Some Guy and an Apache

It's a shame that the handlebar moustache has gone out of style in the mainstream. I think they'd look just as striking poised above a business suit as they do above the body of today's aging biker. The bow-tie doesn't need to come back, though.
The End
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Dick West (deceased) and Joseph Pulitzer


Pen and watercolor stains-- I don't think I've figured out what I'm doing with the watercolor yet. I was compelled to color it because of the texture of the paper-- it's rough and practically invites watercolor, but it doesn't hold up to the moisture and makes drawing on the flip side a bit wobbly in addition to it's natural pen-resistant ruggedness.
...Maybe I'll just stop with the watercolor; the goal is to draw heads. Color isn't the point. (Sure looks dull without it, though.)
...The End
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Unfinished Painting


I admire the work of the early to mid 20th century American pulp artists; all those crazy sci-fi, detective, romance covers painted with a deadline that required a lot of designing on the fly. What fun!
...This painting has been a side project for a couple of months, but I don't think I've spent more than 8 to 10 hours on it, if that! I suppose it maintains the spirit of the old pulp deadline, although it's digital and I was able to make the canvas larger when I wanted more room for the little iron monkey-- but it's as close as I can (comfortably) get to the old spirit from here in the future! The 21st century!

Other pulpish paintings:
Interesting Sci-Fi 1
Interesting Sci-Fi 2
Interesting Sci-Fi 3
The Iron Apes of Mercury
Saturn's Seven Vipers
Lion Men of Uranus
Venus Needs Men
The End
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Charles Dana Gibson and Charles Angelo Siringo

Head Sketchbook Project revistited:
...My "Head Sketchbook Project" has stumbled, fallen down and bled to death on the sidewalk-- only twelve posts in about a year. I had the goal of filling a book with head drawings; scanning them, posting them; making use of the blog to encourage some specific practice on my part, but that has been a failure. Time to rethink it, rev it up and try again.
...I've taken on a smaller book-- about 3 inches by 5-- so that I can easily carry it with me; so that only one head fits comfortably on each page, effectively restricting my tendency to cram head upon head on each blank sheet. Nothing crushes my momentum like one badly drawn head ruining other, less horribly drawn heads simply by being next to them.
...I will doodle from reference; most often photos and the work of other artists. I'm not necessarily aiming for accuracy in likeness-- although I hope, as I improve, that quality will naturally fall into place-- I'm chiefly concerned with observing and absorbing a wide variety of features, so that when I draw from my imagination I will have a greater range of invention.

The End.
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A & E Cover for the Grammys


...The Grammy Award Show is 50 years old! Big deal? I guess so. Heck! It's important enough to merit a cover on our A&E section.
...I don't know about you, but I can't get enough heartless, pretentious, ridiculous pop music. (I'd better stop; I'm in a bad mood today and this could get really ugly.)
...Photoshop painting-- and for this one I think I used just about every digital crayon in the box. More color for your money, that's my motto!

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A Quick Cartoon

...One night, as my shift was winding down-- all work finished and sent to the page designers-- I went through some old, cast-aside emails and saw that our department had received an illustration request. I was on the brink of my weekend and there was only 40-ish minutes left before I'd be committing to the commute. I was disappointed because illustrations have been becoming rarer of late, and I wouldn't be able to take it on with so little time.
...The illustration was to accompany a story exploring the social boundaries of crying, brought on by the many (over?)reactions to Hillary's New Hampshire weeping-- who can do it when and get away with it-- that kind of thing.
...I thought I'd see what I could do before going home. I concentrated on the implication that men who cry in public are seen as sensitive, and the women are perceived as manipulative and did this:


...I went with a very simple cartooning style and did a swift thumbnail in photoshop before tracing it in illustrator. Then I went back to photoshop and applied the color.
...Not too bad for a quick draw-- not quite on target and the character designs could use be refined, but it's okay. Well, the woman should have a sinister expression of some kind in order to stick to the premise, I suppose.
...As I finished it up and got ready to head out (still had enough time for a quick game of Galaga, too!), I saw that one of the other artists had claimed the job. Oh, well. Nobody will ever see this drawing then... except you, that is.

The End.
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Election Illustration

For this illustration,the page designer came to me with a thumbnail for a layout incorporating art, photo and text-- so I whipped up the art, tailored to fit.
...I drew all of the elements on separate layers and put it together over the course of a day and a half. As usual, this was not the only project I was working on during that time-- several daily duties absorbed most of my attention-- so it was created in brief, stop-and-go spurts-- not the ideal way to work, but in the short-staffed world of the newspaper biz you take what you can get.
...In the final version I had to fade the back ground confetti and removed the "change" sign to accommodate text.
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