One (1) Sheep

Whoa! I just found a really old painting I have absolutely no memory of working on.

It's a digital study, undoubtedly from photo-reference. I was experimenting with some brushes and textures before I became more comfortable with those tools.

I like translucent light effect on the ears! Neat-o.

I wonder how I did that.

Keeping Warm

I thought I had posted this before, but I searched the blog archives and didn't see it.

It's not that great, but I'm almost positive this was the very first illustration I did as an assignment for the newspaper. That would be January of 2001. I was just a kid. Well, a kid of 30-something.

I don't think this is the final image that went to print. I remember the book spine had the word "Dante" on it; could be wrong about that, though.

This was drawn on paper, scanned, and then "inked" in photoshop. I used a wood-cut style approach, which was something I did when using a mouse instead of a pressure-sensitive tablet.

I had to bring my own tablet to work in the early years, as it wasn't considered a necessary tool. Gah. Imagine that! Cheapest ones were about 300 bucks back then, tho. That's an expensive bit of equipment for a new-hire cartoonist.

Something Horrible

I found this repulsive image in a collection of my drawings that were done at the turn of the century. (Why does it feel so cool to be able to type that?)

It is not a piece of a larger story and never had ambition beyond its borders. Evan isn't anyone we need to worry for.

This is an example of the artist at the beginning of his digital art self-education. I was geeked up over trying to learn how to use textures in Photoshop, and needed to draw something that would look better all splotty.

Another Comics Page

Drawn/Painted in Photoshop

Well, I was hoping to get more of this project done before posting any pages, but my job has kept me busy and left me tired. I haven't had ample opportunity to draw much in the past few weeks. It has been very frustrating and I'm tired of looking at this and not seeing any growth.

I'm going to give up on this page and this project. In the words of Popeye the Sailor: I can't stands it no more! But I'd hate for it to rot alone in a folder on my desktop.

So


I'll blog it and let it rot on the internet!

The Many Eyes of Death

To be read aloud, in your best Vincent Price voice.

On the curb she fluttered and flapped in anguish. In the gutter she danced around her lover's corpse, his body battered and crushed by the machines of men. On her first night as the widow crow, she wept. And in her mourning she bellowed her agonies and shouted her woe.

The second evening she mourned and she cawed, but they were not the cries of the freshly wounded. She conversed with the winds of the world in the way that wild beasts do.

.

What are my joys? They are many but I did not know that I had them. Now they are draped on the branches where I can see them, but I do not think I will collect them.

What are my sorrows? I feel them and I know them, but I could not count their number without weeping. They are prickly and poisonous and will not sleep.

What of my will? As he passes from me, and the dark night holds only the promise of desolation, I swear to his feathers that I will avenge him and I will join him.

So she fell readily into the illness of loss, making her own path to her departed lover. She welcomed despair into the chambers of her heart and it nested there, growing and pushing her spirit out.

At the end, her lonesome ghost, tethered only to the hook of her sharp beak, awaited the woman who brings death -- you see, in the mythology of birds the farmer's wife is the reaper of chickens, ravens and crows. The widow whispered to her approaching fate:

I shall cling to my mouth until you appear, and when you reach for me I will slash and jab and peck you sightless. Then you will not be able to find another crow to stuff into your satchel.

On the last beat of the widow crow's heart the farmer's wife stood beside her. "Hello poor widow crow. Your sadness is at an end." The crow's agonies and oaths were almost lost to her. The soothing tone carried on the soft breath of the spectral silhouette almost subdued her murderous resolve, but she saw the bag the woman dragged behind her. She could see that it was stuffed full of feathers, beaks and bones.

The woman said "I know what you intend to do, and it is alright."  Her hair parted and the crow knew the truth before it was told. "But I have an eye for every crow, and I will see each of you."

Quickly, the woman snatched at the crow and the branch was bare. The beak slashed and jabbed and pecked, but we cannot know how that battle went. For the sake of the chickens and the ravens and crows we can hope that, perhaps, the widow managed to claim more than one eye.

The End

Social Security Illustration

This is my pinch-hit for a co-worker who was diverted from an illustration assignment at the last moment. He had an idea and a thumbnail, so I took it and executed it in my own way.

I only had a few hours to get it done and I was improvising as I went, without much room to go back and fix things. About half way through I felt it was totally out of control and fear was in my heart.

I didn't like it and I truly felt it was going to be a cataclysmic failure; a bad conflict of different visual styles stuffed into one illustration. But on I plodded. As the deadline stood clearly in view I spattered some texture on it and put a light greenish glaze over the whole thing to try to unify it.

It's weird, but about 10 seconds before I was done with it I had a complete change of heart and decided that liked it. Whew. That was close.

The End

Today's (Weak) Doodle

Loooong workday ahead. 8 a.m. and it's hot already. Almost too hot to sit in front of a computer. Totally uncomfortable. Later today, when I go to work, it will be 95 when I get out of the car, but I'll have to wear a coat and maybe a hood to keep my ears warm inside the building because the AC will be cranked up and I sit in a spot where the office's atmospherics produce a jet stream that dips down and puts a layer of frost on the top of my head.

But, enough about me. Here's an ipad drawing. By me.

A Quick Study

Here is a photoshop study. Referenced from a screenshot taken from Game of Thrones. Haven't had time for a lick of art this past week. Too much work and too many misadventures.

It's too hot in the iMac's room to sit for very long so I'm keeping this short. Gotta go.