Sketchoslovakia

Playoff Dance-off

2012-01-15T00:44:00.000-08:00

This post brought to you by the spouse's
touchdown dance.

You all know me, know how I earn a living.

2011-09-14T21:56:00.000-07:00

nature with brushes

2011-07-12T23:41:00.000-07:00

Screwing around with brushes agian.

2011-07-10T23:36:00.000-07:00

Just screwing around with brushes and light before bed.

real media

2011-06-13T18:59:00.000-07:00

Been trying to use my sketchbooks and practical media more [read: at all].

I can't move my arms

2011-05-07T13:31:00.001-07:00

I started doodling in Flash and,

surprise surprise,
ended up drawing myself.

Teddy

2011-02-23T10:14:00.001-08:00

A sculpt I did in honor of President's Day.

Out of the way Peck!

2011-01-30T00:02:00.000-08:00

More sculpting practice.

God Damnit

2010-11-15T23:22:00.000-08:00

I like to draw things.
I like to draw things for other people too.
Sometimes though, people ask me to draw things
and me insides start bleeding.

A.P.E. Escape...

2010-09-28T18:16:00.000-07:00

I'm still working on redrawing some ASJ41 characters. This dude was far and away the hardest to do at the time, and that remains the case today. I just can't draw gorillas, which is odd, as I was raised by them.

This isn't finished by any means, but I think I'm going to try and arrange all these things into some kind of group shot (of people falling from the goddamn sky, apparently), and I'm leaving myself room to make adjustments as necessary.

Leela, you got me on my knees...

2010-09-16T08:17:00.000-07:00

Been awhile, I'm rusty as shit. Don't tell Kevin I drew this, as I'm always bagging on this show.

Rusty and Bear

2010-09-14T10:25:00.001-07:00

Posting a couple unrelated five-minute z-sketches before I go to work.

Still takin' time to perfect the beat...

2010-09-04T02:12:00.000-07:00

And I still got love for the street.

Monkey Shines

2010-08-18T23:56:00.000-07:00

Just dickin' around.

Getting Ahead

2010-08-18T00:22:00.000-07:00

Just subscribed to some online training material,
workin' to get better at Zbrush.

At Work

2010-07-29T00:05:00.000-07:00

I'm vain, so I drew a picture of myself.
This depicts me at the office, workin'.

2010-02-28T22:24:00.000-08:00

Dickin' around with modeling program.

2010-02-25T20:56:00.000-08:00

Virginia Flag + California Flag = Poorly drawn image.

Why So Sirius?

2009-11-28T13:47:00.000-08:00

I had a lot more I was going to do with this. Blood spatter everywhere, try to fix those hands, etc. but I'm about to leave work and, honestly, if I don't complete something in one sitting I'll never come back to it.

Flying Solo...

2009-11-21T20:46:00.000-08:00

I've been so goddamn busy lately, I haven't had time to pick up a pencil. I have, however, some how found plenty of time to pick up a controller and play a shit ton of Call of Duty. Pencils are heavier.

At least I did something. Where did the rest of you go?

Junk Drawer...

2009-10-15T18:57:00.000-07:00

I found this sketchbook on my bookshelf this morning. I have no recollection of a) buying it or b) doodling any of the sketches inside. Weird. I guess this goes back awhile, as the first page was a "To Do" list from A.P.E. 2005. Anyway, I scanned in the bits and pieces that weren't COMPLETELY embarrassing (meaning, I skipped the first 10-20 pages entirely) and composited them into this:

Some of it's kind of hard to see, and other places have dark grey shadows in the corners. All of that is a result of the book spine not properly fitting on the scanner.

This stuff here is kind of a hodge podge of junk I had laying around. A lot of it is comprised of the tiny thumbnail sketches I've been basing my recent Illustrator pieces off of, others are doodles I scanned with that intention, but ultimately bailed on or never got around to.

And finally, this was another Weekly Sketch Group thing I did for PencilJack, but never posted here.

That's supposed to be the 1939 incarnation of Batman, hence the purple gloves and the smooth, refreshing taste of a cigarette after whupping some assholes'...asshole. Seeing as how I drew it, this struggle, of course, took place off camera and in no discernable environment whatsoever.

Scurcrow

2009-10-08T17:49:00.000-07:00

I probably should have thought this one out a little more before diving in.

Here's the original sketch, to make it perfectly clear how absolutely lazy I've become lately.

Hawk, man.

2009-10-03T22:56:00.001-07:00

Not exactly my best effort, but I'm not going to kill myself over it (this time) as I only had about 2 hours to work on the thing.

Ron

2009-09-24T21:53:00.000-07:00

This post is brought to you by Parks and Recreation and Odosketch.
(And a little Guinness too)

Donde está la biblioteca

2009-09-19T09:47:00.000-07:00

I don't draw females nearly enough,
so here's a quick sketch of one.

You live your life like a (Black) Canary in a coal mine...

2009-09-12T21:59:00.001-07:00

Batman Beyond and Black Canary for the Weekly Sketch Group over at Pencil Jack. Is it still a sketch if it takes you something like SIX FUCKING HOURS? I've seriously become so dependent on fixing shit in the computer that I barely draw more than a stick figure these days. Fuck, I don't know if I'm even capable of truly drawing any more. This was fun though, and even if the results kinda look like warmed over ass, hey, I found a half-tone brush!

It's Sculpty Time

2009-09-03T09:36:00.000-07:00

Now that the apt is showing some signs of being livable, I managed to squeeze in some time with Zbrush this morning. First time I've used in in months, and only for a half hour.

Thorskin...

2009-08-07T16:01:00.001-07:00

Ain't That A Peach...

2009-08-03T16:18:00.001-07:00

Don't really know what I was doing here...

Am I gay?

Widow Maker...

2009-07-29T16:06:00.000-07:00

Black Widow/E-Surance mascot. This was going to be for the Weekly Sketch Group on PencilJack, but I was too embarrassed to post it. I tried to go for the solid color approach that worked out alright on the pirate chick I posted earlier, but the further along I got, the more I realized I had no idea how to light this fucking thing. So I did what any god fearing American would do, I quit! I really need to spend some time learning about color and lighting, it's killed enough of my projects that I should start swapping out the word "color" with "AIDS."

Redraw #1

2009-07-27T12:41:00.000-07:00

I'm going to indulge myself on the "blog" part of the sketchblog for this post. Sorry...

I was going through the shit in my Photobucket account today, probably the first time I've looked at any of it in years. It's like a time capsule that when you open it, a fist flies out and punches you right in the face. Seriously though, it was kind of nostalgic, and a little surreal. I don't do ANYTHING the same way any more. I used to work mainly in pencil and Micron, whereas nowadays I do a quick sketch in a red animators lead at best, and then do most of the work in the computer. Previously, I favored straight lines and sharp angles, now I try to keep things as soft and round as possible. I put thick black outlines on everything, until I eventually wised up to the fact that doing so flattens everything out and kills any sense of depth. My coloring is still atrocious, but a few years ago, I handled everything with the airbrush tool in Photoshop, giving all my stuff a smudgy, dirty look. Today, I mostly stick to big blocks of color, and while I admit that coloring is one of my biggest weaknesses (still, I can't resist doing it), I think my current technique is at least cleaner. I used to hide the things I couldn't draw, or leave them out completely, as is clearly demonstrated in the following image. All of my figures wore big, baggy pants because I had no clue how to draw legs. I was influenced by anime and manga. I shied away from women even more than I do in real life. Unless I was feeling particularly adventurous, I drew strictly head on, or in profile, with hardly any action at all. I mean, I was a disaster. Shit, back then I used to sign my name to my drawings, instead of the little "diamond" symbol I made that I use now. SO MUCH CHANGE.

It's really inspired me to go back and redraw some of that garbage. Hopefully to see some improvement (I could wipe my ass with most of this stuff and improve it tenfold), but also as an experiment to see how I'd approach the same subject the way I draw now. First up...

I remember how unusually proud I was of this when I first did it. I drew a girl! I drew a girl in 3/4 view! This was also one of the first things I ever colored in Photoshop. As soon as it was done I went flying off to conceptart.org to post it... WHERE. I. GOT. KILLED. "Her nose is too big. Her head is too big. What's up with her lips? She has the neck of a giraffe. You call that a coloring job? Motherfucker, she has an ADAM'S APPLE!" It was one of the first (soon to be many) times I was evicerated on a public art forum. The feeble minds of these godless savages were too infantile to recognize the greatness I had lain before them! I probably made the most progress I've ever made during my early days on conceptart, PencilJack and The Drawingboard, simply because I had my ass handed to me so often, and I was so embarrassed, that I HAD to practice to avoid further flogging. It was awesome.

I'm well aware I'll never be known as a pin up artist. I'm just not very good at drawing women. But at least now I'm not scared of them, and the fact that you can (usually) tell when I'm trying to depict the fairer sex is a MARKED improvement from past efforts. The 2009 version is far, far from great, but I do think it's at least better. I got pretty lazy on the pigtails and feathers, my coloring is wack, I wish I hadn't overshadowed under the jaw, and I'm not sure my proportions are accurate. All that said, no adams apple=WIN! Progress has been made! The composition sucks, but I wanted to keep this as close to the O.G. as possible. My main goal was just to draw less of a circus freak, not to make a print or anything.

Anyway, I'm rambling, but I needed to exercise the heebie jeebies I got browsing through those old drawings. I'm not trying to imply I'm king shit now or anything, or even that I'm any good at all, but I did need to prove to myself that I've made some strides, however small.

I labled this post with a #1 hoping that it will motivate me to do more. Unfortunately, one old habit I've never broken is my incredible, contemptuously disgusting laziness.

Sorry for the long post.

Booty!

2009-07-24T13:49:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, this was my own Omar Little doodle that got further and further away from me until it retained literally nothing from the original. Well, aside from the skin tone. And her propensity for whistling "The Farmer in the Dell" before robbing drug dealers.

I tried something new here, by shying away from lines and attempting straight color blocking. Also new, a background! Not so new is how half-assed of a job I did on it.

Click to enlarge, as it's way too big to fit in-line in the post. I don't want you to miss all of the intricate detail I neglected to put in it.

Oh shit, Omar comin'

2009-07-19T12:08:00.001-07:00

Fo' sho.

While I'm at it, here's a shit likeness of Bodie's last stand too.

Weekend Sketches

2009-07-12T22:34:00.000-07:00

Sketch o my mouse in Photoshop.

Pen sketch of the Palace of Fine Arts in a Moleskin.

bunch'a crap

2009-07-03T17:02:00.001-07:00

A hodge-podge of stuff I've done over the past month or so.
Nothing really worthy of an individual post.
Baby-faced detective almost got one, but I ultimately decided it was crap.

Garbage...

2009-06-24T13:34:00.001-07:00

This was going to be Hellboy VS The Count for the weekly sketchgroup at PencilJack, but I have such a hard time drawing Hellboy I decided to put the kibosh on it. He's such a simple character in concept, and in Mignola's execution, but I have a hell of a time figuring out the perspective on his horns and right hand. Should have planned this one out better, but what are you going to do? I'm going to quit, that's what I'm going to do!

Tiger Up Yer Butt!

2009-06-19T19:17:00.000-07:00

When I set out to do this, my mantra was "simple, cartoony", but as it went along, I added more detail, and now it's become "awkward, weird." That's cool baby, the T-Man rolls with the punches. I did play around with some new coloring techniques, so it's not a total wash. I used Adobe Illustrator's Live Paint for the first time, and I worked light to dark rather than dark to light. If I had any confidence in myself to follow through with it, I'd say maybe this was the beginning of a series of Street Fighter characters. Since I know myself better than most, I say this very well might be my last post ever.

This was an experiment I did while I was fucking around with ways to manipulate photos in Illustrator. It kind of looks like shit, but I learned a lot of stuff. Primarily that Suzy's dad looks pretty awesome in shutter shades.

Click on those sumbitches to biggerize them. You all know this by now, right? I get paranoid sometimes that my resized, pixelated images will be mistaken for the final product. I mean, they'll look like ass either way, but I want to ensure you're looking at the RIGHT ass. I want you to look at MY ass, the way God and I intended it.

JudoJesus

2009-06-02T18:15:00.001-07:00

Goofin' around...

Heads: 2, Bodies: 0

2009-05-25T23:31:00.000-07:00

I snuck in a sketch while someone was surfing the web.

Shit yeah

2009-05-19T23:17:00.000-07:00

Just some quick drawrin' practice
from photo ref.

Odd's 'N' Ends...

2009-05-18T14:12:00.000-07:00

Random stuff I had laying about from the last week. The first was going to be Sabretooth and X23 for the weekly sketch group at Pencil Jack, but I wasn't feeling it and bailed.

This is a logo/t-shirt design for Chance's ultimate frisbee team. I didn't do much on this aside from tighten up and extrapolate a bit from his original sketch (which can be found below this).

I'm still hoping to find the time to pick up a pencil over the summer, but fate seems to be conspiring against me on that. Just today I was already to go, and then our work computers all had to be hauled off for some kind of repair/upgrade. I'm writing this on a laptop. Next week, god dammit!

Pike Cpt.

2009-05-12T23:52:00.000-07:00

I started doodling, and when I stopped
there was a pikeman on the screen.

Coked up

2009-05-07T01:30:00.000-07:00

A quick sketch I did while watching Kingdom of Heaven. It was hard to take my eyes off that Orlando Bloom, he so dreamy.

Monochrome in the Dark

2009-05-04T23:39:00.000-07:00

I totally drew all of this in just one day...

2009-05-04T22:27:00.000-07:00

EXPLOSION OF PRODUCTIVITY !!!

(click to big ups)

I wish. Actually, this is all the scraps I had floating around on my clipboard. Some of it from a week ago, some from a few months ago, some from the dawn of creation (that brown paper bag puppet that looks like a bear is a figure study of God himself). I really hope to have some time to pick up the pencil again over the summer.

Tetsuooooooh yeah!

2009-05-04T21:03:00.000-07:00

I drew something. IN 2009! I win.

More in 6-8 months. Maybe.

Ocho

2009-03-06T00:56:00.000-08:00

Ocho Davidson:
Glee Club
Mathletes

"Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law,
respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send
him to the cemetery."

-Malcolm X,

I'd animate this If I weren't so hungry now.

2009-02-05T20:42:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I forgot how awesome I am, then I draw a little picture to remind me.

Sick

2009-01-23T22:44:00.000-08:00

Here's the story. I was sick in bed most of the day and, after deciding the dustiness of my room was not helping me at all, did some cleaning this afternoon. I ran across this piece of paper with a freaky drawing on it, clearly made by me, but that I had no recollection of doing. Next to it were the words "fetal traveler" My scanner is jacked, but I tried to re-capture the spirit of it. I don't really think i succeeded though.

Reindeer Games

2008-12-19T19:29:00.000-08:00

Rudolf the red nose reindeer,
shot down in his territory.

Eyes of coal and a heart of darkness

2008-12-09T22:15:00.000-08:00

The Khmer Rouge learned two things that night:
1) Snowmen hold machetes and grudges fiercely.
2) There have been stunning advancements in portable refrigeration technology.

A simple man we call Kris

2008-12-04T21:56:00.000-08:00

My imaginary son once asked me "Daddy is Santa Claus real?" So I sat him down and told him the truth. I said, "Son, Santa Claus was real once, but that man died in Cambodia in 1970. Today, the only ones putting gifts under the tree are your mom and I." If you're reading this Kris... stay strong buddy.

The Beast With Two Live! Accounts

2008-12-02T21:27:00.000-08:00

Time For Leftovers

2008-11-29T16:57:00.000-08:00

I Don't Want to Work, I Just Wanna Bang on the Drum All Day...

2008-11-05T10:15:00.000-08:00

Quick update to a previous post. This is the finished design I went with for our work blog. I kept the same basic layout as the old one, which is here if anyone missed it and cares. The bear is pretty lame (though a bear was specifically requested...for some reason), but I ended up liking his presence as it gave me something to fuck around with on holidays and stuff. This is what I put in place on Halloween, for example. I'm working on a Thanksgiving one at the moment, but I fear I may not have allowed enough room at the top for his ridiculous pilgrim hat. Fucking pilgrims, did they contribute anything to the world except for giving John Wayne an awesome catch phrase? Probably not, but I'm not good at history.

Thanks for your help on the last post, Ryan.

cod pieces of eight

2008-10-22T11:38:00.000-07:00

I extended the background to make it fill a 7x9.5 space

thick as thieves

2008-10-17T12:24:00.000-07:00

Mighty Mitochonrion

2008-10-01T10:09:00.001-07:00

Bearback...

2008-09-30T09:30:00.000-07:00

I was tasked with coming up with a logo for our work blog that featured "Grizz, the Info Bear" (it's a long, and tedious story). After about a dozen attempts of varying stylization (but consistent terribleness) I decided to go the route of a true professional, and lazily recycle the understructure I used for my last post. Classy!

If anyone reads this in the next day or so, please, give me your honest, no holds barred feedback. This is for work, so I want to know if I'm posting garbage for dozens of people to see. If it's some ass, tell me it's some ass. If it gives you boners, tell me it gives you boners, then report to jail.

In an effort to keep it simple, easily reproduced and easily adjusted in size, I decided to forgo any type of inking/line weight and use the straight up stroke tool in Illustrator. I worry that may have backfired and the result is hacky and amateurish. The background paint splatter is most likely a temporary place holder until I figure out a color scheme, and I'm sure I'll add titles/text for the final. If you want to know specifically what it will be used for, go here to see what I'm working (inflicted?) with. I'm going to replace the whole thing, but I'm keeping the same basic structure, so bearforce 1 over here is going to take the place of "George Mason University" in the upper right hand circular area over there. If you have feedback on what I can do with the rest of that jonx, I'd love to hear that as well.

The Fatman Cometh...

2008-09-27T19:22:00.000-07:00

Killing time at work on a Saturday night.

Sorry I've been MIA lately. I'm a busy little bee(otch).

The rabbit meant business

2008-09-19T10:52:00.000-07:00

I draw m'self... again

2008-09-15T17:05:00.000-07:00

I want to re-vamp my website and thought about doing a portrait for my banner. This was just coming out way too creepy though.

Rip-off

2008-09-14T20:13:00.000-07:00

I started doodling and then decided to totally ape someones style.

Back to the old standbys...

2008-08-01T18:23:00.000-07:00

Jesus Christ I'm RUSTY.

more watery water

2008-07-17T06:14:00.001-07:00

mouse painted

2008-07-16T13:10:00.001-07:00

Me So Horny...

2008-07-14T19:37:00.000-07:00

Webdesign element I'm abandoning because it looked like warmed over shit.

A masculine looking devil woman. I think the FBI could generate a psychological profile of significant heft on me based on just this little doodle.

You should see the other girl. Heyooooo!

2008-06-26T15:31:00.000-07:00

Oh, awesome! Now that the site is enfuego I've ONCE AGAIN lost all of my uploaded pictures and filled this blog with broken images! In honor of life kicking my ass:

Yeah, when I draw myself it looks nothing like me. Perhaps this is how I idealize myself, which, I guess says a lot considering the ideal me is broken, bloody and missing teeth.

Dragon Balls...

2008-06-12T17:11:00.000-07:00

This was my most ambitious one yet due to the gun and all the shadows, so it's also my weakest one yet. The figure is hard to read, and the likeness is especially bad. Whatevs.

Supposedly the Chinese characters say "kung fu dragon", but I don't speak Chinese, so in reality they probably say something about testicles and candy (which would be ironic, as those were the characters I was actually looking for). Also, here's an earlier version before I went ape shit on doo-dads.

Sprinkles are extra...

2008-06-11T17:57:00.000-07:00

I'm so sorry Geoff.

Warning: Mad Skillz Alert!

2008-06-10T18:30:00.000-07:00

This took both a lot of time and a lot of talent.

*Sorry Ryan, but you totally looked like a pompous dick in that photo.

campfire

2008-06-10T12:02:00.001-07:00

Lincoln did not actually wear a necktie

2008-06-05T23:05:00.001-07:00

First he'd light up a smoke,
Then he'd start droning on about Calvinism,
Then he'd get those "Kermit eyes."

Hybearspace

2008-05-30T00:01:00.000-07:00

Imagine, if you will, a bear.
Now imagine that bear can travel through time.

Mother.. fucking... time.

Phone Etiquette

2008-05-22T20:21:00.000-07:00

I seriously hear someone on the bus say this exact phrase at least once a month.

Making Plans For Nigel

2008-05-18T20:26:00.000-07:00

Since the release of GTA, I haven't done any serious free-time drawing. With a gallery show around the corner, I need to start fixing that. So I grabbed a doodle out of my sketchbook and tossed some ink and colors on it. Please to enjoy.

Part 3...

2008-05-13T02:22:00.000-07:00

Still going: Roman, "Michelle", Playboy X, Dwayne, Vlad. This time around, I got to discover it's even harder to render the female characters than I feared, so, you can probably expect not to see many ladies around here. Kinda like my birthday parties.

I'm going to keep on keeping on for a little while, but, the more fools I think to include, the more daunting the task of getting around to it actually seems. I mean, it's not like these are overly complicated, I'm just having a harder and harder time coming anywhere close to a likeness.

On deck: Dimitri, Faustin, the rest of the McReary's, Elizabeta, Phil, Bernie, Carmen, Kiki, Liberty Paper Dude, whatever other major characters I may meet as I continue through the game, and I'm hoping to get good reference of that magnificent bastard who drives Roman's cab so I can throw his sassy assy in. Shit, that's a fuckload of dudes.

Yeah, I'll probably just quit.

Part 2...

2008-05-08T16:23:00.000-07:00

(The complete roster so far.)

Gingerbread Mandingos...

2008-05-07T16:06:00.000-07:00

I made this little template thing in Illustrator today that makes it really easy to bang out these cookie cutter dudes in less than an hour. The results are kinda lame looking, but it's nice to mess with while I'm at work as I can just goof off playing dress up dolls without the shame of using actual dress up dolls.

I don't know if these two assholes are recognizable at all, but if I can stay interested I plan to add to the line up in the next few days.

2 from the DS

2008-03-29T17:15:00.001-07:00

Most of my sketching is done on the bus lately.

Most of the time the most interesting subject,
is the back of someone's head.
Mostly

Today was Sketchcrawl #18.
The first one I went to was #3 back in '05.
On the way home I had a cupcake and a cup of coffee.
This is my coffee.

Y'er Yeller

2008-03-25T22:33:00.000-07:00

I'm just fucking around with color schemes.
That is all.

A cornicopia of porno-dope-fo-ya...

2008-03-25T21:34:00.000-07:00

Whoops! Fooled you! That name is much more titillating than what I'm actually delivering: nothing but random sketch shizz from the last week and a half or so.

The random photographs are in there because I draw a lot of this shit on work meeting hand outs, and my boss likes to tack on the odd pictures she finds when googling the various topics we'll be discussing. Some of my doodles overlap the photos, so the photos are included here as well. Why didn't I just leave out the scribbles that were connected to pictures? Because every single line I make is amazing, and shouldn't be wasted.

Happy Easter

2008-03-23T17:43:00.000-07:00

Our mom may have called it our "Sunday best,"
but I assure you, it was the worst.

The Game Bastard...

2008-03-20T14:22:00.000-07:00

(Alternate post Title: "The N Word.")

As good as it is, Smash Bros. fails as a concept as long as my man The Game Master goes ignored.

That's looking all kinds of wack and I know it. Much as I like dicking around in Illustrator, the things I'm not very good at (hands and feet especially) look far, far worse when I try to draw them with a mouse. The pose and body shape are kind of weird as well. Captain N ain't got no junk in the trunk.

Also! The orange gun is for fuckwads, it's gray all the way, baby! But, orange is what the character had, so I went with what was faithful. Was there really a concern at some point that someone would mistake the Nintendo Zapper for a real laser gun unless it was orange? Probably.

This is leftovers I started but didn't like where it was going and lost interest in. Why am I posting my trash? Because the higher I inflate my post count, the more I can lord it over the rest of you twats that I seem to be the only one who ever posts here anymore.

-Todd

Eye Rape...

2008-03-14T21:53:00.000-07:00

Straight up, this is just total shit:

That was my attempt at an unsolicited caricature of my sister. Next time I'll save myself two hours and just say "Hey, want to see a caricature of you I made?" then I'll punch her right in the mouth. Her huge, ghastly, duck lipped mouth, according to what I've represented here. This isn't even a caricature, it's candy colored cartoon slander. It's libel.

That said, I'm going to make an effort to post more out and out garbage here. I know I trash talk my own work all the time, but speaking candidly (meaning, arrogantly), a lot of the stuff I deem failures I secretly am able to find small victories in. Like that "sasquatch" I posted a month back. I mean, it doesn't look like sasquatch (werewolf Hulk Hogan yadda yadda), but I think it's an overall solidly constructed face. It's like, if I made you a shit sandwich, yeah, it's probably going to be fucking disgusting and hopefully you're not going to want to eat it, but if it's got two slices of bread, some lettuce, perhaps a little provolone, I dunno, maybe an olive speared to the top with a toothpick, I still succeeded in executing the basic concept of a sandwich, right? Of course, it's an unfortunate deal breaker that it's got my shit in it, but even if I can't find my car, I'm still in the right parking lot. I think my astute and eloquently worded analogy has gotten my point across. Anyway, I want to post more stuff like this that just sucks out loud. Like, has no redeeming value whatsoever. Mostly to artificially inflate my post count by showing 9/10 of the stuff I actually draw, but also to hopefully stop worrying about presenting crap an allowing myself to move outside my comfort zone.

As an added bonus side effect, maybe you all will come to realize that I am not an infallible art god, and am instead just really, really, supernaturally good.

Doodles...

2008-03-04T21:58:00.000-08:00

I was goofing on a Long John Silver image for possible participation in a thread on DrawingBoard, but wasn't happy enough with it to deem it worth showing in public. The hands are a lazy mess, but I can't draw that shit with a pencil, so I don't feel that bad about failing to do it with a mouse. Also, I don't know why I'm an idiot and made him leaning AWAY from the crutch. Unless your "crutch" is alcohol, I'm pretty sure you're supposed to put all of your weight on it.

When I colored him, he came out looking less like a pirate and more like a crippled leprechaun. In art we call this a "happy accident."

(click to enlarge that sumbitch so it doesn't look so pixely and weird.)

Half finished junk I have no intention of turning into whole finished junk:

Colors! me bad

2008-02-28T20:03:00.000-08:00

So I've been pretty quiet here lately. The only free-time drawing I've really been doing has been on my DS on the way to work. So here are my latest commute drawings from the past couple days. They might be digital, but without an "undo" feature, this is the closest thing I've done to painting in a long time. If I set this up correctly you should be able to click on these and see a video of the drawing process.

Another masterpiece!

2008-02-27T09:28:00.001-08:00

The Mighty KC...

2008-02-26T20:57:00.000-08:00

Wakka wakka!

I know the likeness is terrible, and the coloring job is..."questionable" at best, but for something that was nothing more than an Illustrator doodle (which last time I apparently lied about shying away from) I'm not going to sweat it too much. I'm actually not horrified by the clothing folds. It's not like I busted out some sweet ass textile origami or anything, but I have a hard time drawing that shit with a pencil, so getting something that doesn't look like a toilet paper mummy with a mouse is a victory in my book. Fun fact: if you "flip horizontal" over and over again in Photoshop, it looks like he's rapidly punching you. Pretend you stole his pudding and watch his fist fury EXPLODE.

Mo' dem doodles:

Also, almost all of this stuff is reference free, for you fuckers who think I can't draw more than a stick figure without looking at a photograph.

-Todd

Shameless Self Promotion...

2008-02-22T23:32:00.002-08:00

I apologize for breaking the unspoken rules and making a non-art post, but since I was talking about this in the comments earlier, I thought I'd go ahead and reveal the (rotten) fruits of my labor:

Spladow.

It's a work in progress, just to get a template up that I can screw around with. I'll probably make a new banner image, maybe separate drawings and digital work, and add links to things like this blog. I realize this isn't going to win any awards for web design, but I'll be damned if even this simple little thing didn't take me the better part of a 9 hour work day to build(though most of that was just trying to learn how to do ANYTHING in Dreamweaver besides give myself a migraine).

If anyone has any recommendations or helpful advice, I'd really love to hear it. Thanks!

-Todd

Travis Touchdown...

2008-02-19T22:42:00.000-08:00

No More Heroes is an awesome game. If you thought that Nintendo consoles shy away from adult content, be aware that this game contains a t-shirt featuring the slogan "I Love Tits" with a picture of, yes, some tits. Also be aware that I am doing everything in my power to procure such a garment for myself.

Moused this out while on the phone tonight. I couldn't for the life of me get the glasses to look right, but it wasn't worth spending any more time on.

Hopefully this marks the (no doubt temporary) end to my mouse/Illustrator experiments. My blog contributions have been way too heavy on that shit as of late. I've got 5 or 6 pages of ballpoint gesture studies I've been too lazy to scan that hopefully I'll get around to on Friday. Jesus it felt good to draw by hand again.

-Todd

Blahsome!

2008-02-17T19:00:00.000-08:00

Another girl. I'm not confident about those proportions. I think the head may be too large, and the legs are probably too short. We'll chalk that up to the irrefutable catch all excuse of "style." I also think there's some wackiness going on in the collarbone and shoulder areas. On the plus side, I kinda like the way the strands of hair turned out. Not the big, flippy/curly clumps, just the loose strands. I'll have to incorporate those into something that's not garbage at some point.

-Todd

Macho Biatcho

2008-02-13T14:30:00.000-08:00

This was going to be my attempt at returning the favor of the avatar Geoff made for me. Unfortunately, it ended up looking less like a sasquatch and more like mid-transformation, werewolf Hulk Hogan. Also, apparently my definition of "macho" means nothing more than a handlebar mustache and a cigarette. Bikers are totally macho. James Dean can go fuck himself for half assing it and slacking on the 'stache.

Mermanarchy!

2008-02-11T22:03:00.000-08:00

More Illustrator/Photoshop dicking around. I figured I had kind of a nautical theme going with the squid thing and pirate dude, so here's a mermaid, that, knowing me, probably looks like a dude. I got a little ambitious on the color, using gradients and other madness I have no real understanding of. Something looks a little off when I flip the image in Photoshop, but I can't quite figure out what that is exactly...

Piratical...

2008-02-07T11:38:00.000-08:00

"Wow Todd, that's totally a face. Do you not charge money for dazzling us with such excitment?" Yeah, it's boring, but it took me literally six fucking hours, so go to hell. I wish I'd made him more grizzly, and gnarled, with more exaggerated style and, like, barnacles and scurvy on his face and shit, but working, as I do, with a mouse (as I'm so fond of mentioning) I tend to fall back on the safety of straight forward structure. Maybe next time. Next time I have, again, six fucking hours of free time. Also, I totally cheated and basically drew half a face. If you look not so closely, you can probably see that I mirrored the ears, hair, and beard. I did that because real faces are 100% symmetrical in real life.

Yeah, weird placement of the image. I was feeling frisky.

If I may detour into (further?) arrogance, I have to say that looking back on what I used to do with Illustrator, I've made huge strides. Check out this piece of shit I found in my Photobucket account:

Seriously? I don't like to toot my own horn, but toot toot mother fucker!

Lastly, 2 posts in 2 days= I win!

Cephalopodunists...

2008-02-06T10:22:00.000-08:00

Goofing off at work, trying to brainstorm a new logo...which then somehow became a shirt? Yeah, I'm not totally in love with my own work at all. I mean, everyone else is, but I'm not.

This little piggy...

2008-02-04T19:15:00.000-08:00

I was trying to help my sister design the invitation for her Vet School prom, and these were a couple of the assets I tried freehanding in Illustrator. I had planned on doing a whole bunch of drunken, dancing animals, but ultimately fell victim to a lack of time, as well as complete frustration with how things were turning out. Ah well. The pig works better than the cow, in my opinion.

It is my desperate wish to get back to drawing and posting soon. I've just been WAY too busy at work lately, and I can't seem to break the video game vice when I get home from work. It's been like 8 months since I physically put pencil to paper and the longer I wait, the more fearful I become of getting back on the horse. Goddammit I'm getting out my drawing supplies TONIGHT!

Excellent work of late brohams. I may not post/reply often, but I'm watching. Always watching...

100th post

2008-02-03T20:34:00.001-08:00

And apparently I am still incapable of
drawing anything but cartoons of myself.

numero dos

2008-01-29T14:43:00.000-08:00

a logo

2008-01-29T14:31:00.001-08:00