Lambey highschool comics...EXPOSED!

Last time I went home to visit my parents, I was digging through some old books in my closet and came across some buried treasure. Tucked away in a highschool biology book, on the back of some handouts, was a long forgotten comic I had drawn.

You see...back in the day, I was a huge Punisher fan. My friends and I would argue about who would win in a fight...Punisher or Spiderman (ppff....Punisher of course!!) Anyhow...in my Marvel bliss, I would often scribble out my own adventures during class. He was usually fighting endless ninjas, spiderman, daredevil, and in this case....street punks. Let the carnage (and embarrasment) ensue!!!



In case you missed it..that last panel where he's running means "the end". Story was never my strong suit. Viva la Punisher!!!

Elves...they crazy.

"Year of the Dog" by Miah Alcorn

Looking for a great book to read to your kids? Or perhaps a book with some fantastic art to keep next to your desk? Then look no further because Year of the Dog just hit stores this week. The artist behind this gem of a book is my talented amigo, Jeremiah Alcorn. Keep an eye out for this kid....he's solid gold!

Bookworm 02

More bookwormin'.

Oh thumbnails..you are my bestest friend!

I'm not the kind of artist that can sit down and capture a character in one sketch. People like Jason Groh and Gene Fowler just blow me away with they nail a character in seconds. Scribble, scribble...and done!

So what do you do if you're not god's gift to the pencil? You thumbnail! I remember back when we were in school, we were preached to about the power of the little thumbnail drawing. I remember thinking it was silly. If I wanted to draw my character doing something, I was going to do it BIG! That way I could fit in all that gorgeous detail that Todd MacFarlane and Rob Liefeld had taught me to in highschool ;)

So after years of fustration at how bad I sucked, I had a breakthrough. Gene Fowler was walking by my desk one day while I was whittling away at some spumco rip off drawings and I was pretty pissed about how shitty my sketch was turning out. In my drawing flurry, the sketch had gone over the page and onto a second animation sheet that I had taped on. Gene looked at the drawing, and then at the little stick-it note I had sketched the idea on earlier, and said "I like this one better. Why dont you just photocopy it up?" I said "Really? But it's just a crappy ruff!?!" "Still looks better, dude." Hmmm. So I gave it try. And you know what? It friggin worked!! It kept most of the appeal of the original, and it fit all "pretty like" on one page.

So long story short...now I always thumbnail out my designs small...pick my favorites, photocopy them up, slap down a new sheet, and refine the design till I'm happy with it. It might not be the quickest and easiest way of working, but it works for me.

"YO! Talkey McChatsworth...shut your pie hole! We came here for drawings...not your jibber jabber!"

Right...here somes examples.





Isn't work stationary the greatest ;)

Book worm

Lineup

I haven't practiced linework in a long time, so I figured I'd give it a go tonight. I lined 'em all up Kauffman style ;) Oh and if you're wondering why the sketch is missing legs, it's because she was originally supposed to just stretch and squash as she walked. Not sure which feels better.

Santa

Looks like Christmas is over, so here's one final Christmas pic to say g'bye.


Original Sketch.

"Throwback Thursdays" by Saxton Moore

Saxton Moore's been doing this really cool thing over on his blog where every thursday, he takes a classic cartoon character , and does a different take on it. A great exercise if you're into practicing character designs. Here's two of his posts that I absolutely loved. Viva 'Throwback Thursdays"!