Thursday, September 30, 2010

Red Whine

I drew this comic a week or two ago, promptly scanned it, and then work got busy and i forgot i had a blog.

It is a true story, possibly about alcoholism? I can't remember if i actually said this out loud to myself, but i most definitely thought it distinctly.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Hellboid

Earlier this year designer Andrew Bell teamed up with Dyzplastic and put out a line of totally adorable vinyl toys modeled on the Android operating system mascot (production process and updates on their blog here.
Totally sweet!
Along with a blind box series they also put out a blank DIY droid. I've never done a vinyl mod, so when i saw them at Comic-Con this year i picked one up!

I figured i'd stick close to home on this one, so i chose to make a Hellboy droid :)

Toyed around with what to do about the antennae/horns, and wound up just combining them.

Big shoes to fill, little guy.

The horn-nubs, right hand, tail, and little hair bun were made out of Green Stuff (dries without baking, pretty easy to find)

The little dude likes Buffy, bless his heart :)

... and then painting time!

Several coats of paint and some mostly-dried out sharpies later...



There's a pancake. He found the pancake!

(i had just enough Green Stuff leftover...)

And that's the end :)

Monday, September 20, 2010

It's a comfy 80 degrees OUTside

It's always pretty cold in the studio. I'm glad i can huddle around my cintiq for warmth.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Apple Pie

Earlier this year Girls Drawin' Girls put out our third art book! It was the first i'd had the opportunity to contribute to since joining the group, and it's always exciting to see your own work in print :)
The theme was desserts, i chose apple pie (one of my favorite desserts) and did two pieces that are both featured in the book. Vol. III: Sugar and Spice is still available for purchase for $25!

These are the pieces i did! I'm lucky enough to say both the originals have sold :)



Both pieces were done in watercolor, with acrylic for the highlights and tones (plus a little digital touch-up). A while back Bill Pressing posted this tutorial to his blog and i'd always wanted to try it. Doing tones first in acrylic is a lifesaver and gives you WAY more control! I'm now officially a fan of it.

I've also posted art here for something called the Micro Gallery. It's a small gallery space we've set up ourselves at work. It has it's own blog now where all the past shows are being documented (to the best of our provided photo ability) leading up to... (drumroll)... our first ever show at Gallery Nucleus! It's a great venue and the first time we'll have a chance to have a show open to the public. It'll be a bunch of us from Disney, plus artists from Dreamworks and Pixar.
It'll be fun on a bun!

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Amigurumi!

Wikipedia describes amigurumi as:
"Amigurumi (編みぐるみ?, lit. knitted stuffed toy) is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures."

A little while back i got hooked on crocheting (pun DEFINITELY intended). It started with an afghan but i wanted to get more ambitious. When i saw this pattern i knew i had to try it. With a few modifications to the original pattern, i made one as a gift for The Boyfriend :)

Shy jedi master


Yoda and his deformed brother, made from rejected parts of early yoda attempts. He has two heads, one arm and one weird foot (he almost didn't have a body). They share a bond that cannot be broken.









The next project wound up being a birthday gift for a friend. He's a HUGE Scott Pilgrim fan, so I mocked up a design for a Ramona Flowers based on the image at the right (which is not my artwork), initially just for kicks, but then it started to seem more and more feasible so i actually took a crack at it. The result was a mixed success. The hair was the biggest challenge. I also wanted to add a hood and jacket, but any hood that was big enough for her giant head wound up being way bigger than her comparatively tiny body...







Here's the mock-up i started with:


And here's the finished product:

Her hair came out super-crazy. At one point i put actual hair gel in there to try and make it keep it's shape, but it didn't hold for long. Her "neck" is also kinda long; i had left space to attach a hood, but never wound up using it.

Details, details.

Like, OMG! LOL.


I did both of these in the last few months. Next on my list is a little Commander Data. I'm also inspired by the custom Sack Boy skins in Little Big Planet; making a simple sack boy would be cool, but their Mystique looks simple enough and could come out so rad if i could find some skull beads...

If only i didn't have a really great full-time job!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

On buying holistic pain meds.

So back in late June/early July i was called for jury duty, and for the next month i served on a trial in which the heirs to the estate of Bing Crosby were suing the MCA record company for several million dollars in unpaid royalties.
The interesting aspect of the case pretty much begins and ends with that description, unless you're REALLY into tedious contract law, which i'm not particularly.
Anyway, i made about five or six comics around that time (lots of time sitting in the courtroom) but i only actually finished one. The rest exist as rough pencil sketches and looking back on them, they're really not funny enough to finish.

This is the first of the lot, and the only one i actually finished inking. It's all true. Never, ever try and buy headache medication at Whole Foods.



I get that Whole Foods is "all natural" and all that jazz, but they ARE, in essence, a grocery store and ought to carry this sort of thing. My head hurt pretty badly, i was in the store anyway, and really didn't feel like making an extra stop on the way home. I found some sort of reasonably priced holistic pain meds and bought them.
They were highly ineffective.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

It's pink!

WOW it's been a while since i've posted anything. Life's been busy busy busy. I've got about fifty-thousand un-scanned comics that i don't even think are funny anymore. I'll probably post some of them anyway eventually. That plus a small handful of other projects. For now here's a thing i doodled (there's not really any context for it)!


Also a note: Even without regular posting i somehow still get a slow trickle of comments here. Since the blogger format doesn't really allow for practical response to individual comments, just a quick note to say thank you to anyone who swings by here to begin with, and a thank you to those of you who take the time to leave a comment. I appreciate them all :)