For those of you who yearn to know what I look like but were too polite to ask, this is your lucky, lucky day. This is me about to draw on my trusty Wacom and you can see I take art seriously. Today I'm going to see how my new Epson scanner works out now that my elderly HP all-in-one went tits up last month. It's now in a happier place.








This isn't the Epson. This is the old HP. It pretty much killed all my midtones and washed out the darks so when I made adjustments they came out like the above.






I biggerized it so you can see the difference. Even my sketch lines and structure lines are in there and this was scanned on the Epson on grayscale at 600 dpi. The HP scan was scanned at the same resolution! I think I'll be happier with this machine. It's also on sale at Best Buy so GO GET ONE (Epson NX415). Rust in peace, HP!

Bridgeman gets his turn

Ending off with Hogarth and getting into Bridgeman (from bottom to top) with some cloth studies and nonsense thrown in for good measure. I hear all the time that you can get into the habit of apeing a particular artist's mannerisms if you stick with just one source, so I'm drawing (hee!) inspiration from several sources to avoid cloning one or the other.

What the rhino says. Art isn't for sissys! Of course I say that because none of you have ever seen me melt down in the face of a system error that wipes 3 hours of work because I was too enraptured by my art daze to think about saving. Fortunately I don't consider my art just too too prosh. My grandchildren won't mourn over this lost pixel or that missing stroke. In the end it all works out.

Don't laugh. Chickens consider their first laid egg an epic competition. The feathers must be flying over at my sisters right now! God help 'em.

Aaaaaand of course more anatomy draws.

Now I'm getting into this new Hogarth book. Dynamic Figure Drawing. This makes my third Hogarth and I might be getting an addiction here because when I see them in my local Borders I have to pick one up. I need to draw a little bigger so I can squeeze in the finger and toe details.

It's a real boon for an artist to nail a commission where she gets to draw cartoon army sperm for cash. I tell you, this beats asking people if they'd like fries with their Big Mac. All this stuff is so I know how to draw things like weapons and tanks and uniforms. The little sperm guys are the soldiers and I'll draw them later. They get character sheets. The sperm guys are a battilion trying to get to the egg, but have numerous obstacles facing them, like birth control and erectile dysfunction. It's part of a card game and there'll be a character or vehicle or other illustration on each card, all stuff I need to practice drawing 'cause I've avoided drawing machinery all my life! Sorry but mech leaves me cold.

Both of these are some Burne Hogarth muscle studies I did from 'Dynamic Anatomy' which puts the muscle groups in nifty, chunky puzzle pieces for easier recall when it comes time to put skin all over everything. I'm always underestimating how long it really takes to absorb this stuff into your very being. I'm constantly shocked at my own ignorance. It's extremely humbling. On bad days it's a little depressing, but I get over it.

One thing I get told a lot is I don't push my values enough. Look at the girl above and the one below and see if you agree I'm heading in the right direction.

I have a big weakness for Lucius Malfoy as played by Jason Isaacs. I did this cartoon of him and his son, Draco, for Halloween last year. I sure hope I can draw better hands this year! Even if they are covered up with Care Bear mittens. As lousy as this sketch is, my fellow Lucius fans adored it! Something about seeing a villain brought down by humiliation . . .

Sketches from 'The Slap Happy Lion'. Tex Avery is never more himself when a male character screams like a girl and lifts his skirts! Here's the original cartoon: