Continuing with the portrait series, this is #6, me. Re-used an old image, recropped it and magnified it to 16x20. This is a lousy photo. Ink, acrylic.

Did a lot more drawing yesterday and this morning. Redesigned the characters again using details from the first version. It's getting a lot closer now. This is the sterile, Illustrator version. The final painting will be hand inked.

Redrew the right hand rhino to add some movement to the composition. Then I plunked him down into the background with the first rhino. There's still too much dead space at the top but I will fix that in the final drawing. Coming along...

Quick and dirty background test for the guard duty image made with Illustrator and Photoshop to simulate the painting technique I want to use on the final. What I didn't realize was how the incomplete texture of the sponge will reinforce the idea of snow.

More redesign of the character as well as tweaking of the pose, thanks to a friend's crit. Coming along.

More work on the rhino image. The taller color test showed that the composition won't work in portrait so I went into ArtRage to work on a very loose color test in landscape. These steps help me see where to tighten things up as there's a lot needed.

Color test for one of the sketches. I tried putting in the shadow that there would be on the horn and face behind it, but it made the image too complicated. Simplification is a necessary step for me in all this. Sometimes it's what looks better than what makes actual sense, something I can't make myself do without trying it out first.

WIP: Rhino guard duty.

Pulling from a design I did last year, I'm assembling an illustration I hope to sell at an upcoming con. These are the first sketches and color tests as I learn to use Cel-Vinyl paints.

And then some pose refinement:

Three sets from upcoming Tamino posts. I'm slowly getting to the end of this. I wish I had more time and less to do. I imagine this is something said by actual commercial artists all the time. Still, there is progress.

Got this in email a few days ago. I was approached via email by the editor of an online Russian gaming magazine to have Tamino featured in an upcoming issue. They apparently highlight various web comics each time. I have no idea how they found me but it was really cool to be written up this way. I can't read it but someone online translated it for me as best they could. Apparently it says;

"1/3 Japanese prints, 1/3 fifties cartoons, 1/3 Cubism" writes the author about his comic strip, and I'm sorry, but there's not a better way to say it -- at least when it comes to the art style. And the content brings to mind the works of David Lynch. Tamino, a big cat with a triangular head, always wakes up in strangers' beds, each time a new one, and wanders in the twilight in search of Voronenko-graffiti (lol, I'm not sure, sorry), and everywhere drawings of Tamino. The name The City Dreams of Tamino the Cat has many meanings: a dream of what is happening to the cat? The artist's dream of himself? And perhaps even, that the city is dreaming of the cat? Mike Luce creates in his drawings an uncomfortable, but at the same time, an attractive world with not one answer, but it seems that the answer is close and you need only to enter the next street.

Alas, the comic is currently on hiatus, but the author promises that the story of Tamino will soon continue. However, there are still many more and interesting secrets, that have not yet been said. "

This one done with cel-vinyls which just arrived. S-weasel.

EDIT: I never mind constructive criticism. However, nasty, drive-by comments left by anonymous posters will just be deleted and ignored. Thanks.

Colored version of bunny from below.

The 'E' is hard to see. But it's there.

He wants something... blueberry. Quickie done while waiting to get my hairs cut.

Still modeling the bunny based on Donald Duck. It really helps to keep track of the solids and how they work in a more 3D sense.

And one more.

While waiting for paint to dry, I've been working on this character's design. I found some old Donald Duck animation drawings online and tried to re-design this character using more solid masses. Then I drew him in the same poses as some of the Donalds I found. Man, could those guys draw...

This was a half hour aside. I think he wants a cereal to advertise. I'm almost sure of it.

Three paintings from the portrait series I've been working on, these in their final, acrylic form. And a couple of inked drawings done for fun and practice.

A little something done while taking a breather between paintings. Based heavily on a Huckleberry Hound title card so I could get the aesthetic down.

Two new t-shirt designs just for fun. Meanwhile, painting and comics go on in the background. Oh yes, there was the hand turkey, too:

Two sets of unfinished pages from upcoming Tamino comics. I only post them here so I can see them easily and as I know no one is looking.

More playing about with the bunnies.

Fifth in the series, half down! This is a co-worker, Natalya. She chose the color scheme based on two of her favorite objects. Not an easy palette to work with.

4th in the series, the Queen. I kept the linework vague to try and give the portrait a young/old feeling at the same time.

Third in the series, Ifukube Akira, composer, most known for the Godzill movie music.

Actor Vincent Schiavelli from the same series as the Giacometti portrait.

Color rough for a possible portrait. This one's done in ink and Illustrator. If I continue with this, it would be for a short series for a local show.

And yet more bunnies. Bunny. More detail = more fun.

While I should be doing other things, I got sidetracked with playing about in other styles. Trying for a looser, more European kind of feel. It's fun, if not productive. Perhaps there'll be a t-shirt in these somewhere.

And another distraction from sketching at the mall. Ink and Illustrator.

More distractions.

Two more distractions, the lower one with real inked lines instead of ones from Illustrator.

Threw this together in about a half hour after looking at some work by Abner Graboff. He had some lovely stuff. Illustrator.

Ok, colors are a lot better in this one and the lines are back. Relative sizes of Ghiroy and the blond guy. This is a lot closer to what the comic would look like, though with more planned backgrounds. Ink and Illustrator.

I'm still here. Oh, right, there's no one out there! Ah, well. Playing about still with Ghiroy designs, this one lineless for the most part. It's a fun aside while I'm doing other things like finishing up Tamino.