Blobbie

So, Ye Be Wantin' Me Gold???

It's St. Patrick's Day! That means corned beef and cabbage (which I had on Sunday at my Grandma's house), immense quantities of heavy, dark beers (which I had last weekend at a party), and those rascally scamps, the Leprechauns! Every year I scheme to catch one so I can plunder his fortune, and every year I am thwarted by their wily ways.

This image best represents the little devils: impish, hateful, willing to do whatever it takes to keep me from his pot o' gold.

This was an earlier attempt to depict the leprechaun. He's got the gold, and he's not willing to part with it, but I wanted something more sprightly and demonic-looking. Something you absolutely NEEDED to catch, for his gold as well as the three wishes he'll grant you. There should be no sympathy for these critters.

Here are a couple of earlier sketches. The one on the left was getting closer, but he looks a little too manic- make no mistake, these fellows are very crafty. They have outsmarted me time and time again, and as most of you know that is no small feat.

This little doodle is a few years old. It's a very different style, but you still want to punch him in the face, don't you?

Which image is your favorite?

Bonus: 7 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Leprechauns

A Floating Head

I drew this fellow, again, as a doodle on a piece of scrap paper at work, and after a process of scanning, coloring, and painting, he found himself a disembodied glowing head floating outside his freaky cave on Mars or something.

What hideous misfortunes could have led this man to such a state?

Late Night 'Tude

Like a lot of art professionals, I regularly follow John K's blog for info on cartooning principles, drawing lessons and hilarious rants about the state of modern art and culture. One of the things he consistently rails against is the proliferation of "'tude" in modern cartoon marketing. You definitely know it: it's that smarmy, smug facial expression that denotes no kind of emotion but turns up everywhere:

I think it's supposed to show that the character is one step ahead of the game, hip, and with it, man. They have "attitude", as it were. Marketers get the same effect by slapping sunglasses on their characters.

Bugs Bunny is always saddled with this identity now, even though in the original cartoons he was much more wily and likable. This expression just makes him look like an obnoxious, arrogant jerk. There's nothing at all appealing about this.

Now to the point of this post. I thought to myself, do you ever really see this expression on real people, or was it just invented out of thin air for cartoon characters? Of course, it does occur in real life, and I suddenly remembered the best recent example I saw on TV:

John K's rants can be found here:

No More 'Tude!

'Tude Treats

More Jay

A Classy Lady Doodle

Hey folks. Just trying to keep this thing from getting too stale (in case there's anyone who actually reads it!). This is just a quick doodle I did at work today and colored on the tablet for fun. It's just a regular ballpoint pen like all us desk jockeys use at work, so it is very rough.

I've got a few topics to talk about on here, and plenty of sketches, so I'll get to those when I get a chance.

A Green Ghoul

Today I just have a sketch of a weirdo guy I drew in the late hours. Just practicing digital coloring/painting.

Not a very friendly-looking customer, is he?

He looks like someone out of a Coen Brothers movie. He could be played by John Turturro.

Flintstone Buddies

Thought I'd give the old Flintstones another go:

This one came out a bit better, I think. Again, I did it on the Wacom tablet, which gives me these raggedy, wobbly lines that I can't seem to avoid. I may be better off doing the outlines in Illustrator in the future (these are Photoshop). Here's how I did it:

Step 1: Pencil outlines. I sketch it in very rough on one layer with a pencil-like brush to get everything down.

Step 2: Inking. This is done with a more solid brush, with an attempt to clean up the lines and clarify everything. Thicker brushes for the larger forms, smaller brushes for the details and smaller forms. This is where I get these wobbly lines I mentioned earlier. Sometimes I'll use different colors for different parts of the outlines, but not here.

Step 3: Coloring. Separate layer. The nice thing about drawing with the tablet is I can place the layer under the lines, and not worry about layer blending options or how to get the outlines to show through the color.

Step 4: Backgrounds. Again, separate layer. I do solid colors first, then...

Step 5: Details. I use a different layer again to add shading and brushstroke effects. Here, I kept the characters flat, to preserve a cel-like look, but sometimes I'll add these effects to the characters as well.

Click on the image for a larger view.