Lt. Falcon Enjoys a Game of Chess

...with his cat.

Another in the Introspective GI Joe series.  This one features the illustrious Lt. Falcon challenging his feline companion to a game of wits on a balmy summer night.

'Lt. Falcon Plays Chess With His Cat'

Modern Life

The stresses of modern life symbolized by creepy monsters. Of course!  And you can say the title to the tune of David Bowie's "Modern Love." It makes it better, I promise.

'Modern Life'

Some of the initial sketches.  The big fat fish monster riding on the skinny guy is the focus and I did a bunch of thumbnails to figure out what was going on around them.

 I just liked this creepy monster face.  So creepy.

 

 Here was the layout I went with initially.

 

I got over excited and jumped right in.  Bad idea!! That layout just wasn't that great.  And I was in denial until I was pretty far along. But I had to face the truth - the composition just wasn't working. Bummer.

'blerrgh'

So I tossed it.  Well, first I drew over it and worked out a new composition. Ah, better. Then I threw it out.

'ahhh'

Almost used this dude in the back, but I went with the long flying bug.  I stand by that, but this guy is pretty funny.

The final drawing, done in red Prismacolor and good ol' mechanical pencil on cold press watercolor paper. The red pencil has been removed via Photoshop witchcraft.

And here's an early stage in the coloring process.  The yellow rectangle used to be much taller.

Are you guys digging these longer blog posts?  I figured the Tumblr is great for putting up images, and this blog can have more in depth, hopefully informative, posts.  And occasionally feature David Bowie references.  So there you go.

Cheers guys!

Walking Home

I did this one after reading a couple different news articles.  One was in the NY Times about carbon dioxide levels reaching dangerously high levels and the other was about a company trying to start a colony on Mars.  So I did an illustration of a woman walking through a post apocalyptic landscape with a bag of fruit.  Upbeat stuff, right?

Here are thumbnails and sketches from the early stages.  I started with the idea of her having an umbrella and the rain being acid or poisonous.  I ended up dropping that for normal rain and a fruit sack.

My original thought was to go with an intense yellow background.  Here was a quick study.

The rough layout was done in Carmine Red Prismacolor pencil and the final drawing in 2B pencil right on top.

I really wasn't digging the background, so I drew another and composited it in.

I worked on the yellow version for a while, but it just wasn't clicking.  So I let go of my yellow obsession and I think the blue works much better.  But, I couldn't resist the allure of yellow and did a new yellow version this morning.  It's pretty fun.

Prints, tote bags, iPhone cases and other things of the blue version are available on my Society6 shop.

Sonic the Hedgehog!

Sonic the Hedgehog was so great. The sense of speed is actually kind of soothing as you fluidly fly through the maze-like levels.  So much fun.
When I got to coloring on this one, I couldn't decide if I wanted to go with a more muted, limited palette or something closer to the actual game.  I ended up working on both simultaneously, figuring I'd eventually like one better.  But I still like both. So there you go.

Here's the more muted one.

'Starring Sonic and Miles 'Tails' Prower'

This is the game inspired one.

'Starring Sonic and Miles 'Tails' Prower' (Blue Alternate)

And here are some process sketches and things.
This is the initial thumbnail I decided to go with.

The ink drawing, warts and all.  This was a combination of Microns and a crow quill pen.

And a greyscale rendering to figure out the values before going into color.

And in other news, my Sixpoint 'Beer is Culture' entry made the top three!  You can check it out here. That means it will be printed on coasters and distributed to bars that serve Sixpoint. Super cool. Thanks to everyone who voted and helped out!!

And last but not least, there's free shipping in my Society6 store until May 12! There are prints, phone cases and other fun things available (*Offer excludes Framed Art Prints, Stretched Canvases and Throw Pillows with insert).  Follow the link here for the free shipping.

Alrighty, sorry for being so long winded. Cheers guys!

The Final Countdown!

Sixpoint Brewery's 'Beer is Culture' contest is drawing to a close, with voting ending tonight.
You can vote on my entry here on Facebook - just 'like' the photo.  The top three finalists get their designs printed on coasters, which is super sweet.  Every vote counts and gets my eternal gratitude. Thanks guys!
Cheers!

Moon Rocks and Some Other Things

I doodled a little doodle of an astronaut being really excited about a moon rock, while an alien at his lunar lander in the background.  It made me laugh, so I decided to flesh it out.  It's the little things in life, am I right?

"Houston, look - a Moon Rock!"

Here's the original doodle.

Fun Fact - I drew this guy a really stupid head in the final drawing.  He looked like a ten year old. So I drew him a new one, and with a little Photoshop surgery, problem solved!  I gave him a new arm while I was at it.

See - ten year old.

And the new head. Ta da!

A little more adult. Just a little.

In other news, I recently did a fun little Q&A with the wonderful people over at Sixpoint Brewery about my piece for their Beer is Culture competition and art in general.  You can read it here.

And you can still vote on on the piece by 'liking' the image on Facebook here. Voting ends on May 7.  Every vote counts!

That's all I got for now.  Cheers!