The Wheat and the chaff

Posted on August 8, 2011 by doodlehoose
Wheat choked by weeds with a craquelure filter

The Wheat and the Weeds

Jesus told a parable (an illustrating story) about a farmer that spreads his wheat seeds on different types of ground. The wheat that lands on the path is trampled and doesn’t grow at all. The wheat that lands on the stony ground springs up quickly and dies in the rays of the sun because it has no root. Then there’s the wheat that springs up and grows until weeds grow up and strangle it.

Jesus explained that the weeds that strangled the wheat were the worries of the world taking the joy of the Christians that let them.

It’s a good parable, and I can tell you that I have related to each of the kinds of soil at different times in my life. Whether you are a Christian or not if you let the cares and worries of each day wrap you up and take you away from your larger goals, then you won’t produce- You’ll wilt and die.

The last kind of soil Christ described was good soil and the wheat seed that fell there produced 100 times what was sown. Impressive. I hope to be that kind of wheat, and I hope that your week is like that too.

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A long time ago…

Posted on August 1, 2011 by doodlehoose
Princess Leia Packing

Who says Obi Wan is our last and best hope?

This week is going back to the theme of strong women. This was a drawing based on a Princess Leia costume. The background was snagged from an image online and significantly altered with Illustrator live trace and Photoshop filters. I might revisit the image and put in some of the other characters later, but I think Leia is pretty cool on her own as well.

So enjoy the post and may the force be with you.

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Don’t drive angry

Posted on July 25, 2011 by doodlehoose
Groundhogs Day

Don't Drive Angry

Groundhog’s day is one of my favorite movies. I think that it’s perhaps Bill Murray’s greatest, although he is pretty brilliant in Zombieland. In the extras on the DVD the creators said that one of the points of the film was to explore if a person can really change who they are. One of the creators even said that he believed that Murray’s character was caught in the loop for a thousand years because that is how long it takes to change our real character and nature.

As a Christian I think that we can change a bit more rapidly than that, but even still I find that it’s hard to break out of old patterns. I think people can change if they want to and that they change sometimes without even noticing.

The drawing took me a long time and many tries to get it and I am still not pleased. I played around with the color in an attempt to make it look good, but I still consider it a weak piece. It barely looks like Murray. Before I started Doodle Hoose I probably wouldn’t have posted it, but I’m trying to get past the image that everything has to be just right to move forward. So here it is in all it’s glory. I am also including two of the preliminary drawings (there were more, but I am not showing them (progress doesn’t mean total transformation)). I like the groundhog in the shaded one better than all the others, but I think the figure looks more like Kurt Russell than Bill Murray. So enjoy the post and if you get a chance send me your version of Groundhog day.

That's not Bill Murray!

Some early attempts and is that Escape from Groundhog Day with Kurt Russell

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When you can’t run, you crawl

Posted on July 18, 2011 by doodlehoose
Zoe standing in front of Serenity

Zoe

When you can’t run, you crawl and when you can’t crawl you find someone to carry you.  A great line from a great series. This drawing is inspired by a character in the series Firefly. The quote is from the episode, “The Message.”

Firefly is Joss Whedon’s vision of the world if Han Solo had a crew and the only aliens around were humans. I had a really hard time deciding what to blog this week and then I thought of this quote and started getting reference. I drew Zoe because she’s a strong character and fun to draw. I expect I’ll be drawing more Firefly characters in the future, and she’s a great place to start.

Once again I started with a drawing and then colored it in photoshop. The drawing was with pen and markers.

If you haven’t already seen Firefly yet then you should go out and get a copy. I have the DVDs, but I watch it on Netflix too. It’s a great show.

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A Trio of Superheroes

Posted on July 11, 2011 by doodlehoose
Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman Steam Punk

Victorian Heroes

Here I am back at Superman. This week’s post was inspired by a graphic novel that I just took out of the library that teams up Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman.

Trinity Graphic Novel Cover

The graphic novel that inspired my drawing

I started my warm ups with a couple of supermen and a batman.

Superman

A quick Superman marker rendering to warm up

Cartoon Superman

My second warm up with digital color

Batman pshing through smoke

Batman saving a box full of McGuffins

As a Christian I understand the word trinity in a totally different way. Trinity is a Christian explanation for the nature of God being three in one (Jesus, the Holy Spirit and God the Father are all the same). The best way that I’ve heard the concept explained was by a comedian that said God was like pie. You have the topping, filling and crust which are each different in nature but all the same pie.

As for the featured drawing I haven’t decided if this is my definitive Victorian Batman and Wonder Woman, but I like it as a first pass. I figure Batman is a tech guy and so he would embrace the gear to keep up with the supers. I need to do some research for Wonder Woman because I don’t really have a great understanding of female Steam Punk yet. I figure the corset, cameo necklace and lace up boots would give it a period feel, but I haven’t finished exploring yet.

Enjoy the post and see you next week.

Posted in Comic Books | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Spooooooon

Posted on July 4, 2011 by doodlehoose
The Mighty Blue Avenger Visits Rochester

The Tick visits Rochester

In the midst of the wild variety of sketch cards I did for last week’s blog I placed one sketch of myself as The Tick. That was the card that got the most responses and it inspired me to do this week’s doodle.

This rendition is a combo of the color of the live action Tick, the musculature of the comic book Tick and the face of the animated Tick all filtered through my style and placed on a Rochester landmark. I hand drew and inked the figure and background on separate pages, then scanned them and digitally colored them. The clouds in the back were created in Photoshop by filling a layer with blue, rendering clouds and then sizing them to fit. This was my fun response to insomnia induced by coffee after dinner (will I never learn).

Posted in Comic Books | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Artist Card Fever

Posted on June 27, 2011 by doodlehoose
A variety of sketches to feast your eyes upon

Some of the artist cards that I did this week

This week is a sketch card extravaganza. I’ve been seeing sketch cards for a while now, but I wasn’t quite sure what they were. I recently became aware of two different kinds of sketch cards. There are original artists trading cards that artists pass back and forth and then there are sketch cards that are made for sale.

These cards are my first attempt at entering the format and they use pen, colored pencils and markers. I’ve been enjoying doing them this last week, and surprised at how many of them have ended up an illustration of some sort of pop culture. It’s been fun making them and I thought you might enjoy seeing them all together- enjoy.

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You’re only as good as your reference

Posted on June 20, 2011 by doodlehoose

Aayla Secura

During one of my classes at the Art Institute of Philadelphia the professor said, “You’re only as good as your reference.” Trusting student that I was, I immediately began challenging the statement in my mind. I had seen many fellow students, and professors produce beautiful artwork without seeming to look at anything except what they were making. I thought, “where’s their reference?” Then it occurred to me that it was in their head. They had spent a long time looking closely at the world and had built up a visual library in their brains (sort of a wetware version of Google images). Since then I have learned over and over again that my best work requires a little research.

Ventress vs Aayla

Ventress vs Aayla thumbnail duel (click on the image to start the animation)

This week’s drawing was inspired by the 3D animated Clone Wars movie (tolerable, but too long and often clumsy (they could probably say the same thing about this sentence)). Watching the movie made me want to draw some lady jedi in a lightsaber duel, and even though they weren’t in the movie I went with Asajj Ventress and Aayla Secura because of their interesting design. I did quite a few thumbnail sketches of the battle, but ended up selecting a single pose for today (not enough time to fully animate (not enough skill either (yet))). I started the drawing above without reference, but then after getting the beginning outline I knew I needed to prompt my memory. That’s when I found out what the character’s name was and that I had already messed up her outfit (fixed what I could and then figured she has more than one outfit).

Practice Hands

These are some sketches I did of my hand to warm up to do Aayla’s (mine aren’t blue or slender, but it still helped). I hope you enjoyed this week’s doodle.

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A post by any other name

Posted on June 13, 2011 by doodlehoose

The Interview

Today’s post is brought to you by Cracked Magazine, but not really. One of my friends is both an avid fan of Cracked and the wiki world community (he likes to write encyclopedias). He commissioned me to create a drawing of his favorite Cracked Magazine reporter Nanny Dickering (if you don’t know who she is you don’t need to be ashamed (I didn’t either) and check out the entry that he wrote for her (http://cracked.wikia.com/wiki/Nanny_Dickering). I did a couple of sketches of the lady and then decided to toss Phil in for good measure. You can check out his site for Shakespeare at (http://www.edwoodonline.com/ShakeCo/MAIN.html).

Round 1

This first one was a quick pen and marker sketch of my ideal of an intrepid woman out to get the story and look good doing it.

Round 3

This is actually my third sketch (I threw out the second), and I decided to take the liberty of making Nanny a red head. I think this one is my favorite.

The final drawing was done with pen and colored pencils, and some digital painting. I still haven’t gotten into a rhythm on the scanner, but I’ll get there. I’m watching Hudsucker Proxy even now, and I can recommend it for an excellent movie with a strong female reporter.

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Mjolnir- for those hard to reach places

Posted on June 6, 2011 by doodlehoose

This is my version of our favorite Norse God after a conquest.

Some times you just have to go back to go forward. Thor has been in the news a lot recently and though I dabbled with the Marvel title during my teen years, it was really the original mythology that captured my imagination. I mean who doesn’t want to practically invulnerable and control thunder?

This one is my first and favorite except for the hand holding the hammer (that's the beginning of the Midgard serpent in the background). I love the pose, but I went back to the drawing board and got some photo reference for hand as well as another ideal for the background.

My goal with this drawing was to capture my own take on Thor and continue a technique I’ve been developing with washable markers. I did a few little doodles and then tried to imagine a pose I hadn’t seen before. There are lots of Thor in the clouds, lighting flashing, action smashing poses, but how many at rest? I wanted to show the weight of Mjolnir and an act that was tiring, but is done. The moment after battle.

This is my second attempt, and I got out photo reference for the hands, pose and background (yes I am the model). I felt the hands and scene were better, but the figure was way too stiff and had Chewbacca arms.

The technique that I have been developing starts with a pen drawing. I then color with washable markers (over color actually) and run it under water. I started developing the process by mistake by spilling on a rendering. Then I saw a page underneath had a print and I thought I might have a new way of doing a monoprint. When I was trying to perfect that I realized that the washed out original ends up looking pretty cool too (especially if you rework some of the pen lines after).

With the final I did Thor on a separate page from the background so that I could bleed the colors without bleeding too much of the blue. I’m still not satisfied with what I want to use the technique for (it’s like a more complicated version of water color), but I think it’s fun to have some things in an image that you didn’t predict. Also it challenged me to risk my drawing and push myself.

To end this week here is an image of the cover of a book about Thor that is wonderfully illustrated by Jim Madsen (check out this website http://www.shannonassociates.com/artists/index.cfm?page_num=13&artist_name=jimmadsen). His art is inspiring and makes me want to get better.

A very fun book about Thor

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