Jenn & Bueno: Christmas Carolers

This was the art I did for my Christmas card this year. Obviously it features Jennifer & Bueno as a pair of Victorian-style Christmas carolers...though it looks as though Bueno might be a bit off-key.

A very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and all the rest to all of you!
--Andrew

Stringing Him Along

For a recent thread on the Drawing Board everyone took one of two basic, rough poses sketched by J. Bone and fleshed the idea out into their own, unique drawing. This, obviously, is one I came up with. Enjoy.
--Andrew

Scary Scarf-Man

Well, it turns out that I am indeed still alive. I apologize to any of you who vist on a regular basis for the long gap since my last post. I actually haven't even been slacking off in the art department--I simply haven't had the chance to post anything I've done. I've worked on this year's Christmas card art, which I'm not gonna post until closer to Christmas, and I've been working on a paid commission that's kept me plenty busy.

But I've had a little time to squeeze in a couple of extra drawings here in the past few days, and this is one of them. The Scary Scarf-Man was inspired by a story my friend told me about a rather uncomfortable experience she recently had while shopping for a scarf. Obviously I've taken extensive liberties in every respect while turning her experience into a drawing, but I couldn't help it. The more I thought about the character, the more he seemed to be like a B-list Batman villain from the 60's or something.

Anyway, enjoy the silliness. I should have another piece or two up in the coming days!

--Andrew

Turkey Day

This update is just a quick illustration I did tonight so I could have a Thanksgiving-themed post. Leave it to me to come up with something as strange and disturbed as this one, huh?
But I hope you all have an enjoyable and blessed Thanksgiving holiday (and anyone who might live outside the states, have a great weekend anyway!)

--Andrew

The Muddles

Well, I'm finally making a new post, so now when you check the blog, the Joker's ugly mug won't have to be the very first thing you see anymore.

This update comes from another commission from my buddy Richard for a project at the church. He wrote a Dr. Seuss-style poem about creatures called Muddles and asked for a few illustrations to go along with it. I've been in more or less a creative slump lately, so it was a bit hard for me to throw myself fully into this project. I'm afraid the final art might've suffered a little bit because of it (oh, the poor trees that gave their lives for the many pages I threw away just trying to come up with something usable!) But hopefully things turned out well enough in the end.

The actual project he's working on will be either video, or a combination of live and video (I'm not even sure), so the illustrations will likely have audio narration rather than text on the image as I've done here on the blog. I just threw that on there because I figured the art would make more sense to you if it were put in context. Anyway, enjoy. Hopefully I'll be back on a more steady pace before too much more of a delay!

--Andrew

Mistah J

Here's a quick rendition of Batman's #1 rogue, the Joker, done for a thread on the Drawing Board.
--Andrew

Fall Colors

Once again it's time to break from the usual art for some real photos. Fall is easily my favorite time of year, and lately I've managed to snap a few pictures of some of the fall colors in the area. My skills as a photographer probably keep nature's full effect from coming across, but I thought I'd share anyway.

--Andrew

And here is a really nice sunset I saw on the way home from work this evening.

And a few more random pictures included here:

Yellow Tree
Clouds and Tall Plants
Reddish Leaves

Jack & Sally (& Zero,Too).

After seeing "The Nightmare Before Christmas" in its special 3-D re-release last week, I was inspired to do some art. Now, finally, it makes the blog.
If you like the movie (or just havent' seen it), the 3-D version is definitely worth seeing.

Enjoy the drawing.
--Andrew

Jenn & Bueno: Halloween Genies

I was going to wait until just a bit closer to Halloween to post this year's Jennifer & Bueno Halloween illustration. But now that I've got it finished I decided to go ahead and share. It's only early by roughly a week, right?

This year Jenn & Bueno decided on a Genie theme, with Jenn sporting the "I Dream of Jeannie" look and Bueno taking a more Disney-fied approach.

Enjoy!
--Andrew

Another Sampling of Random Doodles

Well, I scanned and compiled a select few of the recent, random doodles I've made in the past several days. There wasn't a lot to choose from, as I haven't been doodling an excessive amount in said past several days. But at least it makes for a new post, right? Enjoy or somethin'.
--Andrew

Gollum + Kitties = Precioussss!

Time for another sketch that was born out of a conversation with a friend. Somehow the thought of Gollum living with a bunch of cats that he was obsessive about came up...and so I ended up drawing said scenario. Long-time blog-watchers may recall the "Gollum Assembly" sketch I posted earlier this year, which came from a joke with yet another friend. It's not like I go around talking about Gollum in casual conversation. So how many times is he going to forcibly insert himself as a joke that must be drawn?! Ah, the subconscious of a nerd holds many a wonder...
--Andrew

Birthday Frog

It is only a coincidence that this is the second consecutive post to revolve around a frog. This is a sketch I did for a family friend who turned 100 last week. There's a reason for the choice of a frog in the art, though I'll spare you the whole story. I will point out that you should all be proud of me on this one, as you'll notice that I wrote "HAPPY Birthday", and did not succumb to the temptation to write "HOPPY Birthday". That takes a special kind of will power against cheesiness, I tell you.
--Andrew

Hi-Ho, Kermit the Frog Here...

Please indulge me for just one moment as I make a rare non-art post on this usually art-centric blog. I have to take a break to geek out over my newest nerdy acquisition. You see, I've always been a bit of a Muppet fan, but particularly a Kermit the Frog fan. And with the release of the new Kermit the Frog "Photo Puppet" replica from Master Replicas, I finally get to live out my dream of owning a reasonably realistic, life-size recreation of our dear Mr. Frog! I've been awaiting his arrival for quite some time now, and he finally came in today (#567 of 2500).

Kermit is fully posable, just as the actual "photo puppets" used in Muppet photo shoots, so I spent a good chunk of the evening testing him out in different poses. It's proving to take a while to "break him in" (gently, of course) and get the hang of posing him, but I'm slowly catching on. Just because I can, I took some pictures to as I played around. And also just because I can, I am posting some of those pictures here.

That's enough rambling. Enjoy the Kermit pictures. Or, if you prefer, complain that I should've posted a drawing instead, because you come here to see drawings and not nerd toys. I'll be back with actual art again very soon...

And a few more random slections to be found here:
Kermit on the couch
Kermit watching TV
Kermit was trying to watch TV
Wait a minute, it's Kermit ON TV
Scared of Halloween stuff
Yeesh

The Five Stages of Mourning

Yet another piece done for a thread on the Drawing Board. The theme for this month's "Girls" jam is "The Five Stages of Mourning" (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance). I actually did this a few weeks back and have been sitting on it until the jam started.

Obviously I chose to illustrate the Five Stages using my ever recurring character, Jennifer. Her little pal Bueno apparently sat this one out. Enjoy!
--Andrew

To save space, here are text links to the pencil prelims of each individual drawing from the above montage:
Denial Pencil Prelims
Anger Pencil Prelims
Bargaining Pencil Prelims
Depression Pencil Prelims
Acceptance Pencil Prelims

And here are text links to individual finished drawings from the above montage:
Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance

Stay Cool, My Babies.

Another current character jam over on the 'Board features Conan the Barbarian. Naturally I had to turn one of my resulting pieces into a corny joke. What did you expect, really?
--Andrew

Here's another random sketch of the character, which I may or may not slap some color on later.

U-Go Girl and Dead Girl

One of the character jams on the Drawing Board this month is "Dead and Loving It". Any characters who are dead, have previously been dead (because it seems that's actually possible in comics), are undead, etc. are fair game. For this contribution I chose two characters from Peter Milligan and Mike Allred's X-Force/X-Statix series from a couple of years back. The characters in question are U-Go Girl (a.k.a Edie Sawyer, who died and stayed that way) and Dead Girl (who is always dead anyway). Just a relatively quick sketch with some color slapped on. Enjoy!
--Andrew

New Header Art

As I continue to tweak the new layout, I've obviously added an all-new header with a super-dooper-snazzy illustration of Bueno blogging away at his computer. And it's just your good fortune that I've decided to post the original art (and original pencil prelim) here in their own separate post. Enjoy!
--Andrew

The New Layout....Finally.

Ever since I launched this blog way back in February, I have intended to get around to customizing the layout of the page. Tonight I finally got around to that.

I'm still figuring this out as I go along, and I'm sure there will probably be more tweaks and changes to follow, but what we see now is at least a lot of progress! Please feel free to weigh in your opinion on how this layout works for you. If there are any problems, or if you just think it's plain ugly, I'll be more than happy to try to resolve that as I continue tweaking.

No new art to post tonight. Come on, what do you want from me?!
--Andrew

Fatback & Skinny McLean Doodles

Given that Fatback & Skinny McLean are mere stick-men, they are more fun to see as part of a silly story than in stand-alone drawings. And plain, sketchy doodles of them make a rather bland excuse for eye candy indeed! But they're the duo I've been brainstorming with lately, so they're the ones who've been in the most doodles the past couple of days. So here, for your enjoyment or apathy, is a small sampling of the latest Faback & Skinny doodles in all their simplicity.
--Andrew

Slightly Knightly: Part 2

I decided to tackle another of the the three Keira Knightly photos from the recent Jam over on the Drawing Board (I warned you there might be more!). This one, obviously, I left in sketch form and didn't clean up as much as the previous one. And I think the likeness is even less here than in round one...but again, I was going more for capturing the feel of the picture than the likeness of the model. All in all, a fun exercise whether or not it was successful. I may even try my hand at the third and final picture before all is said and done, but that remains to be seen.
--Andrew

Plain ol' non-colored sketch.

Slightly Knightly

The latest Drawing Jam on the Drawing Board features actress Keira Knightly as its subject. I haven't participated in one of the Drawing Jams in a few months, and this one had some interesting pictures to go by, so I thought I'd join in. As always, my inability to capture likeness is in full force here. But it was fun just to create a drawing inspired by the picture anyway. I may possibly try my hand at either of the other two reference pictures from this jam as well...we shall see.
--Andrew

And the pencil prelims as usual.

Still More Grouper Fish Commish

Here are a couple more commissions of the Grouper Fish mascot as first seen a few posts back.
--Andrew

The "animated" fish was to make an appearance at the bottom of the screen during a video presentation (similar to the animated promotional graphics that will pop up from time to time when you're watching a TV show). The one pictured here was a rough test I did. A cleaner, high-res one was used in the actual finished product.

In the "Devil vs. Grouper" piece, I was hopefully going for the look of one of those devil boxing puppets.

Also, you may notice the fish is now blue, as opposed to the reddish version I last posted. That's the color that ended up being finally approved. Here's a re-post of the original image in its new hue.