So here we go again. This time around a new character is briefly introduced. And one of many not-so-subtle pop-cultural references. Guesses as to what those may be can be discussed in the comments. And there was one unintentional reference as well. I didn’t realize old Spiderman cartoons were so influential in my psyche. Enjoy!
I was recently going through some old (at least 10 years old) drawings of mine and thought they could use some freshening up. Originally all drawn by hand in a sketchbook and a Pental brush pen (I’ve lost so many of those over the years, I should buy stock in the company). These have been scanned in to the computer, cleaned up only minimally, and coloured using Photoshop.
I have a bunch more waiting in the wings, so there will be more of these old-but-new-again posts in the near future. And speaking of new posts, I’ll be posting another installment of my webcomic hopefully this weekend.
The only thing these images have in common is they were both done quite a while ago.
I think the tiger’s hanging arm might be a tad bit too big, but otherwise, he’s one of my better toon animals.
As the title says, a compass. All vector with only a little bit of reliance on various special effects like transparency, that, while Illustrator has had for quite some time but for technical reasons we’re not allowed to use at work. Lots of more technically oriented print places are generally unhappy with transparency effects. The thing to watch out for is the RIPS used to process the files just before making printing plates (or film if we’re old fashioned) generally do not like transparency effects and sometimes the workarounds can lead to unsuitable results (as in my professional work). So your mileage may vary depending on your printer. For me, it just means I’m pretty disciplined when it comes to my vector drawings and I only use the effects sparingly in my personal work.
And by the skin of my teeth. Though it is somewhat of a cheat. I labeled it a WIP (Work in Progress for the acronym challenged) as it obviously isn’t quite finished yet. I actually sketched this guy out on a cloudy day in Punta Cana (yes, they do have those occasionally) but only just scanned him in mere moment ago.
Eventually, (as in a few days from now) I am going to print out a reduced scale of this scan out onto some textured paper I have lying around and mount him to a 2.5 x 3 inch trading card and finish him off in acrylic. Then, later (much later) by the end of summer, the wifey and me should have a geocache set up somewhere in the Whiteshell with this guy in it as a trackable item. It should be interesting to see where this guy eventually winds up. Assuming of course we don’t pick a place that too well hidden for people to find!
So stay tuned and I’ll post a pic of this bad boy once I have him all finished.
Well, I’m back from the Dominican Republic. My cousin, Brent is now safely married off to what seems to be a very nice girl. And I think I now have discovered that while two weeks at an all inclusive resort is all well and good, it’s REALLY REALLY hard to get back into the swing of things now that I have returned to reality. So my apologies to the long time from my last post. Hopefully, I will have a post in the not to distant future relating some of my time in the beautiful Dominican Republic.
So with no further delay, may I introduce you to a little sketch. A total rip-off of the the infamous B-Movie monster, the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Maybe we’ll see more of him in the future.
This one was almost going to be a cheat. The weather here in Winnipeg has been rather bizarre as of late. While it has cooled down a bit to more seasonally cooler temps, we’ve had quite a few VERY warm days. We should still have quite a bit of snow on the ground, but we haven’t had any snow on the ground for a few weeks now. Anyways, on one of the warmer days, I was out for dinner with my wife at Montana’s Bar and Grill. What’s interesting is the butcher’s paper they use for table cloths and the crayons they leave for you on each table. I always wind up drawing a dinosaur or dragon or some such while waiting for my meal. I also usually wind up with a server having a bad day whenever I go there. So the sketch I made of a dragon almost became my image of the month. Instead, it became the genesis for this month’s image.
Posted below is a really crappy pic of the dragon I drew at Montana’s and the other two pics are of drawings made by my lovely wife. Not only beautiful, but talented as well!
I wasn’t happy with the way the dino sticker turned out afterall, so I updated him a bit. I think I was trying too hard putting in texture into the dino. I won’t even try to resubmit the new design. I just wanted to improve the image for my own sake. I finally decided on a slightly modified halftone screen to harken back to my good old days of reading comics in my youth. Now that’s a dino to be proud of!
Oh, and in case anyone was iterested. The dino started out life as a marker drawing, was scanned, and tone was added in Photoshop.
Just to see what would happen, I entered these stickers into a contest. I think the contest might be a bit more “street” oriented than what I would normally go for (I’m considered rather whitebread in Mr Rodger’s Neighbourhood, so judge yourself accordingly) but I was curious as to what I could do with the subject matter. It was basically a black and white, 3″ x 3″ ticket. And hopefully a tie-in with the artist who was co-sponsoring the event. Seems pretty simple. I guess I will find out after the 1st of April, when the contest closes.
The dinosaur was a bit of a stretch for me (unusual since dinos were my first love) but the robot turned out pretty sweet. I may have to use the design in another piece sometime. As for the panic dude, I had drawn something similar to him once before. I think this new version I did turned out better than previous attempts. Probably because it is truer to myself in terms of drawing style than the art style I was attempting to emulate.
I wasn’t originally going to go to this month’s Secret Handshake, a very loose organization of some of Winnipeg’s creative community, but I managed to get a few things done early so I managed to find the time to run (or in this case walk) over to the King’s Head Pub and see what all the fuss was about. This time around they were going to be celebrating the 2nd anniversary of the formation of the Meetup. And there was supposed to be a super-secret announcement to be made as well. I was intrigued. And that doesn’t happen often.
As per usual, I managed to met a large assortment of people from various different backgrounds. I understand there was another Pollard person lurking around somewhere, but I never did find out who. The place I work at, IS pretty big, and like many organizations, it has quite a bit of departmentalism going on, so there are quite a few people who work there I’ve never met, even after 8 years (!) of being there. Maybe next time.
Since I was curious about the big announcement, I decided since I usually blog about these events shortly after they happen, I thought I’d put on my ill-fitting blogger/journalist hat and investigate just what might be in store for us at the Meetup.
Turns out it was… nothing.
Once I managed to track down out fearless leader and organizer Leanne, (who rather amusingly did not remember who I was until I mentioned where and what I do for a living… seems my work is more memorable than me… I’ll have to work on that) she confessed that there was some technical difficulties in whatever they had up their collective sleeves (I understand it had something to do with New Media Manitoba). A bit of a let down, but that did not mean there wasn’t a few interesting announcements all the same. As my little pic shows:
Please forgive the crappy photo. My wife is the photographer in the family. And the photo was more of a spur of the moment kind of thing.
The big goofy-looking guy waving his hands wildly, is Kevin, the Big Cheese at New Media Manitoba. And while the pic isn’t clear, the young lady beside him is the previously mentioned Leanne. And what they are announcing is the New Media Showcase 2012. Here’s a quick blurb describing the event:
It’s going to be a party! Join us as we showcase 7 amazing
New Media freelancers and companies on Wednesday,
March 28, 7 PM, at IMAX Portage Place!
And it turns out one of the seven freelancers was our very own Leanne! Way to go! Even if you can’t remember me to save your life! That’s pretty cool. Too bad about the timing of the event as there is just no way I could attend. And sorry Kevin, I have it on pretty good authority that angels will NOT loose their wings if people don’t show up to your shindig.
And shortly afterwards, it was pumpkin time for me. It was a school night, and I hadn’t been home all day. And I was exhausted.
Eye Opening Design 