Halftone Dots

I am continually learning new things with Photoshop and my job affords me opportunities to experiment. For instance, one of the staff wanted me to come up with a simple t-shirt design, in like, no time for a workshop we will have at school. The only thing I had to go on is that the theme is "cooperation" and that he wanted to see an illustration of the American Sign Language hand sign for that word. Not bad. I drew up the hands, inked them, fooled around with some text, and layed out a simple design. The only problem was that the hands looked pretty flat and that the linework of the the fingers and the creases in the palm was too busy to distiguish what is going on. That's when I thought of a recent blog that I periodically read. Chris Wahl, who is an amazing illustrator, posted a short tutorial on creating halftones using Photoshop. Mike Zeck also gives a great tutorial on his site. The effect that is created is like zip-a-tone sheets used by cartoonists not long ago.

The Pen

This is just a simple illustration that's going along with the LOTO unit. It's for a little story about a successful author who writes all of his stories using his lucky pen. He goes to a bar one night and he realizes that he lost the pen. He then tries searching for it.

LOTO

My cousin, who is a French teacher, is trying to publish a text book. He asked me to illustrate some units that he and other teachers came up with. He gives me a general description of a short story in which the images cover a variety of vocabulary. The story itself doesn't have an ending so the students can come up with an ending for themselves. The whole point is to fascilitate a dialogue using new vocabulary they learn.

Below is one story in which a person buys a lottery ticket with hopes of winning big. The person later (plus tard) finds out that they won but cannot find the ticket. After a while of searching depression sets in and the audience must come up with their own conclusion.

I initially try to figure out what the characters will look like by doing a variety of sketches. I thought the main character should be a nerdy kind of waif, hopefully making her a really tragic character.

I do panel layouts, usually in non-photo blue pencil, add details with a mechanical pencil, go over everything in black ink, and use photoshop to bump up the contrast, add text, and tweak any blemmishes. Because I haven't been doing a lot of drawing lately I've found that I'm definitely out of practice. I'm especially having trouble figuring out my background perspective. Please feel free to give me any critique or advice. It would be much appreciated.

URB

Here's a sketch I did while sitting at the local B & N. I wanted to draw some interesting, non-glamorous, faces. These were drawn from a cover of Urb magazine, which features some really cool news and reviews. Shout out to Polish Rob, my hip hop guru, for turning me on to it.

A History of Sketching

I rented the movie, A History of Violence by David Cronenberg, last night. I have a love/hate relationship with Cronenberg. I ususally just don't get his films but A History of Violence is more mainstream and easier for me to digest. I really liked it. Hey, it was also based on a comic book! Below is Ed Harris wanting coffee and William Hurt getting shot in the head.

Photo Shop'n

As a teacher I have to use visual aids of all sorts. Most teachers buy these, however I prefer to personalize them and make my own. This allows me to experiment with Photoshop. Like most makers of art I love the program. Here are a honeydew, cantaloupe, and cucumber I created entirely in Photoshop.

As part of a library book some of my lower elementary kids were reading. They had to create a character who was a wrestler. His name is Crazy Man Maxwell. The kids came up with a description and I illustrated it. He was described to me as a wrestler with a red mask, a forelock of blonde hair, whose favorite beverage was coffee that was sipped using a straw.

I'm A Browser And Damn Proud!

Part of my weekly routine is to go to Ravenswood Comics to check out the new books on Wednesday. Many years ago I used to do a comic strip for their weekly news flier which was given to customers. I did quite a few of them and had fun coming up with jokes that were created based on whatever newsworthy comic event that was happening at the time. Maybe I'll post some of them in the future. They're pretty dated, though. One of the cool things about Ravenswood is that it's basically an institution. Every Wed. it's the same people that come in. You can always find a group that will hang out and chat about what happened last week, what'll happen next week, who's art sucks, what's a must-read, and a lot of spirited debate. Lately Ravenswood has become more and more unfriendly to the casual browser/shopper. They only order books that customers specifically request. If you didn't sign up for the book that you're looking forward to then you probably won't see it when it actually comes out. I enjoy finding something that I didn't expect. I enjoy buying the odd title that I normally don't get when the art strikes me as good. It's what shopping is all about; sniffing it and kicking the tires. Browsing.

Above, clockwise, is Andy, Joe, and Keith. To the right is the owner, Janine. Also there's a sketch of Andy using the power of the force to get everyone in line.

Head Shots

My good friend Dave had created a television show when he was in high school. He wrote the stories and his friends acted in it. It was all filmed in his school. I'm talking many years ago. I happened to be thinking about one of his villains, who happened to be my favorite character, when I drew the guy with the weird beard. The two sketches of the girl were for a birthday card I made for the daughter of a co-worker at my school. Then there's my buddy, Rob, without a mouth and what I though Bob Ross might look like if someone put his head on a robot. I know. Kind of stupid.



To the right are some head studies of a character that's been walking around in my head for many years. I find it tough to render a goatee convincingly. I'm still practicing.

I am using markers more to sketch out color. I have to say that marker use is one of the best skills that I learned in college.

Portrait of a Buttinski

These are some random sketches of a man in drag, my good friend Eric, who's gettin' nice, and a friend's father. He loves to offer help even when you don't want it. In real life he has the look of a great character. The dichotomy of his look is a riot. He's a very frail man, yet I've always seen him dressed as if he was ready to herd buffalo, brave some class 3 rapids, or explore the Amazon basin.

Halloween In March: WTF?

My good friend Bob works for a nonprofit organization. He's organizing an event that will deal with pancakes and he wants me to draw up a flier with an illustration of pancakes on it. Why am I even mentioning this? Because it reminds me of a similar request. It was an event held this past Halloween. He showed a couple of the old Abbott and Costello meets various Universal Studios monsters. I drew up all the characters and then Shop'd a poster.

I will post the pancakes. Don't worry.

Inaugural

Hello to those of you who are reading this. This is the first installment of what will hopefully become a prolific sketch blog of sorts. The purpose being that I really want to sketch more than I currently do. I've come across some great sketch blogs from a wide range of comic artists and illustrators who have really inspired me to stop whining and just draw.
So, my inaugural art posting will be a drawing I did many years ago for a small press friend of mine, Scott Dutton. This is Scott's The Historical Society drawn by me with colors by Scott.