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Hi folks today we take a break from guns and cowboy cows to look at the results of a little exercise. This little sketch was conceived in photoshop under a strict set of rules. The goal was to free paint an image from the web. Rules were to not use the dropper to pick colors(or tones). Everything was drawn in a single layer using no undos. The trick is to practice looking and not overly rely on the other programs features. It was fun to work in a manner thats a little more traditional.

Stay tuned for more guns and cowboys next week.

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Continuing the trip through the old sketchbooks we come to the Bee Lady. I cant remember if I first drew a be and then decided to add a tiny lady on top or if I drew a reclining lady and put a giant bee on the bottom.

I think I may had seen some pages of Xenozoic Tales by Mark Shultz which featured a segmented insect eye which I thought was short of awesome. His figure drawing was also top notch. It’s a funny picture this Bee Lady.

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This is an old sketch from an old college sketchbook. I really just sat down to doodle a few shapes and out of that came this mad max styled rider and tank. I started pondering making a comic about this guy where he rides the tank into post apocalyptic wastelands to locate treasures from before the cataclysm. I dubbed that idea “spelunker” cause I kept thinking this guy would be some kind of underground sherpa who’s hired to lead some villagers to a treasure trove of food.

Ah the 90’s were a crazy time for comics. For impressionable teens it seems the ticket for success was a mix of spandex, crazy beam powers, hot girls, an uptight bossy leaders, anti-social dudes with long fingernails and one personality free big guy with biceps the size of Volkswagen beetles.

Don’t believe me? Look at the image at the end of this post. Back then what us average consumers didn’t realize there was no craft. There was just a big comic bubble fueled by greedy speculators and publishers who offered everything from variant, to foil, 3D and all kinds of random covers for derivative work. You can read about it in wikipedia’s entry on comic book collecting.

All that said just before going to college I had only re-discovered mainstream comics. I feverishly collected and came up with my own stories and characters. I had the “Patrulla Protectora” (Protector Patrol), “Black Armor” and later “Geo Force” which I will one day post original art for. This here is a re-envisioned sketch I made in college using the look of popularized by folks like Jim Lee, Joe Madureira, Mark Silvestry.

In my picture and by tradition our heroes are being attack by lizard/dinosaur things which are obviously (NOT being run out of their land by galactic government) evil. Clockwise from top left we have giant Hard Rock (the guy strong as a mountain), upside down and shooting is a fire chick who’s name escapes me.  Tiny on the top right is the lightning dude and leader who’s name also escapes me.

Bellow him is another hero chick running towards the camera, she’s the twin sister of fire girl, she’s named “Ice Dancer”, I think. The dude on the bottom right is called “Wildlife” (90% sure). He can become intangible, healing factor wolflike dude powers.  Near the center there’s another hero chick with a tentacle for hand, she’s called a “Evergreen” and has plant based powers. She shoots spores, grows tentacles and probably eats (NOT people) evil doers. Back then stuff like that was the coolest.

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I while back I was getting ready to make art for the UAG’s Undead Show. I had two ideas, one became the Undead Manifesto and another was the Vampire Jesus. I wanted to use watercolor but I felt really rusty. So much in fact that the actual paint had dried up inside the tube. Luckily if you can get it out and add water you can still use it.

One can almost say the same thing about art. I did this life sketch in hopes to practice from life before going into imaginary images. It was really fun, coming out a bit better than I expected. Probably took about 30 minutes to an hour.

Our subject Penny only moved a little during the whole affair. She started with eyes open and front paws showing halfway she changed her pose. You can still see pencil marks on her forehead where the eyes used to be. It’s really helpful to draw from life the trick is finding something thats interesting in texture, color, composition and subject.

Vampire Jesus didn’t come out as well. but Undead Manifesto did.