Sketches

In my experience, you don’t really appreciate how good someone is until you try to do something similar yourself.

Take this comic for instance. I did the actual sketch on paper weeks ago, with the style of Kazu Kibuishi’s, Copper floating around in my head. How hard can it be, right? Coloring everything in on the computer, however, ended up taking a ridiculously long time. I’m not exactly sure why it took so long, but it wasn’t till the end that I began to get any kind of rhythm going. (I totally need a Wacom Tablet!) I’m not even sure I like the final product that much. It was, however, a fun experiment, and a great excuse to draw a cityscape!

Hot tip: Click on the comic to get a larger view that is easier to read.

I can explain. It all started with a swirly texture that I sketched out a few days ago. I had no choice but to scan it in and start playing with it in PhotoShop. Once I came up with a few interesting variations, I thought, “That would make one sweet background for a comic!” Of course I couldn’t stop there, having come so far, so I worked up this scene of Zeke exploring something. How it turned into a book cover is anybody’s guess.

Will there be an actual Detours book rolling off the presses?
I’m not currently at liberty to say… Although I can say this much; it definitely isn’t going to be printed before I actually draw the comic. Pretty sure on that part.

All I’ve got for you so far, are the fragments of my experimental comic.

MASTER CARPENTER

Here are a few character sketches. The rough idea here was to weave some back-story into the “portraits”. I thought it would be cool if I could imply some history, or personality behind the characters being represented. Other than that, this is just good clean fun with a sketchbook.

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Here are a few quick sketches I did at Rug & Relic a while back. There are so many cool and random paintings, carvings, pottery, rugs, and relics there! I wandered around like a kid in a candy store for some time before deciding on a few things to actually draw. I skipped the rugs this time around…

A FEW LARGE POTS

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I scored some new Prismacolor markers in various vibrant shades of gray. This sketch of a seat from the Orpheum theater was their first trial run. I think I need a few more darker shades so I can build up some deeper shadows. Kind of fun though…

BTW – This is the first drawing I’ve ever done while on stage. No word yet on when the performance will be going on tour.

Apparently I am an edge case. Greeting card manufacturers know what sells. A quick look down the card aisle reveals that women make the bulk of the buying decisions here (glitter seems to be a strong deciding factor). Any attempt to expand the appeal quickly devolves to “beer and bodily functions” style humor. Not really what I had in mind.

But I did want to send my brother something tangible to supplement his birthday gift…

When in doubt, break out the sketch pad, right? I seem to be on some kind of hand-drawn typography kick lately. I came up with this seal, surrounded it with the names of a few cold weather explorers, and tucked it behind the formidable silhouette of Mt. McKinley. The perfect fit for a guy getting ready for a month of fun in the Alaskan back-country. I can’t imagine why Walgreen’s doesn’t carry something like this… Maybe right next to the section with the sparkly pony cards.

Here is a closer look:

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Its the little things that make all the difference…

Anyway, rough as it is, I think the connections between the letters is fun.

When in doubt, draw what’s right in front of you. I got a Droid Eris recently. This thing can do all kinds of cool stuff… most of it isn’t really all that necessary, but cool none-the-less.

Many times drawing is an exploratory process. I start with the seed of an idea and see where it goes. Not the case here. This graphical “O” burst into my head, fully formed, animated, and way cooler than it turned out in this first attempt to get in out on paper. Hopefully I can carve out some time to develop it some more. I kinda like it.