Not Quite A Tutorial: The Beach With Sugar

One of these days I want to try my hand at doing some type of drawing tutorial. I have a deep desire to pass on some of the knowledge I've picked up over the years, but sadly, I really am a horrible teacher. I hope to overcome that in 2010, so for the time being, this little series of sketches will have to do, as a precursor to the big ol' festival of drawing knowledge yet to come.
Last Friday, my girlfriend, Sugar, and I celebrated the 2 year anniversary of our first date (Woo-Hoo!) and I wanted to make her a card. After running through a number of design possibilities in my head, and then sketching a few rough and quick thumbnails, I decided on one that I had tried to do the year before that hadn't turned out too well. The concept was sound, because we both love the Oregon Coast and make it over there as often as possible, unfortunately the execution was the best. For example, you'll notice that the characters came out okay, most of the background is all blotchy to the point of a full blown buggers-muddle.




One thing I've noticed is that my style has evolved quite a bit over the last year, although it is not as obvious in this quick rough version, seen below.

In this next version, you can see some of the style change I mentioned, it has become looser and more fun, at least in my opinion. Not too long ago I rediscovered the joy of drawing with colored pencils, a light color to start off with, and then I go over the lines that I like with black. By way of disclaimer, this technique looks a lot better in person, so yes, all of these images have been digitally manipulated.

Being that I'm a bit of a knothead from time to time, I forgot to scan the finished version before I gave it to, Sugar, but the version below is pretty much the pose I finally went with. I'm really looking forward to the coming year and this new style I'm developing, very retro, with a fair amount of contemporary snarkiness, if you know what I mean.

So, there you have it, thanks for stopping by.
Cheers!

Happy Thanksgiving

Nakey Nerd Girl

Pretty basic, just a nakey nerd girl, well not completely nakey, but nakey enough for Nakey Wednesday (even though it's actually Thursday).

Color Play: Birch Tree

More color play, this is simply a birch tree on a stark white background.

Color Play: Donuts

I've been playing with some colors lately, so these are some donut shapes with variations on a color combination with markers. Obviously this doesn't translate on screen very well, but I'll be fixing that soon.

Ths Unwitting Wolly-Gobbler

*Yes, I know it has been quite awhile since I've posted anything here, but I'm hoping to change the flavor a bit and do a couple of posts like this one a few times a month, as well as getting more sketches scanned in in and posted. Thanks for your patience.


For those of you who may have forgotten the playground taunts of your youth, a wolly-gobbler, is a person who bites fart bubbles in the bath tub (presumably their own, although I would assume any fart bubble would qualify). The reason I bring this up is because there are certain situations in life that require a person to retaliate in a childish, vulgar fashion. Oddly, I ran into just such an occasion only last week when I was at the pool doing my daily swim. I noticed a young woman standing at the edge of the pool, and although she didn't say anything to me, it was clear she intended to share my lane, which is fine, since there are only six of them, and swimmers often have to double or even triple up. I don't have a problem with this, however there is a certain faction of swimmers whom I think of as the elitist dipshits, and they seem to feel that their workout is much more important than those of anyone else, and as it turned out this little squim was one of them. Unfortunately, I didn't know this at the time, so without breaking my rhythm, I made room for her by taking one side of the lane and leaving the other half for her. However, when I got to the far end of the pool and started back for the return trip, I was surprised to see her barreling down on top of me. I quickly paddled over to the other side of the lane and resumed swimming, thinking that she was doing what I call the loop (and I'm sure the elitists know the proper term for it) which simply means everyone in the lane swims in the same direction in a donut shaped pattern, similar to race cars, oh and incidentally it is usually reserved for times when there are three or more swimmers in a lane. A little unorthodox I thought, but I can adjust. Alas, when I got to the other end, there she was coming at me full force, going the wrong way—again. So, I returned to the original side to again split the lane, thinking that she had realized what I was doing and was making a feeble attempt to play nice. And it seemed she was doing exactly that . . . for the next lap or two, but after that, I'll be a God Damn if she didn't do it yet again. Unbelievable! At that point it had become blatantly obvious that she was just being a twat and trying to chase me out of my own lane so that she could have the whole thing. Well, I'm not one to stand for that horse excrement! By now, the bratty little quince had gone back to her own side of the lane, but I was still greatly irritated and knew it was only a matter of time before she would return to her obnoxious behavior.  Now as luck would have it, an amazing intestinal  opportunity presented itself just as she approached me, and with precision timing . . . 3 . . . 2 . . .  1 . . . BLÄAAAPFT!! — I kicked loose with a stout blast just as we met halfway across the pool. I'm not sure if she actually heard my flatulence over all that splashing or if she merely tasted it in the water, and honestly I like to think it was a bit of both. What I do know for certain, is that she got out of the pool immediately afterward, so unless it was an unbelievable coincidence, my point had been made. Score one for the old gassy fellow!

Expression Studies

Here are some expression studies done for no particular reason or project. They started out as tiny scribblings in my travel sketchbook,. These expressions are some that I liked, so I decided to do them a little larger, and I then did a quick inking job, so I guess you could also call them inking studies if you like. Not much time for chit-chat today, I'm posting some Halloween invitations and such in my Zazzle Shop today, feel free to stop by if you have a chance.

-Cheers!