Tired of the holidays yet?

Our paper invited the readers to submit humorous lyrics set to the music of holiday tunes. There was some pretty good stuff in there.

I created this image in Photoshop.


The end.

Party On!

Illustration for a story on how NOT to behave at an office party– but not everybody is going to read it and take the advice, so the rest of us will still have something horribly embarrassing to talk about.

For this piece I drew all of the characters, individually, on real paper and scanned them in. Just plain old pencil and photoshop! I'm enjoying the drawing I do away from the computer and I think the old looser, more relaxed line is finding its way back into my work.

I regret not having attacked this illustration with more vigor at an earlier date– I had to finish it up much more quickly than I anticipated due to bad planning on my part. I envisioned about 6 more characters and a slightly different composition but I think it came together pretty well in spite of my efforts to fail.

For some reason– and I know better than this– I drew each character, scanned it in, colored it; then the next character, draw, scan, color. I should have drawn them all first, scanned, designed the composition and then attacked the coloring. I found myself going back and re-coloring stuff as I tried to arrange the layout on the go. Bad.

Still, I had fun with it. Beats working.

The End.

Shopping Season

This is a really quick sketch I did at work on Saturday afternoon. Really quick. I was laying out a graphic and needed some art to fill a peculiar space. Ta daa. Pencil and Photoshop!

The end.

p.s. I just decided to try the new blogger upgrade beta thingamajig. That's why things are looking different. I don't know much about webstuff but it seems pretty easy and not too confusing. Of course it will take some time before I settle on a stable presentation. I'll probably end up going back to the original but at least my interest is piqued for a day or two!

Infographical Thingamabob

This is a graphic I did for the paper this week. I haven't done many hard-core info-grahpics before– well, maybe a couple– but this was the most fun I've had doing one yet. Lotsa painting!


Photoshop with a touch of illustrator.

THE END.

I HATE TV!

This is the way I feel. Hate it. So, when the editors at work asked me to illustrate this idea for a story it popped out and onto the page (screen) sooo easily.

I plugged in my little TV last week for the first time in a long time and tried to watch the Colts/Patriots game, just because, well, how could you go wrong? Colts! Patriots!

Ugh. Pretty good game but the commercials beat me into submission. I was so worn out I almost turned it off in the 3rd quarter. So many dumb commercials and so many repeated pleadings to watch their crummy TV shows. Every pause between plays was crammed full of "CSI" and "ER" (or whatever) advertisements.

I've unplugged the TV again and put it back on the shelf, and it's likely to stay that way for a long time. Until the next Colts Patriots game, I figure! Or until I feel the need to play my old Sega Genesis.

Painted in Photoshop! It runs this Saturday in the Contra Costa Times and the affiliated papers.

The End.

The Idle Moment

Quick doodle. Photoshop.

Politically Polite

Photoshop illustration for a story about getting along with your fellow humans of differing political persuasions during the election season.

Doodled in photoshop.

And today?

A couple days back I found copies of Marvel Fanfare #'s 1 and 2 hidden away on a bookshelf; Michael Golden drawing Spider-Man! I remember when it came out 24-25 years ago! Gasp! That long?

It's still cool and it still makes me want to get out the crayons and draw pictures of Spider-Man!

So I did.

Monster Heads

I started to work on an illustration for Halloween. These heads, however, are FAR too creepy to even consider using them in some way. I'll just put these away– right here in the junk drawer– and start working on something friendlier.

The End.

Well, How About This?

I am thigh-deep in the thickest of slumps when it comes to off-duty art. For over a month I haven't found more than a few moments where free-time, the will to draw, and pen have crossed paths. It's disheartening but I'm going to get there.

So here's a sneak peak at an illustration I did a week or so ago for work. It hasn't run yet but it'll probably see the light of day next week some time.