Thrilling!

Whooee! Projects are eatin' my life right now. Here's another one down. This is for my friend Ben Acker's ongoing Thrilling Adventure Hour at the Largo in L.A.

This is based on their segment Captain Laserbeam. It's the collected villains of Apex City, Captain Laserbeam's home. It's a two color version that is meant to look like a silkscreen print. I'll probably do a full color version in the future.



I'll make up a key for the villains and post it later. Hope you like it, internet!

ALSO

I drew the turkey in the beginning of this.

Tough Like a Diamond

A few more pieces to share for an upcoming small works show at the bear and bird gallery.







Thanks to the Evan "Funk" Davies Show for the tunes that pulled me through on this project. There's a great cover of Noise of Carpet by Hank IV on the playlist I linked to. As well as a brutal track from Pop. 1280, who would be my new favorite band if Best Coast hadn't dropped onto my turntable recently.

Latest

Deadlines are looming! I am responding!

Here are a few recent pieces. The first will be on sale in the Boston area in the near future! It's a big fella— 30" by 22". Hence the drawing board snapshot and not a proper scan.



Here's a detail because the pen work gets lost at this scale.



The last is a demo I did for a recent class. Can't go wrong with smoking animals!



Thanks for the look everybody.

Thwee Dee

Everybody loves smoking animals.

Summer Sides

Not a lot of activity lately on the ol' web log but I have been making progress on some projects.

Thought I'd update with a few new sketches and a test drawing.

First, a continuation of the "Face It" series.





This one was part of the same session but taking a less cartoony approach. I was looking for elegant economy.



Finally a test drawing for a children's book project. I can't decide if it should be in black and white of color yet. This was a little study to see one way to approach the main character.



Thanks always for reading! Now back to work for me.

The Slumps

Here are a few selections from last Tuesday night's drawing session. I don't know what was happening with me but I found it really hard to get started this week. I did some warm up experiments then tried my hand at a few more rook sketches— but nothing was working. When this happens, I like to switch mediums to see if something will click. Eventually I got a rook drawing off the ground but mostly I just deposited a lot of paper in the recycling bin. I really can't decide the best method to tackle creative block but I found sitting around and stewing on it definitely doesn't work. Getting loose and switching from pen to pencil was a good start this time.

First a snap shot:



Then a little character sketch with ink and sponge:



Thanks for reading/looking!

By Hook Or By Rook

Another rook snapshot— getting closer to the character that I want. I'll get a good scan up on the web log later. This time around I spent a lot (A LOT) more time on rendering the feathers. This one also has feet which were more challenging than I anticipated.

Tuesday Night Drawing: Room & Rook

I got started on this one about a quarter past midnight; having just missed what I'm sure was a killer set by White Hills on the Evan "Funk" Davies Show on WFMU.

I don't have the time or the energy to tile this big drawing right now so I'm going to show a little of what I call my "studio" and some crappy snap shots.

This drawing is an initial study that will turn into a full-on character design of a rook. The weight of the beak and head to body ratio are totally wrong but the important thing here was not so much the drawing as the inking method. Following the same philosophy as some of the previous tree studies, this drawing was about combining broad, fast strokes with areas of concentrated detail. Like the trees it has a strong, simple silhouette that carries the form allowing a lot of freedom to go from more detailed areas to looser marks.



I know, it's kind of small but I like it.





I did an image adjustment for this last one.



Thanks for checking in. Anyone who wants to join the Tuesday Night Late Night Drawing Society let me know. I'd love some company.

Cheers!

More of the Same

Here are few more tree studies, this time going for speed and efficiency. I started out with some bold and somewhat controlled ink splatters and carved out details around them. Once again I'm not using any reference here, it's more a result of staring at trees all day and working from a sort of sense memory.

Late Nights

So—

Hi.

It's been a while since I've posted. I've been busy, busy, busy with classes and so forth but I have managed to finish a few studies and sketchy things. I've been staying up late on Tuesdays after class and drawing during the Evan "Funk" Davies show on WFMU to unwind after class. Here are some of the results:



The first of many tree studies for an "upcoming" adventure comic I'm working out. I have to get away from drawing every goddamnedable leaf. It will happen. This is clearly adolescent leftovers from studying Roger Dean album covers and so forth. I didn't use a reference for this piece which is probably why I have problems with it.



Playing around with bleeding tissue paper. Really hard to control but nigh impossible to replicate. Hooray for happy accidents.



One of a few indirect drawings. I'll have some more of these soon. I like the tribal/menacing quality of this fellow. Far from perfect but a good start.

Next Generation

Is this a web log record for me? I've managed quite a few posts this month.

This is a continuation of the bold stroke face series. This latest group was a little less freeform and in many cases had two or three renditions before finding success. There are more on the way.











BONUS BEATS

Here are a few others that aren't constructed the same way but are still stylistically connected.

Neo(n) Color

I was feeling nostalgic a while back and did a random character sketch on black poster board with Caran d'Ache (of Switzerland!) crayons. It was totally fun. If you haven't played around with them before I highly recommend them. I did this piece with a 15 color set. I think I'll name him Bufford.

I should note that I tweaked him in Photoshop (of Adobe!) which is why he looks so electric.

Demo Pieces

Oh yeah, I have a blog! I totally forgot.

So I've been working so hard on my computer imaging course that I think I gave myself carpal tunnel syndrome. I'm not kidding. I'm actually in pain as I write this weblog entry. In any case I thought I'd share a few pieces I worked up for my in class demos.

First a digital coloring project. The point of this assignment was to color a black and white line drawing (what I use Photoshop for 99% of the time) and using layers to help unify a color pallet.

First I worked up a limited color pallet. I started with the fire and kept the cast of characters in more or less the same pallet.



Then I added a solid purple-blue color in a new layer at low opacity and used the eraser to pull back the lights. I took it a step further this week and added textures over a few elements. So...



The next one is kind of exciting. This was my demo for a digital collage assignment; I used elements of victorian monograms to create a griffin. It actually makes me want to master some of these decorative elements and try some drawings in this style. I'll have to break out my french curves. Thus...



And finally one more texture demo. For this I scanned in a crumpled piece of tinfoil, adjusted the threshold under image adjustments and tinted it blue. I erased away a few areas and I had this...



Then added in a drawing of an explorer and did a knock-out layer over the mountains in the foreground. Gimmicky but effective!



So hopefully these are not the last images I ever make. I'm going to do a Google search for pinched nerves now.

Ouch!

Heads Up!

Here's a few pieces from an ongoing series I've been working on. These are mainly drawn with giant sponge brushes on 18x24" paper. They're fast but tricky; the brush is unpredictable which is why the results can be very lively but only one of three really look like anything. Even in this group there are some I should weed out but sharing = caring— so I hope you enjoy them.























Thanks for checking in.

Late Again

I still have people I need to send this to. How very embarrassing!

Hope everyone had the best holiday season. Mine was none too bad.