License to Drive

Final Illustration

Rough Sketches

Here's some brand-spankin' new art that I did for a magazine column. The columnist's son turned 16 and she wrote about how he immediately wanted to go to the DMV for his driver's license. Recently, I purchased some new brush pens and I was eager to try them out. I did some practice sketches to experiment with line quality. I did the final drawing on a piece of comic book drawing paper measuring 11 x 17. I discovered that drawing very large on the page allowed me to better control my pen and improved my line quality. In the future, I think I may start drawing in a larger format.

Magazine Layout

Bonus Sketch: Below is my initial concept. I did a rough pencil sketch and scanned it. Then, I attempted to use my Wacom tablet to finish the drawing. It was fun "inking" with my Wacom, but ultimately, I just didn't like the drawing. I decided to just scrap it altogether. I'm glad because I think my final version is the best version.

Comic Jam

This is a jam comic made by me and three other local cartoonists. We've decided that we are going to start meeting every month to discuss and share our work. These meetings are a blast for me. It's great to talk about cartooning as an art form with a group of dedicated, passionate artists. It's not all business. We have a few laughs as well. I feel like I should introduce these guys as well as comment on our newest jam comic here:

Panel #1: By Brad Campbell. I volunteered to start this time. Usually when I'm sketching, I have no problem coming up with something off the top of my head. Whenever I'm surrounded by these other great artists, I get all nervous for some reason. I decided to go with my strong suit and do something with a cartoon dog.

Panel #2: By Travis Eck. I laughed my ass off when I saw this second panel. There's something about the abrupt shift from a cartoon dog to a hideous beast that cracks me up. Travis does excellent work which can be found at www.ecksdesign.com.

Panel #3: By Jeremy Johnson. Jeremy introduces a second monster into the mix. I love Jeremy's style. It has a great energy. You can find more of Jeremy's art at www.toomasooba.com.

Panel #4: By Jeff Welborn. This is my favorite panel. It's a happy ending for both the dog AND the monsters. The art in this panel is gorgeous. I love Jeff's art and you should too. Check it out here. www.jeffwelbornart.com

I think the coolest thing about this jam comic is that we all drew in our unique styles and it STILL looks consistent. That's pretty cool.

Motion Sickness

Here's a motion study from my college days. The point of this exercise was to illustrate motion using repeated shapes and varied line quality. At first, the figure's line quality is very light. As it gradually slows down or stops, the line quality is much darker. Doing this was a lot of fun, but I learned that I would never want to be an animator. I would hate drawing the same thing over and over and over.

Text-book Case

I don't text very much. I receive more texts than I send. Although, I recently joined Twitter and I do tweet often. I took a slightly different approach to this illustration. I drew two separate drawings, scanned them, and did the final coloring and layout in Illustrator. By doing the layout in Illustrator, I could easily adjust the artwork, flip a drawing and resize the proportions as needed. This process gave me a lot of freedom to make changes in the final stage of the illustration and I wasn't locked in to a "fixed" drawing.

Weird Sketch Wednesdays

It's Weird Sketch Wednesday. Here's some weird sketches of various lab mice. I think my favorite is the mouse with NO EARS. If that's not bad enough, he's constantly charged with electricity due to an overdose of electroshock treatments. Now THAT'S a character.

The Real Housewives of Shreveport-Bossier

This is a magazine illustration about the author and her close friends. In the article, the author mentions that she and her friends are similar to the women from Desperate Housewives. The group of women in the drawing are loosely based on the cast of that show. I think this illustration feels energetic. The characters look as if they are in motion. Also, each woman has a different expression which implies their individual personalities without using any dialogue.

Steven Seagal in Paws of Death

One of my favorite pastimes is heckling movies. I was a big fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000, and I like to carry on the tradition of that show by making fun of bad films. Speaking of bad films, Steven Seagal has made many of them. This is a fake movie poster that I made. I figured, "What if Seagal and Air Bud teamed up?" They both star in bad, direct-t0-video movies. Seems possible. Plus, it's about time Seagal did a dog movie.

Interesting fact: At the bottom of the poster, you'll see a small pic of Lightning Bolt Energy Drink. This is Steven Seagal's official energy drink. With Goji berries. Seriously.

In Yo Face!

fore·short·en

–verb (used with object)

1.

Fine Arts. to reduce or distort (parts of a represented object that are not parallel to the picture plane) in order to convey the illusionof three-dimensional space as perceived by the human eye: often done according to the rules of perspective.

In this drawing, I wanted the pill bottle to appear in the foreground using foreshortening. This may look simple, but it can be very hard to do. You have to create three-dimensional depth in a flat two-dimensional drawing. I struggled with this effect over and over during the sketch stage. I hit a breakthrough when I fixed the placement of the thumb holding the bottle. Once I got that right, it worked. It's funny how one small detail can affect an entire illustration.

BONUS SKETCH: Here's the inital sketch that I did. I realized he was WAY TOO SCARY LOOKING, so I decided to make him look a little friendlier.

Politically Incorrect

I am a fan of political cartoons. However, I'm the least political person in the world especially when it comes to local politics. Therefore, I'm not the best political cartoonist. This cartoon attempts to illustrate David Vitter's political woes involving re-election and his sex scandal with adult film star Stormy Daniels. That's her in the clouds.

Checkered Past

Here's a pattern design that I did for a college assignment, using pen/ink and acrylic paint. Revisiting this design makes me want to do another one of these. When I look at this, it makes me think of an alternate dimension or a nightmare.

Go Tigers!

Here's an oldie from my high school days. This was a drawing that I did for a spirit tag. My high school's mascot was a tiger, and the opposing school's mascot, in this case, was a farmer. I also drew a comic strip for my high school newspaper featuring the tiger mascot. That was my first published work.

Laff-A-Lympics

Since the Olympics are in the news, I thought I'd share this fake article I made when the London Olympics logo was unveiled.

And here's a comic strip that further comments on the subject. I'd like to make a webcomic based on this concept: using only dingbats as characters. I think it could be funny if done right.

The Password Is...

This is another one of my editorial illustrations. I enjoy doing these because it gives me the opportunity to draw other people's ideas for a change. In this case, the editorial column was about two different subjects: doing crosswords and the abundance of passwords we use today. I decided to combine both of these ideas into one: a man doing a crossword puzzle about passwords.

Creator's commentary: The font that I used for the type is a custom font of my own handwriting. I like the font because 1) it looks just like my handwriting and 2) it gives my cartoons a personal, unique touch.

I'm With Cupid

This is a Valentine-themed illustration I did for an editorial column. The author was writing about "things she loved." Pizza, soda, a good book and relaxing were among here favorite things and I used Dan Cupid to represent love. This is a rare exception where the colorist did two different treatments. Ultimately, I chose the full color version. In retrospect, I wish I had gone with the more artistic, monochromatic color scheme. To me, it looks more Valentine-y. (I really like the heart-shaped ice cubes in the drink.)

Merlin The Animated Series

Here's one last Merlin sketch. Just for fun, I tried applying a cartoony, animation style to the character. I like the drawing but this style did not fit the dark overtones of the story.

Even More Merlin Sketches

I rarely date my sketches. Date, as in writing the date on the arwork, not dinner and a movie. Usually, I will only date my finished arwork. It's kind of cool to know the exact day you drew something. I should do this more often.

More Merlin Sketches

An artist's sketch book is a very personal thing. It's almost like a diary. Not many people get to see the rough, unfinished artwork in an artist's sketch book. That's why I like this blog. I can share these sketched ideas with friends, family and other artists who don't have access to my sketch books.

Disco Merlin

Here are some Weird Wednesday sketches from my Merlin file. These are different versions of Merlin, including old Merlin, 70s Merlin, and 90s Merlin. My favorite is Disco Merlin. I chuckle everytime I see him wearing that afro and butterfly collar.

Merlin Makeover

Here are some concept sketches that I did for the Merlin story. I thought it would be cool to do a non-traditional take on Merlin (visually speaking). In comics, books and movies, Merlin has always looked fairly the same. I didn't want Merlin to have a long beard and act old and feeble. I made him look slightly more rugged and drew him to look middle-aged (or slightly older). Instead of a long pointy hat, I have him a simple hooded cloak. Even though it's different, I like it.

Merlin

When I was in college, I thought I wanted to be a comic book artist. I learned that drawing comic books is VERY HARD. Eventually, I returned to doing comic strips and cartoon illustrations (my strong suits). During this period, I collaborated with a friend of mine on a novel he had written about Merlin. Here are some pencils of the opening scene of the book. Ultimately, my friend decided that the book didn't lend itself to the graphic novel format.

Who Dat Could Care Less? (Me.)

Since it's Super Bowl Sunday, I figured I'd post this football-themed illustration that I did for an opinion column. Basically, the columnist was arguing against Louisiana tax payers paying for a new Saints football stadium. This blog entry is a great example of the step-by-step process of making an illustration.

Creator's Commentary: First, I sat down and did some really rough sketches, just to get the creative juices flowing. From these sketches, I really liked the sketch of the football player diving for a piggy bank.

Then, I did another sketch based on that idea. I added another football player to represent the Louisiana tax payer (see helmet). I placed the Saints football player in the foreground to create some depth. I also gave the Saints guys dollar-sign eyes.

The next stage is inking. The first thing I do is transfer or re-draw the sketch onto bristol board or illustration board. Once the pencil drawing is finished, I then ink the pencils with a variety of pens. When the ink is dry, I will erase any stray pencil marks. Sometimes during the inking process, I will make final modifications to the artwork. In this case, I gave the Saints player a smiling grin and put black lines under his beady eyes. I decided to drop the dollar sign eyes, because I thought they were redundant. Plus, I added more money in the foreground.

The final stage is coloring. After I scan the art, I clean it up in Photoshop, erasing any stray marks or unwanted inks. The final step is coloring the cleaned up artwork.

Bourbon Street

This is another post-Katrina illustration. I wanted to do something simple that represented New Orleans. I really like stark black and white image. However, Matt Beckham's colors give the illustration more depth and meaning. I especially like the splatter texture he incorporated into the background.

True Colors

A few years ago, I was lucky enough to collaborate with a great colorist, Matt Beckham. He's a ultra-talented artist and musician, plus an all-around great guy. Matt took what was a lackluster drawing and turned it into a great piece of art. This is one of my favorite illustrations that we worked on. Easter egg: the license plate number is my initials and birthday. The illustration represents the ongoing strife of life in New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina.