Black Peter or Krampus

Black Peter:
one of the really creepy European stories around the Holiday Season. Also known as Krampus. This is the giver of coal, the punisher of bad little children. You can click on the title of this post and read up on the history.

The Beard Voice

The Beard Voice: I wonder if sales pitch folks bring their work home with them? What if the oxy-whatsits spokesman gets wrapped up in a debate with his wife and slips into his sales pitch voice? I bet she puts him right back into reality real quick. Everybody leads a real life sometimes.

Lee Ann's fabric makes the newstands

Lee Ann got an email from TOMBOY that they saw what had to be her fabric in KC Magazine. (pg 90). So we ran over and got a couple of copies. I am proud of her.

Drawergeeks: Seasons Greetings

Drawergeeks: Seasons Greetings. And sometimes the time leading up to the holidays can feel like a barrel full of monkeys... especially if you have kids. So, I have tried twice to make a monkey wreath but have failed. So I cheated and made it digitally.


The second submission was the first to be generated. The Snow Angel.

I really do hope that each of you try to find a small bit of goodness in this time at the end of the year. Friends and loved ones do mean so much to me. I care about you all deeply and wish you each a season of uplifting peace.

Guppy Reaper Shirt

Guppy Reaper For the Men's sizes. You can click on the title of this post and it will take you to my page if you are interested. I have had several requests for this design on a shirt, I have finally stepped out and tried it this way. We shall see.
There is also a Girl's cut. Slightly different gray color. Again, if you are interested, click on the title of this post and it will take you to the MySoti site. Thanks.

Shirt Designs

This is what the shirt looks like at MySoti.com for the Drawn.ca article.  I had a ball doing this. Even if nothing comes of it, I have finally put it out there for sale. 

Mysoti: drawnblog

Winter is here. It is cold as all get out. The end of the year, the first snows, the holidays, all good ideas for a cartoon. First out of the gate is the attempt above.

I also entered a T-shirt contest. No not a wet T-Shirt contest, that would be silly. I have entered a Winter T-shirt design contest at MySoti.com search drawnblog, so if you think about it, go check out the link and see what is out there.

Drawergeeks: Image Comics- Detective Twitch. I decided to submit the earlier sketch and then did this sketch last night. Big 12 Basketball had me all wound up and I just had to finish it.

POST 200!!!!
Sketch of Image comics character Detective Twitch. playing around on gray paper again then adjusting hues ever so slightly with a simple mask or two. Just playing around. Trying to generate a visual thought.

Drawergeeks: topic... The Witch. So I have created my first illustration entirely out of Adobe Illustrator. Needed a file to do some testing with, so might as well be my own guinea pig.

Drawergeeks: Topic James Bond... I went back and applied some color to the original drawing for this one. No other changes. Just added a little flavoring.

Wednesday sketch group.

Salem's Lot:
So it looks nothing like the sketch that I produced a couple of days before... I found my old copy of Salem's Lot, the first novel I read on my own. I hated to read as a kid. I loved to draw. Reading was a leeching of time from my drawing in my youth mind. When a friend invited me to a Stephen King lecture Back when Firestarter just came out... We were the youngest in the room. It changed me. I started Salem's Lot and it had a mood, it produced a magnetism that had me. I was 14 or 15 years old. It scared me so bad but was so hooked on the visuals that were being painted in my head. To this day, I don't think I have read anything that has scared me that bad... probably because I had no idea what I was in for. What a fool.

one last Halloween sketch before the day passes us all by. A preliminary drawing for "almost loose". I envisioned some scarecrow-ish ghoul come to life out in a field just patiently working at his task, knowing that it has time on it's side. It has been forgotten, presumed dispatched. It feeds on that vision in it's head. One more arm to go...

Island of Misfit Bond Villains: Would there be a minor league for S.P.E.C.T.R.E. assassins, henchmen, villains like there is in baseball? Like the Legion of Super-Heroes younger sibling the Legion of Substitute Heroes, where are the those that didn't get the entire super power gift basket? Or is there a training/secret lab for Evil just like for "Q" where they things may not go as planned?

one last drawergeeks. couldn't sleep again.

Dana point sitting 4 finally back to it... this shot is pieces of scans frankensteined together. Hey, I have a small scanner, and I am sensitive about it, ok? Ok. I think the groundsquirrel may end up on the eraser shreds pile before this is all overwith. It may end up there before the night is over.

Wednesday Sketch Group: 102108- showed up late this week. not much in the way of supplies either. So I just used kraft paper or what we all know as Grocery sack paper. Yup, I was brown baggin' it. That is why the fingerprints, and folds are still there. helps hide the poor drawing this week. Hey, everybody has an off day, or week.

Drawergeeks sketch... we had an extra week... so I grabbed a piece of old black mat board and tried my hand at my version of black velvet. Colored Pencil on black board. I just couldn't find where to fit in a crying bullfighting Elvis. I may try a final like this but scratchy if I have time.

please, PLEASE, will somebody actually come up to the plate and write an original story and make it into a movie? I don't want to see the latest pretty boy vomited into a comic book. No more shakey handed attempts at tracing over AND OVER ideas that have been marched before us as if something new has been added. Is it because the Studios are so fearful of another actor's or writer's strike? It is easier to do a tombstone rubbing of whatever sold last year and beef up the special effects. Those are non union ... so far.

Drawergeeks: Giant Monsters. I took a break from the editorial cartoony stuff. I originally was going to do a giant spider, then one of the Godzilla clan, maybe Gigan or Anzilla... then Kong just seemed to speak to me. Maybe it is the Beauty and the Beast story that hooked me? I don't know. It is either lacking due to no background, but having put in several that may not be it. It may be lack of dynamic point of view. In which this piece would be scrapped and an entirely new angle and point of view would need to be thought out. But it has been fun to see where this goes.

Drawergeeks: Nursery Rhymes -Mother goose: I chose The House that Jack Built. But after reading it, I kept seeing it as almost an hearing in court. An Attorney introducing a witness list... or exhibits.

bones and pieces: still life... really still life. started up a colored pencil piece. This is the center bottom of the paper. My scanner is small folks... small but mighty. We shall see how this turns out. The other rendered piece has had another sitting but it now needs a bigger scanning bed in order to get the thing into the 'puter. So, Dana Point will have to wait for a posting.

Brown bagging it... after the grocery sack handles rip off, the grocery sacks are great for sketch book paper... the acid content is high, so don't expect this stuff to last for an eternity. But for doodles, and prelims... heck I just love it.

The last few wednesday sketch group models.

This is the finished character that I had been seeing in Lee Ann's fabric design. I had to finally render it out. It was so much fun to do. Thanks Lee Ann for letting me rip off your hard work for my own fun. You all really need to see her work, it's wonderful. Lee Ann's Blog is http://fiberlab.blogspot.com/

This is the source that I used for my character. The fabric that Lee Ann created was amazing to me as a pattern. My mind started to see images throughout it almost immediately. So, a year later I finally put actions to words and created the character from her design. It is the post that follows this one.

Dana Point, session 3: Finally got back and sat down to work on this piece last night. Not too long, just long enough to show some progress, whether good or bad, it's progress.

a tiny little scratchboard portrait> 5x7".

What would you do for a Klondike Bar? Some questions were never meant to be answered aloud... they are so much more effective when left to the imagination.

Pages From The Sketchbook: squirrel sketches: working on some looks for a story with a young squirrel and a Mother Fox.

lunch time sketching.

Tornadoes don't sound like trains: I always think of trains in a fun and romantic kind of way. As a boy, I had model train sets. At Christmas time, lots of people have Train sets running around the Christmas tree. Also a lot of kids are gravitated to trains. They are fascinating pieces of our past. Tornadoes sound nothing like them. Tornadoes sound like hideous monsters that are here to blow your house down. Tornadoes sound nothing like Thomas the Tank.

steampunk Pilot: I had a bunch of fun with this. Looking back to the works of H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Mary Shelly, Robert Louis Stevenson, Edgar Rice Burroughs. It appears to be a mix of Victorian, beginnings of the industrial revolution, maybe a pinch of the Western explorers, and maybe a touch of Goth if you wish. I have also seen a pinch of Mad Max / Tank Girl mixed in on an occasion.

Penguin Doodle. been bringing the sketchbook to work for lunch-breaks. Works great for nibbling and scribbling.

Sunday night, easing back and doing some cast work. Had the closing ceremonies on in the background. Lee Ann was reading and watching, the dog was sleeping, I was drawing. A good way to spend the evening.

Microsoft Signs Seinfeld: In the up hill climb out of the pit that is Vista-Lore, Microsoft has hired Jerry Seinfeld as their spokesperson. Can the "what's up with that?" fellow put a positive spin on the old fogey Microsoft? Can Jerry overpower the wave of dread that Vista's name brings with it? or will there be a new character made... the apple nazi? NO IPHONE FOR YOU!!!!

Bigfoot Hoax: When I saw this in the news a week or so ago, it was just too good to be true. And not because I may not or may believe in some thing lurking. I thought the idea of two guys freezing an ape suit in ice and calling some "expert"... expert? in to validate their findings. Where did they get this guy? What were his credentials? I mean other than him pointing to his chest and stating, "this is me". When I read what they had done, I thought... didn't I see this in a cartoon once? Some caveman brought back to life from being frozen in ice? Ah the workings of the criminal mind.

starting to do a bit of editorials to gather and send around. goal is one a week. We shall see how long that lasts.

Drawergeeks: Topic... Yeti. Yep... Ol' Bumbles from Rudolf. The Abominable Snowman. This is an early post. I got inspired.

Dana Point: Session 3. Finally got back to the drawing this morning. Got up really early and some time in on it. It felt so good. I just need to pick up the pace on this piece and work it on a regular basis so it doesn't get forgotten.

Drawergeeks: Topic... Genie, yes as in Aladdin's lamp Genie, or I dream of Jeannie. So, as I am finding... I do better with open ended topics. The Icons I really have trouble with. When I get into an area where there is a bit of breathing room, I am much more at ease. It also helps when there are a multitude of subtopics to bring along for the ride. It keeps one from sinking too quickly. Oh, I can pile on too much and plummet really quickly, but I have a fighting chance to edit my way out of it.

Art at the Center - The Human Form Exhibition- Group show

8/5/2008 - 10/12/2008
Overland Park Convention Center:

Address:

6000 College Blvd
Leawood, KS 66211
I delivered 3 pieces for the Human Form Exibition - group show. It opens This Tuesday, August 5th.

After a bit of an absence, I went back to Wednesday lunch sketch group. Was a bit late, but had a good time... It is a thing that I look forward to. Everybody is so welcoming, and they are just so talented. I am just amazed at their results. I am there to recenter myself. It is good for me.

the last of the bloomington drawings. Still needing to finish this, I may submit for a late drawergeeks for the Joker. This is what I worked on in the evenings the instead of watching bad tv.

The bloomington sketches. 4 of the pages from the brown sketch book taken along on the trip to Bloomington Indiana.