2026 Momocon Commissions and Wrap Up

 

Hello everyone, after a full day of sleep, I have somewhat returned to a normal state, and have some stuff I can report for Momocon 2026! So, Momocon is a huge show, it's 4 days long if you've never been to it, and this year was even larger than previous years. I was lucky as well to get another booth in the Comic Creator's section, and I had some good friends and great creators as neighbors.

One of the things I love about Momocon is that despite it being a HUGE show, the audience is super diverse and that means that even though my booth is largely original comic books, I can still do well there. This year, I debuted Curse of the Eel volume 5 at the con, which almost didn't happen so let me tell that story first: I finished this volume late, between freelance work and school duties, I was running sorely behind on my pages for the latest volume. I managed to turn around that 20 pages in two weeks, but I had assumed getting any volumes in time for the con would be impossible. However, I have an amazing printer in Wonderpress, and they managed to send me copies in time to make my table a success (and it was)!

Long story short, my last two Momocons have been my most successful conventions ever, and this is from most of my sales coming by book sales. Curse of the Eel sold really well, I had a bundle of the 5 volumes and while I worried that it might be too pricey, I sold several bundles and many even came just to grab volume 5 because they had already bought volumes 1-4. Also, Honor Bound might have been my best selling book in general, I even had a few people come back to tell me how much they enjoyed it, which warmed my heart and made me excited to get back to work on chapter 2!

As for the art of this post, I also took on 9 commissions at the show and was able to finish all but one of them at the con! They were an original character obsessed with blood and eyes, Rui from xlov (a K-pop group, this image isn't the finished one, I forgot to get a photo of the complete commission), Commander Wolfe from Clone Wars, Winry Rockbell from FMA in Watercolor, Nico Robin from One Piece (which I forgot to get a complete photo of), Static Shock, Gammoth from Monster Hunter, and lastly, 2 Creepy Pasta characters in a warring embrace, which I completed in the last 3 minutes of the show, but the commissioner was very happy with this one so I'm happy too.

All in all, Momocon is my favorite show to do, and I really hope that I can keep attending in the future. I have plans for new books in some of my other series, like Rare Drops, as well as some one shot and competition comics I plan to make this summer.

Check back to see some of the things I have in the works, and consider checking out my Patreon for more behind the scenes looks into my projects!

 

Pearl, Steven Universe

Here's a drawing of Pearl from Steven Universe, a bit smaller than the Garnet drawing, but it was a fun little illustration. Pearl is actually the hardest to imagine in my style, her features are very different from how I draw faces and it became tricky to figure out the best way to translate them. I think this turned out well, although it'd be tricky to draw her again.

Watercolor, gouache and color pencil on Stillman and Birn beta paper.

Garnet: Steven Universe

Hello all! I just finished watching the first season of Steven Universe, and I totally get all the hype. It's a great show, so now i have excuse to draw the characters cuz I love their designs. It's also a really progressive show, which I think is important right now to teach kids to be tolerant of everyone and judge people by their character, not what they are.

This Garnet was done all in one go, took me about 4 hours to paint, an hour to sketch. The drawing is about 5 or 6 total paints, all on my usual Stillman and Birn paper. The tricky part was using the carmine, a new paint in my palette but with gouache to smooth things out, it turned out well, I think.

Silent Hills

I drew this fan art because lately I have been watching multiple playthrus of P.T. on the youtube, and I just love that they're all so different. What the game does that is fascinating, is it lets you discover things at your own pace, but each person's game is different, in terms of what happens. Sometimes you get attacked, sometimes you don't, sometimes the ghost will appear in front of you, sometimes behind, it's nuts! I really hope that the team that worked on the game can make something all their own and cut Konami from it so they can go nuts.

Tools: Zebra Brush pen, Pentel Hybrid Technica and a Pentel ink was brush (unsure of the name)
Sketchbook: A new Stillman and Birn product I can't quite talk about yet

Jasper: Steven Universe watercolor

A watercolor fan art of Jasper from Steven Universe for my super good friend, Scotty6000! Watercolor and pen on Stillman and Birn gamma paper.

Post-Heroes Con 2015

Last weekend was Heroes Con, and it was a blast! I was super happy to sell mostly books the whole weekend. Comics are my foremost focus, so to be able to say my table was successful from book sales almost solely was really good. I sold out of copies of Requiem Sonata and Curse of the Eel, which I'll need to reprint some by SPX, my plan is to get Requiem chapters 1-2 printed together to save money  and keep costs down. But yes! Thanks to everyone who came by the table, whether you bought anything or not, your kind words mean the world to me.

Here are some commissions I did over the weekend, sadly I didn't get photos of every piece. I hope you'll consider commissioning me again, and commissions are currently open! Here is my info:

Sketchcard 4x5in: $5
Single color and/or B&W 6x8.5in: $10
Full color 6x8.5in: $20
Single color and/or B&W 8.5x12in: $30
Full color 8.5x12in: $40

If you would like me to ship your commission to you, it'll be $1 for every sketchcard, $2 for every 6x8.5in piece and $3 for every 8.5x12in piece. Email me at jorge@jorgesantiagojr.com if you're interested!

Hannibal for Heroes Con

I wanted to have a new print to sell at Heroes Con this year, and with time of the essence, I decided to to do something with Copics. I got the idea to draw Hannibal this way after some fun experiments with Copic wide markers in my sketchbook. I just love how it smears the color but doesn't remove the line, and gives it a shimmering light feel. So here's the finished piece! I'll be at Table AA-48 with (hopefully) this print, original pages, and comics for sale and I'll be doing on site commissions! Come by if you can!

Tools: Copic markers, Caran D'Ache watersoluble pencils and gouache
Paper: Stillman and Birn epsilon paper

Invader Zim Commissions

Here are 2 recent commissions that I finished this past weekend. They were both a lot of fun, and I got to crack open some new pens which was a nice change. I forget sometimes what it's like to draw with a fresh Zebra fine pen, cuz boy is it different from one that's pretty used. 

Tools: Zebra Fine Brush Pen, Pentel Color Brush and Copic Multiliners

Paper: Stillman and Birn beta paper

Megaman X sketch

"I guess I'm not powerful enough to defeat him."

Megaman X because I couldn't sleep so I may as well draw a scene from one of my favorite games but with a little of that patented Jorge style depression. In the first stage of Megaman X, he runs up against Vile, a much stronger robot who is in a ride mech with huge fists and it's a fight you literally cannot win. He beats you to submission and then traps you, and of course, in the game, they can't show things like X's arm being knocked off or dents and all that. But if I was drawing that scene in a comic, after Zero rescues X, this would be that panel.

Akuma

Akuma meditating. This was a sketch request for a customer who is awesome as heck! I hope he likes it!

The chi is painted with Daniel Smith Shadow Violet, which has that awesome granulation in it naturally. I was hoping it would give the look of some ethereal substance so i hope that comes across. For his body, I mixed a similar tone Ultramarine Blue, Alizarin Crimson and Payne's Gray and was able to keep the granulation only in the energy. I finished it off with a Caran D'Ache supracolor pencil to add in some lines to his head, mainly the jaw line and his nose.

Materials: Daniel Smith and Sennelier watercolors
Paper Stillman and Birn Beta Paper.

Sketch of the Day: Irene Adler and Sherlock Holmes

This is today's warm up drawing, and I think it turned out pretty well. I'm a big fan of the show so it was easy to think up this idea, which honestly, there's not much too it. Although I think this has all of the stuff I tend to do well with. I really liked using a caricature for Sherlock to show that he's a little turned on.

Tools: Pencil and Winsor Newton Brown Madder watercolor
Paper: Stillman and Birn Gamma Sketchbook.

Sketch of the Day - Saya from Deadly Class

I need to use this blog more! Here is today's sketch of the day, Saya from Deadly Class! Seriously one of the best comic books I've ever read, Rick Remender, Wes Craig and Lee Loughridge have created a masterclass in the art of making comics. Check it out!

Tools: Pentel Pocket Brush and Color Brush, Copic multiliners for the tattoos
Paper: Stillman and Birn Gamma sketchbook paper
Color: Daniel Smith Shadow Violet and Winsor Newton Brown Madder.

Thank you for checking out my blog!!

DC Ladies in Watercolor

These are some watercolor sketches from my Stillman and Birn alpha sketchbook. I was painting these in between assignments last quarter and I think they turned out well. I'm not really all that interested in accurate depictions but more on doing my own interpretation of them. I find their outfits to be kinda silly, like why wouldn't Wonder Woman wear Greek like armor? Why is she going into battle in a one piece swimsuit?

My favorite is Hawkgirl, that one came out the best I think.

Sketch of the Day 5-30-13: Marvel Girl

 

This time I drew Marvel Girl. I'm really enjoying seeing them all in All New X-men. I like doing these sketches, they're a fun exercise. I've also done a few original character ones for future projects that I'll post up as well. 

Sketch of the Day: 5-19-13: Cyclops

This is already on my tumblr, but that site is a lot easier to update when I'm not at my personal computer. So I'm a bit behind on posting my sketches of the day, so here's one that has gotten good reception (for one of my drawings anyhow). I've been really loving Stuart Immonen's work on All New X-Men so I wanted to give original Cyclops a try, and  here are the results.

This is one of the few where I didn't have to labor on it for very long. Aside from some anatomy hiccups and trying to figure out what to do with his left arm, this one came together rather quickly. I penciled this in a pad of paper I brought with me from Texas, it's sort of cream colored and I decided to use it on these sketches of the day so I don't waste the pad. I do wish it has more tooth to it like the paper I pencil on, or one of the vellum Stillman and Birns' I love so much. I usually pencil really cleanly so getting to rough things up with the pencil was a lot of fun.

Sketch of the Day 5-2-2013: Evan & Jia Jing from Wolverine and the X-men

I've been really enjoying Wolverine and the X-men, it's a fun book but also it's where some of my favorite Marvel characters end up. Evan is a character from Rick Remender's amazing Uncanny X-Force run, and he's a student now in Wolverine and the X-men. I won't spoil anything character wise but I would really recommend reading both books even if you're not into superhero stuff. I think Jason Aaron and Rick Remender both really tap into what makes these people different and tell stories about responsibility and duty and violence that I think anyone who likes a good story would enjoy. It's not about the super heroics, but the people behind the masks. This is the stuff that made Marvel different from their inception.

Back from rambling, the girl is a new mutant to the school, Jia Jing. A chinese girl who appears to be made of hard gemstones and can fly on pixie wings. She's a really good contrast for Evan and I imagine at some point they'll end up as an item. I hope so anyhow, Evan I think needs a person like her in his life.

The Séance commission complete

Here is the finished art of The Séance, from Umbrella Academy. It's been a while since I used my Copic markers and this is probably one of the better drawings I've done with them. I used the Neutral Gray markers and the Cool Gray for the majority of the character, using only one color, Sand I think it was, for his hair. This is also the first time I've used colors from different families over one another. I've been wary of it as I know if you try to mix a lighter tone over a darker one, the result is a mottled weird version of the darker color. In his jacket, I mixed the Neutral 6 on top of the Cool 5, going up a level in darkness, but also really muting the coolness of the cool gray and it didn't mottle the ink at all. I'll have to practice this on the warms and see if I can further effect the saturation of the markers. Oh art experiments, how I love thee.

Overall I'm really happy with this, and the commissioner was really happy with it. Thanks Emily for the support!

Regular Show Pin Up for Inking Techniques Class

For our first project for the class, we're exploring and practicing inking using markers alone. By markers I mean Microns, PITT pens, etc, so this is a return to basics for me. I used to ink with these alone but then I moved to nibs and then I started going to brush. But yeah this is what I came up with. I like sketching small with these tools but drawing large with them can be a pain since all the thick lines have to be blocked in and such. This means it take a while to get the inking done, at least for me. But I did well on this in the critique so maybe I need to work markers more into my work flow. We'll see. Also, I colored it.

It's been a while since I colored something but this went by super fast. I did this in about 5 hours, which is a huge boost of speed for me. I like to play with saturation mostly, I like the way it can inject life into a color or make it seem dull and sad. But yeah, I'll show more when I have more stuff!