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.

LAX

Stuck in LAX with a flight that's late equals sketches.

Back to business

Not the best week so far...

I think this guy may be behind this whole rabbit thing...

Rabbit head

Sometimes rabbits come out of your head.

Sometimes, I watch too much FLCL...

A boy and his pig

Another boy and pig drawing. It's leading somewhere...

B-DAY!

Sometimes I draw punchlines without the set up.

A drawing for my buddy's b-day. You should all go over to his BLOG right now and wish him a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

ZOMBIE MONKEYS!!!

I would wish you all a good weekend, but the zombie monkeys are coming, so it's probably not going to be that great of a weekend. Protect your brain! I hear they have trouble chewing through hockey helmets and tank armor.

Post more GIRLS!!!

Quick little doodle I did with a ball point pen. No scanner at home so, I took a photo.

Sketchcrawl 11

Technology is rising for the revolution and we are all DOOMED! My computer, in fact ALL computers, decided to perform a mini revolt on me this weekend. Nothing worked, things crashed, files failed, things wouldn't burn, etc. They're planning something BIG and I was just the test subject. It's the beginning of the robot uprising and I hope you're all prepared. Better learn how to use that abacas again, 'cause your calculator wants to eat your brain or, turn you into a giant battery/power source Matrix style. I won't even tell you what your computer wants to do to you.



That said, it was nice to escape the evil clutches of technology and participate in SKETCHCRAWL 11 in Sausalito. A grand time was had by all, and there was a lot of us. I was a little more prolific this time, but still, not nearly as much as I had hoped.

Making time for Sketching

Work has been a battle lately. Differing opinions mixed with more writing than drawing has left my brain a little fried. I haven't had much drive to get back to the drawing board to do some work for myself. Too bad really since I find that working on your own stuff softens the blow of having to deal with work based decisions that you don't necessarily agree with.

Or, I'm just a big whiner...

'Nuff about that. So, I finally just sat down and had a little alone time for me and my sketchbook. Some nice wine, perhaps even a little inappropriate touching. Have I said too much?

See? THIS is the crap I write when the brain is working at half capacity.

Tangent?

Back to the drawing. I finally took some time to draw for myself.



The first one started out as a quick study for a panel in a short comic story that I'm planning. It turned into something different (mainly the tree) than what I intended, but I think this shows me that what I want to do will work. As an added bonus, apparently this paper is a tad transparent so, if you put your face REALLY close to the screen, and squint, you might see some ghost images of monkey drawings from the next page.



This other tiny sketch was a doodle for a much bigger idea. A story I would VERY much like to tell some day... as soon as I figure out how to tell it. Until then, a little teaser...

Floating

Here is number two in that series of floating stone figures. They were all supposed to be full colour paintings, but I have become obsessed with charcoal thanks to my buddy Craig...

It's a lot bigger (about 21" x 9") than this image shows.

It's alright, I guess not bad for my first attempt at this technique that we learned from Simon Varela (check out his amazing work in the Art of Finding Nemo book) back in the ol' Fox Animation days.

Things to come

More than a month passes and this is all I have to show for it?

The battles of work have been keeping me from focusing on my own work. I'm hoping to break that chain very soon. Until then here are a few thumbnails of things to come. Hopefully I will post again soon.

Let's Celebrate!!!

Wow, over a month since I last posted. This poor, neglected blog. I will attempt to post more frequently, the job has just been very consuming lately. Big story changes, fixes etc. I find even when I get home, it's still taking up most of my brain space. Gotta figure out how to access that other 90% of unused space.

Any ways, I noticed I missed a bit of a milestone, this place hit 10000 hits, in fact it seems to have surpassed 11000 now. Who'd a thunk it huh? Well, to the ten people that have each visited this tiny blog 1100 times each, I thank you.

Oh yeah, the painting. I do have a couple more on the board (one I am doing step by step photos for) but they're taking FOREVER to finish. Until then, above this post you'll see the card I painted for my girlfriend's birthday. As you can see, there is a HEAVY Joe Sorren influence, so much so, that I think most of my "style" (other than the hands) was lost. I did this one pretty quick, about three hours. I didn't have much time to spend on it so, it's pretty loose. I'm pretty happy with the outcome, I feel I'm gaining a little more control over the acrylics, and I pick up a new technique or two with each painting I attempt. Technique, or maybe more of an approach... oh, I don't know.

Okay, back to work. Hope everyone is good and that they're looking forward to the weekend.

Head in a jar

*sigh* Heads in Jars... too much Mignola on the brain I guess. I actually have a whole story idea where floating heads in jars are a big part of it. Someday, I'll draw that bad boy, or make a movie, or something. Until then, I get to sneak little paintings of them in on the weekend.

This is a painting for the guy in the previous post... his wedding present if you will. Isn't this a great wedding gift? Who needs silverware when you can have some sort of caricature of your head floating in a jar in space!? Maybe this will take off, I'll be swamped with absurd wedding gift requests, and I'll be able to quit my day job and become a full time painter. Yeah, you're right, it'll never happen. Guess I better get back to my boards.

Oh hey look, it's the original sketch. Looks a little different from the final huh? Yeah, that happens. Okay, well have a nice day.

Wedded Bliss

Here I go again neglecting my little ol' blog... I'm trying to be better about this and get back to a proper, more regular schedule of posting work. Big changes at the day job that have left me with a fun new project but, a lot more responsibility. I find I go home and obsess over what I can do to make the movie better instead of giving my brain a break and working on some of my own stuff. I have a couple of paintings in the owrks that I hope to post as soon as I finish them. Until then, here's a little rush job. Need to find that balance.

A buddy back in the AZ is getting hitched and they wanted me to do an image for the top of the wedding cake. You see, this is for a radio thing, that's why it's kinda cheesy. I wish I had more time to do something cooler. Hopefully the painting I'm doing will make up for the lameness that is this image.

Everybody doing alright? Okay, good.