#204 Writing letters

I wrote a letter to a friend, and drew this space puppy pic.

I've distorted the text because letters is personal. 

But here's the drawing.

#203 Halloween 2013 / 2014

Some backlogged things:

Halloween pumpkin 2013:

Godzilla VS Hedorah

And Halloween costume 2014:

Made this during the summer when I had access to a lot of foam. And time.

I based my costume on the Fox from the Terrible Trio.

I made a last-minute Rilakkuma costume for a friend in my department.

As you can see, it's just a dressed-up dude in a mask.

We didn't want to cut holes in the Rilakkuma mask,

so I just cut a face into the back of it.

#202 CatDog Mechanics

This is a thought I had:

CatDog / Portal mashup. 

This doodle took way longer than it should have.

For those who want explication, CatDog was a show on 

Nickelodeon that ran during the end of the 90s into the 00s.

It was about a cat and dog attached at the abdomen.

Many people wondered how they pooped.

CatDog ™ of Nickelodeon.

#201 EGOT 2/12

Another drawing done in Paris the same night as Marvin Hamlisch.

John Gielgud

Emmy - 1991

Grammy - 1979

Oscar - 1981

Tony - 1961

Whatever, John, where's your Pulitzer? Marvin's got one.

PS: there is no order to these. Just done in the order I felt like.

#200 EGOT 1/12

In an attempt to get better with portraits, I decided I would 

do drawings of everyone who has EGOT'd. So here is that.

I did two of these in Paris.

Not a great drawings, but I guess the point is to get better.

Marvin Hamlisch
Emmy - 1995
Grammy - 1974
Oscar - 1973
Tony - 1976

Dude also won a Pulitzer Prize. Not bad. Not bad at all.

#199 Seven Wonders Sketches Part Two

No Animalia Post today. Sorreeee. But here's this instead.

For the Seven Wonders Series:

A sketch of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, in large

part inspired by what I remember of Nick's early sketches,

one of which can be seen in my last Seven Wonders post.

I'm very happy with this one, and for the battle, it'll be drawn

very large, with smaller Zeus and Artemis monsters fighting it.

#198 The Rhinoceros

Animalia: Day 141

The Rhinoceros

After Albrecht Dürer

After Albrecht Dürer + TMNT

Dunno.

Explanation: So I approached this drawing thinking about Dürer's ever-present rhinoceros. Dürer's rhino is a landmark in the history of art and – more importantly for me – in the history of printmaking. Perhaps more broadly, it is a landmark in the history of science and knowledge. It accordingly serves as the cover illustration of Susan Dackerman's exhibition catalogue Prints and the Pursuit of Knowledge. I take this print as a teaching point every time I talk about the history of prints and the power of images, especially in terms of multiples. 

(Dürer's Rhinoceros, via wikipedia)

It remains the quintessential image of a rhinoceros. Despite its inaccuracies, this image was powerful enough to shape the very idea of 'rhinocerosness' for hundreds of years after its production. One can read the wikipedia article (yes, it has its own article) for the whole story, but suffice it to say that this image – apart from looking super cool – changed the history of art, science, and knowledge itself.

And it is still effecting images of rhinos, and artists interested in interpreting Dürer's work in countless ways:

Don Moyer's 17 sketches of Dürer's rhinoceros from memory.

Rhino robot.

A reimagining of Dürer's rhino.

Another reimagining, this one with extended neck.

So I thus knew that I too would pay homage to Dürer. I first considered showing a more realistic rhinoceros removing the armor plates that Dürer has applied, as if he were wearing a suit of armor. This website is pretty exciting in showing the armor in its constituent parts. I then was thinking about more anthropomorphic rhinoceroses, and remembered Rocksteady, the constant companion of Bepop, from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I remember him from the cartoon, but it occurs to me that I might have had his action figure as well. I can't remember for sure.

Rocksteady (via TMNTpedia)

So I sketched out the body first on paper, then traced it onto the wacom tablet, giving me a basic outline. Since it was a sketch, at this point I hadn't added any of the clothes, but he was posed holding the gun. Then I started adding skin textures. Eventually, I had added textures to the whole thing, but hadn't added the clothes yet. This was more or less the third image posted above. At that point, I knew I wanted to post a version with all the textures visible, but the gun felt too violent, especially given what happens to rhinos in the wild, and other issues with guns happening right now in America. So I added the "Bang" to neutralize that. But it wasn't enough. I forgot about it and moved on to adding the clothes, which went well. I didn't go as far as giving him cargo pants and combat boots, but I still think it reads as Rocksteady without those, especially with the dangling turtle shell at his hips (what was that all about anyways?). Anyways, after having completed the full Rocksteady outfit, I decided to return and remove the gun (first image). It results in a somewhat awkward stance, but I am glad I did it. It is better than a rhino holding a gun for no reason. The monogram was added last, obviously inspired by / derived from Dürer's own. I also briefly considered adding a version of the Dürer rhino as a Judoon soldier from Doctor Who, but decided it would be too much work, and would cover up all the exciting textures anyways. So alas, no Judoon.

But here is a bonus Rhino from a few years ago, drawn from the Natural History Museum's brochure cover.

Tomorrow (probs not tho): the Saiga Antelope.

#197 The Raccoon

Animalia: Day 140

The Raccoon

So as I mentioned yesterday, this is one of a series of three drawings

of forest creatures on different sorts of vessels (plane, submarine, boat).

This was originally going to be a space ship, but I liked it as a sub better

because I could fill it with more animals. But the raccoon is still kind of 

floating in the way he did in my space ship sketches. The More You Know.

I did make one noticeable change in the actual drawing where I moved

the spotlight not he ground so that it lined up better. Cheating happens.

Tomorrow (not really sure what "tomorrow" is, due to time change going from Paris to Ky): the Rhinoceros.

#196 The Rabbit

Animalia: Day 139

The Rabbit

So this drawing and tomorrows – the raccoon (as well as the squirrel) 

– were done in 2011 and 2012 as gifts for my girlfriend at the time.

They form a series of forest animals in different ships of sorts.

Thus, they do not have the requisite "fig..." labels. But I colored them

for the purpose of putting them up for Animalia. It is also why the

animals are kind of secondary to the larger narrative of the image.

In any case, I really like how these turned out, hope you do too.

Strangely enough, they will be getting posted in the opposite order

that they were made. So the squirrel, which won't be up for months,

was actually done in early 2011, with the others done in 2012.

Tomorrow: the Raccoon.

#195 The Quetzalcoatlus

Animalia: Day 138

The Quetzalcoatlus

The quetzalcoatlus is an awesome giant-headed pterosaur.

It's also pretty cool that they're named after a feathered 

serpent God of the Aztecs. After having watched this video, 

I am realizing that I totally misunderstood the structure of

how its wings collapse when it walks. Whoops. It happens.

Tomorrow: the Rabbit.

#194 The Puffin

Animalia: Day 137

The Puffin

By request, I did the Puffin last night. It threw off the numbers

for the next few I've already done, but I removed the rat from

my list since I drew at least fifty of them for The Alchemist, as 

well as having already drawn a mouse, besides other rodents.

Done digitally, due to lack of scanner. Turned out alright tho.

Tomorrow: the Quetzalcoatlus.

#193 The Pufferfish

Animalia: Day 136

The Pufferfish

Dat smileeee. More texture brush here for the coloring.

Tomorrow: the Quetzalcoatlus

#192 The Pteraspis

Animalia: Day 135

The Pteraspis

Devonian period jawless fish with a hard shell front half.
I'm not really sure how its mouth works.

Also, I rediscovered some texture brushes I used to use,
and so you will be seeing some of those in the next few.
Also, I am pretty proud of the water texture, which was
done with a regular brush at low opacity, and then filtered
with blur and sharpness until it looked as it does here.
Surprisingly successful in its verisimilitude.

Tomorrow: the Pufferfish.

#191 The Psittacosaurus

Animalia: Day 134

The Psittacosaurus

Some simple colors but I like how they turned out.

Wasn't a fan of Barney when that was a thing, but apparently

I am kind of into coloring dinosaurs pink and purple.

Tomorrow: the Pteraspis.

#190 The Pronghorn

Animalia: Day 133

The Pronghorn

My first horned quadruped in a little while!

As much as I dislike all of the images of hunted and dead animals,

I am still pretty into taxidermy and the aesthetic of mounted heads.

Also, ritual masks that are way too big for their own good,

and art that emulates that sort of aesthetic. Anyways I kind of combined

those into a dude wearing a big animal head and dancing.

But I am very happy with how this one turned out.

In any case, I had originally drawn a boring body for this guy,

which reminded me too much of my drawings of the deer and chamois,

so I switched his body out for a human carrying a mounted head.

Which kind of negates this guy's status as a horned quadruped, eh?

Here's how it was originally going to look, via phone photo of process:

Tomorrow: the Psittacosaurus.

#189 The Porpoise

Animalia: Day 132

The Porpoise

The porpoise. For me, feels like another kind of boring one, but people 

seemed to really like the Porcupine, so maybe folks will like this too.

In any case, the next few days will be filled with ones that I think

are a lot more exciting and fun, so look forward to that!

Tomorrow: the Pronghorn.

#188 The Porcupine

Animalia: Day 131

The Porcupine

A little bit of color.

Tomorrow: the Porpoise.

#187 The Polar Bear

Animalia: Day 130

The Polar Bear

My first memory of an art museum was going to a museum in

elementary school. I don't remember what or where the museum was

(Lexington? Louisville? Cincy?), but I remember our assignment was

to seek out an artwork we liked and copy it. I picked a drawing (or was it

a print?) of a polar bear. A very simple line drawing. I remember copying

it closely and noting the curvature of the back and the hump where the

shoulder blades protrude. I was very young. But it has stuck with me,

very clearly, for some reason or another. It was not a sitting polar bear.

I can picture it very clearly. In any case, I don't think I have drawn a

polar bear since then. And for some reason the task seemed daunting.

But then I did it. So here's that.

minimal background.

Tomorrow: the Porcupine.

#186 The Platypus

Animalia: Day 129

The Platypus

Sketches. 

In retrospect, maybe I shoulda tried one with super long limbs.

Kept colors simple.

Did a big batch of scans so Animalia is back on for a few days.

Tomorrow: the Polar Bear.

#185 The Alchemist, Pages

Here are the first few pages of The Alchemist, the comic from the previous post. As you can see, the further along in the comic I illustrated, the more complex the drawing style got, to where the first page was about one night's work, the second page was maybe two days' work, and the third, unfinished page was already at about four days' work. And at that point I hadn't even reached the introduction of the protagonist. So the project seemed to be getting a little out of hand, in terms of how long it would have taken. Potentially it is something I can return to at any point, but we will see what happens. In any case, you can see the progression of style to be more realistically rendered, especially comparing the human figures. As mentioned in the previous post, the text and dialogue were written by a collaborator, Jonathan Martin.

Most of the panels on this page are unresolved, both in terms of composition and finish. I wasn't really sure how to integrate everything, especially in horizontal compositions when I wanted two characters interacting (in communion), which felt like it needed a more vertical slant.

#184 The Alchemist - Sketches

About two years ago, I started discussing the idea of making a comic 

book with a friend in the graduate program at SMU. He brought in an

English major friend from undergrad who already had some ideas

about a story, and together we worked more on basic outlines of plot.

It was going to be something like a supernatural comic about an 

alchemist in medieval Spain who hunts demons using alchemy - 

potions and gunpowder and some supernatural things. Knives too.

Like a medieval alchemist version of Guy Davis's The Marquis.

In any case, here are some character sketches.

The protagonist. 

Based his appearance on Medieval/ Renaissance images of alchemists, 

Jews, arabs, etc. (i.e. the 'other'). Thus, forked beard, pointy hat.

Demon sketches.

Based some on Medieval / Renaissance images of demons.

The one at the top left would be the main demons, and bear similarities

to the Angel I also sketched. The little guy with black wings, and the 

goofy wobbly leg guy to his left would have also been in it, I think.

This is the angel's design, based on medieval images and biblical

descriptions. The demon and angel were meant to look like they

were at one point the same race because the bible and stuff.

#183 Doodles

Doodling.

Don't really like this. I am apparently bad at just drawing random things

and whatever comes to mind. Started with the lion and worked from there. 

In hindsight, it looks like I was channeling Jeremy Fish with the stump/ 

hand/ woodchuck on the right. I like the town in the clouds, but regret 

adding the rainbow clouds... I think the town was inspired by miniature 

sets from some old Doctor Who (William Hartnell) episodes I was watching.

#182 Seven Wonders Sketches Part One

Back around 2009, Nick Francel and I conceived of a series

of prints - probably silk screened, though we considered etchings -

of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World coming to life and

duking it out in a giant monster battle of ancient and epic proportions.

Back then, we did some sketches and divided up the wonders,

but we never got to the actual making stuff together part.

When we met up again in 2011 in Boston, we did a few more 

sketches, and tweaked the ideas a little, but again, no further.

Unfortunately, the original sketches for most of the wonders were 

lost to time and - most likely - the back of a flat-file in St. Louis.

However, I do have one of Nick's sketches from our time in Boston:

(Here we were toying with the idea of making them worm's-eye-views.

But I am bad at foreshortening so we abandoned that.)

We divided up responsibilities, each doing one Wonder per battle:

Nick:                           Jun:

- Hanging Gardens   VS.   Pyramids -

- Temple of Artemis   VS.   Statue of Zeus -

- Colossus of Rhodes   VS.   Lighthouse of Alexandria -

- Collaborative Mausoleum of Halicarnassus Zombie Apocalypse -

In any case, I loved this idea, and think about it often.

With that in mind, I started working on all of them again last month.

And now I have sketches done for everything except for Zeus and Artemis.

I have also rearranged the battles, so that it is as follows: 

Mausoleum VS. Pyramids

Colossus VS. Lighthouse

Zeus + Artemis VS. Gardens

I am posting some of the sketches now here, but I plan on making them 

into etchings eventually. Unfortunately the Cité does not have etching 

facilities, otherwise I would be making the prints as we speak.

Here are some mock ups made with sketches:

This will also have both sides producing giant waves and boats.

The Colossus's boats will have Greek Fire and he might also be blowing fire 

from his torch. The Lighthouse will also have some arrows stuck in him.

I forgot that in my sketches back in 2009, I also had the Sphinx

helping the Pyramids. I will probably add that for the etching.

The Mausoleum was drawn on a much smaller scale, so in the final

there would be a lot more details of statues and such, and many 

more lions and zombie skeletons.