Deadliest Warrior- Knight vs Pirate sketch

So, I have had a heck of a year... I wrapped up working on "Black Dynamite: The Animated Series", then the heck of the year started when I went to Europe for over 2 months, where I discovered that, low and behold, my drawings suddenly were better, I kinda surprised myself. I will have to post some sketches, photos, and thoughts later... But here I am now, after not posting for over 6 months again, posting something sketchy...

As I posted with all my previous Doctor Who sketchbook pages, I always sketch while watching TV shows... I've recently spent my nights watching "The Deadliest Warrior"... oh man, I thought I would hate the cheesiness of the show, but nope, it is downright awesome! It plays directly into my history nerdiness and my love of weapon facts (my favorite part of playing D&D in high school was studying the weapons and armor). I especially enjoy the acted fight scenarios at the end of the show; you can find me hooting and hollering in joy at the TV.

I just watched the Knight vs Pirate episode and did a quick sketch while watching the Mafia vs Yakuza episode. Not everything is perfect, I would probably redraw most of this for a finished piece, but it's a decent quick sketch study with reference only from memory.

Conan Sketches

I love the fantasy genre... and after seeing all of Becky Cloonan's Conan sketches over the past month, and watching the Hobbit trailer 100 times today (literally), I decided to draw some Conan. I could have drawn dwarves, but maybe that is next...

So, I did these sketches-- I like Conan as the gnarled, beat up, older Conan.

This first image I drew I was just "drawing to draw", and wasn't thinking enough. Half way through the sketch I thought "He looks too pretty, and it needs to be more of an upshot, and he needed to be thicker." He needs more "old man" strength. I colored it for practice, and to try to "toughen him up." So in the end, my least favorite drawing is actually the most finished piece.


So I drew this sketch. Upshot, thicker, gnarled. I like it.



Then after doing a couple head shots, I decided I should think of this more like an illustration. I usually don't sketch in this manner, but I need to. I might go back and clean this up... maybe. This piece shows my process... I usually sketch in a red tinted color, I prefer it to blue or grey. I can then draw/ink on top in black more easily.

Guest Artist - The Tale of the Brother's Three

Hi.

I filled in as the guest artist this week on my friend, Josh Hauke's, webcomic strip, "The Tale of the Brother's Three". I scrapped my original idea hours before it was due, and I wish I had a little more time to refine this idea, make it really sing, but I am still happy with it.. it's always good to be forced to draw! Check it out!

Richard Pose - The Tale of the Brother's Three

Space Lady Warm Up

Did another warm up drawing this morning. I didn't have a set idea when I started, but I liked the sketch and took it to finish. This thing had so many iterations, it was cool to keep pushing it and pushing it, in both design and color, trying to make it better. I haven't felt this good while creating a piece of art for a long while, this felt like fun rather than a chore.

Captain America warm up sketch, again.

Just another warm up sketch of Captain America. Then I cleaned him up and threw some quick color on there. Pretty simple stuff, but I like it enough to post.

Another Namor

I did another Namor last night (or this morning) as a warm up. I tried to push him up in the frame so it would be a little more dynamic. I also wanted to play with spotting some blacks which I normally don't do, also tried to keep it loose.. I think I will do more Namors, and next time I will for sure have full feet, not just a heel and a wing.

Namor the Sub-Mariner

Thought: I wonder if the Sub-Mariner drank torpedo juice the way submariners used to in the early 1900's? (What is torpedo juice? Look it up)(That was a free "Rich History" for you all).

Decided to draw a Namor for a warm up today. I am not an exciting sketch guy. What I mean is, when I have to draw a storyboard/comic, I can come up with good poses/shots... when I am sketching/illustrating, I draw characters standing there, doing nothing. Oh well, I will have to work on that. That said, I really just wanted to draw Namor standing there to try drawing a character with a lean/longer body than I am used to drawing. Next time I will draw an exciting pose that shows his ankles so I can draw those awesome little wings. Imperious Rex!

Thor

I rarely draw fan art (well, I never post it), but I spent some time drawing old school Thor tonight.I have always loved Thor, but I can't stand the new Thor with armor on his arms and legs, give me spandex Thor any day of the week! As always... I will try to post more often... I figure if I write that every time, at some point it will come true.


EDIT- After doing that first Thor, I couldn't help but do another with a bit more forward motion.

Tita

Sorry folks, not an art post... just wanted to post my thoughts somewhere.

Just learned that my Tita (my Great-Aunt), died today. I didn't know a kinder soul, more full of life, love, and laughter than she had, always soft spoken, which is a trait not seen in most of my family, a trait that I love. Some of my strongest memories of her were when she would walk around a supermarket, she would go straight to the cookies/sweets, pick up a box (I always remember Nilla wafers), open it, and start munching while she shopped... or she might grab a single Butterscotch, eat it, and hide the wrapper behind a box in the market, the rest of the visit, she would walked around with a smile, drinking in the world around her.

I also remember how she knew little to no English, but would frequent Asian food markets and get along fine with people who she had no common culture or language with, no one else in my family did this (heck, I only ate Asian food once in my life before I went to college)

I remember she also used to make the BEST Cuban tamales. She took the time to use real corn husk (instead of foil), etc etc.

Edit-- Here is something my sister wrote "I remember being driven around in her little Honda. And finding out that she had been dying her hair for years, covering that lovely, salty hair - funny little secret. I want to make that delicious jello/leche condensada dessert that she'd make - so great."

And a memory from my cousin Suzy-- "I remember that jello dessert- yum. She used to give us a fresh little box of crayons every time we went to her house to visit. Sweet lady."

Anyhow... here is one of the only recent pictures I have with her (and my Grandmother)

Rogue and Warrior Lady

I was sitting here with a desire to draw a warrior lady, so I did... then I felt like drawing some quick studies of Rogue from the X-Men, so again, I did (I like the old costume, but I didn't do any research, so I know it's not right, but it's right enough). Added some color to those sketches so they would feel more complete in some way... enjoy.

Sketchbook Pages 8

More sketchbook pages.

I did these while sitting at Portos in Burbank two weeks ago. The little kid with the Finding Nemo backpack/leash... oh man, where were that kid's parents?! It was just him and his 10-12 year old brother (holding onto the leash). The kid had chocolate all over his face, was screaming at the top of his lungs (Such famous lines as "I WANT!" and "SODA!!!!"), and lunging at the people in line. He looked crazed!!!

I hate these calls...

I am not the most confident artist right now, well, I finally get past my own doubts and start to draw, literally 5 minutes in, I get one of those "pick up your portfolio" calls, and I stop drawing and start doubting myself again. They could have given me an hour of feeling good about myself couldn't they? No, I suppose not.

I wasn't going to pick up the phone when I saw the number, I know that number is from the studio... but the optimist in me thought "Maybe they are calling to give me a storyboard test? Maybe?"... that'll teach me! Should've let it go to voicemail and kept on drawing in ignorant bliss. It's now been three hours, and I still can't draw, so I scanned in some sketchbook pages.

Note: While writing this, my mom calls "Hi, I just want to see how you are doing. Have you heard anything from any studios?" I said "Yeah, nothing good, I have to go pick up my portfolio cause they have no work for me." She says "Oh... ok, well, I just wanted to know how you were doing, bye." Haha... that's not wanting to know how I am! That is just calling to see if I have a job yet... very different.

Below is some art that makes me feel good. I drew these pages mostly while watching "Ken Burns National Parks" documentary (nnd some House MD). Man, that doc makes me want to uproot and leave on a tour of the US. I remember a college professor once asking us what we wanted to do with our lives, and he said to think of it this way "If you had 100$ or 200$ million, you didn't have to worry about money, what would you do with yourself?" Many people answered "I would make an independent movie" or "I would draw a comic and publish it" or something along those lines... I now know, I would not draw comics or anything like that, I would just pick up all my gear and tour the world, see the most beautiful things there are to see. I am sure I would keep drawing, but I wouldn't draw with the stress of having to perform.

More Superheroes

Looks like I am on a Captain America, Iron Man, Wolverine kick...

It started out last night when I discovered some videos online of John Buscema and John Romita Sr drawing and inking (links below)... WOW! Buscema inking with a brush absolutely blew me away. Right then and there, I decided I wanted to practice my old school brush work... but to do that, I needed a drawing, a realistic style drawing, not cartoony, so I did this drawing of Wolverine (straight onto Bristol board) tonight while watching some tv.


Well, I was too tired to ink it tonight, but I decided to go on my ustream channel and do a little online fast sketch (check my twitter stream to see when I am going to be drawing live). I started out with a quick and dirty Iron Man.. then did a delightful Captain America (I just wanted to spot those blacks on his head, I love how the old Marvel artists used to spot blacks around the "A" so it would pop.) And then I decided to take a fast practice run at the Wolverine inks, just as practice for when I ink the real thing tomorrow, then I threw color on it too (since I was already there, might as well.) All in all, a good hour of drawing tonight.

Just as a note (mainly to myself), Not only do I want to start working on my inking technique, but I am also going to make a concentrated effort in creating "illustrations" rather than just character pin ups. I started with the Wolverine piece, tries to build in a story and bit of BG elements.




Here are the links to the videos I mentioned above:
John Buscema draw Cap, inks with a brush
John Romita Sr draws Spidey, inks with markers

Super Hero clean up

I've been wanting to work on finishing/cleaning up more of my art, so I decided to clean up the Captain America I drew a couple weeks ago, and then draw Wolverine. Wolverine (along with Captain America and the Thing) is a character I have never drawn properly (probably because I like them so much). I grew up with Wolvie's Brown/Yellow costume, so that's the one I went with here. I actually like both these drawings (at least today I do), and I forced myself to add some BG elements rather than just stop at the character.


I definitely have a long long way to go with my art, but I was happy to draw these and bring them closer to a polish than my sketchbook art.

Sketchbook Pages 7

Man, time flies when you don't post!!! Yikes, two weeks already? Unacceptable. I need to scan all the pages I have drawn over the past month.

In the meantime, accept my apology with these 3 pages.

I did these character studies earlier in the year for an unfinished comic project (my unfinished Flight 7 story, I had to stop working on it to find full time work, which I still haven't found). I was trying to find the right look for the alien antagonist... I don't know if this happens to you guys, but I know who this character is, I have an image in my head of what this guy looks like, but when pencil hits paper, I can't remember what he looks like, he is like a shadow in the corner of my eye, every time I turn to look, he moves away. Really angering. I still haven't been satisfied with any of the designs I have done. I must keep searching for him, he is important.

Captain America Sketch

After drawing Iron Man the last day or two, I decided to try my hand at another character I have never been able to draw well, Captain America.
It's obviously just a sketch (with some quick color), you can see all the under-drawing. If I have time, I might go back and clean this up/ink it, but for now, this will have to do. I am pretty happy with this Cap, it didn't go straight into the trash which is always a good sign.

Iron Dude

I really like trying to draw Iron Man; and, I always liked Iron Man's antenna, so I added that in there.

I have been wanting to post more "finished" pieces up here, but I rarely do finished work, I usually just sketch. But this Iron Man was a chance for me to color something, I really wanted to see that good old Red and Gold side by side, couldn't leave it black and white.

Sketchbook Pages 6

A bit of a miss match of sketchbook pages, but they must be posted!

This first page was drawn while watching "Oklahoma" and Dr Who.

This next drawing was the only decent drawing from a recent LA Zoo trip. I made sure to only draw 4 legged/hooved animals this time (my favorite animal is the Gorilla, but that's almost like drawing people, I need to expand my repertoire). I present a Gerenuk in repose.

And this last page is just because I really really wanted to draw the Iron Man helmet and armor. I was trying to remember what the armor looked like (I prefer the version from the early/mid ninties when I was beginning to collect comics). Funny how many details I remembered, and how many I forgot.

Sketchbook Pages 5

More Sketchbook pages.

These first two pages were done while I was at a "The Living Sisters" show at the Getty Museum. It was a great venue, nice and clean, comfortable seats, super small and intimate... and free! I had a great time listening to their music and absorbing the ambiance. I was already a fan of Becky Stark (Lavender Diamond) and Inara George (The Bird and and the Bee), and now I am also a fan of Eleni Mandell. Anyhow, sketches, I did these drawings in very dim light, I started trying to do detail drawings, then gave up and tried doing super simple drawings.


And then here are a couple more sketchbook pages while watching Dr Who. Some Tom Baker, 4th Doctor, Dr Who. And on the last page, a couple drawings while watching House MD.

Sketchbook Pages 4

Here are some more sketchbook pages from the past 2 weeks. All of these are while I was watching Dr Who. These first two are whole pages with no additions or subtractions.



These next two were cobbled together because there were drawings on there I can't show yet. Some character designs for a comic project I am working on. So I deleted those drawings and filled the gaps.