Bein' green...

by Mike Worley

I decided to revisit a previous group of shapes. The other evening I posted a rough and talked about using an image hose on it. But it hit me to rethink it and come up with another possibility. The author of a book I've been reading on cartooning made some comment on "shapes," and their relativity to character type, catagorizing triangular shapes to those of a sneaky-to-villainous proclivity. I disagree. Certainly Charles Laughton fell into the the "circular" category, being very round and "wooby." And while I'm sure he could've pulled off being kind and lovable, he was more adept at villainy. Ditto, that not all "hero" types are necessarily "blocky," as William Bendix could also pull off a bad boy turn, too.

But this exercise gave me the inspiration to draw a favorite character I enjoyed in my youth,...the Green Lantern. Ironically, I've never really drawn him! Not "realistically." I did a Disney-esque version about 2, maybe 3 years ago at Visioncon in Springfield, MO for someone who saw me noodling around in my sketchbook with that style. Here's a cartoony Hal Jordan. Technically, I've still never drawn the character. Guess I'll have to get around to that sometime. Any way, here it is...


A "tip of the hat" before I go to respective copyright holders. To DC, of course, for "Green Lantern," and to some unknown artist for the spacescape.

Good night!

more warm-ups...

by Mike Worley

I bought a new sketchbook, and have made a point to draw/sketch in it to warm up each day. Not that I think these are genius...they're just warm ups...but I have seen some renewed energy. And a fluctuation between doing some serious studies and drawing more cartoony.

In a cartoon book I found, I began to play with some simple shapes the author recommended to see what I could come up with.
A good effort, but it has me wondering about revisiting the exact same sets of shapes/design to see if I could come up with other alternatives. For some reason I could see doing the first one in Painter, taking the image hose to it and flooding it with the metallic effect. Sort of a "Silver Surfer" look...

... and this one gave me an initial "fish boy" thingy...

...or not.
Not enough mad scientists out there...


More play...


Later, Gator!

Relatives are relative...

by Mike Worley

I promised an image done for my daughter as her graduation announcement. Finally, it is done. To see the whole thing, just click on the image...


Also, here are my nieces with the hoodies I airbrushed for them as Christmas gifts. For all you airbrush jockeys out there, I make no claim to being either an expert, or any good at it...just passable. Or, the term most often used,...sell-able. Give me a pencil and a watercolor brush for inking, and I could hold my own, but airbrushing...I need more practice. But they seemed to like their gifts.



I can't help when a photo seems to scream for a good fumetti treatment. And this picture definitely brought out the worst in me. This is of my wife, mother-in-law, and sister-in-law. The quote maybe from Shakespeare, but you can figure out the inference on your own...


Really getting tired of the snow. It's almost March, and we got hit with more snow/sleet/freezing rain again. Sucks.

Time to work on some comic strip ideas! Updates to come!

bunches o' stuff...

by Mike Worley

I almost have my daughter's graduation "invitation" art done. Should be able to post it tomorrow. But since I haven't posted in a week, I thought I'd put up some "warm-up" sketches. Ironically, I keep ending up with "apemen"...



...and I drew "Ikaris" from Marvel Comics' "The Eternals"...my first attempt at this character...


I found this on a zip disk. I had drawn the art a few years back. Had a short burst of creativity and wanted to just do the thing with markers to see what I could do with them. Still may try to finish something with it. I formatted it to print it up on normal "copy" paper. To see it all, just click on it...

...and no, That is NOT Stan Lee in the panels. Just a coinky-dinky.

Lastly, I've been trying to draw a portrait of one of the kids who works for me, and have struggled with the likeness. So I thought doing a cartoony version might give me some insights. But I do like how this turned out, and may see if I can use it to give me an excuse to work it over in Painter...

For some reason a "Grecian" motif seems to be the direction the sketch took.

Lates!

warm up...

by Mike Worley

It's February and snowing. Any hoo, I've made it a goal to do more "realistic" style cartooning to get that discipline back. This is just something I did to warm up. It's of the Australian comic book character, "The Panther"...


Later!

going live...

by Mike Worley

My wife and I attended a "simo-cast" of "A Prairie Home Companion" this evening, and we enjoyed it thoroughly. So much so that we set a dream to attend a truly "live" performance sometime in Minnesota. I have a great respect for those who perform live. There is no net, and if you hit a "clinker," it's out there to stay.

We took in a performance at Starlight Theatre one evening a few years ago. Saw Robert Goulet as "King Arthur" in "Camelot." During the performance, one of the secondary actors did some "hamming," and you could see Goulet trying very much not to laugh, eventually cracking up on stage. That, too, is one of the thrills of a live performance.

On a survey at work, I was asked to relate my favorite "concert," and I put down that it was in 1967 when I was a kid and my parents had taken us to Gatlinburg, TN. We saw Archie Campbell and his troup in action and it was the funniest and best show I'd seen.

One year, an artist who worked with me gave Becky and I tickets to a drag queen theatre performance of "Valley of the Dolls," and we both enjoyed it.

I think we're going to try to find more "live" things.

The following sketch was done at Cripple Con 3 a few weekends ago in San Antonio. There is a story behind it, but suffice it say it might put me in an awkward position. It was done for, and of, a colleague of mine, Ryan Forrester. I had wanted that weekend to be more getting back into doing more comic book style stuff. Let's just say the picture really tells its own tale...


It's supposed to snow tonight, and my right knee is hurting. Sure wish this weather would settle down.

It's February, and it's cold...

by Mike Worley

I've been doing more sketching lately, and I've been trying to get caught up on "requests." My daughter is graduating and needs artwork for her graduation invitation. There are some girls who worked for me last season who wanted some drawings, too. I put this girl at the top of the list since she and I are to "trade" artwork. She has already given me one of her drawings, and was wanting something "superhero-ish." This is a first attempt at her as "Poison Ivy"...


To try and understand her features, I've also been working on more of a portrait study from a prom photo. Here's how that drawing is coming along...


That's it for now.

Welcome to February!