SKETCHAVEMBER 2011 Day 25: Pizza Face

Heh. So it turns out I was able to upload this in time for Day 25 of Sketchavember.

I know it's super silly and super punny but hey, you gotta roll with whatever comes to you. X-D

The arms are very "Adventure Time"-esque, no?

SKETCHAVEMBER 2011 Day 24: I Totally Can't Remember...

Day 24 of Sketchavember had me turn to one of my tried-and-true methods for battling a mini-art block: when in doubt, draw something "Sailor Moon" related. (Or bunnies.)

Once again, I took inspiration from the always goofy and outrageous "Sailor Moon: The Abridged Series" (why haven't you checked it out yet?!). Hence why Mina here looks...skankier.

SKETCHAVEMBER 2011 Day 23: I Was Raised By Culture Snobs

Turns out Day 23 of Sketchavember was another day that was asking for a color explosion.

Well, more like an explosion of bold, flat primary colors (though those giant dots in the background came out more orange than the Honey marker I had originally used). I also felt like doing a more loose and elongated style much like the one I used in "Biba".

The jury is still out on whether that look translates into color or not.

Note to self: do NOT use Canson Universal sketch paper for markers again in the near future.

SKETCHAVEMBER 2011 Day 22: My Mouth Is So Metal

Weird. I'm not scrambling to finish, scan and upload a drawing before the clock strikes midnight. Here's hoping Day 22 of Sketchavember is the start of actually drawing and posting at some decent hour of the day. X-D

Heh, I think this may be my first crack at drawing braces. I wonder if the delay is because I've never had to wear braces at any point in my life.

Is that a flaming pitchfork flying towards me?

If there's one thing I really hope I was able to get across in this drawing, it's the blackheads and the little acne scars.

SKETCHAVEMBER 2011 Day 21: Red Blooded Kappa

Oh Day 21 (of Sketchavember), why so stormy tonight?

Heh, I guess you could say that's largely the reason why I took the minimalist approach to this drawing. The lights already flickered out once tonight and damned if it's gonna happen again!

Anyways, you have no idea how long I've been wanting to draw dear ol' Sha Gojyo here. I've always flipped flopped between Gojyo and Hakkai as my favorite one of the Sanzo ikkou but after rereading the first manga series and completing tonight's drawing, I think it's been determined which one is my favorite after all. ;-)

Still love Hakkai though.

SKETCHAVEMBER 2011 Day 20: Somebody Sure Digs Reptiles

Yee-HAW! With Day 20, I've reached the home stretch of Sketchavember!

This is another one of those times where everything just came together beautifully. The inspiration for this one comes from the deliciously 90's track (must be the repetitive use of the word "jump". XD ) "Reptile Theme" by Skrillex.

What can I say? I was a total "Mortal Kombat" kid back in the day (even against my mom's best intentions ;-P ).

SKETCHAVEMBER 2011 Day 19: Fun Wallets

Day 19 of Sketchavember was a weird one...but I won't bore you all with any details. :-P

Ladies, are you with me on this one? If you claim that you've never stored at least one small item in your bra at least once in your lifetime, then you're clearly lying. X-D

Yeah. I beat clocks on a frequent basis, don't you know? ;-)

SKETCHAVEMBER 2011 Day 18: Did You Know That Flamingos Are AWESOME?

See? Told you I'd post something tonight to make up for my Sketchavember boo-boo yesterday. ;-)

Once again, Day 18 proved to be one of those days where everything seems to just fall into one glorious place of "right". I guess you could say the direction I went for this sketch card was Lisa Frank with a Tumblr attitude.

Though if I really wanted to go full-out Lisa Frank, I would have added more rainbows, sparkles and animal prints.

Still, the colors look suitably like late 80's/early 90's vomit, don't you think?

SKETCHAVEMBER 2011 Day 17-ish: Another Batch of Toony Stew

Whoops.

Sorry for the Sketchavember schedule slip-up, guys. (To make a long story short; what was originally meant to be game night with friends turned into a night at the movie theatre watching the newest "Twilight" film. D-: Yeah. Alcohol did help, though.)

However, I did technically work on these sketches a good majority of the day yesterday.

To make up for my faux-pas, I'll do another drawing today and post it tonight as well.

Heh. I should do more of these toony people. ;-)

SKETCHAVEMBER 2011 Day 16: Violet Wrath

If this ain't a total contrast from yesterday, then I don't know what is. ;-)

If there's one thing I've learned on Day 16 of Sketchavember, it's that it's near impossible to listen to speedy punk music when you're in an antsy frame of mind. With a change of music (Sisters of Mercy to be exact), the tone and general look of this drawing began to change.

Ahh, I love her impractical but awesome hair. In fact, who doesn't love hair that's awesome but impractical? ;-)

SKETCHAVEMBER 2011 Day 15: There's a Pinkie in My Pie

WHEE! Day 15! I'm halfway through Sketchavember!

You guys have NO IDEA how long I've been suppressing the urge to draw this.

Well okay, it all happened when I was coloring that human!Rainbow Dash (#4567 on the Internet) and suddenly I was stricken with the intense urge to draw human!Pinkie Pie as an uber-accessorized, pastel and pastry print drenched, over-the-top Sweet Lolita.

"Noooo," I protested to myself. "The Internet's already clogged with fan art of humanized ponies." Well, sometimes you just gotta go with what's good ol' fashioned fun and get that goofy imagery out of your brain and onto paper.

I'll admit, this really was crazy fun to draw and color...even if one of my primary pink markers was about to dry up at any given moment.

From now on, I better not get any more urges to draw human!ponies!

SKETCHAVEMBER 2011 Day 14: Oh, Monty...

Mmmkay, so I've been working on a drawing that's gotten a little too detailed to be completed in one day...but I just couldn't walk away from Day 14 of Sketchavember empty (drawing) hand...ed.

So here's a goofy little cartoon of my hyperactive attention hound (technically a miniature schnauzer) Monty (full name Charles Montgomery Burns). Excellent.

SKETCHAVEMBER 2011 Day 13: Blotty Dotty

I may have spent most of the day out and about but I still managed to squeeze in another drawing for Day 13 of Sketchavember.

In case you were wondering about the title (because I totally know that you are ;-P), I was trying to go for leopard spots on her cardigan but they ended up looking more like blots you'd see on a Rorschach test. If there's one thing I've learned tonight, it's that leopard spots are trickier to pull off with inking pens as opposed to markers.

Have fun looking for my signature. ;-)

SKETCHAVEMBER 2011 Day 12: Biba

Day 12 of Sketchavember ended up becoming some sort of classic movie bender day. (Translation: Turner Classic Movies has quickly become one of my favorite TV channels. Throw in a PVR and I'm a happy camper.)

One of the movies I watched today was Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times". I've always had a huge love and appreciation for silent films and today's drawing kind of reflects that. Also a strong influence for this drawing is one of the photographs in Kevyn Aucoin's book "Making Faces" in which he and Kate Moss recreate the look of "The Biba" (as in the 60's era London boutique). Here's the photograph in question.

Heh. So all in all, I drew some psuedo-fan art of Kate Moss (even if I don't have any particular feelings about her) today. That's Sketchavember for ya! ;-P

SKETCHAVEMBER 2011 Day 11: Poppy

This time last year, I did a more minimalistic drawing with a Remembrance Day theme in mind for Day 11 of Sketchavember.

Admittedly, while the significance of today still played the role of an influence (hence the poppy petals), I was also heavily inspired by the abundance of fall leaves swirling around in the wind. The wind also happened to be astonishingly strong at certain points; so much so that it blew my hat right off of my head and then I slipped and instantly fell right down on my butt.

True story, by the way. Really.

SKETCHAVEMBER 2011 Day 10: Just...FFFFFFFUUUUUU---

*sigh*

Ever have one of those days where it seems like everything you draw turns out completely wrong in your eyes? Day 10 of Sketchavember was one of those days.

They're frustrating as hell but as soon as I channeled all that irritation and annoyance into this ridiculous little doodle, whatever crappy mood I was dwelling in slowly melted away. I hate to dust out an old cliche but tomorrow's another day!

SKETCHAVEMBER 2011 Day 9: Loli Safari

Apparently, Day 9 of Sketchavember was driven by my unrealized desire to see more wild animal prints and safari themes in lolita fashion. Who knew? ;-P

Heh, the execution of her face and the coloring seems more blatantly anime than usual. Methinks it's the hair. FYI, the blouse is largely inspired by one I own in real life. It totally reminds me of piano keys.

SKETCHAVEMBER 2011 Day 8: ...By Night, He's Epic Beard Man!

It's Day 8 of Sketchavember and I come deliver exactly what I promised last night; the uber-hirsute, superpowered alter ego of Arthur Swanson: EPIC BEARD MAN!

Yup. Epic Beard Man. Totally sounds like one of the names they'd throw into a game of Superheroes on "Whose Line Is It Anyway?", isn't it? It's so gloriously silly...and I wouldn't have it any other way. ;-)

Somewhere Sam Beam and a majority of ZZ Top are crying steaming hot tears of envy.

SKETCHAVEMBER 2011 Day 7: By Day, He's Arthur Swanson

EDIT: The lack of shine in his spiffy glasses was bugging me too much.


Yeehaw! I survived the first week of Sketchavember!

For Day 7's drawing, I actually got the idea while I was in the midst of last night's sketch card. Well, okay, it's not really so much of an idea as it was an urge to draw a guy with a massive beard.

As the title suggests, his name is Arthur Swanson, your average twenty something guy based out of Portland. However, his beard isn't exactly average.

By night, he (and the beard) become...well, you'll just have to wait and find out. X-D

(Oooh, I'm such a bad, bad teaser.)

SKETCHAVEMBER 2011 Day 6: A Girl Like Me

Ever had a random piece of dialogue that you've been itching to work into a poem, story, song, comic or prose of some kind? Yeah, I just had to get it out of my head and onto paper for Day 6 of Sketchavember.

It's been a while since I last did one of these single panel, devoid-of-context "cryptic comics" but they're always so much fun to do. I love pieces that let you draw your own conclusions and let your imagination fill in the blanks.

What do you guys think?

I will give you one hint: I listened to a helluva lot of Depeche Mode. "Music for the Masses" era Depeche Mode to be exact. ;-)

SKETCHAVEMBER 2011 Day 5: I Wrote a Letter to Daddy

So yeah, I bet you can guess what movie I saw tonight. ;-)

In all seriousness, "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" an absolutely excellent, riveting movie. If you can find it, I highly strongly recommend it. I love it so much that Baby Jane Hudson herself had to become my subject for Day 5 of Sketchavember.

Hope I did Bette Davis justice here! Let's face it, she totally owns that movie.

SKETCHAVEMBER 2011 Day 4: Something Worth Losing

For Day 4 of Sketchavember, I returned to one of the sketch cards I was working on during one of the conventions I was at. In this case, it was Comix and Stories back in August.

At first, I was going to make this a black and white ink sketch card but a random challenge of sorts popped into my head as I was finishing the inks tonight: to see if I could create an unsettling mood without using dark colors or blood.

I successfully avoided both elements but I'm not a hundred percent sure if I captured an unsettling vibe. A sense of bittersweet nostalgia, maybe? (The mad color balance/saturation experiments in Photoshop certainly helped in that respect.)

Let me know what you guys think in the comments. :-)

SKETCHAVEMBER 2011 Day 3: Whatever...

Thrilling title, I know. :-P

Ever have one of those days where you're completely stumped as to what to draw? Yeah, Day 3 of Sketchavember ended up being one of those days. But I just gotta soldier on, y'know?

Whenever I'm at a loss of what I want to draw, I just let my hand and my pencil do their thing and sometimes it all falls into place. This expression and her messy hair came about and I just went with it.[/cool story, bro.]

Heh, now that I look at it, her coloring does look pretty similar to Zoisite in "Sailor Moon"...if he were a woman. ;-P

SKETCHAVEMBER 2011 Day 2: Dash, Rainbow Dash!

DISCLAIMER: "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" and its characters belong to Hasbro and Lauren Faust.

Day 2 of Sketchavember rolls on with what the Internet is in dire need of: more "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" fan art! Now, I'm fully aware that humanized!pony fan art has been done to death a bajillion times over...but consarnit, I just had to jump on board the fluffy, sparkly winged bandwagon.

The reason is largely because I felt my good friend Joe could use some cheering up after the crappy month he's had. And what better person-err, pony to draw than Rainbow Dash!

Hope this brings a smile to your face, Joe! :-)

SKETCHAVEMBER 2011 Day 1: Miss Polly Pegleg

It's baaaaack!

That's right folks, I'm joyfully subjecting myself to another round of Sketchavember! Don't know what it is? Morbidly curious? Learn more about it by clicking here. Take on the challenge...if you dare.

Anyways, this initially started out as a random character design. Of course, having the overactive imagination that I do, I ended up conjuring this whole story in my mind of how Polly Pegleg (that's her nickname) came to be and what hijinks she'd get herself into. I'm actually pretty tempted to turn it into some short comic story. We'll see. 8-)