Sketchbook Sampler

While rooting through some of my older artwork (approx. 2% of my total output is saved; the rest goes into the trash), I came across some gems that I don't think I've yet shared on this version of the blog. Old readers may recognize some of this art from WPF v.1. Let's hope the formatting doesn't go to hell...

The Band
Way back when Guitar Hero first hit the streets (couches?), I imagined my friends getting together in a virtual band. There's Marcus (El Diablo) on bass, Luke Nielson (Teh_Luke) on lead guitar, Erik (Erikardo) on drums, and Dan (The Man) on vocals. Don't ask me where the designs came from, because I don't have any idea, aside from a few key bits and pieces. I can totally see these guys playing Ted Nuget's "Strangelhold."

DinoNoir
I really like film noir. I think it's kind of a lost art form in movies--you never really see it anymore. The closest we've gotten for awhile was Sin City, which simultaneously honored and parodied true noir. Where do you go for good film noir? Oddly enough, many of the Batman: Animated episodes were heavily noir-influenced. Anyway, I wanted to do a noir comic with heavily stylized dinosaur characters. The star detective was going to be an ankylosaur and the villain was going to be a Tyrannosaurus rex that headed up a corrupt corporation in the black-hearted city of Fossiliferous. Spinosaurs worked the docks, our hero had a Stygimoloch sidekick, and it was going to kick ass. I had lots of plot twists in mind, like the villain's men discovering the skeleton of a real T.rex, implicating that "modern" dinosaur descended from more ferocious ancestors, or Eve (the first woman) walking into the detective's office one day, asking him to look for her missing husband. Sauropods were the only dinosaurs that did not evolve to such high ranks, and served as basically beasts of burden in Fossiliferous.

So yeah, lots of cool ideas, but none of it really came to fruition. Maybe some day...

TMNT
I love the Ninja Turtles. I thought the recent CG movie was a big step in the right direction, with the rivalry between Raphael and Leonardo finally coming to a head after just being implicated in the many comic iterations. The comic has gone through four "volumes" (the current volume is pretty much dead in the water), including many, spin-offs including Tales of the TMNT, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures, and a show based on the new animated series. I don't think any comic has yet done the turtles justice save for two: The third volume of the canonical comic, which was published by Image (and subsequently de-canonized by Mirage) and the few storylines of the Archie Adventure Series which dealt with the turtles in the future. I've always pictures the TMNT as much darker then they're often portrayed. The Image series screwed them up pretty good--Raphael got half his face shot off, Leonardo had his left hand bitten off, and Donatello became a cyborg. A lot of fans balked at this radical change, but I think it energized the series. My own drawings of the Turtles follow the Image example. I wish that volume would have lasted longer, as it was canned (for various reasons) before wrapping up its story.

Prehistoric Wierdness
This first picture is Psittacosaurus, and I drew it after first reading that awesome paper describing "quilled" parrot lizards. I stayed relatively conservative, and went a little nuts with the coloration. It's clearly an unfinished sketch (where's the jugal horn?) but I like the energy this guy has. The second picture is just something I made up. It looks like some kind of ape-armed dicynodont, doesn't it? The upper jaw is very narrow, and the dentary has some bizarre upwardly-directed flanges for reasons I'm unsure of now. It's an example of speculative evolution--I like drawing animals that do NOT, but COULD, exist.