Sparks Nevada Fans Part 1

I couldn't help myself.  When inspiration strikes, you sometimes have to ride it out.

It's what got stuck in my head after listening to many episodes of Sparks Nevada, Marshal on Mars back to back.  He's from Earth.  I also have the theme song stuck in my head.  Each quite brain moment I have is filled with it.

I'm planning on getting this coloured because, mainly, I just want to see what it looks like in colour.  I also have a different idea for the text but I'm too lazy to fix it in the sketch.

Beyond Belief!

So I follow Nathan Fillion on Twitter and he tweeted a link to a radio show podcast he performed in.  Being curious and bored I followed it along only to discover The Thrilling Adventure Hour podcast.  And now I can't believe I've been without it for as long as they've been doing it.  It's like the old 1940's radio serial shows but with the most amazing and surprising cast.  You MUST check it out.  They just had a super successful Kickstarter campaign to raise money for a graphic novel, a behind the scenes web show AND a DVD of a performance!

My two favourite shows are Beyond Belief and Sparks Nevada, Marshal on Mars.  The other shows are tied for a very close second.  Yeah, you have to hear it to get it.  After listening to the "Vampire Weekend" episode of Beyond Belief I KNEW I had to draw Frank and Sadie Doyle, the martini loving couple who see ghosts.

I have great plans to get this coloured with some nice 1940's colours and text if I can find a few moments here and there.

So do yourself a favour and listen to this podcast.  It's brilliant.

Tucker and Dale VS Evil

Fan Expo recently announced that Alan Tudyk is going to be one of the celebrity guests this year so I was inspired to do a Tucker and Dale VS Evil sketch.  I'm planning to get it coloured.  And if I can muster the courage (I'm shy!) and he doesn't cancel at the last minute, I'll get a few printed so I can give one to him and get him to sign another.

Killer Fangirls

So I'm trying to get back to where all my pinups kinda started and come up with something for the big FanExpo in Toronto this August.  My first idea was extra curvy versions of our favourite movie slashers.

This sort of worked.  I did this Leatherface one, thought it was pretty good, then tried a Freddy.  Well, 12 pages of erased sketchbook later I still couldn't get it to work.  I couldn't even visualize a Jason or a Michael Myers.  So I scrapped that idea, which was hard, because I had gotten to the point of just redrawing the same thing over and over thinking I was drawing something different.  Anyway, this is what came out next.

This is more like it!  I've already coloured them and I love them.  I don't want to give too much away by posting the finished once already so I'm going to sit on them for a little while longer.  I'll be selling them as single prints, 5"x7", at the convention.

I tried to think of other classic slasher but I think I covered the main ones.  Then I thought of Ash.

Now I think I'm in the swing of things.  She isn't coloured yet but I'm not sure she's a fangirl or a slasher.  She's kind of the female version of our favourite anti-hero.  Or she is a fangirl since she seems to be flirting with her evil hand.  Either way, I'm hoping to get this one coloured too.

Illustration Friday: Puzzled or "Velma"

I've been watching the new Scooby-Doo cartoon Mystery Incorporated (thanks to Andrew) and it's the first time I've ever enjoyed the show.  Ever.  Scooby-Doo just always annoyed me.  But this new version of it is pretty good.  It's got some good story lines, some great in-jokes and a fun "I know that voice" kind of cast.

So I started sketching out some Velmas to see where it took me.

And here's where it took me!  What's funny is this week's Illustration Friday word is "puzzled" so it's like fate or something.

2012

So the year's off to a so-so start.

I've got some commissions lined up plus some ideas for fun things to do.

I've decided to try listing all the movies I see and books I read this year.  I know no one other than me will be interested in it but I know someone who's done it before and it's kinda neat looking back at it come the end of the year.

1950s Guys

Holy crap!  I really have to practice drawing men!  First I went through the photos from Tackorama and super roughly sketched some of my favourites.  Then I picked the ones I liked from those and drew them larger and with more detail.  Then I drew them again.  And again.  AND AGAIN!  Ooof.  Boy, they took a long time to get right.  And even then I wasn't totally satisfied so this morning I pulled out another sketchbook and redrew them from my drawings, not from looking at the photo.   So it's these drawings:

From these photos:

I flipped the one drinking milk because everyone I drew was facing to the left.  I get strangely paranoid when everything I draw faces one direction over and over so I vary it the best I can.

Hopefully will be vectored soon.

1950s lady

So while I was looking for new fonts I came across this great font site and also has stock photography:  Tackorama.  I downloaded about 500 photos from the 50's that are pretty hilarious.  Women smiling holding glasses, talking, crying, reading, you name it.  There's one of a happy woman holding a jar of what looks like pickled eggs.  I was totally inspired to draw them and thought I'd try greying them in. It was a nice change from concentrating on colours.   I wasn't going for a straight caricature but used the photo as a jumping off point.  I have a few more I want to finish so that'll be on my plate for a while.

I really liked her expression....

First I just did quick sketches of a bunch of my favourites to see what jumped out at me.  I saw potential in this one...

Then I spent some more time redrawing her pose.  Funny how sometimes you can draw something and then think "Did I do that?" (in a good way).  Feels like my style is on the verge of changing.  "On the edge of the bubble about to break through" is what we said in college.

It took about 2 hours to grey her in with Illustrator.  Again, did I do this?  I do love my vectors.  I'm hoping to get faster doing this and better at likenesses.  Plus a little practise just drawing like this never hurt.  I know I should probably draw more men and kids and objects but it's just so enjoyable doing a cute lady!

Illustration Friday: Disguise

This weeks word: disguise.  I drew this while sitting at our table at the convention this past weekend.  Funny how being surrounded by all those people dressed up in costumes and my only idea was a pair of groucho glasses.  Hm.

This WILL be coloured.

UPDATE: It's coloured.

Doctor Who

Inspired by something Andrew over at Notchordamnatchoz said last night.

I spent longer working on his hand than I did on his hair.

I feel like colouring this one.  I haven't done a lot of vectoring in a while so I'm jonesing a little for the satisfaction of it.  I'm posting the sketch just in case I don't get around to finishing it, but I'll still call it a 'work in progress'.

Ok, back to work for me.

Dust Storm!

I have a folder in my browser where I keep anything I find that makes me laugh, you know, for those long days where you really, really need one?  This is now in it.  (Along with a cat kicking itself in the face.)  It's from Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza on GSN.   We switched our cable package just so we could start watching it.  This was a quickie sketch done after watching "Dust Storm" for about the seventh time.

Sugar Skulls

I just recently found out that the candy skulls for Day of the Dead are called Sugar Skulls.  That just totally made me want to try one for myself.  I'm hoping to get one of these, or a combo of both, coloured up.  I have the urge to just sit and fiddle and slowly create for myself so we'll see if I can find time for it.  Somedays after spending the whole day at the computer I really don't feel like spending the evening sitting here too, even if it is to work on something for myself.  Also, drawing a mirror image of something is harder than I remember.  I'm so used to using Illustrator where it's just a copy and a mirror flip away from being an exact copy of one side to the other...

Cowgirl

Started as an attempt at something "Sucker Punch" lookin' but ended up a mad cowgirl.  I use this great costume site for anything cowboy or victorian when I need an idea for clothing.

Bunny Work in Progress

So I have this moleskine sketchbook which I bought last August and have been trying to fill up since then. The paper is so nice that I hate to fill it up with junk, but you have to draw the junk in order to get the good stuff out.

I guess I was thinking about Easter and tried drawing a bunny.  At the same time I had just finished up a commission which made me want to do another pinup.  So that lead to this:

I ran out of room at the top of my sketchbook so you'll just have to imagine the rest of her ears.  Then just by coincidence I saw a pinup someone else did of a bunny girl with a rabbit that was sorta, kinda, similar to my idea.  So I came up with this to replace it:

Now I just have to sit still and vector her up!  Here's hoping my excitement of actually thinking of a new idea lasts to the colouring stage.