I want to echo what Anthony said... I TRULY appreciate and enjoy EVERY piece of art (read that again, Matt, ART!) on these boards.  I enjoy it all... the quick pencil sketches, the breakdowns (I learn a LOT from these), the full pencil/ink jobs, the coloring, the inking, etc.  As for your art in particular Matt; it's organic, dynamic, alive, fresh, and I feel what you put into each piece.  Is it Neal Adams or George Perez, or even Sexy-as-hell Darren Taylor or Hot-stud Castrillo?  Maybe not, but it's VERY cool stuff on its own.  I know that anatomy is a major weakness of mine... but I LOVE to draw.  I have no ambition to be a "comics pro,"  I am just enjoying the hell out of getting to post my drawings here and get feedback (good or critical) from whoever wants to chime in.  I think you do too, Matt.

Sorry for absence...will try and comment on everything I have missed to date...here goes and don't say I'm not dedicated to you guys...

QUOTE: [ Gerry Turnbull ]...with alittle nudging from james,pencilled and inked by my mate Billy,tones and colours me.

Really nice work there, on everyone involved's part Gerry. Thank goodness you have people like James to push you to share such great pieces.

QUOTE: [ Flavio Sapha ][The Hustler]

Great composition Flavio. Love the mood. In actual fact I prefer the first one, rather than the second, ammunded version.

QUOTE: [ Gerry Turnbull ][Dr Strange & Neal Adams piece]

Both came out really well. But the Dr Strange piece serves to highlight the area's you are holding back in pal. Try not to hide from committing yourself to your light source in your inking. Instead of leaving it for the colourist on the cape, you could have accentuated the drop shadow from Dr Strange onto the cloak. The flamboyance you used in the grass on the Neal Adams piece is a good example of taking an idea, good-or-bad and running with it. Exercise this trait a little more, I guarantee you'll accelerate you learning process many-fold. This is meant as friendly pointers -NOT- criticism.

QUOTE: [ James Stewart ]...heres the pencils for a Dr Doom pinup.still to ink it.

Excellent piece James. What I like about this is the efforts taken to underline the "character" you are dealing with, from the setting to the portraits on the wall. Try taking -that- excellent trait and turning it up a notch to the characters stances and poses. Take your mirror and stand in front of it, as you might imagine Doom to do himself. Remember, in your minds eye, the key parts of the posture that stood out for you and bring those into your drawings. I -really- believe that would push your already great work that little bit further. Oh as for the inking, you are taking on a new tool as far as I recall reading, the brush pen!yeah? Try not marrying one implement. As solid a job you've turned in here buddy, I think you've got a lot of "samey" lines. By that I'm talking specifically about line weights. When I first took on the brush all I could do was thin lines. However it's a bit of sound advice from me to tell you to use the brush for the line thickness you feel you are comfortably producing and swap to another implement for those other line weights...just until the skill meets the demand. It'll serve the great artwork better...trust me;-)

QUOTE: [ Justin Wasson ]...Matt, here's your Grifter image.

Whoo-ee, Justin that's a doosey! Great attitude and "character, James "This" is what I was talking about. Justin has hit a great commanding pose that suits Grifter here. Before we let Justins head get too big he has put both Grifters feet on alternate planes of perspective but then it's JFF this piece right! Not going to dwell too long on that because I'm a great admirer of Justins.

QUOTE: [ Anthony castrillo ][Solar coloured commission]

A great piece dude...I have to admit to being somewhat distracted by the big Solar head in the top right side. I guess it steals my focus from the centre-piece full figure, simply because you haven't drained any of the colour from the image. I suspected when I was viewing the B&W that the head shot was like a collage or secondary image and that the main thrust was the full figure in the centre. As such I guessed that the head shot would be somewhat more transparent or etheral. Only a colouring point though;-)

Quote] [ Anthony castrillo ]Darren, thanks for the ALIEN ref, it will come in handy. [/Quote]

My pleasure dude....I knew it was lying around somewhere.

QUOTE: [ Marc Baptiste ] wanna see some drawings of some built/buffed/hot/sexy men!

Marc...sheesh come out the closet dude, why dontcha! ;-) Anthony's just posted a great Solar image, that -has- to quentch your manly thirst, no?

QUOTE: [ Chris Malgrain ]Common Grounds illo

Another fine example of why Chris is just so god-damned good. Great composition and movement. My only detracting thought on this whole illo was the size of their feet, one and all! Being unfamiliar wiith the characters, I'm just assuming that this is some character traits.

Okay, next page I missed...

QUOTE: [ Chris Malgrain ]Here's the final version of a page whose pencils I posted some pages back.

Turned out real nice Chris.

QUOTE: [ Anthony castrillo ]Ive decided that shading then inking is doing the job twice so i'll forgo that step and take a chance.

Looking good pal...but that's a heee-uge decision you're making there, dropping a stage. I'll be keen to see the results (I'm sure they are probably just further down the page, we'll see.) In all honesty, as with most I'm sure, when I pencil for someone else to ink, I lay down as many lines as possible...in some effort to keep as much of "me" in the final product as possible. Of this, I'm sure I'm not alone. When I draw with myself in mind to ink, there is only what is basically required for me to "finish" in inks. Which, as you say is -really- only the pencil rendering stage but in ink! What I have also found to be true though, and worth keeping in mind is the Brian Bolland school of thought. Which is accepting that the inking (Yourself) part is purely a technical aspect of your art and that in these case, finishing in pencils is actually the -better- way to go with then inking as a technical process to follow. But all the lines, all of them are there in the finished pencils. Simply because, as a penciller it is the pencilling stage, unbroken that culminates the final illo. The inking stage is a secondary process. Obviously all this changes when you are inking someone else. Personally I see benefits in both but -HAVE- to concede that if I've -ever- pencilled something for someone else, who has then fallen through and I've inked it myself from my "full" pencils...the piece generally comes out "head-and-shoulders" above my other work...so is this proof that Bollands way is better!? Who knows, just sharing an observation with a "Studio" buddy;-)

Incidentally I might have stuck a couple of silhouettes of more eggs behind the one you have here...simply because it looks kind of solitary there...conspicuously so.

QUOTE: [ Gerry Turnbull ]variations on a theme . . .

Nice, Gerry...although I think there is a little -too- much space here...unless you intend to fill it with more characters? Huh? Huh? More artwork? Gerry? Buddy? More artwork, huh!...Sheesh, take the hint! ;-)

QUOTE: [ Vladimir Fiks ]Just practicing some inking over JB's Action pencils.

Excellent stuff Vlad. Although, dude is that a "wobble" in the long straight cape line? Dude...the long lines are the hardest but really...what the hell were you doing to wobble the line!? In fact, I don't want to know;-) The hair came out real nice.

QUOTE: [ Anthony castrillo ]Heres the final.

Turned out real nice Anthony...still feel that eggs all on it's own there...might want to "fill" up the background with shock lines or some hatching to darken the "empty" spaces. But not really necessary I guess.

Okay, on with Page 92...

QUOTE: [ Vladimir Fiks ]Here is the finished version of the Action page.

Vlad - thanks for the kind words.  I was pretty tired when I wrote that last night, but it's nice to know that I am getting better as I go.  I keep saying it over and over, but I'm learning so much from looking at what you all are doing here.  Also, it helps when you have a -mission- in that i have stuff to actually work towards instead of just coming up with stuff out of my head for the heck of it.

Darren - nice to see your -face- again.  I was a bit worried that we hadn't seen or heard from you for a bit.  Your words above are wisdom.  Being tired didn't help.  In putting together my resume over the last few days, I've realized that I'm not as bad as i thought.  I do need to learn more, and I am comfortable doing what I am doing for a living.  I might not ever get that shot at being a -pro- but to heck with it.  Like you said, just have some fun and see what comes out!  I like that.

And thank you ALL for the comradery and positive words.