Toon Challenge: Space Invader!

Well, after winning the initial TOON CHALLENGE um.. challenge, over on FaceBook with my "The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly" Cowboy tribute, I followed it up the next month with... NOTHING. Yep, even after I got to choose the challenge topic ( I chose King Arthur ), I was just too busy to compete. Lame. Well, at least my good buddy Kenny Durkin entered and won. This month, there's mere hours left to enter anything, and I just couldn't let the deadline pass me by again. ( Particularly since I have several unfinished King Arthurs on my desktop that stare me down everytime I am working on my computer). Even though this is just a five minute "Space Invader" ( the current challenge topic) quickdraw I did before I started my "real work" today, I thought he turned out good enough to share. Hope ya like...

Toon Challenge: Old West!

Hey, gang. I am a "fan" of the "Toon Challenge" page over on FaceBook. It's a  monthly Character Design Challenge page that's in it's FIRST month. The theme this time is to design American "Old West"  Characters, i.e. Cowboys, Indians, etc. There's quite a few fellow "Likees" on the page, but so far only me and one other person have entered a drawing. Join up and contribute if you can! Looks like it will be fun, and a great way to get some new portfolio pieces drawn at the same time.

Oh yeah, as for my piece, well, I am crazy busy right now but I still wanted to get something in on this first challenge. So, I googled those old Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Westerns and used him as "inspiration" for my entry. All digital, Photoshop, in case you were wondering. 

cya!

Safety Posters

Been out of the country for the last week, but I'm back now! Here's another of the safety posters I drew recently. Again, a Vector illo.

Dexter!

-I bought the Dexter's Lab DVD for myself for Christmas.... Oh, I mean for my DAUGHTERS... Yeah, that's it.... And I am thoroughly enjoying watching it. There was something about this era of Cartoon Network that was and IS so inspiring . I used to watch Dexters Lab, Power Puff Girls, and Johnny Bravo on "Cartoon Cartoon Fridays" with my oldest daughter back when she was a baby. To this day I cant watch these shows without being inspired. I HAVE to grab a pencil and sketchbook. Or in this case, the iPad.....

BTW, sorry about the low-rez image here. I drew it kind of small on the iPad, I guess.

It's ALIVE!!!!!!...just Frankie

Here's the Black and White Layer of just the Monster, from the safety poster I shared a few days ago. I like seeing the different stages of illos sometimes, so I thought you guys might as well....

iPad "Toon of the Day"

Yes, I do still draw "old school", with pen and paper, sometimes. Just drew live caricatures at a huge event at Disney last night, actually. But drawing on the iPad and then being able to post to my blog instantly with BlogPost, the app I use for blogging, is just SO easy compared to scanning in paper drawings, that you're probably going to see more and more iPad toons from me here. I am still working on an iPad tutorial, about how I draw on it in ArtStudio, but it's taking more time than I thought to do it correctly.

Until then, here's another cartoon sketch from a live iPad gig a few weeks ago. I really like how I am able to "cut into" the black when I am done, to pull out white lines and highlights. I learned from Hank Ketcham's work that black with white in it is more visually interesting than solid black.


.... Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

It's Alive!!!!

This illo was for a great client I did work for a few months ago. A series of safety posters that they blew up into banners. To keep the resolution good for them when they enlarged the images, I had to draw everything in Adobe Illustrator, making them Vector images. Aggh. I haven't worked in Illustrator much , so the images took me a lot longer than expected. But the cool thing was the client basically gave me free rein on these. I used a more cartoony style than most people ask me for, but it's the style that I really PREFER to work in. This client loved it. Hopefully more clients will let me do this in the future.

BTW... I did have 40s cartoonist Dick Briefer's great, toony looking Frankenstein Monster in mind when I did the face here. And I don't know if it's evident in the final, but I was kind of thinking of parts of the outfit of Marvel's Frankenstein comics from the 70s.....

Teaching....

Over the years, at different periods of my life, I've taught private art lessons to kids. It's been quite awhile, though. And I've never done it during the actual school day... as a "real teacher". UNTIL tomorrow...

Yep, tomorrow morning at 8AM, I add "Substitute Art Teacher" to my resume'. I'll be teaching Drawing I and Drawing/Painting at my daughters' school. I'm nervous and excited all at the same time. I can't imagine how cool it would've been as a student ( WAY too many years ago to go into right now...) to have a successful professional commercial artist come in to teach my class. I was always looking for that, looking for inspiration. Looking for someone to tell me that what I felt called to do was something I could actually make a living doing.

Hopefully I'll make that high schooler, who's still inside of me somewhere, proud tomorrow....

iPad toon of the day

Getting more comfortable with drawing in ArtStudio now. Looking very similar to what I can produce on paper. More to come...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Brady's Blog....

My daughter, Brady Ann, is writing more papers in school these days ( 6th grade), and needed a laptop for class. So she got an iPad for Christmas. She's quite the artist, and has been drawing a lot lately on the iPad. She is posting regularly on her own blog, so if you want to see what a talented twelve year old can do with an iPad, check it out....

http://bradyparham.blogspot.com/

iPad toons....

Another recent pic in ArtStudio on the iPad. I'll do a quick tutorial on what I've learned about drawing on the iPad soon.

For now, I'm just glad that my iPad drawings are in the ballpark of what I can do
With paper and ink .


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

IPAD TOONING...

A few days ago I drew on the iPad at a big party at a convention. Here's one from that night.


Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:iPad toonz

One mean lookin' dude....

Playin around with this awhile back. I'm gonna do something with this character one of these days. At least I hope to. He's been rattling around inside my head for over two decades in one form or another.

Basically it's a story of this battle scarred tough guy in a post- apocalyptic world who hunts down aliens, chimera, and fallen angels. A little Mad Max, a little HellBoy, a little "Left Behind", all mashed together.

Some day...

Happy New Year!!!

Yep, Baby 2011 is here, and ready to go!

2010 was a good year overall, but he was getting kinda old...

Recent Work: Merry Christmas!!!!

7-11

Drew this guy recently in the parking lot of a 7-11. I saw him outside and since I had my iPad with me, I decided to sketch him ( long story, but I was early to the airport to pick my parents up, and pulled in the 7-11 to sit until they called me from baggage claim). I am trying to get my iPad sketches as good as some of my friends' live digital work at gigs on the wacom, that way I can book more digital gigs. I think I'm getting close...

Gunslinger, part 2

An old, crusty gunslinger from the same job.

GunSlingers...

I've got this client that I've worked with for many, many years now who prints up simple card games for people to buy. He always wants drawings in a sequence... kind of like a limited animation scene. He only wants black and white images ( too bad ), but they're usually a lot of fun to draw. This time around, the theme was "gunslingers". The job was to draw a few gunslingers, in three poses: About to draw their gun/guns....
...drawing their gun(s), and...
...getting shot. This guy was the first one I did, a kind of " Marshall Matt Dillon" from "Gunsmoke" or "Hoss" from "Bonanza".

My Dad was a big Western fan when I was growing up ( John Wayne was his favorite), so I've watched plenty of Western TV shows and movies myself.

BTW, I think I colored this one just for myself. I'll try to find it and post here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hmmm. Today makes you think, you know?

We got a call from an Aunt in Iowa whose Dad ( she married into the family) just passed away unexpectedly yesterday.

We also got a call from an artist friend whose Mom is in terminal condition. They were surprised she made it till morning, up in the ICU of a Georgia hospital.

So, all this has me thinking today even more about how good my life is, and how blessed I am. Give thanks today to HE who gave it all to you, and hug your loved ones a few extra seconds today, okay?

Here's hoping you and yours have a Happy Thanksgiving Day.

iPad 4.2 : Where the heck is my Screen Lock?

I was ecstatic to download the iPad 4.2 operating system today. Mainly because I've been waiting to be able to create folders for my bookmarks. I now have my seven pages down to one and a half- Woo Hoo!

BUT.... ( insert imposing DUM DUM DUM music...)

They changed the screen lock button to a mute button! ARGGH! I was perfectly fine with toggling down the volume switch to mute. It was bad enough trying to read a website with the screen changing orientation on me, but I could only imagine how frustrated I was going to be trying to draw on this thing now.

So, I did some googling and found a solution, which I've shown in the screen capture above ( yes that is me and my beautiful girls and our dog on the screen). To lock the screen orientation, double-click the Home button on the iPad and slide the gray tray all the way to the right to reveal a lock, volume, and brightness controls and iPod playback controls. Yay! Crisis averted!