Dylan's Website header

Some time ago, I designed a couple of website headers for my friend Dylan.  One was for his review blog Dylan Reviews Everything and the other was going to be for another non review related blog Dylan's Discourse.  Eventually, Dylan decided that Dylan's Discourse wasn't really necessary because whatever he had to say about anything could just be considered a review and therefor fit within the theme of Dylan Reviews Everything.  So after some discussion with me, it was decided that his main website would serve as a portfolio of his work for potential clients for his freelance business.

I didn't really have any plans of doing another website header for him but I still like to brainstorm different design ideas.  When this idea came to me, I decided to put it together because it barely took anytime at all. It's mainly just a Photoshop filter, a picture of crinkled paper and some text.

The idea was inspired by the opening to the old Nickelodeon show You Can't Do That On Television as well as the old Bubble Tape ads from my child hood. I always really liked that photocopied paper cut out look and thought it would be fitting for a writer's website.

See it on Dylan's website.

Real People Cartoons

Real people inspire me a lot. Working at a grocery store means seeing a lot of interesting characters, regularly. So, I like to draw them.  It's good practice too. I often get freelance jobs that require me to caricature somebody or draw a cartoon version of them.  Doing sketches like this keeps me limber. It teaches me to be observant of people's defining features and how to properly exaggerate them.

 

I see this guy a lot. He's sort of a very sad man with a seemingly happy attitude. I'm sure his mind is going too. He rides around on the electric cart and wears his dead wife's clothes.  He also has this little dog that he  has spoiled so much that the dog is horribly obese.  The dog is almost literally a round ball of fur.

I draw my friends a lot. So much so that it's down right creepy.  I see my friends a lot though and I get a good sense of their features and mannerisms. So it's fun to try and interpret them from memory. This is a very exaggerated sketch of my pal Nick. I'm sure if he sees this he will not be happy but I think it's funny and I wanted to share it.  Sorry Nick.  I've drawn Nick a lot, anyway.  I've done some cartoon-Nick-characters for him before for his cooking websites that were a little less offensive. Here's a more stylized one that I did for his cake business a couple years ago.

Fairy Sketch

I was sitting at work one day and noticed a drawing somebody did of a fairy. I was reminded of a sketch that I did for a coworker, a long time ago..  The sketch at the time was a more realistic, comic book style drawing. It was much different than how I draw things now. I realized that I hadn't drawn a fairy since then.  So, I decided to do this sketch for the fun of it. I like to do that from time to time to see how my art has changed.

The sketch is very John K inspired (The creator of Ren and Stimpy).  John K has been a big influence on my work , since about three years ago when I discovered his blog. It really changed my life and taught me more about drawing and cartooning then any schooling I'd ever had. Thanks John!

Rudolph Color Pages

Here are some never before seen full color pages from part three of my comic Rudolph The Hideous Abomination.  If you've seen it before, you know that the first two parts are in full color but part three and four are only black and white line art. I decided not to do the color for those last parts just because it was going to take way too long to get done.  Coloring is by far the most time consuming step and my schedule, at the time, wouldn't allow for me to get any of it done in a timely fashion.  

 At one point I decided that before I was going to start drawing chapter four I was going to go back and color chapter three. It was just bothering me too much to have only half the comic in color. Then I started getting lots of freelance work, which is always my priority, and I was only able to get these five pages colored before I decided that my time was better spent finishing the last chapter and getting it online.

A Sign From A Wise Man

The other day, my pal Dylan sent me a link to a video featuring Ice T.  Ice was talking about the term "Fuck It!" and how saying it can empower you and force you to push yourself to take risks. While viewing the video I noticed an ad, in the corner, for Istockphoto. Featured on the ad was one of my illustrations!  This blew my mind right out of my eyeballs.

Now, I know that the advertisement is probably reading my browser history and is just showing me images I've viewed before, (one of which is my own), but that's beside the point!  The ad coupled with the words of  the great wise man, Ice T, has got to be a sign.  It's a sign that I should just say, "Fuck it!" and start doing more stock illustrations already. This is the righteous path as prophesied by Ice T.  And that's precisely what I plan on doing!