I wish someone had told me that Eleanor Davis had a sketch blog

Because then I could have enjoyed two years’ worth of Eleanor Davis’ absurdly proficient “sketches,” comics, illustrations and more instead of having to catch up with them all at once.

Wait. “Having” to catch up with them all at once? Isn’t it more like getting to catch up with them all at once? When it’s someone with Davis’s level of chops we’re talking about, what the hell am I complaining for?

(hat tip: Zack Soto)

Chris Samnee’s domestic bliss

Most of the world knows Harvey award nominee Chris Samnee as the artist for Thor: The Mighty Avenger, Serenity: The Shepherd’s Tale,, Capote in Kansas and soon Captain America and Bucky, as well as his contributions to the Comic Twart sketchblog, but here’s something you might not now—he leaves cute little cartoon notes for his wife all the time, and she posts them in a blog called lunch notes. It’s like a sketchblog with the Samnee’s domestic life as the topic. They have a baby on the way, so many of the cartoons focus on that, and their cat also makes some guest appearances. The cartoons are warm and funny but not mushy, and the easy linework shows what a good draftsman Chris is, even when he’s dashing off a casual sketch.

(via iFanboy)

Page after glorious page of behind-the-scenes Strange Tales II art

line art for the Strange Tales II #1 cover by Rafael Grampa

Over at ComicsAlliance, Laura Hudson has a real treat for those of you who like your superhero comics with an alternative twist: 50-plus pages of sketches, thumbnails, pencils, inks, color studies and more from the Strange Tales II hardcover, which debuted this week. Click on over and get a glimpse at the creative process behind contributions from Kate Beaton, Jeffrey Brown, Ivan Brunetti, Farel Dalrymple, Rafael Grampa, Dean Haspiel, Jaime Hernandez, Paul Hornschemeier, Benjamin Marra, Edu Medeiros, Harvey Pekar, Frank Santoro, and Paul Vella. That’s hella Strange!

Kate Beaton’s New York Diary

The Big Apple giveth, the Big Apple taketh away: After losing what would have been her latest Hark, a Vagrant! comic strip somewhere on the streets of SoHo, cartoonist Kate Beaton made lemonade out of lemons by instead posting “New York Sketches” — a sizeable selection of diary-comic strips about her life and times in New York City. From attending the New York Comic Con (see above) to dealing with drunk and disorderly fellow New Yorkers to assuaging the fears of her mom back in Nova Scotia, it’s a fun little portrait of the artist as she navigates the concrete jungle where dreams are made of [sic].

Joelle Jones’s Troublemaker sketches

Book 2 of Troublemaker, the graphic novel penned by mystery writers Janet and Alex Evanovich, is out at the end of this month, and Dark Horse is celebrating by posting some of artist Joelle Jones’s sketches for the book. I happen to think Jones’s art is the best thing about Troublemaker, so this is an extra treat.

(Via Comics Worth Reading.)

But will it get its own Facebook?

George O'Connor's sketch of Bill O'Reilly

It is with great pride that I report that my facetious headline of the other day became… a thing! As you may remember, I picked up on a story of Fox pundit Bill O’Reilly bullying an editorial cartoonist who did an unflattering portrayal of him, and suggested we do Everybody Draw Bill O’Reilly Day.

The artists at Drawbridge, a daily sketch blog, saw the post and decided to make it their theme for the day! Check out this awesome gallery of Bill O’Reilly caricatures by George O’Connor, Joe Infurnari and their compatriots.

And independent of that, Bryant Paul Johnson was inspired to do his own O’Reilly caricature. One thing several people mentioned is that O’Reilly is fun to draw, which may make him a more frequent target in the future.

Artists pay homage to Wildstorm characters

Becky Cloonan draws The Grifter

The members of the Deep6 and Hypothetical Island studios have taken to doing a warm-up sketch on a given topic every morning and posting their sketches here. Yesterday, the group decided to pay homage to Wildstorm after the announcement of its demise by sketching a favorite character. Above is Becky Cloonan’s drawing of The Grifter; other contributions include Joe Infurnari’s Tom Strong, Simon Fraser’s Jenny Sparks, George O’Connor’s Planetary trio, Reilly Brown’s Fairchild, and Tim Hamilton’s Ex Machina drawing.

Ted Naifeh’s sketches: Fun with Batman

Ted Naifeh's Batman and Robin

Every now and then, Ted Naifeh gets the urge to draw some Batman. He just posted five sketches on his blog, ranging from the beautifully detailed drawing above (the sphinx is based on the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco) to a jaunty manga-esque ink sketch of Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson.