A return to active duty

Hi everyone. Did you miss me? I didn't plan on not posting an update for an entire week, but I had to use up some vacation time, and then there was Thanksgiving, and I just didn't have the time to sketch. Let alone update this poor, neglected blog.

But some good news. Yesterday some friends and I got together and finally played the game of D&D that we've been trying to get set up for a month now. It was loads of fun. However, shortly after arriving at the gaming location we found out that the character that I had created previously, wouldn't be able to roll in this game. So I created a new character. He's a Drow Monk named Aaru Saa (that's his monk name).

Anyway, I managed to sneak in a quick character sketch of him last night before bed. Hope you like it.

I'll try to return to my normal posting schedule this week. Need to stay on top of this.

Anyway, have a good evening and I'll see you all back here tomorrow.

A Solar reaction in the sky

Hi everyone. Hope you all had a good Thursday.

I can't really complain. My day was better than it was yesterday. I managed to spend a little bit of time making a little more refined Solar, Man of the Atom sketch.

I wanted to add his 'power glow' around his hands. But I was afraid that if I started trying to do it I would end up making a huge mess and get really frustrated. I'll give it a try some other time.

Which is funny because the valiant style of power that Solar often had glowing from his hands was visually so different than what I was used to seeing in Marvel/DC and I believe Image comics at that time. It was one of the elements that drew me to my first experience of Valiant comics... The Unity trading card set.

My best friend and I bought them whenever we found them. And between the two of us we had them all. The characters were so different. I had to find the comics to read as they were intended. And oddly enough, I never did get any of the Unity books. But my brother and I really got into XO Manowar, Magnus and Solar.

And I owe it all to that first glimpse of an art style that I had never seen before. But was the dose of alternative comics that I was really needing.

Anyway, it's mega cheesy. Has tons of anatomy problems. And really isn't the best thing I've drawn in a while. But hey, it reminds me of those old comics. So I like it. Hope you do too. Have a great evening and I'll see you back here for Friday's sketch.

Solar, rough

Good morning everyone.

I had a rather interesting day. Mostly due to the condo construction. But I did finally get a few minutes this evening to do a very quick rough sketch of Solar, Man of the Atom.

I have been planning on sketching this character for quite some time now. And it seemed that every time I sat down to draw him, the idea either completely slipped my mind, or the technology would prevent me from making it happen. No longer.

I'm probably going to change this composition before it's finished. In the meantime, it'll do as a rough draft. Hope you all dig it.

See you back here for the real Thursday update. Good night everyone.

Flickering lights, and frustration

Hi everyone.

I had every intention of sketching a new drawing this evening, but it appears that my Bamboo tablet and MacBook are fighting again.

Every time I plug the tablet into one of the two USB ports, all I am greeted with are the four blue lights on the hot key buttons flashing. And the inability to use the tablet at all. I wonder if the Bamboo and laptop will ever want to play nice again. Which really sucks, considering that the reason I have the Bamboo is for sketching on the go.

I'm off to bed. Sorry everyone. I'll have to do a new sketch tomorrow at lunch.

Cold Snap

Hi everyone.

I'm sitting here listening to the latest series in the Penny Arcade, PvP, Wil Wheaton Dungeons & Dragons podcasts. As usual the adventures of Acquisitions Incorporated continue to make me want to game again. While at the same time cause me to laugh out loud, multiple times. It would be so much fun to roll dice with these guys.

Anyway, their latest adventure starts in the winter and they have to trek to a dwarven town in the snow. This made me want to do a sketch of a character undergoing a similar voyage. I haven't done a snowy sketch in quite some time. I actually like the way that it turned out. I tried some new tricks in how I colored the image. Some of them I'll end up using again.

Hope you all like it. See you back here for another sketch later today.

Unnamed Wandering Monk

Good evening everyone.

I'm waiting for some laundry to finish drying after spending a great day with the GF and my daughter, so I decided to get a quick sketch in.

This evening's sketch is of the as yet unnamed half-elf monk that I'm preparing to play in an upcoming D&D adventure. It's been many years since the last time I have rolled some dice. And I'm really looking forward to starting this game. Especially since I'm going to be playing a Monk character. I have often been told by previous DMs that they don't allow the Monk class as a playable character as they were far to powerful in their upper levels. Looking at the Monk outlined in D&D 3.5 they do sound very powerful in their higher levels. But to be fair, I don't think that I'll ever reach those levels. Though that would be pretty darn cool.

I'm sure some of the character design will change once we actually start gaming. We'll have to see what happens.

Anyway, have a good evening everyone. And I'll see you back here tomorrow.

Late night...

Hi everyone.

I ended up getting home around midnight. It was a long day at work, and I just realized that I need to go back to write up a weekly report tomorrow before I go pick up the GF and my daughter. Good times.

Anyway, I didn't get a chance to do my sketch today. But I'll try to get at least one done this weekend.

And now if you excuse me my bed is calling me. Good night.

Technical Difficulties

Good evening everyone. This is a little embarrassing, but I'm sad to say that the blog has experienced some technical difficulties regarding tonight's sketch.

I arrived home later than I originally planned. Not in a bad way. My daughter fell asleep on me while the GF was watching her show tonight, and I had to stay and let her sleep. Too cute. But that's neither here, nor there.

I arrived home and after doing some laundry, I attempted to do my sketch of Solar Man of the Atom in my MacBook using my bamboo tablet, only to find that it would not maintain a connection on the MacBook. Fearing that there might be a problem with the tablet, I then spent the next hour or so online looking for any postings with similar problems that I was experiencing. I didn't really find anything like my tablet's symptoms, so I then moved on to my Mac Mini. At that time I found that it does in fact work, but only from a powered USB port. Of which my MacBook only has one that is reliable (so says the internet), but apparently that is starting to fail. So... my laptop is not reliably powering my tablet. This saddens me. So, I guess for the remainder of my time updating this blog, when I do a digital sketch I'll have to use one of my powered USB hubs.

But it's too late for me to do a sketch right now. I have to get some sleep. I'm sorry for the lack of an update. I really wanted to do my Solar sketch. But I'll have to wait till tomorrow to get one done. See you all then. Have a good evening, and I hope none of you have any USB problems anytime soon.

Take 2

Good evening everyone. I bring to you a slightly refined version of the Magnus sketch I posted earlier.

I tightened up the lines a little bit. Added some rendering to the robots. And decided to add some color to make it a little more interesting.

I am thinking that I'll finish up the week doing sketches of other Valiant characters. Who will be next? Eternal Warrior? Solar? X-O Manowar? Harbinger? We'll have to wait and see.

Again, this was completed in CS3 on my MacBook using my Bamboo (which is having some problems maintaining a connection... not sure what that's about). Have a good night everyone and I'll see you back here tomorrow.

Magnus Robot Fighter

Hi all. Yup, I missed the on-time update for Tuesday. I ended up having a pretty busy day, then I stayed up at the grandparent's with the GF and my daughter, so I didn't get a chance to post my rough sketch.

I was able to do a rough layout for my sketch of Magnus Robot Fighter yesterday. I've wanted to draw him for a long time. He was one of my favorite Valiant characters. I loved the fact that he would dispatch violent robots with a shuto uchi attack. After I got into Karate, I had a new appreciation for Magnus using that strike. It makes the most sense to attack those robots with that attack. The small area of contact means that he's able to shatter the metal of the bots, as well as sever the internal wires and hardware with a greatly reduced risk of his hand getting stuck.

Or at least, that's the conclusion I came up with.

Anyway, hope you all dig the rough sketch. I'll be getting an updated sketch done tonight. See you all later.

Percy Jackson. Or, Why You Should Listen to Your Mother

Hi everyone. Here's something that you might find surprising. An actual update. With a sketch. I know, I know. Some of you are probably thinking that hell might be making snow cones. Or that right now a flight inbound to your local airport is receiving their final approach update from a voice that sounds oddly like a pig.

But yes. I bring to you a sketch. I've been listening to the audio book for The Lightning Thief. I am surprised that the book is pretty darn entertaining. I wasn't expecting much, not because it's a book written for kids. I enjoy reading children's novels. However, I have not been impressed by a lot of them recently. I loved the Lemony Snicket books. I thought they were clever, and while being very dark, they weren't too overly scary for children. Too bad the people making the movie didn't get the same idea.

But I do love greek mythology, and I also enjoyed the fact that Percy isn't a kid who's been beat down, despite him being good and honest. Percy's a troubled kid. In a way he reminds me of a 12 year old Kaneda from Otomo's Akira. The rogue who becomes the unlikely hero.

But anyway, I also really got into the book as while I've been driving around listening to it, it's been raining as well. So I really felt like I was experiencing the portion of the book where the Minotaur is encountered for the first time. As a result, I decided that I'd sketch Percy after that encounter.

It was done in CS3 on my MacBook using my trusty Bamboo tablet. I hope ya digs. See you back here tomorrow. I plan on doing another Valiant comic character tomorrow. But you'll have to tune in to see who it will be.

Good night everyone.

A Quick Barbarian

Good evening everybody. Welcome back for another (slightly delayed) sketch-a-day update.

This sketch is another of those, I just want to sketch the first thing that came to my head, sketches. And apparently a Barbarian with an axe was what wandered into my imagination. I've got nothing.

And once again it was sketched on printer paper with a 2B pencil, due to the fact that I left my Bamboo tablet at work. I really need to do a digital sketch tomorrow before I completely forget how to sketch digitally.

Anyway, I'm gonna get to bed now. I hope you like the sketch and I'll see you back here tomorrow. Yeah, yeah, I mean later today.

Playing with a Stacked Deck

Hi everyone. Hope you all had a good Tuesday, and are having a wonderful evening.

Tonight's sketch is a departure for me. Mostly because I decided to draw something I've never drawn before.

I bring you, Gambit.

I've had a love hate relationship with this character since the early 90s. I couldn't stand his 'character'. How he was so cocky, and an instigator of almost unparalleled finesse. And yet, he has one of the coolest super powers I've ever come across. As much as I hated to read his dialog, I always loved to see his fights.

He's a master of the bo staff, and is very capable in hand to hand as well. But his true magic always came through when he was playing with a full deck of cards. Even though when he first appeared in comics, he was throwing mini blades. Almost like scalpels. But the charged cards were hands down the coolest weapon he would utilize.

So I decided to do a sketch of this cajun badass. I did it in pencil mostly because I left my Bamboo tablet at work. But I also felt like doing a traditional sketch anyway.

Hope you all enjoy it and have a great night. See you back here tomorrow for another new sketch.

Farewell old friend...

Hi everyone.

As you probably noticed, I didn't get a new sketch done last night. And for once I don't feel bad about that.

I got home late, and I decided to say good bye to an old friend of mine. We have had lots of great times. She was there for me when I was feeling blue, or worse. She helped me to make so many people laugh at parties. We wrote some good songs, and played some better ones over the years. She was an absolute pleasure to get to know and have around.

But it's time for the next chapter in our lives, and sadly, that means we are going our separate ways. But I'm sure she will always be making beautiful music, no matter where she's at.

So long old friend. God speed.

PS: No the GF and I didn't break up. I'm selling my acoustic after work.