Illustration Friday: Worn

This fellow with the worn jacket was drawn during a down period at the office. I used a .05mm OfficeMax mechanical pencil in a Pastel Rose steno book. As an aside, does anyone actually do stenography/shorthand anymore?

Sketchbook: Things I Sketch While Watching TV

Illustration Friday: Hierarchy

Hierarchy.

Interesting choice of word to illustrate—and by interesting I mean—wtf? But hey, it certainly was a challenge to come up with something unique to represent the mundane.

The only thing I could think of was one of those organizational charts that list the boss in the big box at the top, and then the descending echelons of minions, lackeys and worker bees. The chart where people hope that they are at least as high (if not higher) on the feeder scale than the schmuck who wants you to buy his daughter’s Girl Scout cookies.

Anyway—I’ve seen (and designed) enough of the ‘org’ chart that my mind automatically goes there for ‘hierarchy’ and refuses to leave. Thus, I bring you the little doodle below. For those who keep track of this stuff: this ‘toon was created Illustrator CS3 though it probably could have been done just as easily in MS Paint.

I appreciate your comments.

Illustration Friday: Clandestine

I hope you are enjoying your Holidays and have a wonderfully prosperous 2009.

Clandestine was created in Photoshop using my brand-spanking new Wacom Bamboo graphics tablet that I received for Christmas.

Your comments are encouraged.

Bob Barr and I

Note the halo-like glow over both of our heads.
This was shot at Kennesaw State University last week.

Illustration Friday: Clique

This is a logo for my new talkshow airing on www.ksuradio.com (8:30 pm Eastern Tuesday nights). It ties in with 'clique', because the cool kids and the enlightened clique all tune to listen :)

This was done in Illustrator CS. Your comments are always encouraged.

Illustration Friday: Sail

I was on the phone with tech support while doodling. The sail boat came first--then the mountains. The clouds were the most fun.

This is an old school pencil sketch. I used a 0.5 mm Techniclick II mechanical pencil and a Pentel Clicks Eraser (for the clouds). It was draw on a page of my soft cover Moleskine notebook.

Your comments are appreciated. Click the image to see it larger.

Illustration Friday: Canned

Canned.

Canned?

Seriously?

Interesting word. It wasn't until I was driving to the Corporate Behemoth this morning that I thought about things in a can. My son's last band's tag line was 'better than sex in a can'. I thought about 'Whoop Ass Creative' in a can. But it wasn't until I was watching Senator Obama on some news show that I thought sheesh, this guy is a great speaker--dynamic, enthusiastic, quick on his feet. Essentially all the things Senator McCain is not. This isn't to say who is the better candidate, I don't like either of them for different reasons. But if the election comes down to personality, as they often do, Obama will win.

Anyway, this illustration is about the heretofore unknown secret weapon in Obama's medicine cabinet. The 3d can, background, and text, was created in Illustrator CS. The not-so-good likeness of Senator Obama was drawn in Flash.

As always, your comments are encouraged.

Tired of High Gas Prices, Call Nancy 202-225-4965

Progressive Democrat and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi refuses to allow a debate to expand offshore drilling to come up on the house floor. Pelosi and her equally partisan troll Harry Ried, (Democratic U.S. Senate Majority Leader) are ignoring the will of their party members (somewhat surprising), the Republican party (no surprise there) and the American people (again, no surprise there). Pelosi and Ried, would rather you and I continue to pay back breaking prices for fuel rather than reach across the aisle and work with the Republicans. She and Ried are invoking parliamentary procedures to avoid the discussion—much like spoilt birthday childen screaming ‘it’s our party and you have to do as we say’.

Read the rest here

Illustration Friday: Fierce

Years ago when my daughter was about a year or so new, we moved to Ocala Florida courtesy of Time/Warner (this was the pre-AOL days). Having lived in metro areas most of my life, I was unaware of the dangers that lurked in the grass just outside my door.

On this particular day I was sunning in the back yard, minding my own business when I noticed an ant on the filter of my cigarette (hey, it was 90s, everyone smoked). I crushed the filter and the ant, lit a cigarette and didn’t give it another thought. A short time later the girl child starting fussing about something so I stood up to bring her in the house. In the process of walking towards her, I felt something sting my toe.

When I put her down in the house my toe was throbbing and my face felt like it was swelling. A quick check in the mirror showed that ‘swelling’ was an understatement—I looked like an Italian blowfish. Things happened fast after that--it was painful to move my foot and my eyes were swelling shut. I remembered putting up the child gate so Sara couldn’t get too close—I still didn’t know what was happening—for all I knew, this was some strange Florida disease. I called my wife and suggested she come home from work if she wanted to see me before I blew up.

The doctor in the emergency room said I had a ‘reaction’ to a fire ant bite. A reaction? Seriously, a reaction is the scream you get when you jump out of a closet and shout ‘booga booga’ at someone. I was well beyond reaction and into terminal response. Anyway, I’ve been bitten since then but I’ve never had a ‘reaction’ as severe as that first incident. I’ve also wondered what possible evolutionary purpose could these little bringers of pain serve? I am still waiting for a satisfactory answer.

Based on this experience, I think fire ants are fierce little monsters and therefore qualify for my Illustration Friday entry this week. I realize that the scale in the picture above would make the fire ants the size a small dog or a large rodent—a Fire Chihuahua perhaps—but, if you’ve ever been bitten by one of them, you know that the scale is psychically correct.

I did this piece completely in Illustrator. I used several different reference pieces as models for the ants and drew the body using a standard brush. Then I filled the bodies using the mesh tool, copied them, and created a red transparency (multiply) over the original body. I created the grass using a custom brush generated from 3 pieces (I read about this process in the Illustrator Wow Book). The sun is a yellow circle with a flare placed over it.

Your comments are encouraged.

Illustration Friday: Punchline

It would be funnier if it weren't so true. Illustrated in Flash 7 with a background created in Corel PainterX all from a pencil sketch.

Illustration Friday: Forgotten Part 2

Ok, this is a little more like my usual stuff. Enjoy.

Illustration Friday: Forgotten

A little different from my usual style/tone. "Forgotten" was composed in Corel Painter X.

Here is a link to my usual style.

Retro Sketches

I really like the 'retro' look of The Fairly Odd Parents, Dexter's Lab, and similar, so I picked up Cartoon Cool by Christopher Hart and started practicing. Here are some sketches based on the exercises in the book (except for the water bottle and that first one in the upper left corner :) ).

Illustration Friday: Baby

I drew/composed "Babies Got The Blues" in Flash MX Professional with a little help on the background from Photoshop CS.

Your comments are appreciated.

Illustration Friday: Worry

Hello IFriday Folks--long time no see. Enjoy this weeks offering. Your comments are appreciated.

Night Falls Logo

The primary logo for the site:



The logo for the first episode.



Your feedback and comments are appreciated.