Here is Percy Starling. He is a sad man-bird who is scorned by the other blackbirds in his community.

I worked on a few newer and cleaner versions:

I know its no surprise that he has terrible teeth (most of my characters do) , but it is more of logical choice with percy. He has a person head and he spends all day eating exaclty what crows eat: seeds, garbage and carrion.

I thought he may be an owl hybrid, because I enjoy giving him white wings. They add more balance to him. They will probably have to go though, if he is to be a blackbird.

Painting

Here is a picture of me as a Toddler, placed in a trashless trashcan.

I started a first draft for a water color version. Most of it doesn’t work. As of now, I look like a poor disabled boy left in a garbage can. but that is what a first draft is for. I think this would be a shoe-in for an oil painting!

The shield on the far right is the the good one!

Other detailed plans for the big picture:

This one may take awhile. I hit a pretty big block as soon as it stopped coming together as a more detailed work.  These problems mostly involve the proportions of the knight and his entrence into the grove. Maybe the only reason the first drawing worked so well was because of the lack of detail.  I think I will have to strive to retain the his dwarfed proportions.

I am once again grateful for my job in Korea.  I have mentioned that I am working on around 4 new stories of different artistic styles and varying literary tone.

Here is a preview into one of the more absurd tales.  It is not a direct page-by page parody of “The Cat and the Hat.”  I am just going where it takes me and enjoying the ride. I am finally seeing a workable style appear, and it has taken a long time.  Here is one of the older drawings of Drunky.

His purely spherical cheeks don’t have any flexibilty or opportunities to show emotion or variety.

I started to go in a different direction, changing the muzzle. At this time, I was trying togive hima a lined look for the fur.

Also, though his anatomy has not changed, a breakthrough has been made on how to approach illustrating this character.

It all started with a few sketches I made in pen while my students were completing a test. I love when a breakthrough comes like this (and generally more do than don’t!). I began with extremely loose and fluid drawings, stressing his gangly nature. I took advantage of the idea that he really doesn’t have joints and his limbs and entire body (being filled to the brim with booze) simply go wherever his movements take them.  Here is one of the first simple drawings where this principle whas applied:

Thus is how the journey began! His face remained un-specified. His muzzle was no longer to balls and a nose, and begins to migrate to a more maleable design. Things began to move rapidly once I realized that I finally had a character that thrived on expressive lines and innacuracy. The next image is an experimental sheet.  Some renderings on here make me sick, but it’s important for them to be seen. It’s all part of the process! The real winner is the bottom right one holding an upside-down beer can!

The third sheet really needs to have the text for it!

Picking himself up from their freshly stained rug

He insisted he’d clean it, “just put some bleach in a mug”

“The rug is red, you can’t use bleach”

Said the family parrot with a high pitched tweet

The cat stared at the bird then his face went blank

He forgot the rug and his request for the mug

Instead he produced from his hat a triple xxx jug

After this last draft it was time to focus on the face. I realized that the best way is to always start with the nose and move down. The next results were thrilling! I always tried to have the hat leaving the frame in one way, and drooping through, as if returning from nowhere. As you can see with the drawing on the left, sometimes this idea doesn’t work!

Here is one of my favorites. I visualize hime expounding or proselytizing about something.

Of course, I need to work on the many ways he imbibes!

With a character so mobile and expressive, it would be a shame to go the whole story without using a broad range of emotions. Here is the first attempt at sadness. I think I go go even further!

The biggest hurdle with Drunky now is to work out the hat. “Stovepipe Hats” are black, so that sets the direction. I think I will have to practice a lot of hatchings (its not my strong point!).

He looks a bit too much like a tiger in this one (its the fat cheeks) but it may be a step in the right direction. It is mandatory that the hat doesn’t pull away focus from his body or face, so balance must be attained!

It is a fine table. Level and smooth…so smooth.  As of now, I have been doing much more writing than drawing. Working lightly on 3 or 4 stories has been very luxurious and liberating.  It hasn’t provided the immediate documented feeling of reward that marching ever forward with one story, but it has been great to bounce to another work when the wells dry up on another.

I have been going back to previous drawings completed before Korea and using them as springboards for watercolors (I also picked up a decent 12 paint acrylic set for 6 bucks!) Most of these drawings I am returning to were completed whilst I was at US Bank Visa. Virtually no free-time existed in this horrid occupation, so these drawings were completed with bursts of mandatory creative expression. 30 second to 2 minute bursts. This resulted in less than one drawing a day. or a couple small ones.  I had to make them count! I had purchased 05 Pilot G2 pens instead of 07′s.  Initially I was disgusted with the mistake. “These pens are far to sparing in their line girth!” Suffice to say I was pleasantly surprised when I found that they were great for detail ( a shamefully obvious notion).  It was around this time that I began to regularily use copy paper for drawings.  As long as the work was in black pen or Sharpe, this cheap (free!) paper was ideal for making traces of my own drawings.  This enables me to do character profiles and change their expressions without burdening my time.

I had the psycadelic psychedelic cartoons of the 70′s in mind when I drew this character.  Mismatched body parts and texture were the goals. He looks a bit like sweetums from the muppets! He was also one of my new watercolors! It felt good for something to turn out well. I may make the bags under his eyes flesh colored…

Next is another example of a semi character model.  Though this old woman could be anything, I like to think of her being a kindly old gypsy witch.  She really needs a cart and a mindless goat companion.  I also drew a picture of her casting a spell on a man-wolf.  If I find it I will post it.

She was a joy to do in watercolors. I honeslty enjoy the back blue wash more than anything.  I should have stopped painting her face and body  about one or two strokes back.

I almost hesitate to show this one. She has been with me for awhile. Perhaps she will fit in somewhere with the old gypsy woman.  I will put up a picture I have where she is in the forrest.  She craves an environment above all else! My favorite part about this drawing is flow that her claws have. The don’t look like any specific type of claw. The could be a bird’s but there is such a fluid illustrated look to them.  I like to think they are unique to her.

They shall be green!

She would easily be a “Little Green Riding Claws,” but that really doesn’t tickle my brain.  It’s out there, all it needs to do is come to me.

Though I am nuts about this gentlemen’s hat, coat and physique, the puppet needs to change.  Weight distribution and posture needs to be addressed along with his face.  I just wasn’t sure what the puppet should be.  Instead of having it be a messed up character, I might have it be a normal person-puppet. Or maybe a REAL PERSON!

I love my hobo! He was drawn for the flash animated portions of a stage production. The lost “thousand yard stare” of his veteran eyes, and the revolting infected sores on has face make me giggle.  In animated form, his hands shook with an alcoholic fury.

This was another product of Visa internment. Done in about 2 minutes it is an ideal picture for photoshop or watercolor developement.  Extreme detail like the horses anatomical correctness are glazed over with expressive strokes.  There is only a trace of  a constrictive forrest waits to be defined! The lines on the knights lance make it look a little too much like a carrot. I hope to make them work.  I have also come up with a great eagle shield emblem. This a picture with a story that needs to be defined. I can’t wait for the next step!

I drew this panda while observing a class before teaching. This panda is unhappy…so he eats.

He will soon be enveloped in warm photoshoped brown and green washes

Today’s post is going to be a biggie, so get ready.

So here is the finished colored image of Bartleby riding his Woods Lobster. I altered the tail of the lobster, giving it an upward inflection to add momentum to Bart’s ride. I had hoped to add the grass, moss and fungus I always envisioned on the Woods Lobster, but my skill level needs to improve. It looked better as it was.

A side note: one of my influences for this drawing was Peter Griffin riding the Luck Dragon, “YAAAAAY!”

So, while observing classes at the start of my teaching job, I managed to do some quick drawings.

Here is a fat boy in a wagon:

I don’t know what to call this one:

I picked up some watercolors! They were very cheap, only about 7,000 Won (about 5 1/2 bucks). It was relaxing to sit and color something without a computer. The first were very…well I am not posting them. After some more practice I made progress!

The coat may have been a bit of a mess. However, the bearded brontosaurus thing, he turned out just fine! Oddly enough, I never even realized he was feeding it a fish until I drew it again for this painting. I always just saw him as holding it. It is amazing what you notice when you work on an image again!

Here is another one I call “Dead Dinner.” I see these “two” constantly argueing, albeit a one way squabble.

The position of the gentlemen on the left is a little off. I can’t tell what is the subject of his vindictive gaze, the can of peas or the corps. This issue was fixed when I drew it again for the watercoloring!

He seems a little more angry at the corpse, which is good! It is now apparent that “Lefty” is wearing some sort of long-johns, and his skin turned out great. The table is a little far gone to add more detail and I am still not sure how rotted the dead man next to him will be. The hardest part of doing the drawing again was getting the dead bodies clutching right hand just right, as it was in the pen-drawing.

All right, we are quickly approaching the one year anniversary of the Bartlbey book. The working title is “Winford Manfrog and Valencia the Turtle.” The scope of this book is more ambitious, combining more realistic human forms and environments countered with surrealist animal characters. Thing “Mr. Toads Wild Ride” meets Edward Gorey and Winsor McCay. It all started with a simple drawing of a turtle:

This turtle has one extra food in the real world. Stubbish feet, a beack and stooped posture gives the feeling of borderline immobility and the listless stare of the eyes rules out any glimmer of intelligence. The bow was the random spark that triggered it all. “Hmm a bow, is he trying to look pretty” I thought. “WAIT, why HE when It could be a SHE!!!”

Put some rather wiggish curles on its leather head and:

BOOM! We have Valencia! An ugly male turtle is one thing, but to have such a hideous female turtle (let alone one that is trying to look pretty) has much more pathos. If she was colored she would have some disasterously applied lipstick as well!

Winford ManFrog is the main character. Just as awkward and soul-less, Winford spies Valencia in a crowd and fancies her.

His wardrobe is undecided as of yet. Clearly something bereft of  class and style. Initially Winford was clothed very much like Daffy Duck. I decided that outfit was best for the “wild card” of the story: Valencia’s brother Proteus. Winford is able to take Valencia out on a date, but “Her brother Proteus was her ward and needed her keeping.” He doesn’t do much, other than blow up Winford’s spot!

Proteus went through several variations:

I used the first turtle drawing as a template. I knew he had to be very tiny, about a quarter the size of Valencia (this adds to her bulk). A bend to the beak proved effective, and a change in shell shape worked well. Number 4 is the winner, but I want to have some of the pebbly texture from number 1 in there.

A Victorian holiday provides many artistic opportunities: a pleasant walk on the warf, riding ridiculous old-timey bycicles and even buying kisses from a walrus!

I doubt this book will feature color. As you can see with the Walrus and turtles, I am finally experimenting with hatchings and textures using only pen. I think it will give everything a gilded age printed look as well.

There will be issues to overcome: proportions, human characters, story length and such. I am both dreading and looking forward to working on the two page Merry-Go-Round spread.

I will be picking up some oil paints within the next few weeks so get ready!

It has been a great joy to start working on a long term project again. I am also reminded how much time a is put into good photoshop coloring. The ability to zoom in and add endless color and texture detail can be overwhelming at times.

However, my love for this T-rex and his sharp teeth and tiger stripes drove me to make a close up!

The Calvin inside of me wanted to have his mouth driping with thick blood and gore. I felt this would distract from his sparse pebbly skin texture and scaled lips, so I settled for some “battle damage” instead.

This Walrus competes against the T-rex for my microsoft paint portfolio favorite. The part that turned out surprisingly well was the glacial background, which boxed in the world of this walrus!

When painting this “Sitting Walrus,” I applied everything I learned during my digital dabbling. I feel it is the strongest image in my Microsoft Paint gallery. It expresses a story with its menacing but elussive shark, a compelling character ( I especially love the yellow jaundaced eyes of the walrus!) and a rich environment that compliments both.

The most amazing thing though, was being able to making a solid artistic breakthrough in a situation where such an event was unexpected!

The common technique was slow as molasses (which was ok, I worked on one periodically for every day of class) I would often start with simple circles and then use the warped line tool, erasing unwanted lines. As I made more, I began to remove the black borders which is something 100% of my drawings have had until now!

They are in order, and it is fun to chart my improvement!

This final one is my favorite! Almost devoid of black contour lines. It has a very quilted and “cut-out” look to it.

The biggest thrill comes from seeing my style and expression in a new way. The added precision and

cleanliness gives a whole new dimension and level of growth to the pictures!