Thursday, March 31, 2011

more inks

Here's another brush pen test with some photoshop colors thrown in quick.


Tuesday, March 29, 2011

oxide

One of the art stores in town is moving to a new location so they're having a big pre-moving sale.  I picked up a few gray wash brush pens for cheap and this is my first attempt at them.  I like the effect they have...it'll have a more natural look to it when I get better at using them.  Definitely better than just using flat grays in Photoshop.

That's Oxide.  He's a fourth grade science teacher who is also an ox.

Monday, March 28, 2011

the spirit

Here's another brush pen sketch with a little color thrown in.  That's The Spirit -- creation of comic's great Will Eisner.  Basically looking for any excuse to draw a fedora.  They're deceptively difficult to draw.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

ink test faces

Been doing a lot of brush pen stuff recently.  Enjoying it!  Here are a couple tests for faces.  That cool crumpled up effect in the second picture was achieved through a very advanced technique that involved crumpling up the paper and then flattening it back out as best I could. 

Friday, March 25, 2011

"Barry!"

Little sketch while Close Encounters was playing in the background.  Looking for ways to get better at perspective.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

the red pencil

Using the red pencil tonight.  Changin' it up.  I should work on not posting "first drafts" so much. 


Sunday, March 20, 2011

Produce Crocodaisle

Today while I was grocery shopping a mother pushing her very young daughter in one of those big plastic cars that the store provides went by me while in the produce aisle.  Their conversation went like this:

Daughter: "Mom, we have to get out of here!"
Mother: "Why's that?"
Daughter: "Cause I'm being chased by a big crocodile!"
Mother: "That must be traumatizing."

A really fantastically illustrated kid's book about a girl who gets chased by a crocodile in a grocery store only to find out it just wanted some carrots or something might be fun and maybe promote healthy eating.  It might also be sending out the wrong message about crocodiles.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

harold

Been trying to get a little better with the brush pen.  So this is an attempt to just go straight to the brush pen without doing pencils first.  There's also some actual ink and brush in there.  Plus a very small amount of color in Photoshop.  Ignore those hands!

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Almost Cogburn

I am reading the novel True Grit, and having also seen the recent (and great) Coen Brother adaptation, I attempted to do a pen sketch of lead character Rooster Cogburn.  It sort of ended up being its own thing, but that's okay.

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Saturday, March 05, 2011

pen sketch

Another pen sketch.  Not sure what's up with this dude's noggin.  Looks like he has a rolled-up newspaper for a head.

Thursday, March 03, 2011

The Dude

 Had The Big Lebowski playing while doing some work.  This pen sketch was the result of that.

Wednesday, March 02, 2011

In which I get caught up....

I have one of those 365 day calendars with quotes from The Office on it and what usually happens is I don't throw any of them away.  They usually sit around on my desk in case I need them to take notes or something.  So I decided I'd use a whole bunch of them and just draw real quickly on them.  Here's mostly all of them, good or bad.  I threw the really bad ones away.  I started in a regular black ink pen, and then quickly moved to a green brush pen.  May have to do these every once in a while when I get a month worth of scrap calendar paper sitting around.












on model

Practicing drawing chracters "on model".  These are messy, but it looks like the same guy.....I think?

looking out

Think I need to start working on making my color stuff look like it wasn't so obviously done in a computer.  Which is difficult when I'm using a mouse.  Need to look into getting some sort of tablet type thing.

Tuesday, March 01, 2011

grizzled

I think this guy is some sort of hard-boiled detective.

margin doodles

Here are some rough doodles I did in the margins of some legal pads.  They're quick, but I'm trying real hard to catch up.  We've got some sort of fox thing, a turtle, and a baby bird.