Fantasy Football - Epic Matchups

This will probably only appeal to about 12 people out there - those in my fantasy football league, where I am steamrolling to the playoffs. All that stands in my way is......my brother.

Two pictures are worth a million long, smack-talking rants in the forums.

Crime of the Month - Too Excited About Arby's!!!

Here's an entry for June's version of......IDIOTIC CRIME OF THE MONTH!!!!!!!!!!!! It's already on my deviant art profile, since yesterday night when I finally finished coloring it, Blogger wouldn't let me log in.

Simulated Interview For a Job at DC Comics

I had the typical career goals as an adolescent - pro sports, comic book artist, maybe some job where people inexplicably pay me to play great new video games. For comics, I was sure that if I could draw the main character perfectly (as in, just like in certain panels in the comics), then I'd be set and would basically be the guy drawing Batman comics. Now, I have a little more realistic view of how it would have gone when I showed up with my "perfect" Batman art looking for a job at DC....

Just flipping through an old Legends of the Dark Knight, there were about 30 unique people, 13 settings, and like 50 facial expressions/emotions to convey. In addition, I never did really master drawing Batman (see above), so I guess it's time to get practicing again....

Another Beast Born of Photoshop's Fuzzy Brush

Behold the Snaggle-Toothed Ragamuffin!

The Fugly Little Caterpillar

Drawing this fuzzy little guy consisted of:

3 strokes of grass

1 stroke of colored fuzz

2 eyes

Photoshop brushes are pretty sweet!

Sketch Blogs

From surfing other blogger sites and people's submissions for Illustration Friday, I've come across a lot of blogs devoted to sketches from artists of all ages and skill levels. Some pro artists blow you away with top quality stuff and a few sketches. But in general, there are two kinds of entries in sketch blogs.......

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The Great Artist Who Is Ashamed of Their "Crappy" Art

The Taco-Matic 9000

Well, since this one is a still a bit unfinished, I'm going to just send my finger-eating monster to Monday Artday for the "favorite food" challenge. It's got all the basic parts there, but it needs a little shading or metallic texture on the surfaces of the contraption, stuff like big fans, lights and dials, and of course, a heavenly glow surrounding each delicious taco.

Midnight Snack

Monday Artday is fully operational again, and one of the word challenges is "Favorite Food", so I whipped up this little guy and his favorite food. I admit I didn't try to make the blanket look folded at all, folds still blow my mind. I actually have another idea brewing, a mundane food prepared in a much more interesting way. If I can't get that one done on time, then this little critter will find a home on Monday Artday.

Reload the Cocoon

Another version of the Illustration Friday topic "Cocoon", since looking back at the original version, it just looked too sloppy and blurred. Last time around, I was trying to use transparency to make the cocoon look thick, slimy, and translucent. This time I just used different tools to draw solid shapes and then filled in a little detail, and I like it much better. Also more eyes = better art.

Illustration Friday Cocoon - Ain't No Butterfly

Here's something big and nasty that may pop out of a big, nasty cocoon. I was inspired to do a sickly green scum cocoon by the old classic "Gremlins", that movie scared the crap out of me decades ago. Unfortunetly, my attempt at drawing one from memory wound up like this:

Monday Artday - Invisible

The word challenge was "invisible" - glass is sometimes invisible to some unfortunate birds. One time one slammed the huge window door in our basement and stood out there totally stunned while my dogs went nuts trying to claw their way outside to get it. So far I've experienced 3 bird on window collisions in my day.

A Mystic for Monday Artday

Here's my Mystic for Monday Artday this week, colored in Photoshop over a very loose and cartoony pencil drawing.

Christmas at Grandma's House

Back from two weeks of hanging out at both sets of grandparent's houses. The comic above, titled "Christmas at Grandma's House" sums up the results of our trip, only we had two kids in the car swimming in the sea of presents. We brought clothes for a week, snacks, and about 10 presents for 10 people, most of which were the size of a DVD, and got about 4 garbage bags full of toys. The panels were originally side by side but that doesn't look good in a blog.

Fantasy Football - Wallaby Cheerleader

Monday Artday - Pumpkinhead goes trick or treating

Here's the character that combines my love of jack-o-lanterns with my love of Batman, on his way to trick-or-treat. It's going on Monday Artday for the "jack-o-lantern" challenge, of course someone beat me to the concept of a pumpkin-head kid going trick or treating, but Batman trumps everything. This little guy was supposed to just be a part of a bigger composition for that challenge, I didn't think I'd have time to finish the sketch though. I also was having trouble getting the human head jack-o-lanterns to look grotesque enough.

Photoshop skills

Ah, technology! I can now answer the question, " What would my brother look like with Joaquin Phoenix's beard" without waiting for months!

Illustration Friday "Pattern" - Dino Wallpaper

Here's my pattern, using Photoshop to draw, color (with 2 filters), and arrange a bunch of dinosaurs into a wallpaper. I wanted to submit this link tonight before the new word of the week comes up, so Brontosaurus sadly did not make the final cut.

As a bonus for the "pattern" topic - here are two patterns I stared at a lot in my youth. First, the DC characters wallpaper, featuring short shorts Robin, and Shazam, who is remarkably like Superman with the Flash's color scheme and lightning bolt symbol. It's still up there, even though the youngest kid in the house is 21, and the other walls of that room are a bright orange and yellow.

Then there's the speckled desk in the speckled room, the desk has some darker trim and speckles so you don't walk into it. Here is our old word processor, it was cool because it had a screen like a computer, but when you hit print, it started click-clacking away with typewriter keys and would take about 5 minutes a page.

Monday Artday - Fast Food Farthing

Here's the colored penny farthing, cartoony style. When I saw the term bike, the old-timey big wheeled bike sprung to mind, and all I had to do was think of somewhere to put one. I'm going to try to work more on my coloring, just coloring in the inked in spaces makes it look a little flat. About 5% of the coloring was done with my fancy new drawing tablet, my early b-day present, those things are cool.

Illustration Friday "Infinite" - Smashing Pumpkins

"Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" is one of my favorite albums ever, and I guess going with a music themed Illustration Friday last week left my mind primed to do another. This time I tried to do a little more realistic drawing - I know the guys in this band aren't what I'd call pretty boys, but here they look a little on the mutant side. The guitarist on the left wound up looking like a fish man, and poor John Chamberlain looks like a retarded caveman. Corgan put on about 90 pounds in my interpretation as well. Oh well, I guess that means Smashing Pumpkins won't stumble across my blog, decide the picture kicks ass, and take me on tour with them. I used a ref pic of a classic poster of the group.

Monday Artday - Breakfast Battle!

This week's Monday Artday topic was "Cute Object", as in add some personality and cuteness to some inanimate objects. My original idea was to do a bathroom with a happy smiling toilet, sink, and TP roll - then it could double as encouragement for my kid to potty train (however, it also runs the risk of possibly making him think the toilet is alive and scare him so much he never uses one again). But I decided to animate this BreakFast Battle instead. The characters were drawn in ink, and I finally learned how to be a little more efficient with coloring them in Photoshop so it doesn't take days. One last piece of trivia - the wooden surface this takes place on is my actual table!