Benny & The Cakes

This is part 2 of the cupcake incident. This was a fun little project. A little slow and frustrating in the beginning as I didn't know what the hell I was going to do. I think it all turned out well in the end. Have fun Ben. [ink + digital]



Here is the front cover of the invitation for Ben's 16th birthday party. For privacy reasons, I am not going to post the inside layout I used the cupcake for:

A random scribble omelette

I have a paper in front of my keyboard at work that I just draw random things on. Sometimes they a roughs or thumbnails of jobs that I am doing. Other times it might be an image I just can't get out of my head. Most times, they are just scribbles that my pencil point does by itself when it makes contact with the paper. Occasionally they are really bad, most times though, they are just really rough ideas that may lead to something good. [pencil]

Full page scribble:



Scribble details:

"When they all cry peace, you know destruction comes"

So an old friend asked me to draw him a tattoo based on the album cover for No Innocent Victim's "Flesh and Blood". What were the stakes? A case of 60 Minute IPA. Tasty. [pencil + digital]

Full drawing:



Angel detail:



Snake detail:



Original album cover used for concept:

Detroit Rock Scotty

We had my bro (and my sis-in-law) over on Saturday for some birthday spring rolls. Whipped out a card for him in the afternoon, because that is how I roll. The version I gave my brother was drawn on bristol board then colored by hand with Crayola colored pencils borrowed from my girls. I did not get a scan of that. Anyway, here is the first inked drawing I did to get something I could transfer onto the bristol. I threw it in illustrator for some color fun. [ink + digital]

Tasty, and oh so delicious icing

This is a cupcake I drew for an invitation. I will eventually post the entire invitation. My wife wants this as a tattoo...that silly girl and her tattoos. Anyway, this may be my only post for the week. Stupid busy at work. Have a good one. [ink + digital]

During the Bush era...

This is an oldie. Long story behind this one. Try to condense it to a cliff notes version:

Commissioned for t-shirt + sob story + no money = screwed Mr. Keith

Oh well, I still had fun doing this. Commentary is on the how the media helped congress and Mr. Bush sell war in Iraq to the people of this great country. I could see through their bullshit from day 1, I just wanted them to shut up. Assholes. [pencil + digital]

Ugh, woke up late...not prepared

I hate waking up late. I am so neurotic about being punctual that if I am not on time, my day is shot to hell from a mental standpoint. I absolutely did not know what to post today, due to the cloud of lateness that is looming over my head. Anyway, here is an invite I did for my niece's first birthday. The original ink drawing was bad, and required a lot of photoshop work on my part. Not even going to post it. This is from my coming out of retirement phase, when the hands were rusty from not drawing. [ink + digital]

I need another tattoo...ASAP

Let's keep the tattoo thing going. This half-sleeve is on my wife's other arm. This was actually commissioned before the tree tattoo featured in yesterday's post. Another bare-knuckled fist fight followed with a kick to the groin type of job. When she let go of the reins, this is what happened. [ink + digital]

Lineart:



Color sleeve (Noted: Her half-sleeve actually has a blue background):



Let it also be noted that I enjoy making my wife happy, most times it is very easy. I don't want my audience to always think it is difficult to work with her.

I want a weeping willow...

The story is, that Jen, my wife, likes to get tattoos. She will ask me to draw something for her. She will give me an idea of what she wants, then I get pissy as I actually start to draw it due to the constraints of her conceptualization. An argument usually ensues due to the fact that I am usually not into what she is asking me to do. Finally, she says to just do whatever and storms off. About an hour later, still keeping her initial concept in mind and me feeling like their is a bit more freedom, I usually come up with something cool that she loves. We never seem to agree on art direction. She is my worse client, but I still lover her immensely. [ink + digital]

Anyway, I did a version where I reversed the art. This is how I would print it, preferably silk screen or wood block:



Here is the version she got tattooed as a half-sleeve:

Eat your pudding, Mr. Land.

"The natives over there are cannibals. They eat liars with the same enthusiasm as they eat honest men." -Captain Nemo.

I remember the first time I saw Disney's "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea". It was such an epic moment in my childhood. I obsessed relentlessly over the leviathans, especially squids and octopi. My dad had these Time Life animal kingdom books. I would constantly be looking at the marine life one. Always referencing those few pages on squids, so I could draw them just right. The squid battle in the movie was fantastic. Anyway, those times drawing it from reference didn't help me. Which brings us to today's scribble, an inaccurate drawing of a squid. Eventually I would like to get a half-sleeve on my other arm of a battle between man and leviathan. [pencil]



I wanted to be Captain Nemo. His character was so awesome, I always wished he would have come out on top at the end of the movie. The Nautilus would have been my home too.

"There is hope for the future. And when the world is ready for a new and better life, all this will someday come to pass. In God's good time." -Captain Nemo

Retirement Plan

I drew these alpacas (cousin to the llama) for a client logo. The logo was a disaster, but at least I got to do some ink work.

After reading about them and physically seeing them, my wife and I decided we would like a little herd of alpacas to tend after when we retire to our little scenic farm. Grow some vegetables and meditate in the meadow with the alpacas. They have their own version "Om."

A train, a train...would you, could you, on a train?

Start with one train:



Next, add a little portrait of one daughter:



Finally, mix it up in Illustrator, and you have one invitation:



[ink + digital]

Maybe it's Maybelline...

This is Hodd The Bunny. He is a real life ceramic statue that you can paint in one those studios for a set amount of dollars. I know this was popular in the early 80s. My mom used to go to downtown Columbia on certain evening and paint these type of things. She was pretty good, painted a very realistic owl and such. I can't even tell you how many of those things my brother and I broke accidentally.

Let's get back to Hodd, this was a gag gift from my friend Rob. We often will try to find the most horrible gift you can get someone for the cheapest price possible. At this particular moment, he was going through a yard sale phase and found this treasure. A rabbit painted mostly white with pastel clothing to fill the rest of him out. The thing that was striking and creepy at the same time, is that someone decided to glue fake eyelashes on this rabbit. Not just fake eyelashes, but eyelashes that have too much mascara on them. So I named him Hodd. Now he lives in the laundry room on top of the cabinets batting his luscious eyelashes at all who enter that domain.

Anyway, this was a first attempt at inking him. I drew this a long time ago when I decided I wasn't drawing enough anymore. I plan on revisiting Hodd, and give him the artistic immortality he deserves. [ink]



The original Hodd:

Oh nos!

Monday morning production meeting scribble: What if Squidbot was not a bio-mechanical organism, but just 100% robot? What if he had a bad memory from his robot-hood? What would it be about? [pencil]

Prehistoric Beaver?

Another scribble that happened on the same press check as Phonebot 8000b. I just started to draw some strokes with my brush pen, this is what came out. Is is a beaver, jungle rat or a wombat? Is it even from this era? Ink and digital.