On the blog for my caricature concession company (my “real job”), Caricature Connection, we’ve started a weekly challenge for all of the artists. So far, unfortunately, there’s not a lot of participation. I’m hoping that changes. I am going to occasionally post some of my challenge entries over here as well, to share them with you guys. I hope you like them. This first one is from this week’s challenge, Trick or Treat. I’ve been reading Amid Amidi’s amazing book, CARTOON MODERN, and was inspired by it to do something very design oriented. I thought it might be fun to show you the stages I went through here for this piece. In my continuing quest to be able to be “paperless”, I drew this all digitally, on the Wacom. The first sketch (the one on the bottom) was in Photoshop, then I colored it. Then, to try another style, I colored over my lines (this is the middle one). I liked it, but it still looked rough to me. So, I imported it into Illustrator as a template, and traced over it with MANY, MANY layers. I think about thirty of them! It was a lot of work this way (surely there’s an easier method?), but I really kind of like the final piece.

One of the highlights for me of the recent NCN con was the seminar by my good friend Steve Silver, character designer of TV’s Kim Possible (and other shows). He talked a lot about keeping a sketchbook, drawing from life, yet cartooning it. I’d already been doing that to a degree, inspired by talks with him, both at the cons and privately, over the years. Since the con, though, I’ve been sketching like crazy. I don’t eat out as much as I used to, since I’ve been working out the past few months, but I do eat out more than most people, I’d guess (it’s more quiet and peaceful than eating at home, with a two month old here). So, whenever I’m out, I’ve been taking in my sketchbook. And it’s been helping.

You know, I’ve been working a lot at gigs as usual, and stay very busy with freelance still, but I ALWAYS make time to practice and to study my craft. I recommend it to all artists. Ted and I talk about this a lot. We don’t just draw while we’re on the job. We eat it, sleep it, etc. I, and Ted in turn, learned this from people like Silver and Tom Richmond, both of whom are insanely talented and very successful in their fields. Also from Joe Bluhm, who is also insanely talented and whose crazy success is coming…he’s still young. I feel privileged to have people like them who are my inspirations, whom I can also call friends. Swimmers swim. Weightlifters lift weights. Runners run. Accountants..uh..count. You get the picture. Drawers, I mean..ARTISTS, draw.

Okay, enough soapbox. You get what I’m saying. Anyway…here’s a recent drawing from a fine dining establishment I frequent that I like to call McDonald’s…..

I always loved all the pulp hereoes as a kid…Tarzan, The Shadow, and DOC SAVAGE, the MAN OF BRONZE! Here’s a sketch from one of my sketchbooks last year that I colored in Photoshop tonight, just playing around.

Another character, from a story I’ve been tinkering with for, oh, about TWENTY years…..Maybe he and his story will see the light of day one of these decades…
Yeah, I know, a little bit darker style than I usually do. It’s fun to change gears every once in awhile. These are all just bascially quick sketches, with some grays added in Photoshop. They’re rough like sketches, but I kinda dig ’em that way.
I think the rough, dark, scratchy style kinda makes sense for the story. Yes, there’s even a cyclops in it. Man, I wish I had time to do this story justice….

One of my funny superheroes I’ve been playing around with developing for a few years now….
Just a quickie sketchbook sketch with some Photoshop color thrown on. About all I have time for right now. There’s some cool lines and “Flow” here in his body, I think.

I love drawin’ superheroes…

I drew this one of Brady at “Five Guys’ Burgers and Fries” yesterday .She’s drinking a Huge milkshake. That’s a supercool “Omnitrix” bracelet from the supercool cartoon “Ben 10” that she’s wearing. We were on our way to a local comic book show (where we saw Thomas! He and Barry and Jenni were displaying all their incredible looking books and showing off the amazing product they’re producing through their printing biz), when we grabbed a bite to eat together here. Oh yeah, she’s got her Batman Tshirt on too, but it’s not quite visible. Yeah, she’s definitely my kid….the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. A true comic geek already. Just a whole HECKUVA lot cuter than me. (thank God she takes after her Mommy). Anyway, I kinda liked how it turned out, so I thought I’d share. Just a rough sketch….

Anybody who knows me knows that comic books have always been my first love. When I was a kid, I dreamed of drawing Batman, Superman, all the big guns for Marvel and DC. As I got older, though, I decided I really only wanted to do my own characters. My good friend Ted Tucker and I even used to self publish our own book, Lunar Donut, many years ago so we could do that kind of thing. The book was doing pretty well, for a small press title, until real life set in, and we went back to our “day jobs” of drawing caricatures. But I’m still the biggest comic fan you’re likely to meet.

For the past few years I’ve been very involved in the National Caricaturist Network, and have written and drawn an autobiographical strip (another love of mine) for their magazine, Exaggerated Features. the strip is entitled “Funny Faces”. Sound familiar? After a few years of this, I have enough pages in the can that I’m thinking of printing up a comic of all my strips so far.
Here is a very loose mock up of a cover idea. Input appreciated. I’m about 85% sure I’m going to do this soon. Just a little concerned of being stuck with more boxes of comics in my garage…Lunar Donuts have been in there for years…..

My daughter, Brady, did this sketch today, and I thought I’d share. She tells me it’s of a line of people waiting at a movie theater concession stand. There’s a lot going on here, and it takes a minute to look at, to appreciate it all. What impressed me was that there were people of varying heights, varying races, and varying clothing and hairstyles. Plus, there’s some really good hands here. Not to mention that there’s background! There’s a checkered floor, a counter with a cash register on it, a movie marquee with times on it above their heads, and way in the back (perspective!), there’s an arcade with a driving game in it. Good grief! I don’t do backgrounds NOW half of the time. And she’s not even EIGHT yet!
Keep reading, though, because this gets weirder.

David Cowles, a friend and huge inspiration of mine(www.davidcowles.net), was in town with his daughter a few weeks ago to see Disney. We had dinner with them one night, and Brady bonded with them over a game of “number fun”, drawing on the “To Go” bag as we waited for our check. What you do is someone draws a number, and gives it to the next person, who has to figure out how to make it into a drawing. I was surprised that Brady was holding her own with them. At the end of the meal, David promised Brady to send her some “Numbers Homework” in the mail. True to his word, a few days later, a small sketchbook arrived in the mail, each page with a different number on it. Some were easy, but some were pretty hard…like the number “seventeen”…SPELLED out. I was impressed again with Brady’s creativity, and she did about half of the book in one sitting (she’ll finish it soon, David, and we’ll send you some of the drawings!). SO….I decided to give her a project of my own. We have a “Summer Fun Sketchbook” that we’re keeping this year, and I gave her some “Number Fun” pages to do in it. This drawing of the crowd at a movie concession? It started out as the number “Fourteen”. See here for yourself:

Here it is again, superimposed over the final image:
I was impressed with the drawing itself, for the reasons I pointed out, but now I was speechless. I have no idea how she came up with all of this. Wow

Here’s one from the latest batch of the TravelSlut drawings. She’s put this character I designed on business cards, stamps, all kinds of stuff now. And the websit’s soon to follow. It’s cool when a great client really likes your work and runs with it, using it like this.