Comic art is my specialty...
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Hi, my name is Brad Olrich and I am a college art professor with a passion for comics. I currently divide my time between comic art and being the lead faculty of the Art Department at Mid-Michigan College in the Central Michigan area.
Here is a sample of my latest project Arnza: Well of the Warlock. This story will be appearing in Main Enterprises comic book anthology Brain Freeze #7. Arnza, an Etruscan student of the physical sciences and his pal, Dexios, roam the Mediterranean world of 7th Century B.C. Here are a few pages from this inaugural tale.
Penciling is a huge part of the process of making a comic strip or book. Everything is planned out in advanced on thumbnails sheets and then penciled on 11" x 17" Bristol board in more detail.
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Latest Illustration Work...
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I guess word on my affinity for working on period pieces, particularly ones from the ancient world, is getting around. I was recently asked by a publisher if I would like to contribute work for their upcoming folio of characters from Greek Mythology. I was giving my choice of characters to choose from, so I selected Achilles and Bellerophon to illustrate. Beyond that (and some general dimensions) I was given complete creative freedom to do whatever I wanted. For those of you that have forgotten, never read The Iliad or have never seen the movies Helen of Troy (1956) or Troy (2004), Achilles was supposed to be the fiercest warrior of all of Greece. Now, I always envisioned him as a dark, brooding, viscous brute. So I chose to show a savage, but weary, Achilles in his tent in the moments after his epic duel with Hector (who's body you can see slung under a camp table). I also decided to eschew any ink wash or grayscale and go with a very stark black and white rendering.
I also do Digital Painting and Cover Art
The fun part of being a full-time Professor of Art & Design is using my own work as demonstrations in lectures. Here are a couple of recent comic book cover concepts done using my painting skills, but in Adobe Photoshop rather than acrylic or oils.
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Commodore Dinosaur and me...
As a lifelong comic fan, I began creating my own comic as soon as I was able. In the late 1980's I began publishing my own work. Soon after I was contacted by other small press publishers and began producing professional comic art. It was around this time that I created the character of Commodore Dinosaur. Then, around 2003 I created a web strip centered around the character which ran for 3 years and produced over 350 strips. Finally, in 2017 a redesign and reboot of this character was done as my MFA thesis (Yes, I have an MFA in comic book illustration). Here are a few pages from that thesis...
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At Galaxy's Core now available in full color at comixology!
That's right! My space opera comic strip At Galaxy's Core which appeared in Aazurn Publishing's Indie Comics issues #1 and #2 is now available in color for your iPhone or tablet. Now you can read the adventures of Grif and the Drifter on the go wherever you want. Just follow the link below to Comixology where you can find Indie Comics for the low price of only $2.99 per issue. talk about a deal! That's 54 pages of full color comics. Not just At Galaxy's Core, but many other series as well!
www.comixology.com/Indie-Comics/comics-series |
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Contact me!
Portraits, paintings, illustrations and comic art. All at reasonable prices. Contact me with project proposals or art commissions.
