Slave Leia

With all the buzz regarding the new Star Wars, I thought I'd do something theme related. I've been playing around with well known characters lately, plus I received a prompt for Leia in a drawing app I've been using. Of course, as most everyone knows, the most famous is slave Leia, so I went for that.

Alice and the white rabbit

I've always enjoyed the story of Alice in wonderland, probably because of all the visual possibilities it stirs up in your imagination.

I've done a number of drawings and sketches around this theme, and I never seem to get tired of it. Though I'd have to say, it is only one of a number of themes that catches my attention.

In the Works

Since I have finished the rough pencil sketches of my first project, I thought I should begin sketching out another story that I have been working on. I can't seem to focus enough on one project from beginning to end without beginning another, which is probably why it takes me so long.

This is Sam, she is very athletic and goal oriented. She is getting ready to strikeout on her own to fulfill her destiny and, oh yeah, she's a mermaid.

My first story is a bit dark and not necessarily for the kids. This story is geared more for tweens and younger. It covers all of the basics, relatable characters, teamwork, conflict resolution, etc... My hope is to finish these 2 projects, plus a children's book I have in the works, within the next year.

Cyclops

I thought the idea of a cyclops being bewildered by a pair of binoculars humors. This guys fits into one of the stories I've been working on for some time. I haven't quite figured it all out, but it's coming along slowly.

Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of..

So I am trying out an app called Sketch Bite by Tom Bancroft. The premise is, every day there is a drawing prompt. Users do sketches based on the prompt and upload it via the app. You can view and "like" other artist works, or you can give them some encouragement if you so choose.

The drawing here is from a prompt that gave three words: "Shy", "Bottle", "Sailing". The response was pretty diversified, but here was my take. The difficult part for me was how to use the bottle, and still make the overall story plausible. I went for a "genie in a bottle" type feel even though she is a fairy, but then I had to tie it into sailing somehow. I could take the literal route and draw it on a ship, but why do all the heavy lifting myself. Instead I put the burden on the viewer, I thought all I need to do is imply the "sailing" portion. What better way to tie the greed of wanting a magical captured and one of the most popular "sailors" of all times...a pirate. One day, when I get around to coloring it, I think the pirate needs to be pushed back, like a creepy spectator, while the fairy is the focal point. 

Hoorah!

So it's been a while since my last post. This summer seemed to get away from me. Now that fall has arrived, it's time to get back to work.

I've decided to not worry so much about posting finished work, but to just put up things I'm working on. Here is an image I did a couple months ago, but is still one of my favorites. This represents my inner gitty-ness, if that's a real word.

Broken

This page is a sample of a personal project I'm working on. It's a story I've written...am writing, that I want to turn into a comic book series. My plan is to post the genesis of the character as an online comic, and hopefully build the actual series from there.

This page is one of the pencil roughs, so far I'm on 46 pages and counting. It looks like I'll likely be around 56. It's taking quite some time to finish, but I'm poking along slow and steady.

Rapunzel

In my last post I mentioned how I thought it might be humorous to see someone with a lot of hair trying to tuck it into a swim cap. I thought a Rapunzel like character would be ideal.

I'm not 100% happy with the drawing, but I don't think it's bad. Not sure if I'll take it to a finished piece, but we'll see.

Swim & Dive

I find myself at events where I have large amounts of time between action. I normally carry a sketchbook with me to help fill the void in time. I usually end up sketching something relevant to the event itself, although I do tend to go off topic if something else is vying for my attention.

In the case of the above sketches, I was watching a swim meet. I saw the girls struggle to put their hair under their caps and I thought "what would happen if they had a lot of hair...like Rapunzel!?". I didn't go quite that far in the sketch, but if I take the sketch any farther I will.

For the second I wanted to play with a figure in 3 point perspective. Not a great story, but that's all there was to it. Since I was at a swim meet, this seemed the most logical choice. The twist was that the bleachers were actually higher than the dive board. So I had to draw the diving board viewed from below, while my actual view was from above.

Action poses

I currently have a number of ideas for stories that I would like to write. Problem is they all seem to jostle for my attention at the same time, so I have a hard time focusing on just one. The sketches in todays post are a couple action sketches for a character in one of these stories. He is from a primitive culture not too unlike the ones in our own history.

I wanted to capture the energy and ferocity you would expect to see from a champion warrior or skilled fighter. I'm happy with the actual body position, but there are some details that I think I would tweak to give it more motion. All in all, I'm happy with the sketch.

Geek Love

This was a bit of a random sketch, but it is more or less what I draw when I doodle. Typically if I don't have a direction in mind, or if I'm drawing while doing something else this is the kind of thing that usually comes out.

This is also drawn with one of my favorite drawing tools...a ballpoint pen. Not some fancy pen that costs $10 or more, but the cheap ones. You know the ones you accidentally steal from the bank when you fill out a deposit slip.

The premise here is that you have the pairing of two individuals that I think we all have known at least once in our lives. One person is infatuated, and the other is clueless.

Figure Study

I have recently made an effort to get back to figure drawing from live models again. This is one of those luxuries we had in school, but took for granite at the time. Once I was out and working, I stopped putting as much emphasis on my drawing. 

Now that I've been doing it again for a couple weeks I am starting to feel like I'm getting back to where I was all those years ago. I like to experiment with mediums that I don't normally use, just to try something different. In the image above I used an ink wash on mixed media paper. The original is black and white, but I thought it would look nice with a colorful gradient applied to it.

Character Study

I've been working on developing 3 characters for an upcoming project I'd like to work on, and as I was trying to decide on what style I want to move forward with I drew this. I really wanted to try to find a way to make her fit the story, but I'm 99% sure I'm not using this style.

I have a current project I'm developing, but I'm not sure it'll work there either. It seems a shame to not use her somewhere. I'll have to find a place for her.

Mermaid Feeding her Pet

So as I mentioned in a previous post, I have been fascinated with beasts of lore. One that has been chief among them is the mermaid. In my mind, they are akin to the Succubus and the Siren where they seduce their prey and turn on them. Although one thing I think mermaids should have are gills that run along the rib cage, not on the neck. Otherwise they would breath in hair all the time.

In this particular drawing I wanted her to look on callously as she hands her victim to her pet. As if this was like feeding kibble to the dog. I also wanted to play with the underwater hues. I think this was fairly successful.

I've never been good at capturing a convincing dragon I thought I'd try using a dinosaur as a starting point. I think I can chalk this one up as one of my more successful attempts, although it is still not quite where I would like to be with it.

I'll have to keep plugging away at it, maybe I should lean more toward the eastern style of dragon. They are a bit more serpent like, but I like the shape of the head as compared to what I have here.

A work in progress

So this simple sketch of a little girl is a character of a comic strip I'm working on. She is a little handful for her parents, and when teamed up with her little brother they are an unstoppable force.

I'm still working on the overall story, but I think it's coming together. Hopefully I can come up with a number of fun and interesting ideas for them.

Personal Anthem

With this drawing I wanted to experiment on using an mid toned substrate. I like using chipboard because it is sturdy, and easy to work with whether your using pencil, ink or paint. Also, I saw another artist use the white outline to make the drawing pop. I like the way it looks, but I don't think its something I'll continue with, at least not quite like it is here.

As far as subject matter, this one was environmental. I was drawing somewhere where there were people with earbuds in, listening to their own soundtrack. I can't remember exactly where I was, but I guess that could be just about anywhere these days. None the less, this is a character style I'm trying to perfect for a personal project I'm getting ready to start.

Centaur Puns

Humor is a very subjective thing. I've found throughout my life that the things that make me laugh, typically make other people groan. One thing I enjoy are ridiculous puns. There are a number of people who like them, but there is a hefty majority that do not.

I was driving to work one day and heard something regarding a call center, and my thoughts began to drift into variations of what the 2 words meant, resulting in the first of a series of bad centaur puns. Here are what I consider the top 4. There were many others, but some got a little too... shall we say graphic in nature.

Anyway, if you like this sort of thing, enjoy. If you don't, well hopefully you like some of my other posts.

A Tight Fit

So, this one I was debating on whether I should post it or not since it is a bit on the inappropriate side. I was playing around with how the softer portions of a persons body react when being squeezed. I want to be able to capture how the body looks under different conditions to make it look more realistic. Like when someone grips something tightly in their hand or fatty parts are under some form of external pressure.

Hill Giant

As part of the mythological creatures I've been experimenting with, I present my version of the hill giant.

Dancing Saytr

So I was playing around with the idea of mythology, and various mythological creatures a while ago. I was really intrigued by the vast array of humanoid and other hybrids for some reason, so I began to draw all sorts of creatures from different cultural legends. For whatever reason, I found certain ones especially interesting...like saytrs.

Maybe it because of the french classical painters that always inspired me in that college associate these creatures with mirth and frivolity, but it seemed natural to have them dancing carefree with each other. I hope to tighten up the other drawings that I have done from this series, when I get to those I'll post them as well.

Fly Burger

So I've been working on a style of character to use for a light hearted "Sunday Comic" type of story line. This drawing is one of those explorations. I like the way the characters look, so I think this is what I'm going to move forward with for these. Now I just need to start coming up with some stories and funny anecdotes to use.

Just as a side note, I posted this in a drawing group on facebook, and someone titled it "Burgers & Flies". I thought that was very clever, but I wanted to kick myself for not coming up with it.

Mice in Waistcoats

Welcome and thank you for visiting this new Blog. I am attempting to get my work in front of more people in the hopes that some day this could supplement and/or replace my main source of income. So as a small step toward that end, I have challenged myself to draw more. At least once per day. Some things that come out I'm happy with, some I'm not, but such is the life of an artist.

The next step in my goal is to start making some of my work viewable by the public (that's where you come in). My hopes are that you will enjoy it, and possibly share it with your friends. I will begin with a cartoon I did earlier this year, there is no real cohesive story to this one, but I like the idea of mice in a waistcoat going about their business.

So thank you for visiting, I hope you'll come back often.