Rotten Top.

This is another loose end project that I'm currently in the process of tying up. A hand made paper mache zombie mask.
Starting off with the cardboard backing of an old sketchbook I cut out the shapes I would need then taped them together using some nasty tape that struggled with holding that card together. I then made a mixture of flour and water and started with the shredded newspaper before finishing it off with the toilet roll for the texture. Then about seven month later I got off my arse and painted it and now probably 4 month after that I'm sticking it all together as the eyes and teeth are loose. I'm using an old pair of bright red shorts for the backing of the eye sockets and mouth and gonna try using super glue to hold the eyes and teeth in place. If that doesn't work I'm gonna have to think about what else I could do. Or just leave it for seven month.

Album Cover.

The cover's starting to look more and more like an actual cover now thanks to the title and band name. I also softened the line work to make it more easy on the eye. Some of the line work still needs a little tweaked but nothing that should take too long.
I was gonna add some minor detail to the background and make look like a basement wall or something similar, just something all beat up and worn but with everything on it I think it kind of works the way it is.
Anyway I'm going to leave it for a hour or so then comeback to it with fresh eyes and see if I think anything needs improved, maybe some filter or something.

Album Cover.

This is the cover so far and it's pretty much complete. The only thing I've got left to do apart from the back of the cover is to work on some line work, Touch up the background to make it look like a real grimey wall  and add the text. Waiting to hear from the band (Losing All, check them out) about fonts and details and such but apart from that, it's done. Been through some right battles with this piece, drew the waitress up soon as I heard I was doing the cover (a long time ago) and since then the cover has changed more times than I can remember before finally returning back to this.
The final will be posted soon enough along with the back cover.

Losing All.

This is the start of an album cover I'm busy working (hopefully still working on as it's been a nightmare project). I've had the line work done for a while now but never found anything to do with it that looks good. It's had numerous different backgrounds and colouring styles. But since working on my portrait I've fell in love with digital painting and decided to give it a go on this and so far I think its working.
My plan is to not have anything to cluttered in the background maybe just a wall with this zombie waitress as the main view point. I also drew this line work to be used as thick black cartoon style but my plans are to just use it as a guide then remove it and using the underneath layer with the bare paint, digitally draw a new and better line work.
Anyway thems the plans, stay tuned to see if it works.

Portrait progress.

Shading coming along a little further. Once I've finished the shading will be able to experiment and try out some line work and then finally a suitable background.

Portrait.

Just a quick update on the portrait. The shading is coming along nicely although some more work is gonna be needed on the face. Harder to shade a face and make it look good than it is for inanimate oblects like lamps and fuel tanks. Just keep at it I suppose.

Portrait progress.

Just a quick update on the portrait front. After a few trial and errors I managed to find a brush that I"m comfortable with, so I'm starting to get to work on shading. Once I've shaded the entire thing it should hopefully start taking some real shape. Until then, adios.

Awfull

Well I truly think I've spent too much time on this drawing for just a basic sketch. And now I hate it.
I even tried to save it by colouring it up in photoshop.I know it's meant to look like a sailors tattoo but I hate this style of drawing. Not so much hate, I mean for a tattoo it works. Because it's a tattoo style, but for me personally, I can't draw anything serious for shit.
I should stick to messed up cartoons and learn to adapt ideas to my my own styles.
Anyway, rant over. I suppose this thing ain't too bad, as long as I never look at it again.

"Black eyes, lifeless eyes like dolls eyes"

Well here's almost the finished thing. I think I could probably do with some more practice with inks before I can pull something off that I genuinely think works. Just need to add the scrolls with the text in, so I think I'll wait till after it's completely done before I hate it. I love the idea. just think it's maybe a bit too sloppy. Was just done in an afternoon. Something to maybe come back to on a later date.

"You've got city hands Mr Hooper, you've been counting money all yer life"

Well here's the final sketch for the Jaws themed tattoo illustration. I think it's turned out really well and hope I don't trash it while attempting to colour it with ink.
I went with the rope frame, was going to add a large hook but would of been way too much as I'm also adding the scrolls to the top and bottom.

We're gonna need a bigger boat!

Sat and watched Jaws again last night for the possibly 1000th time. In my eyes it's the greatest film ever made and certainly my favourite. So I decided to dedicate some drawing time to it, something I'm suprised I haven't done already.
Since it's a sea adventuring tale I've opted for the sailor style tattoo and went along to the theme of Quints lovable song "Fair well and ado to you fair spanish ladies" a song that by simply singing it makes you an experienced shark slayer. The sketch above is a rough idea of what I want the finished thing to look like, I know I want the unlucky spanish maiden meeting her maker in the jaws of a shark. I'm also planning to add a scroll which reads the first line of the song (possibly another below reading the second).
To frame the final image I might opt for either a rope with hook or the bones of a shark jaw.
Finally I think this mother lover needs to be coloured up with ink to add that traditional feel.
Take care and don't go too far into the water.

Portrait.

So this is the portrait so far. Since I'm colouring this entire piece up in Photoshop I started in the similar way that I paint by hand and added all the basic colour to the painting. I started adding shading onto the fuel tank and will be slowly adding more and more detail as I go along. Hopefully by the end this is gonna look real nice. I'll post each step and no doubt each mistake!

Portrait.

Just started this today for Carl, a guy from California ( I think). He's a good friend of my mother and has sent many a Smores Bar and box of Lucky Charms over, so I repaying him like a true poverty artist and drawing a picture of the guy.
I originally wanted to draw him on a horse as he trains horses and cattle for films and he's really into the civil war, but there's no way I could mix the two and make it look good. Then I remembered he's in a biker gang (that's probably the wrong term to use and it'd probably piss them right off) that's made up of ex marines. So the next idea was to incorporate the cowboy idea with the biker as there isn't really much of a jump between the two. So The plan was to just have a cowboy on a western themed bike (cowprint, buckles, bull horns etc). But as soon as I started the bike I realised how bloody hard they are to draw, especially the angle I wanted it. Each part of the bike had to be drawn otherwise it wouldn't look right, even for a cartoon.
Anyway, above is the final sketch. I was gonna colour it with markers but since I only have a grey marker that's running out, that idea's went down the pan. Secondly I was gonna hand draw the line work then colour it up on photoshop like I used to. But finally I thought fuck it! I'm gonna colour this puppy up entirely on the computer! Something I've never done before so hopefully it'll go well.

Crikey, that's a lot of writing for one sketch!
Too-da-loo.

Illustration Friday.

Well it's been a while since I last entered anything into IF and first time completely with this blog so hopefully the response won't be too harsh. The topic this week is Duet and to be honest nothing popped straight my head, so I just had a quick look through my current sketch book and stumbled across some irregular proportioned wrestling midgets. Wanting to use these characters but not having anywhere to put them I decided that the wonderful people at IF would surely accept them into their community.
I decided to change them from wrestlers to those "cool" guys who rock out at bars whenever a song with the word dragon in the title comes on. I've nothing wrong with metal, but these guys are so damn serious I keep expecting them to burst into flames, transform into a metal studded dragon and fly off to the screech of a guitar. So yeah I guess I'm mocking them a bit but hey it tickles my funny bone and if they're happy then who the hell cares right?
Dan
P.S. Also if any of you beautiful Illustration Friday users want to follow my blog feel free. I could use the followers and some beautiful people to follow (in a totally non stalker way!).

Also I took the photo of this on my dogs bed. That's why it looks so dirty. I'm not a hobo.

I hate this drawing.

I hate this drawing.

The Paw of the Haunted Wolf!

After messing about with black ink and fine liners last week, I spent most of the weekend at work thinking about the sketches I had thrown together on Saturday morning and how I could best get them into the book. I knew I wanted to incorporate some colour, not that I dislike the black and grey look, it's awesome and definitely gonna use it in a lot more of my stuff. But hey, variety is the spice of life.
I think that's right.

One of the sketches was based on a brief conversation I had about the super blood soaked manga 'Fist of the North Star'. After talking about how stupid that title sounded, the equally but purposefully stupid title 'Paw of the Haunted Wolf' came up. I didn't personally think of this but the image definitely stuck in my head.
Got the wolf and ink drawn pretty quickly but something just seemed missing. So I added some fur and further shading with a grey marker. I hate drawing so much detail for hair, not for the fact it looks bad, because it doesn't. But for the fact that it takes too goddamned long to do. Luckily for me I had Wrestlemania 27 in the background. Nothing takes the mind away from repetitive hair drawing than adults in swimwear pretending to hit each other (there's a messed up sentence if I ever saw one).
Anyway, as if I didn't learn my lesson from drawing hairs I'm now working on an awesome anaconda sketch. So will no doubt be drawing scales all night. Just living the dream people.