Fry Day the Thirteenth!
I have not been as good about posting updates in recent months as I would like to be, but I could not let today pass without maintaining my blog tradition. I have posted at least one brand new, specially-themed illustration on every Friday the 13th since beginning the blog back in 2014. Today will be no exception!
I’m a fan of Matt Groening‘s Futurama and Bender’s cry of “Kill all the humans!” popped into my head this week when I was trying to decide what to draw for today. As you can see, I believe Bender is pleased with himself for having done his best to follow Jason‘s legendary example. Fry, however, seems to be carefully considering the situation. 🙂 This one is completely hand-drawn on Canson 98-lb 9×12-in paper, using pencil + markers to finish.
I hope to get back to regularly blogging again soon, and I have a huge backlog of things I’ve been doing that I need to get posted. In the meantime, please let me know what you think of this one and remember, if you’d like an original commission by me or would like to hire me as an Illustrator, please use the Contact page and let me know as much as you can about your request.
Inktober 2017 Part 5: The Conclusion!
For the final few days of Inktober 2017, I continued making new 2.5×3.5-in. sketch cards. Check out the Troy Library Mini-Con, Week One, Week Two, Week Three, and Week Four posts to see all of the previous work I’ve done so far this year for Inktober. Also remember to visit the Inktober Web site to learn more about the concept.
Inktober: The Last Three Days:
Phantom of the Opera
Leprechaun
Female Zombie
Only three days worth of work for this wrap-up of Inktober 2017. I’m proud to say that this year (my second year of participation) I made it through every day with a new illustration every day! I think my wrap-up is pretty strong here too… The Phantom of the Opera is based on the Universal Monster classic. The Leprechaun is the creepy scary one from the movies of the same name. Last, but not least, the female zombie is a non-specific zombie of the type you might see in George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead or Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead.
Please let me know what you think and remember, if you’d like an original commission by me or would like to hire me as an Illustrator, please use the Contact page and let me know as much as you can about your request.
Inktober 2017 Part 2
Continuing with the second week of Inktober, I stuck to producing a new 2.5-3.5-in. sketch card every day. Check out the Troy Library Mini-Con and Week One posts to see what kicked off the month, and remember to visit the Inktober Web site to learn more about the concept.
Inktober Week Two:
Minimalism
Robot
Cyclops
EC Vault-Keeper
EC Crypt-Keeper
EC Old Witch
Jason Voorhees
I had fun this week, kicking things off with an experiment in minimalism that I think worked even though it was not what I imagined originally drawing. If I had to pick a single favorite card this week, it would be the Cyclops. That one just works in pretty much every way how I wanted it to work. But, I’m especially pleased with my trio set of EC classic host character sketch cards. I am a long-time fan of the classic EC horror comics and I tried to do those in a style appropriate for how they used to appear in the comics back in the 1950s. Those three were also the highlight of my Facebook likes during the week as I posted them, so I must have done something right 🙂 Rounded off the week with a Jason Voorhees card in honor of the Friday the 13th that we had this week.
Please let me know what you think and remember, if you’d like an original commission by me or would like to hire me as an Illustrator, please use the Contact page and let me know as much as you can about your request.
Freaky Freddy the 13th!
Today I continue a tradition that I began back when I first launched the blog… which is to create a unique drawing of some kind each Friday the 13th. This year I’m throwing a few things into the mix to create a monster mash-up parody. Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and Freaky Friday somehow melt together to bring you Freaky Freddy the 13th!
Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees were always at odds with each other, but then one of Freddy’s recent kills leaves him with a cursed ancient talisman that causes Freddy and Jason to swap bodies for 24 hours! It takes Freddy and Jason a bit to find their footing in each other’s skins, but along the way they learn something important about themselves and each other. 🙂
I wasn’t sure how this was going to turn out when I began today, but I like where I ended up with it. Initially I had the guys facing each other… but I think it works better back-to-back. Also, it seemed empty until I started filling in the blood spatters. Strangely, I feel like those really help bring the whole image together even though they were very much an afterthought.
Please let me know what you think, and be careful out there today! Also, remember, if you’d like an original commission by me or would like to hire me as an Illustrator, please use the Contact page and let me know as much as you can about your request.
Inktober 2017 Part 1
Inktober is a thing, in October, started by Jake Parker back in 2009. It has grown over the years but the core concept is to complete and share one ink drawing per day for the entire month. I’ll skip the detailed history and origins and leave it to you to visit the Inktober Web site for yourself as he covers it pretty well there on his site. I participated last year, though I didn’t quite make it to the end. I hope to make it the whole way this year!
My first two days of Inktober were Flash illustrations that I donated to the Troy Library Mini-Con fundraising efforts. Please checkout yesterday’s post for more information about that convention and to see the first two Inktober illustrations. Below are the drawings from day three to day seven:
Inktober 2017 Week One (Days 3-7)
Plastic Man
Calvin
Hobbes
Monster
Another Monster
On day one I did a larger sketch, but everything else has been 2.5-3.5-in. sketch card illustrations. I enjoyed drawing Plastic Man, because he can be drawn as anything… you basically can’t draw him incorrectly! 🙂 I was a big fan of Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes comic strip back in the day, so those were fun too. I think my favorites this week, though, might be the two random monsters I drew. I drew those without any reference, so their origin is somewhere deep in my own warped mind.
Please let me know what you think and remember, if you’d like an original commission by me or would like to hire me as an Illustrator, please use the Contact page and let me know as much as you can about your request.
Inktober 2017 and the Troy Library Mini-Con
Just like last year, I’m participating in Inktober again this year… trying to draw at least one new hand-drawn illustration each day. Last year I didn’t quite make it to the end, but I hope to actually complete 31 illustrations this year. Time will tell. Be sure to checkout the Inktober Web site if you want to find out more of what this is all about. I have been posting daily to Facebook and will be posting weekend summaries on the blog like I did last year every Sunday to collect all of the week’s creations.
For now, though, I would like to call your attention to the Troy Library Mini-Con, which takes place on October 14th (one week from today) in Troy, NC. The convention is being held at the Montgomery County Library, located on 215 W Main St in Troy and runs from noon until 5:00pm. There will be lots of free comics, cosplay, trivia, dealers, guest artists, and pretty much everything you expect from a comic convention! Also, there will be a raffle as part of a fundraising effort to raise money for Rod Haase and his battle with cancer. Rod is an actor who has been in many things, but comic fans of the 1970s might remember him from the Legends of the Superheroes on TV where he was the first live-action Flash!
Please checkout the Troy Library Mini-Con page on Facebook for further information and updates about the convention. Also, please visit Rod Haase’s GoFundMe page if you aren’t going to be able to attend this convention but still would like to contribute to helping him with his expenses. For my part, I am unable to attend this convention in person but I did donate my first two days of Inktober sketches to the cause, so if you want to own the original art for either of these pieces shown below you will need to attend the show next Saturday!
The first illustration is on 9×12-in. Canson 98-lb paper and is a portrait of the Flash inspired by Rod Haase’s original portrayal on TV from 1979. The second illustration is a 2.5×3.5-in. personal sketch card of the Flash in motion. I have signed both sketches on the reverse side and included a link to my blog in hopes that whomever wins these at the convention will visit here and say hello. I hope everyone who attends the convention has a good time next weekend!
Batman Day 2017
Once again, Batman Day sneaks up on me… which, I suppose, is appropriate for the super-stealthy Dark Knight to do on his day. Even so, I still managed to whip something together this afternoon in time to post for the day. Comic stores and conventions all around the country no doubt have special Batman-themed events planned for the day. Hopefully all comic fans are able to get out and partake in something going on near you. Meanwhile, here’s my contribution to today’s festivities:
Please let me know what you think and remember, if you’d like an original commission by me or would like to hire me as an Illustrator, please use the Contact page and let me know as much as you can about your request.
2017 Island Dreams Sketch Cards
I was honored to be a contributor to this year’s Island Dreams Charity Card Set. This year’s theme was Mardi Gras, and the proceeds from sales of the card packs go to the following charities: Hope Advocate Children’s Charities, COPS8, New Orleans Musician’s Clinic, Angelman Syndrome Foundation and Paradise Charitable Foundation. Please visit the Island Dreams Web site for information on how to order packs when they become available on November 1st, and get to see sample sketch card artwork from lots of other talented artists who also contributed to this year’s set.
I contributed twenty hand-illustrated original sketch cards to the set. Sketch cards will be randomly inserted into packs for sale, and multiple sketch cards will be in each pack. I hope to hear from anyone who acquires any of my cards to hear what they think and maybe I’ll even get to see some of you at a future comic convention! I had a lot of fun creating cards for this set and I tried several different ideas out along the way. Below is a collage of all of my sketch cards that can be found randomly inserted with this year’s set.
My personal favorite cards are the landscape location ones, especially the 3D-perspective building. My next favorite is the girl on the yellow background. I also enjoyed doing the King Cake Baby cards as a playing card theme + the Jester as a wild card. I like all the other cards too, but those were my favorites and I was really happy that the end result looked like what I wanted them to in my mind’s eye.
Let me know what you think, if you have any favorites, and please let me know if you purchase some packs and pull any of my sketch cards out of there too!
Adam West Batman
I actually drew this back in June, in honor of the passing of Adam West. I’ve just been behind in getting things up on the blog, even though I’ve still been creating a lot of different things the last few months.
As a kid in the 1970s, I remember the old Batman TV show coming on around 4:30m or so every day. I didn’t get to watch the show in its original run, but I got to watch it every day! It was a fun show and had lots of actors I recognized seeing in other places too. I know for a while the campy fun of this version of Batman kind of fell out of favor with fans… or at least casual fans… but there has been a recent surge with the Batman ’66 comics and the release (finally) of the classic TV show on home video.
It’s also been fun to hear Adam West as the mayor on Family Guy. He is a big part of that show. Not just there because Seth MacFarlane liked him, which of course is also true… but Mayor Adam West on the show is tied up in lots of shenanigans on that show and his voice will be missed there.
I’ve also long campaigned for DC to have made a live-action Batman Beyond movie with Adam West cast as old Bruce Wayne mentoring the new young Batman. I think Adam West’s acting skills are often overlooked because of his jovial personality and how well he slid into the camp of the classic Batman… but I have no doubts he would have been stellar as a more serious version as well, and it would have been a nice nod to his stint in the role back in the 1960s… but now, unfortunately, we will never know.
There was a recent home video classic-style Batman animated movie with Adam West, Burt Ward, Julie Newmar, and others… and my understanding is Adam West had already completed his voice-over work for a sequel to that… so we will get to hear him one final time as the caped crusader in the future. It’s a shame he is no longer with us, but it’s nice that he went out on many high notes with a whole new generation of fans appreciating him once again.
My illustration, incidentally, is hand-drawn on a 7×10 in. comic backing board. It’s not an exact likeness of course, but I tried to get a little Adam West in there so that it wasn’t just a generic Batman bust illustration. I generally like how this one turned out. Let me know what you think.
Remember, if you’d like an original commission by me or would like to hire me as an Illustrator, please use the Contact page and let me know as much as you can about your request.
Ghost in the Candy Shell
Once again, one of those ideas popped into my head and I was amazed to be unable to find any evidence of it already having been done… so I did it last night, just in time for April Fool’s Day!
A nice mashup of everyone’s favorite green lady M & M and the Ghost in the Shell. Recent promotions for the new live-action movie, starring Scarlett Johansson, are what got this idea going. Truth be told, though, the parody here is drawn from the original anime movie poster design more so than anything to do with the modern remake.
I intentionally skimped on the cityscape at the bottom, it’s just a silhouette to set the stage and to honor the layout of the original poster design. The shades rest a little low on M’s face, ‘cause she doesn’t seem to have a nose! 🙂 I also like the simple repeating pattern I came up with for the background to echo the simulated tech background of the original poster.
Please let me know what you think, and remember, if you’d like an original commission by me or would like to hire me as an Illustrator, please use the Contact page and let me know as much as you can about your request.
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