A look back at February...

The 2nd month of the year has drawn to a close, as has the second month of Drawsiness.

February was flying off the heals of January, and started kinda strong, but mid-month kinda sputtered.  But last month I did a collage pic (and wallpaper) of the month, and liked it.  So here's the one for February.  A few less posts, but I like the "art gallery" approach to displaying them.  It look cool and professional.

Not everything I draw makes it to Drawsiness, some projects remain unseen while I work on them, some are potentially professional, so must remain under wraps for now.  Some just aren't done enough for the world to see.

But I hope to bring it in March!  Viva la Drawsiness!

Watchin American Idol...

So was watching American Idol last night, as they narrowed in on the Top 24 contestants... and opted to start some doodling for today's Drawsiness... and this is what I got.

If I have a "style" this is probably a good example of it.  This is just me letting my mind wander and let the hand kinda do whatever it wants.  Final projects and what not, or something that needs a particular look, I get hung up on proportions and way things look.  This is me just not really carrying and letting stuff come naturally.  Not worrying about proportions, or perspective or any other "art" rule.  Just freedom to draw whatever.

America better vote off that Pauly Shore lookin' mofo, he annoys me!

The Dayjob Doodling Debacle

I apologize upfront for the poor image quality, it was taken with my cell phone under less than ideal conditions.

On to the story!  I work in the Photo Lab for a major retail chain.  To motivate the work force to do tasks that the work force is otherwise apathetic towards, they create cheesy little games to aid in carrying out these tasks, and rewards the grunts with cheap prizes.  As I'm a creative fellow I get hauled into draw things on poster boards to liven up these cheezy games.  So the above drawing is for the upcoming game, which apparently will have a St. Paddy's theme.  NOTE: This is not my Drawsiness for St. Pat's.  That will be up on March 17th!

So I was coloring this the other day in the Photo Lab, when a rather snooty mother and her rag-tag brats came into get some photos done.  One of the children apparently had a "family tree" project for homework, and that's why they needed the photos.  They wander off to do some shopping while their photos are getting done.  They come back and the mother asks "Who drew that?"  I rather humbly say it was me, and she asked if I traced or used a stencil.  I said no, straight from my head to the poster board.  I do inform her I used a lamp shade to get the circle of the pot just right (cuz drawing a perfect circle is hard!).  She plops another poster board on the counter and some markers, and asks if I could draw her a tree on the poster board.  (Note: This is before I find out it's for one of her brat's school projects).  I hesitate at first cuz I'm working... and it's an odd request.  But she talks up my ego enough, and I knew I could scribble out a tree in about 5 minutes or less.  It takes closer to 10 minutes in between helping other people with their photos.  She says "That's great!" pays for her photos, poster board, et. al and leaves the store with her brats.

I'm forbidden to accept tips at my day job.  I can actually be fired for it.  So I wasn't expecting to get any sort of monetary compensation out of the tree scribble.  But it would have been nice if she at least made the motion to tip.  Or even acted like she would and begin digging through her purse.  But no.  Didn't even appear to be a thought on her mind.  Had she, I would of declined.  Maybe slide her my "artist" business card and maybe have her offer me a better art project in the future, to which I could get paid for?  But nope.  Didn't happen.  But the thing that really irked me was she didn't even say "Thank You!"   That would have been enough, a simple "Thank you!"  Especially since I just did a HUGE junk of her brat's homework for them/her. Nope.  Just took the tree, and photos and left.  Felt so used.

The Doctor will see you now...

Just a quick little doodle today of everybody's favorite criminal villian... Dr. Horrible!

Quite possibly the best thing to come out of the Writer's Guild strike was Dr. Horrible.  I really hope they get around to the sequel, or perhaps even a Broadway play would be sweet?

Harry Potter and the Lack of Productivity

What is up with February being so artistically draining?  For the past week, it's been like pulling teeth to get some art down on paper... and a majority of it is not living up to time spent on it.

Anywho, I had a quirky idea to draw everybody's favorite magical children in a Charlie's Angels'esque pose.  Actually, I had the idea to do the Charlie's Angels pose for "Chuck", but I'll tackle that one at a later date, so I opted to go with Harry Potter, as it's a trio of people who could pull off that pose.  Also, I wanted to steer away from drawing Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint.  I wanted to draw Harry, Hermione, and Ron.  There is a difference.  I think Harry came out pretty close, but the other 2 could have used some work.  But this was supposed to be a "warm up" drawing, and it turned into an all-day project.  Weird how that happens sometimes.

I'll be your Superman...

Alright, it's been 4 days since the last post, but that's cuz I was trying to get this one perfect...  For those who don't know, this would be me... as Superman, and the love of my life, as Lois Lane.  Though she hates Lois Lane, so I guess it's Supes and a innocent bystander in love.

Portrait skills are hard for me, they are not easy, so this one took a while to get to work.  It was especially difficult, because the girl and I had the weekend off, so I had to work on it without her seeing it.  But mission accomplished, I believe.  Happy Valentine's sweetheart, I love you!!!

BANE-she

Yeesh, 5 days with no new art posted on here.  I am ashamed of myself!  Really!  But seriously, this drawing took waaaaay longer to finish than it should it have.

For those not in the know, this would be the 2nd entry in my "Batman Rogues Gallery Goes Wild" series (working title), where I take Batman's greatest villians and turn them female (the ones that aren't already female, that be).  The first one was The Joker, which was my first post on this art blog.  While many might of expected me to follow it up with Riddler or Two-Face, I decided to take the same confusing turn that Christopher Nolan did, and I give you... BANE!  Bane is not a very common Bat-villain, in fact, aside from breaking the Batman's back in the mid early 90s, he hasn't really done much else, which made it an interesting villain choice for the next Bat-film.

The challenge of making him a her, proved even more difficult for me, because most of the ladies I draw are a bit more slender and sexy.  Not that buff isn't sexy (if that's your thing), but I go the more traditional road when drawing women.  So it proved a challenge making Bane both female, muscular, and still retain some femininity.

Yar! Gharbarharahggharhghharhgha brigaa biggaa!!!!

So one Halloween a couple of years ago, stores were selling this little 5 inch scary looking dude with troll hair. They were called "Screechers".  You pick him up, squeeze him, and he shouts some jibber jabber.  And i immediately thought "Awww, how cute."   There are 2 now.  I have one that I keep by my desk, who has been named "Powers".  The girlfriend has one in her car on the passenger side door, named "Samuel".


Anywho, I wanted to draw something with gritty detail, and use the "rougher" shading technique I had experimented with briefly on the Groundhog Day post, and there you have it... this scary looking troll dude.  I failed to capture his cuteness however.

Jake says, "Drink your Orange Juice!!!"

I'm gearing up to start the 3rd chapter of "QUACK!" in my online webcomic, "Waste of Time."  And a good portion of that chapter will involve the fine feathered friend (or fiend?), Jake!  So whipped up this practice doodle to get used to drawing the fella, cuz he'll be drawn... a lot over the next 22-32 pages of story (and maybe more).  So, need him looking good and consistent throughout the pages.  Character development is important!

Also, drinking orange juice is an excellent source of Vitamin C, and sometimes D, and calcium, and can help you fight off or even prevent illness.

It's Groundhog Day!

I was originally gonna whip a take of some kind on the Bill Murray film "Groundhog Day" and I was like "Does anybody even remember that?"  Foolish me!  My Facebook page is literally littered (say that 5 times fast!) with posts related to the film.  Oh well, I decided to go with my cartoony, comic, dry-wit style and whipped up this groundhog not seeing his shadow.  Screw Bill Murray!  He needs to get off his high horse and allow a third Ghostbusters to be made.  But I digress.

So when I digitally color, I usually use the "dodge" and "burn" tools to shade and highlight.  This time around though, I went with the more solid brush instead of the faded brush for some of it, and it had an interesting effect in some places.  Kinda gave it a raw edginess, I might experiment with that in some future posts.  It could be fun.  Now what do I want to post for Valentine's Day?  I already have the St. Pat's figured out in my head.  If you've heard Bob Saget's comedy bit... you might have an idea...

UPDATE:  Later today, when I got to work, I was doodling on some company memo... and I drew this thing.  I thought the idea was brilliantly funny... even if it was just a scribble.  So I shared it.

You've got red on you...

A quick little sketch today of one of my favorite films of all time... Shaun of the Dead.

I had this itch to take a stab at drawing Shaun for the past couple weeks, so today I fed that itch.  Portraiture is one of my weaker points as an artist, I can do it, but it's difficult, and usually time consuming.  While not a perfect match to Mr. Pegg, I think the above drawing came across well, you know it's Shaun, you know he's about to bash some zombie skull in.  To capture Shaun, you really just have to get that slightly balding hair right, and you have it.  One thing my college art teachers always tried to get across is you're not trying to draw (or paint) that person, just enough that you know who it is without having to be told.  There are small visual things about a person that make it that person (i.e., Leno and has monstrous chin, etc.), and those are things you most want to capture.

And if you haven't seen the masterpiece, "Shaun of the Dead".  Then stop reading my blog and go watch it.  NOW!