My Contribution to The Sketch Lottery

My pal Sal has a great sketch website called SKETCH LOTTERY where every week is a different sketch theme/assignment and artists from all walks of life and skill level are free to contribute.  NO pressure, no competition...Just sketching for fun which is something I don't get to do enough of these days so I try to take it where I can get it. 

This weeks theme was Man-At-Arms from Masters of the Universe and I actually was able to get in on the action.

Check it out!

Sketch Lottery

Yeah Yeah....Shut up! I'm posting stuff now aren't I?

I don't really have any excuses for my neglect of this art blog other than I've thought about posting stuff but have just been too lazy to follow through.  But I'm here now so quit whining and lets get right to it.  

All of these pics are "Creative Exercise" assignments from the Drawing Manga and Super Heros class Becky and I teach and the timeline of these particular drawings range from over the summer session to the last session which ended in early December.

The top drawing assignment was to draw a character that could control rocks so I attempted to draw the version of Tara from the original Teen Titans cartoon.  The detail was all from memory so I'm sure I took a few liberties but since when did consistency matter in today's comics anyway? 

Next up the assignment was to draw a cyber-punk or something.  For this one I did a less cartoony version of a character I've developed for a tentative comic project I have brewing.  Interesting thing of note about the design is that I basically ripped it off from myself from 2002 or so when I did a comic for a long-failed comic publisher that never saw print.  In fact, I don't think my work was ever inked.  Doesn't really matter since it was basically a disjointed X-men-like book anyway.  But I really dug the character design I came up with so  I'm gonna use it since...well....those guys dropped the ball.

I'm thinking that the assignment for the gal above was to draw a punker girl or something of that nature.  I really dig the way this one turned out and may end up using her as a character in one of my many tentative projects.

The above is from the last class of the last session which the exercise is always a free-draw.  I felt like trying to draw the 1990's version of Rogue from the X-men since that's the version I was first introduced to and it's also my favorite version of her.  In the last 10 minutes I decided to try and throw in an attempt at Iceman.  

We often have combination assignments where we list several ideas to choose from on the board and the kids get to combine those elements to create an interesting character.  In this particular assignment, I chose both ROBOT and ARTIST from the list to create BOB ROSSBOT!

The next creature came from a "draw a monster" exercise.  So....I drew this Todd McFarlane inspired demon of sorts.  It's ugly....Nuff Said.

That dude up there...with the thing...standing on that robot head.  That's a character I created when I was 15 named AR-MOR.  He's  one of the villains from my comic THE VOID that I've been drawing since then as well.  This is pretty much his look in THE VOID graphic novel I'm currently working on...so keep your eyes peeled for him.

Finally...there's this.  A piece of French Toast wielding a battle-axe.  This little refugee from Evan Dorkin's MILK AND CHEESE was concocted during the same combination assignment as the Bob Rossbot.  French Toast and Warrior were 2 of the other options for drawing and since I had 5 extra minutes, I frantically threw this thing together.  The kids laughed...but more importantly, I LAUGHED.

Well, I hope this sorta makes up for my laziness in updates over the last several months.  I'd promise to get better about it but why would you start believing me now?  I will try....That's all I can honestly do.  Till next time!  

Cheers!!

Outsourcing my past again!

About a year or so ago, I found a bunch of old character drawings I created in the mid-1990's which were downright terrible. I took it upon myself, one weekend, to try to re-imagine those duds and see how my 36 year old mind would approach something that I hacked together when I was 19 years old.  It was a really cool self-challenge and I, suprisingly, fell in love with the characters in their new, better thought out, incarnations.  So much so that I decided to rescue them from the paper-shredder of bad ideas and have plans of incorporating them into my future comic projects.  

Well tonight it sort of happened again.  I stumbled across my old Trapper Keeper in our spare bedroom and decided to rummage through the old wall-drawings, letters from friends and high school and college class notes.  On one of the stray pages of notebook paper in the Trapper Keeper was several sketches of Ren and Stimpy.  But in the corner of the page was a random comic book character I must've come up with during a class.  Next to the inked sketch was a name....a name that instantly stood out to me as the coolest bad comic book character I've seen in a long time.  He was simply named....NIGHT GHOST!!  I instantly knew what I had to do.  I needed to reinstate the Night Ghost for my future comic projects.  But first he needed a makeover.  Judging by the level of skill and subject matter of the entire page of sketches, I would say that Night Ghost was created somewhere around 1992.  So there was definately some tweaking that needed happen to bring him to his full potential.  So while watching the first Pirates of the Caribbean film with Becky, I sketched a couple versions of a new and improved Night Ghost.  So pictured below is the original 1992 concept sketch, from when I was 16, next to the new improved 2013 concept sketch at 37 years old.  Behold!!!  A character 21 years in the making!!!  NIGHT GHOST!!!!

SPRINGCON TOMORROW!!!!

Yep!  This year we're actually gonna be there, selling books, shaking babies, resisting the urge to buy cheap International GI JOE figures from the toy dealer booth right behind our table (discovered his awesome toys while setting up tonight).  It's fun for all, so come down and experience the experience!

And since I haven't posted in a while....A BUCKY O'HARE SKETCH I did a while back!!!  Pencils by Me, and Inks by Mark Stegbaur who will also be at tomorrows Springcon, so you need to go visit him and check out his original works as well!  

Oh Crap! It's 2013! Have I even been drawing anything lately?

The answer is ACTUALLY YES!  Just haven't found the time or energy to post anything on this here Art Blog.  Something I claimed I would remedy last year....but you know how that stuff goes.  So now it's April and since the local MCBA Springcon is next month I figured I better at least try to seem somewhat relevant in the world of comic art.  Ya know....gotta keep my throngs of fans satiatied.  All 4 of them.

So aside from a graphic novel project I've been pouring all my free time and soul into, I have done a few doodles and scrawlings here and there....mostly for our art class but here are some fun ones. 

This one had a name but I can't remember for the life of me what it was.  We put a strange word on the board and had the kids come up with their own interpretation of what that could possibly be.  Mine was this dude and his flying toilet paper rolls.

When my frustrated pal casually mentioned me drawing a picture of him punching a bratty baby, my twisted, childless mind came up with this.  Admit it...if you parental types are being honest, when your kids are bratting it up to 11 and beyond, there are times you fantasize about moments like this.

I dig this chick so much I'm gonna haveta make her into a character for one of my comic book/graphic novel ideas.   Just some sort of futuristic/space mechanic.  I really just created her around the thumbnail of this pose.

Just before heading to class on this day, I played hooky from work and watched an L.A. Marzulli documentary DVD called Watchers 5.  In it they discussed all sorts of supernatural and paranormal topics...one being the phenomenon of The Black Eyed Children.  It was still fresh on my mind when we got to class so I presented this depiction to the class.....and hopefully to their nightmares!  If you think that's too mean of me...I will refer you to the baby punching picture above.  

Cheers!