DUBOIS, Pa. (EYT) – Aaron DeWyer tackled his first comicbook convention in May, heading to Pittsburgh for 3 Rivers Comicon. Now he is heading to the beach.
“Geeks At The Beach is a smaller convention in Lewes, near Rehoboth Beach,” DeWyer said. “I was thinking of making it my next convention, but that plan became concrete when I was contacted to do the exclusive print.”
A convention exclusive print is a piece of artwork that is only available at a specific convention. For DeWyer, the print was also a chance to draw one of his all-time favorite movie characters: Godzilla. The King of the Monsters got DeWyer into art in the first place. During his childhood, the drawing bug first bit DeWyer through monster illustrations by artist Arthur Adams in a book called The Official Godzilla Compendium. Years later, DeWyer got the chance to take Godzilla and have him fighting his usual ally, Jet Jaguar.
The poster for Geeks At The Beach Convention. Pencils by Aaron DeWyer and color and inks by Viviana Forrest.
“I had to make Godzilla more menacing,” DeWyer said. “It was a great piece for me to showcase my composition skills. I had to tell a story in a single image. I was very excited to be chosen to do it, and the best part is that I get paid to draw Godzilla!”
Artwork like DeWyer’s involves multiple steps to make it ready to sell. Fortunately, another local artist was able to enhance DeWyer’s pencils.
“Viviana Forrest is the inker and colorist on the project,” DeWyer said. “She did colors and inks on another piece of mine, Captain America holding Mjolnir, and I loved what she did with it. When it came to this project, I had her in mind from the start.”
DuBois artist Aaron Dewyer
DeWyer sent Forrest the pencil work and then Forrest would ink and color it. They shared work-in-progress images until they had a look they both liked.
“I had complete faith that she’d do a fantastic job,” DeWyer said. “People may not think about it, but inks and colors do a lot for a piece. You can do great pencils, but if your inking and coloring aren’t great, you kill the image. Viv does an amazing job with both. Collaboration leads to great things.”
DeWyer has to pack up his banners and his prints and head to Delaware, but this process is familiar to him. 3 Rivers Comicon was a great kickstart for DeWyer to get his art out into the world.
“The show in Pittsburgh, along with online sales, have been better than expected,” he said. “3 Rivers Comicon was a success, and we are expecting another successful show with Geeks At The Beach. I really didn’t know how my work would be received going into 3 Rivers, but people really seemed interested in what I had to offer.”
DeWyer said that part of the excitement of 3 Rivers Comicon was getting a compliment from professionals.
“I actually got one compliment from Matt Frank, who actually has drawn Transformers as well as Godzilla comics for IDW Publishing,” DeWyer said.
DeWyer has more projects underway, but he said that art is a constant learning process.
“It’s like going back to school,” he said. “I do a lot of studying other artists, reverse-engineering how they work. The best advice I’ve gotten so far was to pick an artist that you admire and copy their work. If you do that, your style will come through eventually.”
More about the convention can be found at its Facebook page. DeWyer has various social media platforms where he showcases his talents, like @aarondewyerart on Instagram, Art of Aaron DeWyer on Facebook , or Art of Aaron DeWyer (@kaijugroupie84) on Twitter.
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