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I don’t really have an explanation for it. That is all.
I was drawing, and this happened:
Anyone remember these guys?
Here’s one for Southern California locals…
Back when I was a kid (we’re talking the eighties here, bear with an old-timer), there used to be a chain of hardware stores called National Lumber. Contrary to their name, I believe they were in fact, not national, but a local phenomenon. They were most recognizable for their two cartoon mascots, Shorty (a man in overalls and a painter’s cap) and Cheap Chicken (obligatory wise-ass animal sidekick). National Lumber’s catalogs and mailers were peppered with comic strips and gags featuring Shorty and Cheap. It wasn’t amazing material, corny with crudely executed art–but it was pretty funny stuff for hardware flyers! And as a kid with a modest allowance, who had to scrape together 75 cents to buy a “real” comic book, those catalogs were a good diversion while I was trying to gradually accumulate three quarters. National Lumber even had a series of commercials, featuring Shorty and Cheap in animation, and their catchy jingle:
It’s the good stuff, at the right price,
Na-tio-nal Lum-ber!
Whenever my parents needed something from the hardware store, I would ask them if they were going to National Lumber. The answer invariably was no, due to their prices and/or geographical distance. Well sadly, National Lumber went out of business, sometime in the mid-to-late eighties. I probably hadn’t thought of Shorty and Cheap Chicken in over a decade, but someone at work brought them up, and we looked up the commercials on YouTube.
After being reminded of these obscure characters, I naturally felt the need to draw my take on them:
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This was a lot of fun, and actually quite a challenge. In situations like this, I typically don’t like to do draw the characters in their native style, because if you want to see that, you can go right to the source. But at the same time, you don’t want them to be unrecognizable. Hopefully this piece walks the line. I’m pretty happy with how the wood grain turned out, but I’m not so sure about the background color.
That jingle is gonna be in my head all day!
For more on National Lumber…
- See some photos on Flickr, here.
- And watch some commercials on YouTube:
- Plenty more commercials here.
Requiescat In Pace
Today’s piece is for Matthew Schultz AKA “skeletoncrew,” one of the founding members of COTU, a group that specializes in customized He-Man figures. I didn’t find out until a few weeks ago, but he passed away in June.
Matthew was one of the most creative and prolific customizers on the He-Man.org forums. I can’t claim to have been very close to him, but I always had a great time comparing notes with him, and talking to him about how he approached his take on the Masters of the Universe mythos. More importantly, he was always gracious, generous, and encouraging of everyone’s creative endeavors–a true gentleman and artist. His presence will truly be missed.
Today’s piece is a tribute to him, featuring one of the many characters that he created. Matthew’s close friend and partner-in-crime at COTU, “galaxy warrior,” helped me pick out the character:
Make sure you visit the COTU blog, to see some of the custom figures that Matthew helped create. And do something creative today!
(also posted here at the He-Ma.org forums)
Roger’s Better Half
Mashi is hosting a Jessica Rabbit jam on Deviant Art. Check out the everyone’s pieces in her journal entry. Here’s mine:
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Hmmm… I’m not sure if this piece is a success or not. On the one hand, Jessica Rabbit is not (and should not be) subtle. But on the other hand, my drawing goes a little too far in the opposite direction and is sort of… trashy? There are other problems with the drawing in general, but I am pleased with the face/hair, and the solution I came up with for rendering sequins. Live and learn.
Should I draw Holli Would next?
The Most Dangerous Game
The most recent re-design challenge at the He-Man.org fan-art forums featured Huntara, a fan-favorite one-shot character from She-Ra (based on Grace Jones, incidentally). My take on Huntara was pretty direct (hardly qualifying as a re-design, in my mind), and I was short on time anyways, so I skipped the contest. You should, however, check out the entries here, and the voting threads, here, here, and here.
Here’s my non-entry, (also posted here):
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The overall result is somewhat Warcrafty and Night Elf-ish, but I don’t mind. I think it’s in large part because I added pointy ears to her, and made her armor look a bit more baroque (and therefore Warcraft-esque).
[RACOON PUN HERE]
I’ve mentioned Nathan‘s Boris the Raccoon previously. Starting this Saturday (August 15th), some Boris customs will be on display (and for sale!) at the Black Maria Gallery. The show runs through September 5th, but if you aren’t local, don’t forget that you can still purchase a normal Boris from the U1 Toy Arts website.
Not sure if you should buy Boris? Well, he looks great standing on your window sill while you’re away:
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And he looks great hanging out with ol’ Bone-Brain, whilst planning some kind of mischief and/or mayhem:
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I know what you’re all asking yourselves…
“Hey Jason, what would it look like if you drew Boris looking somewhat aggro with an arbitrarily-added orange light source?”
Here is your answer:
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I had a lot of fun with this–it’s always interesting to do a take on a very stylized character and see if you can walk the line between keeping recognizability and adding your own style. And the basic color scheme on Boris made it easier to play around with adding the random extra light source. Now go buy yourself a Boris!
Marginal Improvement
At least a little bit of preliminary sketching goes into the pieces I put up here, and in the course of that preliminary work, there’s a lot of miscellaneous doodling that goes in the margins. Occasionally, one of those doodles is worth cleaning up and coloring. Here’s a more cartoony streamlined take on one of He-Man’s foes, Trap Jaw:
I drew Trap Jaw previously, so the colors on today’s piece are pretty much cribbed from that, with a few adjustments for better contrast. The changes are subtle, but I can see where I’ve improved, even if only marginally…
Pun linked to title and first paragraph… accomplished! Time to go play video games.
Serpentine!
Back to He-Man stuff for today’s post… the subject is the Viper Tower, one of the Three Towers of the Eternia Playset. This is a follow up to a post from earlier this year.
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I do have some fanbricated (fan + fabricated) background info for the Three Towers, but I’ll save it for when I finish the third one. Also I want to sleep right now.
Also posted on the He-Man.org fan-art forums. My post is here, the entire thread (including some of my previous sketches) is here.
Cardboard and Co-Workers
A little something different for today…
If you work in an office anything like mine, there are two realities that you will understand. Co-workers and impromptu crafts.
Any office will experience occasional lulls, and it’s during these times that you look at whatever materials are lying around the office and find a way to craft them into artifacts of boredom reduction. In the case of my office, we often receive and send things, which means boxes, which means cardboard. Sometimes I simply put a cardboard tube on my arm and pretend I’m a cyborg, but other times I draw Skeletor’s torso on a cardboard poncho, and pretend I am the Lord of Destruction. There have been paper moustaches, dioramas of Peeps murdering each other, styrofoam capes and boas, dog snouts made of paper cups, and more. For years, two cardboard box lids with happy faces hung on the wall in front of my desk. I only recently took them down because I want to preserve them somehow (perhaps by having them mounted on wood blocks).
Accompanying you on these lulls and cardboard larks, are your co-workers–the people who are in the trenches with you everyday, the people who you see more than almost anyone else, and the people who understand your countless in-jokes. In my case, these are the people who understand that when I walk up to their desk, and they ask me how I am doing, I will punch myself in the stomach, make a fake barf noise, and they will reply, “I hear ya.”
Yesterday was the last day of a co-worker and good friend of mine, who’s moving on to bigger and better. Erroneously, she had decided that she was sad about leaving–so I realized quickly that I am by far the awesomest thing in the office, and manufactured this cardboard android as a substitute co-worker to accompany her in her new endeavors:
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I had always intended to make an occasional foray into three-dimensional art on this blog, but here I am finally doing it. This crude standee stands about a foot tall, was sketched on a dismantled Fed-Ex box, detailed with magic markers, cut with ordinary old scissors, and assembled with packing tape and a single conspicuous brass brad.
This is what Comic-Con does to you…
I guess if I’m trying to use the back end of a spoon as a straw, it must mean I’m pretty tired?
Time to sleep!
DARKSEID IS.
Here’s Darkseid, pretty much as seen in the final Justice League Unlimited episode, “Destroyer.” The Omega insignia on his chin is a tip of the hat to JLA storyline Rock of Ages.
This one had been lying around half-colored on my computer for a long time (about 2.5 years), and I finally got around to finishing it up. Pretty basic, but I think it more or less works.
I’m away at Comic-Con, so this post was written in the distant past of earlier this week, and visits you, dear reader, thanks to the amazing macro-advancements in hyper-blogtronics provided by the super-intelligent mega-androids of the ever-flowing info-webs. We can only dream what I will come up with as a blog subject when I finally return from my epic Comic-Con odyssey in the far-flung future of just a few days from now.
Let Us Pray…
This week, Comic-Con will descend upon us once more. Let us pray that last year’s… incident… will not be repeated.
If you’re heading down to Comic-Con, please be sure to visit:
- Josh and Vinny signing daily @ Image Comics. Booth 2729.
- Dustin and Derek, who both have tables in Artist’s Alley. Table FF-04 and Table KK-08, respectively.
- Karen, Sherri, and Jodi @ the Tired Girl Collective in small press. As mentioned in my previous post, they are also hosting Nathan and his new toy Boris the Raccoon. Even though neither Nathan nor Boris are tired girls. Or are they? Table M07.
BONUS POST: Boris the Raccoon! Now Available!
I only mentioned it in passing, but Nathan‘s new designer toy, Boris the Raccoon, has been getting a decent amount of coverage:
Yesterday, in a rare excursion into the outside world, I attended the official launch party for Boris at Meltdown Comics. Vinyl Pulse has posted coverage here. Err… I mean coverage of the launch party, not of my attendence thereof.
Here’s a picture of the Boris that I purchased, now integrated into my menagerie of desktop toys!
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Also pictured: Shia Lebouf, Optimus Prime, G2 Sideswipe, Wreck-Gar, Mer-Man, Slash, and my Wacom tablet.
Boris is created by Nathan Hamill, sculpted by David Kawano, and produced by U1 Toy Arts. He’s available for purchase at the U1 Toy Arts website, and will be sold at Comic-Con at the Tired Girl Collective table in small press (Table M07). More Comic-Con plugs in my next post.
Super Boring
More watercolor practice, inked over with a Sakura Micron 05, and a Faber Castell brush pen (much better than the Sakura brush pen):
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Um… yeah, this pose is a little very boring. And I messed up the eyes–so those were re-done in Photoshop. However, I am having fun figuring out how to mix the colors I want. Nothing further, your honor!
Predictable Subject Matter
Practicing with actual watercolors this week (not watercolor crayons):
Pelikan brand watercolors; black lines inked with Sakura brush pen. Displayed at roughly actual size.
Guess what kind of suit that is. Go on.
If you guessed sharkskin suit, you are correct. Give yourself a cookie–you deserve it. Another practice piece in watercolor crayon:
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Now that’s more like it. Not great by any means, but I feel like this piece has got a little more substance to it. Sketched lightly in pencil, colored with watercolor crayon, and inked over with a Sakura Micron (the signature was written with a Sakura brush pen). I wasn’t crazy about how the thick line turned out on the previous piece, so I decided to use a thin line over the colors–a technique often utilized by someone who actually knows what he’s doing. If I could change one thing on this one, I would have blended some blue into the suit to unify the whole color scheme.
These past two have been an interesting exercise… relaxing too, in their own way. Hopefully I’ll be able to fit a few more of these in.
Fish Out Of Watercolor
Hello there goldfish-rendered-by-me, what do you think of the quality at which you were rendered?
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Junk! Junk, you say? Yeah pretty much.
I felt the urge to experiment with watercolors this past weekend, but all I had were watercolor crayons, and this is what I came up with. First of all, watercolor crayons are, in my opinion, big time cheating. The reason watercolor is tough, is because you have to be able to control/predict the flow of it–but at the same time, you have to go with the flow (literally). At least, this is my understanding of the matter. With watercolor crayons, you just put the color where you want it, and blend it with a wet brush–it takes some control, but not like real watercolor.
This piece was very lightly sketched in pencil (basically I just indicated its silhouette), colored with watercolor crayon, and the black lines were laid down afterwards, with a Sakura brush pen. Clearly, it was rendered without looking at reference of any kind. I’m just practicing, so I did this piece on a scrap of Strathmore watercolor paper–and you can see a vertical crease that goes through the tail.
I enjoy these experimentations, even though the results are sometimes less than spectacular. I’ll post watercolor crayon experiment #2 on Friday, which turned out a bit better, in my opinion.
Drawing A Blank
Way Past Random
While I was sketching over the weekend, I had the Sonic Underground DVDs playing in he background (yes, my life is ridiculous). An episode came up with a cool-looking robotic hair-dresser named Do-Bot, so I decided to make a quick sketch of her. The sketch turned out okay, so I quickly colored her with some color pencils. And here she is:
I adjusted the scan so that the colors match the physical piece and added type–other than those small changes, I’m giving this one to you warts and all. Typically I’m overly-focused on over-producing slick artwork, but every now and then I get some artsy notion that it’s cool and “raw” to show off the gritty details of reality, like the gibberish on the scratch paper that I drew on.
Lately I’ve been feeling the need for a more tactile sensation while producing my sketches, so maybe we’ll see some more quick and dirty traditional media in the near future? There’s no way to know for sure… I’m a wild card these days.
Anti-Hero in a Half-Shell (Plus a review of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"!)
Last weekend, I was hanging out with Dave, filling his wallet full of my hard-earned cash, in exchange for some action figures that he had picked up for me, and buying some of his unwanted toys as well. He gave me a pretty good deal on a bunch of Transformers and Gobots, but feeling that I needed to evacuate more money from my pocket, I also bought a TMNT figure from him–Slash, the evil Ninja Turtle (not to be confused with Tokka). FYI, Slash started off as a villain, but later became something of an anti-hero, hence the title of today’s post:
This is 100% digital, painted in Photoshop. I kept Slash’s details pretty close to his toy incarnation, with a few exceptions… I gave his crude claws a bit more gritty detail (added twine and a wood spacer, in addition to the claws/wrappings), and I interpreted his octagonal belt buckle as a representation of the eight trigrams diagram, with the Taijitu in the center. In retrospect, I don’t know why I didn’t detail the belt buckle with the actual trigrams. I guess I got caught up in Taijitu madness. Lastly, I did not give Slash magenta weapons, but instead threw in a magenta light source as a nod to his garishly colored acsessories. I considered putting some magenta in his wardrobe, but decided that might create confusion with Donatello‘s signature purple.
Overall, I’m not sure how I feel about this one… I’m happy with certain parts, like his bandanna, and the rendering on his iron belt and wooden shoulder pads. On the other hand, I just don’t know if the piece works as a whole. Thoughts?
While you’re mulling it over, here’s a review:
* * *
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (In theaters now!)
I know that I have done my job informing the public that I’m a **huge Transformers geek when I am asked to weigh in on the movie by almost everyone I know. But enough of my self-congratulatory dorkiness, on with the review…
My experience with enjoying entertainment is that you have to have your expectations calibrated properly… I went into this movie expecting more robots and better robot fights, but also expecting more unnecessary toilet humor. I was right on both counts. Let’s break this down a bit–
Action… The fights from the first movie were widely criticized as being too chaotic and unintelligible. I said that myself, in my review. However, in subsequent viewings on DVD, I found that the fights were very easy to read–on a smaller screen. The battles in Revenge of the Fallen were better on the big screen (but still unintelligible at times), so I expect they will be even better on DVD. The tone of the fights brought the brutality of the first movie to a new level–the stakes are higher, the casualties are worse, and nobody is holding back–not the good guys, not the bad guys, and certainly not the folks who handled the movie’s record-breaking computer generated effects. The Autobots and Decepticons pull off many flashy, devastating combat maneuvers, and the results are spectacular.
Robots… there were sooo many new Transformers in this movie, and with a variety of sizes and body types/alternate modes. They got tons of screentime, but surprisingly few lines of dialogue–hopefully in the presumed sequel, the Transformers will get some more character development. But even so, more, diverse robots is a step in the right direction.
The toilet humor… or “edgy, adult” humor, if you prefer to be delusional, was unnecessary in the first movie, and even worse, totally unfunny. The bad news is that Revenge of the Fallen, unfortunately, has about ten times more toilet humor. The good news is that the crude jokes are occasionally funny, unlike the first go-round. The other bad news is that whether or not it’s funny, the jokes are still totally out of place, and add nothing. The really disappointing thing is that the non-toilet humor in the film is actually very charming and endearing, and more of that would have served the film better.
Story… there’s no two ways about it, there’s a lot of sloppy storytelling and bad editing in this movie. It doesn’t have any egregious plotholes–but there are several instances of questionable storytelling decisions that create unecessary ambiguity. However, the movie has good pacing–it marched forward at a good clip, and there weren’t any real lulls.
Verdict: For me, it was Awesome. But I’m not gonna lie–your mileage will vary. Since that fateful day in 1984 when I first discovered Transformers, I’ve been quietly rearranging my brain-space to more efficiently harvest Transformers information. In all honesty–I do not, blindly love everything with a Transformers label on it, but I am able to enjoy whatever good that does exist in the franchise, moreso than many fans that I have encountered. I’d like to think that I’m also capable of honest criticism, in spite of my affection for the franchise, but that shall ultimately be up to you to judge, dear reader. If you’re capable of enjoying mindless fun and eye candy, with some flawed storytelling, this is for you. For anyone else–save it for a rental, or a cable viewing. And specifically for the haters–please, don’t go just so you can smugly tell your friends, “I told you it would be terrible.” Save your money!
For More Transformers Goodness, But With A Totally Different Approach: Watch Transformers Animated! It’s charming, light-hearted, filled with references for long-time fans, but at the same time, totally accessible to n00bs.
**Actually, I’m not huge–just 5’8, 155 pounds. Yes, these are the jokes, folks. My sincerest apologies.