An Old Head

This is ancient. As I recall, a friend of mine doodled a head in photoshop and I doodled on top of that. It wasn't really supposed to be Wolverine, but by the time I finished it, that's who he kind of looked like, so I put the costume on him.

I was tempted today to expand on this-- he needs a stogie, he needs a beer-- but I'm way too busy to be clowning around with stuff like this. Maybe later.

A Tale of Two Oscars

I painted these guys a couple of weeks ago. They were done as an illustration for the newspapers I work for; I didn't read the stories but, as it was explained to me, they went with a normal story about the Academy Awards and a lighter, jokey one put together by the staff.
...The sillier story was called the BANG awards-- referencing the acronym for our cluster of newspapers, Bay Area News Group. (Yeah, no one who works here is really happy about that...)
...So, I found a statue image, did a quick trace and painted that to get the figure on the left. I duplicated my first effort and painted on top of it, putting on new arms and a face. I probably got too detailed with the face (he looks more scary than scared) but it was a fun exercise.
...All in photoshop, of course.

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How to Shop for Art!

This illustration ran in the papers last Saturday. I drew it in a way to appear to be a ball point pen drawing-- one of my favorite tools! But, of course, done in photoshop because... well, for no good reason other than it's more efficient.

I wanted it to run as a drawing; no color! Well, as I neared the finish it looked pretty drab to me. So, I tossed some pale colors on there, trying not to betray my original intentions overmuch.

Eh, it's okay. I like the Picasso!

And here is a small composite I created to run in the masthead with the teasers. This one I colored differently because it ran on a blue background, and with it's natural blue tint it looked blah.

Some Monkeys Do

Okay, one more old drawing. This was done about 5 years ago for an opinion piece on medical marijuana. I don't recall the particulars of the story, but I think it was a lighter piece, probably mentioning the "lucky" monkeys in the control group. I don't know what's up with those doctor-types; they're sort of hovering there, not doing much. Maybe one should be holding a bong and the other, a banana! Hindsight! Oh well...

I miss editorial illustrations. We don't get to do those anymore; I would hesitate to to that kind of thing regularly-- it might be dangerous. Our editorial cartoonist was laid off a couple of years ago, and I have a small fear that if I were to do some work for the editorial page I might be mistaken for another editorial cartoonist-- the position is no longer viable in the modern newsroom.

I'm not really an editorial cartoonist kind of guy, but I do enjoy the illustrations. I'm not a politics enthusiast, and I don't follow that sport closely enough to feel confident about commenting humorously about what's going on. I have a quiet but seething hatred for most politics and my first inclination isn't to have a laugh, but rather to spit, or throw tomatoes. A nice, vague illustration for a column, though? I like that stuff.
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The Evolution of Travel

Another oldie. This cartoon was probably done in 2004 or 2005. It was on my website a long time ago and the caption said:

...Cute little drawing for the travel section. It was a story about how one's preferences and expectations of the travel experience changes as you get older.

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...It appears to me that it was done entirely in photoshop. If I may take the liberty of criticizing the cartoonist that I was, I like the first two figures but the woman on the right is pretty weak. What's with her legs? They look really wierd to me.
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Old Editorial Illustration 1

I'm going through some old stuff again and I've found a few pieces that are interesting enough to show. This one-- a photoshop painting/drawing-- is kind of cool. I have a vague recollection of working on it, but I don't remember seeing it in the paper.
... My old caption describes it this way: Drawn for an opinion piece on U.S./Cuba relations, particularly the sanctions placed on Castro by the W administration.

I do recall feeling that Fidel did not look old enough, and that W didn't look enough like W. Reassessing it now, Fidel's alright-- we can tell who he is, anyway. W? Eh. He's iconic enough now that you only need get close and people can figure it out. I'll give this one a C+.
... Sorry it's not any bigger-- a quick search of the Jeff Durham Digital Archives doesn't have a larger version. I fear it may be on one of those archive CDs on the shelf up there-- see? There are about 200 unlabeled discs up there.
... Truthfully, it may be worse than that. This drawing is old enough that it may be on one of those Zip disks! See, over in the closet, top shelf? See those 3 shoe boxes? Yeah. Hopeless. I don't even have a drive anymore-- just lots of disks.


Man those were expensive.
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More Old News

This was a quick illustration done for a business story a few years ago. It was one of my first purely vector efforts, although I may have done a rough in pencil or photoshop. Not a brilliant, high-concept piece, but it filled up a spot that might have otherwise been blank.

...I kind of like it, although it feels like a spot illo that's been puffed up and decorated with a weak art head. Them's my speciality!

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Another Oldie

This is another ancient illustration that I have unearthed upon a backup CD-- carbon dating reveals that the CD was burnt in about 472 BC. This time the topic is how to behave at a gathering of friends and family. I'm pretty sure it was related to the holiday season, but not totally sure. 

 

Looking closely at the original file, it appears that I drew this entirely in photoshop. This was during a period when I was not completely comfortable drawing digitally from start to finish, and my preference would have been to draw the characters in pencil and then scan them in. This is probably one of my first pure digital productions for my newspaper job.
...The guy on the right, being forcibly fed the broccoli (or whatever that is) is a caricature of yours truly. For years I was obsessed with how I might look when I was older, and I'd often doodle myself as I thought I might look. This was one of those instances.
...I have not resorted to sweater vests as of yet, but that's the guy I'm starting to look like. Yessiree. Hm. Maybe that vest doesn't look half bad! Yeah...
...Just kidding.
...(Hmmm.)

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Old Heads

...I extracted these fellows from a particularly lousy illustration I did for work several years ago. I was poking around on a couple of old backup cds and there it was! It was terrible. I will not show it.
...I didn't save any of the paperwork, and I couldn't tell you what the story was about, but I think it had something to do with blind dating, or online dating-- which can be kind of the same thing, I suppose.
...But, I kind of like these guys. A nice character contrast study. Go Raiders!
...Painted in photoshop!

The End

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Be Careful Before You Post

Here's the final for that retro-style cartoon illustration I've been sweating over at work. Although I wanted to go even farther with this-- more panels, more information-- I confess that I didn't think I'd get this far! (It's a big picture, so I've sliced it up into 3 smaller pieces below for easier viewing.)
...The newspaper job has been typically busy. For several weeks I've been drawing pieces of this assignment, off to the side, when I could. I was pessimistically expecting that I would have to resort to using only one or two of the individual cartoons as a final, but I was able to get it to this point. It's not perfect, but it's close to what I intended, so I'm okay with putting on a page. As a sequential piece, I feel it needs a few more beats between the first and second segments. I'm trying not to be so uptight. It won't kill me to let it go like this.

The art is... well, it's alright. I'm out of my comfort zone stylistically and therefore I don't have confidence in it. That doesn't bother me much. I'm trying something different, so I'm suffering from sprinkles of heightened interest and nervous excitement because of the novelty of it. I'm also feeling dread because it doesn't look like it's mine. That's normal.
...Standing back and considering it now-- a few days after I finished it-- I'm disappointed that it doesn't look as "retro" as I'd intended! I had hopes of creating a cartoon that looked like it fell out of Esquire in the 50s. I'm not getting that vibe. But it does look different from the usual stuff that falls out of my head, so I'll accept as a sign of the artist genuinely trying to grow.

...It's possible I failed because of my ability, but maybe I can also place some blame on the medium! It's drawn in illustrator with a touch of Photoshop. I don't know why I did that. I probably could have done the drawings in pencil, but I didn't. I created all the preparatory doodles on paper, and resorted to digital when it came time to push toward the final.
...Tonally, of course, it's me in "fluff mode." That's almost a given; it's what I specialize in at work. Maybe it's what I specialize in, period! Most of my art seems to come out with a cheesy smile, an annoying wink and a friendly (but slightly wimpy) handshake. There's still time to change, but I'd have to put some effort into it.
...Perhaps, someday, I will carefully craft an offensive, over-the-top, underground-style comic in order to make amends for all the cute things I've done at work. It would have to be about 1000 pages, though.

It's good to get a true comics illustration in the paper; hopefully the editors/publisher/audience won't be so startled and/or horrified by it that they forbid other such experiments.
...Several years ago I did a full-page, Christmas-related comic, and it was a lot of fun. Something about designing and drawing so many panels over such a large canvas was very satistfying. It takes a mind-set and a discipline completely different from the way I work most of the time.
...This one isn't full-page, but with a few tweaks it could be! THAT would be cool. Gosh, I think there's a little bit of Winsor McKay and George Herriman in me. Too bad that the Sunday Funnies are just about as dead as they are.

And on that cheerful note.

The End....

Epilogue: Looks like there's a link to Jessica Yadegaran's story! With some embarrassment, I notice I did not explain what the illustration is about; the link should clarify that! I'll try to pop back in and shore up the crumbly and crummy post later. Some blogs could definitely use an editor!

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