90's X-Men Animated

It’s FINALLY heeeeeere!!!!

Yes I know I’m a bit excited but I’ve been working on this piece on and off for months and I am sooooooo glad that it’s finally over (though it was a lot of fun)!

This piece is my homage to the 90’s Animated X-Men cartoon, one of my favorite 90’s cartoons and easily one of the most influential towards me as an artist. I absolutely love that it was heavily influenced by Jim Lee’s designs, something that was so important to me as a kid since I was getting into comics during his legendary run on the comic book series. He’s always been one of my artistic idols and it’s great to have the chance to put my own spin on his work.

I will say that this piece was a lot of fun for me when it comes to my “comic book” style and I think I grew a lot through it. I’m continually trying to refine what I feel my comic book style is. I’m really striving to showcase a painted style that reflects some of my biggest comic book influences (like J. Scott Campbell, Jim Lee, and Marko Djurdjevic) while at the same time bringing an exaggerated style from animated designers that I love (Phil Bourassa influences me so much nowadays, probably more than anyone realizes).

For those of you that are still here and interested, artistically this was a real challenge for me. With my previous Batman Animated Collage piece I had worked with roughly 22 characters but with this one I decided to push even higher by roughly 10 more characters. That definitely presented a lot of challenges when it came to composition and layout. However, more than anything, the real challenge was the patience to keep going and paint so many characters in one piece. Luckily I made it through and while no painting ever truly gets to the level of epicness that I’m striving for, at least for where I’m at right now, at this point and time in my artistic growth, I can say that it was the best that my skills would allow me to accomplish.

Anyways, I’ve been sitting on this for a while and thought it’s best now to put it out there for all of you to see. I was hoping that I could unveil it at Emerald City Comic Con 2015 but it was too much of a rush and I didn’t want to sacrifice quality. So long and short of it, this piece will be making it’s debut at MegaCon 2015!

In closing, I hope this piece brought back some warm and fuzzy nostalgic feelings for you and you remember the 90’s with fondness; it’s one of my favorite decades! Thank you for all your support and if you feel so inclined please like this and feel free to share it with your friends!

Batman The Animated Series

Hey everyone! We’ll it’s been a long time in the making and I’ve been teasing this for quite sometime (if you’ve been following me on Facebook and Instagram) but here it is my “Batman The Animated Series” collage!

This piece is an homage to one of my most favorite cartoons of all time. I tried to take the characters that I felt were most significant to the show and/or meant the most to me and incorporate them into the piece. This also an homage to my favorite artist Marko Djurdjevic. As I’ve said before I love his work and I also loved his large collage pieces that he did as covers for various Marvel comic book titles.

This is probably the most ambitious piece I’ve ever taken upon myself mainly because of the number of characters, the shear man-hours involved (approx. 130 hours with reference gathering, sketching, thumbs, revisions, etc.) as well as working with composition (something I found to be a real challenge having had no experience with collage pieces before). That being said this was a ton of fun and I think I came closest to what I want in defining my “comic book” style. I enjoyed getting to exaggerate the features on these characters and stray away from trying to do something that was more realistic.

For those of you that are interested in this piece, I will be selling limited edition 18”x24” glossy posters on 14pt card stock starting this Thursday at the Salt Lake Comic Con. Just come by and visit me at booth 524 to get one! I’ll then begin selling online in the next week or two so stay tuned to my Facebook fan page for more info. Also, if you like this piece and feel like sharing it, feel free to spread some love! Thanks for all your support guys and I hope you enjoy this and get a little bit of 90’s nostalgia when you look at it!

Painting Process Animations for Donatello and Leonardo

Here are two shore animated .GIFs showing my process for creating my recent Donatello and Leonardo paintings. Hopefully you'll enjoy getting some insight into my painting process and who knows, maybe you painters out there will learn something helpful along the way. Enjoy!  PS. Sorry for the uneven display of the videos, I can't figure out how to change it in Blogger. Oh well!

Raphael

Well here it is the final of my new set of Ninja Turtle Paintings: Raphael!

Raphael as well as his three other brothers will be making their debut tomorrow at The Phoenix Comic Con! I'll be at booth AA38 so come by and say hi. I'll have early bird specials going on each day as well as other deals so don't miss them!

Also, stay tuned next week as I'll have some big news for all those who are attending the Denver Comic Con! Until then, one last time...TURTLE POWER!!!

#holyhashtags
#turtlepower
#eastmanandlarid
#tmnt
#teenagemutantninjaturtles
#ninjaturtles
#fanart
#leonardo
#phoenixcomiccon
#denvercomiccon
#pinkhavok
#blakehenriksen
#blakehenriksenart
#idw
#comics
#comicbooks
#idwcomics

Donatello

Here's the third in my new set of Ninja Turtles Paintings: Donatello!

I've got some stuff to do tonight so I thought I'd get this one out a little earlier than normal.

Donatello and all his brothers will be making their debut this Thursday at the Phoenix Comic Con! So in honor of that I will be releasing one painting each day until then!

For now, enjoy Donatello and get ready for tomorrow night when I unveil the final turtle, who happens to be my all time favorite...Raphael! Until then...TURTLE POWER!!!

#turtlepower
#eastmanandlarid
#tmnt
#teenagemutantninjaturtles
#ninjaturtles
#fanart
#leonardo
#phoenixcomiccon
#denvercomiccon
#pinkhavok
#blakehenriksen
#blakehenriksenart
#idw
#comics
#comicbooks
#idwcomics

Michelangelo

Well as promised here's the second in my new set of Ninja Turtles Paintings: Michelangelo!

For those who are curious I decided to give Michelangelo Bruce Lee's classic "Game of Death" nunchukus because A: I love Bruce Lee and B: Dave Wilkins Art did it for one of his paintings of the Trutles and I thought it was such a clever idea I had to do it as well (Dave is one of my favorite artists after all and a major inspiration to me). If you read this Dave, thanks for all the inspiration and great art! You Rock!

Michelangelo and all his brothers will be making their debut this Thursday at the Phoenix Comic Con! So in honor of that I will be releasing one painting each day until then! So stay tuned as tomorrow night I'll have another Turtle to reveal. I wonder who it will be? :) Til tomorrow! TURTLE POWER!!!

#turtlepower
#eastmanandlarid
#tmnt
#teenagemutantninjaturtles
#ninjaturtles
#fanart
#leonardo
#phoenixcomiccon
#denvercomiccon
#pinkhavok
#blakehenriksen
#blakehenriksenart
#IDW
#idw
#idwcomics

Leonardo

Well here's the first in my new set of Ninja Turtles Paintings: Leonardo!

Leonardo and all his brothers will be making their debut this Thursday at the Phoenix Comic Con! So in honor of that I will be releasing one painting each day until then!

If you've kept up with me then you know that I really wanted to try and change up the look of the turtles. However, I decided not to push them as much as I would have liked since I think it would have alienated a lot of fans and been unwise financially. However, I did try and change up some things from when I first tackled them a couple of years ago so I hope you like them!

For now, enjoy Leonardo and get ready for tomorrow night when I unveil the next turtle! Until then...TURTLE POWER!!!

#turtlepower
#eastmanandlarid
#tmnt
#teenagemutantninjaturtles
#ninjaturtles
#fanart
#leonardo
#phoenixcomiccon
#denvercomiccon
#pinkhavok
#blakehenriksen
#blakehenriksenart

Gotham City Mugshots: Two-Face Painting Progression

Haven't done one of these in a while (sometimes I forget to lol). Anyways, here's the painting progression for my recent piece "Gotham City Mugshots: Two-Face". Enjoy!
‪#‎gothamcitymugshots‬
‪#‎twoface‬
‪#‎batman‬
‪#‎batmanandrobin‬
‪#‎batmantheanimatedseries‬
‪#‎btas‬
#twoface
‪#‎harveydent‬
‪#‎brucetimm‬
‪#‎dccomics‬
‪#‎comicart‬
‪#‎fanart‬
‪#‎pinkhavok‬
‪#‎blakehenriksen‬
‪#‎blakehenriksenart‬
‪#‎art‬
#comicart

Gotham City Mugshots: Two-Face

Here's my latest Gotham City Mugshot: Two-Face!

It's been a long time coming and hopefully I'll be able to do more of the series without such a long break in between like with the Joker. For now though, enjoy my homage to Batman The Animated Series' Two-Face with my personal take on him!

#batman
#batmanandrobin
#batmantheanimatedseries
#btas
#twoface
#harveydent
#brucetimm
#dccomics
#comicart
#fanart
#pinkhavok
#blakehenriksen
#blakehenriksenart
#art
#comicart

Slave Harley and Joker the Hutt

Happy Star Wars Day!!! I know it's kind of early (unless you're on the East Coast) but I thought this new piece would be a great way to kick off the celebration on my end!

This is a mash up piece, one of many I plan to do as time goes on. In case you can't tell it's Harley Quinn from Batman with Jabba the Hutt from Star Wars. However, since this is a mash up, these are not the characters and worlds we are familiar with. Suffice it to say this is Slave Harley, who happens to be owned by Joker The Hutt. Though as you can see, Harley's not much of a slave since she enjoys the smiling Hutt. He's her "Puddin" after all :)

I'm sure that there are all sorts of stories to be had on what this world entails and I'm not going to really come up with much so I'll let your imagination loose as you wonder just who else is in this new universe and how they all fit together! So for now, May the 4th be with you!

P.S. This print will be available for purchase at The Phoenix Comic Con next month! Stay tuned for details.

#harleyquinn
#harley
#joker
#jabbathehutt
#jokerthehutt
#slaveleia
#slaveharley
#slaveharleyquinn
#starwars
#pinkhavok
#blakehenriksen
#blakehenriksenart
#phoenixcomiccon
#comiccon
#fanart
#starwarsfanart

Art Drop!!!

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I've updated here (I usually do it more often at my Facebook fanpage: http://www.facebook.com/pinkhavok)

First up is Green Ranger, followed up by a new piece Angela (from Guardians of the Galaxy) that I created in conjunction with my buddy Jon Hughes. He did the line art and I did the painting. Next is a piece I did close to a year ago for Fantasy Flight Games and their Star Wars the Card Game. Then there is an alternate cover I did for my friend Shelby Robertson and his comic book "94". Finally a Doctor Who piece I recently did. I hope you enjoy it :)

Daryl Dixon Animated .GIF

Here's a LINK to an animated .GIF I created showing my process for creating my recent Daryl Dixon painting from my Walking Dead Series (which you see here)

. You'll notice that I messed up and had to start over. Such is life lol! But I think that it's good for everyone to see the process, especially beginners because it's good to know that everyone still messes up from time to time. Just part of the Journey:)

P.S. If you're interested in buying this print please check out my Etsy Store LINK

Gotham City Mugshots: Joker

Here's a video I made showing the progression of my recent painting "Gotham City Mugshots: Joker". Enjoy!

-Blake

P.S. You can find more of my work at www.facebook.com/pinkhavok

Etsy Store Up and Running!

Hey everyone I have an Etsy store up! This is a great way to purchase some of my prints if you don't get a chance to see me at a comic convention! Here's the link:http://www.etsy.com/shop/PinkHavok

Gotham City Mugshots: Joker

Merry Christmas everyone Joker style!!!

We’ll I’m not the first to have ever done this type of thing but here’s the first in a long line of paintings in a series I’m calling “Gotham City Mugshots”. The name’s pretty explanatory so I think you can imagine who all will be in this series. For now, here’s this first post giving all of you some Christmas love for supporting me and my art! Thanks and Merry Christmas!!!

-Blake

Walking Dead Prints

Hey everyone! Haven't been posting as much here (I usually save that for my facebook fanpage: www.facebook.com/pinkhavok and my tumblr: www.pinkhavok.tumblr.com). Anyways, here are my final Walking Dead prints next to each other! as a set! Enjoy!

P.S. If you're interested in buying these prints please visit my etsy shop at the following link: www.etsy.com/shop/PinkHavok

Steel Dragons

Steampunk in Feudal Japan?! Doesn't that sound cool?! If it does than here's a little taste of my recent art for "Steel Dragons"! AND PLEASE SHARE!

"Steel Dragons" is a Digital Tabletop Game which is currently in production by Quick Charge Games. They are a great bunch of guys and a real dream to work with! Here is just a taste of the work that we've been doing.

If you're interested in the game check out their website at the link I've provided: http://www.steel-dragons.com/news/steampunk-feudal-japan-steel-dragons/

There's a lot of things that will be happening so feel free to sign up for the mailing list! There will be a Kickstarter campaign in the near future as well so the mailing list is an excellent way to keep informed! Also, I'll be posting here as well as information is made available.

Finally, don't forget to come by and see me at the Denver Comic Con. It's May 31st to June 2nd at the Denver Convention Center! I'll be in Artist Valley at table H18 talking about "Steel Dragons" and showcasing some of my concept work for the game as well as selling prints, talking to everyone and just having fun! Feel free to stop by and say hi! Thanks!

-Blake

It's update time!

 Well it's been a while so it's time for me to update! It just seems like Facebook is so much easier that unfortunately I just don't do this as often :(

Anyways, first up are some more Photostudies, this time of Hit Girl and RoboCop. After that comes some old paintings I did for the Lord of the Rings Card Game by Fantasy Flight Games. Finally you can see some of the printed cards that I recieved!

Darth Vader Photostudy

Here's another Photostudy from "The Empire Strikes Back". This time of Darth Vader.

Amazingly, this is actually the first time I ever painted Darth Vader and man did that helmet give me some trouble! However, it was a good challenge and I learned a lot from it!

This did take longer than I wanted just shy of 3 hours. Between the helmet and the lightsaber's fx and perspective I got a little side tracked. No matter though, tons of fun as always in Photoshop Enjoy!

Luke Skywalker -"The Empire Strikes Back" Photostudy

Here's another Photostudy, this time from my most favorite of the Star Wars movies "The Empire Strikes Back".

This did take a little longer than I wanted, about 2hrs and 20 mins. However, I'm really trying to learn how to nail faces and this was just one of those times that it was a little more difficult. Luke has such a recognizable face and I think sometimes just knowing that there is a self imposed time limit means that it can be a little more difficult to capture the essence of the character.

Either way this was a lot of fun and as always great practice. It's interesting too because I changing up my approach a little working more with soft brushes to have smoother blending and gradients. Not sure if I'll stick with it forever (since I do love texture brushes) but it's great fun to experiment. Also, I have to say I really love the high contrast of the movie still that I was studying from. I love cinematic lighting!