It's About Damn Time

I finally had a chance to finish the last page to the little story I started a long while back. It was frustrating because the drawings took no time at all, it was just a matter of finding time to draw them. Changing jobs, getting a new puppy and a million other little things got in the way.

Also, since I was just making the story up as I went along I didn't have any real burn to get back to it. I'm sure it reads very disjointedly (is that a word? I don't think so. "Blog" isn't a real word either, but here we are.)







Thanks for sticking around.

Pegged

Some cartoony studies based on Simon Pegg from Shaun of the Dead & Hot Fuzz:

Indiana Who?

Some pulp type stuff that I never bothered to post before:

Process #4

Here's the final version of my Charlton Heston sketch:


I laid the wash down pretty loosely - I didn't want this to feel stiff as a lot of photo referenced drawings tend to feel. The paper got too wet when I was putting in the background so it's kind of messed up. That's what I get for doing this on a piece of scrap paper.

Oh well, it was a fun change of pace.

The Mars Volta

I saw The Mars Volta in concert last night with my friend Jack:


I felt like an old fart, but having grown up on Yes, King Crimson and Genesis it's good to see the kids don't all listen to top 40 dreck.

FYI - Charlton Heston needs a few more washes of ink, but should be done tomorrow.

Process #3

Got a chance to finish off the inks tonight:
Since I'm going to lay in some ink wash, I left a lot of medium & darker values undefined in the inks, especially towards the bottom of the figure. We'll see how it goes this weekend.

Process #2

Not quite done with the inks tonight, but it's getting there:


I don't ink with a brush very much anymore, so I'm feeling my way through this one. I had hoped I'd pull off some crazy new way of doing things as a result, but I'm not confident enough to let that happen. As usual, I've fallen back onto the same old crutches I've always used.

Maybe I'll redo this one when it's done and force myself to ink it differently. I'd like to get away from any and all feathering and find more varied ways of laying in texture and shadow. Why? I just think it time for an overhaul. I'll never be Wally Wood so I might as well explore some other approaches.

Process #1

I'd been wanting to draw Charlton Heston since I'd heard that he'd passed away. As a kid, we didn't have big budget CG extravaganza superhero movies coming out every week so Charlton Heston was as close to a superhero as we had. On any given weekend, you could catch a re-run of Planet of the Apes or The Omega Man on TV and of course, every Easter we got to watch The Ten Commandments and Ben Hur. I certainly didn't agree with the man's politics, but he could play bigger than life heroes like few others.

I just had time to do some rough pencils today, so I thought I'd post each step of the process. I'm thinking this is going to be pen & ink with some ink wash laid in when it's done. We'll see:

Edited to add the reference photo I'm using (a still from Ben Hur):

Creature Concept

A while back, a friend from work was planning on making a short film and asked me to design the creature for it. He wanted something that was both organic and crystaline and, as part of the story, had a female scientist fused to it. Here was the initial sketch I gave him of the full creature and a close up of the scientist:


and the final concept rendering layered on top of a photo background:


Unfortunately, the project didn't get past the planning stage, so I never got to see the design realized. I'm not normally a monster guy, so it was fun doing it anyway.

Barsoom!

Going through more old stuff - some John Carter of Mars doodles:

Spaghetti Sketchin'

When I watch a favorite movie for the umpteenth time I like to pause on interesting shots and sketch. This is a page I doodled a while back while watching Once Upon a Time in the West:


There are some amazing faces in that movie - Woody Strode looked like he was carved from stone and of course Charles Bronson was Moebius's model for his Lt. Blueberry character.

Still in a Marvel mood

Here's a Captain America from a while back with some color thrown on:


He looks kind of bummed out, but hey, he's dead. I'd be bummed out too.

Mea Culpa

The Thor sketch I posted yesterday sucked. Here's another pass at Goldilocks (still not 100% happy with it, but it's better):

God of Thunder

After a recent discussion on the heavy metal credentials of Thor, I drew this quick sketch:

Papal Shotgun Gladiator

Someone sent me a link to an online video game name generator. One of the names it gave me was "Papal Shotgun Gladiator" - that seemed like a good idea for a quick sketch:

The Most Dangerous Game

I watched the 1932 movie "The Most Dangerous Game" last week. It's about the mad Count Zaroff who lives on an isolated island and causes passing ships to wreck so he can hunt the survivors. It was filmed concurrently with King Kong and had most of the same cast, crew & sets. The actors were chewing up the scenery left and right, but it was a fun movie with some nice visuals:

Space Miner

Friday randomness:

Master of the Mystic Arts...

...and 40's matinee idol. Dr. Strange (old) Hollywood style:

Make Mine Marvel

Some misc. Marvel sketches:




'Nuff said!

Brit

I've been enjoying the Brit comic and I thought I'd see what he'd look like if he were modeled more after a younger Michael Caine:

Brown Bag Sketches

I did a few sketches on a brown paper grocery bag while I was doing some laundry over the weekend. A quick Hellboy:


And continuing with my Dark Tower theme from the other day, a Lobstrocity (dum a chum, did a chick):

Nothing great, but I liked being able to work out from a mid tone rather than starting with white paper. I'll have to play with this technique some more.

Is He Strong? Listen Bud...

...he's got radioactive blood!

I drew this Spidey sketch for a friend's son a while back:

Another Page...

...from the story I started a while back. I want to find the time to get this thing wrapped up so I can move on to other stuff:

The Drawing of the Three

I haven't had much time to sketch during lunch lately, so here's the first honest to goodness lunchtime sketch in a while. I take the train to work now, so I'm catching up on about 20 years worth of reading I should have been doing. Right now, I'm working on the second book in Stephen King's Dark Tower series, The Drawing of the Three. Here's a quick sketch of Roland, the Gunslinger:

From the Scrap Heap of Time

Early mechanical soldier prototype made by Gage Industries for the U.S. government - never deployed in the field. Found to be too temperamental and afraid of loud noise. Nick-named Lester Leadbelly by the scientists who built him:

Mustache of Power

Thaddeus Gage, super-science adviser to both Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt as well as industrialist, adventurer, and dirigible pilot :

The Rocketeer Flies No More...

I found out from a friend that Dave Stevens, creator of the Rocketeer, passed away this week:
http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2008_03_11.html#014911

RIP

Spy Wars

Just pulling some doodle ideas out of my notebook:


**EDIT - I thought it needed some zazz, so I aged it to look like a still from a long lost cold war era cartoon.

Man of Science...

...Man of Action:

Blood on the Rooftops

Here's a warm-up image I drew for yet another story I've been working on for way too long: