Casual Rex vs. Predator

Ran into my old pal Casual Rex recently. Kind of worried about that guy. He gets drunk and picks fights with some pretty tough customers.

 And here's something I did way back in first year of College, on the first day actually. Fall 2005 we're talking. We were supposed to do a self portrait of ourselves at our creative peak. I seem to remember being told I had missed the point of the exercise. Had forgotten all about it until I was googling a band and the first thing that came up was their MySpace, and I was like I had one of those once upon a time. Remember when that was a thing? Turns out its still there, so I took a trip down memory lane, and came across this. The hat I'm holding kinda looks like a blob eh...

Shark Riders anticipated return!

Since everyone's been so good, I think it's about time I give the people what they demand. Some Shark rider action seems to be what most folks want to see out of me.

They seem to have found themselves in a bad situation here with a Giant Octopus creature of some sort. Even though they're pretty evil dudes our Submarine suited hero isn't going to leave them hanging. Or floating rather.

So I think it's about time you met the Shark Riders' nefarious leader. Haven't really thought of a name as of yet. We know he's the leader cuz he rides the number 1 Shark. Maybe he's just Number 1. Nah, that's lazy on my part. He's tough as balls this dude though. Rocks an old bell diver's helmet instead of the standard scuba gear, perhaps to mask a horribly disfigured visage? He's mysterious for damn sure. Naming suggestions are welcome.

Scud! the disposable assassin

 

One of my favourite books, comic, or otherwise, is Scud: the disposable assassin. I call it a book because I have the complete story in one big volume, although it was really a monthly comic book title. It's odd that when it was all said and done it came together as well as it did all things considered. The bulk of it was done back in the 90's, and was written in a style that seemed to cater to the fact that writer and artist, Rob Schrab seemed to want to draw whatever he wanted from issue to issue. So he just shifted the story drastically towards whatever subject matter tickled his fancy. I think that's one of the reasons I liked it so much. It was pretty popular in the 90's to the point Oliver Stone wanted to make a movie out of it. As the story goes Schrab was getting pretty depressed on the direction they wanted to take with the movie. Concerned they would fuck up his baby, he pulled the plug on the film and stopped doing the comic. Not before writing himself into one hell of a corner though. Over a decade went by, before he decided to give Scud a conclusion, and somehow it really worked.

 For those of you not versed with the story, the basic premise is pretty awesome. In the near future, after the rapture has taken place, a company called Scudco offers you the service of robot assassins conveniently available out of vending machines. You give the Scud his target, which he kills and promptly self destructs. Our hero, a Scud robot is assigned to kill a a crazy monster named Jeff (it's a girl monster). While on his mission Scud pops into the washroom where he notices in the mirror the warning label on his back about self destructing. Not wanting to blow up, Scud Seriously injures Jeff instead of killing her, and puts her up in the hospital on life support. Now he has to take on missions in order to pay the mounting hospital bills.

I actually drew these a long while ago when I first read the full book. Only found them recently, so I decided to ink and colour them. I drew Scud with his loner arm, that he has while his robot arm is in the shop. That there is his sidekick Drywall. He's my favourite. Wish I'd drawn him with his piranha gun. Maybe I'll do that some other time. He's like this sack dude with zippers all over him with these arms that come up with stuff from this weird storage dimension inside of him.

One other thing that I thought was pretty cool about Scud, that's sadly not included in the big book I've got, was with the issues he used to have "suggested voice talents" for the characters. So if you wanted to, you could imagine that actors voice as you read the dialogue. Recommended voice talent for Scud was John Malkovich.

Yes we Canseco!

So it came to my attention recently that Jose Canseco has expressed interest in the soon to be vacant mayoral position for the city of Toronto left by bloated fat guy, and all around bad person, Rob Ford. The legality of him doing so is in question as he's not a Canadian, but the prospect of it still makes me happy. I'm from Ottawa, not Toronto, so I don't get a vote unfortunately, but I'll do what I can to support the cause.

Figured I'd put him in the 98' Blue Jays jersey, seeing as it's for the Mayor of Toronto. Canseco at his most iconic though was with the Athletics I think. Gave him a Sam Bat too, made just outside of Ottawa. Last year on my birthday, Jose came to town for free and participated in a home run derby against this local guy, Evan Malamud. All the proceeds went to charity to benefit kids with autism. It was a real fun time, and Canseco was class the whole way through. Say what you want about Jose, but the guy's got a big ol' heart, which is way more than you can say about Toronto's last mayor. I hear he's coming back to Ottawa this year for another charity home run derby at Old Lynx Stadium.

Speaking of Lynx Stadium, I'm sad to hear that our Intercounty Baseball League team, the Ottawa Fat Cats are folding this year. Word is it's partly so they can reno the stadium so it's ready for when we get a Double A team, so it's not all bad news. I had a lot of fun at Fat Cats games though. I always thought that was a great name for a team from Ottawa. I would've done the their uniforms a bit different though. First up, a team named the Fat Cats should rock pinstripes, just saying. Logo wise I'd go with the above for the shoulder patch. and either an O or the cats head on the cap. Hopefully they come up with a good name for the double A team.

Phillie Phanatic!

 Now the 1993 world series came to a satisfactory conclusion as far as I'm concerned.  I'm a Blue Jays fan first and foremost, but I've got a bit of soft spot for the Philadelphia Phillies. Partly cuz I still hope for good things for Roy Halladay, but mostly because of the Phillie Phanatic. He's the best mascot in baseball, sports, or anything for that matter, and I'm a fan. Can you name a better mascot? Didn't think so.

So my lady friend's family is from Philadelphia originally, and are pretty big Phillies fans. That extends to their dog, Jake. I'm a pretty big fan of Jake as well. He's a pretty awesome guy. Figured I'd draw up him and the Phanatic hanging out for her for Christmas.

Folks have been saying I should put up the roughs and the concept sketches I do. Doesn't seem like a bad idea. Also just want to point out this is the first thing I've inked and colored using the Ipad. It's pretty sweet. Highly recommended.

Also, here's Jake. Told you he was a Phillies fan.

Bebop & Rocksteady

So I've been doing a lot of drawing for concept artwork for this idea I've had for a while. I got to the point where I had to design the villain's henchmen. Really wanted to get them right. Got me to thinking, who are my favorite henchmen.

I think the answer is pretty obvious when you think about it. It's like folks will always ask you who was your favorite Ninja Turtle? (Michealangelo, for the record.The party dude aspect always appealed to me.). Everyone's got a thought out answer that is in someway telling about how they see themselves in this world. But great villains are what really make it for me, and Bebop and Rocksteady where definitely that. Cooler than Shredder for sure.

My twin brother Nick and I had a pretty sweet Ninja turtles toy collection growing up. It was kind of one of those deals where while it was both of our collection, some toys kinda belonged more to one of us though. Just like Michelangelo was mine, and Leonardo was his (Nick's a Leonardo for sure), Bebop was mine and Rocksteady was his. The rest could vary, but when we would play Turtles, those where the 4 figures we'd each control respectively.

Anyways, back to drawing.

More Naked Folk

Hi all,

So I've been working away lately on a couple projects. Havn't really updated this here blog in a bit. Since baseball season is done and my Wednesday nights are free again figured I'd go get in some life drawing again at the community center. And I know how you all crave the nudity, so here's some of the stuff I've done there over the last couple of months.

 

 Here's a couple of my favorite models. I usually have a good drawing day when either of them pose. They're both really fun to draw for different reasons. the drawings on either side of the page where they are sitting on the stool are my favorites.  

 This is a friend of mine that I hooked up with a modeling gig. Thought she did a really good job. It's kind of wird drawing someone you know like this because you're a little more concerned with making sure it really looks like them than you usually would be if the model is a stranger. The one on the bottom left doesn't look like her at all.

 

These models were pretty good too. The girl on the right was doing doubles with here boyfriend a few weeks ago, but I missed it because game 1 of the world series was that night. I'm hoping they do doubles again soon. They're both pretty interesting people to draw.

 

 Speaking of interesting people to draw, the slender girl on the sides of this page was certainly that. She was tall and lanky, but still had this elegance to her, and was very toned, but still had a bit of curve to here.

Some folks I know who were interested in modeling were asking me what makes a good model in my opinion. Holding a pose is always nice, but there's always this intangible of is this person interesting to draw? Do their parts flow into each other nicely? And it's not a question of fat, skinny or toned, or how attractive the person is. I think you got to go on a case by case basis.  Variety is always nice though.

Anyway, I'm gonna try and put up more stuff soon. Folks have been asking me about more Shark Riders. Possibly... if you're good.