Heading out.

I'm on my way out for an extended weekend of camping, so I won't be posting anything new until next week. However, since my rule has always been (and by "always" I mean since about 2 minutes ago) to never post two text-only entries in a row, I'll leave you with one last inking attempt from last night.



Have a great weekend, and I'll see you all next week!

Comments

So I had this blog set up to where only people who had register through the blogging site could leave comments. That was until I realized that they have a word verification system that helps curb the amount of spam comments left. So I've removed the need to sign up to leave comments.

So feel free to tell me how amazing my art is now...

Of course if you're not my Mother, you too can leave a message and tell me how much my artwork sucks.

Thanks.

BTW - When I spell-checked this post, the spell checker wanted me to change the word "blogging" to "flogging," which gives a whole new meaning to my first sentence.

Brush N' Ink

What you see below is yet another of my many attempts to begin inking more of my artwork with a brush and ink. I have little to no experience inking in this manner, but have always wanted to learn.

In the past, I have tried to use a brush and ink, but have usually put the brush down within the first 10 minutes. It's frustrating to say the least, as I want my ink work to instantly be as good as some of the other ink work that I have seen. So I wind up giving up.



I'm hoping that this time is different, and that I can actually find the patience to work through and learn this technique. Despite the less-than-fluid lines above and the sporadic line widths, I still get excited to see something I've inked with a brush that doesn't look like it was drawn by a monkey with it's arm strapped to a paint can shaker.

I'll post more inking exercises later... unless I decide to give up.

Broken images everywhere!

I've got a lot of broken images on this site right now. The reason for that is that I've re-directed my old site and pointed it here. As a result, any image hosted on that old site now appears broken.

I'm at work right now, so I can't remedy the situation, but I will be taking care of it tonight when I get home.

In the meantime, I want you all to marvel at my amazing gallery of boxes with little red Xs in them!

EDIT: To keep you happy while I take care of my little red x problem, why don't you paw through some of the great links that I just added over in the right column over there? Who knows... you may find an even better excuse for never coming to this site again!

Mark O'Hare

If you are a comic strip fan, and you've never checked out Mark O'Hare's work, Citizen Dog, please do yourself a favor and go pick up his books. You can get them at Amazon, and they're only about 10 bucks each.

Citizen Dog is everything I would create in a comic strip, if I had the talent to do so. From the amazing brush work (I'll be posting some of my latest inking attempts with a brush later this week), to the wonderful character expressions, to the really charming writing, "Citizen Dog" has it all.

Mark hasn't done the strip in years, and has since gone on to work on Spongebob Squarepants and Shrek, but his strip still stands as one of my all-time favorites, right up there with Calvin and Hobbes and Bloom County.



If you missed the link above, you can read Citizen Dog in limited form over on the Ucomics site by clicking here.

Certainly worth your time.

Devil and Angel

I've been recovering from my surgery over the past week, but I did have a chance to knock out another one of the pulltab games for my freelance art gig.

I like the way this one turned out, and it may have even inspired me on a brand new project...

You never know.

-Dave

I got SURGERIED!

I'm back from my surgery, and decided to work on the GPK a bit more.

[click image for larger version]

For those of you wondering, I had what are called "lipomas" all over my legs and a few on my arms. Lipomas are naturally occurring lumps of fat that form under the skin. They are not related to diet or cancer or anything of that nature, and some people just happen to produce more than others. I got really lucky and wound up with about 30 on my body. Some had started to cause pain, and even cause some circulation problems, so it was time to get them removed. I now have about a dozen holes in my body, and look like I was involved in a drive-by.

By the way... in case you hadn't notice, that d*mn tree is giving me fits!

Minor Surgery

I've got a minor surgery that I'm going to have today, so I may not be posting any updates for the next day or so as I recover. I'll be back up and running in no time though, and the doctor promises that I will look just like David Hasselhoff.

Take care.

Clouds in the sky.

Not only do we have clouds in the sky now, but the kid himself is starting to take real shape. I also added a white safe edge around the image and cropped it down a bit.

[click image for larger version]

It's really coming along now! More tomorrow.

Now I just wish I hadn't made his head looks like that kid from "Family Guy"...

Progress so far.

I just wanted to show my latest GPK project so far in chronological order, so that people can see the process I'm using to build it through multiple layers. I'll do this one more time when the project is all finished.

Some base-ics.

I didn't have a whole lot of time to work on the card tonight, but I got the base colors in for the bird, and the GPK's clothes. I also began to render the ladder and added a toof to the kid.

[click image for larger version]

My goal is to have this thing done by Friday, but I'm not sure if that's going to happen. I figure the snot running out of the kid's nose alone will take me four hours!

I'm kidding.

Eyes N' Eggs

No, it's not a new band, or the latest Denny's meal. It's my GPK update for today:

[click image for larger version]

The eggs and eyes turned out pretty well, though they'll need some additional shading before the piece is done.

Giving Ike a hand.

Got a little more done on Ike tonight.

[click image for larger version]

The tree is going to be a challenge for sure, as the first couple of tries I had at it didn't work out too well. However I am very happy with how the flesh is going thus far, and I look forward to adding the finishing touches to that later in the piece.

Empty Nest

I didn't update yesterday, but it wasn't for lack of trying. I knew when I started this piece that the nest would be the biggest challenge. I worked on it for about 3 hours last night and it wound up looking like a big pile of vomit. I'm not being hard on myself either... it really looked like a pile of vomit.

So I scrapped it and started again tonight. While it isn't finished, I think it looks much better this time around.

[click image for larger version]

I'll work on it a bit more tomorrow, and then try and get the eggs n' eyes all finished up.

Take care.

That looks a bit freaky...

Though it looks rather odd right now with just the head painted, I wanted to show you the progress I've made on my latest fake GPK card.

[click image for larger version]

Hopefully you can tell, but this one already has way more layers of "paint" than the previous one, and I'm not stopping there. I've been having some great correspondence with Jay Lynch and Luis Diaz and they've both offered up some wonderful advice so far. I think the results are already very evident in this most recent card.

More as I get it done!