Steampunk Legend!

I've jumped into the "Steampunk Myths and Legends" project at the CGTalk forums. I'm doing a painting based on "Sir Owain and the Black Knight." That's a story I read long ago, and I thought that the idea of a Steampunk Black Knight would be fun to play with. (My thread here.)

I did a quick search for the story on the web and I found a few links that almost support the story as I remember it. Truth to tell, all that I remember is Sir Owain defeated the Black Knight and got lost in the Black Knight's castle searching for The Chalice. Well, that's not quite the way story seems to go (although there are probably several versions, as there often are when it comes to the old legends) but the part I'm focusing on-- Sir Owain confronting the Black Knight-- seems not to be affected by my errant recollections.
...The Chalice doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere! Oh, well.

...These are my first roughs, and I'm still searching for a good direction. There is another rough I'm working on but it's not quite ready. I have a new take on the Black Knight character which I'm liking and more ideas are flowing from that. Update soon

The End

Desperation Post

I haven't had the opportunity to do a thing the past few days! Frustrating! I'm busy at work this week and had a harrowing time of it last week (I survived the latest round of layoffs, which is -- at best -- a temporary relief, but any hope for a brighter future as an artist/graphic journalist is a moth-eaten, battered, burnt-faced, one-eyed, legless, featherless hope. Don't get me started on that!)
...I had been doing well, BLOGically speaking, and to find that I have dramatically fallen off my pace has brought on a small panic. I am working on something this morning, but it's too hideous to share at the moment. So, I've looked in the archive for something that is marginally presentable. Thus:

This is a photoshop study of a Rubens painting from about 4/5 years ago. It appears I had recently discovered the texture feature and laid it on pretty thick-- I tweaked it a little, as best as I could, to tone down the enthusiasm on that; otherwise I didn't mess with it.
Newer stuff, soon. I hope.

THE END
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Girls and Robots!

It can be fun to take a quick, dumb sketch and spend way too much time polishing it up-- and it was.

...I do most of my work in a panicky rush. On the job-- even if there appears to be plenty of lead time on an illustration assignment-- other projects and the daily grind destroy the cushion, leading me to frantic finish after frantic finish. At home, weekend chores and the accursed commute can make a fragmented wreck of my art-time-- I seem to finish most of my "for fun" drawings in haste before setting off to work.

...With the chosen theme of "Girls and Robots", I did the black and white sketch in just a few minutes. I scanned it, and I was going to color it simply and let it go, but I started rendering his head and I was swept up in the challenge of the thing. I decided to commit a couple hours to it and just have fun.
...I wasn't terribly creative with the original drawing of the girl, and I was considering erasing her out of the picture; but, as I began fleshing in her legs, I started liking her better. I thought of her as a plastic action figure. She can bend slightly at the waist, and her arms and elbows can bend. I put a seam around her neck so she could turn her head, probably all the way around. It made her more interesting to me than she was.

The End.

A doodle!

Quick little character sketch. Any resemblance to actual people is cool, but probably coincidental.

l

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Pencil, brush, pen, p-shop.

The End.

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Brute, Ironjaw, The Bat-Man

Did four quick drawings yesterday and colored two of them just now. Pencil roughs and brush inks. Some pen-work thrown in there after the ink dried.

I've been picking up cheap copies of the ATLAS line of comics from the early 70's. There's some terrible stuff in there and some terribly GREAT stuff. Too bad the company didn't make it-- then we'd all know who The Brute and Ironjaw were.

The End.

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The Green Guide Revisited

I drew this back in April; it's a goofy little illustration I did in a rush to fill an empty page in "The Green Guide" special booklet we published way back then.
...I've had this drawing in draft mode since April and lost track of it. I wasn't very fond of it and I couldn't think of anything nice to say about it, I suppose. It's been buried, and maybe I should leave it there, but several days have passed since I've posted anything and I'd like to keep my little hot-streak going.
...This is one of those "Find 10 things wrong with this picture" kind of things, but it might not have been 10 things and I don't remember what they were. I'm pretty sure it was about environmental faux pas found around town in Berkeley but I'd probably embarrass myself by trying to list them.
...Back on track with newer stuff, soon.

The End.

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