Ta-daa!

I found an old sketch on a piece of typing paper. I liked the way she was standing, so I jumped in with the pen and proceeded to take the life right out of it.
...I colored it, hoping to push it back into the realm of "tolerable." Almost made it.
...I uploaded the poor thing and tried to find something nice to say on her behalf before posting. Nothing occurred to me so intended to "think on it" for a short time-- until inspiration struck! She has been sitting, waiting for a couple of months, lost in the shuffle. I found it this morning and thought I'd just throw it out there.
...Pencil, pen, P-shop.

More Head Doodles

For the two heads on the bottom, I was looking at an old photograph. I didn't try to do portraits but they came out pretty close to the pictures anyway. I avoided their hats, not out of fear (for they were very fancy hats) but because I had to leave for work.
...Then I did the top two, no reference. Freestyle. The bottom faces look more "real," I suppose, but that's only because they were.

My Latest Newspaper Illustration (Failure)

...The story angle: During these times of financial strife for the common man there is a crop of new shows depicting the fortunes and misfortunes of impossibly wealthy people-- programs reminiscent of "Dynasty" and "Dallas."
...Interesting, eh? Well, how do you illustrate that? I still don't know.
...I could have made a collage using the handout art from various shows, but that's tedious and the pictures were blah. So, by combining several small not-so-great ideas, I crafted one, gigantic bad illustration.

...Usually, when I'm stumped, I just start working; adding, subtracting as I go. Most of the time I can find a concept that is at least competently illustrative before I get to the deadline.
...But not all of the time.
...I prefer to be able to look at an illustration and get some idea of what the story is about-- this one does not succeed. If you don't know the gist of the story there's NO WAY you can guess the topic. Even after you read the story and then look at the picture, you might say: "Yeah, well. Um, I guess I  see the connection there. Yeah. Hm. Cute doggies!"
...I put in a bunch of cute widdle doggies because sometimes if you mix in a large enough chunk of  saccharin, you can distract the eye from the quality of the rest of the art. I should have just filled the page with Yorkies.

The End

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p.s. The funny part is, and I forgot to mention it, I had a great time doing this. I worked on it in short bursts over a couple of days between my job's other tedious labors, and I was completely happy with each little bit I drew as I went along. In the end I don't think I pulled off what I was trying to pull off, because I didn't know what I was trying to pull off, if you get me.
...You know that saying about the journey being the exciting part, and how when you get to where you were trying to get it turns out to be a dump? Well, I had a great journey!
n

Some Heads

Here are some quick doodles in the form of made-up character heads.
...Top left -- when I completed the shape of the head, the hair and scribbled in his glasses -- I thought of Random Wilder from Dan Clowes' Ice Haven, but I wasn't trying to go after him; I just didn't fight the resemblance when I started refining him. Otherwise, they're all straight outta me head in freestyle fashion.
...Ooh! A little bit of Palin-hair on the lower left lady, I suppose, but that wasn't on purpose.
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The Last Time I Saw Paul

This is a simple doodle I liked. I was going to make a production of it and turn it into a faux paperback cover but I've run out of gas. I figured out the title though, and it turns it into a sad thing, doesn't it?

Oh well. The End.

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I was looking at Valazquez

And he was looking right back at me. So I doodled him. If he bothered to doodle me I bet it looked pretty good, although maybe not; he didn't seem willing to show me.

While working on a dull project at my place of employment I hacked out this quick study during short breaks, as a little reward for myself. I need some propping up now and again.
j

Four Posts Today

I've been too busy with work and with chores to keep the blog going regularly, but I have been drawing when I can. Here are a few things I've doodled and colored in the past couple of weeks. The goal was to come up with characters that might look good in a comic book or a video game:

This one was fun. I have a story for this ghastly character but it's a little long and growing longer, so rather than wait six months for me to get around to typing it here, just look at the picture and come up with your own! (Really, that's what I did-- I had no idea what he was all about when I started drawing him.)
n

This lady, as of yet, has no name, no story. Pardon the peculiar torso-twist and the weird cape.

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A long time ago I drew the first version of this lady; she was skinnier and she had only one over-sized robotic arm. She looked clunky, but I was fond of her. I sketched her a few times and even went so far as to make some comic-pages with her in there, along with an old-lady super-hero (an octogenarian with a pudgy body and absolutely RIPPED arms.)

I submitted those pages to a couple places and nobody ever called me. Hm. Go figure..
gg

Here, I intentionally tried to design a character that I thought would fit right into a Jean "Moebius" Giraud sci-fi comic. I've just gotten ahold of "The Incal" by Jodorowsky and Moebius, published by Marvel/Epic in the 80s, and I'm seeing everything through Giraud-colored glasses. Beautiful stuff!
...My first drawings of this fellow had a livelier, more colorful outfit, but I thought his striped pants, checkerboard vest and ruffled cuffs were indications I was going too far. Now, I think differently. I might fix him later.

I had a name and a story for this chap, but as I was finishing up the coloring on him it occurred to me to make his three eyes red, yellow, blue. Ooh. That changes things. Now he projects images in... subtractive color? That SHOULD be red, blue and green for additive color, right? Color theory was so long ago. Whatever; it just means that my previous notions about this fellow are whacked.

THE END
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