Testing testing

Last image of the year...

Just a quick digital painting to try out a new texture that I scanned in. I'm pretty happy with the final look, and will probably use it so much that it will make most nauseous after a while.

I don't really know what this is, or what it's about. I have done a couple of similar images involving floating stone figures before (found elsewhere on this blog.) This stone is more abstract than the others. At one time, I had planned a series of these, but like a lot of ideas, I still haven't gotten around to it. One was a painting in acrylic for my friend's wedding, the other was a charcoal piece. I think this is part of that series, but maybe this is one of those figures in the midst of attaining its final form?

I sketched out at least four others. Those might be hidden on this blog as well.

Originally, I just put the robed alien there to give a sense of scale, but the more I look at it, the more I think he knows more than he's letting on. I'm not sure he's behind the formation of these large stone idols, but I think he knows who is...

X-Mas '08

This year's Christmas card. Merry Christmas to all of you fine blog readers.

The Flying Elephant

My buddy Dan had a baby recently. Originally, they wanted me to paint a mural in the baby's room, but I was unable to make it out to Florida so, I did a quick little painting to be put up on the wall instead.

Acrylic on Watercolour paper.

The Rejects

So these girls are from an art direction proposal I worked on a little while ago. I didn't get the job so, yet again, the blog flourishes where my career slowly careens into the abyss of obscurity and unemployment.

Maybe these girls will now start their own band, or become an elite crime fighting team or, if we're really lucky, they'll go through 4 years of post secondary schooling, become accountants, and solve the current economic crisis using only a stick of bubble gum, a pie graph, two paper clips, and a roll of duct tape. Dream on future accountants of America, dream on...

birthdays

How did nearly an entire month pass? Is time accelerating? Will I wake up and look in the mirror tomorrow and have an 80 year old man staring back at me? Slow down!

October is a heavy birthday month. Here's a few b-day drawings I've done recently.

The note

This is a little colour sketch I did while waiting to hear back on some design work. This is based on a sketch from a short comic I hope to draw soon.

House

On of my FAVORITE characters on television right now.

This is a quick little study I did in my sketchbook this weekend. I was reading a post by Brian Stelfreeze about how he approaches painting flesh tone on a face. He tries to separate the face into three regions of color. I didn't want to forget what I just learned so, I needed to try it myself.

I'm pretty happy with the results.

Brains

I like drawing brains, I don't know why.

This painting is 9"x12" ACRYLIC ON CANVAS.

I've started playing with texture and used a medium on the canvas for the first time. I want to explore using this technique more, a lot of fun accidents happen when dealing with a textured canvas.

I should scan the page of my sketchbook where I came up with this thing. It was an odd progression.

The painting is called, TREE OF KNOWLEDGE.

Rejected comic

I get rejected, the blog thrives with a new one page comic. I like the panel where he gets punched, the rest of the drawing is kind of BLAH.

The Salesman

I have been painting a lot lately. This is the one I did right after the last post.

Weird images pop into my head, and I like to paint them.

THE VISITOR

In the house we're renting, there is a big Plasma Screen TV Mounting Rack attached to the wall. My wife and I don't have one of those fancy contraptions, we still have an old school electron gun. We decided to commission an artist to do a big painting to cover up the rack since we can't remove it. I was the only one we could afford so, we commissioned me. There was a brief moment where we thought about going another direction and finding another artist better suited for the assignment, but we decided to buck the current tradition and stick with me.

This is a rather bad photograph of the painting, but it's the best I could do in-between fits of rain. Hope to get a better pic soon.

3'x2' Acrylic on Canvas. Biggest painting I have ever done.

Airport

I have been working on a big painting, but until I figure out how to properly photograph it, I can't post it.

In the meantime, leading up to the move, we did a fair bit of air travel between here, and our old home of San Rafael.

This is a selection of sketches from all the airport time.

Birthday drawings

I'm back. Now that we're starting to get settled, hopefully the posting will be more frequent.

There has been a fair amount of birthdays lately. Here's a few of those drawings done for said birthdays...

The Batman

Okay, one more before I pack up the computer.

I like the big TANK-like Batman from Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns. The anatomy is pretty ridiculous, but I had fun with it.

Spacegirl

And the posts continue to be sporadic. I'm in the middle of preparing for a move to a new city so, there will probably be some down time on the blog for the next couple of weeks. Until then, here's a spacegirl...

I revised this 6-14-08

Mad Kids #11 part deux

Here's the actual comic from the previous post.

During SDCC 2007 I was introduced to an editor at MAD Magazine and he encouraged me to start submitting stuff to them. It was a great opportunity that just "dropped into my lap," something that has never happened to me before. Although it was never something I had actively pursued, it was kind of a childhood dream realised. I LOVED MAD when I was a kid. So, I started submitting work (a lot of it I have already posted here.) The above pic is the first one they bought.

As a little back story to the comic, this is actually based on an idea I've had since I was a little kid. No, I didn't think about single panel gags when I was a kid. I did think it would be funny if someone thought that the outside was "CLOSED" instead of that they were just looking at the back of the "Yes We're OPEN" sign.

My original submission looked like this...


MAD got back to me and said that they wanted to purchase this one but, thought it might be better for MAD Kids, and that the characters should be changed to fit that demographic better. Sam, the Art Director, also suggested more of an Urban New York Pizza joint instead of a San Francisco Coffee Shop (I was picturing it taking place at a coffee shop across the street from Golden Gate Park.)

So, I made the changes and presto, a few months later it was in the magazine. This was a GREAT experience. Editorial and the Art Director were fantastic to work with, and every idea they had made the comic better, clearer, and funnier. I hope to do more work for them.

I'm now an idiot

Hey kids! I have a single panel gag in the latest issue of Mad Kids!

It's in the bottom left of page six. The issue is #11. So go pick yourself up a copy today, spike their sales, and maybe they'll let me do more work for them.



I'll post the actual comic once I find out whether that's allowed or not.

Damn Dirty Apes

Colin Boyd has a redesigned sight. It used to be called Big Picture Radio, now it's called, Get The Big Picture. Check it out here.

http://www.getthebigpicture.net

Colin is one of my two favorite movie reviewers (the other being Peter Travers of Rolling Stone Magazine.) Colin rates his reviews with DAMN DIRTY APES. A rating of 5 DAMN DIRTY APES is the top review score a movie can get.

The last couple site redesigns I have done the ape drawings (to go along with the reviews) so, when it came time for Colin to launch his new site, he asked me to do a new ape design.

Instead of regular apes, this time Colin decided it was time to go with the apes that his rating system comes from, PLANET OF THE APES. Check out his site at the link above, or in my links bar on the right.

This was the original ape I did before it was decided to go Planet of the Apes.

Another T

Another T-Shirt design for the KUPD boys. This one was fun, they wanted it similar to the classic dogs playing poker painting, and I had limited colour to play with.

It's kind of odd working on these things. I designed these characters/caricatures of the guys probably 5 years ago now. I think my skills have improved since then, but I find when I draw these old designs, I fall into the same ruts and drawing mistakes of 5 years ago. There are proportion issues with the designs etc. but I'm afraid if I "fix" a lot of this stuff, the designs will move away from what the client likes about them. I need to find a balance between fixing these things so that I hate the finished drawings less, yet still keep the client happy, and the recognition there.

They also wanted a new theme logo design for the front. I have zero training in Graphic Design yet, I seem to get a lot of work that involves it. Strange.



This is a mock up of what I hope the final shirt will look like.

The flash

From another thread on the DRAWING BOARD. This one is all pics of girls flashing. This of course isn't so much flashing as it is a complete disrobing. Look for the character in the pool to pop up in something else later...

The illusive cover song

Sometimes it's just plain fun to take someone else's ride for a spin. Drawing other people's characters is kind of like a decent cover song, sure it's a fun take, but it's never as good as the original.

There's a cool thread over on THE DRAWING BOARD (link in the links on the right) where people are doing fan art of fellow members of the drawing board. It started with the LOVELY CADAVER drawing I did for Jon McNally, and other people have posted some fantastic stuff. I have a couple more contributions.

The first for Elliot Cowan, a staggering talent, who does some of the funniest drawings around.

The second, Shane Glines' Flint Michigan, one of my favorite characters of his. I'd be surprised if you haven't heard of Shane. Everybody knows that guy's stuff. If you're not a member of cartoonretro.com, your SHOULD be.

Boobs

My buddy Viktor was telling me that he hasn't had the opportunity to draw boobs lately so, I did this drawing for him, just to let him know that boobs are thinking of him.

I think this is the biggest I have ever drawn them. I rarely if ever draw large ones.

More Skulls

Man, have I been neglecting the blog. Sorry blog...

I have been focusing on freelance and a personal project. That means the blog gets ignored. I will attempt to post more now that things are slowing down.

This is ink and acrylics used like watercolour.

Lovely Cadaver

My buddy Jon McNally sent me a SWEET bookmark with an awesome character of his on the front of it. It inspired me to do some fan art of the character. This is what you see here, and what I gave to Jon as a thank you.

Speaking of Jon, he has a blog. The guy is a great artist and a KILLER designer. Great style, and you should check out his stuff...

HERE

98

Sometimes I just do stupid drawings for my buddies. This is one of those times.

Giving thanks

When I was a kid, I HATED having to write thank you notes. It wasn't that I wasn't grateful for my Christmas gifts, I just thought they were BORING(the letter writing.) I didn't understand it at the time, but the format of them was rather dull.

Dear (Aunt, Uncle, Grandparent etc.)
Thank you for the (gift/cheque/spoons of the world collection.) I put the money in the bank/put the kids cookbook on my bookshelf blah blah blah. This weekend I played basketball, we lost.

Love,
John

I soon got more creative with my notes adding drawings, or telling complete and utter fabrications.

Thanks for the spatula. You'd think an 8 year old would have no use for one, but I killed a grizzly bear with it, saving the entire family, and our camp.

Today, the tradition stays alive. Letter writing is kind of a dying art. E-mail & text messaging are faster, more immediate. My mom's voice is still in the back of my head though, telling me to write my thank you notes so, I still do.

I'm still severely lacking in the job arena and this year, I spent WAY too much time on my notes. This is one of them. Vegas and the Hawaiian shirt are true (supposedly the hotel we stayed in had the biggest in the world.)

Also note: This is a terribly inaccurate depiction of my lovely wife. She is actually VERY nice, and amazingly, has never called me an idiot. This whole thing was complete stream of consciousness which can be fun to do from time to time.

Apologies to JOHN CAMPBELL as I sort of lifting his style for this little story. Check out his HILARIOUS comics in my links.

Three cheers for more rejects!