Korgi Book 2
Posted by Christian Slade at 3:23 pm on October 6th
Book 2 of my all-ages graphic novel series, "Korgi" is now hitting stores!
I self published Book 1 as my final thesis project for my M.A. from Syracuse University in 2005. Since then, the book has been picked up by Top Shelf Productions and we republished Book 1 last year with 22 extra pages. Even though each book is a self-contained story, we are also following a larger arc that continues over the entire series. A new Korgi book is scheduled to be released each year. Each book is around 88-112 pages so it takes me about a year to finish one.
Ice Cream!
Posted by Christian Slade at 10:17 pm on May 31st
This is what I love about freelance illustration. You never know where the next adventure will take you. These illustrations were for an ice cream container for Publix, a chain of supermarkets down here in the south east. Great fun with excellent art direction from Mike Esker.
Before I started the drawings, they sent me a few containers to sample. I was wondering how they were going to do that, but by the next day I had 3 frozen solid containers sitting on my Florida doorstep in an insulated box with dry ice!
Free Comic Book Day 2008
Posted by Christian Slade at 10:42 pm on April 30th
Ann and I are going to Chicago for the first time and will be doing a signing at Chicago Comics this Saturday May 3rd from 12noon until 2pm. Also, it's Free Comic Book Day nationwide! Just visit your local comic shop this Saturday and get a free comic created just for this event.
These are some sample pages from our short story in the Top Shelf offering called "Owly And Friends". If you're in the area, stop on by!
Also, if anyone has any recommendations for a first trip to the windy city, let me know!
Korgi Cantina
Posted by Christian Slade at 12:11 pm on March 25th
A few weeks ago I was at Megacon down here in Orlando helping promote my graphic novel series, Korgi. Every show I usually do a few comissioned drawings. Sometimes they request a theme, other times its a drawing of my characters.
This was done for a collector who had amassed an impressive collection of original art over the past decade, all around the theme of Star Wars. I chose one of my favorite sequences, the Cantina!
More Sketchbook
Posted by Christian Slade at 9:24 am on February 25th
Some more sketches I thought I'd post. We've got a plein air watercolor, some drawings of my sister's scottish terrier puppy, Seamus, and an informal portrait of my sister Elizabeth.
4 Hour Stump
Posted by Christian Slade at 5:02 pm on February 11th
I spent about 4 hours drawing this tree stump over a period of 3 days. Over Christmas break, we took a minivan, the corgis, the twins, and tons of cargo up to the family cabin at the base of the Appalachian Trail. I couldn't really wander far to explore and paint, but this beautiful fungus-covered tree stump was sitting just outside the front door. With coffee in one hand and a paintbrush in the other, I spent some time getting to know this weathered native of the woods.
"They arrived just before you did..."
Posted by Christian Slade at 3:46 pm on February 7th
This was done as a gift last December and to celebrate 30 years of Star Wars. The style was watercolor / goauche as a nod to one of my favorite artists, Ralph McQuarrie.
Latest Sketchbook Action
Posted by Christian Slade at 11:10 am on January 24th
Last month I was able to go up to Detroit to teach a worshop at The College Of Creative Studies. We fit quite a bit into the short time period. In all we had a slideshow, a 5 hour figure drawing session, animal drawing at the zoo, and an illustration demo. These sketchbook pages were done on the spot with pencil and I added watercolor later using color notes I made in the margins. Thanks a bunch to Don Kilpatrick for having me up there!
Bronx Zoo
Posted by Christian Slade at 11:34 am on January 18th
Last summer, I completed hundreds of illustrations over the course of 6 weeks for the Bronx Zoo's website feature called "Build Your Wild Self!" The idea was to create a website in which kids can go build a virtual Mr. Potatohead of themselves and then add on crazy animal parts such as Rhino horns, Monarch wings, Barbirussa snout,...you get the idea.
Below are various roughs and samples I created in trying to get my arms around this project in terms of how it can be done, and still have everything line up correctly and work in a believable way. I also included a few backgrounds I did to stage the character against as a desktop. The website was designed and assembled by the people in charge of the ad campaign, Deutsch. An intense but very rewarding project!
And many drawings were done...
Posted by Christian Slade at 3:00 pm on December 13th
...50 in fact, for this young adult novel that was released this fall from Knopf. I have gotten quite a bit of anthromorphic work over the last year, and I'm not complaining. It's always a blast drawing snipy ferrets in armour and foxes sword fighting evil cats. A sequel is in the works.
