Haven't added to the blog in a couple weeks. Had to travel to Boston quickly for personal reasons and haven't had the interest in drawing since then. This is not a good thing but sometimes, what with emotional issues and work, I need the time to just -be-. Today, out of nowhere, I did these. And I like them. I have no idea where they might lead, IF anywhere. Doesn't matter. I felt the flicker and so fluttered to it. There is something to explore here, but we'll see if I follow through. Since Tamino, there has been no project that really grabs me. I need one.

A little pencil sketch of the Delve crew after having done the Bio bit for today. Yah, I know. An actual story and comic would be better.

I am not required to make sense. It says so... right here.

Colored version of the earlier sketch and some fan art of a video game I used to like called Jet Grind Radio. Nothing is lost, it seems. Media shows up again in all sorts of places, either online or via download of some kind. This was one of my favorites, though it caused a LOT of swearing, on the Dreamcast. Glad I've got it again. Don't do fan art much, so this is a rarity. Ask me sometime about how I feel about fan art. That's a post in and of itself.

The top is a drawing done today referencing an older painting, pictured below it. Just trying on an old composition for size. I watched two art documentaries today which made me want to make -something-. The first was, "Tim's Vermeer," which was wonderful. The gist is that an inventor, Tim Jenison, decided that he'd see if he could replicate a known Vermeer using optics and a technique that was possible for the time. Without giving anything away, he was successful though it was anything but quick and easy. Well worth watching. The second was HBO's, "Remembering the Artist," which was about Robert De Niro Sr. and his work. It was ok, more a memory than anything specifically about process or technique. Seems De Niro was a contemporary and connected to the group of New York Artists of the 40s and 50s, most of whom I like. Since he didn't want to hang out with them, his work was marginalized and mostly forgotten. Still, good to see some work I hadn't before.

Next one up. The only thing about explaining all the metaphors and such is that it sounds like I planned all this out. This is totally not the case. I didn't realize most of what this all meant until fairly recently. Once I did, everything fit. Zippa, especially. There's no reason for him to speak in rhyme, or 'song and dance,' but when I realized that he represented all those things that tried to draw my attention away from making the comic, it made total sense. Not so clever as I think. :"D

Started to do this hoping to break whatever barriers there might be between the comic and potential readers and also as a possible means to promotion. No reason not to, right?

Inked and colored version of the last sketch.

Just messing about with Marcel tonight. This is pre-inking, which I don't generally scan. Inking is an editing process as well as other things. I make more and more decisions these days when inking and try to keep those pencils loose. Except when I don't.

A quick one of Flick as I don't draw him enough.

Still home sick, but sort of managed two sketches today. Trying to work on Flick as I do TONS of Sharp. These are... semi-successful. I don't think they're as dynamic as the ones of Sharp and I need to fix that. Flick, though, is a little chubby and I think that shows through better in these. Didn't touch them up at all. They're just as they appear in my sketchbook. Pencil, ink. *cough*

Just a quick one of Benny (though really I had to draw this four times as the photo ref I was using was really hard to get away from). Trying to make him more sneaky looking. I'm finding as I go on that using ref for these guys us somewhat counter-productive as it's hard to abstract directly from the photos. As such, I often have to draw and re-draw to get the styles to match. I was thinking that, when I get to doing the actual comic, I will take photos of me and try to really overact. Then again, this might only slow things down. We'll see.

Home sick, but managed to squirrel two drawings out just to say I did something other than watch old tv shows and sleep. As of right now, though, my support network is nearly depleted. There are really only a half dozen people at best that seem to be looking at my work with any kind of regularity. I get very few hearts, likes and so on. Sadly, I have never enjoyed drawing more. Even these simple things are fun to do and I really like doing them. This does not bode well for any kind of eventual comic. Will I do it anyway? Yes. I just don't think I'll bother posting in places other than this or my flickr account, and I only bother there because it's the easiest way to find my own files so I know how I drew any given character. I'm sort of upset about this and sort of resigned. It is what it is and I can't make people like my work. That I keep it to myself only really bothers my partner and he doesn't even like most of what I draw. The blog here I've kept pure in that it's the only place I talk about my work at all. There is definitely a kind of solace in knowing that there's only one person who reads this and comments on it. I can say whatever I want and don't worry about the politics of it. So I do. And if nowhere else, there's here. Blogs have gone the way of LJ and the dodo, but I'll continue. For me.

Just another Sharp, but I still really enjoy drawing him. And I'm kind of happy that I was able to do something like this without any kind of reference. Easy for a lot of folks, not so much for me.

EDIT: here's the same thing in color.

A few designs from yesterday. One is Sharp and Benny as kids. There will be a part of the comic with them at this age. Next is Sharp's parents. Third is the current 'twisty' style used in a more sedate pose to see if it worked ok and last is one of the zombie monster things though rendered with a brush pen. I like the brush better. Working on the story now. It needs it. It is SO much easier to just start and write as one goes, but this kind of story, or at least the kind of result I want can't really be done this way. A lot of study of film and its structure is helping. Now if I can just get the damned script done...

Quick pencil then ink of the main rabbit, Sharp. There was a couple of inking errors which I didn't fix yet, but this was just some warm up stuff. I like him all bendy like this.

Banner for that same client. What was asked for was a couple of characters threatening a third. Saw no reason not to use Cindy and Rooster. For the third, it's some anonymous rabbit. I think the theme of these characters is generally 'trailer park.' And yes, Rooster has in fact dyed his pit-hair.

The additions for today. Possible t-shirt design.

Got another one of these done while the laundry spends around. I -think- she's Rooster's girlfriend. Or something. I bet there's a lot of yelling between them. More ink, more Illustrator.

Continuing on with this, the customer wanted an image of a character frustrated and gnashing its teeth. So I went here. There's a definite Ed Roth influence here though in my defense, I didn't do any research. I just looked at the previous drawings and kept pushing further to get something, well, like this. It was actually pretty fun to do and the whole 'twisty' thing that I started with the rabbits is something that's feeling pretty cool to me. I went back to using my bigger brush which not only flows better than the smaller one, it doesn't let me get as tight which is a good thing. At least for this style. It's almost like painting. Anything that makes ink even more fun to use is fine by me. Sent this off. We'll see what the client thinks.

EDIT: Here's the same guy in color:

Out of the blue, I was contacted by someone for whom I'd done an image in the past. Seems they're doing an event and would like some work for said event. It's for speck which is something I generally disagree with but as the event is small and likely doesn't involve a lot of money AND since it was stuff that I was actually interested in drawing, I said ok. And it is fun. The theme, interestingly is anger. So I started with the skater mice as Smatt is currently the character of mine that's the most angry (or at least cranky) and tried to push him a bit further. Used the big brush and a LOT of ink on the second one, but that's where I want to aim. I can still push further and will. More emotion, fewer details.

Keeping up the blog. Mostly just sketches, warm ups, that kind of thing. Most I didn't feel like taking to the coloring step, so I inked them and left them as they were. The Marcel image I tried really hard not to worry about little inking mistakes, stray lines and crossovers. It's so hard to let go of something like that. I'm wired to go in and FIX things like that, but there's something to be said for a more organic approach. I wonder if half of maturing as an artist doesn't have to do with letting go of some control as much as it is learning how to get it in the first place. Anyway, just some practice, some sketchbook filler.

Another one of these guys. He's a little off, but I think I like him that way. I have to ink these with a totally different mindset. I have to really just PLANT that brush and let it do what it does along with what I want it to. There will be some roughness, some accidents, and that has to be ok. And the lines have to be thicker than usual. There's a kind of early 70s feel to this, I think, which is interesting as it's not a period in time I generally identify with. Anyway, this.

Another quickie before work.

Just a little practice piece. Haven't drawn one of the rabbits in a long time. The twistiness is not a crowd pleaser, but I have a lot of fun drawing in this way. Since no one is looking anyway, I might as well have my fun. There is a freedom in anonymity.

Did a little something different today. My partner picked some of the (hated) forsythia from out back and put them in a vase. I looked at them and immediately wanted to paint them. Was going to use real paint, but I rarely use the Yiynova and all the custom brushes I've purchased for PS, so I went digital instead. The approach would be pretty similar either way, I think. This way I don't have yet another canvas stacked in the corner. So, this.

A couple from today. The more complex one took a few days, the grown up Mickey was sort of a break after that. The first is this year's card for my partner. Every year I do something just for him. It's something he looks forward to. This is one of his characters in space. Used a lot more layers than I usually do and had a couple of special effects. Lot of fiddling around. The other image is just my idea of what Mickey might look like as a grown up child star. A quickie in ink.