Goodbye, Caprica

Doodling spaceships recently while watching the last episodes of Caprica.

Mae West

It's funny, growing up we had so many neat things hanging around the garage and basement: The flotation device pictured above, a WWII helmet, all sorts of surplus military poop from the '40's and '50's .... and now it's all gone! I don't remember them being thrown away, maybe they just rotted away. I regret not hanging onto them.
I also regret not inking the main figure's arms.

Join!

Again with the striped stockings, this time opting for the more dapper World War I era helmet.

Winter Classic

Doodling while watching the Winter Classic with my son. I enjoy the lumpiness of the gear. Pictured are blue pencil attempts at Sidney Crosby's nose and Alex Ovechkin's under-bite, what my friend Bruce would refer to as the "Hapsburg Jaw". Meh, it works on him.

Black Satin Dancer

New Years' Day 2011, more pen and ink madness ....

1st Drawing, 2011

Pen and Ink, the first drawing of the new year, New Year's day, 2011.

More to Come

Inking exercises; Ray and Ridley, respectively.

Black Widow Commission- Rough

Finally, a layout with which I could live. After a few various squatting Black Widows, I found a pose that would work. The whole thing fell together when I had the thought of taking the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo and tilting it under the figure. ( I just realized this is extremely rough in this rough!). In the finished piece, it adds a graphic element to the image as well as the suggestion of depth. In other words, it helped me cheese the background. The hardest part- making the spent shell-casings look the same size and shape!

Hipster Jacket

Drawn the day after Christmas, inked tonight during supper. My wife gave me a great jacket for Christmas this year, completely unexpected. It's very cool and has zippers and attitude and I love it. My mid-western Protestant upbringing prevents me from taking pride in wearing it, however, and hipsters everywhere are scrambling to find different jackets to wear.

Christmas Swag

Day after Christmas, my son playing with his new X-Box what-not. Occasionally, the spirit of Egon Schele invades my pencil and I draw a reasonably controlled contour drawing. This happens only sporadically, but the look is consistent from drawing to drawing, year to year. Supernatural possession is the only logical explanation. Just as quickly, Schele's spirit looks at the drawings and flees.

Mother Q

Day after Christmas, the person who's had to put up with me the longest. It doesn't do her justice, but I like the way her expression came out, as though she can't quite believe the horse-poop that's sure to have been tumbling out of my mouth as I was drawing her. I took a lot of days off over the holidays this year, and I drew like it was all I wanted to do.

Tony Stark Commission

Christmas day blue pencil layout for a Tony Stark piece. The finished piece will have more space at the bottom of the composition, but for layout purposes in a sketchbook, I just wanted to work out the mechanics of it.

Capt. America in WWII

From Christmas Eve day. My son and I like to give each other drawing assignments. His assignment to me was: Captain America during World War II, mowing down Nazis. I did the above in around 30 minutes and excitedly showed it to him. It was rejected since no Nazi is actually pictured in the act of being mowed down. I argued that for the sake of a more kick-ass close-up of Cap, given the format, perhaps the breach of the assignment could be forgiven and, since it's unlikely that Cap is firing on civilians and given the fervor of his machine-gunning, it's safe to assume that only the worst type of Nazi scum is probably getting his, then this should be an acceptable rendering.

My son pointed out that he could be mistakenly mowing down armed members of the French Resistance or the Red Skull could easily have brainwashed Cap into firing on Russians or even God-fearing Allied troops! He'll be an excellent lawyer some day. I still owe him a drawing.

Last of the Easy Winners

In the days before Christmas, a blue pencil rendering of the last scantily clad machine gun girl. Surely as the holidays approached. my mind turned to more charitable endeavors. Gift giving as opposed to bullet giving, etc.

A Joan for the '90's

Shortly before the holidays, in full swing with the old blue pencil. I'm back to using a familiar tool, something that allows an aggressive line. Lately I've discovered the "undo" feature which is that little fleshy thing at the other end of the pencil.
I don't know where I was going with this one and I let it fizzle with dignity. Probably what Joan of Arc would have looked like if Marvel Comics had done a version in the '90's. I ask you, what good is armour with a bare mid-driff?

Henry's Dream

Nick Cave, from the artwork of the above named album. Crosshatching is like drinking whiskey: seems like fun, but if you don't watch it, you'll wake up with your pants on backwards and covered in sick. I love the scene in Tommy Boy where Chris Farley is explaining why he usually ruins a sale. He describes a potential sale as a lil' bunny rabbit he's holding that he eventually crushes to death because he gets too excited. Substitute "crosshatching" for "sale" in that scene and you've got the idea.
I say that because I got carried away myself in this sketch a few times, forgetting that crosshatching needs to describe the form. (If you didn't notice, don't feel bad-most super-geniuses like me are hyper-critical of their own work!) When this happens, you're left with an image that flattens out and looks like it's covered in moss. My advice: quit early, quit often!

Medusa (InHumans)

Well, I started drawing the leg in the foreground and everything else fell into place. Once I figured out I was drawing Medusa from the InHumans, I had to run downstairs and pull out an old Jack Kirby era Fantastic Four to reference the costume. Yep, I'm an old fart about comics. Her costume now probably involves bikini waxing, superfluous armour plating and spike heels, for all I know or care .... so there!

BlackBolt

Drew a picture of BlackBolt for some reason while on vacation. Truly one of Jack Kirby's niftier creations- a being who can't speak because the mere sound of a whisper from him will bring down a mountain range. Do Inhumans sneeze? Hope he never talks in his sleep or snore for that matter- they probably addressed all that in the comics. My son loved this one.

Saucy Pirate

Un-inked cover for "Sassy Boots of the Seven Seas". You're intrigued now, I can tell!

Cat Woman Rough

Rough layout for a Cat Woman commission in which I ran out of room at the bottom of the page. Since our cat Topper is the only cat I see on a daily basis, I automatically drew the cats with saggy guts.

Perty Goil

Time-filler from earlier in December. I was about to wrap up my love affair with the no. 2 pencil. The hair is pure filler after I'd drawn the face all the way at the top of the page for some reason.

Automatic Drawing

More doodle than drawn, from mid-December. When I watch TV, I usually have my sketchbook in my lap so that I can convince myself I'm not wasting time. Things like this happen when the pencil needs to keep moving, with no particular place to go.

The Doomed

From a December 10th recital, a young man waiting to get his violin tuned.

Portrait, not so much

Done earlier in December at a family gathering around the table. As portraiture it falls flat, believe me, but I enjoyed the pencil work. At some point one can quit on the likeness and have fun makin them little marks with a pencil.

Superman, why not?

Sure, it's Superman. DC has yet to return any of my calls. Breaking in a Hunt 106 from earlier this month.