Water Colors

I've finally started painting landscapes from life again, taking the watercolors out with me for quick lunch breaks. Fortunately the weather has been most agreeable lately... I'd forgotten how relaxing it can be to go out and paint what you see, making choices what to show, finding patterns in the colors... Here's the latest...

Modigliani

a quick hommage to one of my favorite painters... with the way he exaggerated proportions and experimented with different cultural styles, I would have loved to seen how he would have drawn comics...

For the uninitiated, here's a link to some of his work and a brief bio... here

Not just another Bim-bo

Finally, the final version, in rough... see below for the color finish. This one just felt right to me, aerodynamic and sleek, not too cute, not too scary, and fun! Hopefully others will feel the same.
What do you think? I'd like to hear from you... yes, you. Not the person behind you, looking over your shoulder. Not the crusty old man who lives downstairs who mumbles to himself while eating Cream of Wheat (or is it farina?). Not even the french pastry chef who makes the "to die for" eclairs that you savor. I wanna hear from you!

Bim a ling ding

More Bim developmental drawings... Was starting to get the right feel here, but still didn't feel right to me. Not aerodynamic enough, maybe still a little too scary, or too cutesy... another thing to keep in mind when I'm creating a character is "Will I want to draw this guy a thousand times looking the way he does?" Because if I don't, I'm setting myself up for a world of hurt down the road when I'm drawing up a story.

Random sketchies

Just putting up some random stuff from the ol' sketchbook... just doodles really. Who said my doodlin' wouldn't get me anywhere? Oh yeah, most of my teachers, that's who. Well, that was before the days of sketchblogs wasn't it? Hah! The last laugh is mine!

The Leaves they are a' blowin'

Autumn is one my favorite times of the year, particularly now when the leaves are peaking (at least here in central NC they are) and starting to fall. I love the colors, the smells, the coolness after the humid summer, heck I even like to rake leaves. And of course my kids love to jump in the piles... so here's to autumn! Maybe someday I'll actually color this sketch up!

The Evolution of Bim

-or- How a Cow became a Bim pt.2- I was going to start talking about what I started playing with after the initial cow drawings to make a unique character, but at this point the changes are pretty obvious. The similarities left are his eyes and general attitude, only because so much of that comes from the expression in the eyes...

Moo-Cow

As promised, here are the cow drawings that spawned a whole new set of characters and I guess even a new drawing style for me. Kind of opened my cartoonier style... or at least was a step along the way. Its always been interesting to me how the evolution of one's style progresses, so I thought it was high time to look at my own progression. (If one could call this progress... )