Wednesday, August 30, 2006

More Scott crammed down yer gullets.







I'm back again. Now that I'm handi-capable instead of... well, like Jeff, I'm having glorious fun posting pictures and I demand with the arrogance of the gypsies that you look at them!

Here's some more graphic novel pages (the full title will eventually be "The Life, Death, and Life of Michael Midas: Champion of the World". Seriously.) as well as an environment I drew while trying out for a job at Activision.

That's it. Remember, certain cheeses can be delicious.

Oh, and I still think I'm a virtual walking poo. Unlike Ellis, who is as cool as it gets.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

More CRAP!



It worked! Now I get to enundate you clowns with drawings whenever I want!




AH-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Anyways, I've got some catching up to do. Here's some more tidbits. Does anyone know the limits of file size?

Ah HA!


OK, I think I've finally figured this damnable thing out. I wasn't getting the picture icon from wherever the hell I was creating a post, but now I think I've found the right place.
Here goes... Once again my attempt to show you a recent drawing for the "Pirates of Venus" project.

Screw all of you.

Sample C-Edge Cover ...


Some of y'all may know that waaaay back in the day I did a lot of Computoredge covers ... all black and white (it was the pre-color era) and most looking like they were inspired by "The Watchtower" publication ... Well, now that I'm inspired to sketch and paint again I thought it would be fun to see if I could make up some samples to wave at Eeka, the art director for the publication. More of them (and an earlier version of this piece) are available for viewing at my online gallery page. The upshot is that Eeka liked what she saw and will soon test me out with a black and white illustration for an inside article in the near future ... It never pays to ask; the worst anyone can say is no ...

BTW: there are still some touches I'd like to do to this piece (add more "plating look" to the computer console and monitor frame so it blends more with the keyboard segment, as well as some additional shadowing behind the monitor's base section so it seems more defined and attached to the computer case section) ... Comments welcome.

Men Are From Mars, Scott Is From Venus



Doodle from work. Gosh, I hope Scott gets smart enough to use his computer

Scott and his posting impotence.

TuesdayArtGroup
Jeez, I hope I'm doing this right. Everytime time Ranjo tells me how to post I won't post and then end up forgetting HOW to post so when I finally WANT to post I can't post.

I'm trying to add a drawing I did for pre-production illustration work for a potential Edgar Rice Burroughs film based on "The Pirates of Venus." I'm dragging and dropping a picture on to this message (although I think that's the wrong way) so if you get text with no picture somebody let me know (again) the proper way. If you get picture and no text then this whole conversation is moot and pointless. And if the latter is the case let me say that I think Ellis is a poophead.

OK, here goes...

Monday, August 28, 2006

Creeple Creeps


I was just doodling around and came up with these guys. No more story than that, I'm afraid.

Friday, August 25, 2006

Brush Pen Pt.III



More fun with the brush pen. Hoses seem to be the theme of this one.

BTW I will be in Yosemite till Thusday so see ya next week!

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Pulp Magazine Cover






That guy I linked to below, DataJunkie, has all those great Pulp covers. I'm going to paint this thing but I'll use one of those pulp covers as a layer and straight up use it's lurid (but pleasingly complementary) color scheme. Then take it into the ART RAGE program and give it an oil look. Wish me luck.

I started on the color last night. I brought in the color scheme of a pulp magazine and it was cool because it made me think about the color another artist had chosen. For instance I realized I can only go darker with that red on the elephant. The bright red is the lightest red. If it was me usingred, I'd mess it up by making a selection in photoshop and lightening. But studying the other artist, I realize that red should be the lighest the red gets.

I've Included the cover I got the color scheme from

Monster Post


Yesterday, contemplating the doctor's removal of a little cyst on (in) my cheek, I doodled this bumply monster face. Unfinished, it's still a decent Tuesday art post (while I'm searching out some good generational photos ...). The creature has a round nose "hole" because I started it out as a front view of one of my "gun nose" people, but it mutated into a standard monster instead. I'm not sure if I'll go back and retrofit a new nose or not. Time will tell.

BTW: Good on ye, Tom M. and Ellis! Very interesting views through the past.

;-)

Monday, August 21, 2006

Rick and Marty's Theory of Generational Anatomical Change Part2



My Dad as a Kid upper left. As a mature adult and as a man about 20 years older than I am now.
Below, me as a kid and me recently. Baldness skipped me. I'm a great example of never really achieving the look of an adult. Dad grew up during the depression. The worn out over-alls and bare feet aren't cute poses. Like Tom, I never missed a meal.



Unhealthy passion for fantasy on display. Shaved my head to be in a movie about Mothman

The Secrets of Wally Wood REVEALED!


Joel Johnson generously shares hi-res scans of Wally Wood’s “22 Panels That Always Work.” The instructional illustrations were given to incoming artists at Marvel Comics, where Wood was once an artist and editor.

Once shrouded in secrecy, Wally Wood would selectively give assistants and those close to him three 8×10 photocopies of comic panels that bore the absolute essence of drawing comic book panels. 22 images in total, they held the secret to a comic book illustrator’s success, and those who learned from them benefited from the master’s wisdom. The panels were gold, but were not packaged in such a way that was easily disseminated.

(stoled from drawn.ca)

  • 22 Panels That Always Work
  • Sunday, August 20, 2006

    I just felt like drawing elephants.


    It's just two elephants... or the same elephant twice. When Rick was visiting, his daughter Denise one day out of the blue, started telling me the tale of the six blind men and the elephant, and then went on to explain the moral of the tale. So I've had elephants on the mind since then.

    Hey, if anybody wants to read a really interesting, free online comic book on copyright law and fair use go here:

    http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/comics/

    It's actually about fair use in documentaries, but it's relavent to all the visual arts. Months ago some of us were having a discussion of Marvel's lawsuit against City of Heroes and what the true goal of copyright protection should be. I think that point is covered eloquently here.

    Rick and Marty's Theory of Generational Anatomical Change


    Hmmm... well I do think people look physically different from generation to generation for a number of reasons beyond style. Improved diet and a different lifestyle has made a difference in body types, and of course what's considered attractive from one generation to the next can change. Marilyn Monroe looks soft compared to the "abs-of-steel" girls of today.

    Being fat used to be a sign of prosperity when excess food was a luxury. Now, food is common; there's too much food. Thinness is the status symbol.

    A fair complexion used to be the sign of the upper class that didn't have to work in the fields. Nowadays a good tan shows you spend a lot of time out on the tennis courts or the golf course.

    But the differences that Rick and Marty sense may not all be strictly anatomical. That's my grandfather on the left, my dad in his fifties in the middle, and me on the right at about the same age. Obvious differences of hairstyle and clothing aside, I think they have more of an air of being real "adults" somehow.

    It might have something to do with the way people carry themselves; the way they "project" their experiences in life. My dad was born in 1914 and picked fruit as a teenager to help the family get through the depression. His dad had to flee the Japanese in Korea, and go from being a scholar to a field laborer here. Whereas I grew up never having to worry about where my next meal was coming from. Do their harder lives show in their eyes? It seems like the kind of thing a good actor could convey through subliminal body language thus making themselver look "physically" different.

    So does your theory have something to do with factors beyond these that I've mentioned? Some actual physical evolution?

    Saturday, August 19, 2006

    Cool Blog, Lots of Art from My Childhood



    I thought this was cool, a Jeff Jones piece I had never seen. It's obviously a careless quickey, umber clearly showing through, sloppy as hell but kinda neat. Here's the site.

    http://datajunkie.blogspot.com/2006_01_01_datajunkie_archive.html



    Tons of oddball stuff that was being sold to the child of the 60s.


    Wow, I dipped into his archives. Check out the Wally wood in March. And Marty, a ton of Kirby as well.



    http://datajunkie.blogspot.com/2006_03_01_datajunkie_archive.html


    I was inspired by the cartoon characters that were posted... I started out with the idea of doing guys with a 5:00 shadow, and went on to do just about any weird thing that entered my strange little mind.

    Thursday, August 17, 2006

    Ranger Smiths



    I just bought a Spumco/John K. drawing of Ranger Smith, Yogi and BooBoo (actual production drawings from "BooBoo Goes Wild"--I know, can you believe it? I am stoked).

    This inspired a Ranger Smith reverie.

    In felties.

    (Fumes made me open the windows. Glad it's cooler.)


    More Fun With Brush Pens!



    So work has slowed down a bit so I have time to actually draw for fun. I drew the character first and then added the silly text after. BTW is "coursed" a word? I'm illitrilate.

    Wednesday, August 16, 2006

    Hey, What happened to the settings?

    Is it you Skrbbl? Most of us have admin privelege I guess.

    Copy and paste this Skrbbl

    EDIT: Thanks Mr. Goodson! Got it!!!!

    Tuesday, August 15, 2006

    GrinSharpley



    sketch from boredom with a brush pen and grey marker.

    Couple of Character Heads, Channeling Drucker




    Or trying to channel Drucker.
    Mothman GIF added. I play a "baldie" dissecting mothman

    Last "Slow Death": Staff Page w/Sheridan artwork


    This is the last page (and only because there was a lot of commentary about Sheridan and his art style ... This is the staff page and includes what artists worked on the issue.

    Monday, August 14, 2006

    "Slow Death" page ...




    I post this because I was reminded of the last panel when I saw Rick's guy with a roaring head in his abdomen ... Naturally, since this is a family-friendly site, I've deleted a particular word from the joke ... I have a feeling most will still "get it." '70s Underground comics ... oh yeah ... BTW: this issue had a really great story from Corben ...

    And here is the final page, Tom M. (and others). I'll bring the whole comic to next year's Con! ;-)

    Sunday, August 13, 2006

    Guest Appearance

    Check out Chippy and Loopus and have a look at the "Diaper Genie"... look like anyone you know?

    http://chippyandloopus.typepad.com/

    Heh...

    Saturday, August 12, 2006



    I'm back... here are a couple of drawings I did while on was on my trip. No story behind them... just trying to do drawings that are a little more detailed than my usual fair. I had a blast seeing everyone and I am already looking forward to next year's Con!

    Jimmy Bowles Against The Blues


    A page of Jimmy. Just done straight ahead, with no planning, as an entertainment excercise fer myself and the young'ens.

    Maybe my real calling is as a babysitter/comic creator. I seem to do my best work that way (Tom Moon, you hit that nail on the head with your comments on "Herman's Hogan").

    As with "Herman's Hogan," this was done to impress kindergarteners (my kinda public!), and executed on a piece of printer paper with wobbly inking via my trusty Muji brushpen. Unlike the too-hasty execution on Herman, this one had pencils underneath.

    You'll notice that I am still struggling to draw good underwater scenes (it's the opaque tendrils of ocean effluvia that are beyond me right now--y'know, the little "current" most comic artists weave in and around their underwater populations-- I just can't get it right--it always looks like exploded octopus parts with me). But my surface waves are improving. I came up with the name Zubi, and little Harry, my half-brother-in-law, came up with Wendell (!).

    Kowabunga.

    Wednesday, August 9, 2006

    Scanner Setting Comparison










    Tito Knobbknees and friends.
    And Scanner setting comparisons for Rick and This Happened To Me Example for Marty

    Herman's Hogan, page 2


    Here's the finale.

    I started with the title, because I love the name Herman, and I love the Hogan, (an earthen style Navajo home, 'natch). A combination sure to draw laffs everywhere!

    Tuesday, August 8, 2006

    Herman's Hogan, page 1


    First page of a little comic ditty. Done to entertain Blair's six year old siblings. And all of humanity.

    My apologies to the Navajo nation.

    The Horror





    Someone else does a caricature of me. Better than the one Stephen Silver did of me.
    Of The new muli-image caricatures, The Silver caricature is one a lot of you saw at the con. The Gary Meyers caricatuire is an attempt at recreating from memory all the awful aspects of the Silver caricature. Liver spots, balding, mal shaped nose etc.

    Sunday, August 6, 2006

    Sketches Over Scotland ... ;-)






    Greetings, everyone.

    Here are some of the sketches that resulted from the Scotland trip ... I tried for about one a day, so what I did had to fit around mountain climing (Stac Pollaidh, est. 2000 feet tall), hill walking, a ferry boat trip, beach jaunts, etc. BTW: the weather was in the balmy mid-80s and only two days had any rain. Scotland! The vacation paradise!!

    Check out PitchScribbleRant (my blog) for another five sketches ...

    Feedback welcome.