Monster Truck

When you were a kid, did you ever draw "the awesomest truck ever?"  Monster truck suspension and tires, spikes, missiles, lights, fire, skulls, machine guns, spotlights...roadkill!

Acid-Green T-Rex

Radioactive Astronaut

I worked up a few characters for a game recently, these guys didn't make the cut, but are cool all the same.  The final art will be a 2-color print: black, of course, and a nice acidic "OverKill" green spot color.   The idea here was not really an astronaut per se, but a technician or someone in a hazard suit who had been irradiated to the point of becoming a being of energy, or vapor.  Like that ectoplasmic German dude from Hellboy...Johann Kraus, right?

Skullor

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"

Hawg-Goblin

Well, I've got the final vector image done, and I'm pretty happy with it.  I like the black, blue and green color scheme, and I seem to really click with the vignette image on white background.  I'd like to do a large, banner-size printout of this (and other pieces I've done over the years) and have a nice little art show.  Maybe 2012 is my year!

WIP: Hawg-Goblin

Working on this old sketch, doing a final vector piece...It's looking pretty good!

Monster Dockworker Stogie

Better

Sharpie and white-out on Chipotle bag.
This turned out nicely, probably because the last project I worked on was about 3,000 "spontaneous" sketches for a math book. Gotta lotta practice drawing quick and accurate and weird the first time!

Warts and all

Bilateral Beast

Destroy!––Kill All Hippies

Anyone out there remember TMNT After the Bomb or Mutants Down Under? Some cool stuff in those.....

Yanker's Garage

Farmer Zombie

FrankNstein's Monster runs

Monster Magnet

Here's a bevvy of sketches of classic monsters. Shooting for a cuter, more cuddly monster for youngsters. Switched from drawing a boy vampire to a girl because, well, he was starting to look like The Count from Sesame Street. I won't bore you with the story of how they were rejected.

Monsters

Infernal Machine

for comparison

Found this color drawing in my buddy's backseat while we were carpooling to work, his son drew it. I figured I'd treat the kid to my version of his vision. When I presented my drawing the kid said "huh, your monster only has two legs." Touché.