Rugby

Tyrannosaur and Giant Tortoise Concept Art

Concept art for the dinosaur project I am working on.

I REALLY need a large format scanner. I had to scan and assemble in 4 pieces. The piece is pretty big. The giant cretaceous tortoise is about 6 inches long alone.

More Goils

Just a quick sketch (as are most of my posts, really) but I wanted to keep posting, putting something up here, in case there's anyone watching.

The first drawing was a study for a commission that I had gotten , it has a nice sultry feel to it, in some ways more than the finished work.

Constructing Homer

So - I'm back to freelance work - and lo and behold a toy industry exec I know asks me "Can you draw Simpson's characters?"

I immediately said "YES" - hoping it was for a job and not for a birthday cake or something. Turns out that a licensee of the Simpson's wanted some concept art for new products and packaging because they were applying to expand their license from the UK and Europe to North America. "YES" I repeated, "I can draw Simpson's characters." We went over the requirements and I went home absolutely thrilled.

In the car on the way home I realized that, despite being a big Simpson's fan with the prerequisite ability to quote from any number of episodes, I have never EVER drawn a Simpson's character. Not a single one. Not a sketch, not a doodle - nothing.

So - I spent about a half hour after getting home digging out some reference and drawing up a Homer, resolving to do it until I could feel secure that I could pull it off.

It took me 6 drawings, all of which I post here. I was pretty pleased and convinced I could deliver.

And then the next day the word came down that they did NOT get the license extension they were seeking - and that was the end of that.

Dammit.

The process of drawing a decent Homer was pretty cool though. Proving to yourself you can do something - even a small thing - that you haven't done before. I thought I did a pretty good job right off the bat. The 1st sketch was clearly off - the proportions of the eyes and mouth, their placements - but the other three faces came out pretty darn good. The 1st full Homer I did I was completely pleased with so I just cleaned it up. (Obviously, had the job gone through, I would have cleaned it up a bit further and inked it so it had the density of line to match the animation - and colors, of course.) The licensee was very pleased also, so I guess that's something...

Ok - I haven't been posting regularly - but I have a ton of drawings to scan...

Well, you know that nice job with all the nice people? Yeah, I got canned from it. And NOT because (apparently) they didn't like my performance (in fact, they have hired me twice since for freelance work) - they canned me because I wouldn't sign this ridiculous non-compete agreement. And it IS ridiculous. I had it looked over by an employment attorney - a good friend of the family - and he told me I would be "an idiot to sign it." And if that wasn't enough emphasis he told me that if I DID sign it, despite his long friendship with my family, he'd ask me to select another attorney for employment matters - THAT is how evil that non-compete was.

I worked for over a decade creating a few museum exhibit projects and such - and I have ownership in them - and the technologies and business processes I created for b oth situations - none of which were in competition to this company (which produces trade show exhibits) and yet the president DEMANDED that I divest myself of any interest I have in my work on 10 years. I refused - and they gave me ONE DAY's notice. One day, for a guy with a family. Nice, huh?

I don't really blame anyone there but the president. It's a shame, because they really could use the creative ability I represent. Doubly a shame because I never got to put my full effort into it because they had me dogged the entire time with discussions and legal wranglings regarding the situation such that I felt I was never 100% on the job - because of this sword dangling over me the whole time.

ANyway... more art soon. Real soon. The first image is an older one - a quick sketch of one of the main characters in a story I've been writing since I was in college (I might have SKETCHED that back in college) and an ad mockup I did for a health food store back in the day.

Wonder Woman sketch

Based on a Steve Rude painting. I haven't had a chance to finish it. Worked two 50 hour weeks in a row - and then work on my other projects on nights and weekends... plus family time. This is all getting to be too much. Boy, would I love to draw for a living. A creative job without ever having to open Microsoft Excel spreadsheets... now that would be heaven.

Good news though, positive movement on my one particular project. Very positive. A meeting tomorrow night, if also positive, would be... well... very positive.

Anyway, here's Wonder Woman.

Spidey

Continuing in the animated style that I admire so...

One of the people I work with had her son, who is 6, dropped off at work today and he spent around an hour at the end of the day being bored. Adorable kid, I asked him who his favorite superhero was - and of course he said "Spiderman".... Spidey is legitimately worthy of anyone's fave status but with the marketing surrounding the movie I don't think its possible for any kid to answer otherwise right about now.

So, anyway, I drew him this Spiderman and gave it to him. He was embarrassed and hid his face when I gave it to him, but I saw him walking around with it in his hands later - and someone else used the copier to make some copies for him to color on - so I think he liked it, which made me happy.

Bruce Timm - Superman and Lois

My boss is a huge Superman fan, so while waiting for a phone call to be returned I figured I'd draw him something Super.

I drew this directly off of a lovely image by Bruce Timm of Lois and Clark in my continuing admiration for the complexity of images that Timm can elicit through simplicity of line.

I wanted to see if I could reproduce it with the same sense of love and happiness in each other's faces - the same sense that these two characters are looking into each other's eyes. I think I did.

Bruce Timm - esque Batman

I love the Bruce Timm style. Nothing I admire more than the clean economy of line that someone like Bruce Timm or Darwyn Cooke can pull off. Just spectacular. So, I am taking my stabs at that as well.

Long Time No Post

Ok - so I have posted in a bazillion years which means that I've lost the 3 people who did follow this blog. Thats OK, as I'm doing this for ME. Hear me? For ME!

Yeah, anyway - so I got a new job. Really nice place to work, great people, and I get to utilize my drawing skills which is a huge plus for me. Another big plus is that my boss is a comic book geek... and I really can't overstate what a plus that is. Imagine... being able to talk about comics with someone who ISN'T just a disembodied screen name on the internet. Thats big. Of course, it's not perfect - he doesn't realize the utter superiority of Batman over Superman but hey - you can't have everything.

Par for the course - here are some chicks I've drawn. This first one is of a french actress by the name of Arielle Dombasle (if I am spelling that correctly). Really striking woman. I came across some pics of her recently and I instantly remembered her because of a nude scene she did when she played the titular "Boss' Wife" in a movie that, I think, also starred Daniel Stern. Not much of a movie but a spectacular woman.

Next is a set of sketches to more finished pieces. I'm including both the sketch and the second go-round because there is always something in the sketch that is wonderful that, no matter how grand the finished product, somehow gets lost in translation.



















Now that we've got that pretty redheaded cowgirl out of the way (and yeah, I know she's in B&W but when I'm drawing them ALL the really pretty ones have red hair.

42nd Street subway entrance

Supah Sci-fi Alternate Reality TV show pitch movie!

Well... I sure haven't posted in a while. Been very busy, launching the new project and the other things that consume the life of a kid who never grew up - but who, nevertheless, ended up with wife, two great kids and a mortgage.

sketch

Huntress

This was done on a really huge piece of paper from this incredibly ungainly (yet lovely) sketchpad. Nice, smooth white paper. As you can see, I have a small scanner and have, ungainly, joined the scans togethe to make a single image.

Yet again, my scanner picks up every single molecule of carbon on the page and renders it visible - giving all my images a grayer look than they should have. I cleaned this one up a little in photoshop. Little being the operative word.

Anyway, first time I have drawn the character. Sexy comic book girls... I am a dork and a perv. A derv.

Freckled Girl

Did these using some great photo reference. I was browsing some artists' galleries and I can across these beautiful photos of this freckled redhead. I love the redheads, love their skin tone, they almost glow and shimmer - like their skin is a smooth stream and the freckles are flakes of gold glinting off the rocks.

And that red hair.

Yum.

Anyway, this guy's shots of her were terrific and I just had to sketch one quickly. this one - In Bloom
You might need to be registered with the site to see it, but its free and worth it.

The first sketch I did (on the bottom here) is actually much closer to the reference but as a drawingI felt that her head seemed too large in comparison to the rest of her, I guess maybe I modified her to superheroine proportions - but I think it has some of the same 'feel' as the original photo. Interesting (and hard) to get a sense of her freckling. I am sure I could have gotten a better result with a little more patience, but I wanted to draw it somewhat quickly.

Crash Landing

Here's another image illustrating a scene from that graphic novel/comic book project that didn't happen. Much less "finished" than the other stuff seen - especially (of course) the finished comic pages. I wonder what this would look like with a finished background and computer color.

There's just something so energetic and exciting about pencils(in general, not talking about my stuff necessarily). I almost always prefer the look to "finished" stuff. I wonder if this could be a good look, were I ever to go back to it, for the figural work while leaving the spaceships and mechanical elements sharp and draftsman-like?

Watching

A lovely quiet moment at home. Quickly and loosely sketched. I think it captures the mood nicely.

Plan

I really liked a lot of things about this, none the least of which is that it is totally out of my head and without reference - so I am going to have another go at the pose. I think it has a very exotic sense to it.

And anyone who thinks it's too risque... well, no one is supposed to be paying any attention to this anyway and don't be such a prude. This isn't smut, it's ART baby.

Anyway, I'm going to use this as the plan for another. Something about it really... grabs me. I think it's the smu...ART.

Nothin' like that sensual "lean in"

You know what I mean.

Drawn from life, pencil on paper. The hair came out closer to what I have been trying to get at. The sweep of line too.

Hesitant

Not her, me. I am still too hesitant with my lines. Sometimes I'm not, sometimes I am. That is where I need to concentrate my efforts, I think.

Pillow Look

(original above, "fixed" below)

I didn't like this at first, but - I don't have anything else to post today (I say to all of you who are not looking).

On a second look, it hit me very squarely what the problem was:

#1 - her eye was off, too close to the mid-line and too large.

#2 - I was crimped for space in drawing the sweeps of her hair because of the stupid small-sized sketchbook I am using. Couldn't do a LOT about #2, but I could fix #1. Hair's still off... but I think it's much better.

Serenity

Well - she sure looks serene to me.

I suppose there are some folks out there that might think this pose is a little too risque... it is risque. But it's not pornographic. There is a nude woman depicted in a state of bliss, however there is no sexual act being performed. Just so y'know.

Anyway - when I was a kid my Dad worked for Marvel's parent company (as I've said before) and he'd bring me home everything they put out each month. This also included stuff like the Black and White Conan magazines, Epic, Marvel Presents, etc. Quite a few of these fine publications contained scenes of nudity and graphic violence. My Dad had no clue, he thought they were comic books and never bothered to open them. THANK GZAWD!

In one of these great science fiction stories with lots of creepy aliens, heroic astronauts and sexy babes there was an image depicting the creation of the universe as a birth act by a beautiful woman. The pose always struck me with it's beauty (and the nakedness) and I remembered it.

So, a few years back a friend was getting rid of some 70s and 80s Playboys - and being a perv I took some. In one of these from the early 70s was a playmate in exactly that pose. Must have been the original reference source and I finally got around to replicating that pose for my own piece of work. Though the orientation is more natural - the original pose had her floating in space.

Lingering

Shopping for lingerie takes a very long time when you have to stop and sketch the lingerie models.

Adventures of Jungle Girl and Shakira

One Drawn for the "Jungle Boogie" thread/jam and the other for the "Draw Shakira" thread on the drawingboard.org (which is kinda like "Draw Tippy". Kinda.)

Looser is better

Not with women, but with your drawing hand. When I let myself stay loose... Is better.

Wife seated

Well - It's cool when you have the chance to draw from life. One thing I discovered during this process is that I got all kinds of nervous drawing a woman seated there, whereas I'm not nerved up trying to draw a model off of a photo. I think that has to do with the cause behind my reticence in doing any portrait style stuff at all. When you take a bad picture, you don't get angry at the camera... but if you draw someone and they don't like the way they look you have insulted them. They look at you like "You think I look like that?"

woman reclining

Faces

Two drawings from photos today. I like how they both came out. I like the differences in the two women's faces. Had fun with it.

Another exercise in ripping off Adam Hughes

Just so no one is confused, I am doing my best to de-rustify myself here. And I figure the best way to do that is to look at artwork that just makes you ache because it is so beautiful and then to try and copy it. To see if you can do what that other person did, because it helps to train your eye, your brain and your hands. To really see what another artist has done, where a line starts, how it curves, where it goes in relation to everything else on the page.

So, I'm trying to copy Adam Hughes in order to get better. There's nothing harder than drawing beautiful women (as I have said many times before) and earlier attempts by me to copy his stuff just a month ago met with dismal failure. So I am pretty pleased with myself at these latest results. I think the rust is flaking out of my joints fairly quickly.

12yr old Me and Stan Lee, John Romita, Jim Shooter and the bullpen

Just found these pics... Ok - so, when I was a kid my Dad worked for the company that owned Marvel Comics. Not only did I get just about every Marvel title free every single month - but, being a budding little artist, I got some other impossibly cool perks too.

I got to go into Manhattan and tour the offices. I was given a bunch of cool stuff - color separations for the cover of Spiderman (I think #199), some Avengers rushes, and some other stuff - but the coolest part was that I got to meet with real heroes.

Let me lay down the disclaimer - I was too much of a stupid kid to realize how fantastic this truly was, I was too concerned with not looking like a stupid kid and not concerned enough with learning everything I could. And - just as an aside - look how amazingly, impossibly, dorky I was at 12!

Anyway, the great part of this story was that it wasn't just a "Say Hello, take a picture, get out of here kid." Not at all.

Stan Lee spent at least 20 minutes with my Dad and I in his office, talking about art, about comics, telling stories about how he created various characters, giving advice.

John Romita Sr. spent at least the same amount of time at his drawing desk letting me watch him draw, talking about how he approached telling a story visually, etc. as my Dad went off and took care of some business.

Jim Shooter (who really is 4 thousand and 3 feet tall) was exceedingly nice, Mary Jo Duffy, a whole bunch of others - they all took the time out of their day to talk to me, to look at my drawings, to give me words of encouragement, to ask me what I thought of various titles and what I liked. They all told me to come back in a few years and apply for a job.

And what did I do? Nothing, I blew it. I went to college, went after the stuff other people told me I should be doing instead of doing what I knew I should be doing.

Thus proving my friend Frank's rule "Everyone is a dumbass."

AHA!

Ok, so - right at the start of this blog I stated that I am no Adam Hughes. I'm still not, this guy draws women like no one else. But, I had a hard time emulating his stuff. And it hurt, I wanted such beauty to be able to come from my pencil as well.

So... I guess it's like 3 weeks since I first attempted to rip off Hughes and I have to say I am pretty proud of myself. I tried to come as close as possible to his original as I could. And I think, I did a pretty damned good job. I don't often pat myself on the back - in fact I am downright self-depricating to the point of annoyance - but "Good fargin' job, Keith. Good fargin' job."

I'm sure I'll see a lot wrong with it in the morning, but tonight I am pretty pleased with myself.

Boids

Although I live only about an hour from Manhattan, our neighborhood borders a National Wildlife Preserve that stretches for miles. So, right down the road is this wonderful research center devoted to the study of birds of prey and they allow visitors every day of the year.

My wife and 2 boys walked around there today and I brought my sketchbook with me.

Considering that I have a 3 year old - I didn't have more than a minute or two with which to sketch out some of the birds, but I had a good time doing it and I figured it looked decent enough so I'd post it.

The main image is the profile of this gigantic Bald Eagle. In the upper left is a drawing of this tiny little owl called a Northern Saw-Whet Owl, that looked really cute perched at the top of an evergreen like the angel on a Christmas tree. The Owl right below that was called something like a long-eared Owl but it reminded me of the blue Owl puppet that Mr. Rogers had living in a tree. The Eagle at the bottom left was, I think, a Golden Eagle and the bird at the bottom right was my Son's favorite - A Snowy Owl. It was quite beautiful, about 2 or 3 feet tall - almost pure white and made a noise more like a dog barking than something you'd expect to come out of a bird. The other ones... I think they were falcons of some type. Maybe a Harrier. I don't recall. We had to keep moving.

Another Superman

More realistic, this time. A younger Superman, maybe as he'd have appeared when he first stepped on the scene in the 30's or 40's.

This drawing "jam" on the Drawing Board is really motivational. I've always liked Superman, but I've never drawn him so much as I have in the last few days.

Go West, young (Bat)man

Batman is my favorite comic book character. My Dad worked for the company that owned Marvel, my 'Uncle Joe' was president of Marvel for a while, I read everything Marvel as a kid because I got it all for nuthin'... but Batman was still my favorite. Still is.

And the way I was introduced to Batman, like so many others, was the campy 60's TV show starring Adam West.

Therein lies the magic of Batman. You can do THAT to Batman, and he is still cool.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE that 60's TV show (and I am living in pain that it is not on DVD... Warner, DC, George Baris - whose ever fault that is - FIX it, you slime) but it didn't exactly treat the character with respect. Not that I would have realized it at the time.

Point is, any other character in the universe, if you take him and make him a giant joke in the biggest TV show around for a few years.... that's it. He'll always be a joke. Marvel is making a comedy out of "Ant-Man"... not that Ant-Man was ever the coolest hero on campus - but he wasn't created as a joke. There are some really cool possibilities inherent in a hero that can shrink to the size of an Ant and retain his human strenght... I give you Neal Adams descent into the innards of the cyborg 'the Vision'... but once that movie comes out, if anyone sees it - Ant-Man is a joke FOREVER.

Not Batman. He can be a joke, he can be serious, he can be animated, he can be live action, he can be on your bubble bath and your PJ's and he's cool no matter what.

So, I drew this slouching, happy, Adam Westish Batman in honor of that silly take on the character. And damn, was that car freaking cool.