Dad's Office

I did this drawing of my dad's office in about 2 hours. It could have been done shorter, but in the middle of sketching, he came in and gave brother Adam an impromptu guitar lesson, and I had to set my notebook aside for awhile. A jam-session took place, and it was groovy. Adam on electric, and dad on acoustic. I played a little bit myself, and eventually, both Adam and our father went out and I was able to wrap up my drawing. I did it all in ballpoint pen, no tracing over pencil lines involved. What do you think?

What's Cooking?

There I was, waiting for a pot of spaghetti to finish boiling. I figure, "I've got 15 minutes. Why don't I draw something while I'm not busy?" So I did, and here is the sketch-to-life comparison:

Instead of putting the temperature-dials above the stove, I decided to put them on the stove itself. Why? No good reason, but it still looks cool, don't you think?

Later!

2nd Post in 2nd Day

Three cats doing kitty things. Sorry that one of their heads is off-page, that one was actually drawn head-less.

I got the idea to do this drawing when Bettina started reading a novel called "The Book Theif". It's pretty much the front cover, with my hand about to start off the chain-reaction of dominoes to tumble.

In the comments section of this post, leave a guess as to who you think this male celebrity is. I got him from an article in a recent issue of Vanity Fair magazine.

One of the few times I catch my brother Adam reading a book. He looked so cool I had to make the moment last.

This one I did yesterday after Benny found on his bookshelf a very impressive book on reflexology. It dealt with foot, hand, ear, and head massage as well as shiatsu, and it had hundreds and hundreds of great pictures to flip through and glean inspiration from.

Emergency Art Blog Injection

We all need a little balance in our life.

I drew this on the beach.

The tall buildings and hotels make me wistful and dreamy sometimes.

A treasured stuffed animal. The day I drew "Pumpkin" I actually happened to be at a loss for a drawing idea, so Bettina helped me out by suggesting I draw one of our toys.

I drew this while I was waiting...waiting for something to be over...watching the minutes tick away on my watch and the wall-clock...just passing the time until I could finally leave.

By the way, I'm back!

Toy Story drawings

Here is a sketch done in pen that I drew recently of 2 of my favorite Pixar characters of all time: Woody and Buzz. I did it a couple days after seeing the movie "Toy Story 3", which is required viewing for anyone reading this blog post. You have got to see it! It's even better than the first 2 Toy Story movies! I swear!This is the image I based my sketch on. It's a frame from the first movie, which hangs in our room over Adam's bed. We've had it for so long I forget where we got it.

This is another picture I drew with just Buzz Lightyear in it, striking a flying pose.

I am particularly proud of these pictures because the subjects are computer-animated characters, and I captured them just right (if I do say so myself)!

Isn't it weird whenever an artist captures a moment? It makes it sound like the subject is a wild animal or something. Of course it makes sense if the subject is a wild animal, like a tiger or gorilla, but when it's computer animated characters...

Father's Day Portrait

On the left is a portrait that I drew for my father Benny in honor of Father's Day this year, and on the right is the original photo that I based my sketch on. On the back of the picture I drew is a heart-felt note I wrote listing all his best qualities. He sure is a swell-looking guy, isn't he?

Self-Portrait at 5 years old

I should have put this up half a month ago, when I made it, but better late than never.

For many months beforehand I've stared at the picture on the left wondering whether I could become a good enough artist to be able to capture myself accurately in pen or pencil. I used to gaze at it and promise myself I would tackle it the next day, and I wouldn't keep my promises, and every time I'd see the photo I'd feel a little more guilty. Finally on June 15, 2010 I thought to myself, "Okay, okay, I'll draw the picture already. I've been putting it off for long enough." Less than a half-hour later, I have my cute 5-year-old face beautifully rendered in ball-point pen. Hopefully my short story will serve as a lesson to you, my dear readers: Never put off till tomorrow what you can do in a half-hour today.

Art Blog Templates Old and New

For posterity. Lots of great new artwork coming very soon! That's a promise.

Calvin & Hobbes Sketches

Background Info: Calvin and Hobbes was a comic strip written and illustrated by Bill Watterson for 10 years from 1985 to 1995. It follows the antics and adventures of 6-year-old Calvin, a highly imaginative, precocious and mischievous little boy, and his stuffed tiger Hobbes, a toy who is Calvin's constant companion and comes to life in Calvin's imagination.

Recently I got quite interested in Calvin and Hobbes, and so has my brother Adam. We took a book out from the library that was a collection of the cartoon's Sunday pages, full of color. It's so much fun sitting close together, huddling over the book with Adam and alternating turns; I read a page, he reads a page. And we laugh and laugh! ^_^ These are the good old days!

Every sketch on this page was drawn by simply looking at the picture and copying what I see, except for this one located in the bottom-right corner which I traced directly from the book. It's beyond me how Bill Watterson could make a career drawing these characters for 10 years! It's challenging, man! Sure is fun, though.

The Jackson 3

Today I finished reading an incredibly awesome autobiography: Michael Jackson's own book, Moonwalk. It was written in 1988, right after his album "Bad" came out, and the new 2009 edition of the book includes a foreword by Berry Gordy, founder of Motown. It's also got lots of great pictures of MJ scattered throughout the book, which I'll get to momentarily.

On Sunday, April 4th, my family spent the day at the beach for my dad's birthday, and I got to see a fellow artist friend of mine named Gigi, who draws cartoon panels inspired from her life, among other things. I asked her if I could borrow a piece of paper and a pencil and we did some drawing together. She drew some more comic panels, while I did a drawing of one of the pictures in the book Moonwalk. It's of Michael, Marlon, and Jackie. After finishing the pencil work on the beach, I took the picture back home and traced over it in pen. This is one of the few times that I've succeeded (by my standards at least) in doing a life-like portrait of actual people!