a decade of doodles

First drawing of 2010! It's my friend Sibylle, in a very Ai Yazawa influenced style. :)


A lot has changed in a decade! I decided to post up a few drawings from the last 10 years, and say a little about what was going on with each year. Kind of a cheesy idea, but personally, I like seeing other people's older drawings! Everyone with a blog should post their weirdest drawings from 2000!

2000

In 2000, my favorite artists were Ai Yazawa and Shane Glines. I'm still super influenced by them today. I made tons of those weird paper dolls!

2001

Lets get by 2001 quickly. This was my year for super weird Photoshop monstrocities.

2002

2002 is when I worked for Spumco doing layout, so construction became really important to learn. This whole year was full of drawings that were labored over and are sort of stiff. It also shaped how I would draw for years and years. I'm not sure I'll ever shake the Spumco influence completely.

2003

2003 is another weird year- I was really into mutant girls with elongated heads, topless people, and forest creatures.

2004

I kind of consider 2004 to be the year I had a drawing breakthrough. I suddenly started drawing fast and loose and making happy accidents instead of stiff, laborious looking drawings. These look a bit primitive to me now, but I remember how happy I was to be drawing back then, and kind of feel envious of those times. 2004 is also when I started getting back into coloring with markers.

2005

This year was the most productive ever!! I did tons and tons of drawings. I had a total obsession with teeth, weird hairdos, and Japanese fashion in 2005. 2005 is also when I started this blog, and when I worked on designing and doing layout for a video, which meant having to practice construction again.

2006

I got back into anime and manga in 2006. All my drawings are really weird and wiggly from this year! I like a lot of them more than what I am drawing now, though.

2007

2007 was all about vampires, and hand inking.

2008

In 2008 I started my hillbilly project, abandoned ballpoints for new types of pens, got a cintiq, inked and colored half the drawings I did on the cintiq, and started web-publishing my weekly comic "Skadi" with Luke. I liked 2008.

2009

2009 was all post-its and cats! I also tried hard this year to draw things other than girls, and to draw less cutesy. 2009 was a great year because I got into lots of new artists, including all the people who make comics in France.

Anyhow, happy new year, guys!! I hope 2009 was fun for everyone, and that 2010 is even better!

Cave Stupids

50 years ago I wanted to do a comic with cave-girls, but never really got around to it, other than doing silly character sketches. I like coming up with designs but then I don't do much with them.

The idea was called "Cave Stupids" and was going to be exactly how it sounds- stupid prehistoric people doing stupid stuff. Since lately I have my job and Skadi as priorities, and then 2 personal projects I'm trying to keep quiet on the side, I thought I'd at least do some redesigns for fun since I want to have something to post here. Here they are! New cave-stupids for you!



The girl above is named Yark (duh). I'm not sure about her, I suppose she's the sexy one? I don't know, can you have a horizontally oblong head and still be sexy? Or have grey skin and be cute? I don't know!




Meet Miak. She also lives in a cave and is also stupid!




I imagine this one is some sort of medicine (wo)man. I gotta come up with some guy characters too- so far the sketches all look like a weird Captain Caveman. Euuurrrghghghghg!

OK now for some last minute weirdstuff, here are some original drawings I did from '03 or '04, I'm not sure.

OLD DRAWINGS ALERT!!!!!!!
(I don't want anyone thinking these are modern >__<; )

I think Skadi's design evolved out of this redhead girl.




I like these but they're kind of generic or something. I prefer marker coloring still, but when you're confined to the computer all the time, real coloring and drawing becomes a luxury!





This green-haired girl's attitude reminds me of Skadi, too.





Actually I kind of like this one! I wish I had a bone guitar.

Ok that's it for old and new Cave Stupids! I hope you like them! Maybe if I get a break sometime I'll do some little mini-comics? I don't know, will there ever be time?? *sob*

Fun time post

Thanks for the feedback everyone! This post is gonna have lots of crap in it.

To get started, an uninspired and weird picture!

Try and interpret it! Oh I'm so deep (lie).

Also in the comments of my last post a few people asked for inking tips. I'm gonna talk a little bit about how I ink, but remember that there isn't just one way to do it- if you are looking for lines that are more like old fashioned cartoons, then this could be helpful. Lots of people ink their drawings in other ways and that's perfectly fine too!

So first I chose a drawing to ink!! I chose this one because it's simple and would be easy to ink quickly since it's just an example. Note: I know this drawing isn't great- her elbow is in a really weird place...but ignore that for now!


So before I got started, I went over the basic rules to remember for inking:

1. No parallel lines!
2. The larger the shape, the thicker the line
3. The smaller the shape, the thinner the line
4. The closer a shape is to you, the thicker the line (example: a foreshortened hand coming towards you)
5.Follow the drawing you are inking- don't change interesting shapes
6. Follow the lines through
7. Avoid tangents
8. Use thick to thick lines (lines taper at the ends)
9. Don't round out corners and angles in the art (this is easy to overlook)
10. If you are inking traditionally, flip between the ink drawing and the original art to make sure you aren't toning down your drawing.

Also- and this is important!!!!! Inking isn't going to fix your drawing! If you aren't confident in the drawing you want to ink, then fix it before you try to polish it up. Inking is superficial- anyone can learn to do it with practice. The drawing underneath is what counts!

Here I inked the drawing poorly at first, then did it over again trying to follow the inking rules that guru Fred Osmond taught me so long ago. Also I inked it in Flash, but the rules still apply (getting smooth lines in Flash is kind of a bitch, let me warn ya).


I hope this makes sense! Inking is hard to explain with words.

Here's the colored drawing, just for fun! I like her color scheme!



I think a lot of people assume I ink with brush pens, but I'm horrible at it...on this post I explain my tools!
Also, more inking tips HERE!!

On my last post Ben suggested drawing different types of girls, like American girls, French girls, etc...I like that idea! I'm gonna look into it...for now here are some Russian cutes that I found on a mail order bride site.


A lot of people suggested cool ideas for blog posts! I'll have to get on some of those. One person asked for more theories and crap, so if you are into that kind of thing, you can read some theories in the second part interview with Jason Anders here! Or you can click this weird drawing!


I know not everyone likes reading long winded crap, but I hope some of you will! Jason's questions were really interesting and fun to answer and I almost went off on a few rants. Check it out and then come back and tell me if you agree, disagree, or think I'm weird!

Lets see what else...oh, here are some notebook doodles drawn veeerrrrrry slowly and absentmindedly because I was watching a movie that I was into and not paying attention. Also the pen doesn't work if you draw fast. Does it even look like my normal drawings??

I kind of like Miss Squirrel

OH and another thing! This week's Skadi comic (the one explaining bush beasts) had a couple of "in jokes" in it, but so far only one has been discovered. Check it out and see if you can find it! Click for a direct link to the comic!


And lastly...I found an old sketchbook from '93/'94, and thought these primitive Beatles drawings were funny, as well as almost cute! Ah, a young girl in love!


That's all folks! Thanks fer lookin'!

Four girls thinking

An old drawing revisited. Does anyone remember the original of this? I fixed the textures.


I recently did an interview for Disney Guy Jason Anders over at his blog. Thanks Jason!! You should check it out!! I'm not putting a direct link, because he also interviewed heroes Nick Cross and Kristy Gordon, and since they are both amazing you should read those interviews too!Reading is good for you! Click click click!

Hey I need some ideas for posts. Anyone got ideas?

Sick girl huge cheater post

I'm sick as a dog, pity me please! (T___T)



So my flu turned into bronchitis. Yeah!!! Awesome loads of fun. Needless to say new drawings are not anything I wanna do right now. So you get OLD stuff! But don't despair...as there is a

NEW SKADI COMIC AT DUMM COMICS!
also a...
BUTT-LOAD OF LUKE CORMICAN DRAWINGS AT THE SKADI BLOG!

If you can't tell, I want you to click those links!! I'm sick, do me a favor! (whine, bitch, moan) Also, I have a question for people at the bottom...please read it and and tell me what you think!


First off is some layouts I did for "Ren and Stimpy, APC" from back in 2002 or so. These below are a scene from "Ren Seeks Help."

I need to add that these are off of John's amazing roughs, and also Fred Osmond (our layout supervisor) gave me lots of help on all my layouts. Actually I wouldn't be surprised if some of the lines on these are Fred's or John's and not mine.




Another "Ren Seeks Help" scene


This title card for "Firedogs 2" is based off of an amazing Eddie Fitzgerald storyboard drawing.


I wish I had Eddie's drawing, I'd love to post it here! Man, I have hardly anything from working on this show. Note that the famous Ralph signed my layout!!

Here are some super generic girls I did for "Altruists."

Girl with beaver-tail bikini.


Girl with buttless chinchilla coat (the author does NOT approve of chinchilla coats by the way!! See HERE).

These aren't from any specific project, just drawings I like that I did during and after APC.






Wow my stuff was different back then. These next ones might be from 2003?





I like some of my old drawings more than the ones I do now.


Wow, I really have hardly anything from any of the projects I've worked on. I tried digging up some stuff from the Weird Al video I worked on, but John has everything and I never got copies!



This drawing above is actually a mix of my drawing and John's.




OK!!!!!!!!!! This is where I need your guys' help!!! I need money right now so I was thinking of selling some crap. I recently dug up about 30 or so inks that I did from 2002-2004. Here are two questions:

1. Will people buy them even though they're just inks? They're not perfect- some have white-out, paper wrinkles, etc.

2. I have a whole bunch of them, so if I DO sell them, should I sell them in bunches? Like in packs of 5, or 10?

Here are some examples of the inks I want to part with.





What do you guys think?? Is it worth the hassle of doing the eBay thing? Does anyone want stuff like this? Sell them individually or in groups??

Please leave your opinions, and let me know what you think of my old stuff too!

Thanks guys!
*cough*