Smithee number two updates

I was at a thrift store yesterday and happened upon a book called "pride and prejudice and zombies". In it were some very nice old style pen and ink illustrations. I have been trying to decide upon the exact style to do my Smithee #2 in. I think I would like to go for the pen and ink style. I did the above picture in that style to get used to it. Are we badass zombie hunters or what?! Doing it in B&W style like this would also make it possible to get them printed thru KaBlam cheaper than if they were color - should I want to go that extreme route. For right now I still want to print them myself. But I questimate there will be around 50 cells or more to cram into a book. That's alot more than Smithee #1.
I went back and bought that book for inspiration.

Fly on a pencil

I just wanted to draw something fun on my birthday this month. Hence, the fly saying happy birthday. It's not cause he was leaving a 'present' on the eraser. Been doing some much serious drawing for my smithee guide and for plutonium, I needed to do something different.

Worm aloft

 This was a totally unplanned drawing. I just sat down infront of a blank piece of paper and drew a big zig-zaggy line and let my subconscious come up with the rest. It turned out to be good picture of my life these days. Not knowing how it is going to turn out, or what is going to happen the next day, or where I will end up. But I have found it is critical to operate from a standpoint of believing it will work out. I mean you have to choose your mindset. I can spend energy living from gloom and doom, or from hope and faith. I believe you go where your looking, so if I am looking for the worst, for what is just settling for survival, that is what I will get.

ARGH!!

Argh!

The last 2 weeks have been very distracting art-wise.
Intense days sitting infront of the computer, hunting, hunting, hunting!
Where is my next source of food coming from?
The neighborhood decided they'd rather hire a better Zombie Hunter.
One who can kill food quicker and without any input from them. A mind
reader. I am a lousy mind reader. I didn't get that particular ZAP from the radiation. I think they were enamoured for someone with bigger muscles, probably cheaper too. In the end they wanted me to just KNOW what they wanted me to hunt without any direction from them.
But, I  know there are people who will appreciate the skills I really do have. Just gotta keep hunting, hunting, hunting!

Feeding on The Word

I was in a pen & ink mood today and drew this for fun. My desk at work. I have a pocket bible by the monitor. Hence the title.
A good cross hatch piece of art has a feel to it unlike any other. But I am finding a good drawing it more challenging than I thought. It takes thought and precision. Those two words generally don't describe me. I'm more random and global in my thoughts.
Comics are interesting and all, by my deeper appreciations is for fine art. Illustrative art. Comics are more interesting in their story telling ability. But artistically, illustrative art appeals to me more.
Didn't post over the weekend. I dusted off a solar panel I've had in storage and put it up again. It took alot of work. And it led to some melancholy remembrances of people that didn't work out.
You can have a relationship to a friend, and it might consume you and make you miserable, but when they are gone, man, there is a HUGE hole in the heart!
These are the things I turn to - to stay sane and get perspective, loose myself in art, and the Word of God.

Manga Men

Practicing manga style characters. And then some mouths.
The fact they are facing each other is just cause I had space on the left. But makes it interesting anyway

Pink Pearl and Pepper

Nothing like a cold glass or Dr. Pepper
with my trusty Pink Pearl for drawing it.
I read an excellent blog article about a student of Howard Pyle named Elizabeth Keeler Gurney.
It reminded me of some fundamental stuff about art that I have forgotten. The sheer intimacy that happens with the artist and the subject of their art. My best drawings come from really getting to know the thing I draw. Be it a mug of pop, a shirt laying over a chair, or face. To truely capture the thing, you have to know the thing, make it a part of you. and if you do, when later you view the art, that piece of it in your heart recalls the thing intensely.
The best quote from the article is this "The artist may have spent weeks upon the painting, yet it has little interest. We turn away, saying, ‘Very clever, but in heaven’s name why did he paint it?’”