something for (nearly) everyone

First, the thing for me. For you, not so much. But, it will be an indication of the hyperlinking of my brain. I really like words and was thinking of the one thing that Terry Pratchett does that bugs me. Whenever he speaks of someone shooting a bow or crossbow, he says 'fired an arrow'. Fires? The correct term is 'loose'. 'Fire' comes from the days when it was just big ol' unreliable cannon and you would add a lit torch to the touch hole to set off the powder. 'ready, aim, fire' comes from this.

Now, this got me thinking about matchlock guns. Was there a command of 'ready, aim, apply match'? If there was, we might be talking about matchfights in Fallujah, or an bomber taking anti-aircraft match or the sound of gunmatch on new year's eve. Sounds weird, doesn't it. Perhaps even impossible. But, think of this, it was only a question of geography and lineage that we don't call two pieces of bread with stuff in the middle a 'warrington' , a 'strathmore' or a 'pembroke'. Instead it's named after this guy.

Now for other people. This is for Dr. Smoke because he demanded it:



These are for Andrezero because he mentioned that he preferred Little Miss Punch-in-the-Crotch back when she was tearing up the Golden Age as Kick-in-the-Jimmy Girl. He's right about the hat being silly, but I have to agree that them are some nice jimmy-kicking boots:






Sorry I'm too tired to do a full OHOTMU entry. If anybody wants to, please do. (Just keep in mind she's really short).

I actually have a sketch of something for Swinebread. It's going to take a bit longer, though and I did want to get Kick-in-the-Jimmy girl up.

Listening to while posting: "Woman Downstairs" by The Handsome Family . I can only take one of their songs every now and then, but give them a listen.

Process!

This is going to be a big process post. It's not to show off at all, though. It's for me. First, so I can look at my work objectively (for some reason, when I post it, I can look at it differently than I can on the wall, or even in Photoshop). Secondly, maybe someone will stop by and say, "oh, you do that? Oh, try this instead, you'll get better results in the end". Or something.

This is the splash page for the comic that Andre Zero and I are creating: the adventures of Mr. Twilight.

This page started, ultimately with the script. But, you don't get to see that. Here's the initial thumbnail I made in the sketchbook when I was at work. Given that I had no time, it was just a basic reminder of the idea:



Then, while waiting for a code build at work, I took a minute or two to flesh it out a bit more:




then, one more time, a little bit bigger. These are all about actual size btw:




Then I did some figure studies. I felt I could base Mr. Twilight off of an older image, but the others needed to be worked on. You don't need to see all of the thumbnails and stick figures, so here are the ones that I had on the board when sketching out the final. Looking At Watch Guy was first:



Then came Fat Guy Talking To Conductor:



Then the hard one The Happy Couple. It's only been this past year that I've really done drawings of people interacting and this was extra hard. Doubly so because they were walking. STANDING is easy. I'm still not entirely happy with her feet, so I pulled a rare cop-out in the final piece and hid them behind a suitcase. You'll notice her lack of hair. This is because I did this at lunch and didn't want to be at my computer looking at Google images for research into 1930's hairstyles. It was easy enough to wait until I could hit my tearsheet file at home. I thought of giving her a hat, but changed my mind:




Then, the big sketch. First on greenbar paper (I actually found a big box of it in a closet at my dad's house. He was a programmer from way back and would bring home tons of the stuff. Great for a kid who likes to draw!) then traced onto comic board and refined in pencil. I am out of blue leads, so it was in 2H. This is full-size, about 9.25" x 13.75":



Then inked. I had already started on this when Swinebread suggested working with thicker lines, so it's thin lines. I am going to experiment with thicker linework this weekend.



Then color was added, type was placed and a piece of 40 year old (no kidding) newsprint from an old drawing set was scanned in and put in the background. AndreZero thought it would be cool if it looked old and distressed like a comic we'd found in a basement. The finished product:



Oh, Swinebread. If you've got some ideas, hit my design portfolio for some contact info that works. Cheap as free, man.

Listening to while posting: "Triangle Man (acoustic)" by TMBG

I am my own bane

So, I spent today doing a rather large version of the 'doctor and bear' from last post. I don't think AndreZero even has a place for 'elevated' bears in the current Mr. Twilight story, and he hasn't expressed any thoughts either way as to if he'd want them. But, darn it, it was a challenge to draw, so I had to do it.

Since I am a detail-oriented (obsessed) person, I've done many sketches of the possible anatomy of an elevated bear. The legs would stay a bit short for stability, the hips would have to change to facilitate a stable upright stance, the muzzle would have to be shorter, teeth smaller and jaw and tongue muscles changed to allow speech, and elimination of the Ursus Arctus 'hump' because nothing gets a 7' humanoid bear riled up like Igor jokes. Oh, and thumbs. Can't forget thumbs. I also thought about clothing or lack of it. This is why the bear wears that harness (which AndreZero likened to the classic St. Bernard's barrel). They wouldn't need clothing (in fact it would be uncomfortable and annoying), but the would need something sort of pocket-y. I had originally drawn a cool commando-looking vest with pockets and D-rings and such, but since this takes place in the 30's when things were a little bit clunkier, I clunked it up a bit.

The drawing went pretty well. My new year's resolution is to use more black and a little less line. I find that I am deathly afraid of black for some reason. I think it is because of its ease of addition, but pain of subtraction. What was fun and hard was the fur. Doing fakey fur is easy: it's just a bunch of lines fading from black to white. Real fur is all thick and bunchy like this. I'll need to try again. As soon as I posted this, I realized that it was not good at all. While the doctor was pretty good, the overall pose was too stiff. The fact that I chose such boring lighting for a face-on shot of the bear only adds to its boringness.



So, today at lunch, I did another sketch that I'm going to expand. This is a much more interesting vignette. Easier and more fun to light as well. I'm posting this in-progress because when I work, I really, really like my roughs. Then I go and muck them up. Here you go.



In RL news, Sweet Enemy, AndreZero and his mad scientist gf and I went sliding on Sunday (that's how we say 'sledding' in Vermont. For some reason) on Casey's Hill. This is a cool local feature that was going to be turned into mushroom houses, but was saved. It was a fun sliding day, but theres a very slippery and steep five foot downhill to get to the hill. Filled with energy at the prospect of sliding, I caromed down it and promptly fell on my butt on the rock-hard grass and dirt. My coccyx still aches I comfort myself in that it was something that would have hurt as much at 18 as it does now. The highlight of the day was a 7 year old girl who, with a slight push from her dad, went down one of the less steep sections. She went pretty fast for a little kid and when she finally came to a stop, she looked up at her dad and yelled "that was HORRIBLE!". The funny part was, we couldn't tell if she was complaining that it was too fast and steep, or not fast and steep enough.

Listening to while posting "Big Time Sensuality (The Fluke Minimix)" by Bjork

new year, new Twilight sketches

I bring my sketchbook to work every day now. At lunch or when I need to take a break from some tedious html coding, I draw. These are from the past week and are mostly studies from the comic that AndreZero is writing.

These are pretty rough, but that's why it's called a sketchbook.

Here's the man himself: Lysander Twilight. English, dapper and deadly (note the deft at which I avoided an alliteration)




Here are some studies for the non-flight uniforms for The Valkyrie. AndreZero didn't specify that they'd need regular uniforms, but I did them anyway




Here are some initial character sketches for a character that is currently nameless and, to save suspense for the comic, identitiy-less as well. Who is this mystery woman? One of the many things I'm working on is drawing the same character over and over. I think the trick is to take at least one single defining feature, such as hair or a certain jaw and make sure that you keep that consistent. Then you just hope that persistence of memory kicks in.



Here's something else that AndreZero didn't even hint at. After drawing another headshot of the redhead, I decided to add something else I'd been working on: an 'elevated bear'. I'd submitting work to the Flickr group for Bears In Ill-Fitting Hats, and recently I'd been playing around with drawing, not an anthropomorphized bear, but what a bear might look like if it had been crossed with enough human attributes to make Urus Erectus. I tried to somehow rationalize the anatomy and make it sensible. THIS is why I have trouble drawing cool fantasy/sci-fi: it has to make sense somehow. And for me it rarely works. So, here's the redhead with an Ursus Erectus (Arctus). I thought they'd be a bodyguard, maybe. I made it female because all of the Valkyrie are female...


Here's a picture of the iteration of the bear drawn on the page just previous to the one with the redhead





Here's something AndreZero did ask for. A secret base on a remote island. I've been trying to think of a name for it, but could only come up with The Enclave or The Bastion . I've already worked out a p lot plan placing it at the foot of a sleeping volcano giving it access to geothermal energy (since this takes place in the 30's and there was no solar and an oil tanker arriving at regular intervals would eventually negate the 'secret' part of the secret base.



Now, here's something for Swinebread and the crew at Atomic Romance.

Fairness Battalion Banner (60k. 100dpt. sized for letter)
Fairness Battalion Logo alone ( 24k 100dpi)

listening to while posting: "They Got Lost" by They Might Be Giants from 'Long Tall Weekend'

Cort is in session

Here's a turnaround of Jackson Cort (as seen in the previous post). The story is coming along great. Andre Zero is coming up with some great ideas.

This went pretty well, though I discarded a complete profile. It was too stiff. The colors are probationary, but the gun is not. He's packing a Webley and that's how he likes it.



I had a crappy drawing week, actually. After this, I couldn't seem to draw at all. I mean, the turnaround is no great shakes, but suddenly my drawing skills were back at like sixth grade! I even tried copying a photo and couldn't even do that. I was a bit creeped out and felt like putting flowers on Algernon's grave.

I'm better, but still feel artistically dumb. So, here's something I did a couple of years ago when I was trying to hone my Adobe Illustrator skills. I thought about doing a series of the Diablo 2 characters as anthropomorphic animals. I did sketches of all but the barbarian and the ninja and only vectored the amazon:



So, anybody think I should do the rest?

Oh, check this out. Remember the movie Dark City? Did you like it? Give this a listen.

listening to while posting: 'Girl on the Flying Trapeze" by Spike Jones and his City Slickers

stuff and other things

Still working on some production design for the comic that andrezero is writing. It's a cool story, I hope I've got the chops to do it justice.

Here's a sketch of another character. His name is Jackson Cort. I should have a turnaround posted this weekend.



He's loosely based on this guy:


Do my photo-reference drawing skills allow you to discover his identity?

Also, I've decided to do a drawing to submit to the bbww blog . It's in progress and was done with the same stupidly painstaking process as my The Crane Wife. I'm currently taking critiques on pose, anatomy, style, expression and stylization. Begin.



Listening to while posting: "Disillusion" by Badly Drawn Boy from 'the Hour of the Bewilderbeast'

For your pre-viewing pleasure

This is a preview of something that may be coming. It will be scripted by AndreZero and drawn by me.

That's all.



Listening to while posting: "The Gypsy" by Louis Armstrong from 'Basin Street Blues'