beer me

sketch of graphic novel characters from a couple of weeks ago

Rule to remember when drawing in a cafe/bar: before you put your sketchbook down on the table, make sure you're not putting it in a puddle of beer (it was a small puddle of beer, but still).  You can't actually see the stain on the page here, owing to the b&w scan, but I just thought I'd put that out there as a warning.

radio radio

Recently I was asked to do an illustration for an unusual project; our pal Carlos is trying to put together a benefit album, due to come out for Christmas of 2012, to raise money for homeless youth.  He wanted a visual to include in his materials for recruiting musicians, and basically gave me carte blanche to do whatever.  This is what I came up with.

Now in COLOR! Sort of.

I came up with the idea of adding color to this because I figured, rightly, that this would make it easier for the viewer to see the two faces separately (also:drama!).

For this one, I just thought that the bubble had to be pink, then decided to do the girl's hair as well.

These were drawn, as usual, in pencil, then I did the details in color pencil.  I still have a huge much-loved set of aquarelle pencils that I used all the time when I first bought them... in middle school.  They have been rather neglected in the intervening years, and I think I should use them more.  Also, the creamy background color is the actual color of the paper in my sketchbook.  I'm now thinking about scanning all of my sketches, even the ones in plain ol' pencil, as color files.

graphic novel characters

While drawing this, I tried to remember what it was like to be a boy-crazy teen.  Sigh.

For those who were teenagers in the '90s/were horribly awkward in middle school.  Holla!

File under: spending way too much time/effort on a sketch of a minor character.  Also, in case it isn't obvious: on the right is our man as 20something hottie, on the left is the same guy as 30something dad.