the art of Will Terrell

This is a quick drawing I did to give someone as a gift. I really love Uncle Scrooge. Ducktales was my absolute favorite show when I was a kid, and as I got older the Uncle Scrooge comics were the first comics I started buying myself, which led to Spiderman and everything else. It wasn’t till a few years ago that I started to learn about Carl Barks, but I have become a huge fan. He was such an amazing writer. He could start in any innocuous situation and it would quickly grow into incredible wild adventures, like no other. I’m not alone in adoring Carl Bark’s work, I’d read recently that Bark’s Scrooge stories were a partial inspiration for George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg creating Indiana Jones. Reading the classic Scrooge stories, you can clearly see why.

-Will

This is Kevin Krumplebottom, a sour old man with corn teeth and vinegar breath. He hobbles when he walks and wrinkles when he sits, and to the best that I can recall, was surly just about every moment of the day. I met Mr Krumplebottom when I was just a fresh faced young cartoonist hungrily seeking out the beginnings of a career in comics. I must have been 19 or 20, with dreams far bigger than my talents could muster. In my pursuit I was directed to Mr Krumplebottom for advice in starting up a business for my art. I remember doing my best impression of a professional, dressed neat and nice with my little business card and idea pad, showing up on time for the meeting and being led in by the secretary. With a quick cordial hello and a moment of overview. Mr Krumplebottom grumbled a bit and splayed about in his chair like a sack of loose potatoes, before finally leaning forward and postulating that “There is no money to be made in Art. You should do anything but become an artist…. “ “In FACT,” he opined… “you should become an accountant!”

It was a very short meeting. Mr Krumplebottom, thanks for the advice. I don’t think I could have become an artist without you!

-Will

I hope you guys aren’t tired of Super Zeroes art yet. I promise I’m going somewhere with it. Just be patient with me. I’ll have actual story for everyone to read. Plus a lot of the other characters in the series. Till this current project is finished though I’ll be posting more of this. So Enjoy!

-Will

This is cheating a little… This painting is actually a couple of months old. I am trying to keep up with my sketch a day theme, but this week I am wrapping up a huge project and so there’s not much drawing I can actually share. I have 3 commissions that I’m almost finished with that I will share as soon as I have approval on them. Till then…

I really like this painting. When I’m having a rough day on the pages I’ll grab a scrap piece of art board and start painting on it with the dirty water. Usually I try to keep it pretty messy to help me loosen up. I’m starting to realize that when you work like that you’re much more free to be creative and not get bogged down in the insecurities of “drawing it right”. This is a good example of that. My rule is that I’ll keep working on it, even if I “messed up”, until it finally comes to life. I like this process much better.

I’ll probably post a few more of these this week until I can get back to my regular sketch routine. (sorry if you’ve already seen this – I promise to have some new stuff again soon)

Thank you to everyone that has been coming to this site. I am amazed at how many people are even interested. You guys are awesome!

-Will

This pose is from the cover of the first SuperZeroes preview book I did about 8 months ago. I liked the pose, but the characters looked way too old and the drawing was very unfinished because I was still figuring out the designs. I will probably end up doing a full painting with this eventually. I like how the characters work together.

-Will

I do a lot of freelance work in between the comic book stuff. This was an illustration for a mud volleyball tournament August 29th with the local school district and the “Communities In Schools” program. This was made with a relatively new process for me, I sketched the design in pencil and then created the illustration with the pen tool in illustrator. Its a great technique for t-shirts and logo design. It keeps things very clean and versatile. I tend to do the initial drawings still in pencil because it keeps the spontaneity that a lot of artists lose with all digital work.

If you’re interested in a commission for an event, business or organization, please contact me at willterrellart@gmail.com

-Will

He can’t hide his face. I try to put a little bit of myself in every one of my characters, and Johnny is one of those, like me, that just can’t hide what he’s thinking – its right there on his face. Even when something stupid is about to come out of his mouth. Heh. I’m still feeling my way through his character designs. So out of all the characters in the series, he’s probably the most likely to change. At least now he’s not looking like he’s in his late 20′s. Sheesh.

-Will

This is one of the characters from my new comic book “Will Terrell’s SuperZeroes”. I’ve been working a lot on this story in my spare time, and one thing I’ve been struggling with… er… two things I’ve been struggling with – are the way he walks and stands with his thin legs stylistically. I am a firm believer in using a characters movements (or non-movements in some cases) to establish their personalities Johnny is pretty flamboyant and careless, as is his walk. The other thing is I keep slipping into the pattern of making characters look too old. They’re supposed to be high-schooler kids. So I’m working up model sheets for these characters to help with that.

-Will

I met a new artist at the sketchclub a couple of weeks ago named Derrick Fleece. He’s new to town and a terrific artist. I’ve really enjoyed drawing with him. I snagged one of his sketches the other day and started noodling with colors on it digitally in photoshop. I like how it turned out. We’re both huge fans of Brian Stelfreeze, so i tried to dabble in the masters color palette. Nobody does it like mr Freeze though.

-Will

My friend from Denmark brought copies of one of his favorite European comics “Valhala” to the sketch night on Saturday. The series looks amazing… just wish I spoke Scandinavian. The artwork was gorgeous and I could have drawn from it all night. I picked this fortress tree to sketch out. My tablet is busted so I used the mouse to add a little bit of tone to the ink drawing. I’d like to do more with it.

Check out the artists site… peter madsen

-Will