I live, I die, I live again!

Mad Max: Fury Road, if you can draw it's really hard not to draw Furiosa after watching.  I did.  Intended it to only ever be a sketch in my moleskin and she turned into this.  Sketched in my sketchbook, cleaned in Photoshop and finished in Procreate on my IPad.  Turned into a fun exercise that I intend to do again.

She started here, watching tv and drawing.  Going to blame the TV watching on the wonky eye I caught in Procreate.

And here, the time lapse exported from Procreate.

Popeye el Marinero

A good friend of mine couldn't make it up to Carol and John's Comics for Free Comic Book Eve and lamented not getting a sketch.  He said, "maybe next year I'll get you to do a Luchadore Popeye for me!"  Why wait till next year I say!!!

This sketch is brush pen and good ol' crayola marker.  enjoy!

World's Mightiest Mortal

SHAZAM!

He was one of my first comics, had Captain Marvel pj's when I was a kid so it was only right that I painted this for this year's Free Comic Book Day Art Show.  This piece was done with watercolor, inks and acrylic on my old favorite, clayboard.  If you would like to see it in person along with last week's Batman and TONS of great DC art done by talented folks in the Cleveland area make sure you come to Carol and John's Comic Shop THIS WEEKEND!  The original and prints of Shazam as well as all the other art in the show will be available.  

Great fun to be had by all!  Check out all the event particulars here!

Batman: Pretty Poison

Keeping on with the Free Comic Book Day Art Show theme that was so deftly started by Tim (best Aquaman incarnation EVER), here is my fist of two pieces I have in the show.  Good ol' Batman the Animated Series style Batman.  

My original idea was to do this batman on a red background as they did the backgrounds in the first few seasons of the animated Series.  As I started throwing my Dr. Martin's concentrated watercolors down on the clay board I was really liking the glow I got from the crimson and magenta so I went with it.  Some ink, acrylic, salt and more watercolor later Batman fighting in a cloud of Poison Ivy's toxic gas was born.  I took the title from a good Ivy episode and voi la! 

This piece along with Tim's amazing Aquaman and other stunning comic images from my fellow Monsters and other Cleveland Artists will be available for show and purchase Free Comic Book Weekend and Carol and John's Comics, Cleveland, Ohio.  It's an amazingly fun weekend so be sure to come by!

More to come.......

In Search of...

Remembering the passing of the great Leonard Nimoy in my sketchbook this week.  Drawing on recycled paper, bleach , graphite, white colored pencil and a little acrylic.

Craig's Gauntlet Final Day! Popeye

The Invincible Hero       Seafaring        Father

With that combination of words how could I NOT draw Popeye!?!?!?!  He's a fun one to draw and I think I may have to draw him some more, get the proportions a little better.  But there ya go, Popeye!  Enjoy!

P.S.  If you want to see Popeye done right head over to the site of the incomparable Gary Dumm at dummart.com.

Craig's Day 2 : Usagi!!!

Today's random word and phrases is:

The Reckless     Marooned      Sensei 

It's funny, I'm finding these random words are stirring up very specific stories.  The first one, "Treasure Island", this one the Legend of Miyamoto Musashi and the duel with "The Demon of the Western Provinces".  You can find the full story here.  Essentially the story goes that Musashi traveled Japan finding teachers and swordsmen of renown to test his skills as a samurai.  The long and short of it is he challenges a swordsman, this 'Demon", to a duel on an island.  He makes the Demon wait, making him angry that he had been disrespected and about the time he was blinded by his anger.  Musashi shows up, does not draw his sword  but instead brandishes an oar from his boat, further disrespecting the swordsman, and kills the Demon.   

So why is he a rabbit?  Cause I wasn't the only one inspired by the story of Musashi, The amazing Stan Sakai created this amazing character, Usagi Yojimbo who is a combination of the great Samurai movies and the story of Musashi.  You should check it out!

Happy Birthday Henry!

One of the best things I've been involved with in the last couple of years is the Cleveland Chapter of the Drink and Draw Social Club.  So so so many talented people in the area come out to draw silly things and get to know each other. Henry Pope of Pink and Nonook fame is one of those insanely talented people I've had the pleasure to get to know.  The man is a MACHINE!!!  One of the most dedicated, talented and motivated people I've ever known and is truly an inspiration.

This lil drawing is my take at his Pink and Nanook characters.  A lot less sexy but fun to draw nonetheless.  SO head on over to the website, check out his work then swing by his Facebook and wish him a happy birthday!

Erin's Instagram year!

As certain monsters like to remind me, I post to Instagram a lot, but don't often share my work here on the blog.  Whoops.

Here's a quick recap of a few of my favorite doodles you've missed this year!

Feliz Navidad

2 posts in a week?  Well yes, this is my sketch cover submission for Carol and John's Comics benefit for the Cleveland Food Bank!  A bunch of Artist have come together, done some amazing work and each cover is being auctioned off and the proceeds go to benifit the Cleveland Food Bank and people in need.  This and many like it will be auctioned THIS SATURDAY, DEC 20th and the CnJ Christmas party!!!  So please drop by and give what you can and have some comicy fun for a good cause.

Info for the event here.

Crazy Catwoman

Every year around the holidays, our good buddies at Carol and John's Comics raffle off comic book covers created by local artists to benefit the Cleveland Food Bank.

Last year, I did a cover featuring Batman and Robin attacked by a swarm of Cat Woman's pets. Since that cover was pretty popular at the event (and I love me some kitties) I decided to do a follow up this year:

Acrylic paint with a touch of watercolor and colored pencil!

Pencils:

Last year's cover:

 

Come hang out at the comic shop on December 20th and win my new cover! Or maybe art by another RBMC member or one of our cartoon pals. Details here. See you there!

Trash Day?

A happy Oscar the Grouch, perhaps too happy. 

The Darkseid High-Five

If you have such hap hazard eye lasers why would you hold your hand up when you were firing them off?  Cause your Darkseid that's why!  

Spider Woman!

We've had a busy summer out painting and such, even so, back to our mini challenges!  This time it's Spider Woman.  I decided to take the opportunity to mess around with my ink brush pen again as well as my exercises in limited color but this time I stumbled across a look from one of my favorite things growing up.

They use to sell these small, plastic pencil sharpeners with puffy stickers on the back of them, diecut out so you could stand them up and play with them like action figures.  Action figures you could have, play with on your school desk and when the teacher got mad you could say they were just harmless pencil sharpeners.  They were great, cost like 25 cents in the school office and looked kinda like this.  Always a yellow background and always limited color, but more importantly secret school time toys! 

Want me to turn this up for ya?

Decided to throw a little color in my brush pen experiments. And why not, old school, limited color screen print style!?  

HANK!

This is not nor will it ever be Erin (that portrait is on the way).  It's the every-lovin' Beast from the X-Men!  A little post Free Comic Book Day commission from a friend who couldn't make it to the festivities.  More fun with my ink brush and watercolor combo.  More to come!

It's on like Qui Gon!!!

I see your Deadman.....

..and Boba Fett, 

and raise you a BRAK!!!

I've been playing around with a brush pen a lot lately and love it so you will be seeing more here soon.  The thing I always love about working with ink is it teaches you when you are done and how much you need and how much you don't need.

Ariel knows all the cheat codes