Tanuki Samurai

This is a painting I put together last year for the RainFurrest art show. It didn't sell there, so I will probably have it on display at this year's RainFurrest as well. It's a mixed media piece. I started with watercolor and color pencil. Later I added gouache and acrylic to finish it up after it had sat in a drawer unfinished for over a year because I wanted to have a large original for the art show.

Recent Work

First a bit of news--I recently became a member of another cartoonist's group. I'm still a member of C.L.A.W., of course, but I have long wanted to join Seattle's far older group Cartoonists Northwest and was given the opportunity to give a talk about my career (such as it is) at one of their meetings. As a consequence, I was inducted into the ranks of "card-carrying cartoonists"! (Yes, I was actually given a membership card!) I've known about CNW for many years, but as I never lived in Seattle, I never got around to joining. But now I am finally a member of that 35 year old organization and am very happy to be!

Well, it's been a while since I've posted anything...way too long in fact! So I figure I'd better share several recent pieces I did for the last couple of conventions I've done, including this year's Emerald City ComiCon! These pieces go well together because they follow a similar theme, which is to say they are all basically quirky cartoon critters.

First we have yet another "Darkwing Duck"! I DO enjoy drawing him.

"Doctor Hooves" (Because I can never resist a good pun, even if I didn't come up with it.

This "Howard the Duck" drawing was fun to do. The movie was horrible, but I love the comic book character!

And finally, in deference to the upcoming movie, here's a character I've never drawn before.
"Rocket Raccoon"

I'm also including the April Fool's gag I perpetrated on my FaceBook page and that a few people actually fell for as far-fetched as it might seem. (Although to be fair to those folk, the actual posting was made to look like a press release because I thought that would help sell the story.) Basically, the gag was that DC was going to hire me to illustrate a duck-world version of Alan Moore's "Watchmen". In support of this fallacy I drew a "Watchducks" piece showing some of the characters and the title. I thought it was funny. I later colored it and reposted it as my wallpaper.

"Mystic of the Crystal"

Another piece to add to my growing collection of work done in this style on the neat toned card-stock I picked up a while back. I'm really enjoying the way these pieces turn out. The ink with highlights and minimal color in color pencil. I've always liked this type of drawing, but for some reason, it took me a long time to get around to actually trying it myself. Now that I have, I find it to be very intense and alive! It's a very satisfying way to do these types of character study drawings!

My intention is to have a nice collection of this and other types of art to sell as prints at the comicbook and fantasy conventions I like to frequent. A lot of artists sell pin-ups of superheroes and other fictional characters at artist alley tables, but I never really had a lot of these types of prints to show at cons (except for the furry conventions), and I think it's time I corrected that oversight.

Anyway, I really enjoyed creating this drawing of one of the gentle Mystics from the world of Jim Henson and Brian Froud's "The Dark Crystal". I might also do one of Augura, the crazy old astrologer, perhaps with a sketch of her amazing observatory in the background. Or perhaps a piece featuring the charming Gelflings. But I must admit that the Mystics were always my favorite characters in the movie. I wish more of it had focused on them and their lives...but I suppose that would have been too dull for a movie. They weren't exactly like Shaolin priests or anything. All they did was lope along quietly making potions and sand paintings and songs...not exactly fodder for a thrilling movie spectacle.

At least they make nice subjects for drawings. ^0^

A Friend In Deed

This year during our Great Yearly ceremony, The C.L.A.W. will be awarding the lovely Carmen Melendez her very own "Friend of CLAW" fez in recognition of everything she did during 2012 to help us with venues and and events that featured CLAW involvement!

I was asked to create her invitation to the ceremony and decided to make her a fun little paper sculpture of her favorite character, DC's Harley Quinn, the Joker's main squeeze! Here are a few pics of me making the presentation and of the final piece itself.

Congratulations, Carmen--but most of all, thanks from all of us in the Cartoonist's League of Absurd Washingtonians!

A Super Christmas for Da Boys!

Just wanted to share the pin-up pieces I made for three of my nephews as Christmas presents. I did them on actual comic boards with all the blue lines, to give them an authentic feel. My sister was able to tip me off on which hero each of the boys particularly idolized.

I thought it was interesting which characters they picked. In a way it gives a bit of insight into each of their personalities. It just seemed that each one's choice was perfect for him. Makes me wonder about my own favorite comic characters...and what that says about me. Mind you, my favorites change from time to time, and I suppose theirs do too. I remember, though, how much I used to like Captain Marvel--a kid who could speak a magic word and become an invulnerable and powerful adult. And I always liked Spiderman, a guy who always felt torn by his secret life and guilt about his inability to be everything he thought he should be in both of his worlds.

Oh sure, I liked the Flash and Superman and Batman and many others. But there was always something about Captain Marvel and Spidey that really spoke to me growing up.

Hobbity Holidays to all, there and back again!

OK, it's finally here! My new Brill/Stockham Christmas card for 2012. This year's theme is, obviously, The Hobbit! I had initially thought about doing one based soley on the designs of the new movie, but since it was going to be caricature-ish and cartoony, I thought perhaps I should base it more on the old Rankin/Bass TV movie. You know, the cartoon one with John Huston as Gandalf and Orson Bean as Bilbo. Thats why the cutesy cartoon version of me is wearing that particular outfit. But when working on the sketches of Bel and Edmund, I realized I preferred the new movie designs for their costumes. Although, in deference to the cartoony style, I gave Bel fantasy comics/games elf ears instead of purely LotR ones. Sorry Bel! Also I liked the movie gollum better for our dog (whose name is actually Gandalf) than the REALLY creepy TV one! I put our other Husky, Luna, in the background as Smaug. Our cats Merlin and Gallifrey are portraying Thorin and Elron respectively.

In any case, it's a bit of an amalgamation of the two, which works for me because I LOVE the old Hobbit movie! And as much as I enjoyed the Peter Jackson movies, I still have a soft spot for the style and watercolor wash elegance of the Rankin/Bass version of middle Earth.

Anyway, happiest of Holidays to everyone and hopefully an even happier new year!

PS: Here is the black and white line art.

Honorable Rabbit-san!

Recently I saw a drawing challenge posted by a site called OzComics on Facebook calling on artists to post their own interpretations of Stan Sakai's beloved comic book character "Usagi Yojimbo" and I just had to toss one in! I love Usagi and have a collection of the books (not quite all of them yet, but working on it) which are wonderful tales told by a master storyteller.

This was the drawing I did for the challenge. It took about an hour and a half...and he turned out looking too much like the Grinch to me, but all in all, it turned out pretty well. I even received a kind compliment form the samurai rabbit's creator, which was a real treat! Thanks Stan Sakai for giving us over 25 years of Usagi's adventures!