Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Challenge: Berries & Cream - Accepted!


Well, hello again.

Today's sketch was actually a dare. Or rather a challenge. But more correctly it was a joke that was too good to pass up on. I was challenged to do a drawing of the Berries & Cream Lad in the style of a 'popular' comic artist.
While I could have gone more extreme, I decided to have a little restraint. Instead I did a sketch of the Berries & Cream Lad with some stylistic elements from the comic artist.

Can you figure out who I'm emulating?

As usual this piece was done on my MacBook using the free version of ArtRage and my Bamboo tablet.

Helpful hints:
Grimace face
No hands in frame
No feet in frame
Lots of bad shading
Two different WTF style background elements.
Lots of pouches

Another missed post...

Good morning everyone. I wanted to take a moment to say I'm sorry for missing another posting. My daughter had another round of shots yesterday, and I really thought that I would be able to fit a sketch in to the day, but getting it done and posting it online proved to be a little more than I was able to handle.

Sorry. But I will have a new posting later today.

Till then.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Saturday Bonus!


Konichi wa everyone!
O genki desuka?

I actually have a few minutes while the family is out to breakfast to post another quick sketch. This one was done one day this week, I don't exactly remember when though.
This is my first Watchmen sketch. It's funny that I have never done any sketches from this monumental book in the past. I fell in love with the book the first time I read it. And could hardly put it down.
And I'm sure you're wondering if I liked the movie. HELL YEAH I DID!
Zack Snyder has proven himself once again that he's a tremendous force to contend with when it comes to making movies based on graphic novels, comic books, funny books or whatever you want to call them.
300 was a fantastic adaptation of the book by Frank Miller, and every blood soaked minute kept me enthralled and excited. Which is incredible considering the movie really makes me feel inferior as a man. (come on, those guys were badass, buff and 100% testosterone)

Watchmen on the other hand was another wonderful trip through this complex and deeply human story. It had everything that made the book a masterpiece, and Zack also knew what to tweak and change just a bit, to make it more accessible to a mainstream audience. Specifically, he really added a lot of action, and violence to the film (more so than was in the book) and has proven once again that the man knows how to film a sex scene.
If you love the book, or even just liked it, you really should see the movie sometime. And if you haven't read the source material, be ready for an intense movie. Both visually and philosophically. It's not a light watch.

Anyway, have a great weekend and I'll see you all on Monday.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Street Fighter A Day - The Big Finish



Well, it was a fun week. And I'm glad to see that I was able to complete the task at hand. 5 days. 5 Street Fighter sketches.
Makoto
Ken & Ryu
Zangief
Dhalsim
And the (big) finish. Another two pack. I asked a few people who they thought I should end the week with and I had a tie. So I decided to try them both.

The first is Cammy. She's done with traditional media. Pencil on Cover Stock. I don't have my scanner hooked up yet, so it's a digital photo.

The second is the guy we all love to hate. Dan.
Dan was done with the usual gear. MacBook using my free copy of ArtRage and my Bamboo tablet.

That'll do it for me this week. Have a great weekend everyone and I'll see you all Monday for another sketch.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Street Fighter A Day - Dhalsim


Today's sketch is everyone's favorite extreme yoga practitioner. The Dhal. I remember the first time I saw the arcade for Street Fighter II and this character kicked a dude from across the screen. His leg! It stretched across the screen! How could this game not be awesome? Up to that point all of the arcade games that I had played had their characters staying within the human reach range (obviously unless they were packing heat). But man, that dude just kicked a guy from across the screen... Jeebus did you just see that? He can punch the same distance!
Then I tried playing as him. It was fun for a few rounds, but then everyone figured out what I was doing and before I knew it I was back to the sidelines watching people who were much better than me continue playing the game. Funny, that is a trend that has followed me through out the rest of my life when video games in groups end up happening. It's a good thing I always loved watching the animations and moves from the Street Fighter series. I was rarely ever bored.

Today the drawing is punted to the interwebs from my MacBook, my trusty free copy of ArtRage and my awesome Bamboo tablet.

One of these days I'll do something that actually makes it look like I'm deserving of these tools.
Even though this is easily one of the best pics I've done this week. Or maybe in a while.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Street Fighter A Day - GIEF!


Here's one for Keef.

I present to you all... GIEF!

This is a character that I have always enjoyed the various drawings of over the years, but oddly have never tried my hand at my own version. So I decided to use this assignment to break that cycle. I liked some aspects of the sketch, and have some ideas that I would have liked to have done instead. But for not it'll have to do as my daily submission.

Enjoy.

Today's sketch a day was brought to you by my MacBook. The free version of ArtRage and my Bamboo tablet.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Street Fighter A Day - The Boys


Today is an unexpected two-fer. Not that I'm doing two sketches. But rather that two of the Street Fighter characters appear in this image. Ken and his better half, Ryu.
Not that either of them really look like who they are intended to. But there's another sketch. No missed day, and I'm sticking with the theme.

MacBook, free version of ArtRage and my Bamboo once again.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Street Fighter A Day - Makoto


If anyone who visited the blog last week remembers I was going to use a theme this week. It would either be a 'Martial Art a Day' or a 'Street Fighter a Day'.
I decided to go with the more entertaining (for the readers) option this week. So, Street Fighter it is.

Today's pic is of one of my favorite characters to watch/play. Makoto. That being said, I completely suck at these games (at least as compared to people who treat it as a career) but I mostly love watching the animations. Street Fighter 3 was, in my opinion, the most visually impressive of them all. The animations were amazing, and so highly detailed. Makoto's walking animation is so rich in martial arts style that I could watch the character pace back and forth across the screen.
And yes, I am very sad to see that the latest incarnation of the series has gone 3D. I miss the 2D sprites, and think that they had more expression, humor and clarity than any of these new models could ever hope to achieve.
Another 2D series bites the dust. So long old friend. You will be missed.

The usual suspects: MacBook, Free version of ArtRage, bamboo tablet.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Getting back on track


Hi again everyone. I'm back to posting. The last few days have been CRAZY and because of that I missed a post (or two). But I am going to be redoubling my efforts to staying on top of this.
So today I did a drawing of my favorite Iron Chef.

Morimoto-sama!

While it doesn't look much like him, (or anything like him to be honest) I was inspired to do a sketch of Morimoto-sama since I saw him helping Bobby Flay make sushi on his show Throwdown. Morimoto apparently wears traditional clothing while in his kitchen. And that is the coolest thing ever. I don't see many people in this attire outside of the martial arts, or on festive occasions (outside of Japan that is).

It was done with the usual suspects. My MacBook with the free version of ArtRage and my Bamboo.

I'm thinking about starting a theme for next weeks drawings. I'm leaning towards a 'martial art a day' or maybe a 'street fighter a day'. I'll figure it out soon.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Boy oh boy what did this


Wow. Today sucked. And as such here is a quick post. It's a drawing of Hellboy that I did on a piece of paper earlier today before things got crazy.
I'm planning on making this into more of an actual drawing sometime soon. I like the idea. But I'm going to try and make HB look more curious/puzzled. And make the monster behind him a little more interesting and a better compositional element.

Media: Cheap printer paper and a Copic sketch 110 marker.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Does my breath smell bad to you?


Sorry for the delay. This was intended to go up on Friday, and indeed I tried posting it then. But for some reason the interweb didn't want the picture to be up at that time. Oh well. I'm posting it now.
So anyway, this image was inspired by a conversation with a coworker about bad-breath. Not really a lot to say. We began saying that it could level an entire city, which naturally led to me thinking about Tokyo's favorite monster lizard.
I think this is the first time I've ever drawn Godzilla. Nifty.

As per norm, MacBook with the free ArtRage and my Bamboo.

Have a good weekend everyone.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Fist of Iron


I was surfing the interwebs the other day and I came across one of those old super heroes that is trying to get a face-lift now. Iron Fist. He was always kind of cool when I was a kid. I liked the idea of someone really skilled in gung-fu (kung-fu) who had an ability to make their fists as hard as iron. And honestly, this really isn't that far from real gung-fu beliefs. There are many styles that train in iron palm conditioning. But what made him so interesting was the fact that this was an enhancement on reality. Other heroes, who's powers were just so outside the realm of possibility never really held much interest for me. I didn't read much Superman, or Silver Surfer as a kid because what was the point. These beings were so powerful that really, nothing bad could ever really happen.
That being said, did I ever really read anything more than the occasional issue (if that) of Iron Fist? No. But I blame that on the lack of honesty with the writing (especially in regards to gung-fu). But his newer stories are pretty cool.

So I thought I'd give him a sketch. MacBook with the free ArtRage and my Bamboo.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Bonus Update: An album cover


Hey everyone, and by everyone I mean, well, you know who you are. You're reading this.

Yesterday I spent some time creating an image following the list of rules set forth on Facebook, and while I haven't posted it to that site yet, I wanted to post it here. Namely because I'm really happy with the way it turned out. Especially since it was done as a silly social-network-joke. It's an album cover created with random content found off of the internets. I don't claim any actual ownership of this and it's not being used for profit in any way. It was just an exercise in entertainment.

Hope you find it as enjoyable as I do.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Rise from the ashes


I'm not exactly sure why I did a drawing of Phoenix, but there ya go. That's what we have here today.
Namely I wanted to play around with using white in an image with a non-white background. I plan on doing more of these in the future (once I figure out exactly what style I want it to look like).
But this'll do for today's entry.

Same ol' info, MacBook, ArtRage 2 and my Bamboo.

Monday, March 9, 2009

The force is strong with this one?


Probably not. Quick 5 minute sketch this week. Gotta run.

MacBook, ArtRage 2 and my Bamboo.

Friday, March 6, 2009

A gap in submissions...

Hey all. I'm sure you've all noticed that there was no new posting for yesterday (3/5/09) and this was due to the fact that I spent the day in bed due to a fun, fun cold.

I hope to have a new piece done today.

Till then, love, peace and taco grease.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Noto


One of my favorite martial arts (both to practice and to watch) is kenjutsu in all of it's forms. I was fortunate to study iaido for a short time and loved every second of it.

And since I didn't have much time for a sketch today, I decided to go back to what I know. So here's a pic of someone performing noto. Probably at the end of Ippon Me - Mae.

MacBook with the free ArtRage 2 and my Bamboo.

Arigato.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Care for a bite?


There's been a lot of vampire related media in my life right now. I just pulled out my Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust DVD the other day, the GF and I got sucked into the cheesy Moonlight show back before our daughter was born. And the GF is completely addicted to Twilight. So, considering the fact that I'm not lacking in that genre I thought I'd do a little vampire sketch.

MacBook, ArtRage 2 and my Bamboo.

Monday, March 2, 2009

A Wizard This Way Comes


Happy Monday Everyone. Today I decided to be all 'fantasy' and stuff, so I bring to you an angry (or just slightly agitated) Wizard.
No reason. Just thought a Wizard would be cool.

The eyes didn't turn out exactly how I wanted them to, but the program I use behaves quite a bit different than drawing in Potoshop. But it's still cool for a free app.

Yup, this was once again done on my MacBook using the free version of ArtRage 2 and my Bamboo tablet.