Drawings from winter break, and lotsa words.

Done with my second-to-last first week of school, ever! This looks like it's gonna be another interesting semester, I'm taking graphic design for the illustrator, illustration 4, illustration portfolio 1, and "visual rhetoric". I'll probably be posting some of my initial sketches for projects soon.

I've also decided to update my blog at least once a week, every Friday (or something. as you can see I'm not doing too good so far.)

Over break I went on vacation to Key West with mom and dad, and we drove there... let's just say I had plenty of time to draw.

 

this is my dad, driving. He hasn't seen this yet, tee hee.

We stopped in Florence, Alabama along the way to visit my aunt, uncle, and cousins, AKA the Crenshaws, for a few days, and we had a good time together, as usual.
The first thing I did in Key West was rent a bike and ride halfway across the island to the only art supply store: a little craft store called "Ben Franklin Island Crafts" to get a new small sketchbook, as my old ones were damn near full up. For some reason I find this quite amusing.
maybe sometime I'll put up some of the many photos I took. Spent the rest of break in Ann Arbor (my hometown) All in all a good time.

 this one started when I asked my friend Sarah what to draw. After a pensive moment she replied: "A bunny dragon!"

And lo, Will created a bunny-dragon, and it was good. Thanks for the Idea!

Started this on the Friday before break, when we were hanging out and drawing in a coffee shop, then continued work on it in the car the very next day. Drawn with various sepia and colored microns, including a brush-tipped one. I don't know if I like how I handled the shadows. also, one ear is all funky.

  A couple drawings from my Key West sketchbook, a tiny little thing that I had filled up entirely by the end of break. This guy is an eccentric rogue tank driver in the post-apocalyptic future. He drives a one-man tank that's battle-scarred and beat-to-shit on the outside, but has a ridiculously plush interior like something from Pimp my Ride, complete with chilled champagne, white leather seats, built-in humidor, and fuzzy dice. Just a little idea I had kicking around in my head on the car ride, possibly influenced by the character "Oddball" from Kelly's Heroes, especially in the facial hair department.
I drew him a few more times, too, playing around with different helmet and uniform designs. Even drew some tanks, which I need more practice at. I think the helmet in the first drawing looks too much like a fighter pilot's.
The gun he's carrying is based on the FN p90, a compact personal defense weapon designed for use by vehicle crews, etc, and is used by the military on the show Stargate. I like to add a bit of realism to otherwise futuristic pieces, I think it makes them more believable.

Also, kids, don't follow this guy's bad example of gun safety! Keep your booger hook off the bang switch (finger off the trigger) until you're ready to fire. The people around you will thank you for not having holes in them and their stuff where there previously weren't.

I've been experimenting a bit with ink, trying to find a style that preserves some of the energy, dynamism, and a little of the "sketchy" nature of the initial pencil drawing, which is easy to lose. Not that super-clean and precise ink work is terrible, I'm just looking to add another "tool" to my proverbial artistic "toolbox". I like the way it looks so far.

I even went over some of the loose "finding lines" with ink.

A zombie walker and a fellow bad guy. They're your typical post-apocalyptic raiders, but they use semi-trained zombies like bloodhounds. I had a lot of fun drawing the guy's jury-rigged anti-zombie suit.

And yes, that is a zomb-ass in the lower right hand corner there. I don't know why I draw zombies naked so often, I guess since they're (un)dead they don't care too much for decency anymore. It also provides contrast to the clothed living humans, and gives me plenty of room to go to town with all kinds of nasty gore and decomposition.

 

The latest in post-apocalyptic fashion. I'm thinking about starting a series of works that both celebrates and lampoons the various tropes and cliches of post-apocalyptic fiction. This guy would probably exist in the same world as the zombie walker and the tank driver.

Now, I've actually strapped a couple animal skulls to my face (for reference photos) and let me tell you, it's no party. I used a deer skull with huge, heavy antlers that were cumbersome as hell and the thing smushed my nose flat. I suspect that cultures that use skulls as masks cut away some of the bone in back to make room for the wearer's facebits.

That's it for now, stay tuned, 'cuz there's more where that came from, and elsewhere. I've got some "postcards" from last semester's final illustration 3 project that I'm currently working on cutting to size, etc to get them ready for a show at the Muskegon Museum of Art.

Keep on creepin'!