Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

My apologies to all the vegetarians out there..(sorry sis)

Einstein - Red Bull

I wonder how much more Einstein could have accomplished if Red Bull had been around.

More Safari Sam

Here are a couple more Safari Sam sketches.

I have tried to come up with a side-kick for Safari Sam. I don't think I captured his side-kick exactly how I want him. I will probably do some more sketches. I also need a name for him, any suggestions are welcome. I have temporarily been calling him "Jeffy" but I don't really like that and want to come up with something better.

Matador

I was sketching some Matadors last night, and I really wanted to do something different then what I ended up with. I was looking for something simpler and more humorous, I will have to do some more sketches. Every time I think of a matador I always think of a tall skinny guy. I am not very good at drawing tall skinny guys, I have a hard time getting the proportions how I want them. Oh well that is why it is fun to practice.

Newsprint Sketches

Safari Sam (above)

Walter & his cat - look at the reference photo it is hilarious

I think I have said it before but I'll say it again, I love drawing on smooth newsprint with a Design Ebony Pencil or black Prismacolor. I wish I could experience the same kind of freedom by drawing in my sketchbook but I can't. When I am drawing on newsprint, I have the most fun.

Here are a couple of sketches I did last night. The first one is Safari Sam. His image just popped in my head and this is my first drawing of him. I was very pleased with the way it turned out and I have some ideas on doing something further with this guy.

The second image is called "Walter & his cat". I was on Flickr drawing animals, and I did a search for cats. When I saw this image I couldn't believe it. You absolutely have to go and look at the reference picture that I drew this from, it is hilarious.

the ROCK

Caricature of the Rock (Dwayne Johnson). Ebony design pencil on newsprint.

Chump

Just experimenting. This guy was a doodle in my sketchbook.

-ink, brushpen, colored pencil, white-out

Drawing Digital?

My first drawing done completely digital

I have had my tablet for about a week now, and have been trying out different software to draw in. I got Corel Painter - Sketch Pad and Autodesk Sketchbook Express with my Intuos. I really like Corel Sketch Pad it does a fantastic job of rendering realistic mediums especially the pencil. I don't like Autodesk Sketchbook Express, it is a very boring and I just dont like the lines. I also have been drawing in Flash MX. Flash is fun to draw in because of the cool manipulations you can do with the lines, and you are drawing vector which is nice. So last night I found the ultimate program. Manga Studio 4 EX. Manga Studio is really fantastic. I love the way it lays down a line, sketching in it felt as close to sketching on paper as you can get, the brushes and inking is just fantastic! It really feels wonderful. The interface was also very easy to use and intuitive. I installed it and just started drawing and was able to figure out everything pretty quickly. I really can't say enough good things about this program and I have only scratched the surface with it.

It is funny because just a month ago I was still very dead set against going digital, but I am glad I finally realized what everyone else has been saying to me: "It is just another tool". It is just another tool, and a really fun one at that.

The drawing above was done in Manga Studio. It is my first all digital drawing. I realize that most people have been drawing digitally for years and are not impressed. You shouldn't be impressed it is not a great drawing, but I am posting it as a personal "landmark", kind of like a new business that saves the first dollar bill that it makes.

Sherm

I was doodling in my sketchbook last night and this character popped out. Let me just say that I really really like drawing guys with mustaches and beards. I just love all the different shapes you can play with. Adding a beard or mustache really seems to add so much more personality to the character. Anyway I imagine this guy's name is Sherm, and he probably drives a little tiny Fiat.

Oh and I didn't finish his left hand, because I didn't want to. As an after thought I think his left hand is going to be made of wood, like Chubbs from Happy Gilmore.

Sketchbook doodles

Here are a couple of sketchbook doodles. The drawings of the "happy-sad monsters" were designed to be happy on one side and if you look at them upside down they look angry or sad.

The punk rock guy is a doodle that really kind of reflects how I felt yesterday.

Wacom Intuos4

So I finally broke down and decided I needed to start experimenting with some digital mediums. I bought a Wacom Intuos4 medium sized tablet a couple days ago. I haven't had alot of time to really play around with it, but have done some sketching with it. I am not completley foreign to the Wacom tablet, as I had a PenPartner in the late 90's. I didn't use it alot but enough so that I knew what to expect with the Intuos4. Well the Intuos4 is one hell of a nice graphics tablet that is for sure. The pressure sensitivity is insane. After about an hour or two of sketching it almost started to feel natural. I love the fact that the tablet can pick up the tilt angle of the grip pen. That is huge for me because I really enjoy using the side of a pencil for shading and defining shapes. The Intuos along with Corel Painter Sketch Pad program (it was included) is really pretty advanced. The feel is quite nice, the tablet has a more textured feel to it, similar to paper. It also comes with like 10 nibs, some felt, some hard plastic, and a nib that is supposed to simulate a brush stroke.

I am not so worried about getting used to the tablet as much as I am all the software that goes along with it. I am looking for any sort of advice or links on tutorials on how to digital paint, some cool brushes, how to digitally ink etc. Anything you could share with me would be much appreciated. I am familiar with Photoshop, but I don't know any of the in's and out's related to brushes, pressure sensitivity, etc. Also I would like to hear from any of you who like Adobe Illustrator for inking. I have also heard good things about Manga Studio.

Considering I was so adament about sticking with traditional mediums, there is just so much cool artwork out there created digitally (either in part or whole) that I am finally excited to accept the digital tablet as just another tool.

PS- This was my 100th post! I am kinda of proud of that, because it means I have stuck with this blog for almost a whole year now, which I guess is really longer then I thought I would.
Thanks to everyone who comes by to check out what I am up to.

Yoda with red converse

Here is a Yoda doodle in brushpen and watercolor. Yoda always seemed like he would be a red converse wearing kind of Jedi Master.

Sketchbook Doodle Page and Jack Black

Sasquatch & Friends

A Sinister - Jack Black

Here is a caricature of Jack Black, and a page that I liked out of my sketchbook. I did the Jack Black with a fountain pen, brushpen, and marker. The sketchbook doodle page is brushpen and watercolor.

Drunken Pirate

I was trying to draw a cowboy but it just wasn't working so I doodled out this pirate instead.

Animal Sketches

I did some animal sketches this weekend. I just did a search for "zoo" on flickr and then picked some animals to sketch. For the last month I have been drawing with the side of my pencil rather then the tip. It has really helped my stay loose and define my shapes much easier. I also have found that when I am drawing with the side of my pencil, I use my whole arm, instead of just my wrist. I have found that using my arm keeps my lines loose and organic. After I have defined my shapes I will go over areas with the tip.

Downer

Last Smoke

Sketches

I love Albert Einstein's face. I have drawn it many times, but I have never come close to capturing him the way I want to. When I see a picture of him I know exactly how I want to draw him, however he is one of the rare people that don't ever turn out the way I want.

This other sketch is just a quick sketch from a random photo reference on flickr.

boxing

Very loose quick sketch. Trying to capture the essence of the action. I don't think I quite got it here but it is a fun drawing non-the-less.

Sumo

Here is a quick loose sketch from a picture off the internet. I have been looking for sports action photos and trying to define the line of action.

Progress without Proof

I have been pretty diligent in my efforts to improve my drawing skills over the last few weeks. I started out by re-training my eye to observe. I did this by doing alot of countour drawings and negative space drawings. It has sharpened my rusty skills so-to-speak.

Now I am working off of model sheets and practicing construction. (This blog has a TON of model sheets and alot of Tex Avery stuff.) I have to say that it was really frustrating and difficult at first. What I am most proud of is the fact that I pushed through the first phase. I didn't give up and my attitude the whole time is not to expect any greatness for a long time. I bought a ream of copy paper so that my drawings could be "disposable". This gives me more freedom to stay loose and also gives me the train of thought that I am drawing to learn not to share or save my work. I am really surprised at how much more I understand about cartoon construction and form. I can't say enough good things about John K and sharing his insights on his blog. It has really been an eye-opener for me. He has just posted a nice page that organizes all of his lessons so that they are easy to get to in order. Check it out!

I am still slowly gaining confidence with this construction method and have just started to do some of my own drawings. I hope to have some drawings to show some of my progress soon. I just don't want to get ahead of myself. I am enjoying taking my time and learning. One of my biggest problems in the past has been that I am too impatient.

Stay TOONED!

PS- If anyone knows where I can get some Hanna Barbera model sheets please let me know!

Drawing Fundamentals

I have been drawing everyday over the last year. I have filled 3 sketchbooks, learned some basic watercolor skills, have a decent feel for the brush pen, however something major is missing. I have been studying work from artists that admire for the last year and striving to find that "special something" that makes their work stand apart from everyone else.

The answer my friend is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind. Ok, so actually the answer is DRAWING FUNDAMENTALS! Yes drawing fundamentals, the skills to draw what you see, observational skills, and understanding how thing really work. I came to this conclusion in an epiphany one day while I was perusing John K's wonderful blog.

John K (for those who live in a cave) is a wonderful cartoonist/animator/director who gave the world Ren & Stimpy. He has an awesome blog where he is giving away all the information any aspiring animator could ever digest. Well he has some posts where he is encouraging cartoonists to copy drawings from Preston Blairs animation book. I remember this book fondly as I grew up with it and when I took my first cartooning class at the age of 8 or 9 this was my text book.

To make things clear I don't want to be an animator, but I would love to be able to draw like one. So even though I was familar with the teachings of Preston Blair I realized I never actually read any of the text in his book. The whole idea behind animation is character construction. Construction is when you first draw a circle and then add a center line and so on and so on. Well I never in my whole life paid attention to that!! I always tried to draw the forms line by line without understanding what made up the shapes. My stuff always came out "wonky" and inconsistent because of it. It was like I was trying to build a house from the outside --> in instead of inside out. I started with the shingles and siding and tried to build the frame afterwards.

Well I had the epihany when I became very intrigued by this idea of construction and decided to give it a try. I drew some of the characters in the Preston Blair animation book. I found that I was totally capable of doing it, but it certainly was not natural for me. It kind of felt like solving the rubiks cube. The results of a drawing based on construction though were much more lively and dimensional then my other drawings. The forms/characters had perspective and sense of being solid. Two things my previous drawings were lacking.

Excited by this new skill I decided to try my hand at constructing Fred Flinstone from the fabulous Ed Benedict's model sheet. Again my results were good and I was happy but it didnt feel natural, it was right there that so many of my questions were finally answered. I finally understand how something so seemingly simple as Fred Flinstone could be some unbelievably complex. The skill and knowledge needed to design a character like Fred Flinstone is truly amazing.

This post is really a true testament to how ignorant we can all be as artists. At the tender age of 36 now I am just figuring all this stuff out. My entire life I have been avoiding learning skills that I thought I already had, because when I was in second grade I drew the best Garfield. Ha! It is laughable how much time I have "wasted" by not really listening to people. Draw what you see, learn your fundamentals, learn perspective, take life drawing. Well better late then never is my attitude. I am just glad I finally figured it out.

I am writing this post not because I want to tell the world what an idiot I am, but because I want any aspiring artists/cartoonists out there to know absolutely THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS! Listen to what people are saying, and take it to heart. If you want to be the best you have to spend the time. Eliminate your ego now and watch yourself grow as an artist faster then you ever thought you could.

For the time being I have decided to concentrate on my drawing skills. I have read "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" as an introductory text to get a better understanding of how an artist is supposed to see things. It has definitely been the biggest eye opener I have ever had artistically. Things are starting to make sense. I am putting my cartooning to rest for a little while to focus on my observational and drawing skills. I have been doing nothing but contour drawings for the last week and I my intentions are to spend the next full year dedicating myself everyday to polishing up the fundamentals I so absent mindedly ignored all this time.

I also want to thank all of you who visit my blog it means alot to me and I appreciate all the support!!!

MJ and The Sarcastic Monster

Thanks MJ for all the great memories!

The Sarcastic Monster

I have wanted to do a tribute to Michael Jackson, but couldn't find the time to sit down and find a photo that I wanted to work from. It would have been too easy to work from a recent photo because he pretty much just looked like a skull with sunglasses on. However, I don't want to remember Michael Jackson that way. I was a big fan when I was a kid, and I freaked out when I saw him do the moonwalk on the Motown 25th Anniversary show. When I got older my taste in music changed, and I stopped listening to MJ. After he died I revisited his music, and found myself really really enjoying it all over again. Wow, what a phenomenal entertainer he was, KING OF POP is a name that suites him perfectly IMO. This is a sketch from my sketchbook. I liked the way the sketch came out and decided to add some tone with watercolor. Originally I was going to do the whole thing in sepia but then decided this image really needed some flashy color to capture the intensity I wanted. So that is the reason his skin is a darker tone then it should be, because I started with a base layer of sepia.

The Sarcastic monster is a doodle that I did and when I was finished I thought, this monster looks so wimpy. He just seemed to me like a monster who sarcastically tried to convince people to be very afraid of him, even though he himself knew he wasn't that scarey. (I appoligize if none of what I just wrote makes any sense.)

It's Snow Fun Yeti!

I originally had this idea to do a gouache painting of this Yeti. Two things stopped me from finishing it in gouache. The first one is that I suck at painting with gouache, I need WAY MORE practice. The second is I used transfer paper to take my rough sketch off of the newsprint and on to my watercolor paper, but the transfer paper I used sucks and left waxy smudges. Anytime I tried painting over any of the transfered lines it smeared the paint. Funny how the transefer paper advertises that it leaves waxless, greaseless, eraseable lines. I found none of those claims to be true.

So even though I had almost finished the gouache painting it turned out so badly I had no choice but to throw it into the nearest garage receptacle. The next day I tried it again and used my watercolors.

My idea with this Yeti is that he hates the snow!

I am looking for a good name for this guy so any suggestions are more then welcome!

hot BBQ

Monsieur Mew-Mew & Illustration Friday - Hollow

Sketchbook Pages and Doodles

Click on the images to make them bigger

A sketchbook page which is un-edited. I really like the linework in these doodles and the color.

Then there is a lineup of animal re-mix doodles. These are really quite fun to do, and the combinations are limitless. I think my favorite is the ChickenGorilla (even though I gave him a monkey tail too) so maybe it is ChickenGorillaMonkey..I also like the way the expression on FrogPhant came out, he looks like he is really bummed out that he is half frog...hahah!

4th Of July

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend! Do you still have all your fingers?

I drew this doodle at Chipotle after finishing my burrito. Normally it is very hard for me to draw in public. I find it very hard to let my mind slip into that place where all you are focused on is the drawing and time has no meaning. I am usually too worried about someone looking over my shoulder.

Immediately after I finished eating this image popped into my head and I decided to put down the thumbnail since I had some time. I doodled this with a fine point ball point pen. It started coming out onto the paper easier then I expected so I "fleshed" it out. When I got home I finished it up with watercolor.

Jimi

I think this is one of the longest gaps for me in posting to the blog. I have been having mixed feelings recently about constantly posting my work on the internet. I have begun to realize that alot of my work is driven by posting something to my blog or my flickr account. This can be a good thing as it keeps me motivated to produce something new everyday (or nearly everyday). On the other hand it also seems to have been dictating what it is that I create. I have found that the drawings I have been doing are all in a style that I am too comfortable with and I am not learning and experimenting like I want to.

So with that said, what am I posting? Another caricature. Ha! well I am posting this doodle of Jimi because I think the colors make it fun. I am not too proud of this caricature but it is loose and free. The brushpen has really been a savior to me and my work. I find it is the only tool, that I could create endless doodles with. I never get tired of putting that brush on paper. Every line is exciting with a brush and I have not drawn with anything else for over 2 weeks.

Buy Ya A Drink

I sketched a doodle out at work on some scrap paper of this scene and i really liked it. I forgot to bring my doodle home with me so I had to do another one on some newprint. I liked the second doodle, but it lost some of the character in my first one. I decided to go ahead with it anyway and I took out some scrap watercolor paper and my brushpen and started to draw it out. I was pleased with the way the guy came out, however in my original doodle he is standing on a lopsided table and I ran out of room on this drawing. I ran out of room for the woman too and she is all wonky looking. Still I was happy with the brushpen strokes in this. I also knew from the get go that I wanted to try this with just a splash of colored ink wash. I had bought a sample pack of windsor newton colored inks awhile ago and this seemed like the perfect drawing to try them out. I chose orange and I really liked the way the style turned out. The word bubbles above their heads is just gibberish really not meant to mean anything specific.

Orson Welles

This is a rough sketch of George Orson Welles. There are many pictures of Orson, but this seems to be the image of him that I always think of. I kind of made him look like a "methed out biker". This sketch came out pretty quick maybe 5 minutes, no erasing or changing my mind, I had a reference photo and after the I drew the eyes I didn't even look at it that closely. I had already made up my mind how he was going to look. This was done in my sketchbook with a standard 2B pencil. Those standard issue school pencils are so great and ultimately probably my favorite thing to draw with. I have alot of different tools but my old standby is the yellow 2B. The thing with those "yellow" school pencils is there are so many different kinds and they are all different, even if they say 2B. Some are waxy, some are flaky, some are too light, and some are too dark. I am very picky about how the line lands on my sketchbook paper. I can tell immediately if I like the pencil or not. I won't hesitate to snap a bad pencil in half and feed it to my cat. (just kidding)