holiday!

There's more sketches from this weekend but this is the stuff I can show.
Boo yah!

midnight!

clock...in progress

Kirk and I have been working on building a wooden clock for a
while now. He pretty much cranked out his share of the pieces
really quickly (actually...freakishly quick...he's a bad ass)...and
I've been working on my for a bit longer. Well...it looks like the
pieces are all done so it's time to assemble. More info as it
becomes available...but the hope is soon we will have created
technology to be able to tell the passage of time. Exciting stuff!

ads i've noticed

Someone needs to think a little bit more before they put this stuff out:



















Is the couple on the left hand side celebrating because some guy
is getting his face caved in? Could it be they're so happy that their
projector delivers the crispness of color and detail that they've always
wanted? Are they happy they have to cart everything up to the roof
and unless they live on the southern west coast this happy event can
only happen a few months of the year? Are they joyous because they
decided to spend money on a projector instead of putting money
into a mutual fund with a good return?



















Let's say that you and your wife are walking down the street on the
way to a wedding or some type of black tie event. All of a sudden a
fireball comes blazing down the street. Do you start running and
pulling your wife (who's in high heels) along or do you loving put her
in front of you and then start running...effectively shielding her from
and debris or shrapel? And who besides that guy with the song from
the 80s wear their sunglasses at night? Okay...besides Bono...

Somewhere there are monkeys typing making this stuff up...and
they're flinging poo on their coffee breaks...

yep

nothing to say...here goes:

laundromat

Paiger did the old "projectile vomit" trick on our bed spread friday so
today I took it (the bed spread) to the laundromat since it was too big to
do at home. It was a great experience all around as two women that didn't
look like they would help were more than willing to make suggestions and
show me (an inept male) how to use the equipment. My mistake for taking
them at face value. While I waited for the milk puke to get washed out I got
to sketch for a full hour uninterrupted on some upcoming projects. This
would never happen at work. I may need to get Paige to puke on other
large washable household items. Perhaps Daisy? She would be hilarious
during the spin cycle. You think she's a nervous dog now....just wait till
she's all static clingy...

Just kidding all you dog lovers...Hol would never let me do this...

oh tony my tony

Not much of a caricature guy...never been good at it and have never
felt the need to try and get better...well this guy...we'll call him "Tony" since
that's his name...asked me to do a caricature of him before he left town.
I agreed and here's the final product.

I decided to do a pink gradiation of the original because he didn't say
goodbye to the majority of us at work when he left...one day he was gone
and there weren't any more low fat yogurts in the fridge...so...he's a little
girl in my book ...a fun cool girl...but a little girl none the less.

Here's to you Tony...or should I call you Tonette? Tonia? Tonya?

suns

these are going to be fun...I saw this cool artwork a while ago
in chicago where the artist had taken an image and transposed
it onto wood...cut out all the pieces...sanded them appropriately
and then put all the pieces back together to create a cool piece
of work...don't know if that would be called "relief art"...but it
was cool.

a sheep disected!

new look and a few sketches

You may have notice the difference in "look" at sketch ninja. I was vising
my a friend's website who linked to another site (done by a girl) and her
layout was just like mine. I felt the need to change this site instantly so
there would be no confusion on someone's part. And now that I've done
it...I realize the statistics state that 50,000 new blogs start a day...and
blogger.com offers 18 or so templates...chances are good that a few girls
out there picked this template too...

sigh...

but the really good news is that this template has the color orange in
it...which is good.

not too many sketches today...but it takes time to figure out how to make
a superhero look un-super...

some area 56 offerings

slimmed down the options for the "client"...fixed them up a little bit
and will make changes based on their opinions.

mui-oh...taco

yes...more charcter sketches on an unnamed superhero that doesn't
look all that...super. Fun stuff to just sketch and come up with
potential character traits...

monday monday...oooh ahhhh boom da da boom...

Studies for a project:
















A T-Stance sketch for "Fred"...Woot is going to take it from here:














Other character sketches:

a dinosaur

with candy corn spikes....













whoops...that's the cmyk file version (mom...that's the type of file
you use when you want to print stuff).

Here's the rgb file version (this is the type of file you want if you're
going to use the image on the internet).

giraffe finals

Tried to scan in my pencil lines but they were too light for the
scanner to pick up...so here's the final inks:




















Took it into streamline to convert it to vector art
(makes it easier to do color variations). Played with it in Illustrator:






















and then....I got out of control:

grrrr-affffff

color in progress

not too much to say....

blogger won't upload my images right now...will try again tomorrow!

here we go!

more rough logos

some will get better with more time put into them...and others will still
suck...us designers call them "efforts that get us to the final resolution"
...well...that's what i call them...i don't want to speak on everyone's behalf.

area 56

It's the new age group for work...not quite kid's club...not quite
junior/senior high...so they need their own identity.

Enter my attempts so far to create a logo...

last time i'll mention this book...honest

"Do we have to stare death in the face to make us stand up and confront
Resistance? Does Resistance have to cripple and disfigure our lives
before we wake up to it's existence? How many of us have become drunks
and drug addicts, developed tumors and neuroses, succumbed to
painkillers, gossip, and compulsive cell-phone use, simply because we
don't do that thing that our hearts, our inner genius, is calling us to?
Resistance defeats us. If tomorrow morning by some stroke of magic
every dazed and benighted soul woke up with the power to take the first
step toward pursuing his or her dreams, every shrink in the directory
would be out of business. Prisons would stand empty. The alcohol and
tobacco industries would collapse, along with the junk food, cosmetic
surgery, and infotainment businesses, not to mention pharmaceutical
companies, hospitals, and the medical profession from top to bottom.
Domestic abuse would become extinct, as would addiction, obesity,
migraine headaches, road rage, and dandruff."
Steven Pressfield, "The War of Art"

This is a good book. Get it from your library....go to Barnes and Noble and sit in one of their comfy chairs for 2 hours...when Hol is done with our copy you can borrow it.

reading

so i'm slogging through my stack of books. everyone has a stack of
books to read. it's natural. it's good. their entertainment in waiting. problem
is, my stack of books gets added to by other people. someone at work
usually drops a book on my desk every 1 to 3 weeks. and that's good
too. but my stack never gets smaller...it just changes shape and color.

but...this book "the war of art" is pretty sweet so far. it's a quick read. i
thought it was going to make me a better artist...a "think more clearly"
kind of guy...and it does that...but it's not just about art...it's about everything...
the idea that there are two of every person...the person we are and the
person we could be...and in the middle keeping us "two" people instead
of "one" is resistance...here's quick blurb...

"Resistance is the most toxic force on the planet. It is the root of more
unhappiness than poverty, disease, and erectile dysfunction. To yield
to Resistance deforms our spirit. It stunts us and makes us less than
we are and were born to be. If you believe in God (and I do) you must
declare Resistance evil, for it prevents us from achieving the life God
intended when He endowed each of us with our own unique genius"
-Scott Pressfield, "The War of Art"

I'm about half way through and all of the stuff makes sense...the idea
that showing up is the toughest part of creativity...there will always be
things that get in the way...one of his thoughts that is pretty cool is the
idea that you know you're on the right track when you get more resistance...

anyway...random ramblings...here's some sketches. it hasn't been my
day to day sketches and i think what has stopped me is I wanted to put
complete thoughts up...nice sketches that are done...legible...
understandable...no more of that!

it's tuesday...sweet!

can you say "wet dog"

hol just came back with the dogs...after a jaunt in the rain...the
smell of wet dog is much more abrasive than a bucket full of
diapers...honest...

yo yo Yo!

it's been a while

and i'm okay

YO!

Relaxing

Yep...it's been about a week since my last post and I feel no guilt.
It's been a good time off...have got to hang with the wife...burp the
kid from time to time...and gotten to watch a great show that
got cancelled way before it's time:

Firefly is a great show...funny...exciting...and great writing
about characters and how they interact to create. I'm a huge
fan of ensemble shows...The Simpsons, Angel, Arrested
Development, News Radio, Boomtown, Firefly, ER (a while
ago when it was good), MASH (oh that Radar...he was a cut
up)...on and on. You may notice a decent trend.. all except one
are cancelled... I have this knack for finding cool shorts that
never have a long life...it's a sad gift.

So anyway...Firefly... it's good stuff and I highly recommend
it... but I will warn you that it got cancelled (not much of a
spoiler) and so you're going to fall in love and then your heart
will be ripped out. Something like when you found your first love
at summer camp and 6 days later they were gone. Well...that's
what I've been told. Camp was never a great place for me to
pick up chicks.

Onto drawing...these are some "T-Stances"... at least that is
what my boy Woot calls them. They what illustrators give to
the computer animator dudes to give them a good idea of
what the character should look like in the computer...which
Woot is going to do. The sketches aren't the freshest or the
most creative...but that isn't their purpose. Woot is going to
make these guys 3-D! More to come.

blue

roughs!

Some days I realize that I need some reference to sketch what I
sketch...and then I don't get reference and keep going...those are
deemed "lazy days"...but sometimes I jump onto google...type
in a term and do an image search...it's great.

this wasn't one of those days.

a trend in my drawing...

yep...more

another coloring page

It's perfectly natural for two floating heads (one an ice cream
man and the other a cow-ish animal) to be talking about prayer
over a stack of melting ice cream.

Perfectly natural...we'll see if this builds into 3 year olds or
destroys their young minds...hoping for the first one...

yes....more

more characters