Princess Leia

You know, I've always liked the original Star Wars, and I've been drawing Space Girls pin-ups for months now, but I'd never drawn Princess Leia before!  This was a fun one...

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!

Space Girl 7

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!!

Space Babe

Might take this one to final...color her similar to the Four Horsemen's Space Woman from the Outer Space Men, so I think her spacesuit is orange and black, with brown hair...

Pixie haircut girl

I've been practicing sketching lately, been inspired to put pencil to paper and draw some girls.  Trying to not repeat mistakes, but actually improve everything from shaping and line to how I hold and control the pencil.

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!!

Tankster

Had a good thing going here, then I ran out of paper!

Red Girl

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"

Daphne Pin-up

Here's a pin-up of Daphne from Scooby-Doo in the back of the Mystery Machine.  I had some female figure studies I took one into Illustrator and somehow I ended up with this.  She was originally on a big pillow but it wasn't planned to be her.  Not that I'm complaining, mind you, I always had a thing for Daphne, she holds her own with other cartoon girls like Josie and her band.  I guess dreams can come true in the back of the Mystery Machine!  ;-)

Muppets Movie Art Show

I was recently invited to participate in an art show based on the Muppets, to coincide with the new movie.  I was only too happy to submit a piece.  I had actually thought of this particular subject before so I was excited to have a reason to take a shot at it--the Muppet Sweetums, as a Frazetta-style barbarian-king!  Of course, it was a great opportunity to draw some topless barbarian babes adorning his throne, so I went for it!  Here are some shots of the painting-in-progress.  Pencil sketches, ink drawing, and watercolors.

This was the original drawing, the layout is the classic "Frazetta triangle" composition.

I had to do a little more work on the slave girls....once I got into the final drawing stages I realized the quick sketch had some awkward, undefined anatomy going on.  I ended up with two nice poses for the girl in the foreground, and I chose the one laying on her back instead of the kneeling one.  I liked 'em both, though!

Ink drawing.

 

Underpainting.

Starting to add colors--concentrating on the "hot" center of the image. Here's where I made the major mistake in my drawing--most don't seem to even notice, but to me--it's unforgivable!

Adding dimension to the slave girls.

Continuing to fill in colors and values.

The final, framed image.

Overall, I would give this piece an "OK" rating, but I'm my own toughest critic.  I'm sure it will show well and I'm happy enough with it but the perfectionist in me thinks I overworked it a bit, should have put the brush down an hour earlier than I did.  I had some Frazetta images on my reference board, staring me down, intimidating me while I worked, making me very conscious of my non-Fraz-ness.  Also, I'm so used to working in vector on a computer with limited undos that it's hard to just dive in and try to crank out a painting with unforgiving watercolor.  I'm a bit rusty on my real-world, "analog" skills!

The show is at this Hilliard comic shop:  Pack Rat Comics  There is a meet-and-greet reception this weekend, Dec 3rd, I think it starts around 7.

60's girl under blanket

I've been practicing sketching again, and working on a piece for a show next month.  Here's a sketch, I've been referencing 60's photography annuals and the pictures are so cool, the models have great style and hair and presence, they make great inspiration/source material for drawing.

Archaeology Girl

Here's another character from the same project as the mouse in the last post. She was going to be a teen archaeologist. At one point she was deemed "too sexy" for what we were trying to do, another point she looked "too mature", so she was re-worked a few times but ultimately scrapped. Just like the mouse, I really liked this character.Guess she was kinda sexy...

Squid-girl

Mach 1 Girl

I'm in a show this weekend, a charity art sale, so I've been busy.
Here's a sketch that ended up being involved in one of my pieces.
I plan to post some pix of the sale next week....

Girl 10.6

Mystery Drink Girl

There used to be a restaurant in Columbus called the Kahiki, it was an awesome Tiki Bar. While in college I would have my birthday party there. It's decor was on the same level as the Tiki Room at Disney, it put other Tiki bars to shame. You could order the "Mystery Drink" and it was delivered in a large bowl (with dry ice smoking from a volcano in the center!) They had a special waitress who delivered it to your table, she was dressed in a sarong like an island girl. Anyway, they bulldozed it to put up a Walgreens.

442 girl

Wow, it's been awhile between posts again! Thing is, I have pages and pages of sketches that I could post, it's just finding the time to do it. I've been busy! Here's a sketch of a girl that goes with a cool old car I'm drawing. I might post the final sometime.