Animation - A Boy and His Blob

Watch the Magical Moving Pictures at deviantArt

Gave Flash another try, and now that I know deviantArt is a good place to post swfs for free, it can be shared with the universe (for about 9 minutes until 500 other submissions push it into oblivion). This one is kind of like a storyboard, it's just 50 drawings moved and scaled around to tell the story; it winds up looking more like a comic strip that moves for you so your eyes don't get worn out scanning back and forth at different panels. It took a few hours to make this one, so I can't imagine doing a full blown hand-drawn cartoon this long yet.

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!

Special Sauce

Here's my latest comic, as often as I read them I guess it's surprising I've never tried to do a whole 6 panel strip before. I've been reading a couple graphic novels lately like The Alcoholic by Jonathan Ames and Fun House by Alison Bechdel where they write some of their experiences. Experience like homosexual experimentations, hard drugs, and pooping their pants. My story is a little tamer, it's based on a sandwich place I worked at in college, but if you want to assume the characters are having homosexual encounters, doing hard drugs, and pooping their pants behind the scenes, it will make it a little edgier.

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

Crime of the Month!!!!!

I live in a relatively small, college town, where most people would say "nothing much ever happens here". But lately the crime blotter in the local paper has been full of wacky, borderline retarded crimes instead of the usual 50 "minors caught with alcohol" offenses. It's only the 12th of May, but there are already some solid contenders for the coveted title of......"MOST RETARDED CRIME OF THE MONTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
There are a couple that are actually really tragic, like some deaths where the murderer only got 5 years in prison, but these 3 crimes were selected for MOST RETARDED CRIME OF THE MONTH based on the following criteria:
1) In the end, no one died
2) The perpetrators made one or more absolutely retarded decisions to get themselves in big time trouble.
And here are the nominees......I don't mean to judge before the courts have had their say, and everyone is innocent until proven guilty and all that, but I will be referring to the alleged perpetrators as "Bad Persons 1, 2, and 3".

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.

Another Completely Original Wallpaper

.....well, at least I decided on the original combinations of colors and the pattern for these obviously copyrighted long tongued dinosaurs. My son caught me playing Yoshi's Island, and he is absolutely hooked with the concept of a dinosaur that eats creatures, turns them into eggs, and spits them at stuff while looking for giant keys and flowers. Too bad he doesn't have quite the coordination to play it himself yet, but he will watch me play a stage, run to mom, and tell her all about the chomper flowers and the special doors.

Also I added a little color to the Toaster wallpaper about 5 seconds after posting it last week, this is the version that's actually gracing my desktop

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:

Brave Little Toaster Wallpaper

Decided to make this wallpaper to further feed my older son's recent addiction to the Brave Little Toaster. I like the original movie which involves a cute quest as the abandoned appliances try to find their owner. But my kid prefers the sequel where the appliances use the help of a rat to recover their master's deleted veterinary thesis by finding one replacement vacuum tube for a supercomputer that then magically reconnects all its broken wires and simultaneously stopping an evil plot to sell animals to Tartarus Laboratories. I admit that Tartarus Labs is pretty funny if you're up with Greek mythology, but otherwise the sequel is not very good. There's another one where they go to Mars; I guess I'm being a little picky if I will put up with living lamps and toasters but think it's "too unrealistic" that they are abducted to Mars....
Eventually I'll have one with a hodge-podge of characters from Winnie the Pooh to Curious George.