My plan this week was to do my Little Carbon Robot Challenge piece 100% digitally, just to keep practicin' with the old (NEW) tablet I bought.
But, after about seven failed attempts at something I thought I was gonna like, I decided to shelve the whole shebang until I was hit by the ole inspirado. So Monday became Wednesday, and Wednesday became Saturday, some other week days were lost in the mix somewhere along the way, and before you know it, it's early Sunday morn, and I ain't got crap to show for the challenge. So I says to myself, "Myself, what are you gonna do to rectify this sitch-e-a-shun?" And so I answers back, "Me, I'm gonna get to crack-a-lackin'!" And so, with a pencil in one hand, and a tumbler of Big Red in the other, I hammered out something I'm not all that fond of, but fond enough of to call it a day, post that shit, and move on with my life. I'm not a Spidey fan, ya'll, and this week really shows it. Drawin' Peter Parker was a pain, but I did it. I did enough of it anyways.
If I have time someday, I might ink this sucker, but I ain't holding my breath, so you shouldn't either. If anyone else out there wants to ink it, well hey, permission granted!
I don't own it yet, but I want to...like really really badly. If you've seen the trailer, you'll here some incredile audio stylings of the great blues/rock group, Clutch, with their song, "Electric Worry." If you've never heard it before, fear not, for I have provided the music video for you below. Enjoy...
Been a little while since I update the ole blog, so here's an update. I've been working on Cracker Ace, as well as other art commitments. One thing I've been doing is taking part in a weekly character challenge with my art buds here in Sacramento. So far the challenge has been good. Here's my last contribution for the project...the Creature from the Black Lagoon. It's a progression from digital sketch to finished pencils. Along with my character challenge, my Torn Comics mates held a contest for folks to draw kids dressed as their favorite Torn Comics characters. The winner got a free copy of Twist in the Night (the horror anthology from Torn Comics) as well as an inked character sketch from the Torn artist of their choice. I was picked by the winner to do the commission, and they chose Johnny 5 from "Short Circuit." WOW! Never drawn that character before, but hey, I'm game. Here's my initial digital sketch... Woot!
"Los Locos kick your ass, Los Locos kick your face, Los Locos kick your BALLS into outer space!" - Los Locos, Short Circuit II
My Little Carbon Robot pals and I are doing a weekly character challenge to help generate more work consistently, as well as push ourselves to draw things we wouldn't normally even think to touch. Our assignments are characters generated randomly from a list that currently has more than 600 names. I'm posting this image to show the actual size of my first rough sketch. Took a thumbnail sketch and decided to just pencil it out completely on a standard size of printer paper, with my reference for the ugly evil queen from Snow White on it. I like seeing this kind of stuff from others, so I thought I'd share it.
This page features the same girlie from the previous sketchbook page, as well as (from the top) Miss Demolition from my "Cracker Ace" story, Eric Powell's The Goon, and Eddie from Doug TenNapel's graphic novel, "Black Cherry" which I'm currently reading.
I've decided to start posting sketchbook pages here as I finish them. This sketchbook isn't going to be like other sketchbooks I've done in the past (sparsely used, often forgotten, and never finished). My plan is to try and fill an entire sketchbook from cover to cover as soon as possible. I've never filled a sketchbook completely, and I'm curious as to how long it will take me. I'm also not moving to the next page before filling up the current page. These will mostly be warm-up sketches, and sketches of characters I'm either currently drawing for projects, reading, or watching at the moment. My hope is that when it's finished, I'll pick out pages I think are highlights, and make my official 2010 sketchbook out of that. We'll see how that goes.
For this first page I was inspired to draw a girlie after watching a video by one of my favorite DA artists, Pat Carlucci on youtube. It quickly turned from a girlie doing a sexy pose, to a lame joke about an STD. Oh ho ho ho...me.
Locked in Kimuras are NASTY ju-ju. I wouldn't mess with them. I am a wuss. But Roger Huerta...he ain't no wuss. He ain't got no bones or joints either. Just look at this sick submission Gray Maynard locked on him in the third round of their fight this past Wednesday at UFC Fight Night 19... http://www.myvideofight.com/UFC/Roger-Huerta-vs-Gray-Maynard-UFN-19-Video I'm linking you to a video of the full fight. If you don't give a crap about a good MMA fight, and just want to see the jiu-jitsu equivalent of "Bend it Like Beckham" then skip to 2:04 in the third round.
It's been a while since I've posted anything, so I thought I'd give an update and say that I've got a lot of work brewing right now, and as soon as I can show it, I will. For now, here's a movie review...
Since "The 40-year-old Virgin" it seems like Judd Apatow can do no wrong. So far, I've enjoyed every movie has hand his hands in either as a director or producer. "Funny People" is no different. It works well as a fly-on-the-wall character study of a relationship between a wannabe comic named Ira (Seth Rogen) and veteran comic/actor George (Adam Sandler).
What works: For all the raunch Rogen has offered to the masses through his handful of films so far, he's excellent at playing the innocent and naive Ira. Adam Sandler is hard to take seriously when he's doing straight drama, as in "Reign Over Me," but here his performance was very natural as an over-the-hill comic who has no one because he's become a tremendous self-serving dick. The two have great on-screen chemistry. The relationship Ira has with his roommates (played by Jonah Hill and Jason Schwartzman) is funny, and a consistent source for laughs.
What doesn't work: The love angle felt less about telling a good story, and more about trying to get ladies into movie seats. Without it, you're literally left with a guy movie littered with dick and fart jokes, but with it, you've got an extra sappy storyline heaped on top of the festivities that works to only grind the film to a dead stop. Because of the love angle, the movie always runs WAY too long. Clocking in at just over two hours and twenty minutes, this movie oughta be no more than an hour and forty-five minutes, two hours tops. And the Eminem cameo wasn't funny...it was just kind of weird, in a "Where in the hell is this coming from" sort of way.
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome is one of my favorite movies from my childhood. It is my favorite of the Mad Max series, because it's populated with so many cool looking characters. My favorite character by far is Ironbar, one of Auntie's main henchmen. With a bald head, arms littered with tattoos, and that weird kabuki mask on a stick hovering over his head all the time...what's not to love?
My first time drawing He-Man. Kind of sad, considering Masters of the Universe was my favorite cartoon as a kid. I used to own all the toys. My favorite character was Beast Man, cause he seemed to be the only guy who could get away with talking shit to Skeletor, always questioning Skeletor's leadership skills, and throwin' digs at him under his breath. Classic! I should have drawn Beast Man instead.
One of the few pieces I'm currently working on right now is for my buddy Dan Schkade, creator of one of the coolest indy comic properties ever, The Fowl. This was an idea I had for a Fowl pinup. I thought it would be cool to do something super simple and Dirty Harry-ish.
I recently offered commissions through my deviantart page. One of my good buds was kind enough to toss a couple my way, and he asked for Batman and the Joker. These are prelim sketches for him to sign off on before I finish them up.
Here are a couple sketches I had in my sketchbook from a week or so back. The first is of my good bud Bryce's character, The Mechanic. The second is of Sam Kieth's The Maxx. Just workin' on keepin' things loose and fun with these.
Here is my first pass at drawing MAM's (Mysterious Adventure Magazine) horror character, The Stranger (aka Darkcry). I really like the style of this character, but I got a lot of the details wrong, considering I was drawing from memory. Plus the pose is really stiff, and no fun to look at. My second pass will but much more fun and accurate.
Took some time out from busy comic book page pencilin' to do a quick sketch of this little dude. The character's name is Kid Skull, and he's the creation of local Sacramento artist, Hainanu Saulque. Go check out his stuff!
Also, I'll be attending the Sacramento Drink-N-Draw tomorrow night at the Fox and Goose. If you're from or around the area tomorrow night from 8-12pm, come meet me and throw down some lines! It'll be riot. For more info, check out the official site of the Sacto DnD chapter!
Whelp, it's been a few days since I've been able to post anything, namely because my computer caught the petulant child virus and stopped obeying my commands! At least with kids you can spank 'em, or slap 'em upside the head...if I did that with a computer, I'd just hurt myself. Anyway, I've been granted permission to use the roomies comp, so I hooked up for the scanner, installed adobe, and got to scannin' a few things.
This first sketch is right outta the ole highly neglected sketchbook. It's of my favorite G.I. Joe, Gung-Ho! As a kid, and even now as an adult, I have an affinity for straight-up badasses, and Gung-Ho may very well be the first badass I ever actively rooted for. Well, him and Mr. T. Anyway, I had a crapload of fun drawing this, and I look forward to inking and coloring it at some point for a G.I. Joe jam a buddy of mine is doing. Can't wait!
Here's another sketchbook sketch I did recently of everyone's favorite superchick with the super mammaries...Wonder Woman! Ain't drawn here in a long while, and I gotta say, I can totally see myself turning the proverbial corner when it comes to drawing females. I'm still learning, but I think I've finally figured it out...and it only took 29 and a half years!
This last one here is of a character whose become somewhat of a recent favorite of mine, Guy Gardner. I remember being asked to draw this dude about a year ago for one of those 10 Free Sketch things that I never completed. Well, long overdue, here's my first ever attempt at him. I plan on drawing him again soon, as I think this pose isn't dynamic enough, but it was fun to practice trying to convey attitude, as well as working on folds in fabric as seen on his jacket. Oh, and for Guy Gardner purists, I just realized that I have him wearing a Green Lantern ring, and not the yellow ring he oughta be wearing in this incarnation...I promise not to make that mistake again.
It's been a fun couple days, even without the net. I've got a bucketload of sketches yet to scan in, but this is all I can show for today. Hope everyone digs 'em.
Hey peeps. A buddy of mine recently commissioned me for a House piece. He's a nut for the show, and specifically Dr. Gregory House. Dresses like him on Halloween, quotes the show, all that stuff. He wanted me to base it on an existing picture of House in a bathtub full of pain pill bottles. Of couse he had to pick a picture with a lot of detail...the jerk. Anyway, here's what I sketched out. Hopefully he digs it.
This is being done on 11x17 Card Stock, and because I plan to color this with markers, I laid it out with 6H lead, and finished it up with a standard HB. I like how it turned out...wasn't sure I could do it.
It's done! Haha, I finally finished it. Decided not to do the hard thing, and transfer the image to better paper, but rather tough it out on he copy paper and deal with what I had already. It's not 100% what I was hoping for, but it is what it is.
If ya'll like this process stuff, I'll do more. If you don't, I won't bother. If I hear nothing, I'll take it ya'll feel more akin to the latter statement, and I'll just keep groovin'. No pressure to comment...though they're always nice. hehe
Some other notes about the day: Picked up some new materials today...different leads for my pencils, including some non-repro blue lead for my trusty mechanical pencil. Also picked up a newer, bigger tool box for all my markers and shtuff, which has been a long time coming. I've been working out of my old little tool box, and a shoe box, and it's sucked. I'm rolling in style again, and it feels good!
After my trip to the art store, I swung by the theater place and peeped this movie called "Star Trek," maybe you've heard of it. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it, and walked out glad I decided to spend full price to see it. Haven't done that since "Watchmen" back in March...which is a real dry spell for me. And it looks like there are a slate of really good movies coming out this summer for me to look forward to, and ponder on whether I'll be plunking down the duckets to seem them.
Of the trailers I saw, I was most excited by the trailers for the new Pixar flick, "Up" and Focus Films' "9." The new Transformer movie looks okay, and I was less than impressed with the trailer for G.I. Joe...I think I'll wait for DVD on those.
Started playing with acrylics today. Did up a Hellboy piece that I'm currently trying not to mangle. I might show it...although I probably won't. Ain't painted anything since high school, which means it's been over a decade since I picked up a brush. But, I've had this hankering to play with paints, pastels, colored pencils, and crayons lately, so I hope to have some new stuff with these new mediums up sooner than later. That's all I got for now.
Hey hey hey! So I'm burnin' the midnight oil here in Bruceville, supplyin' the flat marker colors to Cap here. I'm playin' with Crayola markers on this one, so I'm still a little fuzzy on how to make them work to my advantage. This is also on standard copy paper, and the Crayolas are wetter on regular paper than I had anticipated. I may have to transfer this onto some bristol board before I call it done. Either way, the process is a movin', and here be they latest step.
So here's the quick and dirty lineart. I don't worry so much about being precise with this step, but rather to just separate the parts for coloring. I like to ink with really thick lines, so any trembling in the lineart is covered up when I do the finished inks.
Hope to get the colored version up soon. Hope everyone had a great holiday, and remembered to pay their respect.
Here are the finished pencils to the Captain America sketch. Lately I haven't even been doing this step, as I can usually go in and create the inked lineart instead of this step, but I thought for doing a step-by-step, I'd go ahead and show this part since this was an integral part of my process for a very long time.
Hey peeps! Well, got everything running smoothly now. Actually, that's not correct. There is one issue I still have after having hooked everything up--I can upload images from my computer to this blog or my deviantart page through IE, but I can't through Firefox. I'm sure it's just one click to fix, but I can't find it. So, if anyone out there knows what I'm talking bout, any help would be appreciated!
On to more important news, in honor of Memorial Day, I thought I'd do a quick sketch of Captain America! This one took about 10 minutes, and I'm thinking I'll go ahead and finish it, and scan the steps as I go. Never done one of those, and I think that would be a fun thing to do.
Please have a fun and safe Memorial Day. And don't forget to take the time to pay your respects to the fallen heroes who've died serving our country, as well as giving thanks to the our nation's veterans and those still serving! Witout them, our beer drinking and burger eating would be a lot less enjoyable, cause we'd be sharing time with fearing for our lives.
Finally got the new pooter hooked up. Still trying to find all the necessary discs to finish installing my hardware and programs, but so far everything is running smoothly. To get back on the art horse here at the blog, I figured I'd post a fully colored marker piece I did for my dad as a birthay present. He was an Iron Man fan as a kid, and he's a big fan of the movie. I had a lot of fun doing this one up, considering it was the first time I seriously tried drawing Iron Man.
Hey peeps. No new art just yet. I'm changing computers today. Should have the new pooter hooked up sometime this morning, and with it, I'll post a couple new things I'm working on, plus some unlettered pages from the soon-to-be-released graphic novel I worked on, "Stranger Danger Vol. 1."
And now for something completely different...
I dread the day I become a parent. Since hitting the quarter-century mark, I've found myself nurturing the desire to become a father. The idea appeals to me in many ways, and just when I think I'm ready to pull the trigger, something like this happens...
I'm not religious fundamentalist, so the idea of defending the Hauser's--or specifically the mother--from the POV of religious freedom is meaningless to me. What concerns me here is the blatant disregard by the State of Minnesota for the rights of the parents on this issue. Regardless of if you believe their choice to not seek chemotherapy to treat the kid's cancer, we as a society seem to have forgotten that it is not our business to enforce our will or ethics on someone else. If you believe in individaul freedom, parents rights, or even that religious freedom thing, then logic dictates that you must...YOU MUST...side with the parents on this issue, and not the State.
We used to live in a time when parents were given the power to raise their children as they saw fit. Sure, there were some bad apples in the bunch, going overboard with physical punishment to the point of abuse...but because of that, now parents cannot even spank their children anymore without fear of going to prison.
My parents are smokers. They always have been. They smoked with myself and my two younger sisters in the house or car all the time. My mother even smoked while pregnant with us. None of us are deformed, none of us mental handicapped (well, at least I don't think so...I'm sure some people would disagree), we turned out all right. We were also spanked when we got in trouble...not all the time, but when it was considered a punishment befitting the crime by our parents. While we may have suffered the occasional ass-cheek bruise at the hands of a open palm/hair brush/belt, we turned out all right. We don't cower like a dog when someone offers a high-five, and we don't walk around getting into fist fights because we feel violence is the only way to solve our problems.
My parents were good parents. They did the best they could, as I believe is the case with 99% of all parents out there. But if my folks were attempting to raise myself and my sisters today, as they did then, they would be demonized and possibly arrested, leaving us kids without parents...which would have been much more destructive to our development as human beings.
We may not agree with the choices made by other folks, but it ain't our place to impose our will or our ideas on them. And while I think it would be better for Daniel Hauser if he cowboy'd up and endured the chemo, it's not my place, or anyone elses--especially the government's--to decide otherwise. It's not even his. It's his parents place. Their choice, and their's alone.
Hey peeps. So it's been a while since I posted an update here on the blog. Figured it was time to get a little something different going here. The plan is to spruce the place up a bit, and turn it into the central nervous center of JB on the Web. That means I'll be posting lots more art, not just sketches but damn near everything I do; works in progress; editorial rants and reviews; and random blather that I need to dump.
The updates continue. This is a sketch of the Spider-man villain, Lizard. I don't know anything about the character, but a buddy of mine is a huge fan of him, so for his birthday (a couple months back...err) I told him I'd draw him up. Well Scott, here ya go!
It's time to jump back on the Stranger Danger horse again. After finishing up my stint on the first book back in December, it's time I gear up for my next chapter of the second book. Right now I'm concentrating on drawing the characters again, to get comfortable with them, and figure out what tweaks need to be made in order to ensure they're looking their best. Above I've got Chip and Joe dressed as "Macho Chimp" Chip Savage and "Prom Date" Joe Bond, respectively. Below is Strange dressed as Strange Burton.
Kind of weird to be starting on my second chapter already. Definitely doesn't seem like it's been two months since I finished the last chapter, but it has. My how time flies! There's a lot I like about what I did on my first chapter, but I also see a lot I have to improve on. One thing I really want to work on for this next chapter is fluidity and detail. There were a lot of panels in the last chapter that I felt were just too stiff and bland. It's gonna be tough, but I know this next chapter is gonna completely rock!
Eh. I completely biffed this "draw everyday challenge" deal. Which is weird, 'cause I HAVE been drawing everyday...I just ain't been scanning and uploading it everyday. Oh well. Here's a little sketch I did of Lil' Mac uppercuttin' my favorite Punchout! opponent (next to King Hippo, that is), Soda Popinski! Wanted to do some actiony stuff, but it still looks stiff. I'll keep pluggin' away at it. I plan on doin' more Punchout characters, fer sure.
I like Butterbean. I think he's a swell guy. Sure, he beats people up for a living, but it's not personal. It's business. He's the type of guy who will murder you in the ring, and then buy your corpse a beer afterward.
Oh, it's Valentine's Day...that special day when Corporate America tells the sheep of the nation to go out and spend all sorts of cash on their significant other to show how much they love them. I, my friends, choose not to partake in this societal sham, instead opting to show the world how much I love it by rubbing baby oil all over my nether regions, and dancing around the bonfire I've built in my living room in nothing but a grass skirt. Now that's something special, and worthy of a holiday. Shit, I'd be happy with an honorable mention holiday...y'know, the kind where no one gets the day off...it's just a title tacked onto an obscure day of the year, just because.
Like Secretary's Day...
The above image are the original characters of two of my bestest buds, Bryce and Jenn Lee. Bryce is the creator of the Mechanic, and Jenn is the creator of Kidd. I'll let you figure out which is which.
I really suck at drawing hair. If someone knows any good tutorials or exercises I could check out, pretty please link me! I'm desperate to improve.
Y'know, outside of being desperate as a general rule.
It's moving time again for the ole J. Brucester. Every time I go through this process, I always end up spending a couple hours going through a box with all my old drawings in it. I've had this tendency to never throw anything I've drawn away...finished, unfinished, whatever. I've got pages and pages of stuff stored up, and I always end up finding something specific that gets my attention, and makes me want to revisit it.
Today, I stumbled across this firey headed character. I originally drew him on May 28, 1990. I would have been 10 years old. I don't think I ever named this guy, but if I had, it was probably something simple and cliche like Fireball. Not all that impressed with my new take on the character--made him a bit squatier than I intended...though I blame the size of the paper for this. My plan was to try and stay as true to the original design as possible, to get the best possible contrast between my abilities as a 10 year old and my abilities as a 29 year old. I think it's safe to say...there's no real difference whatsoever. Heh.
I think I might do more of these, considering I've got oodles and oodles of characters to draw from. Lata!
Al and Bob from Stranger Danger today. I'm working on the style I want my next chapter for Vol. 2 to have...so this is what this one is about. Not there yet, but I inch closer with each sketch.
