Ruffing It

Is it art? Or just being lazy? Well, maybe it's a bit of both. Just to try different things I decided to work really rough with this one. I was looking at a book about Disney animation and read about how at one point, with the introduction to copiers, they no longer needed to ink their drawings onto cel by hand - instead they just zeroxed their pencil drawings. If you notice, this accounts for an entire era of Disney films in the 60s and 70s which appear "sketchier" - like 101 Dalmations, Robin Hood, Jungle Book, among others.

One of the tasks I had working in animation (oh yeah, I forgot to mention - I used to be an inbetweener and an assistant animator - back in the 80s) was to zerox drawings onto cel. You'd think it would be done more often because it saved the ink and paint department time, but in truth I was only asked to do it once or twice - because it took longer to scratch out all the little annoying specks and imperfections that the copiers would somehow magnify. Of course today all these methods are either outdated or way too expensive, and have given way to a Flash type of animation that I utterly despisssssssse.

But what does all of this have to do with my sketchy drawing here? Well, not much except for the sketchiness. What... I'm not allowed to go off on tangents?

Okay, getting back on track (sort of) - here's another "sketchy" drawing done of a pouty-lipped girl, subconsciously inspired (perhaps) by half watching, half listening to the "Dark Angel" television series with the queen of pout, Jessica Alba. This could also account for that "Oh yeah? Tell me another!" look she has on her face. I imagine part two of this drawing would probably be her throwing some guy through a plate glass window. When I colored it later the hair turned out looking more like clay. Ehh - go figure.

Getting the ole' brush off
This is pretty much just an experiment coloring a pencil drawing I did using the "natural brushes" in Photoshop! I was impressed with the coloring techniques of another cartoonist whose works I saw - and was trying to do something a bit similar. The goal is to always render more "organically". You might ask yourself why doesn't he just do the coloring using *actual* natural tools like pencils and markers, rather than looking for natural-looking ways to do it on the computer? ...Yes, I sometimes wonder about that too... among other things... anyway, here's the finished piece.

One fatal slip

Drawing with brush markers is always fun - but that's all it takes - one fatal slip of the wrist and your drawing is ruined. But would anybody know the difference? These are just some more brush marker experiments - tryin' to get used to them.

This Budd's for YOU!

Isn't the world wide web a wonderful thing? It's brought us CNN.com... eBay... Google... a vast wealth of information... and a video clip of Budd Dwyer blowing his brains out with a .357 Magnum revolver - maybe THE most disturbing thing I've EVER seen on the internet.

For those of yous who don't know who poor ole' Budd was - he was a Pennsylvania politician found guilty of fraud, racketeering, bribery and conspiracy charges - who evidently took the news of his impending 55 year jail sentence *pretty hard*.

The day before he was to be removed from office he called together a live, televised press conference, in which he read a lengthy written statement proclaiming his "innocence" in front of the cameras, his staff, and friends. By the time he reached the last page of his statement he handed out sealed manila envelopes to his staff containing goodbye notes and his last will and testament. As a few began opening the envelopes, staring quizzically at the contents, Budd was already reaching into his own envelope and produced a large gun. The room erupted into shouts of "No, Budd! Don't do it!" while the unblinking cameras continued to roll. The rest, as they say, is history.

Anyway... for the love of GOD I don't understand my fascination with this event - perhaps it can all be attributed to this morbid curiosity we all have as human beings - that doesn't allow us to look away from things like car wrecks, those Girls Gone Wild videos, and just about anything on channel 41. It was only a matter of time before it became one of my drawings.

For the longest time I've meant to draw a cartoon of Groucho Marx, since I came across this article about how the news of his death on August 19, 1977 was over-shadowed by that of Elvis Presley - who died just 3 days earlier. Never being much of an Elvis fan I thought, poor Groucho. Surely he deserves more than that. Well, it wasn't until recently that Paramount released the first 5 Marx Brothers movies on DVD, which included one of my favorites - their first time on film, "The Cocoanuts" - and with that I got my much needed, however late, boost of Marx Bros inspiration. I hope Groucho approves.

Slipped Mickey