Nat'l Geo

Rough for an un-used National Geographic piece about an ill-fated ship-building expedition to the Arctic armed only with toy Winchesters and parkas with nipple tassels. Regular HP pencil, an unusual tool for me.

Batman, Prepared

Now, that's a utility belt! A be-pouched Batman from May or June, half-inked and never finished.

Bee Keeny

Beginning of summer and the Post-Dispatch ran an expose on bikinis and why they're popular n' stuff. There was a Rodin's Walking Man quality that I responded to in one photo and I drew it, replacing the volley ball with an inflated mammal. My son got a laugh out of it, at least.
I may have accidentally broken her left arm in all the fuss.

The Locals

I've been in a strange pattern lately. I produce my normal amount of sketches, then return a few days later to ink them. It's a nice opportunity to get a 2nd chance at some drawings ... fix proportions, lighting, snouts, etc.

Frank Figure

Last Saturday at the open figure drawing session, M.U. campus Columbia Mo. The legendary Frank Stack a.k.a. Foolbert Sturgeon, still runs this quiet session every Sat. from 10-1:00. I used to come to these often when I lived there, but it'd been 15 years or so, and naturally Frank didn't remember me. Not much had changed, though. Frank knows something about everything, and talks constantly throughout the session.
While I drew the above, he set down his materials, pulled a chair up to my left and talked non-stop about newspaper strips from the 30's to Nixon to Texas Art Museums to health care issues to politics poisoning social interaction. It was a treat and I'm not being sarcastic for once!It's the number one reason for living in Columbia,and I've resolved to drive down every other month or so. (sorry for the murky photo)

Go Down, Moses

Claude Antebellum Bonnebottom ( of the Mississippi Bonnebottoms ). Gentleman, raconteur, lover. He prefers fine bourbons, but as a gentleman, he will accept gins, and scotches of various malts. Coming soon to a theater near you!

Same Dog

The new dog at a different angle, destroying the same rawhide from below. I thought I'd heard that rawhide wasn't the best thing for dogs to chew on, but after seeing her eat ant poison, a battery, and a flashlight bulb, I'm pretty sure she can digest anything.

She must've been an adorable puppy ... some 60 pounds ago.

The New Dog

So I had a simple task: Go to the Humane Society and pick out a small dog, preferably older and house-broken. I came back with a German Shepard/Golden Retriever mix. She's 2 and house-broken, at least. Our son named her Ranger, but if you want to get her attention call her Sheba. Here she is chewing a rawhide chew toy the size of a rolled-up newspaper.

I have been relieved of all decision-making responsibilities at my house.

Last Pin-up Study

I think this is the last study I did before dropping the idea of doing a Black Widow pin-up. The whole endeavor is haunted by cheesiness.

Who sketches the sketchers?

"Draw-ers" sketched while on break during a figure drawing session about 2 months ago. The thin woman on the right was from the U.K. and frightfully polite.

Gimme Dat Thing

The Thing, sometime in the late Spring. I was still in the honeymoon stage with the Hunt 102 pen. Unfortunately, I inked over black prismacolor, which doesn't like to erase!

The Good Pen

I resurrected a Hunt 102 (I think) in my pen nib reviews. It has a flexible tip producing a bouncy rich line from thick to thin in seconds. Progress through the sketchbook has slowed, since I tend to ink previously penciled pieces. The upper figures were snatched during a break at a figure drawing session. The lower is a random doodle probably inspired by Modesty Blaise (a comic-strip character that oldsters may know, n' stuff).

Hard Boiled

I was thinking quite a bit about hard-boiled tough-guy fiction. Did a lot of tough guy poses. Typical Spillane, Chandler, etc., noir stuff- you know the drill. Still trying to work out a good ink mix at this point. I wonder what it's like to put on a suit and not look like an insurance salesman.

Ink

Burning off some old sketches in ink. I was making some notes regarding nibs vs. inks. I've never had luck with Higgin's Black Magic. It should be called "Dull-Grey Magic". I prefer Speedball Super Black, which is rich and black with a brush, but it's a little thick for a pen. I made a 60/40 mix of Higgins and Speedball and finally arrived at something usable for a pen nib. Pelikan Drawing Ink works reasonably well with pen nibs.

MadMen

This was one of those occasions where an image came to me and I chased it for a while, then gave up, never coming near the impact that originally occurred in my head. I thought of a row of men aggressively smoking, out of the blue on my drive home from work one night. There was a graphic quality I responded to in my head that never translated to the page. All courtesy of the bitch-goddess I call my imagination! Wally Wood or Alex Toth would've been able to help out, I'll bet.

Sit, Cat Sit

Well, she is Catwoman after all!

H.M.S. Beagle

Dog shopping in the late Spring. This is my impression of a beagle I visited at a shelter near my job. She was laying it on a bit thick, I thought. I get it! You're sad, already!

2-Step Process

Struck with the urge to draw Hawk-Girl sometime in May. I usually stumble through a first attempt before adjusting some of the bugs in a second sketch (below). Realizing I had no memory of her costume, I turned my attention to getting a little more sass in her posture.

Yep, Jack Kirby Again

Perusing the pages of any Kirby-drawn volume of the Marvel Essentials collections of Thor are sheer joy. The above is from issue #150, The Mighty Thor, around 1968. Since I was at the kitchen table, I used my favorite Jetstream uni-point pen.

Man of Vision

My brother-in-law in May, at a family gathering. As you've noticed I've fallen back into using blue color-erase pencil. I have a surplus of these pencils and they don't burn down as quickly as black Prisma-color, something to consider in these trying times. A little trivia: if you try on this man's glasses, you'll vomit within 2 minutes!

The Hard Years

Yep, we don't always know where we'll wind up when we start a sketch. As Vamperella moves into middle age, she becomes an exotic dancer working the east side. The years have not been kind, the patrons haven't been either. The live bat in the act doesn't do much to help tips.

Land of the Free

Still sketching in the car during lunch breaks (late April). This post will be is unusual in that it contains 2 pages of shoppers and nobody is depicted using their phone! Astonishing but true!

Lunch Sketches

From late April, I think. Another lunch-time spent in my car drawing. This time: humans leaving Target. I borrowed a fine-point Sharpie from work with hilarious results!

Waiting for a Quest

The figure on the left is my son talking to his mother (loosely based). In order to speak to his mother, we've paused an episode of Jonny Quest, which is where the figure on the right comes from. This explains the clean, Doug Wildey quality of the image on the right.

Homework

My son, at his homework, miserable, sometime in April. The sound of any cartoon character muttering angrily to themselves would be appropriate for this picture. He's in a much better mood from June through August compared to Sept. through May, (with a slight bump in late December) .... Strange.