the art of Will Terrell

There was a 5.6 magnitude earthquake in Oklahoma a few days ago. I was at my studio in Lubbock Texas, on the 13th floor of my building, and I felt the building start to shake for about 40 seconds. It made me a little seasick and the vertical blinds swung back and forth wildly. At first I thought it was the wind, till I realized there WAS NO WIND!

Moments later, life was back to normal…

(click to enlarge)

I will be at Big Apple Comics in Amarillo this Saturday for a store signing with loads of other talented creators! Please come by and pick up a copy of my SZ comic!

Big Apple Comics 4561 South Western Amarillo, Texas. Saturday August 20th, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Visit www.Lubbockcomics.com for more information  Or check out our event on Facebook!!!

I can’t believe this is our 4th year doing this show!  When we started this in 2008 there had never really been a strong comic book convention in this region, and we didn’t think it would last.  But fans come from all around, and we’ve seen more and more attendees each year, and this year, we have more creators coming from out of town than ever before.  I’m very excited about this show, especially since after last year, I wasn’t sure we’d get to have another one.

I hope that anyone checking this out, that lives close enough to drive, will come out and say Hi!  I will be there with nearly everyone else from the Robot Cowboy studio!  It’s going to be a great show!

-Will

I always like seeing where other artists work, what kind of setup they have, and what kind of space they’re using.  A few weeks ago I got around to taking photos of my workspace.  I share a studio space with a couple of other artists, and of course my wife.  We’re in one of the top floors of the tallest building in Lubbock.  Its got really nice views, and gorgeous sunsets.  I figured, if I’ve got to work some place every single day.  I might as well enjoy the view.

This is my desk and tool setup.  I use everything from airbrush to pen and ink.  And the drawing desk has a giant light table built into it.

My wife took a picture of me meeting Jeff Smith at Comic-Con last year.  I’m so glad she got the photo, cause the whole encounter was just a blur.  She framed the photo for me to put next to my desk so I’d always be inspired.  She’s pretty awesome.

And West Texas sunsets from my drawing desk.  Amazing…

If you’re an artist, what Kind of studio space do you work in?

-Will

I did this illustration a couple of years ago for Phil Kerr Plumbing.  It was a fun drawing, except for trying to squeeze that little dog in there.  But this weekend, as I was leaving the studio, I drove past a van that had it plastered all over the side.  Being a freelance illustrator, I’ve had a lot of firsts in my career, this being one of them.  It was cool seeing the van, and without thinking I whipped a u-turn and followed the van till I could get a good photo.  I’m certain the driver thought I was nuts.

I love sketching Old Dudes.  Its no secret.   Especially living in West Texas where Old Dudes are in and of themselves work of art for the caricature artist.  I was out at the Market Street last night with Amber sketching people, and the Olderly’s were out in full force.   This guy was one of my favorites.  I decided to paint him in Photoshop.  I want to do a whole scene of these guys.  But I still have lots of other work to be doing.  Maybe one of these days I’ll do a book of ‘em.

-Will

Singles Awareness Day is coming up in a couple weeks.  I did the poster for the S.A.D. party last year too.  They’re fun to do.   Hopefully I can do more in the years to come.

He had a cool face.  Very expressive!

Last year I worked for a local company called Red Raider Outfitter designing Texas Tech game day shirts.  It was a fun job and I got to work with a great artist and I learned a lot about graphic design, adobe illustrator, and meeting deadlines.  I also had the fortune to work on a few of the big gameday shirts – one being the BLACK-OUT Texas shirt design that 10,000 plus people were wearing in the stadium when Tech pulled out that amazing 39 – 33 victory.  I was lucky to be at that game thanks to some free tickets from my friend Phillip.

Well, it’s football season again, and even though I am only occasionally doing freelance work for Outfitter, I got the chance to work on this years Gameday design.  I think it turned out pretty well.  The shirt is available for Pre-sell now on their site if you’re looking to gear up for the game.

It’s always crazy how much a design can evolve from its initial conception.  It always goes that way, through several different stages of revision.  You only have a certain number of colors to print with in screen-printing.  Plus your line-widths and colors have to be very deliberate.  It definitely teaches you to be more bold with your decisions.  This was my original illustrator version before the copy was added…

And the original pen and ink drawing…

I much prefer the detail you can get in pen and ink.  But it doesn’t screen very well.   But it is what it is.  I hope the shirt does well, and I really hope Tech does well too!

-Will

I can’t tell you how long I’ve been struggling to come up with a logo/mascot for our next convention.  Even after I started working on this one its taken me a half-dozen attempts to get it workable.  I hope people like it.  I figure if a giant atomic monster were to ever rampage through Lubbock… it would probably be a prairie dog.  Now there’s a monster movie!

Make sure to click the image to check out the new www.lubbockcomics.com website.

-Will