Cyberbrows and a manbag

I find I'm spending less and less time with my Preston Blair study lately. I still am really enjoying it, but I get so many ideas and concepts of my own that I want to draw that I'm finding it hard to set aside the time I used to. I also think drawing really small sequential characters is getting to me. I need to draw bigger.

Claude and his turtle dueling again.


The Daily Gilligan


I've always thought the idea of cyberbrows (robotic eyebrows) looked really cool. I don't know exactly what the benefit would be, but I think if given the option I'd have the surgery.


Had to take a break to watch the new episode of The Office.


I've found I like doing these more adventurous, peril filled, Robin Hood style drawings.


On the heels of yesterday's Viking drawing I become fond of the idea of Vikings in normal situations. Tonight I present to you Viking playing Croquet.


While looking online to find a better way to carry around my sketchbooks, pencils, erasers, etc, yes, I suppose you could say I was looking for a manbag. I came across this great thread (Loose Sketches I Would Like to Own) on the conceptart.org forums. It's a whole collection of people posting pages from some of their favorite artists sketchbooks. I rediscovered Jean Giraud. Back when I was really into Sega games. Thanks mainly to my friend Benstylus. I looked into the Panzer Dragoon series of games. What captivated me about these games was the art. It was unlike anything I've seen before. Jean Giraud mixes comic book style art with a European almost children's book warmth and vibrancy. I really need to find a book of his to study.

Everything's better when you add "in space" at the end

Life has been busy lately. I'm finding it challenging to keep some sort of normal time slot for drawing. So I've been keeping a sketchbook with me everywhere I go and trying to find inspiration from everything around me. Whether it be a story someone tells me, the color and shape of the trees outside, or a song I overhear on the radio, etc. I've got to train myself to keep my eyes and ears open to everything and use my experiences and the bits of time here and there to keep growing and learning. Started a new page of sequential drawings and struggled at the beginning to keep the same model with the reference on a different page of my sketchbook, I don't like using rulers. For some reason I feel its cheating. I like how over the top some of these gestures turned out, and ya I know I've got to get them into a gif like I keep saying I'm going to.

Claude and his turtle going for a swim.


Gilligan pretending to be a bird.


I realized while drawing the mustache bandit that he has a similar resemblance to Earl Hickey.


Seahorses in Space!


Vikings at the Grocery Store.


If you've been reading my blog for a while now, you know that I've played at least a few computer games in the past. One of them being World of Warcraft. A few years back they came out with a comic book based on that franchise. Of course I was interested just based on the lore and story, but when I saw the art style I was blown away. Ludo Lullabi captures the style of the game perfectly and really blends it well with a true comic book feel.If you're ever looking for a new comic book to read even if you haven't played the game just grab up the World of Warcraft comic and I'm sure you'll love the art too! Thanks for the inspiration Ludo!

Late Late Night

Okay, I think I mean early morning. So I've got to figure out what to do. I either need to cut down on my drawing, cut back on everything else (which I don't have much to cut out left), or work faster. I haven't gotten a chance to make that sequence drawing into a gif yet. Hopefully tomorrow. I didn't even get to finish re-penciling (I need to just start inking) about half of the drawings I did earlier this evening. It's interesting trying to keep on model and stay true to the flow of action with every new drawing. I'm really enjoying the learning process.

Gilligan trying to walk like an Egyptian.


Claude and his turtle swashbuckling.


Wanted to try something a little less "cutesy" for a change so I thought I'd try out Robin Hood vs. a Demon.


The Mustache Bandit strikes again!


I cam across Herrera's Box Blog the other day on Twitter. His drawings are so dynamic and mix an old cartoony feel with a true comic book style. His drawing style instantly feels recognizable yet truly unique. Thanks for the inspiration!

Productive Day!

I thought I was behind all day today. Then I realized how late it was so I started scanning the work I'd done, and well it turns out I drew a lot. Moving on to the the more animation side of my Preston Blair Study. Today was line of action in a sequence. Time permitting I'll turn these images into an animated gif tomorrow.

I'm still not sure where I want to go with that Minithology idea I had. So I thought I'd draw a Pegasus, that soon turned into this.



Some weird Dr. Seuss like tentacle.


Claude and his turtle in an epic game of tug of war.



Gilligan preping for a party.



Tried out that exercise where you draw a random shape and turn it into something. Ended up doing a Robin Hood and Friar Tuck image.


When I was little I had a fascination with drawing Abraham Lincoln Beards and Hats on everything. So I'm working on a new character the Mustache Bandit. Who basically draws mustaches on everything and everyone.



Watched a bit of Pen and Teller's Bullshit with Rhys this evening and thought I'd try to be productive while I watched.



A couple other people who were on the show.


A distant cousin to both Totoro and Snorlax.


Picked up the Art of Miyazaki's Spirited Away. I could just stare at each page for hours. He has such a simple fluid style. I just love it. I've got to learn to watercolor some day.

iDaily

Time sure does fly when you're having fun, drawing that is. Tried out a few different things tonight. Just to spice it up. Still did a little Preston Blair study. The cat on the right feels more like a John K style than Preston Blair though.

MiniAthena is the last of the big Greek gods. Now I have to decide where I want to go from here.



Claude and his turtle up to their usual antics.


I needed a new wallpaper for my Ipod and my Droid, I also needed a new daily Gilligan drawing.



Ipod Wallpaper


Droid Wallpaper


Since I was on an update kick I figured I'd update my Twitter page too, and I wanted to work with some colored pencils.



Everyday since March 16th, save for the Double post day, I've updated my drawing blog. The main reason I do this, besides that it's great to have the accountability and I'd be drawing anyways, is because I love it when the sites I visit are updated daily. Sure there's Twitter and Facebook, but I also check Cartoon Brew, Michael Sporn Animation, and the John K Stuff site daily. Lucky for me they are almost always updated every 24 hours. So I'll continue to do so in that same fashion too. Thanks for the inspiration!

30hrs a day would be great

Time and speed, two things that I need more of. Spent some extra time really working out my rough sketches before I re-penciled them. That seemed to help out a lot in the end. I noticed yesterday I was having a tough time when I left too much open on my rough sketches. Still enjoying Preston Blair's over the top flair. Wish I had more time to work on my study, but on the upside I have a few days off this week. Which hopefully means more time to draw and time to work on my application for Animation Mentor.

I had no idea where I was gonna go with MiniArtemis, so I went with a harder action perspective that I haven't mastered quite yet. The head on action shot with hands out front, and in this case using a bow. I had to google some reference archery shots to get some of the angles and perspectives. That helped out a lot.



I was up last night until about 5am and then had to work in the morning so I was pretty sleepy. I was trying to think of what to do for today's Claude and his turtle sketch and this one just rolled out of my fingers.



I'm finally at the point where I have to think for a little bit about what I have and haven't done yet with Gilligan so tonight he's practicing being good.



I've listened to a lot of Art and Story Extreme in the last few days. Which is a great podcast. It blends comedy, personality, real life and art into a really enjoyable ~30 mins. They've been talking a lot about social media and where art and it's relationship with the internet are headed. Definitely worth listening to if you aren't already subscribed to their podcast. One of the guests they have on the show quite often is Kim Holm who is hilarious. He recently came up with this new idea of integrating Twitter into a choose your own adventure style illustrated web comic. Ever week or so he basically draws whatever story arc someone tweeted to him. With stuff like this happening and the onslaught of Twitter and Facebook and how much free art is available online I can't wait to see where the industry is gonna end up.

"It ain't easy."

Today's lesson: don't let your guard down. I just crunched one of my drawings while trying to scan it in, Oye! I think it's still salvageable though. Found myself being too much of a perfectionist. I think it slowed me down a bit tonight, but I like what I worked on. I have to remember to keep focused on the whole drawing and gesture I want to portray rather than just one nit picky area. I know I've said something similar to this before, but I find it keeps ringing true.

Claude and his turtle doing the happy dance!

Gilligan and the Wizard of Oz.


I've been putting off coming up with Minithology's Apollo. For some reason this drawing was intimidating me. So I decided Apollo needed to be a Rock Star. That's right, he has a Sun Guitar.


On the heels of what I started talking about earlier, remembering to focus on the whole drawing not just all the little details. Chapter 34 of Walt Stanchfield's Drawn to Life Vol1 really explains this idea in detail. To paraphrase one of his points, picture yourself drawing a circle. You don't focus on every little section of the circle. You imagine the circle you want and you just draw it. This chapter also has possibly one of my favorite quotes from an artist that I've heard to date. It's from one of the most amazing animators in history Ollie Johnston. It's concise, simple and to the point. When talking about drawing he said, "It ain't easy." What a motivation. If a master of his art says it ain't easy, then I'd better keep on drawing.