Coffee-time doodle

Alrighty then.  Personal awfulness and chaotic stress and panic just built-in to this year. (yay!).  Today: car rear-ended, phone broken, friend's son in the hospital, 2 friends in-process for awful divorces, game night cut short(I'm being a crybaby about that one, I know).

GODDAMMIT.


I, and several people I know, could really use a fucking win.  I am full of complaint; my apologies.

Experiments

I know very little about skintones/color theory, etc. Experimenting to try and figure some things out.

Also a leisurely reprieve whilst trying to recover from a pinched nerve (resulting in shooting pain the length of my dominant arm.

SleepyOni: Skull T-Shirt!

skulls

I was going through my last couple sketch-and-note-books, and realized that I, ummm, I draw a lot of skulls.   Weird.

Goofin' off

So, I finished another paying gig a week or two ago.  October-January was INSANE for me, and my recharge plan is essentially "Play Fallout 4 until collapse.  Wake up and repeat."  It's worked, kinda.

These two are both quick(ish), messy sketches from ref photo's.  Drawn whilst watching the new X-Files & hanging out with my family.  Seems that I'm always jumping between work methods; whole bunch of digital, go straight to pencil/pen/whatever.  Too much drawing, go make something in the workshop.  Too many handmade books, go write something.
I'm pretty lucky that I have the space/time/ability to jump between some fairly disparate stuff, as the mood hits.  One more, that is not 40s/50s:

Also building a Fallout 4-related item.  Will update after I get some problems solved.

Goofin' off

So I made this one doodle, then I decided to paint it up quick, then I decided to give it some additional elements, then an x-wing helmet, and then it's days later and I've done 20+ variations.  Why is my brain wired for oddball serial projects?!

This is all in a single file; each element is on its own layer so they can be mix'n matched.  3 or 4 of the images above are just weird combinations of elements from different characters.

I know.  My brain is weird.

Quick Sketch

I have been so busy with painting maps the last month and a half that I am going insane.  It's all stuff that I've never attempted before, so the experience is invaluable and I'm really learning a whole lot of new information.  But oy vey, this is stressful.  So here's my half-hour meditation on not knowing what I'm doing.

Fallout: Australis

Been doing these pretty quick in Sketchbook Pro as warmups for other work.
As I've stated before (repeatedly, at length...) I love the Fallout franchise of games, all of 'em.  Well, not Brotherhood of Steel, but 1, 2, Tactics, 3, and New Vegas.  The design work is stellar across the board, and incorporates so much cheezy retro goodness!
So my game crew is always looking for short, diversionary games to play, and last year I hit upon the idea of a Fallout rpg.  The question was how to make it new & interesting, since we've all played through the games already.  Solution: have the PCs shanghai'd and drop them somewhere that they know nothing about.  This turned into the Fallout: Australis project, and I've bashed together a simple system built on the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats & skills.
For my money, key to the Fallout style are the visuals...to that end, I'm illustrating a bunch of game items, to be printed onto cards (with stats) because I IZ NERD.  More to come.

practice...

quick paint for lighting

this post was too awful to let live.

Important Reminder

Note To Self:  Sometimes all it takes to improve a lousy night is an hour or so sketching.  Both from ref, all sketchbook pro.It's really easy for me to get wrapped up in projects, and going for a specific look to the exclusion of all else.  This was a good reminder that I should be having fun, too.

Nouveau Samurai & Gunso sketches

Presented as evidence that the Fallout project is ongoing.

2012 sketches

 Two sketches from ye sketchbook. Crappy photos of 'em, at least.

2012: A Retrospective

So there we go.  That's my "finished" output of 2012, including a couple pieces that I haven't posted before (either because they were personal or were for a project that hasn't released). 
I am strangely ambivalent about these.  35 pieces over a year, a bunch of them just doodles.  Some with HOURS AND HOURS logged.  35 pieces.  Just under 3 a month, then.  I think I can do better.
Like many a hobbyist, my finishing details are getting a lot better.  But the fundamentals are still really weak; back to work!

As comedy, here's the partial of the projects I spent a lot of time on this last year and still haven't finished:

As stated:  back to work!

Day late, dollar short, etc.

So this was supposed to be a quick sketch to post before Halloween.  Yeah, that failed.
But here it is anyway.  Thanks to Jen for suggesting one of the doofiest (it's a word because I say it is) movie creatures from our collective memories of the 80's.

7-16-12

Sometimes I have to do a quick(ish) drawing/painting to remind myself that I'm not a complete artistic washout.  This was a couple hours in front of the tv, all in sketchbook pro, on the tablet.  From ref, as usual.  Yes, her eyes and jaw are still wonky.

late-night sketchin'

More cartoon stuff.  Been really busy this month, despite not posting a damn thing.  This was a quick midnight attempt to do something completely different from the book cover I'm working on, which is kicking my ass.   Huzzah!

I've got lots of pieces in the works, but not a one complete yet.

Sal Bazzi

Possible RPG character sketch, for the Dresden Files game.

more silliness.

Took the nephews to see The Avengers a couple weeks ago.  Saw 'em on Memorial Day, and of course they wanted me to draw the Avengers.  'Cuz the nephews are awesome.

Frank.

I can only draw cartoony, of late.  Weird.