Scurcrow

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.

Widow Maker...

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

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.

Garbage...

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!

Odd's 'N' Ends...

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!

Back to the old standbys...

Jesus Christ I'm RUSTY.

Me So Horny...

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.

Sprinkles are extra...

I'm so sorry Geoff.

Eye Rape...

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...

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:

The Mighty KC...

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

Blahsome!

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

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.

Never Knit From The Book of Forbidden Patterns

Never draw from it either.
This was intended for Illustration Friday,
but I'm too embarrassed by it's crappyness.

Blogunists

We have this blog that we use at work to keep all of the students and staff up to date on important University happenings that we may receive a lot of questions about. Back in the day, I used to be one of the primary contributors, both in writing the posts and maintaining the site. As of this semester, I've pretty much taken a back seat to let someone else have a stab at it. For a couple of years we had this really generic template in place that I threw together in Photoshop. It was yellow and green Mason colors with photos of the campus, the Johnson Center...it was pretty fucking lame. Now that it's in new hands, we figured we'd redesign the look a bit to match the current "theme" we have going on at work. The theme is "The J-Team" and we deck out all of our shit with A-Team or military style decor. The current show runner assembled the one that's in place at the moment, but he asked me if I wanted to contribute anything. I had grand plans of a propaganda styled background, but I couldn't get it to work out in a way that I was happy with. I cobbled together the left over assets I'd made into this half assed monstrosity:



It's entirely too busy and confusing. Graphic design is not something I have any talent for, though it is something I'm constantly wanting to research and improve upon. Anyway, I was supposed to leave work 5 minutes ago, so I'm shutting the fuck up.

I guess if we ever get around to redesigning the Bombunists site, I've got a load of assets we can use in a pinch.

Fuck you, Gunston!

The editor of Mason's newspaper, The Broadside, saw my facebook gallery and asked if I would do some cartoons for the paper. "Sure" I said. Why not, it's good for a resume (ha!) right? Well, they needed one by Monday, and since I'm leaving straight from work tonight to go to Myrtle Beach, that means I had about 2 hours to get the first one done. Fuck. I also took all of my art supplies out of my bag so I could use it to pack. All I had was a ballpoint pen and Photoshop. Fuck fuck. Anyway, I say all this not to excuse my shoddy work, just to...ok, yeah, excuse my shoddy work. It was a rush job! I didn't have my fancy ass brush pens, colored leads and Microns! The articles sharing page space were about our mascot, Gunston, possibly being replaced, and something about tasers on campus. I combined the two:



(click to biggerize)

Originally, I, of course, had Gunston getting tasered right in the cajones, which is why he's posed that way, but then I thought maybe I shouldn't get fired before I'm ever even really hired, so I flipped him around and stuck it in his ass instead (if I had a nickle...).

Whatever, I'm going to the beach.

Pottery...

I think this is going to take awhile. I want to make sure I do a half way decent job, so, I'm trying to take the time to draw some characters, then refine them and play around until I get something I like. Mo' experimentin':





I was kinda happy with the colored version of Voldemort, from a stylistic point of view, until Kevin told me he looks too much like a zombie and needs to look more like a snake. A snake? I didn't know about that shit. Kevin needs to look more like a mindless kiss ass and less like a fucker. I'm in an awkward position, because I don't want to just do caricatures of the movie actors, but I don't read the books, so I don't know what's an essential detail to include, or what's allowed and what's not allowed when trying to do my own thing. Of course, I still haven't figured out WHAT I'm drawing or who's going in it, so maybe I should work on a composition first. I dunno, like I said, this is going to take awhile.


And I drew Ron as a fatass.


And yeah, that was supposed to be Ron.

Airship mechanic?

I feel like those arms are the mayors of Wonkytown, the face is at least a 6 pack away from attractiveness, and the wrench is all out of perspective, but I'm not positive about any of that. I did use reference for this, so it should have been cake to fix those issues, but the photograph was dimly lit and hard to make out detail in. Ah well, you win some, I'm handsome.



Original sketch.



Off topic, but while I haven't exactly been setting the group blog a blaze, I AM happy to see that looking back I've been a lot more consistent about trying to contribute the last couple of months. I'm going to go ahead and give myself a tiny bit of credit for actually somewhat sticking to at least ONE project for once.

I'm an ass.

Forf o' Jooleye!

I know I bitch about this all the time, but goddamn do I wish I could draw girls. I bought this book on 50's pinup art the other day, as well as the 50 Years of Playboy Cartoons collection (it weighs as much as Hugh Hefner) and I think it would be awesome to be a cheesecake pinup artist. I've been working on it a lot lately and it's not coming any easier to me. I need to learn to do loose, fluid curves and delicate faces. Learning some stock poses would also be nice. These are pretty "meh", but I like showing my garbage so Kevin doesn't kill himself. ;)



That left arm looks broken. I don't know why I didn't catch that before I inked it.



I know those color schemes are wack. I used an online color scheme generator to save time (I didn't get started on these until almost 5am).

Have a good 4th of July. Don't blow your dicks off with firecrackers.

Me Am "Mab Mab!"

Inspired by Kevin's recent avatar, I doodled this during a meeting at work today and afterwards cleaned it up a little in Photoshop:




Poor planning lead to me running out of space at the bottom of the page, so I twisted his left foot into an unnatural position to try and get it to fit. It ended up looking retarded (or, in Bizarro speak, AWESOME), so I did that lazy "fade out" shit.

Also, those aren't lens flares, technically. I made them myself, which means they're not tacky, but rather, FUCKING INCREDIBLE.

EDIT: Does his right arm, particularly, the forearm, look completely fucked? My eye keeps being drawn to it, which can't be a good thing.