IF: Instinct

"You see son, by trusting my keen instinct I've always managed to avoid danger in the great outdoors..."

Moleman update...slowly but surely...at this point I've got all of the major items plugged in and just need to work on the background and accents...if someone would figure out a way to stop or slow time it would sure help...


(click to enlarge)

IF: 'Cell'ebrate

What prisoners do when the ingredients sealed in a plastic bag (and hidden in the toilet) ferment into alcohol...

I actually learned about this while visiting a prison (and by visit I don't mean I was actually in prison nor was it a 'scared straight' program for artists heading down the path of a life of crime). After several of the inmates were found to be drunk (one of which broke three pairs of handcuffs...gee let's give inmates access to weights)they did cell checks...and found about 10 gallons of booze hidden in various areas, including the toilets so it would be chilled...they would shove apples, kool-aid, bread, and sugar in a bag of water (sometimes juice) and let it ferment...

And the moleman continues!



(click to enlarge)

IF: Hard (Time) for Seahorses

"These women don't have a clue...I'd like to see them be able to get pregnant and have to feel what it's like to carry all of this weight around in THEIR belly..."

On a side note...several months(?) ago on Drawn.ca (a great site if you've never visited)gave a shout to a project that is going on called 700 Mole-Men...on this site is a listing of names and brief descriptions of characters and it seemed like such an awesome idea that I decided to throw my hat in the ring as it were...most people have tended to do fairly quick drawings but there are a lot of great images...I'm too stupid to do small so I'm working on a 15x20 piece of illustration board...plus I haven't done anything serious with graphite since my wiener dog pic...Check out the site and give it a shot!!! The list alone is worth reading for grins.

I chose "Doc Minceworm...a fraud"...I figured he is a bit of a snake-oil salesman and envisioned him as someone that would literally rob his patients blind...so that is the direction I am going. I also am trying to incorporate all of the elements and principles of design into the drawing (except color of course) as a test run for a possible project idea.


I did a quick character sketch and a couple of very loose pics for placement of items...Then roughed out the real pic on the illustration board and I've started doing all of the shading a bit at a time...I have all of Dr. Minceworm's helpers robbing the guy as he gets his 100% guaranteed healing therapy...


The only bad part is going to be once I've shaded it all I am going to have to go back and adjust all of the values to help make sure the form and texture really pop...I've been careful to have a sheet of paper under my hand to keep from smudging but as areas get completed it is fairly obvious that spots are too light to really work at this point.

IF:(Flawed) Dinner Service

"Waiter...there's a fly in my poop."

The influence for this true life scenario...Brought to you by the letters P and O...remember Sesame Street before it was hijacked by Elmo...and there was the blue bald guy with the mustache eating in the fine dining establishment that would say,"Waiter, there's a fly in my soup."...then the waiter would do things like throw out the soup on the floor and then put the fly back in the bowl...I think that is where things started getting off track for me...

IF: Dude that is just way too much (climbing) to get up there...

Why some cooties become pubic lice instead of head lice...


Let me apologize for what may be the absolute worst cartoon of all time...I felt dirty just typing it up...

Oviraptor process

I really enjoy seeing the process people go through in creating a work. Not only is it great to see the transitions and helping spring me to new ideas and methods, but it also gives insight into how a person's mind works...and if yours works like mine let me be the first to apologize to you...


This is one of the sock puppets that were whipped up pretty quickly at the start of the school year in prepping for a project. (Hopefully as time progresses then they will all make another appearance in a more refined mode.)



Each sock puppet took about 5 minutes to quickly render. Upon completion of about 10 of these I got the hankering to do a micron drawing. And I thought the cassowary would be a great animal to render.


So I grabbed a reference picture and whipped up a cassowary...once I did the line work I remembered that someone asked me to do a pointillism piece so I started playing around with the shading using dots...then my mind said, "Hey, why not add watercolor to this." Then my mind said, "Hey, why not do a big dinosaur pic using pointillism with that fairly decent sized piece of illustration board." So knowing one of my online cohorts (the ever lovely Jane D'oh) was having a birthday coming up I thought 'perfect' timing and excuse...


I went online and found a skull pic...careful to avoid other people's renderings. I think one reason I like to draw dinosaurs is because you can do this! And because (as far as we know) there aren't any running around it allows you to put your own twist on a skeleton while fleshing it out. This was the exact skull I used for prepping the drawing.


Next I did a quick drawing of the skull in pencil and then fleshed out the rest of the face. I then went in and reinforced lines to get the primary contours I wanted to keep.



I then lightly redrew with more detail the oviraptor. I again started by redrawing the skull then fleshing it out. Remembering advice from James Gurney (check his blog out if you want to see a scientifically minded artist...link is on my barratuna site). Finally I started adding the points. One thing I had to be careful about was making sure I was paying attention to what the form of the creature was. I worked in 20 minute to 1 hour blocks adding in points. I would then break for an hour or so and then come back and do more.

The bottom pic has the levels adjusted in photoshop so the pencil lines are more easily visible to the viewer.


I continued to work on the item until complete. The image consists of exactly One million four-hundred thousand and three dots...or I could just be making that up. After completing the image I was hesitant about adding color to the illustration board. Having had some nightmares with water color on illustration board (and liking the stark contrast of just the b/w) I ran some prints on heavy paper.


I painted 10 prints by hand trying different color variations. Most people like the green variations.


But there is just something different about the blue one that I find interesting. I had planned on doing a red and yellow version and doing a Warhol effect but after weeks of dealing with this and the artistic attention span I decided to move on to the next project...

COMING SOON...the MOLEMAN...and by soon I mean anywhere from the next week to month...

Oviraptor

(Click to enlarge to rid some of the fuzziness and help with the detailing)

It was a long strange journey in creating this item. It all started out as working towards a sock puppet design...and someone asking if I had ever drawn using stippling or pointillism after doing my Wiener Schnitzle drawing...or as those lovely people from the UK say...drawering... or is that just a bad stereotype? Anyway...I had a fairly decent sized piece of illustration board (10x15 I believe) and some new microns thanks to Steve of Flying Turtle fame and got after it. Once I finished with the drawing I had some thicker paper and decided to make some prints to try adding water color...and I did. I was actually pleased by the end results and may at some point add watercolor to the large original...but I kind of like just the plain starkness of it so who knows...


The watercolor versions are slightly less 'intense' in person and of course the scanners aren't good at picking up some of the subtle shades of blue that appear or some of the washes used.

IF:Similar

"I had a similar incident at the Knott's Berry Farm goldfish pond with a fancy carp..."

IF: The reason we were never conquered by the balloon people from space...

"And after we wipe out the Needle People from the planet Cacti we will take our reign of terror to Earth!"

IF:Hypochondriac sharks always wanting second opinions

"While I appreciate the fact you want a second opinion there are two big reasons why I know you don't have a broken bone in your leg..."

Much like the dental instructor our medical teacher often doesn't get my humor...or lack thereof...so I feel obligated to tell her sharks don't have bones but rather cartlidge...and no legs...

Everyone have a great Thanksgiving!!!

If: The Grim (Re'Pair)...He's French...Wa Ha Ha...

Okay...the story...Today was inservice day which usually results in spectacular meetings...for hours on end...for some reason during these meetings I tend to draw a lot of pictures involving death...so low and behold when I checked the IF topic it was 'repair'...and the image immediately popped into my head. So I sketched it out and along came the dental teacher...and the following is the mesmerizing conversation that occurred.

DT..."Who is that"
Me in my best French voice..."It is the Grim Repair...(insert bad stereotypical French laugh)"
DT..."I don't get it."
Me..."Well you know the French talk funny so instead of saying Reaper it would sound like repair...and then they laugh bad."
DT..."But you talk funny and you aren't from France...you're from West Virginia...and why is he dressed like that."
Me..."Because he is the French Grim Reaper."
DT...'Oh, I get it now...but who is the guy on the ground and why is he laying there like that?"
Me..."It is a French person...and he is dead...because that is what the Grim Repair does..."
DT..."But why is the dead person dressed like that?"
Me..."Because he is a mime...""
DT..."But why is he a mime?"
Me..."Because everyone that lives in France is a mime...that is how their society is."
DT..."Oh...do you think other people of your kind will get it?"
Me..."Yes, I think they will...because people of my kind are observant and usually a little bit tilted...not that you aren't tilted and all but well...you teach people how to brush their teeth..."

Two hours later at another meeting the Dental Instructor was sitting beside of me and an English teacher.
DT..."See if he gets it."
I show the picture and ask him if he gets it.
English Teacher in his best French voice..."Why it is the Grim Repair...(insert bad French laugh)...
DT..."Whatever"...rolls eyes.
Me..."Oh, we're not done...Ken, why is this guy on the ground and dressed like he is?"
ET..."Because the Grim Repair expires folks...and the guy on the ground is French...which makes him a mime...because everyone in France is a mime...that is their whole population."
At this point the dental teacher shakes her head and tells us whatever...and I really French it up and add a poodle...because all French people...who are mimes of course...own dogs...and those dogs are poodles...because that is the only type of dog there is in France...and because the mime was coming back from market at the time of his expiration he had the only things that French people buy because that is all they eat...French bread and a bottle of wine...and everyone lives near the Eiffel Tower, so I threw that in...(although I couldn't talk the Dental teacher into leaving the meeting to get me a reference picture so I just had to wing it...)

THE END

IF:The REAL reason the topic was sent late...

"Egad!!! I threw my back out again at the all night midget toss and brussel sprout buffet...It'll take me hours to drag myself to the computer to send out the topic..."

Yeah, we've got people watching you Penelope...

IF:No Strings Attached?

So she says to me...'Mike, without a long term commitment I won't even give you a kiss'..So I says to her 'Sure thing toots, til death do us part'...and I'm laughing to myself and thinking,'Boy I sure got over on her...I'm a housefly, how long of a commitment could it be...'

IF: Sugary

"Well, look at the bright side...If we have to turn to cannibalism no one is going to complain about a disgusting taste..."

IF: Packed for the Trip

It had to be a lie that she had just a few 'small' dresses that needed packed in his trunk...not with hips like that...

IF: Clutter

(Please click to read)
I know it can't just be me...

IF:Memories...

"This sure brings back memories from my childhood..."

IF: Nothing to use to make a sail...

After months of using a spoon to fashion the only tree on the island into a raft, a fatal flaw appeared in the escape plan...highlighting yet another reason to never get stranded with a nudist colony...



On a related note...after the somewhat disappointing IF post with the Squidward tentacles going crazy I retackled the octopus theme...thanks for inspiration for the Pick Pocket Octopus from Friday Frog's work, Chris Leavens, and again Detlef for originally making me want to try an octopus...Prisma color on illustration board...

IF: Canned

"Rumor has it someone in the marketing department is going to get canned tomorrow...say Bill, don't you work in the marketing department?"

6 Fang Marks & a Tetanus Shot

Been on summer break and doing a lot of traveling...sadly this has kept me away from Illustration Friday and getting to view all of the people's work I enjoy. Hopefully I'll be back in full swing within a couple of weeks.

This is a pic I just finished a couple of days ago from a book I read call 6 Fang Marks and a Tetanus Shot. It is a bit of a gift just because there was such strong images in the book and at the time I thought I needed another project as I had finished up several smaller ones....then it took me 5 months to actually get around to it. The gentleman that wrote it is a jack of all trades and I'm not sure how he keeps pace with a family, writing (on multiple fronts it now appears), as well as being the captain of his own fleet of commercial airliners. There is a lot that goes on in the book and it is pretty quick paced. To me it was a bit maddening at times(but in a good way) because it was if you had stolen someone's journal of someone you actually know...and it has the definite feel of 'life' and the true absurdity and choices that sometimes comes with it. If you haven't had a chance to read it you can snag it Amazon.com!

IF: Ahh...Why Worry...Kids Will Be Kids...

You'll probably have to click it to read it...and then get mad at me for wasting your time...

IF: Wide Gap in Reality: The Squidward Principle

I will attempt to deal with what I call the Squidward Principle, of which I believe most of us have been through at one point in our life...however it seems to be much more prevalent today and to last longer periods...some never getting out of it.

Squidward...great artist, 1st Chair Clarinet player, above all lifeforms on the planet...But the reality is much different and I will focus on one particular area that seems to be at the forefront. The Clarinet. Squidward plays it and does so horribly...and really doesn't see how bad he is...To him, the rest of the world just hasn't tuned their ears to his greatness...So when you see him practicing you have to understand that he really isn't practicing at all! He THINKS he has already arrived and needs no practice...He is playing for the benefit of the world and for himself to rejoice in his melodious sonnets...so he makes the same mistakes over and over...and is a cashier at a fast food restaurant. (NOT that there's anything wrong with that.)

Note that Squidward isn't really playing this instrument as a hobby. We can all have 'hobbies' with varying degree of capability and do it just for enjoyment's sake...but he has dreams of making a full-fledged living (and being an aristocrat it is indeed a high standard of living to uphold) playing the clarinet. If Sir Squidward might take the time to not only listen to critiques but also to self-analyze, who knows where his potential might lie...or perhaps he stinks at the clarinet because he just doesn't have the fingers for it...

So how does that relate to the Squidward Principle. Many times I have seen artists refuse constructive criticism that would help them grow as an artist and they limit their own progress because they are sure they have already arrived. When they do things it is not with the focused intent of challenging themselves, working on areas of weakness and hoping to get better, but they are already the best and the rest of the world needs glasses. Criticism results in an emotional torrent of one sort or the other. Or perhaps there isn't a true understanding of how the 'system' works and they think the world will instantly conform to them. If they want to sit at the table watching Oprah, eating Ho-Ho's, and do medical illustration using poorly rendered stick figures then someone will HAVE to hire them because they want to be hired.

Real World Story #1. (One of my favorites on myself I must say). In college during my freshman year a teacher gave me a grade I didn't feel I deserved...unleash the hounds!!! While I didn't go to her and raise all kinds of chaos as some did (there were students that would throw verbal tantrums, sobbing at times, people running out of the room throwing things, curling up in the fetal position in the corner, quitting the college, etc) I privately stewed but told myself I was going to adhere and listen and see what happened. 2nd year in college as I got better I looked back on my freshman work and during mixed critiques with freshman when tempers flared I would brake out a piece of pooh work (and not the Disney character variety) and say, "Yeah, I used to defend this too." I'm always thankful for the teachers that stopped me in my tracks and said "LOOK at what you are doing and ANALYZE the reality of your work". I'm equally thankful for the teachers that let me know the difference between a hobby, a career, and how to play up to strengths while working on areas I stunk at...as well as avoiding areas I had no shot at being able to do. To think I wanted to fly commercial aircraft with no sense of physics, not able to do exceptionally deep math, topped off by the world's worst fear of flying. Thank my 1st year graphic design teacher for not having a 747 parked in your roof right about now...

Real World Story #2. (Probably told elsewhere on this site). In a class we were required to submit design projects of our own devising every two weeks. One student never liked their grade and went so far as to have their parents lobbying for their grade to be changed. It was of utmost importance that they maintained a 4.0...apparently it was of lesser importance to have a good portfolio...teachers would often relent and just give the grade because it wasn't worth the hassle. Guess what the person is doing now...Cashier...and can't understand why they can't get a job in the field for which they have not one, but TWO degrees. And the parents? Well the student made a 4.0, it doesn't make any sense to them either.

The artists that I have seen grow and be successful are the ones that broke out of the Squidward Principle early. Sure, as artists sometimes it stings a little to get critiqued. But it usually takes about two seconds of seeing some of my favorite artists to realize I myself have a lot of room to grow. Compliments are great, but an open valid discussion of both strengths AND weaknesses is priceless and vital.

IF: Eelectricity

Chet suddenly realized the usual "There just isn't any spark" breakup routine wasn't going to work with this one...

Godzilla Prep Part 1

I believe very much in the creative process. It is great sometimes to sit down and doodle and just throw something down...but if the inkling of an idea is there that initial idea or drawing can be refined and much improved upon. And in real life it helps to get things right for the client as well as to make changes from certain points...as well as avoiding costly mistakes. So even 'fun relaxing drawing/painting/modeling' is often a spring board to a great project that can be refined.

As mentioned previously, I had decided to do a Godzilla pic because my son enjoys him so much adn I do pics for their school every year. At the bowling alley between frames (I have a paltry 133 average and shoot anywhere from a 205 to an 90 depending on what crazy back or gym soreness issues I am dealing with the night of...in case you were wondering just how bad I sucked...)I was doodling on the back of a flyer with an intitial pic I had in my head. I had originally wanted to do a painting in Photoshop since it had been a while since I had done that technique. I still have it pictured in my mind...but after seeing Chris Leavens turtle I decided to go Vector. Originally I wanted to have Godzilla fighting Ghidora...and if you don't know who that is...well I probably don't blame you. I did several small sketches trying to figure the layout out.

From these sketches I tried to do a bigger rough and get a feel for what the characters were going to look like. I had reference pics but wanted to update the looks of the monsters. What fun is it to just copy a picture someone else has already done verbatim?


After sketching this out I started looking through some reference pics and saw a still from the original Godzilla where he had a train hanging out of his mouth. At that point I decided to hearken back to the original less cheese filled story lines.


So I decided on adding in more of original feel with Zeros and a train being pulled apart. Since this was still a rough I tried to balance out being detailed enough to know what was going on but also to realize I had to fix some things in the next step...particularly the muzzle. The original Godzilla and many designs there after tended to blend facial characteristics of dinosaurs with canine or feline features. If you look at a lot of Eastern dragon drawings they have such notable characteristics so it seems to make sense that this 'dragon' would also retain that. I however wanted to push more into the traditional dinosaur look. As stated in an earlier post, it isn't always easy to walk the balance of taking a well-known design and changing it enough to be different but no so much that it alienates the fan base...the American Godzilla was a neat design but was too far off and caused a lot of waves.


After I had decided the rough was okay I had to decide if I wanted to redraw the items or do a quicker approach. Being time is short at this point of the year I went for the quick. I placed a large piece of tracing paper over the fairly decent rough and made refinements as needed. At this point I began questioning if I wanted to just do a graphite rendering and not mess with the vector side of things...I think nothing beats a great graphite drawing and this started to have a nice feel to it...But it had been so long since I had created a more finished vector piece I decided to stick with it...but a graphite rendering will be done someday...maybe...if I get the 30,000 other things done...


Once the rendering was done I collected reference pictures for both the train and planes. It took a lot of searching to get a plane at the right angle (since I didn't have a model laying around) and a student brought in a train that I could modify while doing the drawing. One thing I am painfully slow at is anything mechanical. It takes me forever to get the detailing correct and is much less forgiving if an angle is off or a line is wrong. Because I was going to be doing this in the vector program I took pictures at the correct angle and planned on just using them with not doing too much in the way of pencil work.

I'm not a big fan of tracing things and mostly refuse to do it...but on occasion you have to do what you have to do. What does bother me if it is a regular practice because it really hurts drawing skills...and if you have little to no drawing skills tracing everything won't make you a better artist...if you're not careful all you will be is a hack...and I see people 'progress' from tracing reference photos to eventually downright stealing other people's art work with little to no changes and claiming it as their own...and we all know how we feel about that...

MEME: Teen Me...everything you didn't need to know about me but were afraid to ask...

After my daily visit to Drawn.ca I ran across a great stress breaker (and do I need one every chance I can get lately) from Dave at livejournal where you are supposed to draw your teen self or if you are a teen the future you...Kind of like Rugrats All Grown Up...or if you remember the dreaded Mork and Mindy days when Jonathan Winters hatched as an old man and the Orkians aged in reverse...

So here it is with all the vital self-deprecation I could muster:
1990 5 Feet 10 inches 135 Pounds 17 Years Old
1. The Spur Hair: While playing Jaws (at the age of 5 not 17) I fell down a flight of concrete stairs backwards...the resulting stitches give me a bit of an Alfalfa effect at times...
2. The Kind-of-Mullet: I deny I had one but there is one picture...I had my hair cutter tell me it was okay because I had a long neck...which resulted in great nicknames by my friends such as Snake Man or Giraffe Boy...but at least I still don't have it like some of them...and I never got it permed like some others I know...
3. The Glove: A pair was always kept handy because of....
4. The Possum Postal Service: You and three friends would find road kill...preferably possums...and deliver them at night to your friend's mailbox...and they had to be your legit friends so there wasn't any real trouble...it wasn't mean like mailbox baseball...you always knew who the driver was the next day by the mark left by the possum that was flapping against the side of your vehicle.
5. The Neon Orange Florida Gators Shirt: Apparently I was ahead of the curve with all the championships they have won recently...maybe they should play someone other than THE Ohio State that might actually give them a game...
6. The Reason I Didn't Wear Shorts Back Then: Chicken legs...
7. The Notebook: Always handy to draw with...there were several hundred drawings done of teachers and the like...of course I always did my work and graduated with a 3.0 GPA...hampered by Algebra II...new notebooks had to be guarded very carefully as we would draw quick bad pictures on every page of anyone's notebook that was foolish enough to be left unguarded.
8. Converse: The shoe of choice...until British Knights came out...Nike wasn't in the picture so much at the time.

2008 5 feet 11 3/4 inches 175 Pounds 35 Years Old
9. The Hair: I still have the occasional Alfalfa...but at least, unlike my brothers or many other people in my age group, I have managed to keep my own hair.
10. The Goatee: I've traded my mullet for this??? But only because I still can't grow a real beard...and I have a lot of gray in it...which people in my age group with bad hairlines often point out. But it and my official 'collared shirt teacher wear' helps to hide my neck issues apparently, because I have to point it out for people to make fun of me.
11. No Glove: Now me and my kids are official snake hunters. We leave the dead animals alone and go for stuff that can fight back. And what self-respecting big game hunter uses a glove? Except that one time because the snake was a bit crazed.
12. Drawing Book: Absolutely have to have something to draw in or on...especially in meetings or college classes...which drives some people crazy because they think I'm not paying attention. My GPA is considerably higher for college...no Algebra II...
13.Drawing Pens/Pencils: I always have a couple in my pockets...but to date no problems with injury.
14: The Reason I STILL Don't Hardly Ever Wear Shorts: There was a lot of marching in the army but it didn't do anything for building muscles in my legs.
15. The Socks: They are either really ugly dress socks or white...which doesn't work with dress pants supposedly...but I say don't be peeking at my ankles...and all of my ugly dress socks are mismatched somehow at this point so white often wins out...

Vector Art: Godzilla

(click to enlarge)

It took me a while to piece it together as time permitted, but I finally 'finished' the piece. (I have some small items to take care of for printing and might make some other small adjustments). Chris Leavens' awesome Saguaro Tortoise was the inspiration for doing the item in a vector program. One thing I enjoy seeing from other artists is their process from start to finish. I'll show the process on this later, but I urge other artists to show the process they go through to get to a finished piece. It provides great insight, shows the importance of proper planning, and can be a great teaching/learning experience. Often some of the best discussion have arisen on other artist blogs when they show how they got from point A to point Z.
KelMurphy just posted a sample of her process for an upcoming book...check it out!

IF:The Bad (Seed)

(In a related note...Godzilla is fininally finished...for the most part...)