Airport Sketches

A little while ago, I flew up to Portland. I don't get to fly without my family very often, so I took the opportunity to do a lot of sketching at the airport.  I love all the cool stuff you see at airports.  The tarmac is full of vehicles that I have no idea what they're even for--so fun to draw.

Also, I'm in love with the Lamy Safari, a basic but really cool pen.

Sketches are done with fountain pen on color copy paper, in my hand made found-materials sketchbook.

Slideshow version HERE.

One Piece: Zoro

麦わらの一味、海賊狩りのロロノア・ゾロ。


Oh, Zoro, three swords are so much cooler than one.

One Piece: Nami

麦わらの一味　泥棒猫のナミ。新世界に出て少し格好良くなってきた。率直言って、アニメの中でワンピースが一番好きです。３０才のパパである僕はこんなこと言ってちっとも恥ずかしくない。

I think that I cannot adequately express how much I love Oda Eiichiro's One Piece.  It is currently my very favorite thing.

Lost Doodle

I was digging through my hard drive when I found this doodle from 2009.

It's cool to see some old stuff, and compare it to what I'm up to now.

Redheads

Daphne and Velma

 

Twins, reunited by the pursuit of mystery.

Fountain pen and crayon

Cops and Robbers

  Since Dave Pimentel left DreamWorks awhile back, Rad Sechrist and I have taken over his post as instructors of the biweekly gesture drawing class.  It's been an awesome and humbling experience, both to follow in Dave's footsteps, and to learn from Rad while teaching with him.  Here are some drawings that I made during last Wednesday's session.

I begin with these quickie warm-ups, usually under or around a minute.  These end up being some of my favorite drawings of the day--no time to fuss, only enough time to get a feeling down.

Lucky day!  We happen to have a lithe, angular model--which is great because I feel like drawing with straights, and only straights

(possibly as a remnant of having made these drawings a few days prior).

 

Then we get into some "longer" two-minute poses.  By this point, I'm becoming more and more interested in the graphic qualities of the costume,

sometimes completely ignoring the rest of the figure.

鉄の男 Ironman

Man of Iron, he's freaking boss.

...and for your listening pleasure...

Monday Monday

Back from vacation.  Gettin' my warm up on.

In Your Eyes

Abiline is talking more and more these days.  Judging by her smart mouth, she's taking cues from her brother.

Bonus points if you can guess my real eye color.

3 Green Comics for YOU on St Patrick's Day

I love you guys so much, I made three green comics to celebrate the weekend.  Have fun, and play responsibly!

Starring: Green Arrow

Green Goblin

and Green Lantern.

I hope you love them.  Be good!

Crono Needs Your Help!

Did you ever read Highlights Magazine when you were a kid?  My son has a subscription (thanks to Abuela), and we love searching through the hidden pictures and other puzzles.  I'd never made an image like that before, so I gave it a shot.  So much fun.

Can you help Crono find his friends?!

(Interested parties can download a larger resolution image HERE)

Fanart Friday: Chrono Trigger

Chrono Trigger

I'm working on something bigger, but didn't get it finished in time for this week--so I did this little doodle.  Check back in next week for an extra special secret surprise!

Sorry I'm a day early.  I'll be on the road today and tomorrow with my family, with no access to a computer for posting.  Better early than no post, yeah?  :)

Fanart Friday: Dragon Quest

Dragon Quest

Pencil on Moleskine A3 Folio Sketchbook

HERE you will find Mr. Wyatt's Assistant Pig Keeper.

Fanart Friday: Dr. Slump

Arare-chan and Dr. Norimaki Senbei drive along peacefully

More Toriyama Fanart.  You can read Dr. Slump HERE.

Fanart Friday: Toriyama Akira

Once upon a time, I loved Toriyama Akira so much that I drew this fanart.


Then I happened upon THIS UNFORTUNATE TRUTH.


So, instead of killing myself, I drew this (as though it were a rebuttal of some kind).

On My Trusty Bike Friday!

I got a Bike Friday a little while ago, and I haven't had this much fun on a bike in AGES!

A Nearly Naked Look at Wednesday's Gestures

I like the idea of honesty.

We have gesture drawing classes frequently at work, and I do my best to make it when I can because I feel like it keeps me honest and fresh in my drawing.  Below you'll see almost every drawing I did on Wednesday at the most recent session.

Sometimes I like to draw big--on the newsprint or whatever--but often I'm torn, because I also like to keep my drawings bound so I can reference them later.  All these drawings were done in medium sized sketchbooks with 0.5mm Uniball Roller pens (a personal favorite).  The tone is a Dixon Ticonderoga Carbon Black Lumber Crayon, which I added after class.  You know, for kicks.

I want to post more on sketchbooking later, so expect a post from me again soon.  There will be prizes (because I love giving things away), so drop a line and say hello.

Class starts with one minute warm-ups.

 

 

After I killed an ancient spiral-bound sketchbook from 2008 (finally!), I switched to my recently handmade Lucky Charms book. 

Then we do a bunch of two minute poses.

We soon grow weary of this, and switch back to one minute poses to end class.

An impromptu dance party ensues.

Class wraps up after the dance party dies down (this takes awhile).  Then I get to go back to my office and draw some more.

True story.

Ringing in the New Year with Woflmans and Sketchbook Making

Hello and Happy New Year, Interneters!

It feels late to be saying that 3 weeks into the year, but I've been quiet for the last little while.  Near the end of last year I was experiencing some fatigue and minor pain in my drawing hand, so at my doctor's behest I took it easy over the holidays until it started feeling better.  And now that I am feeling better, let the drawing ensue!

In other news, here are a bunch of things that Wolfmans like:

 

 Apples

 Safari Shirts

Basketball

 

Jukeboxes

Handmade Sketchbooks

I know what your thinking--you have a lot in common with wolfmans.  Well, you should probably go to the doctor like I did.  If you have pain in your drawing hand, you may be a wolfman.  (Luckily, my diagnosis was a false positive.)

Or you may have been thinking, "That is no sketchbook, sir!  That is the box of a popular breakfast cereal!"  Well, you'd only be half right, friend, for indeed it is both.  My officemate and trained botanical professional, Anthony Zierhut showed me a totally easy method of making sketchbooks a couple of weeks ago, and I'm hooked.

You can try it too--he posted the easy to follow instructions RIGHT HERE IN PUBLIC for anyone to see.  What a nice guy, right?  He even gave me materials to make my first book (though I cannot guarantee he'll do the same for you).

Now, if you're thinking to yourself, "I can't make a nifty sketchbook like that; I'm allergic to cereal boxes,"  it turns out that you can make sketchbooks out of all kinds of stuff.  I didn't have any bookbinding supplies at home, so I improvised with found materials for my next few books.

For the covers, I used the thick pages from a discarded children's board book.

The spine tape is duct tape instead of fancy binding tape.

I used regular sewing thread and a cheap candle instead of bookbinding thread and beeswax.

The paper is just regular cheap color printer paper--perfect for no-fuss sketchery.

The glue that binds it all together is regular white glue, like Elmer's.

To me, it's pretty cool that I could make a book out of stuff I found lying around our house.  Give it a try and let me know how it works out for you

Anyway, I hope this year is fun and productive for all.  Be good, and I hope to be back with more drawings soon!