Tuesday, May 31, 2011

#64 The Dog

Animalia: Day 47
The Dog

Thumbnails.


Sketch


Final version 1.


Final version 2.

Okay, I know, I'm a day behind.
But seriously, look at them past few drawings, they took a hot minute.
I wanted to do the dog justice for a few reasons.
For starters, there are a ton of dog breeds that should all be their
own species considering how morphologically diverse they are.
Apart from that, my girlfriend (and I) has a Boston Terrier pup
who we have been living with for a few months, and I had to do it for her.

So there (s)he is as Johnny Storm, the Boston Terrier.
Then there is the Papillon as Sue Storm,
the Bulldog as Ben Grimm, and the Dachsund as Reed Richards.

So, I wanted to do a couple different species,
and I thought of just doing the heads,
which reminded me of the old comics that would show
just the heads of the characters in the top left corner.
With that in mind, I thought the F4 would be good because
they each have distinct characteristics and personalities, like dogs.
I took FF#1 as inspiration, and intended to include a title and the head box at top,
but forgot about them when doing the large drawing,
while also adding in some octopuses to be the foes.

Anyways, version 1 was the finished version,
where I realized it lost its comic book feel in the background coloring.
So I just took all the BG colors and upped the saturation and lightness,
which lead to version 2.

Anyways, hopefully I'll be able to get back on schedule tomorrow or the day after.

Tomorrow: the Dolphin.

Monday, May 30, 2011

#63 The Dodo

Animalia: Day 46
The Dodo

This one is a bit late because while looking at dodo pics,
got distracted by how amazing looney tunes are. and from 1938.

Also, wanted to do some birds eye view,
to try and fix my inability to draw perspectives.
A couple hours (and thumbnails) later,
I had a preliminary drawing.
Finished it this morning, then decided to add a background.

Anyways, I'm happy with how this turned out,
though I wish the mouth was more frowny and froglike,
and it's a little too Toucan Sam for my liking.

Later today: the Dog.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

#62 The Dimetrodon

Animalia: Day 45
The Dimetrodon

Apparently the Dimetrodon is not a dinosaur.
Then what is it?
Who knows.

I should have scanned the thumbnail sketch for this, it's much cuter.
Also should have just done the shading in pencil,
and not bothered with doing it in pen.

Oh well, live and learn.

and get Luvs.

Tomorrow: the Dodo

Friday, May 27, 2011

#61 The Deer

Animalia: Day 44
The Deer


Boring boring boring.
You can tell by the eraser marks and sketches on the original that
the majority of my time was spent drawing those stupid HQ legs.
You can also see the erased original tiny bodied version I did.
Basically, by the time I got the legs looking half decent,
I hated the drawing, so I didn't color it either.

Tomorrow: the Dimetrodon

Thursday, May 26, 2011

#60 The Crow

Animalia: Day 43
The Crow


Based on the [probably offensive?] crow characters in Dumbo. 

Tomorrow: the Deer

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

#59 The Crab (Heike crab or Heikegani)

Animalia: Day 42
The Crab


Last time I was in Japan, my dad told me about Heike crabs.

They're special cause they got samurai faces on they backs.

My drawing is pretty faithful to the actual things, except that I pulled
details from a few different examples in order to make it super face-like.
The biggest change I made was moving the circles that make the pupils up a bit,
so that they were contained within the eye area, normally they are just outside of it.
You can read about them on Wikipedia, and see some pictures here.

Tomorrow: the Crow

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

#58 The Crocodile

Animalia: Day 41
The Crocodile


Topical humor circa five years ago?

So, this crocodile stands in contrast to the alligator
we did over way back on Day 3.

I chose to do a comic, which was originally just going to be three panels,
but kind of took on a life of its own.
Notice how the shading style I stole from Eric Powell for my chicken
has worked its way into the EMANCIPATION panel.

I only spent 20 minutes on the colors because I want to sleep tonight,
so I am kind of displeased with them. They're just sloppy.
Wish I had more time to spend on stuff like this.

But I am reallyreally happy with how the story panels came out.

Also: Schnappi. CLICK IT.

or ticket.

Tomorrow: the Crab

Monday, May 23, 2011

#57 The Cowfish

Animalia: Day 40
The Cowfish

Animalia is back from a 3 day hiatus with the cowfish!
I first learned of the cowfish when I saw them at the City Museum in St. Louis.
They were my second favorites in the aquarium after the nautilus,
which ended up dying. So they're my favorites now.

The cowfish is one of those animals that is so ungodly cute
that you can't possibly believe they actually exist.
It has the legs of a Zubat, the fins of a Horsea, and the ears of a Pikachu.
+___________
cowfish

I mean, honestly. It's adorable.
I will probably add color and repost tomorrow.

Also, maybe the mouth of a Jynx.

Tomorrow: the Crocodile

Saturday, May 21, 2011

#56 Nick Francel Collabs

Met up with Nick today.
Some of our collab plans didn't come to fruition,
and we resorted to exquisite corpses.


Maybe they will get colors someday.

We might meet up tomorrow and work on more stuff.
Animalia will resume Monday.

Friday, May 20, 2011

#55 a friendly note

Sorry kids, no animalia tonight.
Went to a Ramblin' Jack Elliot concert and didn't have time tonight.
Also, Nick is in Boston, so we will meet up tomorrow
and hopefully make some sweet arts.

This should also give him a bit of a chance to catch up on animalz.

To hold you over, my friend Lilian drew this exquisite picture of a sloth:

She also sends these fun tidbits:
• Three-toed sloths only have two toes, but three fingers.
• Sloths are funny looking when they cross streets, youtube it.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

#54 The Cow

Animalia: Day 39
The Cow


Didn't feel like drawing the whole body,
though the prospect of drawing veiny utters was tempting.
The hair on top of the head inspired me to make him super cool.
And cool cows stay in school and off the streets.

Tomorrow: the Cowfish

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

#52 cont. The Coelacanth


Coloredddddd

#53 The Cookiecutter Shark

Animalia: Day 38
The Cookiecutter Shark

I didn't know about this animal until recently,
but I am terrified.
They have mouths that take golfball-size
chunks of meat out of other, much larger fish.
Also, their teeth are terrifying.

Tomorrow: the Cow

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

#52 The Coelacanth

Animalia: Day 37
The Coelacanth

The coelacanth is pretty dope,
and was the subject of a Jetta ad years ago.

I added more head plating to make it
more similar to early jawed fishes.

As you can see, not much changed from the original to final.
Didn't have time to color it,
but maybe I will do that in the fyoo-chure?

Happy to do a texture other than hair or fur again.

Tomorrow: the Cookiecutter Shark.

Monday, May 16, 2011

#51 The Coati

Animalia: Day 36
The Coati

The coati is another marmot raccoon thing.
It is also known as the Brazilian aardvark, Mexican tejón,
hog-nosed coon, pizote, crackoon, and snookum bear...
I know, I thought Wikipedia had been vandalized too,
but I double checked snookum bear, and it clears.

Anyways, I did this drawing based on this
crooked hog-nosed coon (how is that not offensive?).

The background is my default grass to sky treatment.

Tomorrow: the Coelacanth!
(Finally something not small and furry!)

Sunday, May 15, 2011

#50 The Civet

Animalia: Day 35
The Civet


The Civet is like a weird raccoon marmot cat.
Sometimes they got real long necks.
The end.

Tomorrow: the Coati

Saturday, May 14, 2011

#49 The Chinchilla

Animalia: Day 34
The Chinchilla

I guess they can't all be winners.

Tomorrow: the Civet

Friday, May 13, 2011

#48 The Chimpanzee

Animalia: Day 33
The Chimpanzee


Started this one with the image of the expression of the
mouth and old cartoony eyes in my head.
Turned out well, I think.

The coloring doesn't add too much, but it is fine.

I think my rendering has improved since I started this project,
and I've added a couple of marks and techniques to my toolkit,
so I think it is an overall success.

Anyways,
Tomorrow: the Chinchilla

#47 The Chicken

Animalia: Day 32
The Chicken


Blogger has been down for about a day, hence the late post.

So.
Been trying some other stuff I've seen Eric Powell do in The Goon,
and that's how I arrived at the back lit chicken.
Also, some obvious nods to Carravaggio and the
long tradition of decapitation in the History of Art,
be it St. John the Baptist, Goliath, or Holofernes.
This being a result of the stories about chickens
living for days after their heads have been cut off.

The "Strange Tales" title just felt inevitable
when combining gangster horror comics and
true stories about headless chickens.
Maybe Tim Lane's influence had a part in it too.

Also, fairly happy with it because I didn't really
use any reference photos except for the head.

Tomorrow: the Chimpanzee

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

#46 The Cheetah

Animalia: Day 31
The Cheetah


Ignore the background.

Mainly just into the face on this one, took forever.

Tomorrow: the Chicken

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

#45 The Chamois

Animalia: Day 30
The Chamois

Apparently the Chamois is another HQ (horned quadruped).
It is described as a goat antelope, which I like to call a goat-a-lope,
not to be confused with go-ta-elope, which is what confused young'uns do.

I really need to figure out how to draw these HQs.
I always kind of cop out on them, the figure is never very strong,
which is why I think I liked the bull so much.

Anyways,
Tomorrow: the Cheetah

Monday, May 9, 2011

#44 The Chameleon

Animalia: Day 29
The Chameleon


Really happy with this one.
I'm in a pencil groove right now.
I think it's because I'm still working my way through all of the TPB's of The Goon,
and he does a lot of amazing stuff with pencils.
I would find more examples if I had time.

Anyways, happy with this one.
Tom will give me trouble about my flame-job.

Tomorrow: the Chamois (its an H-Q)

Sunday, May 8, 2011

#43 cont. The Cat

Animalia: Day 28
The Cat - Part two


Turns out I value sleep less than I thought,
and I ended up finishing it tonight.

It isn't as good as it was in my head,
and I might actually like the pencils more than the finished.

Anyways, inspiration from this and a hint of this.

#43 The Cat

Animalia: Day 28
The Cat - Part one


I am taking a little extra time on this cat one,
or at least, not spending my time tonight on it.
So here is a sneak peak at the pencils,
which I will add color to and post tomorrow.
Hopefully this won't set anything else back.

Also, I went into the cat thinking it was going to be
really boring and lame because, honestly,
cats have been done and done and done.
But, I am really happy with this drawing and I hope it
turns out as awesome as it is in my head.

Tomorrow: the (karmakarmakarmakarmakarma) Chameleon.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

#42 The Capybara

Aminalia: Day 27
The Capybara


Capybara's live in South America and look super chill all the time.
I ran out of room in my big sketchbook,
so I'm temporarily using a small one gifted to me from Kim Wardenburg!

Tomorrow: the Cat

Friday, May 6, 2011

#41 The Canary

Animalia: Day 26
The Canary


Canaries are really yellow. They also die in cages in mines.
That's about all I know about 'em.
I think Tweety was a canary.

Today was a quickie, but I still like it.
Hoping to do more like this and also do more sleeping.

Tomorrow: the Capybara