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Camouflage! Ah, love is truly blind! I drew this the friday morning Illustration Friday announced this theme (I had a lot of other ideas too, but liked this best) and proceeded to be swamped with other stuff and didn’t get to paint it until today. So, there’s just a few hours left for my friends at Illustration Friday to see this. I just went to Illustration Friday and I see there’s a lot of chameleons… no surprise, really. Half an hour to draw, 4 hours in PhotoShop. I hope you enjoy it.
I’ve been using a brush pen a lot lately, with just a little color from PhotoShop. These first three were for Monday Artday. The first one Kit Kat Klub, was for the “Glass” challenge – in honor of retro bars, full of kitchy tikis, cheesy lounge music, naive sexism, alliterative misspellings, women in skimpy animal costumes, and… um… girls in cocktail glasses. The next one, Yoda pets the kitty, was my second entry for the “Mystical” challenge. Then I designed these superheroes-as-bugs for the “stickers” challenge. The last one here is a drawing of my daughter that went on her Merry Birthday Tea Party invitations.
I mention this because, well, I’ve always used a micro pen so this thick-thin line thing is new to me… and I like it! I’m not changing my style… just exploring new ones. Yay!
Thinking Blogger Award and another 7 things – First off, I need to say that one of my favorite artists and friends from Illustration Friday and Monday Artday, Emila Yusof, has awarded me with a Thinking Blogger Award (click for details). Emila is incredibly talented so be sure to check out her blog! Also, look for her post on this. She chose 4 other people besides me that you should visit and she said some really nice things about me. All true, of course. Heh-heh…
Now that I have the award, I need to choose “5 blogs that make [me] think” and pass the award on. I don’t like chain-type things but this one is a good idea as it gives me a chance to showcase blogs I like. So, here it goes…
Josh Hoye! All around good guy, intensely talented illustrator, and surfer. You gotta check this guy out. His art doesn’t push boundries, it completely ignores them. He’s also been featured on DRAWN!
David Sones! His artwork is so awesome it hurts. Yeah, right here… I should have a doctor check it out. David’s lil’ muse buddy is Pickledog which is also the name of his blog. Not only will his illustrations knock your socks off, his writing is flat-out hysterical!
Paula Becker! Cartoonist and blogger extraordinaire! Paula’s art is genuinely, unpretentiously, funny! And she’s an awesome person too!
Eugenia Gina! Super sweet drawings and photographs! She loves her children like crazy and shares all the amazingly creative things they do together. Gina is a wonderful person.
Alina Chau! If you ever visit, oh, just about any illustration blog, and still haven’t heard of Alina Chau, then your head is buried in the sand! She’s everywhere! And yet, no one can get enough of her. Her art is so sensitive, free, beautiful and funny! She’s a star among Illustration Friday illustrators and rightly so. Gosh, she probably already has a dozen of these awards.
All these guys may have already gotten this award but they’re my picks and I’m sticking with that. Did I leave anyone out? Yes, about 50 other talented friends. You know who you are!
[Edit, 5/09: I felt compelled to redisign the award.]
Another seven things: Next – I got tagged… AGAIN! [check out the last tag here]
This time I got tagged by the lovely and talented illustrator, Deb Johnson! My first thought was “I already did it” but I figured this is a nice way to say more about myself so here’s another 7 things:
1) I never use the word “hate”. If I do, I’ll correct myself. There’s something redeeming about near everything and I want to reserve that word for when I really need it (hopefully never).
2) My biggest peeve is the lack of common courtesy in the world today. This “talk-to-the-hand” rudeness is so selfish and has gone too far. Please, thank you, excuse me… what’s so hard about that? When I come to an intersection I have to look for pedestrians crossing against the light now. And they look at me like I’m the enemy! How did this happen?
3) My favorite colors are orange and green and I often wear them.
4) I like chocolate everything, sweet or savory. Chocolate avacado shakes? Oh, yeah…
5) I’m Batman. (I’m not, but I like to say it… actually, I’m Night Crawler.)
6) I love love. Love makes me cry. Sniff… Don’t look at me!
7) Briefs.
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Anakin rejects his master. Not a Star Wars fan? Then let me explain. Anakin was once a Jedi hero until the Dark Lord Palpatine turned him to the dark side and Anakin killed hundreds personally and millions by command, having become a Sith Darth and taking the name “Vader.” Years later he discovers he has a son and attempts to turn him to the dark side for his master. His son, Luke (after a lightsaber battle which took Vader’s mechanical hand), rejects Palpatine (now Emperor) much to Palpatine’s surprise, as he had foreseen Luke killing his father, Darth Vader (Anakin) and becoming Palpatine’s new Darth, Palpatine rejecting Vader. Palpatine now rejects Luke and tries to kill him with dark side energy bolts. Vader had been connected to his son for some time now and the suffering of his son for the sake of the light side awakens the old Anakin who rejects the dark side and so rejects his persona of Darth Vader, once again becoming Anakin and rejecting his master, Palpatine. He saves his son by lifting Palpatine, who is locked in dark hatred bent on killing Luke and unable to defend himself, and throws him into the reactor below where he vaporizes. Emperor Palpatine’s rejection from Luke and then Anakin results in his destruction – ultimate rejection.
It’s really quite simple. Isn’t it?
1 hour research and drawing, 4 hours in PhotoShop. Click it!!!
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I draw out a few ideas when I think about the Illustration Friday themes. I went with my Star Wars idea but I still really liked this one. Rejection seat! HA! CLICK IT!!!
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I sat on the couch after midnight, my wife and little girl asleep in their beds, I in the dark, silence. My thoughts attacked each other, never coming together, never making sense, keeping me from sleeping. Life was slipping by and I wondered how much time I would have to be a good husband, a good father, and true to myself. I wondered if I was worth the life I lived, if I was worth anything. But the wondering was garbled in a mind fevered with demons. I was alone. I was utterly alone. Then I saw light coming from my bedroom where my wife slept. I walked to the door and peered in – no light, just the gentle breathing of my sleeping wife. I left, bewildered, and saw the same light, this time from my daughter’s room. I found her sleeping peacefully as well, no light but the small nightlight that keeps her company. I turned from her room and returned to the living room and suddenly fell to my knees, grasping my chest in pain. Am I having a heart attack? It burned, like fire. I tore my shirt, then I tore my chest, pulling back the flesh — and then the light came out. The same light. It flooded the room making everything in it sharp, bright, crystal clear. It was so bright I should have been blinded, but instead, I saw better than I ever have. I gasped, fell to my hands, the light was gone. I breathed as though I’d run a mile. In the dark, on the floor. My chest was whole, my shirt untorn. When I caught my breath it was quiet again. All I could hear was the gentle breathing of my wife and daughter, asleep in their beds.
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Well, you remember my Big Beautiful Wonder Woman (bbww)? Jamar Nicholas has posted it to his BBWW site (AKA: Fat Wonder Woman – I prefer BBWW). He’s also given a shout out to all artists! MEME ALERT! His site is a year old and he wants a BBWW with a birthday cake! Sketch it up and send it to him ASAP! He really needs more work. Really!
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“Juhi wanted to deal with serious business so she took along a representative to handle the monkey business.” Suits! Yes, there’s two. In India, a suit is a short dress or tunic over a pair of light trousers. In America, a “monkey suit” is what we call a jacket and tie outfit we don’t want to wear. Drawn, scanned, colored in PhotoShop – 2 hours total.
[edit: Say... has anyone noticed how much that monkey looks like Abe Vigoda?]
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“Ghost Girl is a good friend but she does tend to keep me up late at night with her moaning, however lovely and melodic it may be.” This is a study for a painting I would like to do. I’m not sure if this is the final version, but I do like it a lot. Maybe a couple of woodland creatures enjoying the show as well?
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This kid is ready for a fight. And by the looks on the girl and her kitty, that fight is imminent. This is an illo I did for Monday Artday’s “warrior” challenge – scanned from my sketchbook, about 4 hours in PhotoShop. I also tossed in an old watercolor of a female warrior.
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So, a picture of my paradise. I have so many! Spending time with my wife and child are my greatest joys. But I chose to take a more literal approach – one of the most beautiful places on earth, Bali. The island is the definition of paradise. The culture, the people, the music, the food – Bali makes me feel peaceful and happy. This is just a simple little concept illustration – 5 hours in PhotoShop.
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Washer woman, Renaissance Pleasure Faire, Southern California. I used to be a “faire geek”, ren-faire costume and all. My last job there was pulling beer. I met my wife there (this isn’t her) and many of my dearest friends. This is an old watercolor I did of a washer woman. At the faire (at least, when I was there back then) these women were actors, playing the part of bawdy peasants washing clothes in the stream. They were loud, rude, suggestive, and funny. They always had to speak (as did we all) in “Faire-Speak” – a kind of crude Shakespearean lingo. The easiest way to do it is to talk like Yoda with a British accent (avoid Cockney!). Huzzah!
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