Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans. Stay safe out there!
Categories
Art: Colored Pencil Art: Drawings Art: Inking Character Designs Random Doodles Sketchbook
Category: Character Designs
Just some random silliness that was inked in my sketchbook with a little color added later in Photoshop.
And yes, I do LOVE Taco Tuesday, but no, I do not eat sleeping people wrapped up in hammocks.
Yes, believe it or not, Flag Day is a thing. The United States adopted an official flag to represent the new country on June 14, 1777 – the flag good ol’ Betsy Ross sewed for George Washington.
Of course, as the country grew to have more than 13 states, the flag changed from the 13 stars to the 50 we have today. However, it wasn’t until 1916 that President Woodrow Wilson declared June 14 to be Flag Day, and it was backed by an act of Congress. Unfortunately, it is not a holiday that warrants a day off from work.
So, celebrate by hoisting a flag in honor of us having one to hoist!
By the way, the late Stan Freberg was a good friend of mine, and I just LOVE his comedy album from the 1960s called “Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America.” Stan takes you through the early years of our nation’s history and turns it on its ear. Done in a sketch comedy style, the album remains my favorite all-time comedy album. Just felt like taking one of his jokes and giving it some visuals today. If you think of it, seek out Stan’s album whether via YouTube, or better yet, a real record or CD of it to listen to over and over. GREAT for summer road trips!
Just to give you a taste, here’s the Betsy Ross skit on YouTube. Please forgive the frenetic visuals. Those aren’t Stan’s. Just the audio, and he plays George Washington himself!
I was aimlessly doodling in my sketchbook one day without a thought as to what was going to come forth, and penciled an overly large head with no other details. For some reason, that large blob seemed to suggest that this was a hero’s head of some sort, so my pencil continued doodling until it became clear that that face needed some kind of a retro ray gun. Combined with his old school cape, he looked kind of groovy, and immediately I whipped out my brush pen and inked him.
This fella sat in the sketchbook for MONTHS. I was flipping through the pages a couple of weeks ago, and realized that this odd guy needed to be in color. So, he was scanned into Photoshop, and with my trusty Wacom Cintiq monitor, I proceeded to paint him digitally.
Once completed in all his technicolor brightness, the name “Space Avenger” seemed to fit.
This started as an exercise in trying to sketch an interesting tree in my sketchbook. Suddenly it became a thing. Can you tell I create art to tell stories?
“No man is happy without a delusion of some kind. Delusions are as necessary to our happiness as realities.”
– Christian Nestell Bovee (1820 – 1904)
Any time someone tells me they are a fireman, I don’t believe them unless they look like this. C’mon! THIS is what a fireman is supposed to look like, right?!
Spent some time doodling in my sketchbook this week. Went back to the well of one of my favorite things to draw – bears! Here’s a bear excited for the accidental meal he thinks he’s about to have. How this ends is probably not in the bear’s favor.
