Repurposed Reindeer

I know it's been 5 or 6 months since the last post, but here is most likely the last post of the year.
This guy was made for a tshirt design and I liked the look of  him enough that I thought I'd throw together a quicky...

 

I hope everybody has a super holiday!
As always, Thanks fer lookin...

Now with Seizure-Inducing GIF!!!

...empty pages and a frozen pen...

Yup.
The rock got the best of me for a while. (Although I was working on an actual job, the art was working ME over.)

One of the trickiest parts of this exercise is making a decision on what to post here. As I mentioned before, the point is to wrestle back control of my skills.

I often like to visit http://www.drawergeeks.com/ for some inspiration. It's a website where a group of cartoonists select a common theme and all post their various takes on the subject. Its fun to see what each artist brings to the table. It looks like nobody has been posting since 2010, though!

Last week, while looking over some of the entries, I had the brilliant idea to use their list as the subject for my own random weekly challenges!

So, this week I take a "Shot of Inspiration"!

This Week's Theme: Captain Marvel/Shazam

I decided to go ahead and pick a subject for next week's entry.

If any of my art pals (or anyone, really) would like to contribute, just email me and I'll post it in the next blog!

Thanks fer lookin'!

"...your mother dresses you funny..."

Wish I'd thought of this before the day ran out...

Anyway, maybe I'll finish it sometime.
Thanks fer lookin'.
E~

"Hello, It's me..."

Long time, no see, eh?

Just when I was feeling comfortable with my progress, I was hit with some awful news...A couple of paying gigs! Suddenly the machine shuts down and the whole works grind to a screeching halt.

Even as enthusiastic as I am about these projects, I feel as though I'm relearning everything from the ground up as I go. This shouldn't be so hard for someone in my shoes. Too many years of nothing but rearranging clipart and text boxes apparently shoves the talent portion to the dark and dusty corners of the brainpan.

Anyhoo - I seem to be back on a roll (jinx) and making some headway. But nothing I can post at this time.

Back in December I had the good fortune to win an iPad or the cash equivalent. I, of course, opted for the cash equivalent (in the form of gift cards) which I sat on until March. After much heavy deliberation, I finally came up with the perfect item on which to spend my winnings.

A new iPad!

A nifty device, but I still don't know how much use I'll really get out of it.

In between anxiety attacks and waiting for ridiculous huge files to save, I have been experimenting with a really cool app called SketchBook Pro.

It's loaded with lots of cool tools and seems surprisingly sophisticated.

Here's a simple doodle that was just an experiment with various brushes and textures.

　


I know. I know. That was a lot of yakkety-yak to build up to that.

Anyway, it's a little something for anyone who is still interested in a peek inside the attic.

As usual, Thanks fer lookin'!

UPDATE! Immediately after I posted this, I decided to wind down for the evening and this happened...

"...wicked as it seems..."

I didn't think I'd have time to do any sketching this weekend, but it's only right that I should take a crack at Keef. It's just a quick doodle that I did outta my head as an exercise (winding down after a particularly tense episode of Walking Dead!).
It certainly doesn't match up style-wise with last weeks drawing, but that wasn't really the point.
Anyway....

So things are starting to gradually feel natural. This experiment seems to be working. Now I need to get serious and start something more structured...
Thanks fer lookin'!

"...hope you guessed my name..."

This sketch began as a doodle that started to look like a caricature of Mick Jagger, so I started thinking about taking an actual stab at a Stones piece. I started working out a color scheme which you can see above. I'll definitely have to come back and develop it further...

Thanks fer lookin'!

"...and now a word from our sponsor..."

So I missed a another post last week, but not for lack of ideas. I was productive all weekend despite being sick, but I came up short, leaving me with items not ready to post.

Another case of the art controlling me instead of the other way around. This post may give a little insight at the kind of things that hold me up.

Last year my frequent conspirator John and I were kicking around some Star Trek t-shirt ideas for cafepress.com's Star Trek fan portal. John is always full of great ideas and we took off running. We had several concepts and started designs for three, one of which he actually dreamed up several years ago before we had any inkling of how to go about licensing a major entertainment property. Work and life got in the way and they kind fell by the wayside before we finalized them.

Two of the designs were kind of seasonal and the time was rolling around this year, so I decided to dig them up last weekend and try to finish them. I finally got the feel for our favorite original layout and the second came together quickly. Unfortunately, someone beat us to John's best and simplest idea so we were left short. I felt we should have 3 designs to start with. I really wanted to get these up, but the weekend flew by and I didn't want to show anything until I had all 3.

For some reason, we kept coming up with sort of seasonal tie-ins (St. Patrick's Day, Spring Break). I racked my brain and realized it was time for a Klingon Anti-Valentine. Over the course of the weekend I threw together a sketch and showed it to John. He liked the idea.

So I went back to refine the drawing, but I found that the more times I tried, the more it felt as though it was losing the energy of the sketch. I liked the rough scratchy nature of the sketch for the subject matter. John agreed with me and gave me some suggestions. I thought it might be cool to put the phrase "Love Hurts" in Klingon on the shirt, so I spent way too much time trying to find the correct words and phrasing online. (I think I got it, but if there's any Klingon experts out there that find this is wrong, I'd love someone to correct me!!!)

I went back to the original sketch and tried a slightly new, loose approach to coloring it and I think it works now.

John gave me a couple ideas that I really liked, but in the end I think the simpler layout works better. Here is what might have been...

I hope you'll take a moment to check out the store and let me know what you think.

www.cafepress.com/spaceodditees

Stay tuned for our upcoming Tribble Tee!!!
Thanks fer lookin'!

　

BONUS!
While I was digging through the "archives" this week, I came across this ball point pen sketch that sums up pretty much how I feel most days in my day job. Enjoy!

"...and now back to our regularly scheduled program..."

Ok - Back from hiatus. I've been encouraged to post SOMETHING each week, regardless of how little I've accomplished or whether I've achieved what I thought I set out to do. This has been unbelievably difficult, but I am determined to get back what I think I've lost track of...

So here's some developmental sketches for a collaboration that's been in the idea stages for a long time. It ain't much, but it is SOMETHING.

Any feedback ya wanna send my way is much appreciated.
Thanks fer lookin'!

"Oh, Robot!"

Sometimes I'll start something and end up not knowing what to do with it. It will sit in a folder and every few months I'll play around with it again. Here's the latest attempt at this robot graphic...

Thanks fer lookin'!

Mini Update

Hi, Everyone! I wanted to drop a line here to direct you to a companion to this blog:
sketchround-up.blogspot.com/

When I started my blog, it was with a kick in the pants from my friend Nadine as I mentioned before. Nadine is also a very talented artist and I am always really grateful for the encouragement she sents my way! When she suggested some art challenges, I thought it would be neat to share both our versions in a joint blog.

She accepted the idea and we began a blog with the notion of sharing ideas and techniques and just general enthusiasm for art related stuff.

I'm happy to say she took off running with it and I'm pretty excited with what she started.

I hope you'll give it a look.

Now I gotta pick up the gauntlet...

"...fair to middlin' with a pencil..."

So here's week two's sketch.

Making up my mind seems to be the hardest obstacle in this little endeavor. It isn't what I started out with, but came about while having difficulties warming up. I still like the idea, but not crazy about the end result.

This drawing is 100% digital. I'm finding that I really enjoy inking and coloring with my Wacom digital drawing tablet, but I get much better results when I begin with at least a sketch on real paper with a real pencil. A solid drawing comes more naturally to me the traditional way.

At least I'm learning something as I attempt to climb out From Under the Rock...

Feel free to leave comments or critiques or questions...

Thanks fer lookin'!

"...rushin' down the freeway, messed around and got lost..."

Once upon a time, drawing was as natural as breathing to me. Didn't even have to think about it. Could've been an automated reflex.

Not so much anymore.

The point of this little ol' sketch-blog is to give myself a regular exercise to flex my creative muscles once again.  I've been kicking this around for quite a while, now. I decided I'd share whatever develops (no sense keeping it all locked away).

I thought I'd start by getting back to basics with some cartooning. Here is my first post which began, believe it or not, TWO MONTHS ago. It may not look like much, but I've found even the simplest of things has become mentally and physically challenging.

So with a whack upside the head from an "inspirational baseball bat" by my friend Nadine (AKA  Zejan the Wonder Monkey), I present my very first sketchy-thingie:

Hope ya like it and hope ya come back for more.
Thanks fer lookin'!