I don't really keep a proper sketchbook...

but I should. I do sketch quite a bit, mostly little character heads on scraps of paper that I find around the office. I was taught in art school (and I've heard countless artists say it since) that I should keep a running sketchbook at all times. I'm not the biggest fan of drawing in the bound books. I dig my loose leaf. So instead I have tons of loose paper that I shove into folders for projects or just a random sketch folder. Using an actual sketchbook would probably make sense, but I've stopped buying them because I usually only fill them half way, put them away and forget about them. I did once fill a small moleskine which was a cool experience because it gave me this sense of accomplishment. Maybe there's something to sketchbooks after all. I'm rambling because my brain still waking up. Rambling to end in 3...2...1...

The sketches above comprise some of my favorites over the last couple months. Except one, which is a few years old and has appeared on this blog before. I needed it to fill a space. One of these is a character sketch from a project that I'm working on now, but the others are just random characters. However, who knows, they may show up in a story somewhere down the line.

Style Test

Fooling around with a sort of old-school style test. It reminds me of brochures I would have seen at the school nurse's office back in the day. "Robbie feels happy because he has high self esteem."

Personally, I think Robbie looks happy because he's walking through the park on a wicked nice day.

I inked it all scribbly with an ultra fine point Sharpie and then colored it in PhotoShop. I've got a book Idea that might lend itself to a style more like this than my usual art style. I might have to do some tests with actual images from said book.

It's 20011 Y'all

And it's time to get ill.

Gotta Catch'em All!

Sketch bloggin' on a Friday afternoon.

Sketch Dumpin'

And now a few sketches from the last month or so. Things are still wicked crazy around here. I'm hoping to start some regular updates again soon.

Oh Johnny!

You're such a card.

Pencil and sharpies.

Black and red to be precise.

Work was slooooow today.

Headin' for my beddin'

After a long night of drawing the adventures of an 11 year-old, super heroic girl, I did me some sketchin'. Brush pen on a paper bag from the comic shop.

'night.

Redevelopment Project

Building on the past for a better tomorrow.

Wrapped up in books

So when my son wakes up in the morning on the weekends, the first thing he usually wants to do is sit down at the dining room table and draw with me. He has two recurring themes, dinosaurs and Super Mario Galaxy. I tend to like the latter better, so I usually choose Mario and we get to work. This past Saturday I managed to sketch this little portrait out between images of Mario squashing Goombas underfoot and the Dino Piranha from the Good Egg Galaxy. It's not anything special, but it was fun drawing with the crayons. We use the Crayola twistables or some such... they're great, because they are regular crayons, but in a plastic body and when you need more wax, you just twist them up, almost like a mechanical pencil. So I can draw with crayons without breaking them in my big doofy adult hands.

In other news, I'm working on a third Princess Candy comic for Stone Arch Books. It's a blast, and I think that there's a real improvement in the pages over the first two books. Of course, I'm in the beginning stages of the pencils so everything seems good. Later on the self-doubt will creep in and I'll be freaking out about every line I put to paper, but hey, such is the creative process.

Galactus, age 7

"Hey everybody, it's me, Li'l Galactus! Jiminy crickets, I sure am hungry!"

and with that there was a great deal of weeping and gnashing of teeth.

No, not really.

Skitches!

A few Yeti 4 Hire Sketches from the other day...

Strong yeti.


Sad yeti.


Yeti faces.



And then some non-yeti related characters



My son christened the four armed guy "Mr. Weird" and then proceeded to make up a song about him, but I forget how it went.

The Ghost Who Walks

I've always liked drawing Ghost Rider (c'mon, he's a dude with a flaming skull) but I've never liked drawing motorcycles.

Go figure.

Everybody knows I'm known for droppin' science

I wanted to just mess around with something so I just colored up this sketch I did for my wife. She's going to put it on a diaper bag. This won't be the final art, since I'll probably do a vector version for her to use. Iron-ons rule!

First Post of Twenty Ought Eight.

Happy New Year to you!

In the last days of 2007 I went out and got myself a new sketchbook. I'm not one for making resolutions, but it is my plan to make some big changes this year, not least of which is giving some much-needed love to this blog. The sketchbook will help, because as you see above, when I have one, I tend to put stuff in it, most of which will end up here. Also, I pretty much need to work as much as possible to fill out my portfolio. I did some work that I'm really proud of in 07 and I want to continue to improve this year.

I think I'm also going to blog about more stuff than just my own artwork. I'm not sure what, but probably art-related.

Stay tuned true believers!

Excelsior!

Chicken Fingers

Sass!

Consider yourself sassed.

Weird Spider-Man

I haven't been drawing enough over the last week and a half or so, so I busted this out the other day whilst eating lunch. I don't know why I drew this weird Spidey. Chalk it up to me just needing to goof off, I guess. There are more problems in this drawing than there are lines, so I'm not posting this to show off any great skill. I just realized that I usually wait to post finnished art on this hear blog and I figured I should post some more sketch book-type work.

I just wanted to say. "Hi."

Hi.

Girl with suspicious look

She doesn't trust you.

Gee Whiz