Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, entertainment, idw, Nicholas Meyer, Ron Joseph, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution

Artist Spotlight – Ron Joseph From IDW's The Seven-Per-Cent Solution

Published Mon, 14 Sep 2015 20:30:36 -0500

Last updated Thu, 24 Sep 2015 21:33:55 -0500

We haven't done an artist spotlight in a while, so here is an artist introduced to me by one of our contributors Michele Brittany. The artist is Ron Joseph who has been working on Nicholas Meyer's The Seven-Per-Cent Solution for IDW Publishing. You can follow Ron on Twitter or Deviant Art.

Bleeding Cool: How did you get started drawing?

Ron Joseph: I've been drawing almost all my life; started so early that I can't even remember when it was! My family still insists on telling these gripping tales about how I could draw an entire dinosaur without taking my pencil off the paper when I was something like 2 or 3 years old.

BC: Who were your biggest influences?

RJ: John Byrne and Alan Davis may have been my two biggest influences when it comes to pencils, but I am still relatively new when it comes to inks, so I study the work of guys like Bernie Wrightson, Frank Bellamy, Wally Wood, Al Williamson, and Frank Frazetta all the time. I love Mike Mignola's work and have learned a lot about the use of heavy blacks to add power and depth to my pages.

BC: What is your process for doing a page? How long does it take you?

RJ: I do very small thumbnail sketches on scrap paper or on the scripts themselves. Then I use those as a guide and do full-size roughs in blue line or a very light lead; maybe an H or 2H. Then I tighten things up and lay the inks down.

I can get several pages of pencils done in a day. Inking, I'm good for a page a day, sometimes a little more. As time goes on and I become more comfortable with it, I suspect that number will increase.

BC: Where might folks have seen your work previously?

RJ: I did a lot of work for an RPG called Spirit of '77 for Monkeyfun Studios, LLC recently and before that I was part of a successful kickstarter campaign for a book called The Shepherd. I do commissions in between jobs, which leads me to…

BC: What are you working on now?

RJ: I am currently working on Nicholas Meyer's The Seven-Per-Cent Solution for IDW. The first issue came out in August and I'm about halfway through the last issue as I type this.

BC: What is your dream project?

RJ: Well, like just about every other creative type I know, I've got my own "pet project" that I'd love to work on full-time. But, until the day comes that I can make that happen, give me something with monsters, aliens, robots, and some horror. There are so many great concepts and characters from different genres that I'd love to tackle; ROM, Jason Voorhees,The Micronauts, Godzilla, and just about anything from the Jim Henson "universe," just to name a few!