It has been awhile since my last post. Things have been swamped at the office with the imminent debut of an animated television show I have been working on for the past fourteen months, and the schedule has not lightened up one bit. Spending all day every day drawing in someone else’s style can wear on you a tad, so every now and then you need to let a little of yourself out on the page.
Last night I wanted to do something fun to break in a brand new sketchbook. As any follower of my blog knows, I enjoy drawing monsters, and if I have to draw a real life monster, reptiles are what come to mind first. This skeevy looking alligator fell out of my pen ready to prey on his next unsuspecting victim. Right now he has his eye on Ms. Animation Deadline.
Yeah, he thinks he looks suave, but he’s really all gut and no glory.
Here’s part two of some of my real life sketches drawn in the airports where I spent some quality time over the holidays. These specimens were captured in Baltimore and Atlanta one week ago where I spent a combined twelve hours sitting around. I people watched, sent some e-mails, played on Facebook, watched a movie on my iPod, ate a few meals and sketched. What else can you do when at the mercy of the airlines?
This woman was struggling her way through the halls of Baltimore’s airport with a giant carry-on bag and shoes that did NOT look comfortable. Not to mention I feel sorry for whomever had to sit next to that hair.
While sitting in Atlanta’s airport, this woman walked up and took command of a seat near the gate entrance. She was dressed very elegantly, but her face and body language looked like the weight of the world was on her shoulders. And by “weight of the world” I meant “shoulder pads”.
This Indian kid was a walking cartoon with his long frizzy hair, slouch, ginormous eyebrows, and overall demeanor. This is not so much a cartoon drawing as it is a portrait.
So there you have it – a few sketches from my travels. I don’t know how I’d pass the time without pencil and pen in hand. Sure glad the TSAs haven’t outlawed those. Yet.
Welcome to the New Year! What occupied YOUR time on New Year’s Eve? Was it spent traversing this expansive nation of ours over twenty-two of those last twenty-four hours of 2012? No? Mine was.
Yes, twenty-two hours. I left my parents’ home on the east coast of the United States to travel an hour and a half to the Baltimore airport just to wait about seven hours before my flight took off for Atlanta where I spent another five hours before flying to Los Angeles where I waited for a bus to take me to my car which I used to travel the last thirty minutes home. It was on said bus where I rang in the new year with about thirty other weary travelers, one of whom somehow managed to already be drunk. Good times.
With all that time spent in airports, the trusty ol’ sketchbook was utilized. There’s nothing like a good airport to bring out the most interesting of humanity. Thought I’d share with you a few highlights…
This woman was actually drawn prior to Christmas during my journey east when I got stuck in the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport for seven hours.This gentleman was in the food court with his family in Delta’s terminal of the Baltimore airport. Sounded like they were speaking French to each other next to the McDonald’s, and yet none were eating French fries.Also in Baltimore, this woman cracked me up. She sat down in her pink track suit with a double row of rhinestones on the sleeve, and proceeded to eat her lunch and physically groove to the R&B music she was clearly listening to (I could hear it from several tables away) on her iPod.
Just to spread the love, next week I’ll post a few more gems from my time served in the Baltimore and Atlanta airports on New Year’s Eve.
This Frankensketch came alive in one of my sketchbooks!
Well, I managed to squeeze out one more monster drawing here in what I usually dub “Monster Month”, and I leaned on my go-to guy Frankenstein. This one started as just a Prismacolor pencil sketch in my sketchbook, and I liked how he turned out so I added some watercolor right there in the book!
Yes, you purists out there will say that technically he is Dr. Frankenstein’s monster, and not actually Frankenstein. I differ with you on that, thou nay sayers! If one gives birth to a new life, they take your name. Dr. Frankenstein birthed, sort of, this creature, so by all rights he should also bear the name “Frankenstein”!
Regardless, Frankenstein has appeared a few times on the ol’ blog. In case you would like to explore my past with the big green guy, CLICK HERE to see all the Frankie posts.
Hopefully next October I’ll be back with monster art for each weekday. Until then continue to enjoy the various other art that I post here throughout the year!
For the past three Octobers, I posted a new monster drawing almost daily in what I called “Monster Month”. Here we are in the middle of October, and only one person has asked me where my creatures that go bump in the night are this year. One person.
Well, Mom, it has been an extremely busy year for me working on a new television show, the occasional illustration here and there, and trying to work on a new children’s book. What it boils down to is that there has been a whole lotta art goin’ on that I can’t share on the blog for now, and the monsters I love to draw in my spare time haven’t had room to roam and groan.
That being said, yesterday I got the itch and sketched out this beleaguered beast. It was just one of those things that came out of my stylus without a plan in my head. I began with the mouth, and the rest just fell into place. Background is courtesy of Canson paper, and the art was all done in Photoshop.
It’s a hard-knocked life for him.
So, perhaps I’ll get another monster or two up on the blog before October is over for the fan who asked. The rest of you can take a look at them as well if you’d like.
Last year I did a few character concepts for a potential television program set in New York City. I can’t divulge anything more than that about the project, but I can show you some of the drawings since the producers decided to go in a different direction.
I liked the way these sketches turned out. They were pencil on paper, with a splash of Photoshop color thrown in for good measure. While they all should look like they are living in the same universe with each other, hopefully they portray specific personalities with just their expressions, costumes and body language. That’s always the goal when working on good character design — unless the client wants a series of characters that are cookie cutter to each other. I’ve worked on those kinds of projects, too.
If you’ve already had your shots, enjoy the drawings!
A couple of months ago I discovered a page on Facebook called Humans of New York (also known as HONY). The page features multiple portraits of New Yorkers as seen through the keen eye of photographer Brandon Stanton. With over 300,000 followers, I was a little late to the party.
Brandon does what I like to do – he people watches. I tend to sit in public places and covertly try to capture someone in a sketch. He takes a much bolder approach by asking his subjects to quickly pose for a photo wherever he happens to see them. The result is a fascinating cross-section of humanity sharing the streets of the Big Apple.
One of Brandon’s shots a few weeks ago really snagged the attention of the character designer in me. He got this shot of an old weathered Greek man who, despite having been in this new country he now loves for fifty-two years, still looked as though he was from his homeland.
The whole Old Country immigrant in America thing really struck me when I saw the photo. Not only did this gentleman have a great look, but it triggered the personal remembrance that I am only a few generations away from immigrants in my own family. My great grandparents came here from Europe for a new life, and I have a relative that passed through Ellis Island. Like this gentleman, they held a soft spot for home, but were intensely proud to become Americans.
Each year I like to get away from it all to a place where I can just put my responsibilities behind me and relax. I just returned from my happy place in the Outer Banks (OBX) of North Carolina where I go during hurricane season. Mind you, I don’t go with the hopes of experiencing a hurricane – it’s just that I usually go there during that time. If a hurricane should actually blow into town, relaxation requires a bit more concentration.
Of course, many hours are spent on the beach taking in the breeze, the surf, and the wide array of interesting people who under other circumstances would never be seen in public the way they freely saunter along the sand. This is why I bring a sketchbook to the beach.
This first drawing is of two beach-walkin’ fellas who did not look like they had any earthly connection to each other. You can see that the fella in the foreground was hanging onto his days when he was in an 80’s hair band despite the fact that his former 80’s physique has gone the way of 8-track tapes. The other guy hit his middle age in stride with a laid back attitude and a lanky walk. Both had kids accompanying them running around looking for shells and playing in the surf. I like to think that they were probably brothers-in-law taking the kids on a walk to give their wives a break.
Whether you’re a mother or whether you’re a brother-in-law, you’re stayin’ alive….
There is something about going to the beach so late in the summer season. With many schools in session, the beaches are quieter than during the prime summer months, the heat is no longer debilitating, and all the mature and <ahem> well-rounded adults venture out into the light for their daily dose of vitamin D. Such was the case with this next gentleman.
Now, when the kiddies come to the beach with kites, they don’t care if there is wind or not. They gleefully run up and down the beach to launch their technicolor plastic playthings. When adults get that same gleam in their eye, they have the good sense to come on a day sponsored by a strong wind. On this particularly windy day, four adults wandered over the dunes where two of them immediately dropped their chairs to the sand and launched their kites with nary a trot between them necessary to generate any wind speed. Although I imagine trotting was not a common activity for either of them.
Beach kites bring out the kid in all of us even when the kid in all of us was long ago absorbed by life.
Well, now you know about my happy place. Where is your happy place? On second thought, don’t tell me if you really don’t want me to show up with my sketchbook.
