the art of Will Terrell

Some quick warm-up sketches I did for Super Zeroes the other day.

This is artist/writer Brian Talbot… (the one with the long hair, not the guy eating the fish taco.  That was just some guy at the restaurant earlier that day.)

Brian Talbot has done a lot of work in his career, but the book that always stood out to me was “A tale of one bad rat.” It was a very powerful story that helped me personally heal from a lot of emotional pain, and its something I’ve bought for many friends to help them.  It was cool getting to meet him and tell him in person, although I’m certain he gets it all too often  There were quite a few other artists on the panel.  I believe it was called “After the first 1,000 pages.” Referring to the fact that it takes a person 10,000 hours to get prolific at any one thing.  Which breaks down to roughly 1,000 pages in comic book terms.  I figure I am close to that in my own career. Although its hard to tell these things.

I tried doing sketches of Gene Colan and a few other people on the panel but none really turned out.  I think it could have been a really amazing discussion, but the moderator was frustratingly passive and hardly asked any questions, most of which were not all that engaging and didn’t really get artists talking to each other.  He even ended the panel early.  These things happen I guess.

The thing that came up over and over from the artists is the love for doing what you’re doing.  Not doing it for credit, or for fame or anything outside of yourself.  But drawing because you absolutely love to draw and creating stories that you want to read.  Like the Straczynski panel, talking about a fire that burns from within you, and not based on any external motivation.  This is the thing that sets highly successful creators apart from the rest.

-Will

I got to hang out at the figure drawing group picnic this weekend. It was good brisket and brownies, and great company. We had our model Casey pose for us outside for a change. Clothed of course, don’t want to get the neighbors talking. It was fun. I always rush when I do figure drawing for some reason. I guess because I haven’t been in the routine of it for so long that I don’t feel comfortable like I used to. So I did this quick gray wash sketch and hung out the rest of the time. I think it turned out alright.

-Will

Sometimes when I realize that I’m living in Lubbock Texas and not some place that takes my breath away, I get a little sad. I try to remind myself of the beauty that does surround me. The sunsets, the clouds, the gigantic sky… and when I get tired of all that I sit down and sketch out someplace gorgeous I’d much rather like to be.

With less than two weeks till I head out to the San Diego comic-con.. I’m starting to feel those itchy feet to get someplace beautiful. Rather than drive myself mad I decided to do a little sketchens. I’m SO looking forward to this trip. I might accidentally forget to come back. Hmmm… thinking.. thinking…

-Will

I’ve been feeling a little crabby this week. Nothing like drawing winged piggy’s to de-crabbify your life. Winged piggy’s are the unoffical mascots of many artists I’m sure. Mostly because they are so much fun to draw. I am certain that if I were to run across Mr Krumplebottom in a dark alley I might pants him and tattoo this across his… backfat… area, just to show how much of a not-artist I didn’t become… (?)

-Will

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 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’ve done tons of art this month. Just haven’t had time to post them. This is no where near all that I’ve done. But these are the highlights.

Fat Unicorn. I’d love to take credit for this, but the credit goes to a brilliant 11th grader at Lubbock High that did this as a sculpture. I wish I’d bought it. I’ve never last so hard in my life. I saw this when I was teaching my digital painting class a few weeks back and had to record it for posterity.

Speaking of the digital painting class. This is the demo I did in class. Took about half an hour. Thanks to everyone that came out to that. I’ll set up another class soon.

This is one of several painting commissions I did last week. My friend closed down his framing shop and gave me a big stack of matte board, they’re coming in really handy for doing these quick painting commissions. This is Animation Cell paint on black matte board. About half an hour.

I did this illo for my clowns. I think its an image for their website. It turns out they’ve got a 22 year old daughter who’s a clown too. And she’s been a clown since she was like 7. That’s super cool. I did a whole bunch of other drawings for them last week, I’ll probably eventually upload those here to show.

This was a quick warm up sketch from last week that I liked. The hands a little jacked, but I like the ambience.

This is a digital painting I did of my friend Corianna when we were hanging out the week before last. I think it turned out pretty good. I’m still learning. The hand is jacked. And the hair doesnt quite look natural. I’ll get it one of these days.

And of course sketches of women. Cant get enough of ‘em.

Ok.. Well I’ll do a better job of updating regularly next month. March was pretty awesome. Getting a lot of work completed these days. Keep smiling!

–Will Terrell

I wanted to see if I could create interesting Spiderman poses using different letters of the alphabet. It was a fun and challenging exercise, that I recommend every artist try and do. Most of these were done during my lunch breaks this past week.
-Will

My grandma tripped on a step this morning and bumped her head on the ground. I did this quick sketch to make her feel better. She smiled so big. Totally worth it.