a work in progress...

I had a real burst of creativity around 2004/2005, as far as beginning to find my voice and how the pencil naturally wants to move with the hand. As I stated earlier, I can try to do the "edgy" thing, but am never that happy with it. This style is cartoony, but not so "simplified" and abstract...somewhere between. It has its pitfalls. And I'm really trying to find a project with which to do something with it. Would it "sell" in today's comics market? Who knows?!

I thought I had a project and publisher, but it didn't work out. And while they have their version, I do, as well. And if the truth were told, we both had some demons to overcome. I did a lot of character designs that I like for said project, and when it fell through, I was in the doldrums. Then I went to the doctor to find out my hands were "dying." After some surgeries and therapy, I now find myself a few years later not better from the wear, but kind of back at square one looking for a personal artistic voice. But enough whining, here's one of my better designs for a character. Don't know what I'm going to do with him as yet, but we'll see...


I've received some comments on my "Martian" guy. I admit to him having some inspiration from not only the "Outer Limits," but also "Lost in Space." Guess I like big-headed aliens. His look was inspired by one of Yul Brenner's costumes in the "10 Commandments," so he has an Egyptian feel, too. Getting back in the mindset of this style, I realized I was drawing too may lumps and bumps, and that the anatomy needed to be more streamlined. Here's how the pencil drawing turned out...


While non-photo blue has been a standard for a long time, I don't like the blue, but prefer warmer colors. Photoshop and Pagemaker have simplified this process for me. I place the pencil tiff in a Pagemaker document and print it out red at 15%. After inking it, I scan it in RGB, then tweak the levels and change the mode to CMYK. After that I get rid of all the channels except the black one, change the mode to grayscale, then to bitmap at 600dpi. Here's my inked version.


I'd go into all the details of doing up the color, but you can read up on it from an expert by purchasing Brian and Kristy Miller's book, "Hi-Fi Color for Comics." Brian is the best in my opinion. And yes I'm biased as the book does contain a lot of art by yours truly. Any way, here's a working version with some flat color.


Sorry for the infrequency in posting. I've been extremely busy of late, and will be playing evil Pontius Pilate in my church's Resurrection Sunday drama. I may post some pictures. Be warned...it will be a fat guy in a toga.

PS--Happy Purim!!!

some doodlin'

I was talking to a friend of mine last night, and started doodling with a pencil. While not my best effort, it reaffirms that working in this style--somewhat "Disney-esque"--comes a bit more naturally. I've tried doing edgy and "angular," but I have to work at it, and it never really looks quite what I want. Can't help it. It just flows more smooth and rounded. Anyway, here's my first doodle...


kind of brutish guy.

The next one had more of an "Outer Limits" feel. The original series, thank you. And I was a big fan when I was a kid. Even had most of the card set. Here's my "alien"...


Out of that one, I started a "super-being" sketch. If I get some time, I'll work it up and show some others I did back in 2005.


While I'm at it, the friend I was talking to is cartoonist, Monte May. If you haven't seen his online strip, you should check it out at: http://www.pigtalesonline.com. Caio!

an old idea revisited

I don't have much to blather on about. Too much stuff to do. And my right knee is killing me.

While sorting through sketches and such to file away, I came across a character and an idea I had let fall by the wayside. A harkening back to bygone days. Any way, consider this a teaser and other stuff will (hopefully) follow...

the art biz and the God biz...

It's been a few days, so let's get the easy one done first. Interviews were going on Monday for spots for Kaman's Art Shoppes at Worlds of Fun here in KC. This kid came in for a caricature interview. A decent artist with a strong portfolio, but I couldn't resist doing a quick caricature of him.


The rest of this mental rumination is about a current project for one of the missionaries at church.

To be frank, I don't like a lot of tv preachers, and am wary of most ministries. I tend to be selective because I hate being played for a sucker. There are exceptions, such as the DeHaans and "Day of Discovery," which I like and enjoy. Then I learned about Sat-7.

Dennis Wiens is a missionary in our church, and he works for Sat-7, which is a Christian broadcast ministry to the Middle East. But its content is for the middle eastern Christian with programming produced AND DONE by middle easterners. And not the "radio with a face" concept that is prevalent in American Christian broadcasting, but actual shows. He approached me a few years ago about drawing a minicomic for kids that he could take to missions' conferences. It seemed there wasn't a whole lot of material for children that would help them to understand what was going on. Or, at least, to enlighten them about Sat-7. Out of this came "Dr. Salaam" and "Ray."


Ray was easy, reminiscent of all the "Rocky and Bullwinkle," or "Underdog" cartoons I watched as a kid. But the other "spokesperson" needed to be "middle-eastern" in look, not western/European/American. Thus a somewhat daunting task of drawing a pleasant, funny, and engaging "AAAAy-rab. I made him tall, since Ray is short...better to play off of one another. I chose the name "Salaam" because it means "peace."

The first little "adventure" seemed to have success. Since then, it's gone on to be "tweaked" for a British audience, and has even been translated into Arabic. I was impressed!


So now, Dennis and I have been brainstorming a "sequel." One idea we had was artwork for a "sodapop can bank," which kids could save up their spare change to help raise funds for Sat-7 KIDS, a new network exclusively for children. And a new(and hopefully improved) minicomic to go with it. I have it thumbnailed and almost layed out, and I'll post some progress here along the way. Any way, here's what the bank art looks like...so far. Still a few tweaks to correct.


Enjoy!

a lazy Sunday...

My wife and I went to see "Jumper" tonight. It was a good film and I enjoyed it. You could tell, though, from the rather abrupt ending that it is being set up as a "franchise" for future films. The best way to describe it would be "Hiro" from "Heroes" without all the things annoying.

To segue...he was one of the seminal writers for television and one of the finest storytellers--the one and only Rod Serling!


His show, "The Twilight Zone," had several episodes that scared me quite a bit. But he never really had great success in motion pictures. That surprises me. Shamalayan's movies, such as "Sixth Sense," "Signs," and "The Village," harken with a wink toward "The Twilight Zone," and have been quite successful. One of Serling's screenplays that did "break through" was "Planet of the Apes."

I was a bit disappointed with Burton's remake. It had all the technical marvels lacking in the '67 movie, but none of the bite. The absurdity. The suspension of disbelief. One of the things not done in either was with the issue of evolution. If mankind had definitely fallen to the bottom of the evolutionary chain, then why the clothes? The obvious answers are in the times. In 1967, too much nudity was a "no-no" regardless, and in someways that didn't change in the remake--skirting by with giving humans intelligence, but under repression. And an avoidance of the dreaded NC-17, or (horror of horrors!) X or multiple x's.

I did a version of Taylor in an earlier post, inspired by what had been done on "Star Wars: Clone Wars," which was brilliantly animated and a great fix for Star Wars fans. Call it a "what if?...," but I did it with the daydream of what a new animated "POTA" might look like, or at least, how I might do it. A melding of what had been done before in previous incarnations, but with all the satire and "teeth" of what Rod Serling envisioned. And mankind would not be smart enough to clothe--that is something only intelligent creatures do, such as the Apes. Just a fancy, which at least gets me to warm up the pencils.

I, in no way, am taking anything from the beautiful Estelle Warren. Her part in the remake seemed like a waste of her presence. But I do admit that Linda Harrison's "Nova" made quite an impression on me in those days of dawning puberty. So this particular sketch is based on her. And yes, tasteful coverage is a part of the fun.

Journaling

My wife has been asked to make a presentation on "positive journaling" at a women's conference. The idea being to write positive things in one's journal--ideas and the like--instead of all the negative crap and complaining that most do. Blogs, I would guess, make it easy to "go off," for lack of a better term. "Rant" may be more accurate in some cases. While I'm sure that it may have some therapeutic value on some level, doing so on the public forum of the Internet doesn't seem wise or prudent.

I found a sketchbook I started last fall while continuing to clean and organize the studio. I know so because the drawings started in it were from the time the 'Halloweekends," or whatever they were called this past year, at Worlds of Fun. They had live midway "personalities," and one in particular was very good at creeping out the crowd and giving a good scare. While my version is from my own memory, I thought it turned out rather well. And it will be good to show that I can draw other stuff other than the "funny" stuff.



I got to meet Tom Richmond finally at an NCS gathering here in town, also in October. It was a fun time, and it seemed like an organization I'd like to see about joining. There was a break before the evening presentation, and I had some time to sketch a bit in the lounge area. Don't know why I can't do this kind of stuff on "live" caricatures. Must be a stealth thing.



Finally,...I signed up for a correspondence course through the Kubert School. It feels like I need to sharpen my skills. It's funny, originally I started out wanting to do superheroes, but it seemed like I stumbled into doing the funny stuff. In one of the lessons, Joe encourages to "stretch" and think in different shapes and such. Possibly the hero could be a "fat" guy(?) As this one turned out, he will more than likely be the villain in something that's been rolling around the noggin. So far, the only name I've come up with that I like is "Blubber." He's a bit gross, though...a fat guy in a speedo. I should know. I would look terrible in a speedo. He reminds me of some of the pro wrestlers from the '50's and early '60's. Not all the guys were fat, but some were really knarled up porkers.



I finished "The Sopranos" tv show. A bit bent that Bobby got offed, and the show went more "scorched earth" in its exit. It was nice that it ended with the family. I have some "Heroes" sketches to noodle and develop, and it's irritating the show is probably gone until next season. But hey! Battlestar Galactica will be coming up in April! And it looks like this year's movie season will be better than 2007.

Sometimes when you win, you lose...

Guess I'm not done yet with "The Sopranos." Soon. But watching and sketching has been good to get me "rebooted."

I'm now up to Season 6.5. Watching a series via dvd has both strengths and drawbacks. Not having HBO, and borrowing the dvd's from my daughter, I have to admit to being a bit "hooked." Season 3 was the weakest, IMHO. It seemed the series shifted, and I see Nancy Marchand's death early in Season 3 as facilitating that shift. Her character has been my favorite, as she WAS the true gangster of them all. From then on, it became a "gangster" show with each year providing a new antagonist of sorts whose destiny of being whacked was fairly evident.

Not that there weren't other characters of interest. "Big Pussy," Gloria, and Adrianna were characters whose deaths, while inevitable, were well fleshed out, and I "felt" for them when death came(although Gloria's more as an aside on the series.) Richie, Jackie Jr., Ralphie, and Tony B.,...I kind of knew it was a matter of time.

By Season 6, there was a feeling of "who gets whacked this week." The show felt like it was marking time a bit, which I know will draw me the ire of loyalists by making such a comment. After all, modern critics and fans have all proclaimed it the "best ever!," generally meaning neophyte comments like mine, by someone who got on the bandwagon after the fact, will be suspect. BID. And yes, I would say the episodes of "Tony's coma" were the "jump the shark" point for the series.

One character who didn't mark time, but seems to have developed and "snuck up" on me has been Bobby. Again, I see this by having watched the season progressively and back to back. He is the inspiration for the title of today's blog entry.

He started out in season 2 as a doofus. One of Junior's "crew," with Junior(in prison) now out of favor, Bobby took every insult, humiliation, condemnation and verbal assault. Bobby was a trenches guy. He eventually took care of Junior, again absorbing every insult Tony and others could hurl. I laughed out loud when he showed up in the deerhunter gear to go rescue Christopher and Paulie, even though in afterthought he was the most prepared and knew how to survive in the woods. Unlike the others, he had no outside mistresses, but was completely devoted to his wife and family. One couldn't help but feel for him when she died. I cringed at his marriage to Janice, one character I kept/keep hoping will get whacked. (Remember, I haven't seen it to the end, yet.) He's been good for her, and he is an individual while others are too suck-up. I like a guy who loves electric trains. And, he kept taking crap from Tony, even while Tony was in Bobby's house.

One thing I found upsetting has been the "Tony can get away with anything because he's 'The Boss'" crap. In one episode(season 4?), Tony goes out of his way to infuriate Janice after she's seriously tried to deal with anger issues. Tony took his anger out on one of the Bing's bouncers, a huge guy who took the pounding because he's supposed to, when anyone else would've had his head handed to him by said bouncer. To re-establish his "boss" status, Tony "takes on" a big kid(after his coma and recovery episodes)pounding him for a supposed "insult." There never seemed to be a "reckoning" for Tony, and it's that narcissism about the series that I have found a bit disturbing...until today watching the first episode of Season 6.5.

Bobby "cleaned Tony's clock" after having about enough of Tony insulting his wife, regardless that she's Tony's sister. While purists and Tony loyalists will argue the "sucker punch" angle, the fact was he stood toe to toe with Tony Soprano, not backing down, and layed out a' whoopin' on someone who'd been needing one. He didn't back down. I cheered. But it cost him a bit of his soul. He'd never killed anyone, and his next assignment from Tony was just that. He won. But he lost a lot more, too.

Call all this a bit of a "life lesson" for me today.

I also did some sketching, some caricaturing, or cartoonituring, of other Soprano's characters. Enjoy!






If you think you can guess who they are, let me know.