Groot Final For Doodle United.

final version... Groot in color for Doodle United. Due 09/21/14. just sent out a few minutes ago for upload on Monday. Should be an interesting and diverse collection of images.

groot 1

for Doodle United, the Guardians of the Galaxy.  And yes, it did just turn out to be an excuse to draw Groot.
I haven't drawn on clayboard seriously for a few months. I have become rusty... but this was interesting enough that I may go back and try another one to see if I can apply what I have learned.

Doodle United: EIO tour shirt

Again, for Doodle United:  Farm Animals... since I got done early with the CD cover, I decided to adopt the phrase, "If it's worth doing, then it's worth OVERdoing."

So I made an accompanying Tour Shirt design. The best part was discovering all the really strange and funny town names that the US has. I kept the really suggestive ones off the list. The 13 year old in my head had a blast with this.

Doodle United: Farm Animals

for the Doodle United topic of Farm Animals... I decided to continue on with parody submissions. This time, a fictional farm animal-hairband live CD cover. The band, EIO.  It's a week early, but this was just too fun to wait... strike while the iron is hot.

Doodle United: The Amphibians

Having seen several "artistic adaptations" of classic comic book covers... this topic really lent itself to such a treatment...

Freely and openly building an homage to the great John Buscema, whom I could only hope to clean his brushes... I took The Avengers 57 cover and adapted it into :  The Amphibians.

Doodle United Topic: Your Zodiac Sign: Gemini

ok, so I admit this one is a stretch... but I had a really tough time conforming to the decorative art styles of Celestial Seasons or Crabtree and Evelyn.  I admire those illustrations very much, but it ain't me. And to make matters worse, I am a gemini... the twins. Twins??? What do I do with that? So I kept coming back to a battle between the Marvel comics Alpha Flight twins Northstar and Aurora meeting up with Jan and Jayce the Wonder Twins.  But it still was not to my liking until I thought... Teen Titans GO!  The little Chibi based animated cartoon. So cute. So I did a mash up of Chibi and Bill Watterson of the Twins of the DC and Marvel U.  It was fun.  My apologies to Bill Watterson.

Doodle United: The Lost City of Atlantis

Doodle United, This week's topic, The Lost City of Atlantis. I really wanted to really do a cartoon featuring Aquaman. Now I have that opportunity. It was fun.

red door studio drawing session June7th 2014

red door drawing group back again... interesting costuming. a fun session as all are.

Doodle United topic: Aesop's Fables The Bat, the Birds, and the Beasts.

This week's topic for Doodle United is Aesop's Fables... the fable I chose to illustrate is......

The Bat, The Birds, and The Beasts.
A great conflict was about to come off between the Birds and the Beasts. When the two armies were collected together the Bat hesitated which to join. The Birds that passed his perch said:

"Come with us"; but he said: "I am a Beast."

Later on, some Beasts who were passing underneath him looked up and said:

"Come with us"; but he said: "I am a Bird."

Luckily at the last moment peace was made, and no battle took place, so the Bat came to the Birds and wished to join in the rejoicings, but they all turned
against him and he had to fly away. He then went to the Beasts, but soon had to beat a retreat, or else they would have torn him to pieces.

"Ah," said the Bat, "I see now,

Moral of Aesops Fable: "He that is neither one thing nor the other has no friends."

Doodle United: Fairies vs. Goblins

For the Doodle United page. 05/18/2014 -the topic:  Fairies vs. Goblins.  The directions... Draw a or some fairies, and or some Goblins.... The web page leads will tally up the totals to see who is more popular to draw for this group.  Ugly is much easier than pretty... I chose goblins.   Go and check out the results, probably late Monday the 19th. https://www.facebook.com/DoodleUnited

Doodle United: Characters and their Pets

For Doodle United: Characters and their pets... Late 1980's and early 1990's Pro Wrestler- Jake the Snake Roberts.This was a challenge from a subject matter perspective. Several characters came to mind and fell short when it came to putting image to paper. Sometimes it's good to have to rethink.

Doodle United- Comic Book Hero Name Generator

Doodle United topic:  Superhero name generator.  There is a site that provides fun superhero names. http://fantasynamegenerators.com/hero_names.php#.U0tUm8ejP4g  The assignment was to pick a name from the list and design your own superhero. With my childhood love of comics, I had to try to build a golden age (1940's) style comic cover with all the fun that they provided. I looked to the old Fawcett, Charleston, and early DC comics for inspiration.

The Brain that Wouldn't Die... my nose itches

B- Movie Monsters concept for a drawing group called Doodle United. I am proud to be invited to this group.

Camel Rock 3

After quite a hiatus, I took up the suggestion by a friend and started a scratchboard series of my travels. This is Camel Rock, somewhere between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico. No pressure, no expectations... just exploration.

Dog Chooses Holiday Card Concepts

doodling around for the Holidays. Probably won't be the card for this year, but still it was fun to get the pen out.

self portraits in honor of self portrait day.

I missed Self Portrait day (November 1).. I didn't know about it, so this weekend I did a couple of very small self portraits. Fun Stuff.

Holiday Card 2013... maybe

Starting to keep ahead of challenges... A proposal for this year's Holiday Card. This one is a collaboration of my concept and my late beloved wife Lee Ann's textile designs.  I hope that this would excite her... I am sure that she would have a lot to say Art Direction wise, and that would be more than welcomed.  -miss you my love... so much.

Monsters Nesting Dolls

I bought a set of nesting doll blanks. For almost a year I had no idea what to do with them until my dear friend Kevin Buntin suggested Classic Movie Monsters. Well.... I can't pass that idea up. So I spent the last month picking at these guys on and off. Just finished the last one on the last full week of August. I'm happy with them. I highly recommend doing something like this. It is well worth the effort.

Captive

Portfolio piece- worked this up as a wraparound design. I think it works quite nicely.

sketch dump 2013, the first in a long time

Crypticon 2, first night... an absolute heavenly opportunity for people watching and tiny little sketches/ doodles.

The Jersey Devil

A slight, ok a major over hall on the take of the Jersey Devil.

Zabu and Red Wing

Zabu and Red Wing from the Pet Avengers.

Frog of Thunder: variant color

so I started futzing with the color of the background... the frog pops a bit more, but I think I still like the first.... maybe.

Frog of Thunder: final color

it's done.

Frog Thor- Pet Avenger

So I just couldn't get the idea of the Frog of Thunder out of my head... so I stayed up way too late and worked this black and white version up. Coloring it will come this weekend, but I think he's cute as cute can be... with his mighty hammer 'meowmeow'.

Maximus

From the Inhumans Collection. Plate 2, Maximus the Mad, brother to BlackBolt and usurper of the Inhumans Royal Family.

lockjaw finished

Lockjaw- finished.

It was a fun piece to work up. Now the question is, do I finish the series as a Pet Avengers series, or an Inhumans series. hmmmmmm.... decisions, decisions.

scratchboard self portrait

Self Portrait...
found some small scratchboard pieces and some open time... so I did a lil' portrait. 5x7.

lockjaw wip

Starting a series of scratchboard comic book portraits. Characters that I think are visually interesting, or characteristically appealing. First one on the board... Lockjaw from the Inhumans.

Well, it's done... and done early. IMC 2013 assignment for the Graveyard Book is finished. Well, at least this one is. Now to see how far I can get with a second piece. The AD's approved of this one and I have gotten quite a bit of positive noise for this. Time to see if I can ride this wave.

IMC 2013 Assignment: linework for Graveyard Book done

The linework portion for my assignment: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaimen is done... Working on color palette treatments now. We shall see what the next day or so brings, but now, I am very happy.

Illustration Master Class 2013- thumbnails and sketch

Illustration Master Class 2013 is less than 72 hours away. I have my preliminary drawing complete, I have my thumbnail sketches done.  OH, and unlike last year... I have my driver's license renewed. I shall do my best to give a full report from the bunker like last year.
OH, this year's topic for me... Neil Gaiman's Graveyard Book. If you haven't read it, please do so. I loved it and have read it two and a half times. And I have only read a handful of books more than once that are not art books.

The Elizabeth Dane

The Elizabeth Dane:
John Carpenter's The Fog 
from wiki-  In 1880, six of the founders of Antonio Bay (including Malone's grandfather) deliberately sank and plundered a clipper ship named the Elizabeth Dane. The ship was owned by Blake, a wealthy man with leprosy who wanted to establish a colony near Antonio Bay. During a foggy night, the six conspirators lit a fire on the beach near treacherous rocks, and the crew of the ship, deceived by the false beacon, crashed into them. Everyone aboard the ship perished. The six conspirators were motivated both by greed and disgust at the notion of having a leper colony nearby. Antonio Bay and its church were then founded with the gold plundered from the ship.

Salem's Lot: The Marston House

Salem's Lot:  The Marston House.  The newest edition to the Illustration on the Dark side.

Danny at the window from Salem's Lot

Salem's Lot: Danny at the window
One of the first books I ever read without being forced to was Salem's Lot. I was way to young to read it and it gave me nightmares for months, but it left a fever within me for the macabre and the scary that exists to this day.  This piece is dedicated to Ron, Kevin, and my sister Barbara. You three kept feeding my love of what goes bump in the night. I thank you.

illustration for Business card: Eyes

Thinking of reworking my illustration business card... Since I have been building a Horror based portfolio for the last year, A leave behind that reflects what I do would probably be a good thing. So here is (at least for the time being) my solution... unless a better one presents itself.  Heck, I may have a couple of different images. One steampunk, one horror, one editorial cartoon. Hmmmmmm....

The Carriage Final

I finished it today. The Carriage is an image that I see as the start or the end of a story. That story, I don't have it as of yet. I may never have it... but I am happy with this image.

The Carriage; work in progress post 1/ session 3

session 3, or half way through session 3... or perhaps... And Welcome to session 3.5!!!!!
Size of the original piece is 14"x18".

Snow Day

After a day of 10" snowfall with another 6-10+ on the way... the snow kids are in abundance on any bump or hill.

The Nest

The Nest.  The latest in my series of dark illustrations, three sisters of the undead found by some poor person who with night vision on a camera or goggles has stumbled into the wrong place at the wrong time.

Mythbusters- TV's new odd couple

still on a cartoon kick... just planning on riding it out. The latest- Adam Savage and Jamie Heyneman... The Mythbusters.

Zeppelin- celebration day

I sat down and watched  Celebration Day. A Led Zeppelin concert that took place back in 2007. It was very interesting to see how these icons have aged over the years. They are looked upon as almost royalty by my generation. I was compelled to work this piece up.

moe-dok, larry-dok, curly-dok

A dear friend sparked an idea on an illustration featuring the Marvel Comics Character, MODOK... well like it or not, this is my solution.