Two more Monkey drawings just because he makes me happy.

Another Monkey for morning warm up. I've got to name and do something with that character...

EDIT: Didn't like the monkey so much in the original so re-drew him and edited the new version into the old image. Love the eraser tool in AI as it lets me make this kind of edit without trouble at all.

Monkey. In this one, he's younger, trying to look cool, before he started wearing his brighter colors. I like this character though for the life of me, I can't figure out why I can't come up with a better name than, "Monkey." He's fun to draw and I generally like to depict him being happy and doing something interesting with his tail because really, couldn't we all use an appendage like that?

I generally like the inking process best of all, but for some reason, I think I'll leave this one as is. I've been spending a lot more time penciling these days, at least on these guys. I tend to be someone who wants the instant gratification that comes with everything else to come with my art as well. And it shows. I think it's time to slow down. The cartooning I like best, especially the stuff of classic animation only LOOKS simple as the sketch has generally been eliminated and all we see are those sleek, simple lines. I've recently been looking at the work of Yves Chaland, an artist in France who died way too damned early. His inks were amazing, simple, graceful and yet beneath those, in a very few images I was able to find, were of course the sketchy lines that built the structure on which those simpler lines were based. So, yah. Learning and stuff.

One more of these. At least I found a use for those stupid underwear catalogs they keep sending me.

So more of this guy. The last one, a color version I think I took too far. I was going for a pop art/cheap 70s gumball machine stickers look. I think by going too far I can then stop pressing forward and pull back, hopefully into an area of better taste. Or I'm just having fun.

Yah, so pretty much. Not that I'm really surprised but my supporters have steadily been wandering away. I can pretty much count them on one hand now. And I suppose that's to be expected. The things that interest me don't seem to seem to interest much of anyone else. Which makes me a hipster according to friends. It's not that I go out of my way to like things that are odd or obscure. In fact, I get most of my inspiration from animation which is a mass medium, right? Cartoons. What's more wide spread than that? Oh well. I can only draw like me. And if I'm one of only three or four people to look at and like my stuff, guess that's the way it has to be.

Ok, this one's weird. Morning warm up, trying to keep the energy and style from yesterday alive. Threw a heart on it, which makes it a Valentine's day image, right? Or whatever. Even I recognize that no one's going to dig this, and I totally get it. For me, was fun to draw, more fun to ink. Now, off to make some corned beef hash.

Had time for just one more today. Applied the style I was working on to Sharp. I think his face is a little ugly and not quite right though it works fine for the illo. Even my partner has noted that my stuff has become a lot more dynamic since studying the rubber hose stuff. And today was a little split off into abstract land. It was fun and, I think, productive.

One more for the day. I loosened up in a BIG way with that abstract cat. Sort of calmed it down for the rabbit character and then finally did an image of monkey, who I haven't done in awhile. He's a lot calmer than the others but there was still influence there. And that's how things trickle down for me.

More warm up, more pushing. I really have to warm up a lot to be able to get to this point and it's a lot of fun. This is the step I generally can't get to with my cartooning; making up the rules, sticking to them and making them work, even if they have no basis in reality. To me, this stuff is playful, dynamic and more towards the heart of cartooning. It's too far to push for the other rabbits, but it still helps add to what I'm doing there. Anyway, it's fun to do and I like it. Has to be the least popular kind of stuff I do. Woo me! :"D

Three recent warm up drawings, ink on paper. The abstract one was the most fun to do. Haven't played in that sandbox in a long while.

One of Benny as I haven't done much with him in the latest style. He, too is fun to draw. Have to make sure I give him things to do in the comic; he could easily just be hanging around and I don't want that. Oh, and happy birthday to me.

This is a sort of chart following the five year development of this character. Sharp started out as 'Tuff Bunny,' a very abstract doodle-ish thing in odd colors. He was developed through a pretty solid design, though still purple before he was pretty much abandoned. He was no one's favorite. Later, I started drawing what would become Sharp,wearing the same ill-fitting breatplate though obviously a very different approach was taken with the character. From there, it's been an on again off again approach and retreat from cartooniness and/or realism(ish). What finally comes, at the lower right is a more dynamic approach that has some of the best of both, I think. There are times when I ventured off into the realms of Tezuka and Herge. Didn't last long. I think I've made the right decisions and I don't regret what it took to get here. When I started, I don't think I was good enough to draw him the way he needed to be drawn. Now, I think I am. So... this.

Two from yesterday, one from today. Just wanting to stay in the groove for this style of drawing and inking as they're not my usual form at all. The rabbit in the Bio comic has, for whatever reasons, allowed me to be a lot looser in my drawing as well as more dynamic, both of which are things I struggle with all the time. Now that I've found a style that really interests me, of course the popularity of this stuff has come to an all time low. I branched the Delve Deep stuff off into its own tumblr as no one watching my regular one seems to like these. So, whatever. I just have to keep making stuff for me. -I- like this stuff, it's fun. I might never be more than a hobbyist, but I'll just have to deal.

The inking is a real mix between the style I did for Fite and that I did for Tamino. I'm trying to care less about exact lines and let the ink flow a bit more. My one problem with this style is that I really want to draw big and, as can be easily noticed, I have a hard time with composing a figure so that it fits on the page. I have this feeling this will mean that when I got to do the comic, each panel might take up a whole piece of board. Oh well, there are worse problems to have! Meanwhile, I'll keep going. I've made some real progress to the story and its script. I really want this to be something good, and solid. All these years of prep have to count for something.

And... he's changing his mind again! Won't go into this too much (sorry, Vince), just that I've been trying to add more dynamics to the art, and the current rabbit in the Bio comic just comes so freely when I draw him. Might as well go with a strength. Also, one thing that changed from working on a script is that Sharp changed from farmer to lumberjack. Seems minor, but it works a lot better with certain aspects of the story. Moving on..

EDIT: Managed to squeak out an Armand drawing before work. Now I must go!

Another one of these, and it's pretty much true. Ok, I didn't really go off to watch cartoons right at that moment. I put on an episode of MST3K instead. Same sort of thing, though!

I have been using a scriptwriting book to get things going on Delve. Since the experiment this time around is to see if I can actually make something marketable, something people might actually want to READ, I saw no reason not to treat it the way other folks who are trying to make more mass-appealing media do. So far, it's really helped in my fleshing out both story and characters. What was a vague but directed idea of what I wanted to tell has now developed threads and other connections that help the story stand more on its own. I started out filling in answers for a '100 questions' list I found online. It's really meant to help role players flesh out their gaming characters (for those of us that are really into this kind of thing) but it's a great tool for writing as well, I think. the four main guys, Sharp, Benny, Armand and Flick are now a lot more well rounded, and some of the answers have actually resulted in plot changes. All very exciting, I'm sure. What it means, though is that I'm drawing so much at this moment and am writing instead. I'm also going to stop posting rabbit drawings online, except perhaps here as I know most people are sick and tired of seeing them. Vince, sorry. You're my audience, so you're stuck with them!

I'm really hoping to make this comic something worthwhile. Big dreams (because why not shoot high) are for a publisher to want to pick it up and then some nice animation studio to offer me a fat paycheck to option it. No reason not to aim high. And since the comic will be structured around a screenplay style script, it would make it all the easier to adapt, yes? So for now, more music and Les Nessman, or something like that.

Two different takes on Sharp today. I did start writing some of the notes for the actual story but I need something to keep my fingers busy otherwise. And playing about with style, twisting the anatomy around keeps me happy. Some folks make it seem SO easy. Abstraction only needs to be consistent in cartooning. The artist has to understand the rules he makes up, when he doesn't, that's when things don't work. It FEELS like I'm thinking enough when I make this stuff, but obviously, I don't, so I keep struggling. And here we are again.