patokon blog

True Detective is one of the creepiest, most atmospheric, most highly nuanced series I've ever seen. My second inktober drawing of the month is an homage to this fascinating and unsettling show.  The show mentions a King in Yellow which is from a book of the same name by Robert W. Chambers (1895).  I've just started reading this book bout a play that if read drives the reader insane and now I can't stop dreaming of Lost Carcosa under the black stars. The King calls to me now...

John Buscema is an amazing artist and really exemplifies "the Marvel look" for people of my generation. His Conan is THE Conan and his Silver Surfer is THE Surfer for me. Reading his interview in the John Buscema Sketchbook that came out a few years ago, I'm convinced that besides being a master of storytelling, he's also a really decent human being. He doesn't hesitate to gush over the artists he truly respects - Frazetta , Al Williamson , Jeffrey Jones ,  comics,art,Inktober,weapon x,sketch,heroine,dailysketchchallenge,drawing,X-23,marvel,wolverine , etc. I found it extremely interesting that he says he outgrew Burne Hogarth (famous Tarzan artist and creator of several books that many comics artists learn from) saying he was "too stiff" and "more involved with muscles than the movement of the figure" and that he prefers Hal Foster and Alex Raymond .  Of Jack Kirby he says "he's number one then, today, and in the future".  He...

My favorite Weapon X, Laura Kinney is my daily sketch today.  Immediately I want to start critiquing. I'm getting better at hair, which doesn't say a whole lot, and my proportions are so much better than before (the big head is on purpose, jeez!). The pose isn't dynamic enough - too stiff, the leather texture needs work and the head should actually be bigger to match the proportions I used yesterday (consistency dammit!). This might be a good candidate for re-drawing in the big notebook. 

Spider Woman was the first collected comic I ever got (back in 1980) and I've been fascinated by heroines ever since.  There were other Spider Women, but she's always been the only one for me.

I got a new Moleskine sketchbook in a human size after drooling over JR's (see  http://jimssketchblog.blogspot.jp/)  nifty LotR one. Mine is the ltd. ed. Mickey Mouse one, so there! Anyway, after talking to several artist friends, I've decided to use this bigger sketchbook to explore things I've drawn in my smaller one.  This is my first big sketch. It's Deadpool because I recently started reading Deadpool MAX (almost wrote DP MAX, but that would be oh so wrong) and I really liked it. Kyle Baker is so awesome and he's the reason I bought it.  This is the smaller piece I did yesterday that inspired the bigger one.  I won't be doing the big drawings every day, but whenever I want to explore new stuff or try new techniques I'll use the bigger book to do so. The challenge for this particular piece was doing all the scarring. The texture overwhelmed the costume tatters as I was afraid it would, but I'm still not unhappy with the results.  I'd be happy to ...

Sun. night I was sampling too much beer when I drew this pretty #monstober #inktober monster.  Then afterwards, I drew a li'l Deadpool which I'll share in my next post. 

Guys (including myself) are seriously ugly when we cry. Nothing keeps me more humble than remembering how butt-ugly my cry-face is.  For contrast, I drew a Heian-kyo inspired lady of the court. 

This is one of the characters that was designed by Tomoko Hirabayashi for our webcomic Hexenringe. I just love her character design.  Rockin' Heroman is a rock-a-billy Ultraman cross-hybrid hero and will be showing up in the strip eventually. I like him so much I'll be using him in some spin-off strips that I'll draw myself.  I've nowhere near the skill of Tomoko, so my sketch today is practice so that I don't do too crappy a job.  Next I'll have to practice "kime" poses that live-action heroes are always doing. 

Here's my quick Supergirl sketch.  And I did a quick one on the train in response to a FB thread about fezzes and leather and heavyset dudes.  Don't ask me why, but I like this one better. Okay, I have a fez fetish. A fezish. I'm a fezbian.  #inktober #dailysketchchallenge

So I've been missing a few days here and there when posting to my Daily Sketch Challenge group on FB and I want to make sure I get back to a daily schedule SO I'll be posting number of days in a row again.  Here's my new Day #1 Sketch: Alphonse McFrankensteel.  Past sketches here: http://www.facebook.com/groups/690019427681034/