Dr Manhattan

Here's the finish for my Watchmen show contribution. Dr Manhattan, the all powerful character from the Alan Moore landmark graphic novel, looking down at a pocket watch, like the one we see in his origin story.
~Revised 9.1.08

Watchmen Show~ Dr Manhattan

Here's the finished drawing for my Dr Manhattan piece that I'm contributing to a show of Watchmen characters. It's a cool opportunity and I can't wait to see the show. It took a while to pick from the characters but a reread of the book gave me this clear mental image. That, and it gave me to chance to add gears to a piece- I wanted me some gears. Much of my reference in this piece came right out of a couple of anatomy text books. I figure that Dr Manhattan would have some sort of ideal, constructed, or mechanical body- a true machine of a man, seeing as how his character is steeped in logic, science, and the ability to mold the molecular structures of, uh, everything. The finish should be fun so here's to everyone else who's working on the same show.

Fisherman's Wife Drawing

A little bit ago my artist friends and I had the idea to do 2 pieces around one theme together. This is my final drawing for the 1st project, "The Fisherman's Wife." My first thoughts came from me thinking about New England, Lovecraft, ghost stories, etc. It was also partially inspired by the Real Pirates! exhibit at the Franklin Institute (featuring great Greg Manchess pieces), which is why I wanted to include the warning bell that was recovered from the sunken ship. I'm excited to see what everyone else comes up with and I'll probably post them en masse here if we get enough finished pieces.

Portrait Sketch

Watchman Show~ Sketch 1

The Philadelphia Cartoonists Society has a show based around the characters of Watchmen (comic legend and movie hot-topic) in the works. The members and other invited artist are all tackling different characters and if I know the PCS, there's going to be a huge range of mood, from the serious to absolutely off the wall. I was really excited to get the chance to be in the show and this is a sketch for the first of 2 pieces I hope to get done for it. I haven't read the book in a couple years, but after a refresher-read this is the picture that came out most clearly. I think a very geometric and designy approach is pretty appropriate for Dr. Manhattan, and his removed stare even more so.
I'm going to do another piece for the show, if just to have a backup in case there's a million Dr Manhattan's, but that'll require a little more thinking to pull from the book. I'm sure we'll have no shortages of Rorschachs.

Grackle

Here's the finished version of my grackle piece. The bird came out pretty much exactly how I imagined it, but the hands were an issue. There were a lot of color changes that happened because I intended them to have something of a dead, greyish palette with reds at the tips of the hands. It was a balancing act of green, purple, blue, grey and then the issue of what to put the hands on and how strongly to set them away from the background. Either way, I'm glad to see it finished and to hear how it's received. Thanks

Grackle Drawing and Musing

Here's the drawing for the previously sketched out Grackle portrait. There's times when I get a picture in my head very vividly and it's only sort of about something. There's different facets that surround it kind of like fleeting movie stills. There's a fleeting moment, a hesitation, an end. It's all there in one form or another and all of those overlapping notion make the one piece. And to fill it out, there's an appreciation of light, drawing, etc.
Granted, the professional aspects of an approach like this is limited at best but again I'm drawn (ba dum chi) to the image and hopeful that it'll be a piece that I'm proud of.