to pick it up. I started this piece soon after I saw J Scott Campbell's piece of Neytiri that he was doing on his UStream, and included in his Con Sketchbook from C2E2, and got inspired! I think this is my BEST interpretation of Neytiri so far, or any of my Avatar drawings. I think I got the likeness down better of the gorgeous Zoe Saldana. Let me tell you, likeness are HARD, and it takes about 3-4 drawings to even START to get it looking like you want it to look. And I'm still trying. But here is my latest Avatar Neytiri drawing (my 4th if you can believe, and I'm sure you can).
Hope you like it. I drew it in pencil first, then inked it, and did some white out splatter effects. Then I colored it all up in Photoshop, and also gave it a Canvas filter to kind of make it look all uniformed.

I Was supposed to post it last night, but didn't finish it until late. There's still some things I would even tweek on this piece, but I figured it was time to wrap it up. REALLY enjoyed doing this piece though, and already I want to do another one. This movie and world and characters has inspired me like no other, and maybe not since Lord of the Rings have I been this creativitly influenced. So knock me all you want for loving Avatar but it's kinda become more then just a movie and video game to me, but a HUGE influence in everything I will do for a long long time... until the sequel!Talk to everyone soon (really soon- like Monday). I have at LEAST two to three post to do immediately next week that I am really proud of and can finally show. And that will be nice after what it seems like forever I haven't had stuff to post, even though I've been workin' my bum off!

HAPPY EARTH DAY,

Corey OUT!

Avatar Pizza Party Tonight at my place, 8pm on Blue-Ray!

PS- Below are some AMAZING Avatar pin-up's that are AWESOME!

Art of Avatar Neytiri Statue

Jeffery Cruz

Unknown Artist

Oliver Nome

Patrick Brown


J Scott Campbell

Unknown Artist (don't even know if this is an Avatar Pic)


Gentle Giant LTD

The Artist Formally Known As...

New Alternate CjB_Productions Logo © 2010

By Corey Breen
Photoshop & Illustrator

Alternate CjB_Productions Logo Ideas © 2010
By Corey Breen
Photoshop & Illustrator

Just wanted to share with you my NEW logo, although I will not be scrapping my old one. This will just be an alternate logo I'll use more for drawings and signage. Still very fond of my real logo, and that will remain the face of my DBA, but also wanted something like this, that could work as a logo/ signature. I'm really happy with it, and you may have already started seeing it on some of my drawings.

Let me know what you think!

CjB


PS- Sorry it's been a while since my last post, but they should be coming more often now that the VERY busy month of April is now behind us. I do have like 4-5 pieces I just can't show you yet because I have not gotten permission yet from their clients. Hopefully soon I will be able to show all the stuff I've done, so it doesn't look like I haven't been working at all. Quiet the opposite actually... stay tuned!

You LOSE! Good DAY, Sir!

Psi-Com Soldier from Final Fantasy XIII © Square-Enix 2010

By Corey Breen
Pencil & Photoshop

So I'm about 30 hours into what is one of the best looking, most fun RPG to play ever made, Final Fantasy XIII, and it's about 12:30am. I am at this HUGE part of the game where you face the real villain of the story for the first time. The villain turns into this huge monster, and I begin to take him down, piece by piece. With this game, the point is to keep switching roles until you find out what will take each enemy down, including spells and magic and physical damage. So I'm closing in on his health bar, about to win after about a 20 minute battle, when all of the sudden, in what literally was going to be the finishing BLOW, the power goes on my entire block because of the rain storm. It was the scariest, most intense moment of video game playing I've ever experienced. Because I was so ready to deliver the finishing hit, and the villain was throwing everything he had at me in a final stand, it seemed like he reached out into the real world and shut me and my apartment down. I thought he beat me in real life.

When my heart finally calmed down, I realized the power went out, and that I would have to face this villain another day. Suffice to say, I could not sleep a wink, and the whole thing really was quiet an experience. Fun stuff though. I will always remember that moment.

Anyway, here is another pin-up of a character from the game. These Storm-Trooper-like military characters are so cool looking, and have AMAZING designs. This one in particular, with their pointed helmets, I just couldn't resist not drawing. That, and I want to try and draw way more characters that have more complicated costumes and accessories. Super-Hero costumes are mostly just spandex, and form fitting, and pretty simplistic. I want to draw more complex uniforms and attachments. Not only that, but I also need to practice more tech driven costume design as well.

One of the reasons I LOVE Final Fantasy so much is their mix of Sci-Fi and Fantasy elements seamlessly. It is such an inspiration to do what I really LOVE to do, and that is character/ concept design. I really want to work on creating characters such as Lightning, Squall, Cloud, and Zidane, and all the sub-characters that exist in the series. I got a lot of work do to try to match my favorite game series, and I look forward to trying.

I hope you like the pin-up, and I HIGHLY suggest buying and playing Final Fantasy XIII. It's like a movie/ video game/ comic book/ role playing game. It is simply the best franchise in the entire world, especially in the look of the world they bring you too. Absolute EYE-CANDY!

Now back to my PS3!

Corey


Psi-Com Soldier from Final Fantasy XIII Reference © Square-Enix 2010



The Power Surge - Final Fantasy XIII © 2010 Square-Enix

"You think you die and everything will be sugar and rainbows?"

Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII © Square-Enix 2010

By Corey Breen
Pencil & Photoshop

So, Final Fantasy XIII is OUT for the PS3, and I couldn't be happier. Yeah, I still haven't finished Final Fantasy XII fully yet (40 hours in, about 40 hours to go in that game), but that's no reason to not start this game. The Final Fantasy series of games have nothing to do with each other, and XII & XIII are in fact, such different kinds of RPG's, not to mention for different systems (FFXII is only PS2). FFXII is way more like Final Fantasy XI Online, where you travel the world and level up, where as Final Fantasy XIII is way more linear. And since this is the first Final Fantasy on the PS3 (with HD graphics), this game has now taken first priority in my game playing. I will go back to XII after I beat XIII, which will probably be in the summer, so I can't wait for that. It'll be nice having that game to go back to after a couple months break. XIII will not be as long as XII, I have a feeling.

Anyway, as you can tell, I am already totally immersed in FFXIII and it's absolutely breathtaking. As in all titles in the series, it is very Japanese, and very cheesy at times, but the shear gorgeousness of the sci-fi world Square-Enix created is just awe-inspiring and draw-droppingly beautiful.


So naturally, I am obsessed with the game, and even though I'm only 4 hours in, I had to take a break and draw the main character from the game, Lightning. I hope you like it!

Now back to the couch tonight to play the game and be taken off to a gorgeous land far, far away! Thanks Square-Enix! You never fail to disappoint, and I thank you because when I play these Final Fantasy games, I get so inspired, and my imagination runs wild, and I get so many ideas. As much time as these games take up in my life, they motivate me and inspire me to draw and create art like no other! I know I just said I will be on the couch playing the game all night, but after that, I will be drawing my own art all day Saturday and Sunday!

Til next time,
Have a great weekend everyone!

Cor

PS- I Still have a bunch of art to post, including the Green Lantern DPS, but all in good time... So please be patient, and I'll be sure to have plenty of stuff to show for a good while!

The Comet Cometh

The Comet © DC Comics
By Corey Breen
Pencil

Another book I'm really looking forward to is The Comet from our library of Impact Comics' characters. One of my favorite artists, Duncan Rouleau has designed this new costume for The Comet, and I absolutely LOVE it! So I drew it. I actually liked this one so much, I asked my good friend, coworker (top notch DC letterer), and often collaborator, Mr. Steve Wands, if he would lend his pen to ink the piece. He obliged, and when he finishes that, I will post that, as I'm sure he will also post on his blog over at

http://stevewands.blogspot.com/

Please check out his site, and follow him on Twitter at @SWands

After the inks are done, I think I may color this piece as well, or have Steve color it. If you know me, you know I just love anything Sci-Fi and I want this one to be a really cool finished piece. So stay tuned for more on this drawing as it gets inked and then colored!

Now I am off to get Final Fantasy XIII for PS3 - but I promise that it wont completely take over my life. I got a lot of drawings to do coming up, and even more to show you guys still, so no worries. Honestly, Final Fantasy usually inspires me to draw even MORE, so keep checkin' back in, and

Thanks for followin',

Cor

Celebrating 200 followers on Twitter!

Supergirl © DC Comics
By Corey Breen
Photoshop over Pen & Ink & Markers

Supergirl © DC Comics
For Calvin - This is the One He is Getting
By Corey Breen
Pen & Ink & Chartpak Tri-Nib Point Manga Markers

Supergirl © DC Comics
By Corey Breen
Pen & Ink

Supergirl © DC Comics
By Corey Breen
Pencil Sketch

Congratulations to Calvin Innes, who was my 200th follower on Twitter this past week. As a special thank you to him and all my followers, he won a special sketch of a character of his choosing. He choose either Batman or Supergirl. I decided to do Supergirl for him after seeing Project Rooftop's special Cory Walker Supergirl redesigns. Cory did such an AMAZING job coming up with numerous new costumes for the character, and they are all great! I choose to do the one I thought was just absolutely stellar, so thank you Cory for the inspiration! Awesome stuff.

Be sure to follow Calvin, @CalvinInnes

I hope Calvin likes the piece, and it arrives to him in the mail safely and in one piece (it has to go across the pond)! I am forever grateful to all my fans old (my mom) and new (such as Calvin), and wanted to thank everyone for the time and their fondness of my art. I will always continue to try and impress you all, and get better day by day. I hope I am able to at least make you say, "oh cool, Corey did a new piece, nice!"

Thank you all!

Corey Breen
CjB Productions

Cory Walker's Supergirl Collection on Project Rooftop:

http://www.tencentticker.com/projectrooftop/2010/02/25/cory-walkers-supergirl-collection/

A Drawing of a Green Superhero NOT named Green Lantern!

The Green Hornet © The Green Hornet, Inc.
By Corey Breen
Pencil

Sorry the gun got cut off a little, just couldn't fit it on an 8 1/2 x 11 page. I'll fix that if I ink it.
Hope you like,

CjB

Sly as The Fox!

The Fox © DC Comics
By Corey Breen
Pencil

Can't WAIT for these books!

http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/tag/the-fox/

Enjoy!

CjB

The Times They Are A Changin'!

The Flash © DC Comics 2010
By Corey Breen
Pencil

CONGRATS TO Dan, Jim, Geoff & John!
Best of Luck!

To hear my reaction, please visit my column at:

http://masterdigitalcolor.com/2010/02/a-room-with-a-view/

CjB

Portrait Adventures!

Portrait for Private Client for Birthday Gift
Twin Babies as Superheroes
By Corey Breen
Pencil

Reference Used for Portrait

So I got this wonderful email a couple of months ago from a very old, dear friend and classmate from Syracuse University, named Stephanie. We still say hello here and there on Facebook, but it was a surprise when she emailed me directly, and asked if I would like to do some freelance Illustration for her. She wanted to know if she could hire me to give her brother the BEST Birthday gift she could think of. She wanted to commission me to draw her twin nephews! Her brother's Birthday was coming up in January (actually, the same birthday as my wife), and she had a couple of very specific ideas that were right up my alley.

You see, her brother was a HUGE comic book fan throughout they're lives, and she thought it would be a wonderful idea if I did a portrait of the twins as Superheroes! I thought this was a GREAT idea as well, as I had previously done a baby portrait last year that came out really nicely. Steph wanted to get back to me as to what exact superheroes she wanted the twins to be, and quickly remembered that her brother's favorite characters have always been Superman, and Wolverine! I loved the idea, and told Steph what I would be able to do, and make the image/ portrait just like a real Comic Book Cover!

All Steph had to do was get me as much reference of the babies as she could, what she wanted the "title & credits" to be, and I'll do the rest. Well, she got back to me with a TON of pics to use, and everything she wanted to say on the cover, calling the "comic" 'THE ADVENTURES OF JACK & BEN'! Since it was around the Holidays, and I was also very busy with looking for a new apartment to move to with my wife, I wasn't able to start the drawing til after Christmas. But once I started, I knew EXACTLY what I had in mind for the piece, and started drawing. Everything came into place, and I showed Steph, and she LOVED it! She KNEW her brother would be so shocked, and love it also.

Well, I've held out showing it until now, and since the gift was given to her brother on January 20th, Steph got back to me with pics of her brother opening it. The look on his face was priceless, and made me very VERY happy that all involved were very proud of it!

This piece, as all pieces I do for clients, was a pleasure to do, and I loved to here the reaction I've gotten from people who have given them as gifts to close friends & family! I hope to many, MANY more pieces like this one, and I thank Steph from the bottom of my heart in choosing me to do such a special drawing for her, her brother, and her nephews, that they can treasure for a long, LONG time!

I hope everyone else likes the piece as well!

Until Next Time,

CjB

2 for 1 for 1

Neytiri from Avatar © 20th Century Fox

By Corey Breen
Pencils

Neytiri from Avatar © 20th Century Fox
By Corey Breen
Pencils

This blog should have happened about a week or so ago. I'm really sorry it took this long to get around to posting these, for they have been done for a while now, and I know I mentioned them being ready to post. But because I moved addresses (I moved from Forest Hills to Glen Cove), I've had an insanely busy week, and wasn't able to do so until now. I didn't get internet access until Tuesday afternoon, and even then my wife and I have had about a MILLION and two things to do with the apartment. We got really far, and I was able to set up my workstation, desk, and computer, so I'm finally ready to get back to normacy!

So the two above images. Yeah, I'm STILL obsessed with Avatar! And I just saw it AGAIN in 3D last night! It was just as amazing as the first time, maybe even more so. Nothing beats IMAX 3D Avatar, but seeing it in just plain 3D was simply stunning, because IMAX is just so massive and overwhelming, that you see more intricacies and nuances in regular 3D. The 3D really stood out, and the depth of field was so powerful and effective, even more so then the IMAX where the entire movie is just insanity, it's so colorful and sensory overload (which was great too, don't get me wrong)!

So, yeah, I'm in love with the movie, and 3D, and actually, the video game that I got for my new PS3 I got for XMAS! The game is sooooo awesome! A little repetative in it's levels and missions, but who cares, I get to be a Nav'i and roam the world of Pandora, which this game captured in ALL it's beauty, TRUST ME! The game and world look just as breathtaking as the movie, and it is just an AWESOME, awesome looking game. It's really fun too, but I just get to kill a TON of human RDA soldiers and although most hate movie games, I love them! It is really inspiring me to draw too, and not just Avatar pin-ups and fan art.

Which brings us to the above images. I drew these since reading the Art of Avatar bok, and playing the video game, and just absolutly loving the character of Neytiri! I think the actress and the character STOLE the movie, and did such a fnatstic job! So I was trying to come up with a really cool postition to make her in, but it was very difficult. It is hard to draw archers. They're arms really need to be a certain way for you to have them hold a bow and arrow, and then you have to make the rest of their body really movable and believable for the position to work. But then, two drawings started to emrge forom those sketches, so I began work on both of them. One where she is running, the other where she is crouching on some tree tops.

I also decided that I would do one as my regular style of finished pencils, and some shading, and then I would do one just in line drawing form. I love line drawings, and don't do enough of them. I thought this was a perfect opportunity to do two pieces that showed the difference between a line drawing and my shaded pieces. I really dig how both of these came out, and really like each one for different reasons! Let me know which one you like best, I'm curious to know.

Line drawings are actually a LOT harder to do. You can hide a lot more, and trick the viewer's eye more when you use shading. Don't really know how something will translate in a drawing, use shading to help. In a line drawing, you can't do that. It's much harder, because literally, EVERY line must mean something, every line must have a purpose. So therefore, every line you put down, must be thought of carefully. With a shaded drawing, you can define a lot more, but with just lines, that is all the viewer has to go by, so you need to mkae sure the entire drawing translates well. Did I like drawing one more then the other? No. Since I did both at the same time, I enjoyed the process of both, and also loved that I did them simultaneously, because I got to switch form one to the other if I needed a break from one.

I think the only other thing I learned from drawing these two Avatar pics, is that I really need to work on consistency. Not consistency in style though. I feel I have my style down pat. I've been trying for the last 10 years (since college) to nail a style that was part Joe Mad, part Quesada, part McFarlane, and part Campbell, and finally feel I really have one that you can tell right off the bat that that is one of MY, Corey Breen's pictures. I've tried really hard to do that, and now it really is just HOW I draw. When I draw, it's just what comes out, it's my natural style, that's it! But one thing I haven't nailed yet is consistency in recognition of faces between one drawing of a character and another drawing of the same character. I knew one of my flaws was that my faces don't stay consistent enough. I change from drawing to drawing too much. I knew I needed to work on that. But it came very apparent I need to do more because with these two Neytiri pics, they look like different Nav'i people. Both are pretty good likeness of the actress, but from one drawing to the other one, they look too different from each other. I must keep working at trying to make one character look the same in each drawing I do of them.

I will continue to try and improve on that with a couple of projects I hope to start in the coming months, so that will be good practice if nothing else. In the meantime, do yourself a favor... DOWNLOAD my Neytiri pin-ups above, then GO SEE AVATAR in 3D ONE MORE TIME, before it goes out of theaters. I know that may not be for a while, the way it's making money and going to beat Titanic, but it's a real treasure we have to see this movie in 3D, so don't miss out seeing it again on that technology, trust me. It's so worth it!

That's it for me today, but so MUCH more to post this week! I got that Flash drawing I'm finishing up, and before that TWO, count em, TWO Freelance projects to post that I did in the past that I want to talk about and share with you all...

SO... Until Next Time,

Corey Breen
CjB Productions