Virgin character commissions 0

[Rick2you2]

Ever commission an artist who has never done the character you wanted before? Any that really pleased you? Any dogs you’d like to share? 
Any interesting stories to go with them? 

A fairly high number of mine fall within that category; not too many requests for the Phantom Stranger. So, I’ll save mine for later.

 

 

[alxjhnsn]

Skottie Young con sketch was a little off model. Take away? Cons are not the best place for an artist to draw characters that they have never heard of.  They are more than a little off model. That said, Skottie had very little time and he was very nice. 

 

On the other hand, Chris Giarrusso nailed them. OYTOH, he had more time. Skottie had moments due to the line. 


Chris was a little off since he has Spike speaking and the kids can't talk to big people. Still, it's an excellent gag and right on model.
 

[Bird]

well, I have Rick Geary commissions of Frank Zappa and Lyle Lovett, does that count? Both came out awesome.

 

I also used to get a million commissions of Doctor Strange, many from people who had never before done the character. Here is a Rick Geary!

Not sure if Bisley ever drew him before my commission, but here it is anyway

 

Here is Mitchell Bretweiser's, perhaps my favorite con commission ever

I would pass his table and watch him with his arms outstretched in this pose, using himself for reference. It misses the design on the chest but I don't sweat it because of how awesome it is.

I used to get some Valkyrie and Asgardian Storms as well. Here is Andy MacDonald killing it on both

 Not sure why this is so small.

 

Andy did tons of con sketches and a few commissions for me, here is an awesome Starman series of commissions I got

 

I intended to get 2 or 3 more to feature just about every character in the series (GA heroes like the Red Bee would have been next) but he seemed a little tired of the subject (my guess) so I stopped here.

 

 

Here is Andy on Doc (he had drawn him for me before but not all these characters)

 

Edited April 21, 2020 by Bird

[cmaeditor]

Brett Booth had never drawn the Winter Soldier before I got this commission last year. Still waiting on inks over blueline by Norm Rapmund

[Brian Peck]

I tend to pick characters an artist is know for or has drawn in the past.

What has happened to me with my "Draw me an iPod" some artists are not familiar with the iPod. I do give reference but some are still not sure how its used. Two examples are from Ramona Fradon and Esteban Maroto. I love both of them even though they didn't know much about ipods.

 

 

 

 

[Rick2you2]

This image is the very first time that Byrne and Rubinstein were commissioned to draw a Phantom Stranger. How do I know? They told me when they were doing it --in 1980. It remains one of my favorites.

[shady64]

Both of the below, the artists said it was their first time drawing the character.

[Bird]

Adam Hughes did a Clea for me and it was his first one from what I remember. I wasn't really happy with it. The backgrounds especially but aside from the leggings you wouldn't know what character it is.

If I remember correctly Adam was offering prints at this point of his con sketches and this one never showed up, which told me he wasn't happy with it either. I have had that happen a few times, pretty sure it was the case with AH! on the Clea.

I removed the image as it seems rude with someone else owning it now. I hope he loves it more than I did.

Edited April 21, 2020 by Bird

[comix4fun]

1 hour ago, Bird said:

Adam Hughes did a Clea for me and it was his first one from what I remember. I wasn't really happy with it. The backgrounds especially but aside from the leggings you wouldn't know what character it is.

If I remember correctly Adam was offering prints at this point of his con sketches and this one never showed up, which told me he wasn't happy with it either. I have had that happen a few times, pretty sure it was the case with AH! on the Clea.

I removed the image as it seems rude with someone else owning it now. I hope he loves it more than I did.

What era/year was it done? 

I think I have two of his best convention sketch list character commissions (Black Cat and Nancy from Sin City) and those never made it to being prints either, but they are tremendous. So not being a print might not be directly linked to whether or not he was happy with it. It also depends on what time period it was created. If it was when he was working with DC exclusively he may not have been given any permissions to create prints by Marvel. It's one of the hidden considerations behind those decisions. 

Knowing Adam, he is his harshest critic (by far, and second place is not even close) so there's a chance he is truly 100% pleased with very little of his output, regardless of the feedback he gets positive or negative. I am curious to see yours now. It's always a tough call, especially at a convention table, to get an artist to do a character he hasn't worked on before. I've had mixed results with that too. 

[vodou]

4 minutes ago, comix4fun said:

I think I have two of his best convention sketch list character commissions

Maybe "of". But I have, hands down, the best* (at least up through 2004). It cannot be posted anywhere "all ages".

 

*I'm just quoting Allison and Adam here