Racoon Lad

This little guy is for a project I'm helping a friend with.

Ol' Painty Can Rule

Sometimes it's fun to try something you wouldn't usually do, like sketching on the Windows XP "Paint" program using the spray can tool and a mouse.



The sky kind of ambles along the line between "moody" and "over-wrought", but a mouse I says!

Here's another one of these

I'm finding these are having a vaguely 80's kind of feel to them. If want to make it really 80's, I should use more pastel colours and arbitrarily placed geometric shapes. Maybe next time.

Here's another thing that happened today: I realized that "Frosty the Snowman" would work much better as an over-the-top metal song. So far:

The Helm was wrought with Dark Sorcery
The Golem of Ice stood tall
And once brought to hideous, unnatural Life
He pronounced the Kingdom's fall

Imagine that wailed over a heavy lightning fast guitar riff, and you'll know what it's like to live in my head. I'm sorry to have to put you through that.

Displacer Beast Rampant

House Kraegurn all up in your grill.



So, I've started playing Pathfinder again, and inspired by the whole Game of Thrones thing, I decided my guy there needed a coat-of-arms like the Starks and the Lannisters and the rest of them. I think some good words would be "Over sea and Underdark", but I'm sure once the fever breaks it'll all be perfectly punctual apricot mittens.

And that was pretty much 2011

Lots of people do "process posts" out there, but I never really have. Much of that has to do with the fact that many of the people who look at these things I have here are excellent artists to begin with, and are already perfectly aware of artistic "process" and don't need somebody like me to go "Ah, now, here is how we CREATE!" But in this case I actually have the various stages saved, largely by accident, so rather than just post the finished bit I thought I'd post all of it and so better better expose myself to the insults and derision of my enemies (You know who you are!) If you're learning to draw, well, maybe this'll help, maybe it won't, but if you read it at work it'll help kill some time.

First up is what we artists call the "gesture drawing", because calling them "scribbles" would be undignified. Most artists don't show their scribbles too much because they tend to look terrible, mine more so than most. It would be kind of like Rod Stewart recording and releasing that first tuneless hum in the shower that eventually became the full bodied "Da Ya think I'm Sexy". Picture Rod Stewart in the shower. PICTURE IT!

This is an important part of the whole process thing, because it's at this stage you're figuring out exactly what the hell it is you're drawing. You're trying to get the flow, form , structure and all those good things that will hopefully carry over to the end. If this were done on paper rather than in Flash, you'd see a ton of eraser marks in there and it would be really smudgy, as I tried to get something worth looking at. Some art school folks will tell you to avoid erasing at all, just let it all pour out onto the page. Screw 'em, I say. Use the eraser to try and sculpt what you're doing, don't just erase willy-nilly

Next we have the rough, or "ruff" for those of us who need to shave precious seconds by not writing an extra letter. This is usually the first stage most artists are willing to show anybody. "Yeah, I got some of my stuff right here. No big deal, just some ruffs. Y'know." Now you're picking some truth out of the scribbles, tightening things up while keeping in mind the shapes and forms (and hopefully some anatomy, if ya know any) This drawing is tighter than most of my roughs, 'cause once again I was erasing as I went. If it were pencil, there would likely be more construction lines and stuff in there. If you're drawing a formula or character you're familiar with you can likely come straight here without the scribbles, but you may find you get a stiffer drawing. I find I do, anyway.

Next, we clean! At this point I'm beginning to realize why I never do this, because as fun as it is to draw, I'm honestly starting to get a bit bored writing about it. How do those art book guys do this? That nutty Jack Hamm. Anyhoo, don't think of them as outlines so much as shapes, line weight can do a lot to keep it from getting flat, keep it loose, etc etc.

Colour! Never really got the hang of colour. I can see in colour, of course, I just have poor taste. I admire artists with good taste in colour a great deal, especially subtle, muted tones. I know the basic theory and all, but I always find myself slapping on big gobs of bright clashing pigment. For this I was kind of doing a trademark logo type of deal, so I mainly kept it minimal and striking, with an eye towards reduction and reproduction. Which is to say, her clothes are black, her book is red.

So that's my big process post. If you liked it, thanks! Your praise is gratifying, and shows your excellent taste in fine blogging! If you didn't, take solace that it's unlikely that I'll do another one soon.


Happy new year, hope 2012 is full of joy and happiness and fewer bacterial infections!

Werewolf, Knight, Elf, Tree

This month I learned that you can treat a goldfish with swim bladder/buoyancy issues by feeding it a single pea. I'm still not sure why.


This month I learned that camels have "reversed genitals". They do not, however, have extra knees in their hind legs.


This month I learned that one of the reasons King James instituted his English translation of the Bible was because the Geneva Bible, which was the previous most popular translation, was seen as containing too much anti-royal sentiment. The "Bishops Bible" was decidedly pro-royal, but nobody liked it.


This month I learned that if you fell into lava, you wouldn't sink. Although lava is more or less a liquid, it's still much denser than a person, so you would just hit the top and burn.



Bonus:

"Werewolf, Knight, Tree" doesn't sound as good as "Werewolf, Knight, Elf, Tree", so that's why the elf is there. I also have this bonus elf:



Merry Christmas, see you in the New Year.

Hey, here's some things to look at in a hurry

Whoops, quickly now, down this way, wotcherstep, here's one:


Bonus: Also this.

My Daughter is Nonplussed by Modok

I made a Modok costume for Halloween. That is all.

A Boy And His Lizard

The grease and salt at the bottom of the bag.

Hey diddle diddle
I seem to lack spittle
I thus cannot blow my horn
I tried this here fiddle
But it ain't beer and skittles
As my rotator cuff is torn



He kept to himself
Ne'er a curse, cuss, nor holler
'Till the day he decided
To wear a ruffed collar



There were seven to start
But seven's too many
She got carried away
Now she hasn't got any

When you got way too much
You go through 'em to fast
When you had it was Now
But Now it's all Past

One got lost in a crowd
One got caught in a breeze
One was trapped, one was drowned
One was bled out by fleas

The last two left together
They ran for their lives
To escape the cruel fate
Of the unfortunate five