Last year I was asked to design some burlesque/stripper types for a secret project that I can't tell you about...obviously I can't post the actual designs I eventually did, but when I heard about the project I rushed to get some practice ideas out, and these are some of them! Obviously these aren't the most sophisticated drawings in the world, but I like them because they're loose and loopy. I felt really inspired by the project I was going to be designing for, but as it hadn't started yet, and I wasn't given the details for the characters, there was no pressure. That kind of situation usually results in drawings I'm actually ok with! I had no idea at that point what kind of designs I was going to be asked for, so it was fun to come up with different ways the characters might look. In the drawing above I was trying to simplify different girl shapes.
I like these two color ones best. I'm gonna do that weird fly-away hair thing more often! :)
Since the cartoon blogging community is pretty small, I'm sure everyone reading this already knows these guys, but I want to bring 'em up anyhow!! David Gemmill and Pedro Vargas are two amazing cartoonists that I really look up too. Not only are they both really good artists, but they both put in time and effort to make their own animation. To me this is so cool...I can barely get one page of a comic completed, let alone an entire cartoon.
You gotta check out this latest David cartoon- it's so good!! Funny drawings and dancing girls galore! You better not click it if you're at work though, or if you're offended by naked ladies (even if you are, click it anyhow! It'll put hair on your chest).
click me for cartoon fun!
Also, David's blog has more amazing animation on it, as well as funny drawings and social commentary!
Ok...now check out this super appealing and funny still from Pedro's short that he's working on:
click click click!
I REALLY can't wait till this comes out...I LOVE this guy's style. Click on the drawing to go to his blog! On top of being able to animate, Pedro paints, has great designs...he even designs text well (search "braineaters" on the blog). There's such a range of amazing stuff there.
Really, both these blogs deserve a full reading if you haven't already been through them. Both these guys must be really hard workers, as well as being extremely creative.
Also, we've got a whole month of Tara Billinger as our guest artist on Dumm Comics! She's got a crazy and cool style, so check it out and let her know you like her stuff!
And come back soon, I'm putting up burlesque/stripper girl drawings next week!
Ok, it's that time again...time to buy original art! Buy some, purdy please!
I'm still planning on selling those black and white inks from a while back, but I haven't figured out how I'm gonna do it. Some people were interested in buying them in packs of 5 or 6, but others requested individual ones, so I need to get that in order. I'm sorry to say at the time I was changing emails and some of the requests I got went unanswered. If you're someone who wrote me and I never got back to you, I'm sorry, it's a right brain thing! Not a good excuse, especially when people have been nice enough to ask for art. I'm going to try to be better from now on, so please forgive me!
So for now, here's what you can find on eBay. Click the links to see the listings:
Sorry for the lack of posts/art lately, I'm gonna try to be better. For now, here's the postcard Luke I made to help promote Skadi on Dumm Comics. I'm thinking about auctioning off the original art as we went with pen and marker for the postcard rather than digital coloring. Good idea, or no?
Also!!! Dumm Comics news!! Today (Saturday) the site showcased our first ever guest spot comic. Our first guest is L. Frank Weber! I am a huge fan of his art- he draws amazingly well, and his comics are really great. If you like girl drawings then you are in for a treat too. Here's an example of some of his beautiful comic art, and links so you can click them and be amazed like me!
ALSO! Fred made a really cool post on his blog where he goes step by step to show you how he cleans up his beautiful comics. Most of you probably already know that Fred does "Earthward-Ho!" every Friday. Aside from having extremely well-drawn art, this comic is really starting to take off story wise! Click hereor on the drawing to go to his blog!
Fred also did an interview for Jason Anders' Fulle Circle Productions blog. For being such a good cartoonist who helped so many other artists to get better over the years, Fred is really amazingly modest and kind. I'm very happy to be able to call Fred my friend! One more extra thing I want to share with you...behold this amazing piece of modern advertisement.
He's totally out to kill our food!!
I don't think I can fully express in words how happy these posters at our local 7-11 made me. Really, look at them closely! I want to meet the man who decided that the Hulk would be a reasonable personality to sell sandwiches and slurpees. I laughed so hard when I saw these posters. He looks like he wants to beat the shit out of that poor sandwich!! And the sandwich is so innocent looking, too! Its also great to see unbridled rage be the emotion to associate with a sweet frosty treat.
Sadly these posters have been replaced. 7-11 no longer brings tears of laughter to my eyes when I go there to get milk. Granted the Bimbo Fud poster is pretty good too, but it's just not quite the same.
P.S. Can someone translate the word "oaxaca" for me?
*Update!!* I'm gonna be in the Fruits Go Go art show, along with Gabe Swarr, Sandra Equihua, and lots of other cool artists! It's at the Monkeyhouse Gallery in Silverlake. Click here for details!
This is an older drawing that I posted on here a while back, only it's huge now. I inked and colored it on this funny crinkly old paper that did really cool things to the marker ink. Also the design on her skirt is sewn on with embroidery thread. I wanted to do more with string but ran out of time!
Here's how big it is, although now that it's in a huge frame it looks even bigger! I'm not sure I'll be at the gallery opening on Saturday, but I might be. I hope some of you LA based bloggers will stop by and take a look at all the cool art!
OK! Enough about that. My friend Ricky (my friend who does 1930 Nitemare Theatre on Dumm Comics) loaned me an awesome movie! It's called Freeway, and aside from just liking the movie, I also got really inspired to draw the main character.
The movie stars Reese Witherspoon...it's one of her earliest roles I think, as she looks super young. These drawings are not very good caricatures of Reese...instead I just kind of wanted to have fun trying to draw a simplified version of her character in the movie.
These first ones are pretty feeble. You can tell which drawings I liked though because I colored them!
Reese is really great in this movie. She plays a screwed up teenage girl in a modern "Little Red Riding Hood" story. She's angsty but goofy, and really likable. She makes great expressions too! Kiefer Sutherland plays the big bad wolf.
You know, Reese always gets crap for her prominent chin, but her chin wasn't the most interesting feature on her face for me. She's got this great big round cranium, flared, downward pointing nostrils, and a really cool mouth that I can't actually draw. Really very cute. I cheated on drawing her lips in these drawings. When I tried to draw them like real lips, they didn't look like hers. Now I have a new way of drawing mouths! Hooray! I couldn't figure out her eyes, though. They're kind of different in every drawing.
Her expressions are great! She makes a hundred expressions per monologue. If you want practice drawing real girl expressions, go rent this movie! And get "But I'm a Cheerleader" too!
I drew all these while watching the movie, but the bloody one was just made up.
Ok, that's it for now! Now it's time for more important business!! After years of begging my boyfriend, he finally caved and let me adopt a kitten! I won't talk too much about him now (there's already enough to read here), but you can expect a huge kitten post soon!
This is what Little Ricky has to say to you!
Remember to try and always adopt pets from shelters if you can! Lots of animals need loving homes! And be nice to your animals, or I'll kick your ass!
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!
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!
Obviously these aren't the most sophisticated drawings in the world, but I like them because they're loose and loopy. I felt really inspired by the project I was going to be designing for, but as it hadn't started yet, and I wasn't given the details for the characters, there was no pressure. That kind of situation usually results in drawings I'm actually ok with!
I had no idea at that point what kind of designs I was going to be asked for, so it was fun to come up with different ways the characters might look.
In the drawing above I was trying to simplify different girl shapes.
I like these two color ones best. I'm gonna do that weird fly-away hair thing more often! :) 
