More Drawings and Sketches

I recieved a good response from friends and family about my display of artwork. I am still hesitant about actually putting these up for fear of copyright infringement by unscrupulous net users. So, I am trying an experiment. I spent some time reducing the size of the images to make them less usable by someone downloading them. It IS a fine line between making them too small to use, and yet, remain visible for someone to actually see and enjoy.

So, here goes.

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Number one on today's hit parade is one of my fantasy characters. Most of these will have some kind of back story associated wit them, but not this one. What I wanted to do was to depict, not only an alien being, but one with a cultural background as far removed from any human reference.

Looking back at it from the distance of time, I can see that it appears to have a LOT of unintentional human reference. I see what appears to be a short Japanese Kimono on this guy, as well as a Japanese-like red mark on his headband. The top of his staff has bird feathers as might be seen on American Indian regalia. Oh, well.

Done entirely in marker pens on Strathmore marker paper. NOT done for a client, but just for my own entertainment.

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This is one of those that did not successfully translate to the smaller size. Much of the detail is absent, and, in this one, it's the elegant detail of the surrounding plant life and the character that contains much of the charm in the original.

I did a whole series in which I anthropormorphised many differnt animals by giving them weapons. Not a noble cause but I had great fun doing it. Among others, I have a parakeet in the cockpit of a fighter jet, a fish holding a spear and others. Some will appear in later posts. The back story for most of these is a world wide war to hold back a periodic swarm of cats that are set out to take over as much territory as they can. They swarm because of over population pressure. All the other animals, in all the other lands must resist until atrition finally relieves the pressure.

This was done by stippling a black marker pen on drawing paper. Stippling is/was one of my favorite forms before going nearly 100% digital. If I can figure out how to do this with as much detail, on my computer, I may pick it up again. I generally like the results of stippling on all kinds of subjects.

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Again, a lot of detail is lost in this image, (especially the bee's wings) but, I think you can get the idea of what is happening. Stippling is used to good effect, particularly in shading the forms to give it a full, three-dimensional look. It is much more pleasing an effect than is cross hatching. In the full-sized original, the depth of form is very rich.

This piece, which I titled "B Troop." was done with color marker, then scanned and brought into Photoshop for a simple, gradient fill background.

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This little critter lives in the same universe as the other creatures in my Cat Swarm story, but is so small, doesn't participate much. What they are is primitive beings that manage to create a simple technology by building things that, either make their lives a bit easier, or, sometimes, just for fun. This little guy has managed to fashion a device to help him cross a span. He pedals the machine which moves him along some kind of cable or wire. I call him "Crank." Others of his kind fold large leaves to make a kind of hang glider. Some make boats out of nutshells. You get the idea.

Done with an ordiary Sharpie marker on copy paper.

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This character was not created for the Cat Swarm series, but is part of that antropormorphising set. The Cat Swarm characters are in an early to mid 19th century culture. This guy has managed to build himself a rocket or jet pack. For more about his backstory, I refer you to the next image.

Sharpie marker on copy paper.

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I like this guy. I call him Professor Skree. Not of the Cat Swarm universe, nor of the armed animals series. Another series of works are a set of cartoons that attempt to tell an entire story in a pargraph or two, along with an illustration.

In this one, it's hard to tell but, there is an engine and propeller driving this device. The engine is covered in some kind of woven wicker basket and the wings are made from a similar material.

The story/caption for this one reads, "Professor Skree was determined to prove his detractors were wrong when they said that 'Birds were not meant to fly"

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Another piece, done just for the fun of it. Actually, it was a challenge by a student friend of mine who just did not belive that using marker pens could create legitimate art. I decided to show him up by redifining what he thought was "legitimate" art and that markers were a viable medium for creating it. I managed to fit it into that series of one paragraph stories by captioning it, "The frog prince and his giant green slave."

The frog is wearing something like an ancient Greek warrior's helmet, necklace and a jeweled dagger on a belt. There is opaque, black smoke pouring out of the goblet/font in front of the frog prince. The joke is, of course, that the central figure is NOT the big green guy, but the little frog.

Done with marker pens on drawing paper.

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I hope these pieces are as fun for you to look at as they were for me to create. As always, I welcome your comments and, I also invite you to participate in Yahoo Answers.

luv,

vince