Okay, so a couple of posts back, Brian commented that the moose doodle looked like he wanted to fight the doodle of the wrestler-gladiator-looking guy. And look what ended up coming out during last night's doodle session? Obviously I'm way too impressionable.
--Andrew
I'm afraid the subject line of this post could be used to describe any number of my doodles, but this time it is used to describe these.
--Andrew
Smallville's Kristin Kreuk was the subject for the latest Drawing Jam over on the Drawing Board, and this is one of my interpretations of the three pictures we had to choose from. Knowing in advance I'm horrible at likenesses, I wasn't going for an actual likeness (that must be good to know), but rather just tried to capture the overall form of the picture, and there you have it. The folds in the fabric made it a fun exercuise. I actually took a shot at one of the other Kristin pictures used in the Jam, but I ended up devolving it into a really strange oddity that has nothing remotely to do with the original work. That, my friend, is why it was relegated to that subtle link right there and wasn't made one of the primary images in this post.
--Andrew
Did this for a Mighty Mouse character jam over at the Drawing Board. It was fun to revisit Mighty Mouse. I loved him dearly for a period when I was very small. I remember the old cartoons used to come on TV very early in the morning and I'd watch them before kindergarten. One Halloween I even dressed up as Mighty Mouse. My costume consisted of a pair of black mouse ears, my nose painted black, a red cape, and a Mighty Mouse T-shirt which featured his name and image (I'm not sure why mom didn't help me find something actually yellow and red to wear with the cape--maybe I insisted on wearing the T-shirt since I liked it so much).
I wore the costume to a church party and also trick-or-treating. Every single person, young and old, who saw me called me Mickey Mouse. MICKEY! If the red cape didn't give it away, I would have thought the shirt that said MIGHTY MOUSE in bright, colorful letters would have helped them along. I remember feeling so exasperated by the end of the night. I guess Mighty Mouse has always been a bit of an under-the-radar character.
Anyway...what was the point again? Oh yeah...here's a Mighty Mouse drawing. Looks like he put the hurt on Oilcan Harry pretty bad.
---Andrew
"One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter". Such is the troubling position one is forced to ponder in "V for Vendetta", the newly released movie based (more or less) upon Alan Moore and David Lloyd's 80's comic mini-series. This is yet another one of those "dystopian future" stories where a "Big Brother" government (this one in the United Kingdom) has taken over and tightly runs the show, oppressing the lives of its citizens and deciding for them what is and is not in their best interest. What shall a people do to break free of this tyranny?
If only there were some mysterious stranger willing to dress in black, hide behind a Guy Fawkes mask and terrorize the fascist regime by blowing up government buildings and deftly assassinating key individuals in the corrupt power scheme. Oh, wait--that would be "V", the hero of the story--or is he every bit as much a villain as the government he seeks to bring down? That's the trouble behind the whole concept. Yeah, the fascist government is not a good thing...but does that make a terrorist a hero? I suppose the movie hopes we will examine the two extremes and decide for ourselves whether or not two wrongs make a right.
While the story (both the original comic and the movie) can be thought-provoking at points (whether or not you agree with the particular slant it unapologetically takes), it at the same time is very simplistic in its view. We are led to believe that strict morality quickly corrupts and therefore equals bad, while personal liberty equals good, period. The reality of the situation, as any thinking individual knows, is morality and personal liberties cannot exist exclusively. Personal liberty needs morality to keep it in check. But true, inward morality (speaking of something deeper than just the basic "thou shalt not kill" type stuff) can't be forced upon a person from the outside--it has to be revealed from the inside, in the heart, or else it will never take. But this begins to tilt things toward far deeper a discussion than I want to ramble on about at this time--this is a Sketch Blog, after all, not a place for me to ramble aimlessly. In summary, then...If one tries to take this movie seriously, the message is, as said before, simplistic, borderline adolescent in its themes of vengeance and anarchy, and is a thinly-veild left-wing wet dream. But taken merely as a fiction and viewing it objectively, one can find themselves entertained and perhaps take home a little food for thought.
Strictly speaking of the movie as an adaptation of the graphic novel, I was pleased. There are changes, but none so major as to greatly disrupt the story for me. Given, I only first read the 20-ish-year-old story a few months ago, just so I'd be familiar with the source before the movie came out. So, while I enjoyed it, I'm not a long-time or hardcore fan of the original. That may be why I'm quick to accept the adaptation without nit-picking. I thought Hugo Weaving played the title character very well, and Natalie Portman did fine as his gradually willing, impressionable young accomplice, Evey, though as has been pointed out by many, her British accent did waver from time to time.
And speaking of Natalie Portman...many have seen the now-infamous Natalie Portman rap from her recent appearance on Saturday Night Live. I couldn't get that completely out of my head while I watched the movie. That's why we have the goofy, pointless sketch that accompanies this post. See?! A goofy, pointless sketch. NOW we're back to what this blog is supposed to be about in the first place!
--Andrew
Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone! (Or in the case of my blog, I should probably say "Happy St. Patrick's Day, anyone???") Here are a couple of St. Patty's day artings, one featuring a generic girl and another with my old standards, Jennifer & Bueno.
--Andrew
For those of you who think I draw too many cute girls...allow me to introduce...All-Natural Herb!
--Andrew
Just some more--you guessed it--random doodles.
--Andrew
The old man is based on a fellow I actually saw in real life several months ago at the grocery store and I've meant to sketch him ever since...and finally got around to it. I wasn't going so much for capturing his actual physical characteristics...what made him memorable was his T-shirt. It was the single most out-of-place T-shirt I've ever seen. The other doodles this post are just as completely random as they look.
--Andrew
Anyone who's been keeping up have seen the recent couple of artings I did which illustrated chosen songs (for a thread on the Drawing Board, not surprisingly).
My first two pieces each featured lyrics from They Might Be Giants songs. I did a third piece which I didn't finish up until recently....
This time the song I used was Fiona Apple's "Red Red Red" from her current album, "Extraordinary Machine" I don't believe the song was intended to have quite as dark a meaning as I've given it here, but I thought this made for an interesting twist on things at any rate. If you've never heard the song, track it down (buying the album wouldn't hurt) and give it a listen.
As for the art...yeah, I know it's quite a bit darker than my usual fare. Don't worry. Everyone plays around with something different now and then. I've no plans to start replacing the cute girls and funny animals with frequent bloodbaths or anything.
--Andrew
These are some random doodles of a wolf and a lamb (hope that's obvious) who I'm tentatively calling Alphie (lamb) and Omega (wolf). Their creation is for a potential comic strip...though I have two or three potential comic strips/books in my head at any given time, and I've yet to follow through on any of them, so their future remains to be seen. There will at least be more sketches of them to come later, if nothing else.
--Andrew
