Another Witch

Didn't Samantha from Bewitched have a wicked cousin who was just the same actress in a raven-haired wig?

Bunch O' Witches

Had to draw a witch the other day to replace some wingdings used as art.  I sketched these two out and asked which on they wanted: the fantasy...or the REALITY?

I ended up drawing a really traditional witch for the final.

Space Girl Soldier

Space Shot

I've been working on a series of "Space Girls" Pinups, trying to keep most of it black & white, simple shapes, sexy and fun...maybe someday I'll publish my own book!

Nobody Rides for Free

A few months ago I got a request from a teacher who wanted to use an image from my blog.  He had emailed me and said his students loved my drawing of the archaeology girl and could I send him the image without the watermark so they could print it on a t-shirt (free-of-charge, of course.) I told him I didn't own the image, it was developed under contract. Since I'm a firm believer in education and learning being fun, I was willing to be generous toward his students and draw something new for them, still free of charge. However, I was in Seoul at the time and it would take a few days to get back to my studio and get something to them. He thanked me and said that they were excited to get their own drawing for their club.

So a few days later I'd produced a new archaeology girl and sent it to the teacher for use and/or feedback.  He replied with sincere thanks but said the deadline to have t-shirts printed was the day before, so they'd used another image.

I certainly can understand a teacher being busy, but we'd exchanged a few emails and he never mentioned how immediate the deadline was. He could have sent me a "thanks but we don't need it" message after he'd placed the order, too. I guess you could say I'm at fault for not asking, but here's where I'm struggling with this: I was doing them a favor, giving them what I do professionally for free, for "the kids". What should have been a fun little project turned into wasted time because, it seems to me, this teacher doesn't really respect what an illustrator/artist does or how much time and energy it takes to produce even the simplest image or the fact that I was doing his students a favor.

I'm sure they didn't get the actual, physical t-shirts for free, and they probably didn't expect to. I don't know why people expect to get art for free, but they do.

So this experience is, unfortunately, the final straw, and it saddens me, but I'm done doing art favors & doing free projects for people.  The work always gets tedious, the clients always take advantage of me, and in the end I've never gotten a decent portfolio piece out of it because either the client sucks all the coolness out of the image in proof passes or I drop the project because the client has become too hard to work with, or disappeared. I've even tried to set up rules, such as I'll only do two sets of corrections, but it still goes sour. So I'm done with it.

Well, there's one organization I will still draw for, and I'm happy to draw for them, because they respect what I do and see it's value, but I work pretty directly with them, on a personal level, and that makes all the difference.

Yes those are Bruce Lee pants...

Space Babe (Outer Space Men style) (finished)

Here she is!  Vector art, based on the Four Horsemen Studios Outer Space Men space woman figure.  Retro Blastoff, sweetheart!!

Pink and Blue pin-up close-up

Details, details...

The spec for this art called for a girl on the beach looking at an ominous storm cloud, disappointed that she won't be able to surf.  The project was single-color (blackline) and needed a quick turnaround.

This is what i drew, not too shabby.  The feedback was that her suit was too skimpy and she was too "mature."  Fair enough, this is for a K-4 textbook, after all.

So here's the update...made her face look younger, her body less curvy, and her suit a bit more athletic (I thought I did!)

In the end, this version was published. Went back to the original face, but kept the body less curvy. The two-piece had to go, even the neckline was moved up. I think the change from standing to seated on a beachtowel was to emphasize the fact that the cloud would cover the sun--no sunbathing. If I'd had more time, the surfboard would have been replaced with a beach umbrella.  In the end, a more universal image than just being a surfer, probably a bit more effective.

Radioactive Cat

King Sweetums the Barbarian (FINAL!)

Here it is, in all it's uncensored-vector glory!  Glad to finally have it done, or let's say I'm telling myself "It's done!"  Sweetums the Barbarian-King and 3 of his Deja Thoris-type topless slave girls.

You can check around my blog for the creation of the original, traditional version of this piece, the sketches and some of the vector WIP.  I tried to show some of my progress.

Now I hear that Ahnold is going to do another Conan movie, "King Conan"!  Bring it on, old man!!

Tree of Life (finished)

 Couldn't make up my mind on the background colors, but I'm leaning toward brown, not purple.  Though that is a nice purple...

But yeah, it's done.  From what I can tell from the report of the blog tracker the sketch for this gets the most hits, because people are looking for tattoo tree designs.  Cool.  Drop me a line if my drawin' is being permanently carved into your FLESH!  (it is Halloween tonight...)

Vector-Grunge-Burst Background

I don't know what you'd call it.  Something a little different...

Well, different for me--I see this kind of design background a lot!

Acid-Green Alien Symmetrical-Robot Pilot(s)

Another character, developed at the same time I was working on the game (but not for it, because I liked the sketch too much and decided I'd rather keep it.)

I like the symmetry of the piece and I've been trying to think of a way to develop some kind of symmetrical background.  It could also make a cool quick animation, where the body of the robot suit opens to reveal the little guys piloting inside, moving levers and pedals, and all the green lights and glows.

School girl

Red Girl

King Sweetums 3

The sky has been giving me trouble in this piece.  Actually, the background in general has...should have planned the whole thing out before I started drawing--again.
I tried to take inspiration for the clouds from one of Frazetta's classic Conan paintings.  It's hard to pull it off in vector, it needs to be consistent with the rest of the piece but has to try to convey the drama of the inspiration.  What I've got here is better than what I started with, but it may get re-drawn again.
At a friend's suggestion I went back and re-drew all the pikes, spears and axes at the back of the throne to be individual.  I'd asked for his critique and he said they all looked the same, and that jumped out at him.

Sweetums the Barbarian 2

I'm continuing to work on this piece, it's taking a long time but there's no deadline on a personal piece so no worries.  Just trying to keep the detail consistent throughout, trying to decide how much detail it really needs...when you can work on the computer you can zoom in so far that you can draw details that won't even show up, and most people won't see.
So how much shine needs to be in the girls' jewelry?  How much stuffing needs to be coming out of Kermit's head?  How much texture do I put on Gonzo's skull?  These are the pressing questions this piece brings up!

Vector "King Sweetums"

A few months ago I had a painting in an art show, the theme of which was "The Muppets", and I attempted to draw the monster Sweetums as a Frazetta-Conan-type barbarian, complete with topless slave girls.  Well, I did it using ink, watercolor, and colored pencils, but it didn't turn out as nice as I'd hoped.  I thought it would be a nice break to go back to traditional analog media, but it wasn't.  It just reminded me how out of practice I am, and how unforgiving those techniques can be!

So I'm taking the drawing, for my own experience and enjoyment, and re-creating it in Illustrator, my daily medium.  I am starting to be convinced that while I can pine away for "traditional" painting, I just don't do it anymore!  I am learning to like what I get from vectors, the clean lines and everything is editable, and of course the undo keystroke alone is worth going digital.

So this time around...I'm a lot faster in vector, and there's also no show deadline this time, so I can really develop some detail, the real trick here will be finding the right balance, and not over-doing one section and then having to remove elements or bring everything else up to the same level.  Right now I'm just blocking things in and trying not to isolate colors but have things be consistent throughout by holding to a tight palette of (mostly) of warm tones.  I actually like the flat, graphic nature of vector art, so I'm not too concerned with a lot of gradients, blends, feathering, stuff like that.  (I guess I'm a dinosaur in the Illustrator world who learned to like what it could do before transparency was an option! and I'm okay with that.)

So I'd like to post a few articles on my progress with this piece.  The original watercolor, and it's development, is here if you care to compare: "King Sweetums"

T-shirts in action!

I created a t-shirt design for our trip to Thailand to visit the House of Love orphanage this year.  I was very pleased with the image (you can see some preliminary and final art here) and it was well-received by everyone over there, too!  Here's a few of my friends modeling the shirts...