Skulls and Boobs

Pestered by Clouds

2007-09-25T02:06:00.001-07:00

It's a skull, I went to Mike Giants 'Southwest' exhibition in Melbourne on the weekend. yes the two are probably very closely related.

I should mention, it's about 600mm square on 6mm MDF board, Sharpie & silver pen accents.. oh the skull has a white biro keyline around it too...

I need to sketch things out & plan a bit more before I start this sort of stuff.

I'm too cheap to buy cool sneakers..

2007-09-19T16:49:00.000-07:00

So I bought a cheap pair of Chuck Taylor (knockoffs) & went to town with a silver pen.

The imagery might seem pretty uninspired but alot of the reference material was from tattoo flash images, I really should make a statement about how I did this as a reaction to the whole Ed Hardy clothing label which is so big in Australia at the moment & that a hand drawn pair of sneakers with traditional flash references is infinately more inspired than such shopping mall tritery... hey look I did just make that statement after all.

I'm currently wondering whether I should keep them or chuck them on eBay & see whether they'll sell..... They're size 10 by the way

Well it looks like I'm back

2007-08-19T17:24:00.000-07:00

Well it's been well over a year since I posted anything here, the sad news is that it's actually been well over a year since I really sat down to draw anything other than a crappy sketch on a napkin.

Nothing much more to be said other than, sharpie & metallic red (pink) paint pen on cardboard with white gel roller highlights, it's a touch bigger than A4 size & I'm thinking of trying to find a cheap (ornate) frame for him.

Belated by a long shot Valentines

2006-02-16T18:38:00.000-08:00

This week I've been obsessed with birds, mainly the little birds you find on peoples necks. I've seemingly developed my own take on the 'standard' & here is one of em.

He's a bit shocked & I don't know how he see's through those love hearts

Ink job

2006-02-07T21:34:00.000-08:00

yeah some photoshop colour....

Is he all talk?

2006-02-07T02:06:00.000-08:00

I keep making claims that sketches are going to become more than just sketches. So far I'm yet to follow through on any of this. this is probably going to nto change in the near future.

However I am about to start inking this puppy, I'm almost certain I'm going to lunch it so I thought I'd scan & post it before I do.

Anyhoo, if death wasn't a skeletal doom bringer & instead a half naked chick with tattoo's maybe she'd look like this....

I should mention this was scanned off an A3 sheet on my A4 scanner & quite quickly put together, so much so that there's a bit of doubling up on some of the lines.. no don't look for which ones!!!!!

fine..

Another Day Another Dollar

2006-01-31T05:05:00.000-08:00

The other day I bought an A3 pad & some more inking pens, I've never really worked large format before so I thought I'd give it a try, probalby to avoid doing the canvas I've been putting off more than anything.

Anyway here he is, another koi that I don't think I like much

Pull yer dacksup

2006-01-25T03:53:00.000-08:00

I'd like to dedicate this post to Jon, Russkill and brian morris, thanks for your kind comments, except Russkill who can go & fuck himself.

I was unaware I had "moderate comments" turned on & was simply assuming no-one cared enough to comment on my work. These guys did & I've now turned moderation off, so feel free to comment like crazy.

This is a perfect example of my drawing, medium poorly chosen (I can't ink this paper as it bleeds like crazy) & me too scared to go any further. I'm really happy with how this one has fallen together but I'm afraid to do anything more to it in case I munch the original...

I'm really thinking this might be the first canvas...

I'm scared

Memoirs of a...

2006-01-23T20:41:00.000-08:00

I've always been impressed with illustrations of people rocking tattoo's the drawing on a drawing of a drawing thing always made me smile, but I've never really done it. this probably shows why.

Anyways. this style is starting to feel quite natural for me & I think it's time I translate it to what it was more intended for which is onto canvas/wood panel in a painting type exercise. which means trying to learn/remember how to paint (I say learn cause I always sucked at painting)

Down at the local Shakies

2006-01-13T05:57:00.000-08:00

More of the same, I don't know if 'Shakies' is an actual hamburger chain in the US or not, we don't really have that thing in Australia. If it is let me know

I'll try to sell them a mascot.

So uh yeah... I draw chicks a bit, my fiance doesn't get mad when I do.

I'm a lucky dude

Nice Hot Cuppa

2006-01-13T04:48:00.000-08:00

I was hoping it was going to go this way this quickly, I planned on keeping this updated on a near daily basis, but '06 has started pretty busily & I havent' had to much time to put pen to paper

This one is merely an exercise in drawing people that looks like people.

In some places it works, in others it doesn't, but it does make me want a coffee

Nappy New Yeah

2006-01-02T17:04:00.000-08:00

Well the first post for '06 & its a pretty obvious follow on from the final posts of '05.

This style is pretty locked in now. in fact I am starting to find it too locked in. I'm happy with the overall structure of the figures but now I have to make them more interesting either in execution or composition..

I am a boring nerd...

Over There...

2005-12-28T19:07:00.000-08:00

Now things are starting to really come toghether, & with me listening to the mighty MC5 I can't stress Come Together enough..

However this is a continuation of the previous style, the face is better refined (via less detail) & over all I'm pretty stoked with this one.

I should stress however that the fact that none of these chicks have legs does not reflect a latent apotemnophilia in myself, it merely comes from the fact that I keep running out of paper.

If I lived in a world of magic or superpowers I think the first power I would acquire would be to infinately extend papers boundarys at will, then perhaps these chicks could walk...

Check My Chevrons

2005-12-28T18:58:00.000-08:00

I think I might have found it, a style of illustration that isn't really a half baked amalgam of other peoples styles. These have been this weeks experiment & I'm finally starting to get excited about drawing in a big way again.

The heads on these particular images I don't like, but the bodies are something different. & for me quite different in general. instead of concentrating on form & proportion (& even initial sketching) I simply threw down lines & circles making up the overal body & then picked the final body out with an exagerated keyline. the yellow outerline & pink highlights are flouro highlighter, a tool that I hate the colour of but love the feel of. I can throw these keylines over the top to pop the character out without out worrying about it messing up my lines. if only I can find them in human colours (decent markers will probably work just as well)

He ain't lyin'

2005-12-28T18:54:00.000-08:00

Lately I've also been concentrating on ink. I've never liked inking images, I always got nervous when trying to do the lines & fucked up what I thought was a decent pencil sketch. I decided to define my own inking style which emulated my rough 'why use 1 line when you can use 100' pencil style.

This is not the first of these types of images, but it's up there. Please note the deep as fuck message on the banner scroll

Don't be Koi.... wow I've been reduced to puns

2005-12-28T17:01:00.000-08:00

About 6 years ago I found a koi illustration off a Think skateboard deck (team deck from about 95 I think) that I fell in love with. I vowed to get it tattoo'd on my leg one day. To this day I still haven't done it as I'm a tightass & can't bring myself to pony up the $500 it will probalby take to do it.

Not long ago I worked out it was an illustration by Mike Giant/GiantOne whom is possibly the most influential artist I've stumbled across in years. He also happens to tattoo but lives in SF & I don't (alot).

His koi is heaps fucking better than this one.

Whoah Nelly.. & I mean WHOAH

2005-12-28T16:56:00.000-08:00

Not long after drawing fish head I threw down this bad boy.. I dunno I kinda like it in an unplanned sorta way.

I remember thinking "I wonder how I'd draw a horse skull" & 15 seconds later I had this. so In a whirl of poor planning I roughed in a 'body' & promptly run out of paper.

Perhaps I should state that 90% of these sketches are currently done on A4 printer paper folded in half (A5) so I don't have alot of room & often run out of space resulting in unfinished bodies.

Fish & Pris

2005-12-28T16:50:00.000-08:00

I don't know what I was thinking..

Well I kinda do, I think I was thinking "just draw something out there". in the end she wasn't that out there so I stuck a fish in her head.

Holy Shit! I'm a Zombie Football

2005-12-28T16:47:00.000-08:00

Heaps of skulls, ain't that the truth. Well this is simply a page of a day or so at work. Why do I draw skulls all day at work? I'd like to say it's not because my job can be frustrating & boring, but I don't know if thats a lie.

The shocked 'football skull' down the bottom is possibly the runner up for my favourite skull so far. I've had a couple of people say "AWESOME, can I get that as a tattoo" to which I've said "go nuts" but as yet no-ones shown the commitment or lack of disregard for their future employment commitments to follow through on it.

Oh if I didn't mention, the reason most of these look clunky & shitty is cause they are reduced in size, click on them to see the full size versions.

Lessons in Bad Grammar

2005-12-28T16:40:00.000-08:00

Along with learning how to draw woman, wings, skulls & other crap. I've also been trying to teach myself to graff in an acceptable manner. This for the, most part has been ugly & dissapointing. however this one didn't turn out to bad. possibly because I never cleaned it up so it remained nice & illegible.

Tweet fuckin' tweet

2005-12-28T16:37:00.000-08:00

More tattoo inspired sketching, this one is a rendering of the classic bluebird/swallow style you might see on the necks of people you generally don't talk to.

Bouquet of DEATH!!!

2005-12-28T16:04:00.000-08:00

About 18 months back I worked on a bun ch of illustrations I'll post up here eventually under the working title 'Pencil Case Art' it was a series of ludicrous arrangements of over the top compositions like you (used to?) get on kids pencil cases Dragons fighting robot cars on fire, shit like that. Basically I'd start out with (generally) a Graff Bubble Word & then just keep adding stuff, clouds Fire skulls & obligatory lightning bolts.

That has little to do with this guy but it came from the same school of thought. Thanks Hydro74 for the Sailor Jerry font I dumped on the banner & never got around to pencilling in properly

& Now We Get to the Skulls

2005-12-28T15:58:00.000-08:00

I think these might be earlier than the SkullHats below but I don't care. the skull with the aviator's & the baseball cap is possibly my favourite ever skull. I had a plan of attaching a body to him & have him playing a LP record with his biny finger instead of the needle, but it looks like I never got around to it..

The other one has lightning bolt bone deformities.. nuff said

Pac Nipples

2005-12-28T15:51:00.000-08:00

This was the Piece De Resistance as far as SkullHats go. I spent a fair bit of time detailing but unfortunatly not enough time on proportions & placement resulting in wonky mong eyes. I spose I should also point out that wings are another thing I decided I needed to learn how to draw properly

Death From Above & a Bit to the Left

2005-12-28T15:48:00.000-08:00

Lets get this ball rolling for real, This is Number 2 in a series of 3, Number 1 is below. for about a week I ended up drawing chicks wearing skullhats looking surly. I can't saw what inspired this style other than my self imposed desire to learn how to draw women in my own style better & combining what I'd already spent a fair bit of time nutting out (skulls)