Off To Get Married!

Jen and I are off to Hawaii to get married! Posts will resume Sunday June 10th (reserving the right to post earlier if sketches and internet availability warrant). Later skaters!

Adventures In Sequential Art

A couple attempts at sequential art, working on storytelling and consistent drawing of characters

Go Indy Go

No, not the Indy 500 (that's Sunday) - Indiana Jones, this week's Drawer Geeks topic. Here's my official (non)submission:



I was going to do an elaborate adventure scene with vines, snakes, and golden kitty cat knick knacks, but instead decided to be lazy and kick out a little photo realism sketch. My pencil wasn't the best for shading but overall I'm pleased with the result.

I've been doing several realism drawings lately, trying to sharpen my eye. For those interested, here's the photo the above sketch came from:

Convertible Living

One perk to living in Florida is you have convertible appropriate weather approximately 75% of the year (Fall through Spring). This time of the year is especially nice, and I've had the top down for extra enjoyment in my drives to and from work.

A downside though is the number of people who dangle their lit cigarettes out open windows. I'm not a militant anti-smoker - if someone around me is smoking I simply get up and move. But when you're in rush hour traffic there's not a lot of places to go and cigarette smoke is amazingly dominant in an atmosphere of exhaust, construction sites, and breakfast burritos.

Therefore I've been brainstorming for ways to spare myself the hassles of secondhand smoke. Tops on my list thus far involves a SuperSoaker filled with water* and a custom holster built to the inside of the driver's side door. I'd have to learn to shoot with my left hand, but there's worse things in the world.



* If this seems drastic, I should confess my original idea was to fill it with lighter fluid.

Gender Differences In Sports Uniforms

I was idly doodling yesterday when I started to draw a girl in a football uniform. There's a whole school of thought (of which I'm a member) that says a woman is particularly attractive in jerseys. To me: a woman in a hockey jersey = hot stuff.

I went all in and gave her the full outfit, complete with face paint and pads



But the thought then occurred to me: while a woman may look hot in a man's uniform, I'm not so sure it works the opposite way. What if a man wore one of those women's volleyball uniforms?



Hmmm - the ladies will have to speak for themselves on that ...

Airport Seats

I had to make an emergency trip to Dallas, TX, yesterday morning and just got back to Florida two hours ago, so bit of a late post tonight.

I'm firmly convinced the seats in airports are the most uncomfortable ever. They make fast food restaurants' offerings look like high end plush recliners. Cats, of course, can sleep anywhere.



The unexpected trip did give me a chance to do furtive sketching of fellow passengers. I've been playing around with a Kim Possible style so I took advantage of the model surplus to have some fun. This guy was my favorite - he kept rocking back and forth from foot to foot. I tried to get that motion in my sketch.



Once on the plane the novelty of drawing the back of people's heads quickly wore off, so I let my pencil decide what it wanted to do next. Apparently it wants some kind of pulp novel story. The Case Of The Vampire Bride - sounds cool (to me at least). Unfortunately the plane hit turbulence and I didn't get the chance to finish it, but the idea is intriguing enough to bring me back later.

Once you're done laughing at my attempts to do Gothic lettering without photo reference, if any of you get inspiration and want to do the story shoot me an email. I'm busy scripting my all ages graphic novel and can't take on another writing gig at the moment, but if someone else wants to script I'd love to draw it.

This Photoshop Thingie

Photoshop is simultaneously the most amazing and most frustrating program I’ve ever used. But last night I FINALLY did something in it I’m pleased with.

I started with a quick sketch I did in blue pencil, then inked with india ink and a split nib pen.



Then I popped it into Photoshop, switched it to grayscale, adjusted the threshold to wipe out most of the lines, then back into CMYK mode for coloring and shading. I’m very happy with the result!



As usual, it looks a little screwy on Internet Explorer, so if it looks sorta jagged click on the image to maximize it - it will show more clearly. Anyone know what causes this? This is something that's started a week or so ago - my old posts don't do that.

Also, When adjusting the threshold I like to keep fat lines, but doing so tends to leave little specks here and there - when I changed it to a CMYK mode more specks appeared. Anyone know how to prevent that?

Kitty Cat Two Pack

Double the excitement for this Wednesday night, in the hopes it helps you (and me) get through the rest of the week.

The Case of Keath Patterson v. The Banana Express Sketch Holding Service, Ltd.

I, Patrick B. Gullywater, attorney for the prosecution, wish to enter into evidence a photograph I have marked as Exhibit A. This photograph relates to the case of Keath Patterson vs. The Banana Express Sketch Holding Service, Ltd., whom did solicit Mr. Patterson on the day of Monday, May 14th in an effort to procure employment of sketch holding.

Firstly, Mr. Patterson was ill Monday, having a slight case of what has been diagnosed as The Boogie Woogie Flu. He might have also had a slight touch of the Rockin' Pneumonia, but we are waiting on medical confirmation. In his impaired state, Mr. Patterson agreed to employ the Banana Express Sketch Holding Service, Ltd. to properly support his "Sick Day" sketch for photography and inclusion in his blog, "Kitty Cat Jet Pack." The photograph, submitted now, is the result.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, I call your attention to the fact this is sloppy work. For one thing, the sketch isn't even centered in the photograph. Secondly, the monkeys are obviously attempting to distract attention from the sketch to themselves, a situation compounded by the fact they aren't even supposed to be in the photo at all. Thirdly, I ask you to notice the unprofessional nature of the monkeys in question - why, one of them is even snoozing in the lower right corner. You can tell he's asleep by the z's clearly visible in the photograph.

The plaintiff is asking for a full refund of the fee charged, in this case sixteen oranges. This being Florida, oranges are highly prized and a refund of sixteen bananas will not be accepted as satisfactory.

Sick Day

I've caught some sort of stomach thing, so if anyone needs me I'll be in bed with a Perry Mason novel (The Case Of The Grinning Gorilla) and, of course, my sketchbook.

Hopefully amusing doodles will ensue (perhaps of grinning gorillas).

Saturday Night Silliness

I think Wolvie is about to get a batarang across the face. Ooo - he's not going to like that.

My fiance and I were going to go to Tropical Heatwave tonight (an annual concert featuring an eclectic collection of bands), but she's feeling under the weather so bonus post for you guys!

Since Saturday evening drawings should be synonymous with silliness, I did a cartoony style face off between Wolverine and Batman. One suggested the other for reasons I didn't know until I started drawing them out and I realized the similarities between their costumes.

Personally my money is on Bats.

Kitty Cat Tiddly Wack

Silly Kitty.

Word to the wise: If you ever find yourself in a high stakes Tiddly Winks match, don't pick a cat as your partner. For one thing, they have no patience for the fine art of Tiddly Wink strategy. Secondly, they have no thumbs.

Well, technically they do, but, as Eddie Izzard noted, their thumbs are too far up their legs to do much else besides flicking rubber bands at people. And that sort of behavior has no place in a civilized game of Tiddly Winks.

Wolverine + Hayley = Lots Of Tuff Stuff

There's so many cool art blogs to peruse it's a wonder I get anything drawn myself. One I've grown especially fond of is Drawer Geeks where every other week several artists take a crack at a picked character. I find it to be a great exercise as most aren't ones I'd think to draw myself so it's fun to stretch a bit. Tomorrow's submissions will be Wolverine. Would I be a member of Drawer Geeks, I'd probably have done something along these lines:





But I'm not a part of Drawer Geeks, which means instead you get to see my fumbling attempts to learn PhotoShop:



Click on those suckers to see larger images.

Hayley is one of the characters in the all age graphic novel I'm currently scripting. You'll see much more of her over the following months.

Phone Sketches In Need Of A Home

Hey - bonus post! Long day talking on the phone, my next-to-least favorite thing in the world to do (after grocery shopping). Here's how I amuse myself whilst listening to other people's voicemail messages.

If anyone ever asks, my vote for bestest cartoon ever is Kim Possible and my vote for bestest movie character ever is the original Storm Trooper. Now you now - proceed through life with confidence!

Hey, Is This Thing On?

A lunch break with my moleskine and a smudgy pencil.

I like the discipline of blogging - I've done a personal blog, posting 5 days a week for over two months now. Here I'm trying for (roughly) every other day. Having self-set deadlines keeps me working, which keeps the creativity going. Energy begets energy and all that good stuff.

Click on image for larger version.

Kitty Cat Paper Sack

I wanted to post something before heading off to the Tampa Comic Book Convention today. Hopefully I'll have something new in the next day or two as I continue learning how to use Photoshop.

This was another quick sketch done in my Moleskine in between work related matters.

Kitty Cat Baseball Bat

Second in my Kitty Cat series. I wanted to post something sleek and colorful but I'm still in the infancy stage of PhotoShop usage. This one was also done in the ol' Moleskine while my computer was thinking.