Art of Darkness

Here's a recent sketch I did mostly as a diversion and as a chance to draw a couple of subjects I don't often have the opportunity to draw through freelance work.  Namely, monsters and cool future stuff.  Even though my book "Saturday" is an opportunity to draw all sorts of super fun things, I still have the urge to go dark occasionally:

The next book (slated to begin sometime in the next epoch) will be quite a bit darker.  I'm looking forward to stretching those muscles a bit.

Cheers.

WAZEd and Confused

Here's this week's comic for Investing.com!

Google just bought up a company called WAZE, which makes map apps.  The concept (thought up by the folks over at Investing.com) went a little something like this: I was asked to draw Sergey Brin and Larry Page being chauffeured by a robot (using WAZE to navigate) and being chased by Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook.  Simple enough, right?  Here's the sketch:

Nine hours later it looked like this:

A couple of quick thoughts: The car is pretty goofy looking, right?  I needed a way to draw my standard bobble-head like characters inside the cab of the car.  I figured my options were: Convertible, having Page and Brin stick their heads out the windows or sun roof, or having a comically exaggerated roof.  In hindsight, the convertible might have been the better option, but I only just thought of that option as I was writing this post, so I can't say it was a fat lot of good to me when I was actually working on this thing.

Why not continue the armchair quarterbacking of myself, while we're at it?  The background is a little too abstract for my taste.  The hills look like a cardboard cutout.  And there should have been some kind of middle ground element between the foreground and the background (grass, for instance).  I also would have liked to add some more motion lines or color streaks to suggest the movement of the car.

However, in spite of these criticisms, I don't mind this comic so much.  It was a lot of work in a short amount of time, but I don't hate the result.  I like the colors and I like the caricatures (particularly that of Brin).  So...score.

Cheers.

High Finance Drifter

This week's comic for Investing.com deals with a man named Bill Gross (the financial manager and Pimco) and his relationship with the 10 Year U.S. Bond.  Apparently Gross has been betting against the U.S. bond for years and it's starting to pay off.  I was asked by the folks over at Investing.com to draw a comic of Bill Gross in a Western-type scenario with the mountains in the background mimicking U.S. bond graph.

This was a fun assignment.  I don't get the opportunity to draw western stuff all that often.  I've always loved it (probably since I first read Holling C. Hollings' "Tree in the Trail") and was I pretty excited to draw up the comic this week.

Here's the sketch:

And here's the final:

Choosing the Monument Valley-type background was a great opportunity to use a warmer palette than I normally would.  It also contrasts nicely with the sky.

In terms of the caricature, I felt fortunate that Bill Gross is a fairly strange-looking man (mostly because of his hair).  I say "fortunately" because normal, well-proportioned faces are more difficult for me to draw.  Faces with character and distinguishing features are just more fun for me (my girlfriend pointed out that he ended up looking a bit more like Peter Fonda).

Like I said, this one was a pleasure.  I hope next week's is as satisfying.

Cheers.

More Sketchy

Here are a couple of other sketches from that recent trip.  Just fun stuff while on airplanes and in hotels.  The big guy is somewhat based on Lenny from "Of Mice and Men", a story which has always stuck with me and haunted me.  The other sketch was mostly about how much fun I could pack into a single drawing.

Cheers.

Who's Got the Button?

A couple weeks back I was asked to design some "Request a Quote" buttons for Decagon's website.  And here they be:

End transmission.

Sketchy.

Howdy.  I was out of town last week, hence the lack of posts.  I did, however, do a bit of sketching while I was gone:

Nothing too spectacular, but the sketching helped me avoid rusting up too badly while away.  The top sketch is graphite and ballpoint pen, which is something I haven't done in years.

If you're wondering about the inspiration for that piece, I was having a martini in a hotel bar and was unfortunately seated next to couple that was making out.  It turns out that the sound of two people sliding lips is perhaps my least favorite sound in the entire world.  Hence the expression.

Yes, griping about something like that makes me feel a bit like a crotchety old man.  On the other hand, don't make out in public.

This PSA against PDA is brought to you by the Crotchety Old Man Foundation.

Cheers.

There's been a bit of a gap in comics for Investing.com lately.  Two weeks, to be precise.

There's a reason for that, but it's not very interesting.  So let's get right to this week's comic: It's about the stock market.  More specifically, it's about Ben Bernanke and the stock market.  And even more specifically, it's about Ben Bernanke's speech to the Senate yesterday morning and the effect that's had on the market.

I was asked to draw Ben Bernanke giving his speech with a washing machine in the background.  Within the washing machine I was to draw the bear and the bull.  The washing machine represents the turmoil created in the markets whenever Chairman Bernanke makes a speech.

Now, since I hadn't drawn one of these in two weeks, I figured I would be a bit rusty.  I figured right.  Even though I've been drawing all sorts of other things during the comic hiatus, there's still a certain rhythm and mentality to drawing a comic in a day.  Combined with the fact that there were some logistical problems (how do I show a bear and a bull inside a washing machine?) this made for a challenging comic.

In a way, it was nice to have this comic feature Ben Bernanke, who's face is familiar enough at this point that he feels like an old friend.  But it can also be challenging to create a good illustration if I've already drawn someone or something dozens of times.  What can I bring to this particular version that will make it fresh and interesting?

Ultimately, time was of the essence and I didn't have enough of it to ruminate on whether or not this would add anything to the Ben Bernanke illustration canon.  I've said it before, but sometimes being under the deadline gun is nice because I don't have time to navel gaze or be self-conscious.  That comes a day later in a long, rambling blog post.

Here's the sketch:

It's not my best of Bernanke.  However, if you're wondering how the bear and the bull fit inside the washing machine, there's a perfectly reasonable explanation: It's Doctor Who's washing machine.  Much bigger on the inside.  He can wash like five loads of laundry at once.


Here's the final:

Again, not my best work.  But not bad for a rusty re-introduction to the Investing.com comics.  It probably won't make the portfolio, but that's ok.  I figure it'll all come out in the wash.

Cheers.