100,000 More Bad Drawings

My New Project

2011-12-06T14:11:00.003-05:00

What's this? An update? He's not dead!

That's right folks, I'm not dead nor have I stopped drawing. As a matter of fact, I'm drawing more now then ever.

Earlier this year I started my very own webcomic, 'The Principal is an Alien'. It's a comic about a group of young friends and their adventures at an elementary school where weird things happen. This has taken up the bulk of my time and of course this blog fell to the wayside.

In the time since I last updated this, I've made a huge dent in my 100,000 drawings, I just haven't kept track of them all. The progress seemed more important then the numbers (I'm doing character design, basic coloring and shading now, something I hadn't considered a year ago).

In any case, if you'd like to keep up on my progress, please, check out the comic!

The Principal is an Alien

Thanks!
Jon

Not Dead Yet

2010-09-18T15:40:00.003-04:00

Insert Lame Excuse for why I haven't updated the blog since April here.

(Sorry for how light the images are. These were quick scans and I didn't put much effort into cleaning them up).

Confessions of a Lazy Sketcher III

2010-04-04T12:44:00.002-04:00

Confessions of a Lazy Sketcher II

2010-04-02T19:32:00.002-04:00

Confessions of a Lazy Sketcher...

2010-03-29T19:21:00.001-04:00

Nope, no good excuses this time. I was just darn lazy.......

More Feb Sketches II

2010-02-27T22:03:00.002-05:00

More Feb Sketches

2010-02-26T20:04:00.000-05:00

I'm sorry....

2010-02-20T16:45:00.002-05:00

I'm sorry blog. I didn't mean to leave you alone so long. I just had so many other important projects on my plate. What? No, that doesn't mean you're important, you're just as important as the others....more so....well, yes, I could have made time for you...but I had a lot of pages to scan...oh....c'mon, don't be that way, here, I'll post some today and tommorow...will that make you feel better? What? Is this the silent treatment now? You know I hate 404s.....

January Sketch Dump III

2010-01-30T15:13:00.002-05:00

January Sketch Dump II

2010-01-29T19:16:00.001-05:00

January Sketch Dump

2010-01-27T20:35:00.000-05:00

Drawing Jams!

2010-01-26T20:33:00.004-05:00

Fret not, I haven't forgotten my blog! See, a funny thing happened.
I went on vacation for two weeks (no internet access). Then I came home to a fried motherboard.
Ordered new computer parts, waited a week, got those. Put together the computer, cheered. Then discovered I was shipped a bad memory chip. Sigh.

This past week I finally got myself up and running again and I'm just now starting to scan from my sketchbook. You'll see updates the next couple of days as I put all those pages up.

I have been keeping myself busy however. TJ from the original One Hundred Thousand Bad Drawings started a Drawing Jam blog to expand on the once in a while jams he did before. Even though I'm probably the least skilled of the folks participating in it, I'm still drawing as many as I can.

Check out the Drawing Jams Blog site to see some of their work...and check back here later for my other sketchbook posts:)

Below are the two Drawing Jams I did the past two weeks. The first theme was 'Love', and the second theme was 'Light'.

December Sketch Dump 2

2009-12-15T12:42:00.003-05:00

December Sketch Dump 1

2009-12-13T20:38:00.002-05:00

One more class and I'm done with 3D Design. Wooo! It's been a fun class, not quite 'my thing' (like 2D Design), but very educational.

Anyhow, I've managed to get a few sketches in lately, so I'll post them tonight and tommorow and that will pretty much be the end of the posts for this year. I'm going away for the holidays and I won't have a scanner or internet access (withdrawl symptoms are gonna be a pain).

New Scanner!

2009-11-27T13:38:00.004-05:00

Yay! I finally got myself a brand new scanner. It might take a little bit of getting used to (softwares a bit different), but it'll be worth it as its larger then my previous one (11x16).

There probably won't be much drawing the next couple of weeks as my 3-D Design class comes to a close and I have to finish up a few final projects.

Happy holidays all:)

Hmmmm

2009-11-11T22:34:00.003-05:00

It's come to my realization, that my art work would probably show tremendous improvement if I could manage to stick to one subject at a time. For example, hands, or heads, or bodies, etc. The problem is I keep getting distracted and don't stick with one thing long enough to 'get it down'. So when I come back to it, it's like I'm starting all over. It's almost like I have Artist ADD.

So, from this point forward, I'm implementing a strict schedule of drawing exerci...ooo, puppy! *runs off* Here puppy puppy!

Catching Up II

2009-11-07T21:32:00.002-05:00

More catching up of scanning

Catching Up I

2009-11-01T11:03:00.001-05:00

Finally got my other scanner to start working, so I'll post up a few scribbles that I did while I was scannerless. Yay!

Not Dead Yet!

2009-10-27T20:11:00.000-04:00

Despite rumors to the contrary, I'm not dead. My scanner, however, has taken a turn for the worse and I haven't been able to scan in any picts. Fear not, I'm still scribbling away and should hopefully have some posts in the very near future:)

Todays Update

2009-09-27T16:01:00.002-04:00

sheepish look

2009-09-19T13:40:00.002-04:00

SOMEONE hasn't been updating his blog much......

Scribbles for 9/8

2009-09-08T22:10:00.003-04:00

I scanned these in last week and meant to post them then...but I got distracted, then went away for labor day....oops:)

More Scribbles

2009-08-30T20:14:00.002-04:00

(Witty Title Here)

2009-08-11T20:18:00.002-04:00

A Return to ACTION!

2009-08-09T16:07:00.002-04:00

Well, I finally did it. I drew all the way through one sketchbook. It might not seem like much to some of you out there, but 100 pages in 3 months is a pretty big deal for me. It's just over 1 page a day, which was my goal. So yay! I'll be able to put this one in the drawer and start on the next sketchbook.

I've opted to pick up Ben Caldwell's ACTION! Cartooning again. I started this a while back, but I don't think I was quite getting everything then. Now,m after I took a introduction to drawing class, I think I'm getting the hang of things better. So far I'm only doing heads, but they're coming out nicer now then before. :)

Vacation Pages 2

2009-08-05T20:33:00.001-04:00

Whoops, forgot to upload yesterday....

Vacation Pages 1

2009-08-03T18:55:00.002-04:00

Well, I'm finally back from vacation. I took all my drawing stuff under the belief that I'd have plenty of time to sit down and draw.

Boy, was I mistaken. I spent 90% of my time hiking, biking, stargazing, and exploring the Snowmass/Aspen and Estes Park areas. There's some awesome places out there. I had the chance to go see a major league soccer match (go Rapids!), and went into Rocky Mountain National Park at night to do some stargazing (I'm in awe of the number of stars I could see there compared to home).

Anyhow, here's the first couple of pages that I did manage to do. I'll have more tommorow:)

A gaggle of doodles II

2009-07-15T11:00:00.002-04:00

And more of the same from yesterday

A gaggle of doodles

2009-07-14T20:41:00.001-04:00

I've been lazy...been drawing, but not scanning. And next week I go on a two week vacation, so I figured I should get some of these pages up here. Just a lot of rough and anything goes sketches.

You'll notice that I'm starting to use pen more, rather then pencil. I like the final look of the pen better (much darker, easier to see), and it means I have to be more aware of my drawing technique, as I can't rely on an eraser to fix all my mistakes. It's actually a lot more fun then I thought it might be:)

Schools out, woo!

2009-07-02T21:13:00.004-04:00

Well, my spring Introduction to Drawing is finally done. The class was a lot of fun, even if it was crammed into 7 fast and furious weeks. While my drawings are still rough, they're a lot better then they were two months ago, so I consider this a rather happy success.

Oddly enough, one of the neatest things about the class is that it was 'cross taught' with a Comics Design Class. While we were drawing models and what not, the other students were working on short, 4 page comic strips. It was neat hearing all the stuff coming from the other side of the room. I've resolved to taking that class the next time it's offered.

Well, here's more sketch book stuff. Some from the beach, one just scribbles in class, another pre sketch of a class assignment, and the last one is a rough sketch of what my final project in class looked like.

Class Sketchbook IX

2009-06-21T11:13:00.003-04:00

A couple more sketches from my class sketchbook, as well as one from when I was at the bank (quick sketches of the customers there. Harder then it looks :b), and a quick 'copy' of one Sisby did at DeviantArt.

Class Sketchbook VIII

2009-06-18T21:21:00.005-04:00

A few more class sketchbook pages here. We started to work with ink this week. This is the first time I've worked with this drawing tool with real instruction and it's definitly different. I don't think it'll be my method of choice in the future, but it's a lot of fun to try out. Knowing you have to 'get it right' the first time really changes how you draw.

In another update, I finally got around to adding all the Blogs I read into the Inspirations section on the right here. I highly recommend checking them out. Theres some real talent out there and these guys are very inspirational to me.

Class Sketchbook VII

2009-06-16T20:06:00.002-04:00

Class Sketchbook VI

2009-06-15T19:16:00.002-04:00

Some days are better then others. I apologized to the model for the very bad drawing of her face. That was a bad day....

Class Sketchbook V

2009-06-14T21:08:00.005-04:00

Wow, I sorta forgot to update the blog for a few days. I'll try to put an update a day for the next lil while, as I have a bunch of pages in my class sketchbook that I need to get scanned in here.

Class Sketchbook IV

2009-06-06T16:15:00.002-04:00

Class Sketchbook III

2009-05-28T20:02:00.002-04:00

More class sketchbook drawings....

Class Sketchbook II

2009-05-26T19:54:00.001-04:00

I have nothing witty, useful, wise, or insightful to say today....

So here's some more sketchbook pages. Meh.

Class Sketchbook I

2009-05-25T16:41:00.003-04:00

Wow, I really need to do updates more regularly. If I wait too long I end up with a bunch of pages in my sketch book that I need to scan in and that takes forever with my little old scanner.

Over the next couple of days I'll post some of the sketches I've done since I started class a week or so ago. It's not much, but it's kept me busy.

Long Weekend

2009-05-10T21:01:00.004-04:00

Wheeee, the joys of a long weekend. The wife and I took a day off work and headed up north to Mackinac Island. Great place if you've never been there, simple little island, accessible only by ferry. And no cars whatsoever (okay, that's a lie, there's an ambulance, a police car, and I think a fire truck as well as one or two construction vehicles, but they're not out and about very often). Everyone gets around on bicycle or horse, residents and tourists alike. I love going into the interior of the island where you can mountain bike for a couple hours.

Anyhow, I took the time to do some 'warm up' for my upcoming Introduction to Drawing class. Some of the scans came out poorly, sorry about that, I'm too tired to go back and rescan them correctly. You're not missing much, trust me :)

What I Did In Class....

2009-05-05T20:14:00.013-04:00

I haven't done much drawing the past couple of days, but I figured I'd post up a couple pictures of what it was I did in class over the past couple of months. As I've mentioned before, it was a 2 Dimensional Design Class, not necessarily drawing, but it taught a lot about the fundamentals of art design. I know I'm missing an assignment or two in there, but I can't find'em right now. Oh well.

(Sorry about the quality, I had to take pictures of these with my camera. The scanner isn't large enough.)

So we started out with just dots. The goal in the first assignment was to draw (dots only) several 'words'. The words were: Order, Space, Chaos, and Pattern.

Assignment 2 and 3 were more dot designs. We had to draw one thing geometrically and one thing organically.

More word designs. One was done using black marker, the other was done using black construction paper.
Left side words were: Angry, Sleepy, Running, and Free Association (I think I did Joy in my case).
The right side picture were Bold, Playful, Congester, and Increase.

This was a fun one. We had to start in the center of each side with a 1/2 inch thick bold black line. In between we had to draw '5 Words Into Line'. The words were: Metamorphisis, Trapped, Splatter, Broken, and Organic.
Everyone did different things, pretty darn cool (I tried to go with a 'life of a line' theme in mine).
The neat thing was when he put them up on the board afterwards. Each of those 1/2 inch thick black lines matched up perfectly, so it seemed like it was one giant drawing changing shape constantly. I wish I had taken a big picture of it, it was neat.

Another line picture. This was done using five different areas/patterns of lines to draw one uniform picture.

The painting begins. The first was an excerise in gradiants. I did this three times, that was the best I could do. Oh well. The second was taking one of our prexisting line drawings and putting it to color.

Our logo project came next. Using black construction paper we designed four different logos. Then we picked one and painted it five different ways (Black/White, One color and tints, Two colors, three colors, then whatever else we wanted. The final square doesnt show up very well because the bottom colors are dark. Drat

This one was fun. We had to take an object (a 20 sided dice in my case), and draw it. Then crop and zoom in, then crop and zoom in more, then crop and zoom in a lot more. Then there was a colored painting, and a black and white + 1 color painting. I don't like how the colored one came out, but the Black + White + 1 Color looks kinda cool.
One of the students in our class did a drawing compass and it came out looking like Tucan Sam :)

Translucent Project! Hard to work on, but the end result was pretty cool. I wish the picture showed more detail, but it came out alright except for a few small mistakes. I was one of 12 people who turned the assignment in on time (he gave us some leeway), so it ended up getting taken to a gallery nearby and displayed for a month.

And last but not least...my final project:
Spatial Illusion, we had to have several layers stacked in here, plus extra details as you can see. It was fun using different colors to make the image of things being distant or close. It wasn't until I was all finished that I realized I needed to add something in the bottom center, but oh well. All in all I was pleased with how it came out :)

More drawings later, I hope.

o./~ Schools our for summer! o./~

2009-04-30T11:52:00.003-04:00

Well....two weeks at least.

At last my 2-D Design class is over! This was the first, sit in a class room and get real art instruction class I ever took. I took the class because it's part of the Art Minor program at the university I work at, not because it was really 'my thing'. Now, while I maintain that acrylic paint was the creation of the devil for the soul purpose of pissing me off, I learned a heck of a lot more in the class then I thought I would. Some of the things I learned:

*Balance - how placing objects on different parts of the picture 'weigh' it down in certain ways
*The Rule of Thirds - I've seen this a lot in other art works, but I never realized that it was a real 'rule'. It's one of those 'wow, this makes a real difference' type of things.
*Line Differences - making a line thicker, or bending it vs a sharp corner, etc, can drastically change how a design looks.
*Color - Now, everyone knows about the color wheel, but we learned how to use colors properly. Which ones go best with what, how to mix to get certain colors, etc.

And much more which i'm probably forgetting (it's been a long day at work already). I'm by no means an expert of course, but it's been a great class and I'm glad I did it, paint troubles and all. My classmates were a lot of fun too, so that made things better (The professor was just awesome:) ).

In two weeks I start my next class, Introduction to Drawing. It's a Spring semester class, so it meets 3 times a week, 4 hours a day for 6 weeks. For that time I'll probably be busy as heck, but at least I'll have lots of drawings to post :)

After class ended I came home and did my first scribbles in two weeks. All I did were happy faces, just cause I was glad to be done. Once I get back all my other assignments I'll work on getting those up here for others to see:)

Hey, where's the posts?

2009-04-17T08:34:00.003-04:00

So, the handful of you who visit this site might be wondering where the posts are. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about the site. You see, it's close to the end of the school year and as such, I have a final project in my 2D Design class. As a result, this is taking up quite a bit of my time, so I haven't had nearly as much to sit down and sketch away. Sorry about that :(

Have no fear though! In the spring I'm taking Introduction to Drawing, and from what I've heard, it's lots...LOTS of drawing. And most of those will probably end up here. I hope that makes up for the lack of posts:)

In the meantime, here's an angry 20 sided monster.

A plague upon thee!

2009-03-30T20:35:00.002-04:00

I hate being sick.....

An Uninspiring Week

2009-03-23T19:38:00.001-04:00

Between class work, work work, and house work, this was a rather uninspiring week for me to draw. I just couldn't get up the urge to do anything real productive, so I don't have much to offer up this time. Hopefully this up coming week will be better and I'll crank out a couple more pages :)

Ah, Spring Break...Sorta

2009-03-16T12:30:00.002-04:00

Last week was Spring Break week. And the weather was actually starting to get nice too, how kind of Mother Nature. Sadly, I'm an employee of the university, so there was no spring break for me. Instead I had to work 8 hours a day, then come home and work on my homework.

Allow me to state that my 2-D Design Class is not really my cup of tea...but I'm learning a heck of a lot from it. How to lay out stuff, color coordination (just starting that actually), different terms and techniques. It's very interesting and I think it'll help me out a lot in the future. And my professor is great, I'll be taking another class with him come winter.

That said...the person who came up with the idea of Acrylic paints needs to be drowned in a vat of it. UGH! I have the worst time working with it and most of my designs come out terribly ugly. Those people who can use it and make something awesome out of it..I bow before them. They are gods/goddesses amongst men/women. When i'm all done using this paint, all my supplies are going out into a bonfire where I will sacrifice them to the Muses.

Anyhow, a few scribbles, doodles, etc from the past week. I really need to start posting more.

New Perspectives and Scribbles

2009-03-06T22:55:00.006-05:00

Well, I've been slow on updating the page....bad wannabe artist, bad! Oh well, at least I have a good excuse: this week was midterms week at school. Always a busy time, even if our professor gave us plenty of time to do the work and I'm only taking one class. But nature has a way of filling in that free time.

Anyhow, while I've been doing a little bit of scribbling here and there (not nearly as much as I'd like obviously), I managed to finish reading David Chelsea's 'Perspective! For Comic Book Artists'. As you can probably tell from some of my drawings, I have had a bit of trouble on issues dealing with perspective. In his book Chelsea does a pretty good job of breaking down the concept of perspective and helping you along in understanding it better. I feel it's almost a book you have to read twice: Once to get the basic concepts, and a second time to understand some of the techniques to draw in perspective better (Chelsea offers up some pretty complex, but very useful methods for making sure you get two point or three point perspectives working just right). Even if you aren't into comics, I recommend it.

And now, for your viewing enjoyment, more scribbles.

Inspirational Paradoxes

2009-02-24T21:58:00.003-05:00

So, apparently at least one other person follows this blog, TJ Collins, which is pretty damn cool cause he's the one who inspired me to start this blog. Well, it turns out that I'm helping to inspire him to draw more....but he inspired me to draw first. It's like a weird sort of Paradox....I can live with that:)

Anyhow, over on TJ's blog he stated he was trying a new exercise, and I thought I'd try to adopt it a bit. Granted, I don't think I have as much time as he does, so mine might be a lil more staggered and less, but it's a good idea nonetheless. It works like this.

Each day follow this drawing routine:
*A page of 60-90 second gestures from Posemaniacs
*A Face (charactiture, portrait, whatever).
*A Figure Study (Full body, with or without clothes).
*A Cartoon character

So, I decieded tonight I would try it. I did three of the four...didnt do the figure study cause I sort of ran out of time (its been a busy night).

I have a feeling the gesture drawings are going to be the hardest, yet the most useful of all the drawings I'm going to do. As you can see on these ones, they look very incomplete. The reason behind that is simple: I ran out of time. I was concentrating too much on one part or another and the 90 second countdown finished before I could do the entire drawing. Learning what to draw first to complete the picture is going to be quite a task.

The face's I did are supposed to be Lance Armstrong and Dale Earnhardt Jr...the later one didn't come out very well. The cartoon character: Brent from PVPOnline.

Anyhow...it's new method and I'm hopeful it'll work out well for me.

"Meh" Scribbles

2009-02-16T20:46:00.002-05:00

Well, I've been working on another project, one I'm not ready to post up here yet (when I am ready I'll put it all up here, I swear!). In between working on that project I wanted to continue practicing other things, but this weekend was a real "meh" weekend for some reason. Well, probably "meh" because I was so busy with homework, Valentines Day stuff, etc, that by the time I got to drawing I was just tired.

Oh well, got a few done at least, might as well toss them up :)

Time Management Skills....

2009-02-08T08:40:00.002-05:00

...are something apparently I have been lacking lately. I'm only taking one art class at a time since that's all I can fit in and work at the same time. Nonetheless, I've been rather busy with it. I don't think 2-D Design comes naturally to me :) Anyhow, my sketching has been suffering so the past couple of days I've been trying to wring something out of my drawing hand and get some sketches to appear.

I've also been practicing with Adobe Illustrator. That consumed me for at least a week til I figured out how to properly use it (something I'm still working on). When I get finished with those works, I'll post'em as well.

Too much class

2009-01-21T08:56:00.002-05:00

For the first time in my life I can say "I have class!" Really, I do! The problem is I have too much class....

It's not bragging, but I've actually started taking classes at the university where I work at. One class a semester is about all I can handle while keeping a fulltime job and other stuff, plus I hate homework so I don't want to overload myself. The class is '2D Design', described as 'An introduction to design, its means and materials. Line, form, color and their composition are analyzed separately and combined together in experimental, temporal, psychological and pictorial terms. A basic required course for art majors.) It's fun so far, even though I've only been in it two weeks.

Anyhow, when I start getting my homework back, I'll scan'em and post it up so people can see what we're doing. Unless I get a really bad grade, in which case I'll accidently drop the work in a puddle and lose it for all time....or I'll feed it to my dog.

So, with classes starting I was very busy with that (you know how HARD it is to find class supplies when everyone from three universities are trying to find supplies? It took me a week to locate design markers...gah). Anyhow, I didn't get a lot of drawings done, but I scribbled when I could....so here you go.

Egads....

2009-01-11T22:05:00.002-05:00

I happen to work for a university, which is really nice when school isn't technically in session. We get some easy weeks while we work on bigger projects that can only be done when we don't impact all the users on campus. Last week was the week before the start of the semester, which are normally slightly busier, but manageable. But eeeegads. If something could go wrong, it did.

As a result, I did barely any new drawings, I didn't have the urge to come up with new stuff or what not. I did however spend some more time working with my drawing tablet to figure out how things work. I took some old pictures and digitally inked them over. It's really cool how much easier ones work gets with those things, and I'm still a newbie at it. If you've ever had an urge to check out a tablet, I highly recommend it. I have a Wacom Bamboo Tablet, a small one that I picked up for just over $100.

Fun toy if you can get it :)

Anyhow, here's the latest scribbles...more to come this week I hope.

Posemaniacs and Stuff

2009-01-04T20:47:00.003-05:00

One of the nice things about working for a college is that over the holidays, you get a looong time off. I'm not ready to go back to work tomorrow, but I suppose it'll be nice to get back in the routine of things.

This dump of doodles includes a number of Posemaniacs practice. It's been a while since I've done those, I forgot how enjoyable it can be once you get into the swing of things.

The telescope one is a true story. I haven't been able to stargaze in two months because of overcast skies. It's a bad drawing....but I was in a bad mood. Grrrrrr.

Oh, and the last bit... I saw a book at the store today, Evil Penguins or something like that. It was cute and spurred the idea of drawing a couple of penguins, something I like since I happen to be a fan of Linux and it's mascot, the penguin. So, naturally some technical support doodles made their way into it. Expect more of those in the future...they're easy to draw, and cute to boot :)

Last Post of the Year

2008-12-31T22:09:00.004-05:00

This post would probably have more impact if I started this blog on say, January 1 of 2008....but I started it somewhere in between so I screwed that up, huh? I didn't manage to get any drawing done while I was away on Xmas vacation, but I made up for that the past couple of days, so I have something of a sketch dump for now. There's plain old practice, some character concepts, and what not in there. (BTW, some of these are cartoon sketches from webcomics I read. I don't claim any right to them, just practicing with them).

With the new years coming, it seems like it would be appropriate to come up with a New Years resolution related to drawing. Something like "I resolve to draw 1 hour a day", or "I resolve to learn how to draw womens faces correctly", or "I'll get a good pencil sharpener" (okay, that last one I do need to do). The problem with resolutions is that I tend not to keep them. Since I really enjoy drawing, I don't want to curse myself with something specific.

So here's my New Years Resolution: I resolve to just keep trying.

There....that's something I think I can do :)

Happy New Years everyone :)

The End of Toons!...sorta

2008-12-20T16:05:00.003-05:00

Yay! I finally completed the Randy Glasbergen book 'Toons!. Well, completed is an inaccurate thing to say...you never really finish drawing books, you just get to the end of what they talk about and then you continue practicing what they taught you. For me it's more a mental thing, this is the first book I made it all the way through, so I'm proud of myself.

Sure, I'm no Michaelangelo, but I've got several more months experience then I had before, so I'll take that for now :) Now I have to deciede which of the books I've been gath3ering to work on next....

Look out for that tree!

2008-12-16T20:09:00.004-05:00

This past Friday was my wifes birthday, so as a treat we went up north to ski country for a few days. We had a nice hotel, nice meals, and good ski slopes. Having grown up in a place where skiing was quite popular, my wife is a natural at it. Me....I'm still learning. Luckily I managed to avoid hitting any trees and survived with only a sore ankle (damn snow boots). While sipping hot chocolate and enjoying the warmth of a fireplace (The best part of skiing in my opinon), I managed to crank out a few drawings.

I'll try to update once more before I head out of town for the holidays.

Training Scraps

2008-12-08T19:21:00.001-05:00

This past week I was out of town doing some OpenSuse linux training. Since it was just me, I thought I'd have plenty of time to do some scribbling and crank some stuff out. Boy was I wrong...I just couldn't get comfortable in the room, kept getting distracted, ugh. I managed to get some stuff, but it was far from my most productive time.

Oh well...somethings better then nothing as I always say.

Turkey Coma

2008-11-27T23:46:00.003-05:00

Mmmm, turkey.......

Pictures from the past couple of days, plus a whole sheet of character concepts for an idea I have. I figured it was good practice to sit down and alter little things, just to see how it changed the entire idea.

BTW, I'm not sure what's up with the scans looking so weird, with lots of extra crap on them. It must be the new drawing pad I'm using, and having to use a different scanner. Meh...I'll figure it out sooner or later.

Scribbles for 11/25

2008-11-25T08:55:00.002-05:00

Once again, I have a lack of a witty title, or anything to say. Just...practice practice practice.

Blah blah blah blah...

2008-11-21T11:03:00.004-05:00

Nothing witty or insightful here....just more practice sketches.

oh, and a printer/scanner that doesn't want to cooperate. Grrr.

Edit Hey, wow, I didn't notice this til I had posted the above and then counted up the drawings. I've broken the 1,000 drawings mark. Wooo! And it only took me six moths, so if I stay on the same pace I'll be *crunches numbers* 83 by the time I get all 100,000 done.
....
Maybe my numbers will go up in retirement and shave off a year or two.

Body Practice & Classees

2008-11-14T15:58:00.002-05:00

Some more body practice, once again nothing exciting. I am learning though, a few of these bodies you can see the arms looking weird. I'm dropping the shoulders a bit, makes them look odd. Gotta file that tidbit in the back of my mind so I don't repeat it.

On another note, I finally signed up for an art class at the university where I work. With my work schedule (and work discount, hehe), I can get a Art Minor in 3 years with one class a semester. Pretty cool. It might not be much, but it'll be interesting to see what actual art classes can teach me.

Oodles of Doodles

2008-11-11T09:40:00.002-05:00

I meant to post these up yesterday, but it was a busy day. This is just a collection of doodles from the weekend. Nothing much, just...practice as usual.

Me?

2008-11-07T10:15:00.004-05:00

While at work I started scribbling and a lil guy popped up on the pad. It was almost looking into a mirror...except he's not as sketchy (ba-da-bing!)

I'm sure everyone has coworkers like these (the text is just what I thought of on the spot...kinda fustrated)

Keeping the Pencil Warm

2008-11-05T21:09:00.004-05:00

More scribbles, nothing special, just making sure I draw something....
(The last picture looks bad because its from my drawing pad, which is too large for the scanner I normally use. I was too lazy to get the good scanner out of the closet)

Scribble scribble scribble

2008-10-31T13:34:00.002-04:00

And some more drawings I did while watching the New England Revolution take on the Chicago Fire. The first page was 'meh', the second page I think I'm actually pleased with. Good for practice.

Some Weeks...

2008-10-30T10:36:00.003-04:00

These past two weeks have been rather bad on my drawing....
Last week I made plans to push through and finish a long running project to insulate my garage. The walls were done, but I had to put insulation on the ceiling and then boards up on it to cover that. Now, putting insulation up isn't THAT hard, but when it's just one person you have to cut them into pieces that you can handle by yourself and staple away. Then a staple gun broke so I had to get a new one. After the insulation went up I got a drywall lift to put up the boards...first one didn't work so I had to take it back to the rental place and grabbed another one.
Spent my entire weekend doing that...oy...the back, it hurts. But it's done and hopefully the garage will be warmer (and less cold air will get into the house).

Then this week I've been thrown all out of synch. I normally bike into work, but I had to get the battery repaired for my headlight (it's too dark to bike without it), so I've had to drive in and that throws me off. One day I forgot lunch, the next day I broke the carrots and applesauce, but not the hot pocket. Ugh...

Of course, because I was doing that it was interrupting my drawing time. My friends and I, of course, choose that week to start our 'Idiom/Saying of the Week' challenge. My idiom was "Playing it by Ear". My drawing....was obvious and less then good. I'm not happy with it even remotely...but it's done, so I'm posting it. It's bad...but then again, the name of this blog isn't "100,000 more good drawings" :)

Scribble scribble

2008-10-21T22:02:00.002-04:00

Wow, what another witty title, eh? Just some scribbles from the past couple of days. Did most of them while watching TV. Can you guess which sport I was watching at one point?

In other news, T. Jayenti Collins has started posting in his blog, 100,000 Bad Drawings, again. This is the fellow who inspired me to start this blog, with the same goal: getting all my bad drawings out of the way. If those drawings he's posting are his bad ones, he's got a heck of a future ahead of him :)

Idioms and Sketches

2008-10-16T21:56:00.004-04:00

A friend of mine is from Italy and has been learning English. Frankly, I think he speaks it a lot better then me (an English Major), but he still goes out of his way to learn as much as he can about it. He introduced me to a web site called Idiom-A-Day. It's an interesting little website as it gives you a common phrase/slang/proverb/saying/etc and helps you learn how to use it. It seems to be a nice learning tool for those figuring out english.

I'd long wanted to do some sort of a Sketch a Day Excersise, as I'd seen the folks over at Draw Sucka Draw do their 'Sketches from a Hat'. While it's not exactly the same, I figure I could go to this site, get a phrase, and then try to draw something based off it. My goal is to do one a day, but I'll have to work my way up to that...Im spending most of my time still getting the hang of this of course.

Anyhow, here is my first Idiom of the Day: The phrase yesterday was 'Hammer (something) Home'. I got this idea while at work and sketched it out over lunch, then I brought it home (folded up nice and neat in my bike bags so it'd be protected for the 30 minute ride), scanned in the original, printed it out, inked it up and viola. I hope it's a good start.

And below, some practice sketches over the past couple of days. I'm still hoping to continue the practice of copying some other peoples art to learn how they do it, as is evidenced in at least one of these sketches.

Hands and Torsos

2008-10-08T21:10:00.002-04:00

Over the past couple of days I've just been scribbling while sitting in front of the TV. No goal in mind other then some pose practice and hand practice. I've so far learned two lessons:
1) In cartoons, its very easy to make torsos too long. The characters come out looking very strange and dis-proportionate (is that even a word?).
2) Cartoon hands are really easy when you get down to it...its when you think of real hands and try to draw them cartoony that you have problems.

Oh, I also realized I need to get out my other scanner for the paper I'm using now (I've had a ton of paper printed on one side that I've been using, just to get it out of the way and not waste it). You can see on one or two of the scans I've done that it cuts off parts or the light drifts in. That's just because the paper is bigger then the scanner bed.

Weekend Scribbles

2008-10-05T22:15:00.002-04:00

And here's another collection of bad drawings from this weekend. Nothing much, just practicing a few poses and trying out some hands. Who knew it was so hard to draw someone sitting down? Definitely need to work on that one.

Nothing Witty

2008-10-03T20:20:00.002-04:00

Nope, nothing witty to say about this one. Just some scribbles and body practice while watching TV. It ain't much, but considering all the distractions I had this week, I'm glad to have sat down and drawn something.

The Mole People

2008-09-30T10:09:00.006-04:00

Yes, that's right, two posts, back to back...I wanted to separate this post and the last because they dealt with different subjects.

My wife joined a book club a while ago with some friends and once a month goes and discuss a book. This months book was 'The Mole People', a tale about the people living in the tunnels under New York City. When she came home and told me that was the choice, I happened to be doodling in front of the tv. As a joke I scribble a couple of faces with moles on them (you can see these drawings here, at the bottom right). She thought it was amusing and asked if I could draw something for their next meeting.

After putting it off, and putting it off, I finally sat down last night and scribbled something up. The below picture is the rough draft.

I haven't had any experience with finalizing drawings, so all I did was scan this in, added some text, cleaned up a few errors, then printed it out and drew over it with a pen for this result. (Note: My wife is a doctor, so the inside joke is that melanocytic nevus is the medical term for 'mole'.)

It's not much, but I'm rather happy with the result. I like the third lady from the left for some reason, but now that I look at it, somethings not right with her head...probably how her hair is done. Oh well.
Hope her book club likes it tonight :)

Bodies!

2008-09-30T10:01:00.004-04:00

I went out to Portland, Oregon this weekend with the wife, who had a conference to attend. So, while she was in meetings for a day and a half, I got to rent a bike and go wandering. As a bicycle commuter I found Portland to be close to Bicycle Nirvana. Bikes and Cars coexist and they have a mass transportation system that's very effective for a US City. I was darn impressed.

I took along my drawing stuff, but I spent more time outside then inside, so the number of drawings is lacking. I got to the section that started working on bodies, so that's always fun. Also, I learned that an airplane seat tray does not work very well for drawing.....darn turbulence.

Express Yourself

2008-09-20T22:09:00.002-04:00

See, a different title this time! Course, it still sucks but.....

Spent the past couple of days studying the expressions section of Toons! One would think that expressions would be something everyone could figure out, as you deal with a variety of them every day. However, I've found there's subtle little things that I always overlook or take for granted, and ironically those things are what make a simple cartoon doodle expressive. It's a good lesson and something I'll definitly need to continue working on.

On the second image, I used the drawings from the book as inspiration, but I modified the faces in a variety of ways. Sometimes I used a square face instead of a circle, or moved the eyes higher or lower, or changed the hair or even the sex of the person. Nice to see how a small thing can change the entire drawing.

Oodles of Doodles III

2008-09-15T22:30:00.003-04:00

Return of the crappy title!

The drawings from Toons! are of a much simpler style then that in Action Cartooning. Both styles are good and I hope to get Action Cartoonings down to...uh, an art I guess. Toons is just a lot of fun lately and I'm cranking out a lot of practice as I go. The scrap paper pile has been going down steadily and my pencils have been getting a lot shorter.

I guess it doesn't matter what style you're doing, as long as you're having fun doing it.

Oodles of Doodles II

2008-09-13T17:06:00.001-04:00

I spend my time doodling, I don't have time to come up with original titles...:)
Just more doodles, nothing fancy to say about these....just, getting them up.

Oodles of Doodles

2008-09-11T20:33:00.002-04:00

More fun with Randy Glasbergen's book Toons! I'm just doing my normal routine, going through, practicing the drawings in the book, fiddling around with a few of my own. The one page of drawings of the same guy is a bit of practice on how to take a general idea and modify him slightly. I drew the guy earlier and kind of liked him, so I'm running with it a bit to see what I can come up with.

A Change of Pace

2008-09-09T09:56:00.003-04:00

Everyone needs a lil change of pace now and then and I'm definitely no exception.. Last night I took a break from Action Cartooning and opened up Randy Glasbergen's 'Toons!'. It's a different style, simplier (is that a word?) if you will, but no less fun. Gonna toy with that for a bit to see what I can come up with before returning to Action Cartooning.

I've found it's rather refreshing to try different styles, some I'm good at, some I suck at, but the progress keeps me optimistic :)

I'm not slacking, honest!

2008-09-08T08:55:00.002-04:00

I swear I'm not a slacker...seriously! I was on vacation for a week and didn't have a chance at all to draw (I was a Rock Island Grand Prix corner worker. They tend to frown on you drawing while lil karts are racing by at 80mph).

I did get these drawn when I returned from vacation, but then I got distracted and never scanned them in. Oh well...churning away, slowly but surely.

Scribble scribble scrib...zzzzzzz

2008-08-24T22:08:00.001-04:00

Sometimes when you're tired you can create the most unique and interesting drawings. As if your body just lets creativity take over and draw exactly what it is you want to put on the paper, without logic or other things questioning what you are doing.

Other times, you end up with this.

Yeah....I Think I prefer the former.

Fan Art Scribbles

2008-08-21T20:20:00.003-04:00

It's been one of those weeks where I couldn't get much drawing done if I wanted to. I'm insulating my garage (something that's much needed), but being the only one doing the work on it....takes a lot out of you.

Anyhow, this weekend I did get a chance to sit down and draw a little bit. It's fan art form one of my favorite cartoons, Phineas and Ferb. It's a Disney Channel Cartoon about two step brothers who come up with unique ways to spend their summer vacation. They have some friends who help out, while their older sister constantly tries to get them in trouble. Then there's Perry, their pet, a platypus. He doesnt do much, except when he's in secret agent mode.

I used poses people had out there as guides, but it's not tracing. I take a preexisting image and see if I can reconstruct it. Fun way to learn.

Scribble scribble scribble

2008-08-16T20:32:00.003-04:00

Been a busy week, but I've managed to squeeze in a little bit of drawing here and there. There's nothing real fancy in this, but the ones from Action Cartooning, I've drawn before and I've noticed that it's getting a little bit better. It doesn't take me as long to draw them, and it's getting a tad bit easier...so I assume that's making progress:)

Random Scribbles

2008-08-10T22:35:00.004-04:00

Been one of those weeks where I couldn't just sit down and concentrate on drawing. To make matters 'worse', I had company over, so that interfered a bit....oh well....at least I got a few drawn (at home and work), that's gotta count for something, eh?

More Posemaniacs

2008-08-05T20:58:00.005-04:00

Ugh...too dang hot...and I thought Michigan was northern enough to have, you know, mild summers.

Just a few more posemaniacs practice plus one from Action Cartooning. Can't say anything exciting about them...other then I think I see some improvement in a few small areas. Baby steps...baby steps....:)

Posemaniacs Pose Practice

2008-08-03T22:16:00.005-04:00

Nothing much, just some practice from Posemaniacs. Set it to 90 seconds and just tried to get the basic frame down.

Practice practice practice

2008-08-01T22:49:00.002-04:00

More practice from Posemaniacs (except one from Action Cartooning).

Exciting, huh?:)

Vacation Drawings

2008-07-28T13:16:00.005-04:00

Back from vacation! My wife and I took a much deserved week and a half off to go to the inlaws cabin in the Andirondack Mountains for a few days, then we shot up to Stowe, Vermont for a week. We've gone to these places before and always had fun. Course, this time it rained almost the entire week we were in Vermont....go figure.

Despite the rain we managed to get out and do quite a bit of stuff. I had thought I'd be able to get in a lot more drawing then I did, but at least I had fun so I'm not really complaining.

The first page is what I drew in the car traveling to Vermont. I decided that I would use simple shapes to recreate things I saw along the route. Fun little exercise also easy to do when in a car that's bouncing about.

Second and third pages are, again, from Action Cartooning.

The fourth page consists of some quick sketches I made from one of the magazines in the hotel room. I only had 30 minutes or so so I rushed through them.

Last page are more in car drawings, this time I was using Jack Hamm's Cartooning the Head and Figure for inspiration. If you've never read a Jack Hamm book, I highly recommend it. Good stuff.

Anyhow, hopefully I'll get back into a regular schedule now:)

Fan Art and Pencil Holding

2008-07-12T19:10:00.004-04:00

One of the things that I've wanted to do for a while was to get into the habit of drawing some of my favorite cartoon characters. Not so much to copy them as learning different ways to draw things and to give me more exposure to different styles. I've started doing that this week; I pick two comics that I read on a daily basis and draw a character from that day. It's a fun little experiment.

Another thing I've been trying is holding my pencil differently. I normally hold it in a regular writing grip, but I've found that I tend to keep my hand in one place as I move. By switching to other grips, I'm having to move a bit more and I think I can do things I couldn't before (some curves, making things look nicer, etc). It's a work in progress....

Bonus points if you can name the comics :b (except for the one that has the name under it...and the two obvious drawings...I mean, c'mon, everyone knows that one ;) )

Fun with Tablets

2008-07-11T11:36:00.004-04:00

This has been yet another busy week for me....man I'm so looking forward to vacation next week (1.5 weeks in the Adirondacks and Vermont, woo!). I've done a little bit here and there, so I hope to post a few things before I leave.

I did play around a bit with my drawing tablet, just experimenting for the most part. I drew a quick sketch in pencil, then tried to draw the same thing on the tablet. Then later I took the original picture, scanned it, and put it up on ArtRage as a tracing so I could see how it'd look. The original picture was a quickie, so I knew that would be of iffy quality, and the tablet stuff is not very good, but I chalk that up to getting used to using the tablet and pencil (the control is a bit hard).

Regardless of control issues, it was pretty fun to try it out. I love the ability to 'clean up' a drawing by using layers (no matter how hard I try to clean it up when I draw with pencil some of the blue construction lines are still there). As I get better at it, I think final pictures will look MUCH nicer.

Anyhow, here's the experimental doodles.

Ghastly Gaunts

2008-07-06T13:18:00.002-04:00

Well, this has been a busy week. Work stuff, buying a new car, company over, and the holiday....I just barely got some time to draw. Yay.

This time I decieded to try my hand at the Gaunt face in Action Cartooning. I've never been good at these guys and judging from the end results, I haven't gotten much better (a little better, but there's still issues there). Oh well, practice, practice practice.

Vacation Scribbles....not so much

2008-06-30T13:45:00.006-04:00

So, the idea for when my wife and I went on vacation was that I was going to sit down and draw a lot. Just, crank out some practice to make progress.

Sadly, the weather was too darn nice. I couldn't stay inside....I had to go out, go biking, visit some wineries, check out the local sights....darn Canadians, ruining my vacation with good weather!

I did manage to get a few in, so I can say I did that much at least.

Respawn Scribbles

2008-06-22T22:42:00.002-04:00

Nothing too fancy about these....I just wanted to do some practice of full figure poses, so I decided to try and sketch out the pose of the people who killed me while I was playing Team Fortress 2. Fun game, I highly recommend it if you've never played it.

Anyhow, nothing fancy, just more practice.

More expressions & A New Toy

2008-06-21T21:28:00.003-04:00

I have nothing creative to say, these are just some more faces and two expressions. I really didn't have much desire to do anything tonight. I really need to get into the habit of just sketching whatever.....

Course, I did get a birthday present for myself: A Bamboo Fun Drawing Tablet :) This should be fun to play with.

Head Scribbles

2008-06-18T21:58:00.002-04:00

I needed to draw...I picked out some expressions from my chart and tried to draw it on a 'Hero', a 'Cutie' and a 'Heavy'.

I'm still working on eyes, and getting womens lips is sometimes a trial (see #9). And I have absolutely no idea what happened with #2. Don't ask...it's just...one of those things....

And moving on...

2008-06-14T20:26:00.004-04:00

I didn't think it was possible, but it's too dang hot to draw. I've been sitting at my drawing desk the past couple of days sweating up a storm and thinking to myself "I'm not doing anything strenuous...how can I be sweating?" Stupid heat and humidity.....

I decieded to take a stab at a two drawings though, the same old girl I've been working on and the next pose in Action Cartooning, a similar walk but with a guy in a slightly different pose. There's errors on the girl still (her neck seems a bit too long), and the guys arms are a bit odd, but overall I'm pleased with them. It's progress...slow progress, but progress.

Now I think I'll go read some more Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition in the nice air conditioning....

Quick Scribbles

2008-06-11T21:59:00.003-04:00

The start of this week has been rather busy, so I haven't had any chance to really sit down and draw anything. But tonight I had about 15 minutes, so I sat down and decided to do a quick 'recreation' of the last drawing I had done (On Monday). It was part "I gotta draw something" and part "Let's see if I can recall the steps to draw the first picture.

It's far from perfect, but it came out relatively well in my opinion for a quickie drawing of something that's given me trouble in the past. At least I'm remembering a few key lessons.

Expressions

2008-06-07T21:34:00.002-04:00

I needed a change of pace from the full figure drawing, so I decided to draw a head and do a few expressions on it. It's just a generic 'Hero' template from Action Cartooning, combined with the expressions list I found at DaniDraws.com . I didn't do them all right away, but it's good practice.

Some things I learned: I was using a simple dot for the eyes, just to make things easier on myself. Well, that's something of a mistake...a number of facial expressions are shown mostly by how the eyes are. The exhausted attempt came out badly, and devious is a bit 'meh'.
I also learned I need to work on hairstyles one of these days, the one I drew in this was from the book and I kept it so the guy looked the same. Don't like it much myself, but oh well.

A good learning experience though, definitly going to try this with multiple different face styles.

Practice practice practice

2008-06-04T22:33:00.003-04:00

See, there's that subject again.....

Today was not a very productive drawing day. I had a unexpected bike repair to perform (screw came lose on one of my panniers, so I had to run to the store, get a replacement...very annoying stuff). Then I spent time working on some simple graphical buttons to help out with someone making a Fantasy Grounds ruleset (if you play D&D or other RPGs, check FG out, lots of fun).

So I only got to draw these three pictures. The full figure one took me quite a while, but I was taking my time on it. I'm rather pleased with it, except for the neck. I obviously made that too long. Fret not, I'll be drawing this pose again as its in Action Cartooning and I figure I should do it several times til I get it right anyhow.

Then there's the two faces, which I drew while 'relaxing' and playing Team Fortress 2. So, not much, but practicing :)

Sideways Scribbling

2008-06-02T22:31:00.001-04:00

So, while I sat down to watch 'Sideways' with the wife (not a bad movie, thought it was a bit slow and a lil bit of a downer with some very funny moments), I did some simple practice from the book Action Cartooning. It's not much, but like I say, somethings better then nothing.

Foreboding Foreshortening

2008-05-31T20:53:00.002-04:00

Yup, hit the section of Action Cartooning that talks about Foreshortening and Overlapping. It makes sense when you think about it actually, but doing it can be a little tricky. For anyone trying it: I recommend sticking with basic shapes to start with. It's a lot easier when you only have to worry about cylinders and rectangles and such and you don't have to worry about trying all sorts of fancy curves or what not.

I did two overlapping drawings too, that'll take a bit of getting used to (the whole figure out where muscles go and bend and what not).

100,000 More Bad Drawings

My New Project

Not Dead Yet

Confessions of a Lazy Sketcher III

Confessions of a Lazy Sketcher II

Confessions of a Lazy Sketcher...

More Feb Sketches II

More Feb Sketches

I'm sorry....

January Sketch Dump III

January Sketch Dump II

January Sketch Dump

Drawing Jams!

December Sketch Dump 2

December Sketch Dump 1

New Scanner!

Hmmmm

Catching Up II

Catching Up I

Not Dead Yet!

Todays Update

*sheepish look*

Scribbles for 9/8

More Scribbles

(Witty Title Here)

A Return to ACTION!

Vacation Pages 2

Vacation Pages 1

A gaggle of doodles II

A gaggle of doodles

Schools out, woo!

Class Sketchbook IX

Class Sketchbook VIII

Class Sketchbook VII

Class Sketchbook VI

Class Sketchbook V

Class Sketchbook IV

Class Sketchbook III

Class Sketchbook II

Class Sketchbook I

Long Weekend

What I Did In Class....

o./~ Schools our for summer! o./~

Hey, where's the posts?

A plague upon thee!

An Uninspiring Week

Ah, Spring Break...Sorta

New Perspectives and Scribbles

Inspirational Paradoxes

"Meh" Scribbles

Time Management Skills....

Too much class

Egads....

Posemaniacs and Stuff

Last Post of the Year

The End of Toons!...sorta

Look out for that tree!

Training Scraps

Turkey Coma

Scribbles for 11/25

Blah blah blah blah...

Body Practice & Classees

Oodles of Doodles

Me?

Keeping the Pencil Warm

Scribble scribble scribble

Some Weeks...

Scribble scribble

Idioms and Sketches

Hands and Torsos

Weekend Scribbles

Nothing Witty

The Mole People

Bodies!

Express Yourself

Oodles of Doodles III

Oodles of Doodles II

Oodles of Doodles

A Change of Pace

I'm not slacking, honest!

sheepish look