Pigs, Cows and Roosters, oh my! (part 4)

Adding to the many pigs and roosters and cows…

Some color!

Happy pigs!

I added the colored hooves and I think they work well, if I do say so myself. I don’t normally make the pigs this ‘dynamic’

so I’m really happy with how well this worked out.

I like the tail and the way the nostrils look. Nice!

One more:

A little surprised ham, if you will…

I’m diggin’ the downcurved nose and the stretched-out body. It’s like he’s saying ‘Whaddya mean get into the truck with a hundred

other pigs? Where we going?’

And last but not least, a cow:

She’d make some wacky steaks, wouldn’t she? I bet the milk squirts out her nose when she laughs, for sure…

I like the longer legs and nose combo. That and the gray hooves and nose make her feel like a cow, instead of a pig.

Whatcha think- would you buy some potholders with these on them?

Pigs, Cows and Roosters, oh my! (part 3)

Showed all of you the progress on my farm critters collections here and here….

On to more rooster designing!

Tall ones! Fat ones! Lean ones! I’m just playing with proportion and ’snood’ placement here

(that’s the thing on a rooster’s chin). Still getting there…

I think I hit a rooster I like on this page- the one with the arrow next to it. I like the wing like a little leaf and the floofy

tail and the right triangle body. I always think of roosters as standing up very straight.

Nice corn here too.

Here’s some early cow squiggles, as well. They weren’t quite working right…

A little too piggy, still.

Here’s a little tangent I went off on briefly- pig themed designs!

I was thinking pigs, and chops and bacon and a cleaver! Kinda cruel though, I guess. That’s why I drew the pig

looking a bit surprised and unhappy.

Then I drew some random soup kind of vegetables to go with it. Eh.

Some farm accessories!

I was trying to think of things that would go with farm animals and corn and pitchforks and stuff.

The grain silo just looks a castle or something like that.

Jury’s still out on the accessories. I think I’m good on the critters, though.

Maybe some color next time?

Pigs, Cows and Roosters, oh my! (part 2)

I started some pigs and stuff here…

now we continue!

So this is my first real attempt at putting them all together (along with a random ‘corn’ accessory).

I like to do this before the designs get too far to make sure they all look right together. Cohesive all that jazz.

Cow has a bit of a weird nose still- too pigly. And the chicken isn’t quite right yet. On to farm critters 2.0…

Here, I refined the rooster a bit this way and that- more stylized tail or less? Attached beak or one that looks stuck on? Floating crown thingie or attached?

Hmm…

I worked a bit on the cow here, too. Still wasn’t hitting it with the ‘pig-nose’ and still a bit too, um, anatomically correct and all.

Corn and wheat and pitchfork lookin’ good, though.

On to another-

I like the cow here- I think I swapped the two nostril nose for just one later, but I like the long leggy look to him.

If he’s too squat and bulky he looks more like a pig. The hay bail and pitchfork are getting there, too.

Still working on getting a good rooster look. Pushing the stylized vs. cartoon argument back and forth here.

A lot of floating parts vs. attached parts looks here as well as how scribbly the tail is and the look of the feet.

More rooster decisions next time!

Pigs, Cows and Roosters, oh my! (part 1)

Back to the doodling board!

Been doing a bunch of animatics (like these) and some hand-drawn stuff (like this) lately

so there hasn’t been too much doodling going on…

But I’m a-changing that!

Some girlie keeps telling me I need to design some roosters and cows to go with my pigs…because that’s what people collect!

Not that I’m selling out (I haven’t started taking orders yet- nyuk nyuk!) but it doesn’t hurt to do your market research.

So I’m dusting off the piggies.

I always draw the piggies the same way- like this:

Kind of a quarter circle with legs, basically.

Well, I’m working on branching them out a bit!

As you can see, not all the poses work as well as others. Bending sleepy pig with the x on him… nope!

Leaping pig and smiley pig and surprised pig- aw heck yeah! I’m debating the whole ‘colored hoofs’ thing.

Might be too Porky Pig for me… I like the stretchy legs and the nose- I never really did nostrils before on the pigs. I

find it helps to make them two different sizes and a bit asymmetrical. It’s just me, I guess.

I also never drew them with their mouths open. Weird, I know but the design doesn’t work the same way like that. So I had

to work out a way to have them open their mouths.

Okay, here’s one more…

I think this one was inspired by my dog. Do you think pigs sit in their mud chawin’ on an ear of corn like

a dog with a bone? Looks good to me.

That and I wanted to draw a piggy nursing a buncha piglets- a classic image, I think. Which made me realize-

you know I’ve never drawn these pigs from the back either. Huh.

So I did a few of those. Not bad, I think. Kinda cute, even.

Next time, cows and roosters and stuff! Yeah!

Chicago Art on Track 2009!

Hey gang, look who’s back in action!

Me!

Been busy as heck but now we’re ready for some more blogging action!

Check out what I been up to….

Yup, that’s us playing on a real-live train rolling around the elevated tracks on the CTA. I hadda strap myself

to the handrail so I wouldn’t fall every time the train jerked all weird.

It was part of Art on Track Chicago 2009 and since we’re all part of the Flat Iron Arts building

here in Chicago which had a train full or art- we got invited to play some tunes!

Here’s another pic:

As you can see here, I’m kind of hiding the drummer behind me (Jeff, with the moustache) who just has a snare and a woodblock.

It was a great time! People kept popping in and doing a cartoon style double take like what? There’s a whole band playing on the train?!?

Great time! Come check us out:

Black Bottle Junction

Silly watercolor painting…

Just a li’l quickie for  ya- gotta lot going on this weekend.

I’m in the Ravenswood Art Walk…

Also, my sister arrives this weekend to  spend the month  and plans to move here soon-yeah!

I’m also working on some animated corporate presentations the next few days that maybe I can show in a few weeks when they’re done.

But for now, a painting I made for fun to show for the Ravenswood Art Walk while I was waiting for a watercolored work painting to dry…

For those of you not in the know… that would be my painted alter ego right there. Yup.

He’s my little stand-in for myself in all my paintings. Doing all the stuff I love to do and generally livin’ the good life.

This painting is maybe 3 x 3. I don’t do a lot of watercolor for my art stuff, usually just for work stuff so it was fun to make this.

Not a lot of my style works very well as watercolor, but this works just fine, thank you.

That’s all for now- c’mon out and see some of my art and animation this weekend!

Art Walk Ravenswood (with me!)

Hey gang, betcha thought I was dead or something, huh?

Just took a month off to do some work…buncha freelance stuff I can’t show yet until we’re done.

I’ll post other things soon, promise!

Until then, those of you in Chicago should come on down to the Ravenswood Art Walk and check out my stuff in person at my studio!

Here’s the map:

Ravenswood Art Walk Map

I’m # 33!

There’s also folks all over the neighborhood opening their studios, with lots of cool art and artist’s spaces to check out and some kid stuff at the main events and nosh and what not!

C’mon down!

Christmas art!

So, I showed some Halloween art yesterday…

Today it’s on to Christmas!

Ho ho ho! Santa’s looking kind of weird! A little too ‘fat lumberjack’ with the gut and the hillbilly beard and the one tooth for me. Gotta rework him.

Snowman looks a bit too ‘Frosty’ also. Not enough in my style to be distinctive, really. I’ll have to tweak him a bit as well.

I like the reindeer. He looks silly with his big snout and goofy tooth and little skinny legs and all.

If I was Santa, I’d be very happy with a whole house full of those guys running around.

Okay, it’s not just Christmas in September- it’s Easter too!

Words can’t even begin to describe what’s wrong with that bunny on the left- he’s like a weird beaver in a bunny costume or something!

I might have drawn him as a person with ears strapped on and then cringed at how it looked and tried to turn it into a real bunny  *shudder*

The right one is better, but he looks a bit sly, doesn’t he? That guy’s gonna hide your basket somewhere very hard to find, I think.

I don’t usually draw bunnies with two ears. Just one. I guess for an Easter collection it might be nice if you’re sure they’re bunnies (and not mutant beavers or

anything like that).

So far, so good. Still in the exploratory stages on these.

More later!

Halloween art!

I know, it’s a few months away…

I was just kicking around the whole idea of my doing ‘holiday collections’ for my art licensing.

And I thought, hey- Halloween is fun. Here’s my first crack at thinking about the whole thing…

I know, the witch looks like you can’t tell what’s arms and what’s legs… this one was just thinking on paper. Skull’s not quite cute yet, either.

Here’s round two:

A little better- although now the skeleton just looks like the bones of a goofy 10 year old. I think the curliques on the ghost were inspired by too many hours of watching Casper as a kid.

Gettin’ there, though.

Okay, so this one I tried to make a cute zombie. Tough, I know.

I saw a painting someone did of a little zombie with his hand having fallen off on to the ground and he’s

got a kind of sad, surprised look to him. Cute. But tough to reach.

You be the judge.

Next one!

I think I decided from the last one that the eyeball popping out of his head was a bit much, so I took it out here. It’s hard to look cute while

you’re in search of someone’s brains to eat out of their heads!

Okay, I’ll be the first to admit- right after I drew that witch I said, hmm looks familiar. Oh yeah- I totally subconsciously ganked it from the witch

that was on those Bugs Bunny cartoons in the 50’s!

Uh, excuse me sir but I think your influences are showing…

More later!

Critters driving!

Here’s something I’ve been meaning to paint for some time now…

A whole series of animals driving cars shaped like what they eat!

I know, sounds weird- just trust me, okay?

It’s a banana boat, get it?

I think this may be the idea that kicked this whole series off- I have a bunch more in my other sketchbook I have to scan, too.

It was that or the monkey driving a banana like a car. Hmm.

I was tempted to have the monkey rowing, but then it just looks like he’s sitting on a huge banana instead of an actual boat when it has a sail.

Go figure.

Okay, next:

I think I like this one because, well a peanut is sort of like a camel in that it’s got two humps

with a pre-built spot in the middle perfect for sitting in!

I think these remind me of Shriner cars or maybe some sort of weird merry-go-round for

animals or something like that.

Okay, now one that’s SOMEWHAT related but not really…

Unless that’s a motorcycle-eating monkey, this is NOT an animal riding its food. But c’mon,  you can look into

that innocent little face and tell him he has to leave the page…

I like how happy the monkey looks here. That and there’s something very funny about having thumbs on your feet while they’re sitting on the

gear shifter for a motorcycle.

More next time!