"Let The Right One In" drawings

Damn, I meant to post these on Halloween, but I missed my chance. Anyhow, these are some drawings done while watching "Let The Right One In". If you haven't seen it, go watch it! It's on Netflix instant. I don't want to say too much about the movie, but it's sweet and creepy and very pretty.



I love Oskar.






While drawing these, I realized there was something off about the paper in my sketchbook...the ink kept smearing all over, and the ink from the markers didn't quite sink into the paper the way it usually does. I'm using the exact same brand of sketchbook as I always do, and can't see any differences, but the paper is definitely not as nice. Anyone experienced that before? Weird.



Eli is harder to draw. The actress who plays her is very pretty, but all her facial features are large and prominent and hard to draw right.



I like Eli's weird clothes, too.


That's about it for now. I'm on my lunch break now so I gotta get back to work. I'm hoping to rewatch this again sometime and do some more drawings when work isn't so crazy.



Thanks for visiting my blog! (^u^)/

I have seen the light

I have a new inspiration for drawing lately...sketchbooks!

I used to hate sketchbooks. The idea of having all your drawings, good or bad, all bound together was intimidating. The few times I used them, I felt like every drawing had to be perfect, or the book would be ruined. Instead, I always drew on plain copy paper, allowing me to discard any crappy drawings, and keep only the ok ones. Then I'd organize them in giant binders and analyze them months later.

Lately though I've been drawing exclusively in sketchbooks, and actually enjoying the combination of drawings I like and drawings I totally failed at. Sketchbooks aren't for showing off, or being perfect, they're a tool so that you can draw whenever and where ever.



Here's my favorite type- Moleskine makes them, but they're thinner and flimsier. I've heard much more advanced artists than myself give them a bad review because of the way marker reacts to the paper, but personally I love them!

Sketchbooks are even something like diaries- they have weird notes written in them, phone numbers, drawings from friends, really bad drawings done while out drinking and being silly with buddies, etc. Each one has it's share of doodles, studies, successful experiments, and ridiculously silly art. Each one is dated and numbered, and I decorate them haphazardly with whatever is around in the house so I know which is which. Each one tells a personal and accurate story about what was important to me during that particular month.



Here's a random sketchbook page with an ink/brush experiment, an assortment of hillbillies and forest girls, my cannibal queen character, some cats, and a weird Gandalf/Frodo combo...the cluster of weird little hamburger type things at the top is me trying to figure out how to draw Sean Astin's weird lips (aka Sam from LoTR). Sometimes the least glamorous pages are my favorite ones.

I recommend giving sketchbooks a try to anyone who used to have the same phobia I had!

This is my favorite sketchbook right now, a gift from friend Brandy from the Renaissance Faire:


It's a handmade leather book that is filled with the strangest cotton paper. I think it will take me a long time to complete it, so I'm only drawing forest folk and elfin types in it, and using my dinkier sketchbooks for everything else.


The pens and markers I'm used to using react in strange and unpredictable new ways on this paper, and it's really cool. I'll probably do a post with better photos/scans of the drawings in here later.

This is kind of a weird and artless post, but I'm actually really excited about these things. I've been drawing more than usual, and having more fun. I did almost a whole book worth of Lord of the Rings drawings, so I'll probably post those later on, too.


Check back later! Sorry for the wordy post! ^u^

I wish I was in a pretty and dark forest

I've been drawing a lot of forest girl-types lately.


I want to do a Skadi story that has a forest girl character...here are some sketchbook pages with doodles, trying to figure out a design.


I like the idea of her having nothing on except a poncho and legwarmers made out of moss, or something...



I think I kind of have a good idea for a story. I'll have to rework her design so she works in Skadi-land though, eventually.



I like this face and giant leaf hat!




One more...




Hey thanks for all the nice comments about my Conan drawings! I'm hoping to try my hand at drawing more men characters soon. And I know I keep saying it, but the "behind the scenes" Skadi post is coming. ^u^

Conan the Barbarian

I love Conan the barbarian!!



I love him so much, I even went into my no-comfort zone and tried drawing some manly men.



Poor Baby Conan! There is a lady who doesn't belong on the page with him. That's not why he's sad though.



Some of these pages have really crappy drawings on them, but I think they're kind of funny. I colored the ones I liked in an attempt to trick people into not noticing the really doofy ones.

A palette cleanser: Conan's super hot mom...



Another sketchbook page...this one has cultist girls with sexy diapers, and a lone Subotai as well.



Most of these were drawn while watching the movie, but a few are from images I found online. Drawing from the TV is really fun! I don't do it that much. I want to do it a lot more.

Some more really dumb Conan drawings, and some of Valeria too. She's hard to draw.



More Valerias and scary witch ladies.



Here's the last page of Conan movie doodles. Subotai is there too, as well as Thulsa Doom, and Thorgrim, who is one of my favorite guys in the movie (he's the blonde one with the cool bangs). I love that guy. I gotta watch this movie again and concentrate on all his scenes.



Luna is in there too! Appropriate.

Also, I've been thinking about pulling out some of my old comic roughs I did a while ago and finishing them up when I have time. I have a couple comic projects I want to get started for real, but the one that revolves around my highschool buddies is gonna come so natural to me to draw I think, that it'll be a good way to sharpen my comic-making claws.

The look of the characters in it changes all the time...here's how they look at present.



Here's one more of Christine:


What do you guys think? It seems a bit self-centered to do a semi-autobiographical comic to me, but since it is mostly making fun of how horrible we were back then, I'm not worrying too much.

If you like these designs, click on my "pals" label, or search "highschool" on my blog. I've got tons of drawings of these girls, as well as a couple comics.

Thanks for reading, as always! (^u^)/

cats and dragons

It's 4 in the morning but I can't sleep, so I'm making a blog post.

Did you guys see "How to Train Your Dragon"? I really liked it. I'm partial to anything with Norse mythology, but the reason I liked this movie was because it was very sweet and straightforward. No obnoxious pop culture references...way less snarky dialogue than your average CG movie...also, it's fun to watch just for the pretty designs and colors. I'm too tired to write a whole review, so here is some fan art:




It's amazing I've drawn anything at all in the last few weeks. The only time I have time to draw is when I'm eating.



I should add that this movie had really funny/cute hair and boot designs. I feel a bit like a kid again lately. I went a long time without truly enjoying feature animation...but watching this movie, UP, and Fantastic Mr. Fox were all real fun for me. Actually I cried all the way through UP, but at least it got an emotional response.

I also liked HTTYD because the main dragon looks like BabyCat.




Lately I don't leave my house much because of work and other crap, so the cats have been a constant source of amusement. Here are some more Babycat and Luna drawings. They make a lot of weird faces. Luna's face seems to change constantly.




Here's Luna and Baby wearing cat-body-suits. I'd never actually wish an outfit this awful on an animal, but the idea is funny.



One more weird drawing that doesn't look like I drew it




Yarrr...I'm sleepy finally. Ok I'm gonna go to bed and proofread later

zzzzzzzz

Weird drawings of disheveled pretties

****EDIT!****

For some reason, my latest blog posts are screwed up, and you weren't able to click the photos to see the drawing bigger, which is retarded. I'm not sure why that happened, since I uploaded the drawings the same way I always do. I fixed the ones on this post, anyhow...back to the post:


Drawing has been fun the last week or so. I've been able to actually think about all the comics and projects I want to do, and make some progress on them. Usually I get overwhelmed with the feeling I'll fail at trying new things on my own, but recently I haven't really cared about that and have just been drawing because it's fun.



These drawings are of my friend Kathryn, who I went to Highschool with.





I'll probably limit how much stuff I post from the comic I'm working on, at least until I make more progress on it, but here are some doodles of me trying to figure out a simple design for a wild, child-of-nature sort of girl. The first ones are wimpy but I like some of the later ones.


I should add that there's a heavy Shane Glines and Christophe Blain influence here!





I kind of want her to look as though she's thrown off her dress and is running around in a slip.




These ones above are super weird!!




I kinda like her with the crazy hair...what do you guys think?



Here's another doodle page.




I liked how this one came out:


I've been drawing from lots of old photos, and at the early part of the century, it seemed a lot of people had the same eye problem as this little girl. I didn't think it took away from her cuteness, but added a weird sadness (seriousness? I'm not good with words).


Ok!! Besides new drawing, I have some neat stuff to announce.

1. I'll be putting up a new print, and maybe some new original art for sale on my Etsy store soon!

2. Dumm Comics is undergoing a big change...Ricky is now doing Nightmare Theater 3 times a week! His comic is amazing, and everyone should bow down and be grateful that he's taking the time to entertain everyone 3 times as much. Also, the new schedule means that Skadi has been moved to Thursday, instead of Wednesday.

3. GO FOR THE GOLD 3 is ready to order! GFTG3 is a big anthology of sketches from various artists, and I am happy to say I am a part of it! There's some stuff in there I haven't posted, so please take a look! The list of wonderful artists who contributed is long, so click the link to the Meathaus site and check them out yourself!

Seeya around!

Nerding out with Harry Potter Post-its

I was hoping my next post would be all the drawings I did that were inspired by my North Carolina vacation, but I'm not ready for that yet. There's a lot to organize, and right now the only drawings I did are so rough and weird that I don't think anyone would be able to tell what they were. SO!! Instead, here are some HP post-its from before I left LA.

Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasely)

Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood)

Emma Watson (Hermione Granger...holy crap, this girl's likeness is hard to get!!)

Jessie Cave (Lavender Brown)

Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange)

(not looking so healthy today)

I drew a whole bunch more Bonnies too. I'm not sure I really got her look down, but I like these anyhow. It took a while for me to warm up to her in the role of Ginny, but I think she's really interesting now. She definitely has a pretty and unconventional look that is hard (but fun) to draw.

Check out how pretty it was in North Carolina...this was taken from the car, as the sun was setting and all the light was shining on the leaves. So nice!


See ya later...



P.S. Expect more HP crap once the DVD is out! Sorry for non-nerd readers out there! >__<;