man these are DOWN, RIGHT, FIERCE!

...so as many of you may have heard, i am moving to OKC. fun stuff - lots of opportunities are at hand! so in the midst of packing and finishing up client stuff here on the east coast, personal sketching and fun is now on hold. would you believe i've already packed my scanner?

thank god for webcams.

i got into a groove over the last week with the prismacolor speed sketches. each one of these ran around 45 minutes from the time the pencil hit the paper til' i laid the last marker stroke down. the most amazing thing about working fast (for fun!) is the amount you learn. you start seeing certain elements in your work and training yourself to see them before you draw them the next time. it teaches you to plan a little better.

i still think working quickly is a good habit to learn, but i've always been leery of just slamming out work for clients. when i'm sketching, i'm completely fine with bein' down and dirty, but on commissioned work? naw. sometimes, it just takes time and ya' gotta have that patience. especially with frisket!

see you cats in OKC real soon.

shoryuken!

you can't have ryu without ken. that's like PB with no J. so another speed sketch in prismacolor marker to complete the dynamic duo. 45 minutes from start to finish.

man i am busted rusty slow these days.

...i MIGHT sketch akuma tomorrow...

hadouken!

...free time - i can has it? i stole 30 minutes from myself to sketch a little somethin' in my sketchbook with my prismacolors. had em' almost 2 years and they're still fresh!

the abominable...

...charles christopher. which of course, is the best web comic ever. by the incredibly talented karl kerschl.

if you're not reading it, you're a loser.

spent some more time in photoshop getting a feel for my brushes. i think i spent an hour and a half on this from start to finish. did some watercolor effect, followed by some chalk. i'm starting to see where the watercolor brush is useful. turns out it's mostly for broad washes, the fine detail will come from the masks and pastel brushes. can't wait to do some more.

i love the dark...

...it's where all the fun happens.

are you going to survive this gordon? no. no you're not. because he's riddick son.

riddick.

tit for tat...

...a little experimentation in photoshop. i wanted to paint digitally the way i use watercolors traditionally without having to scan in textures every time. i made a custom brush today while piddlin' in PS and plucked a sketch outta my pad, scanned it and messed around for little bit. really diggin' the texture so i'm anxious to see what else i can do with this.

pahn whitefoot...

...pahn stood impassively in the circle. though he had mastered the way of boulder, the path of water was still a mystery to him. this chicken ...this samurai... before him moved like water. water should break upon his boulder, but it simply flowed around him. pahn was intrigued. ever since cubhood, pahn whitefoot had studied the art of sumo and reveled in the simple joys of his life. but to see this glorious, masterful dance of sword and feather before him, he knew his joys were incomplete.

pahn spoke quietly "i would not leave my temple for all the bamboo of the sacred grove, but i will follow you if you will have me."

cluck considered this silent giant for a long moment. "i do not need a servant," he said at length, "but i would welcome a friend."

pahn bowed.

we need a montage...

...and so it begins. this is going to end up as a promotional poster for samurai cluck. more deets later, but expect refinements through the ink stage per usual.

i've got a samurai chicken, the ghost of his father, a kitjutsu fox ninja, a panda sumo and a venerable goat sensei. a pretty good start right?

peece!

the hound + the hare...

…few wizards ever actually survived an encounter with the hound & the hare. fewer still survived the first 5 minutes. anyone foolish enough to monologue was summarily gutted. or had his eyes gouged out by kunai. or chopped into pieces with a big sword. or beat up.

you get the idea.

the hare...

inks on the hare. flats too! prolly color the girls this weekend. maybe even a background.

probably not.

the hound…

who's the hound? no one special...just the only bounty hunter to track a man across 10 kingdoms and bring him back alive.

this was based on an art challenge idea rick had, but we got busy. then i reworked the idea and posed it to mike. he of course completed it, and i got busy. i'm an epic failure, i know.

as everyone may notice, my drawings are really loose and tend to change when i ink 'em. while i do ink a lot of my work digitally, i tend to draw just as loose with the wacom and aim for light, flowing curves as opposed to the more angular look of the penciled sketches i scan in. i frequently find myself drawing a line and liking it so much i'll change the drawing to incorporate it. after that, i bust out the polygonal lasso and 'flat' my work out. at that stage, i may start off picking gray tones to make everything work, but if it gets too complex i start tossing in anything.

anyways, i hope to have the hare up in relatively short order.

peece.

the rum…

…is watching you. always. that thing you did?

saw it.