Red Skirt

Red Skirt 2013/03 - digital illustration

I have been thinking of starting up my sketchbook blog again. This time as sort of a support for the artwork I have posted here. I am thinking like a behind the scenes or a peek at the process sort of thing.

 So, I have added an animated GIF to the Sketchbook Blog showing a little bit of the evolution of this illustration if you are interested.

As time goes on I will try different behind the scenes techniques.

enjoy.

Doodle Book: 1

Yesterday after work I had to run to the bookstore with my wife. She picked up a little photo album for a project she is working on and I picked up a three pack of those little moleskin sketch books. I went small and cheap for these as it was going to be an experiment. Surprisingly I do like the feel of the paper for drawing on, I can see why people suggest these.

Anyway, I decided I needed to keep a more concentrated Doodle Book, you know not so many bits and pieces of paper everywhere. Though I was happy to see a little flap in the back of each book that could hold pieces of paper : )

I want to try to put something in it everyday with hopes I will post the drawings from time to time. I have kept sketchbooks in the past, but much larger than these 3.5" x 5.5" pages. I thought the smaller size would force me to carry it with me more often than not. So all that said, here''s my first group from the Doodle Book.







Obviously they all can't be winners, looking at that Captain America I don't know what I was thinking on that one. I also need to take it with me when I am out and about as I did get the comment from my wife that "I always draw cartoons!" I guess I need to put all of those semesters of life drawing to good use.

Don't bring a blaster to a lightsaber fight

As an old friend of mine used to say "HERE"S SOMETHING FOR YOUR EYE!" which usually had me ducking because it was followed up with some sort of attack like Cato Fong in the Pink Panther movies. In this case it's some more artwork, sketches, doodles whatever you want to call it. These are done for fun.

First up is poor old Ponda Baba. What if the whole run in with Luke and Ben in the Cantina was a mistake, then this poor guy got the short end of the stick... wait didn't his buddy get killed? Now I have to go watch the movie one more time, damn you feeble memory! Still to loose and arm while trying to relax in a bar, right?



I have to say I am pretty excited that this guy is getting a new version in the Hasbro Star Wars Vintage line, complete with stump.

Next Jboypacman asked in some earlier comments if I ever drew monsters... you know I haven't in a long time. I did a set way when I first started working in toys for some basketballs, I will have to see if I can dig those up from an archive. So, I drew up this guy up for him.



Why he is offering up a flower is beyond me, just seemed to be a good thing for him to hold. Again I am thinking this was a scene in the movie right before someone drowned...Great! Now I have to go re watch that movie!

I ended up taking this one and setting up a little sticker for my favorite comic shop, if you dropped by from the shops facebook page welcome and hope you enjoy the sneak peek. Jboy if I get it made I will send ya some.

I have been feeling like doing a DC sticker for the shop and I have it narrowed down to two characters. Hawkman and Aquaman. I will end up sooner or later doing both, but I want to see a show of hands for which one should be first. So leave a comment and vote for one, or you could offer up another suggestion, but you better be prepared to work I will need a tag line too. What's is in it for you... um bragging rights? I don't know I will think of something.

Red Five Standing by

Okay, I decided to try this. I am going to try and post a couple times during the week and possibly a little post on the weekend. It's not that I am tired of posting stuff, I just want you to have some quality stuff. I will try an artwork post and a toy post and I am not sure what on the weekend maybe an art toy post : )

This will be the art post for the week. I love reading other artist's blogs where they show a little behind the curtain, a sketch, a technique here and there. I have been trying a few things out, trying to nail down some processes. This one is not going to be that in depth, mater of fact you might think "big deal" but none the less it is something I tried and was pretty happy with the results.

I have come across an iPad and while we mainly use it to look up recipes or watch YouTube videos of Basset Hounds and Bulldogs doing crazy stuff, I did load Sketchbook Pro on it for the occasional doodle. I haven't had that much luck doing wonderful sketches on it. To be honest the last time I did a finger painting I was a wee little lad, but one Sunday morning over coffee I did whip up this little colored sketch.



I am pretty proud of it. As drawings go it's not high quality or a rush it to press type drawing, but it does beat my usual scribble all to hell. I even tried out the layers to add some colors. Then I thought hey! Let's take it and email it to the main machine and finish it up in Illustrator! Sketchbook even exported with all my layers intact and in a PSD file format, sweet.

So here is what I did in illustrator.
edit: The shading was done back in Photoshop.



Like I said, no ground breaking tips or tricks, more of a "hey I can use this thing to draw with my fingers and then clean it up later" sort of thing. I usually use Photoshop to sketch out ideas when I am near a computer, when I am away from one any scrap piece of paper I can get my hands on will do. I will then take the image, either JPG or PSD straight form Photoshop (or a scan from the paper) and digital ink it in illustrator. This iPad thing just gives me another option for sketching.

I will try to remember to take some screen shots of a drawing in progress if anyone cares to see stuff like that. I do have one where I saved the rough sketch and the line work before coloring it... maybe next week.

Dammit Uncle Owen...

"I was going to Toshi Station to pick up some Power Converters!"

Hey, it's been a while, hasn't it? I have been swamped, well not swamped enough that I couldn't do a sketch. I've been thinking about the direction of the blog, artwork, and my toy collecting... not to worry I will still be talking about toys here, unless you like checking out doodles, then I will still be talking about art.

Some things I have been thinking about recently.

1) I need to do a sketch, drawing or doodle everyday! I knew an industrial designer that would start every project with a bunch of odd sketches and say it was a way to get the crap out of their head... I never thought of drawing as a way to purge crap from my brain so I was sort of insulted. I look at it more like working things out and trying different things... Sad little Luke here is a warm up drawing I did this morning, working some things out. It's origin was a text conversation with my wife and my response of "awe, I was going to Toshi Station to pick up some Power Converters", queue light bulb and poof, the Toshi Station Blues above. This is probably more finished than say my warm up sketches, but still I think it is important to draw something everyday.

2) Vintage Star Wars figures, I can't get them off my mind lately. Talking with friends, seeing posts about finishing up sets, blah blah blah, etc, etc. Not sure how I want to tackle my little collection of Vintage Star Wars figures, so stay tuned as I work this out.

3) I wish I was in Florida this weekend for one the Stitch Wars show opens up today and second at same comic shop Mike Mignola is going to be there on Saturday. I usually do not geek out that much on meeting celebs and what not, but come on Mike freaking Mignola!

4) I have enjoyed this little break from toys and I have actually been sorting through stuff to thin down my collection, but in the same breath there are a ton of new things I want for the collection... never ending cycle. This time I'm doing it different.

5) Hitting the local Tex Mex cantina tonight and now I'm wondering what to get...

That is all that is on my mind right now, lunch break over, now back to work! Stay tuned I do have a Spockcation update coming, and if I can stop being lazy I will shoot some toy pictures, and possible post some more sketches / artwork.

Have a great weekend, may the force be with you, live long and prosper, go do something creative!

Poor Redshirt

"The Captain is nuts, this planet is beautiful, how could it be dangerous?"
(click image to monster size it)

Flash! He'll save everyone of us...

Oh wait wrong flash. Little known fact, next to Batman, the Flash is one of my favorite super heroes. Okay, maybe it is known. This illustration was done for Tate's Comics in Florida for their Free Comic Book Day stickers they pass out (a different version, this one was an "airbrush" version I did for the fun of it).

If I lived in Florida this shop would get a good portion of my pay check. If you live in Florida you should check them out, tell them Charles sent you and what the hey pick me up something nice from their shop for giving you the tip... worth a try.

click image to see larger... if you can, the Flash is pretty quick!

Speaking of being worth a try, do you my dear, dear readers think that people might be interested in me doing commissions of their favorite pop culture heroes? I have been approached and have turned away a lot of offers, but I think if I do it as a commission it might be okay. Leave a comment and let me know.

Tune in tomorrow as I will be posting the stickers and images of the submitted graphics I did for the shop! Hope you all have a great Free Comic Book Day!

Hulking it Up!

You know for not being one of my favorite Marvels I sure do think about the Hulk a lot... fun to draw I guess.

Here's OTTi!

Last week I was invited to do an illustration of Open the Toy's mascot OTTi. You may remember LEon over at Open the Toy lending me a hand with a Darth Vader graphic for the "Vader Invasion!" cross blog event in 2009, so I was more than honored to be asked to contribute to his collection of artists that have reinterpreted his mascot for his blog.

If you make a trip over to Open the Toy, you'll not only see the illustration, but all the others, plus some wallpaper and a header I helped to create ( I got a little carried away). All in all it was a fun exercise and I was happy to participate.

"It's not a doll, It's an ACTION FIGURE" Video Tour!

This video just came across the web to my in box this weekend, but I have been so busy I didn't have a chance to watch it until today... and it is awesome!

It made my day as it kicks off with this guy. See way back in November of 09 a certain friend of eclectorama was having a little ceremony in Las Vegas and wanted our vacationing Spock to attend. I thought up something better and sent a Spock "Clone" dressed for the occasion as a gift. I'm happy to see he's still rocking the threads.

The video takes a little time to load, but it is so worth it, you get to see a whirlwind tour of the show hosted by some of your favorite toy friends. So sit back and enjoy the ride.



Also, A. Pants if you are reading this, I hope this show does so well that next year it gets a followup show, even if it doesn't it inspired me to do some more action figure art!

"It's not a doll, It's an ACTION FIGURE" Show

I was asked to participate in the upcoming show, "It's not a doll, It's an ACTION FIGURE", by our good friend and show curator A. Pants. It's starting tomorrow! Here's the skinny...

"Artwork and photography focusing on the love of the action figure!" At the Bear and Bird Gallery, in sunny Lauderhill, Florida! Running June 19 through July 31, 2010.

Here's my contribution...



The One Case
Digital Print and Water Color, Hand Colored
June 2010

"One Case to Rule Them All. One Case to Find Them.
One Case to Bring Them All and In The Darkness Bind Them."

Read more about it at nerdsquared and make sure to visit the gallery and flickr pool.


Just in case you are interested, here's some past work from my sketch blog and the old pop project blog...

American Dream

A few months back I started my sketch blog with a version of this character. Here's the toy that somewhat inspired that sketch. I made some changes, like the standard issue wings on Captain America's mask that I added to the sketch, along with some nods to the classic look.

This figure stands about 4" to 5" tall and has a giant shield, which I later read was handed down from Captain America, but still look at the size of that thing. I've noticed that the shield seems to be the hardest thing for toy companies to nail down, it's either too small or way too large. This would be considered a Toy Biz pre Marvel Legends meaning not a lot of articulation. Released to the specialty market, this figure did not see mass release, and was part of a set of First Appearance Women Figures that included Spider-Girl, Wild Thing, and Stinger.

Once I completed the sketch I went in search of this figure to compare and decided that even though the figure is cool, I liked the "classic" feel of the sketch and continued to finish it out from there. I've often thought about going back and trying to complete this four figure set as well as trying my own twist on the feminization of some other Marvel and DC Characters.

Just a Reminder

Not big on the cross promotion thing, but sometimes it's a necessity.

The sketch blog has had a few updates, not as many as I would like, but a few none the less.

Have a chance, remember to check out the StudioHowell Sketchbook.

SOTW: Enter The Snowtrooper

Before I start, I know there are few camps on the whole Snowtrooper, Sandtrooper, Scouttrooper, Stormtrooper thing. I for one think that no matter what proceeds trooper in your name, you are still a Stormtrooper, you still work for the Empire, and your aim is still lousy. So having said that I bring you this weeks "Stormtrooper of the Week", The Imperial Stormtrooper (Hoth Battle Gear), or more commonly known as the Snowtrooper.

This little guy is from my original "collection" of Star Wars characters, I say "collection" because when you were a kid they were just playthings and not collectables, I for one did not refer to toys as collectables until I had pretty much finished with college, and even then is the newer stuff really that collectable? Every one seems to be a collector of toys now. Anyway our little trooper here dates back to the Empire Strikes Back era of the early Eighties. I remember standing in line with my mother for about four hours to go see the Empire Strikes Back, and thought it was an awesome sight when the Snowtroopers raided Echo Base (the Rebel's stronghold on Hoth). My dad didn't make it to Empire, he and my mother had a deal, he did Star Wars and she got the next film, I think he may have went eventually because you know I had to see it twice.

I also remember seeing the movie and then going to the bookstore and finding the Empire Strikes Back Sketch Book (still one of my favorites, but long gone) detailing the concept work of Joe Johnston and others, and the images that stick out in my mind are of the Snowtroopers. The figures came along not to far behind, Lucas and Kenner had learned that kids would snap these things up by now, they even had the mail away sneak peak figure before the movie arrived (he'll make an appearance here soon). These were probably some of the last figures I bought as a child, Jedi was released a couple years later and I had moved on to cars and dating (funny how you end up going back).

StudioHowell Sketchbook

I have decided to separate my artwork blog from the Eclectorama Blog. To date this blog has focused on memorabilia and toys and I thought it would be nice to feature my illustrations and designs in their own space.

I'm not sure how often I will update it, but it will be a good way to get just the artwork filtered out.

Enjoy!