Chalk Art, Illustrations, Digital Painting, and Cartoons by Artist Eric Maruscak

I always love when I get to take a trip down to New York City for a chalk art convention appearance. Not only is it a fun trip (and one of the easier ones I make because it is only 3 hours away) the people at the Javits Center and the fine folks at Reed Exhibitions always treat me so amazingly well that I don’t want to leave. I’ve been down there so much in the past few years that it really does feel like a second home.

Early on in my chalk art career, before I ever attended any comic conventions like Wizard World or New York Comic Con, I hit up art festivals and art walks as a way to display my street art. And really that is how it begins for any street painter, you get down on the street and you create something, all the while hoping that no one tells you you’re not allowed to do this before you are done. At least the art festivals would close a street so we could work.

I have been working on a graphic novel concept for some time now. It is called Sumi and Kei Rule the World, and features two teenagers caught up in amazing and nightmarish circumstances as they battle to survive a world that is turning increasingly more and more bizarre.

Since I began creating chalk art and street art murals, I have made a number of Alex Ross painting recreations. The blended style of his work, plus his iconic take on comic book heroes using a realistic approach to lighting and proportions, not only makes them amazingly fun to draw but really darn impressive when finished. In fact, my favorite mural I’ve made was an Alex Ross Captain America image for the 2008 New York Comic Con, you can find a post on that here.

I have been a huge fan of Star Wars since I was a little kid. I still remember waiting in line for Return of the Jedi like it was just last summer. I rushed out of school to the local mall only to find a line of 72 (I counted) people already waiting to see the movie which didn’t even start for another 5 agonizing hours.

I have been a huge fan of Joe Madureira’s work for a long time now. Unfortunately, I stopped collecting comics on a monthly basis a few years before he first appeared on the scene penciling Uncanny X-Men for Marvel Comics. Later, as I followed the comic scene through outside sources like Wizard Magazine, I started seeing his work pop up from time to time, especially when his Battle Chasers series hit through Wildstorm Comics Cliffhanger imprint in the late 90′s.

Zombies. Everyone loves them. C’mon, admit it. Even your Grandmother thinks zombies are awesome! They make for great movies and for great illustrations too. For anyone who has even approached the art form of sequential storytelling and comic books zombies are a MUST draw from time to time. They even play a role in a graphic novel I am working on. Truth be told, they probably play a part in most peoples would-be graphic novels these days and there are probably one hundred thousand zombie concepts floating around in artists heads. But for some reason, they keep coming back, I guess the undead have a way of doing that… coming back.

I truly loved taking part in the Creature of the Week contests over at conceptart.org and I am hoping to get back to it some time this summer. This was one of the LAST attempts I made and it was also one of my favorites over my short run of C.O.W. entries. I started playing more with full digital painting in Adobe Photoshop. I was trying to break out the habit of using strong, bold lines. It was a trait from my cartooning, and it was difficult to let go.

I got to a lot of conventions, and I have seen a lot of strange, weird, odd, abnormal stuff. But by far, one of the most interesting conventions I have been to is the Otakon in Baltimore, MD. This is an Anime, Manga and Asian Pop Culture convention created by a grass-roots fan base. It takes place every summer at the Baltimore Convention Center and has become a Mecca for all lovers of these various art forms.

The last time I talked about entering the Creature of the Week contest over at conceprtart.org, I showed a few examples that went over well with the group, but never got me very close to being the top vote getter. This illustration and concept art weekly contest is very competitive sometimes, and a number of the best artists working in the field today browse these boards regularly and take part in events, so you really have to up your game as much as possible.

In 2008, a gentleman had seen me at the New York Anime Festival creating a giant Voltron chalk mural, and asked if I would be interested in attending the NY Toy Fair just two months later to create a piece for his booth. After some back and forth, we settled on an image of Star Wars. Oh, but not just any image, this was going to be a recreation of one of the original Ralph McQuarrie concept art paintings from the first film way back in 1977. A number of these concept paintings had recently been turned into limited edition action figures so the fit was perfect for the Toy Fair.

For anyone who has made it out to the New York City Comic Con, a Wizard World show, the New York Anime Festival, or any of the number of conventions I’ve been a chalk artist at and met me in person, you’ve probably received one of my business cards. For those who actually read it, they often laugh and ask me one question: What on earth is Troll Fighting? You see, my card lists me as an Illustrator, a Cartoonist, and a Graphic Artist… but it is that fourth item of Troll Fighting that people find the most interesting. In truth it is a simple story that doesn’t involve knightly heroics or internet invasions.

If you look at my blogroll to the right of the page, you will see a link to one of my favorite forums ever. conceptart.org! This is a site for professional and non-professional artists alike to gather, show their work, critique the works of others, and take part in community events that will help improve your artistic abilities! The feedback you can get here is alone some of the best around, and were talking for people who have been working in the industry for a long time.

Since a number of people have asked me what my drawing process is like, I thought I might make a short post on what goes into making a digital drawing. In the example below you will see the first stage of my art which is crafting a rough gesture sketch. I almost always start this sketch on paper, and it is usually quite small.

The point of this is not to think about details or even shading, but to capture a quick sense of movement that will carry over into the final image. This is the gesture sketch for a tee shirt artwork I was asked to illustrate called “Renegade Runners.” The image they had in mind was not your typical runner, but someone muscular in line with Rambo and wearing a camo headband.

One of my favorite shows to go to is the NY Comic Con. Run by the awesome folks over at Reed Exhibitions, the show has grown larger and larger each year to become one of the premiere pop culture events on the east coast. With NY Comic Con 2009 coming up on February 6-8, I thought this would be a good time to post about LAST years show and the chalk art mural that I made.

I was asked to recreate an Alex Ross painting for the NY Comic Con in 2008 as he was to be one of the guests of honor. I have loved Mr. Ross’ art ever since I first saw his work with Marvels back in 1994. His painterly style really lends itself to these chalk art drawings because the blended colors can be recreated with the chalk medium quite accurately.