EVAN'S ROBOT

My nephew Evan loves to draw and I spent some time looking through his sketchbook recently while visiting my sister Catherine and her fiance Brian at their house.



He's only 6 but he's got some real talent. My two favorite drawings of his were a chicken with it's head exploding and this robot.



I told him I thought it was so cool that I would post it on my blog. I also drew my own version inspired by it.



Hopefully he'll let me borrow his chicken so I can post that one too.

RECENT ARTWORK 10-2-11

Once again I've gone quite a stretch without blogging. Ooops.
I've had plenty to blog about just plain lazy and that's no excuse.
Here is some of my recent artwork to share.



A vintage Mr. Potato head. I was looking through an old toy catalog and was surprised to see what Mr. Potato head originally looked like. Check it out.



I had an idea for a spoof called "Angry Turds". After I drew this I found out someone had already thought of the idea first. Happens all the time.



I start to draw random monster/Halloween sketches around this time of year.





A couple designs I drew.

These next drawings were redrawn from a child's drawings I found in the recycling bin. I thought they were neat so I redrew them. I do this all the time because kids have the best ideas and imagination.





VOKMA





OOIN





LENA





ONA

There were a few more of these but I can't remember where I put them. One was called "Zokma" a blue creature with horns and flippers.



Twinkie the Kid. My dad used to work for Hostess as I was growing up he had to dress in a Twinkie the Kid costume.



Choo-Choo I copied this from an old coloring book.



This idea just popped in my head, the devil luring children with treats and a chance to swing on his horns.



I call this one "Free Refills"! For a "How to draw Gross Stuff" book idea.

These two I drew all in ballpoint pen.



Garbage Pail Kid "Dirty Harry"


A creature I created.

These next three were all in colored pencil.



A "Wacky Package" style drawing I did based on an old cereal box cover.



Garbage Pail Kid "Live Mike" Took three days to finish. I changed the color of the guitar, added ears to him, and a couple other changes. Here's a scan of the original card:





I redrew this from a story in an old Disney magazine.



The last four are my gross babies for a "How To Draw Gross Stuff" book I was trying to make.


Snot Baby


Pee Baby


Ink Baby


Blood Baby

I did a couple more wood carvings but I'll save those for later. All for now.

WOODWORKING 6-11

I've been working on quite a bit of artwork attempting to amass enough new stuff to do an art show this summer. I wanted to do a variety of pieces using different mediums (sketches, paintings, 3D paper art, found art, etc).
For the last month or so I have had a urge to work with wood. I kept telling myself that my grandmother who passed away last November was nagging me. She was a fantastically skilled woodcarver and artist.
Whether it was her prompting or not, I think out of sheer laziness or disregard I put it out of my mind for quite a while. I've only ever technically "carved" was pinewood derby cars in boy scouts and a plaster sculpture I did in college (neither too impressive).

A week or two ago I was at work with idle hands and had burned myself out on paper projects. Once again I was staring down at a few pencils a coworker had donated to me and I got that absurd desire to carve them up. I had an exacto knife from cutting cardboard sitting there and without too much thought I started whittling away at one of the pencils. I was amazed at how satisfying it was to just sit there cutting away. before long there were shavings all over my desk and by the end of the day I'd carved my no.2 into a neat little tiki totem pole thing!



I realized I wasn't half-bad at carving and it is terribly addictive. Ever since that day I've been carving one thing or another. I carved some more pencils at first, kid's wooden blocks, crayons (broke to easily), and some wood scraps that belonged to my grandma. I painted a bunch and figure maybe I'll think about selling some if I ever get around to that art show. Here's some photos of some of the stuff I carved (sorry about the poor quality. It doesn't do them justice).



I carved a car into this pencil.



Some of the alphabet blocks I carved. An excellent lesson in wood grain.



It's difficult with these photos to see the depth in these blocks. In the mouths and eyes, and with the creature peering from the box I carved up to 3/4" deep into the blocks with limited tools. I've been using exacto knives, the pointed end of a compass, toothpicks, and a potato peeler! Eventually I'll probably have to get some decent tools.



I've been carving mini figures in the style of Fisher Price "little people". The one on the left I had just began to make a kitten. The one on the right is my attempt at a Garbage Pail Kid (getting it's first coat of paint.







The last few were carved from wood that my grandmother had saved. After I began I realized why she had saved these scraps, even though they were small the quality of the wood was many times better that blocks or pencils. The last figure (female nude holding up a ball) took two days to finish.

I'm working on two larger carvings about 10" tall now that I've got a bit of practice. They are still in the beginning "rough" stages.





I'll post some updates as I do more work.

MAKING MONKEYS 5/11

I decided last week to do a new "recycled paper" project. I was looking through monkey photos for another piece of art I'm working on and I came across the classic monkey with cymbals toy. I have one of these in my studio and it's really fun and annoying when you turn it on.



I started out designing one while I looked for paper and cardboard to build it. I decided to make 3 of them.





After sketching out the measurements I cut all the patterns for the different pieces.







I cut all the paper for the body, face, and limbs. and glued them to the cardboard levels to make them 3-dimensional.













The toughest part was finding metallic paper for the cymbals and cutting them out. I ran out of the little bit of metallic paper quickly and miscalculated the number to cut (3 monkeys x 2 cymbals x 2 sides to each cymbal = 12). I ended up cheating in the end and making up for my mistake with tin foil.





They ended up turning out pretty neat.