And so it begins.

These two babies were from an assignment about onomatopoeia, which I can now spell in my sleep, upside-down, and underwater. Also on fire.

The top set are three spots, each focusing on a different sound. Originally, these were to be Black and White with colored text, but that wasn't happening. It was suggested that I paint them, and honestly, at this point I'd rather have something done that I love. Something that doesn't just fulfil an assignment, ideally. And so, they were painted.

The bottom is a splash page featuring several different sounds. I wanted to make something more cohesive as a scene and not just have sounds happening just to have sounds happening. I did the sketches for the spots first and then had some trouble deciding on something for the main page, and I just started doodling. I intended to just have a bar scene with just two figures fighting (pink shirt punching mohawk), but then I thought, how much more awesome would it be if everyone was fighting?

Answer? So much more awesome.

A bit about the pieces:

The spots are fairly straightforward. Some things are just undeniably awesome. Crocodiles jumping out of rivers to snag thirsty gazelles? Awesome. Squealing guitar solos? Awesome, still. Barbarians taking a mace to the face? More awesome? Maybe.

Because the barfight is much more complicated (in every sense of the word), I got to indulge myself a bit more. What's that? The spots are pure indulgence also? Shut up, that's what.

I actually really enjoy drawing regular people, because honestly, I don't draw regular people. The guy flying through the air is a rockabilly type. He's a regular. The guy in the bottom right is wearing a Silver Jews shirt that I have. He also might be a darker-skinned Devendra Banhart. I don't know for certain. The girl to his right is wearing a Liars shirt that I also have, only she's altered it to be a bit more low-cut. Perhaps she got to the t-shirt stand late and wasn't able to procure a shirt in her size, but still wanted one and had to do her best to make it work. The guy in the green shirt with the stool is a regular also. He's usually the first one to throw down when shit gets heavy.

I also really enjoy drawing tattoos, in the hope that one day I'll hit on one that I'd actually be able to get. The thing about artists getting tattoos is that it's almost never a good idea. Odds are, I'd get a tattoo and then two years later would absolutely hate it either because my tastes would change or my drawing style would be different. I'm also generally opposed to getting tattoos which aren't, at least in part, your own design. That in mind. a godzilla tattoo I would heavily consider. Not across my back like the one gentleman, but the idea is appealling. Additionally, big poppa's squid and eel tattoo around his arm is pretty awesome, also. Tattoos that don't mean anything but are awesome to look at are a-okay in my book.

A bit about the method, since I've been doing new things lately:

These started out with pretty basic sketches a couple of weeks back. No reference was used on anything and they were more scribbles than anything else. I resolved the sketches further using some reference photos for the things I didn't know how to draw right off the bat: the gazelle and the guitar, really. Those sketches are the ones up on my facebook, if you're keeping score. You're not, but that's alright, too. The barfight sketch was the roughest of them all, because I was just eager to get to the final with that one.

I knew generally how I wanted the colors. I wanted the barfight page to lean towards red and the spots to be monochromatic, but not which colors. So, after I had the final line drawing for the barfight image, I scanned and colored it quickly in Photoshop, not worrying about the lines, but being very careful about the colors. I did the same with the sketches for the spots. At the end of all that, I had essentially the color scheme I wanted, and the actual painting time wasn't long at all. This seems like I'm doing more work than I need to, but I'm not, really. At the end of the day, this makes it easier to paint because I'm not agonizing about each color that I put down. I just mix to the best of my ability and I end up improvising just enough to keep things loose.

It's really a fun thing. This is why you never see me in real life. I just work work work.

Maybe in the future I'll have less to say?

Boy. Maybe.