The Spirit Issue # 24

Holy Cow. I survived Christmas but just barely. A blizzard hit last night and knocked out the power. So we walked to Joy's parents house; they had a wood burning stove and we had no heat. Luckily the power was back on by morning so our pipes didn't freeze but it was scary there for a second.

Well its that time to update my blog. as promised here are pictures from The Spirit Issue #24. I really love this issue. At this point I'm into the character and Wayne is kicking butt (as always) with the inks. Once again Lee Loughridge really goes the extra mile coloring and the issue looks great. If you don't believe me check out this review of the art in CBC:

The art is strong, clean, and crisp, very reminiscent of Val Semeiks in his early days on "The Demon", but with much less hellfire and brimstone. This makes me wonder what Semeiks is up to nowadays and whether or not he has been considered for a turn at the artboard on "The Spirit." Hardin does an admirable job with this issue and the various characters within. I'd like to see more from him. His work here is a nice tribute to Eisner, and fits the all ages feel to the story, but I would like to see him really cut loose on some capes and tights.

Not too shabby if I do say so myself. Anyhoo... if you get the chance go pick it up. Its definitely my best Spirit stuff yet.

Signing @ Black Cat

Hey true believers, It is Dec. 13th 2008. My 12th wedding anniversary! Yes that is 12 years of martial bliss. I'm blogging and she's at the laundry mat washing some blankets that the kids peed on last night. OOOh the sweet happiness that is mawwage! Well I do have some exciting news I will be doing my first ever exclusive signing at Black Cat Comics (Dec. 20th) in Salt Lake! I've done signings before (at Dragon's Keep on Free Comic Book Day) but this time I'm the only "Cat" that is going to be there; so its special to me. Of coarse the signing has more to do with the fact that I'm friends with Greg the owner (and I pal around with Jimmy on the Geekshow podcast forums), than the fact that I'm some big huge name or anything. That's what friends are for; right? Right! That and the fact that Greg had to figure a way to get me to come up so I could empty my hold. So take note kids. Be cool to your local comic book store owner, never empty your hold and good things will happen to you too (I kid, I kid)!!!

Well that is all for now. See you next week. I'll make sure to post some Spirit artwork in celebration of The Spirit issue #23 will be out and the release of the Spirit movie (directed by Frank Miller). In the mean time lets all drink some eggnog and try not to trample some poor old dude opening the doors at WalMart (calm the eff down people).

Laters-

Chad

Thank you to Tracy my ever loving friend for sending me a jpeg of the flier for the signing (NO SKETCH CARD FOR YOU JIMMY)! Remember its Dec. 20th @ 11:00am Black Cat Comics in Salt Lake. Be there or be square!

Eclipso: The Music of the Spheres

Hey Guys, my last post got me to thinking... In case you missed what I did for the Countdown to Mystery anthology, DC Comics has been nice enough to collect all of it (minus the 4 pages I did for the Dr. Fate story) into one convenient trade paper back. Its available in time for the Holiday Season. I'm not sure who illustrated the TPB cover (I believe Steven Jorge Segovia [appologies all around if I'm wrong]) but I penciled 66 pages of the interior. Its written by Matt Sturges (of Blue Beetle and Jack of Fables fame) and illustrated by Steven Jorge Segovia, Dan Green, Walden Wong, Wayne Faucher, Robert Campanella and myself. Go stuff your stockings with some!

;-P Chad

Hawk and Dove

Holy cow. I'm sorry for skipping Friday's post. December is a marathon month for me. Joy's birthday was Dec 5th (Friday) and I was scrambling to make it special. It went flawlessly, but alas I neglected my blog.

I've been meaning to post a ton of DC stuff. Seeing as how I got my original artwork back from another issue of Countdown to Mystery; for this post I decided to show the splash page to issue #7. It was penciled by me and inked by the famous Dan Green. The page turned out great so I felt it was worthy to show.

Once again I'm sorry for the long pause in posting. I'll make sure to get more up. I vow to update before my 12th Wedding Anniversary and once more before the Holiday Season. Everybody take care 'til next time!

-Chad.

Reign In Hell

Hey guys,

Reign in Hell #5 is out and yours truly did the pencils to the 8 page back-up at the end of the book. Check it out and let me know what you think.

In other news I have successfully navigated the biggest eating frenzy of the year and I still manage to fit into the same jeans. WooHoo! I owe it all to my trusty tread mill bought with the money I earned doing Marvel Masterpiece Cards. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday too. I hope to keep posting even though things are getting increasingly hectic. My wife's birthday is Friday my anniversary is the week after and then its the Holiday Season. I'm getting a headache just thinking about it.

- Chad

Psylocke

Marvel Masterpiece Artist Proof Cards are done. Yeah! Here is the trickiest card I have done to date. Hope you enjoy.

Typhoid Mary

I have another Marvel Card in process for you. This one is Typhoid Mary. She was one of my faves in comics way back in the late eighties early nineties. I like her new costume but I loved her hair the old style so I made a hybrid of the two. She reminds me of Priss from Blade Runner and Lisa from Weird Science. Tear for the eighties!

Come get some: Punisher!

Well its that time, my deadline for completing all my Marvel Masterpiece Artist Proof Cards is rapidly approaching. So I'm cranking out commissions left and right. Thought it would be a fun change of pace to show a little process on how I create the finished artwork for the cards, so I scanned my WIP. As you can see my dialog didn't make the final cut. Todd Klein I ain't. But it was fun to do none the less. I got a new scanner to do the job of importing the originals into a digital format, but it looks like the colors turned out just as crappy as my other now defunct scanner. I gotta get me an Epson, or maybe start shooting it with my Nikon because the scans just don't do the originals justice.

Smack Down

This was an ultimate Friday Flashback! While picking up my studio today I found a box with a ton of old cards in it. Inside I found these cards I did for Fleer back in the day. The cards were to coincide with the WWE PS2 game. At the time I was with Origin Studios. we had to take low res game art and digitally paint it up to be a hi-rez piece of art. I was really proud of how they turned out then and I was thrilled to find them today. Hope you get a kick out of them too.

Happy Halloween!

Hi all, Well I'm back from vacation and I'm exhausted. We spent 10 days on vacation which included 2 days in Las Vegas 3 days in Disneyland, 1 day at Sea World, 1 day at the San Deigo Zoo 2 days on the road and one day unpacking and resting back home in lovely Cedar City (Enoch) Utah. Well. Its Holloween today and I have some good treats for you! I just got back my pages from DC for CtM # 7 and 8. So I wanted to post the pencils and inks. Pencils are done by yours truely and the inks are done by Walden Wong and the script was done by the lovely Gail Simone. Hope you enjoy them! -Chad

Update

Busy busy! Holy cow time flies when you're having fun. I'm busting my butt to get ready for my family's vacation. I've been cranking on The Spirit # 24 and trying to get done before we leave. I'm just going to post a quick update, when I get back it will be a rush to get my Marvel Cards done.

Prelude to War Pages

Hi all! I'm not going to ask how everyone's week has been. Seeing as how the United States is staring the second great depression in the face. I'm disappointed in myself for not doing my two posts per week goal. Time flies when you are having fun and your retirement is IRA's are worthless! Anyhoo... as promised here are those Warhammer Pages!

Marvel Masterpiece Artist's Proofs.

Hey all, I hope everyone had an awesome week. Mine was quite eventful. It started on Monday with a lovely bout with the stomach flu. Ended with me completing my 8 pages for Reign in Hell #6 and shooting off 4 Marvel Masterpiece Artist Proof Sketch cards. Since my marvel cards are always a big hit on the blog I had a sort of urgency to get them up. I have less than a month to complete seven cards for series II so if anyone is interested let me know and I'll get you one! I vow to start posting twice a week. I know I still haven't gotten the Warhammer pages up which I need to but hey. I will soon!

Spirit #21 Pages

I've never struggled so much with comic pages as I did with the pages I did for Spirit #21. It is an incredibly daunting task to work on the creation of who is widely agreed to be the best sequential artist in history. I need to thank my editor Joey Cavalieri for giving me not only the chance to work on the Spirit but also the advice and encouragement that allowed me to get the job done. These pages are two of my favorites from the issue. It was also a great honor to work with Sergio on this book. If you never worked on a Sergio Aragones script you're missing out. Sergio draws out the entire issue in cartoon / thumbnail form. I can't tell how much of a nostalgia trip it was working on this book. I felt like a 12 year old with my Mad Magazine collection all over again. I had so much fun with the scripts I met up with Sergio at Comic Con 2008 and had him sign them. Awesome! Anyways, back to my pencils, I hope you like them and go out and grab the issue!

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

Holy Cow! I was very excited this week to receive my comps for the Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning from BooM! I did the line work almost a year ago for the Dark Elves and High Elves. I even did some comps for thumbnails for the Chaos storyline. However I haven't been able to show any of the work because the graphic novel was to be released with the games. Well the day has come! The Graphic Novel is finally here. Happy Day right? Well not so fast. I open up the book and to my disappointment 5 of the Dark Elves pages are printed with low-rez line work. WTH. Well there is no point crying over split milk, but needless to say I was a little pissed. Oh well. I will try and get some pages up for every one to check out in the next couple of days.

The Spirit #21

Hey Guys, another week has flown by, but I have some exciting news! My first stand alone comic from DC (Countdown to Mystery was an anthology) is out. The Spirit #21 hit the racks this week. It has a stunning cover by Paul Smith and interior pencils by yours truly! I'm really excited how it turned out. Wayne did a top notch job with he inks and the colors by Lee Loughridge are phenomenal! Sergio and Mark did an excellent job with the story so make sure you take the time to pick it up and take a look (that means buy it to all you wiseguys out there)! I'll make sure to upload some of the art that I did now that the story is out. Keep checking back for updates!

School Daze

Holy cow, Its that time of year. Back to school time. Ugh. I hate school. Rather, I hate going to school and working full time. Right now I feel like I'm walking in the middle of the road. To celebrate the start of the school year I'm ditching work and school; and I'm going to Lake Powell on Friday. So I won't be here tomorrow. Everyone take care and have fun!

Marvel Masterpieces Series III

Hello True Believers! Here today, in a Hardin Art Studios Blog exclusive, are all 25 Marvel Masterpiece Sketch cards I did for series 3. I will post 5 on Digital Webbing, Myspace, Facebook, and Scoundrel's but right here is the only place where you can see all 25. I'm going to try and get more exclusive with art here on the blog to boost subscribers. So make sure you subscribe and visit weekly!

Ghost Squad

Many of you may know that I'm slowly working on getting my MFA from the Academy of Art University. Two semesters ago I killed two birds with one stone and did an illustration for Ron Fortier's Pulp Novel: Ghost Squad, while fulfilling my final for a digital painting class.. Well the novel is set to be published and I figure it time to get the art out there. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Flashback Friday

Holy cow! Time flies when you're having fun. I can't believe a week has gone by so quickly. Well its time to post a flashback piece of artwork. This week's flashback is from Sony's Warhawk video game. I it drew traditionally then scanned it and added some digital paints. I think it turned out pretty cool, and found it worthy of a Friday Flashback. I do have lots of new stuff coming. I got the cover to Ghost Squad to post as well as MARVEL MASTERPIECE series 3 sketch cards. Look for those this week.

Flashback Friday

TGIF everyone! I thought I'd try something new. I have some comps I did for the videogame industry see if you can spot the properties (pppssst don't look at the labels)! They are old but I couldn't post them when I did them ND's and such so.. Never been a better time than right now! Have a good weekend!

Countdown to Mystery

I'm discovering as I blog that its hard not to post stuff you are working on. At the time you are so excited about it but you have non-discloser to think about. So I'm going to try and do a better job of posting stuff I have worked on at the time I was dying to show but couldn't. These next few posts have got to be prime examples of stuff I was dying to show. This is my first double wide comp page for DC. It was for Countdown to Mystery #5. Enjoy!

Warhammer Condemned by Fire #3

Hey guys, I have some art this week to share. Warhammer: Condemned by Fire # 3 is out from Boom Studios. Yours truly did the art for 7 pages. Here is a sneak peek to make you want to rush out and grab the book. I'm also eagerly awaiting my comp for the Warhammer Age of Reckoning Online so I can check out how those pages turned out. I've gotten complements from one of the Boom Owners so I'm guessing it turned out great. Hopefully I'll get to post some art when it launches! Check back often to see.

My Trip to Disneyland... er I mean SDCC.

Well I took a left turn in Albuquerque on my way to San Diego (somehow I got off the 215) and before I knew it I was in Anaheim California?! Which ended up costing us an hour getting to the Con, but we got there and enjoyed preview night. We being Lynn Walker (inker of Ape Entertainment's Clipstick) and I. We met up with Derek Hunter of Pirate Club and "The Geek Show Podcast" fame. We talked a little about the podcast, Anime and other little what nots. Derek (at the time) was seated next to Ryan Ottley of Image Comic's Invincible. I let Ryan take a gander at my portfolio this year, in particular I showed him my homage to his Sea Bear and Grizzly Shark posts on his web site. Hopefully I'll be able to post the drawing soon. I have to get permission first, but with luck I'll be able to show it soon.

San Deigo Comic Con

Well its that time of year. Time to brave the unwashed masses in San Diego California in order to seek out future work in the comic and video game industries. I've been doing good since last year hopefully I'll double the amount of work I get this year. I'll try and post a nightly update of all the fun! Anyhoo... On another note it was Christmas in July this month. I got my share of the original artwork for Countdown to Mystery#5 and my comps from "Boom!" for Warhammer: Condemned by Fire issues 2 and 3. I did a cover for #2 and 7 pages for #3. The colors for #3 sort of covered up a lot of my work. Maybe I'll post my inks so you guys can see the Black and Whites. Anyhoo I got a ton of stuff to do before I go so I got to get back to it!

Laters-

Chad.

Fan Mail = Fan Art

Well I got my frist piece of Fan mail the otherday. So I decieded to respond with a token of my apperication with a custom sketchcard. Figured I'd post it on the blog so everyone could see. I have more stuff coming soon in preperation for SDCC. So stay posted.

School

Well I have tons of stuff I want to post but I'm super busy trying to get issue 22 of "The Spirit" out for DC. In the meantime here is a 6 panel story I did for a class I'm taking. I hope to have some Marvel Cards up soon too!

Another one bites the dust!

I can hear the late great Freddie Mercury singing his tune as I post the latest failed attempt for a DC cover. Atleast now I have 3 of 4 covers approved. I can't post approved sketches so please don't ask. I'll post them when they get published.

I'm not as let down with the rejection of this one as I was struggling with the concept. Its not as cool as the Superman one. But I feel its good enought ot get put up on the old blog. I'm going o try and do a weekly post. We'll see how it goes. Hope you like it!

DC Covers

I'm doing some covers for DC as well as other things. I felt like posting some of the rejected comps up here so at least somebody can see them. Here is a Superman comp that didn't make the cut.

Still More Marvel Cards

Hey Guys I'm trying to do better about posting more. here are some Marvel Sketch cards I did for Upper Deck. I tried to spend as little time on them as possible. None are over twenty minutes. Hope you like them, I thought they were fun.

More Marvel Cards

Marvel Cards

I am alive

One year my last post was a year ago? Holy moley. Well I must admit that things have been busy and exciting. Anyhoo. As soon as i get some stuff done I'll try and update everything. Big news is that I'm working for DC Comics WOOO HOOO! Check out my first big work in Countdown to Mystery #'s 5,7, and 8! More to come soon I promise.