More b-days

Here's a couple of drawings that I did for some friends that had Birthdays recently. I'll post these for now. Just got back from the honeymoon and have some Maui sketches to post, but they haven't been scanned yet. These will have to do for now.

This second one is a drawing of my friend Robert. It's what he would look like if I gave him my dog's body proportions for his birthday. Not sure how I would do that, I guess extensive plastic surgery. Yes, I was dropped a lot as a child.

Testing testing...

Well, after years and years of using the scanner at whatever job I had, I finally went and purchased my own. Unemployment will do that to you I guess. Oh well, I was long over due. I was just doodling with a ballpoint pen the other day and this is what happened. Thought I'd use the page as a test for the new scanner. After some adjustments, I think it might work out okay. Next we'll see how it handles more than one colour!

PAge 10

And so it ends.

Here's where the story definitely needed some space. I wish I had a little bigger page count to come up with a more clever ending than an explosion. That said, I have no idea what that more "clever" ending would be. Sometimes, the kids just want an explosion.

I also am not sure that it's clear that Jump is using the explosion to close the portal, not necessarily destroy the giant beast on the other side.

Well that's it. Until the next Jump Cannon story... see ya later. I might post some of my ridiculously tight thumbnails for this story next week. Maybe I'll explain why they were so damn tight too.

PAGE 9

Smoldering Devo hats. Tomorrow, the finale.

Page 8

Here's where things start to fall apart for the story. I'm running out of pages, and still lots to do. I think I could have benefited from a few more panels in this section to help set the mood more, as well as build up to what Krueger is up to. I think I could have played up the VZA's surrounding Jump more, hopefully building some more tension into this section, but I was running out of space.

I do still like the idea of using a big pile of brains to open a portal though.

PAGE 7

Poor Fizz, it's rough being a sidekick. Again, this is a time when I wish I had a few more pages to work with. It's tough to feel the emotion of the loss of a character when you've only known him for six pages. I think the beats work reasonably well, but I could have used a little more time to really punch up the emotion.

That may not necessarily have made the moment better though because truthfully, I think my initial inspiration for this moment was laughs. For some reason, I found it amusing that Jump was a character that went through sidekicks like other people go through um... disposable socks. Do they make those? Any ways, maybe you understand what I'm getting at.

With more time, maybe the audience would have liked Fizz too much, making the moment too sad. Of course, most people don't think there is much humour in death, that's probably why I can never find funny sympathy cards in the card store.

Page 6

This is my favorite page of the whole story. I got this idea that it would be cool if I could make the Krueger backstory look like grainy black and white film footage. Thanks to the genius of photoshop, I was able to pull it off reasonably well. I found some brushes on the internet that helped me make the images look like scratched, beat up, dirty film. Anything to mask the HEAVY exposition I guess.

Page 5

Well, looks like things ar getting worse for ol' Fizz.

Lots of drawing problems on this page. I kind of like how you can see the remnants of teeth marks in Fizz's shoulder, but man, looking back, this pages has some real problems. Oh well. Live and learn right?

I probably won't post again until monday. Next week will be the conclusion, and Monday, will be my favorite page of the whole book (page 6.) So, until then, have a good weekend blogosphere.

Page 4

Poor Fizz. Now what?

Not much to say about this page. The VZA hanging off of Fizz's back/shoulder in the last panel makes me chuckle a little for some reason. I think it tickled me when I first drew it as well. No idea why.

Page 3

This page I'm fairly happy with. I still like the idea of using a talisman to communicate with the dead by sticking it in their left over brain. That talisman comes in handy later too. A character slapping a brain? What was I thinking?

The colour is working reasonably well here I think, could maybe be a little more moody. I'm not sure.

The first appearance of the VZA's. My initial idea for these had them wearing Devo hats, I think it was even in my pitch for the story. Not sure why they're wearing Devo hats, just thought it would be funny and it's an idea that survived through the design process.

Page 2

Oh the plot thickens with the ol' brain on the floor gag. Looking back on this, I wish that I had gone darker once they got inside the building. The green is okay, but I wish that this felt moodier. Part of that also would be helped if I could have let the page count grow a bit, adding a few insert shot panels to help establish mood. Some of the characters expressions are a bit generic and could have been pushed a lot more, especially Fizz's reaction to the brain in the bottom left panel.

Science fiction is tricky since there isn't really reference; designing chairs, interiors of bars etc. takes a long time. I wish I had focused on those design elements more. Hopefully the next Jump Cannon story will be better.

Page 3 tomorrow.

Page 1

Here's page one. Not much to say here since we're just starting out. How about a little about why the story was drawn?

This was the first comic I've ever followed through on. Back in college and a few times after that I have started them, but never finished them. I think a couple of years ago, I was finally in a place with my drawing skills that I could go through with a story and not be totally repulsed by the final result.

Overall, I was fairly happy with the final result. Some areas are definitely executed better than others. In general, being 2 years removed from the story now, I think it's okay, but not great. I think the biggest problem is page count. This was done for an anthology that never got off of the ground, and one of the rules was no more than 10 pages. I think this was more of a 12 page story. There's places where I would have liked to open up the story, give it a little more mood. I think the ending suffered as well, I think with a little more space, I could have built to something a little more clever. More on all that as we go through it.

Oh yeah, one last thing. Take the colouring with a grain of salt, this was the first thing I ever coloured digitally. That process took longer than drawing the damn thing.

Any ways, tomorrow, page 2!

Coming next week...

I did this ten page comic for an anthology that never got off of the ground a couple years ago, and I suppose it's time for somebody to see it. So, starting next week, I'll try and post a page a day until it's complete and maybe I'll include some sort of behind the scenes commentary about why I don't like it any more or, something like that. Until then, enjoy your weekend blogosphere!

Non-Sensical

Here's a page from my portfolio of a character I haven't drawn in a while. I'd like to draw a story with him, but I'm not sure what that story is yet...

Caricature

Caricature... I suck at it. I try it all the time and success is a RARITY. I struggle and struggle. Sometimes, there is a rare person (usually friends or co-workers) that I can get right away, but if that doesn't happen, it almost NEVER happens... ever.

I did this drawing for my Step-brother's Wedding invite. It took me probably close to 100 attempts before I got close to "getting" him and probably around 50 for his lovely bride to be, and that one still sucks. Of course, this means nothing to you dear internet reader, for you have no idea what these people look like. To you, this is just another drawing.

I learned a lot doing this drawing. It's always good to step outside your comfort zone every now and then if you want to grow, and get better. Hopefully that will be the end result of this latest endeavour.

What could have been

Too bad this guy is dead. What happened? Was it a lack of foresight? Lack of vision? Maybe he just wasn't given a chance. Sure, his world was doomed from the start, because as we all know, without the proper foundation, it will crumble. In fact, it's inevitable, but maybe he could have lead us to something interesting, maybe even entertaining. At the end of the day, that's all we really want to do is entertain. Now that world's on life support, and he probably couldn't save it, but at least there would have been a guy with a fish bowl for a head, wearing bunny slippers, running around providing something a little animated to an otherwise dreary existence. You'd think the talking monkey would be the entertaining one, but even he's having problems...

Airport Sketches

Drawing at the airport is always fun. Drew these on the way to Vegas.

Birthday viking

Okay, this guy isn't fat, but he's hairy and for my buddy Scott's b-day which is today. As you can see, I'm still going through my viking phase.

When I sketched this out, his arms were swoopy and cartoony, then when I inked it, for some reason I gave him weird anatomy instead. Not sure why, not sure if I like my choice. I'm not going to question it though, last time I questioned a viking it was well... let's just say vikings don't like being questioned. Best to do what they tell you to do, this one wanted muscles.

Fat guys and birthday cakes

I don't know what it is, but this seems to be a recurring theme in the cards I draw for my friend's birthdays. Guys jumping out of birthday cakes. Guys you definitely DON'T want to see doing any such thing. Most friends send you cards with pretty girls jumping out of cakes, I send fat hairy guys. Some pal I am. Maybe it's funny because we used to work with the guy in the cake. The things I'll do to elicit a giggle...

Dumbest post EVER

It should have been this...



This entry is an impression of the last entry.


Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. BLAH BLAH. Blah blah blah blah Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

Thumbnails

So I did this drawing last year I think... maybe it was before that. Doesn't matter...Or does it!? Maybe my memory is shot. Old age is setting in? Oh god, what if this is it? I thought I was still young, but really I'm on the downhill slide. It's over, I'm past my prime I'm... Well, I'm lucky I'm not some sort of hypochondriac otherwise, this lack of clear memory might bother me.

What were we talking about? Oh yeah... I did this drawing a while ago and people kept asking what the story behind the drawing was. I started thinking about it and this has been swimming around in my head for a while now. I think this is that story. The beginings of a 3 page story. Here are the thumbnails, more to come once the wedding stuff slows down.

Thumbnails, an interesting term. Artists know what it is, not exclusively of course, but it seems to throw a lot of people off. "What does planning have to do with your thumb nails?" I've been asked that before. I guess every industry or skill has it's own terminology, this is one of ours. I was going somewhere with this, but the train of thought has pulled out of the station. Does that make it more of a non sequitur now?

Any ways like I said, more to follow. I'm not sure what I want to do next. Larger, more detailed thumbnail/roughs or just go to the pencils on the final page. I think there are going to be a few panels that are going to cause some drawing issues for me and I would like to work them out before I erase a hole in the final page, but that brings with it the risk that the final drawings will be stiff from repetition and transferring the work. Don't want to lose that spontaneity. Oh well, I'm sure I'll figure it out before the next post.

Good luck figuring out what's going on in these, lots of replacement panels etc. Will give you a blurry question mark as to where I'm going, but maybe when it's done you'll go "Oh, I see what he did. I see what that was." Or, it might end up like LOST where you're all "Huh? That's it? What about the smoke creature, and that giant foot statue?"

Geez, does this guy ever shut up? He posts these tiny little drawings that don't even make sense, AND he wants me to read all of this rambling crap?

This is stupid...

Why did I draw the girl, the background characters AND the background in full detail, just to blur them out and stick a face in the foreground? What an unexpected direction this all digital image took. I don't know what I'm doing.

They Come In Thr33's

So I kind of lack creative discipline. The plan was to work on an idea I have for a short comic story this weekend. Well, instead, I had this image pop into my head and I had to paint it. Sometimes I totally lack focus. I guess I should just be happy that I did SOMETHING.

I have no idea why this painting is called THEY COME IN THREE'S, but that's what it's called. I guess there are three floating rocks, but the "three's" isn't in reference to the rocks in the painting. What's the deal with me and floating rocks by the way? This isn't the first image to have a floating rock in it, and I seem to draw them fairly often. What does it all mean? I have no idea... guess I just think they're cool.

This painting pulled together pretty quickly, I did a little thumbnail here...



Then, I did the final sketch, here...

Digital Paint

So, like I said in my previous post, I have been fighting a bit of a block. I took a different approach this time. It may turn out to be more of a distraction than a solution, only time will tell. I started doing quick digital "paintings." No roughs, no prelim drawings. Just blocking in shapes in photoshop and builing it until I get somewhere. This one is a little more drawn, but the lines were knocked in after the shapes and forms were set with blocks of colour. Get's me thinking a little differently which is good... I think.

This took about 1 1/2 hours. I think my next one I might try a bit more rendering, but try to keep it simple. Or maybe I'll just go nuts with the texture. I'm trying to approach these as more detailed colour keys, but not full blown rendered images.

Sketchcrawl 12.5

Last weekend was Sketchcrawl 12and a 1/2 sketch at home.

Our apartment isn't much fun to draw... but I probably wasn't looking very hard. Our dog Mongoose is fun to draw though, so here he is. I need to draw him more, I haven't accurately captured his cuteness.

I'm in a rut right now... these things happen from time to time. Usually it's a good sign because it means that I have a bunch of ideas in my thick Cro-magnon skull of where my drawing should be, and it's not there. Thus, the struggle begins. I think we all go through it. It's good because it usually leads to a "breakthrough" in drawing, draftsmanship, technique, whatever, but until you get to that point, it's painful. These two Mongoose drawings I did are okay, but everything else I've done this week is garbage. Hopefully I'll just keep slugging away and get back on track. Good times.

Molly and Her Dress of Souls

This painting is called Molly and Her Dress of Souls.

Acrylic on illustration board.

I went through a lot of sketches on this one. I forgot to bring them in to be scanned though so, I will have to post those at another time.

This one has been tough to capture as a scan, maybe a photo would be better. I did a lot of glazing in her dress in an attempt to give it an eerie depth.

In other news...

She said yes!

UPDATE!!!

Here is the progression of the sketches...

It started with a tiny thumbnail.



A bigger drawing, but it didn't feel right...



By this point, I was happy with the skulls idea so, I just focused on the girl...





Then I started wondering if I needed other elements to the composition, so I added a branch and falling leaves, Tadahiro style.



I quickly came to my senses though and decided that was distracting from what I initially intended.



By this point things weren't working so, I tried something fairly different from the rest. I rejected it, but looking at it with fresh eyes... I may turn this into a different painting. There's something that I like about it now.



Finally, I came to the image I wanted. As you can see, I still did some last minute tweaks by redrawing the face in the final painting.



That's it. There are probably 8 more sketches that I didn't even bother posting because they were only slight variations on what's already here.

KUPD again

Hey there blogosphere. Is it still called the blogosphere, or has technology already moved on from that? I think someday no one will know what anything is called because things are advancing so fast, their names will change before we even know what it is.

Well, no new work yet so, here's another KUPD comic from 2004. This time I decided to explain why Holmberg's nose is like it is. I think this was inspired by that independent two divers trapped in shark infested waters movie that was out around that time that I never saw... or it was shark week on discovery... or I just watched Jaws...or I just read Old Man and the Sea...or I was thinking about that shark tattoo that I designed for someone many moons ago or, or, or...

It was interesting, well to me any ways... I was reading something that Charles Schulz had written the other day. He was talking about how many young cartoonists approach the creation of a daily comic strip in the wrong way. I won't go into detail, because I will OF COURSE forget something, but the gist was as follows... don't keep trying to make a statement, make it funny to begin with and eventually, the characters will start dictating what you do. That's not it exactly, but it's what happened with these "strips" that I was drawing. I started to treat them very much like a newspaper comic strip. I caricatured the personalities of the guys on the radio, and one day, these drawn personalities took on a life of their own. It was no longer only a commentary of what happened on the show, but the characters started dictating what would happen.

This strip is a perfect example of that. At least, as far as I can remember. There was no real reference to this idea on the show, it just popped into my head, and it was the caricatured/simplified personalities that developed from these characters that dictated this story to me. It was a strange realisation, that the characters were informing what I would draw, and not content from the show. There were still drawings inspired from something said on the show, but the characters definitely took on a life of their own.

It taught me this, that if I put my mind to it, I could probably draw and write a daily strip. A MASSIVE undertaking I realise, but the fact that these characters were in essence "writing for me" showed me that it is possible to sustain stories in that format. Yes, lots of amazing cartoonists have done it, but I always thought that I would run out of ideas. This showed me it was possible, now the only problem is to create characters of my own... ones that will sustain and generate tonnes of stories... where's Bill Watterson when you need him?

Cowboy

Cowboy Carl says HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Uncle.

Marilyn Manson

It's been busy the last little while so, no new posts. In the effort to AT LEAST get SOMETHING up, I'll post an old drawing. I'll have new stuff soon, like the painting I have sketched out and hope to start this weekend!

I think I mentioned before that when I lived in Phoenix, I did work for a radio station. In truth, probably the greatest rock station ever, 98 KUPD. You can listen to them online now...

Any ways, I used to draw comics on their site, inspired by their morning show. It was a great gig. They pretty much let me do WHATEVER I want, a rarity to say the least. I only ever had one drawing rejected, and that was because it dealt with the FCC at the peak of their fining insanity. Other than that, I had free reign.

Above was a comic I drew for when Marilyn Manson came into town. The bald guy is Holmberg (it's his morning show) the guy that tackle Manson is Eric or, CREEPY E. He's their van driver, hander out of morning prizes and generally angry comedic relief for the show. Missing is Brady, I'll post a comic with him later.

I tried to do different things. It was a great way to practice my story telling skills in a short form, as well as try different techniques. A lot of them were single panel gags, but I started to get into working on more of a Sunday page layout. I think this Manson comic was more of a Jim Mahfood type set up like the "Stupid Comics" strips he does for the Phoenix New Times.

Oh yeah, I should probably explain the ending. Holmberg back in the day had a band called UNCLE JESSE, no not John Stamos with a mullet but the old guy from Dukes of Hazzard. NO! The real one, that was on TV. Right, the one WITHOUT the lead headed pop princess with the creepy dad. They were an Alice in Chains cover band... mainly... I think they played a lot of Winger as well. I kid. Just Alice in Chains... and Journey.

KUPD was good times. I used to get to go to free shows, including the one mentioned in this comic. I recommend, if you ever have the opportunity to see Marilyn Manson, DO IT! He puts on a GREAT show. It was a unique experience, and maybe the only satisfying work experience I have had in my artistic career... although, it wasn't REALLY work.

*sigh* Good times.

Wrapping paper

Hey there!

I drew my own wrapping paper last year so, I thought I would do it again this year. Here's what I did, all digital, all on the cintiq.

Maybe this will become a tradition?

Anatomy of a Christmas Card... light on the anatomy.

So, I finally finished this year's Christmas Card. I had a pretty clear idea in my head what I wanted to do this year so, it didn't take me very many thumbnails to get what I wanted.



I just did pencils this year. Not sure why. Wish I made the drawing a little looser, feels kinda tight. I wish I could do looser drawings, nail what I'm going after quickly.



And, the final image. I originally went for more traditional colours on the girl, my idea being that this was kind of a RED RIDING HOOD situation (at least, that's what inspired the card.) Red Jacket and flesh colour ended up being pretty boring, so I went with a greyed down purple, suddenly I was happier.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE OUT IN THE BLOG WORLD!!!

Doodles of doodles

Work doodles on big paper with story notes on the back. *Sigh*... good times.

I might be getting fascinated with drawing Vikings. Three of them showed up on this page.

More birthdays

Shout out to Matt, today's his 30th b-day!!! Here's some wrapping paper for recent b-days and Matt's b-day card. The card is all traditional, the wrapping paper was done on the Cintiq.

I got nothin'

Yeah um, this is kind of well, uh... it's nothing new. I was just doodling on the cintiq and this is what happened. I'll post something better next week.