robust face

     Here's some pencil from my 30's.  This is from the same sketchbook as tribal mask and defending angel.  As you may recall, tribal mask marked an artistic rebirth for me of sorts and I think that momentum continued to grow with what you see above.  The thick neck, robust features and fierce eyes I think shows my confidence increasing as I worked my way back from complete artistic inactivity.

defending angel

     Here's some pre-Sharpie craze pencil.  I've always liked this one.  It's sorta like a delicate, abstract angel-type being, using its powers to defend against the Evil Scribble Bats of Mordor!

under the surface

     Here's a moldy oldie from the Summer of '89.  I find this one interesting because seems to show the content that I fully embrace today just barely starting to emerge in my early drawings and doodles.  It's just under the surface and it's poking its head up to say 'Hi', trying to disturb the serene scene above.

     Heh.  Maybe this guy'll show up on the 4th, bringing his flamey flames with him and I can drunkenly order him to light all my fireworks for me.  Have a good holiday, folks!

hollow head

     Okay, now that I've gotten planking out of my system, we can get back to bidness.  Here's some pencil from my late teens.  The original is noticeably lighter than what you see here.  When I was fiddling around with this post-scan I hit ye olde auto-adjust on the colors and everything just popped.  It really brought out all the original detail from this old drawing so I ran with it.

     As for content, methinks this has something to do with an artwork I often stared at as a kid in California.  It was in this book called The Mind my parents had in the living room.  The artwork in question was a painting done by a schizophrenic depicting their skull split open lying in a grassy field and you could see different compartments inside.  Each compartment showed scenes, memories, abuse, insecurities and the like from their life experiences.  I remember being obsessed with that book and that painting in particular.  As for my drawing, the head seems hollow with all the interesting stuff on the outside.  Perhaps the inside was gutted by fire, as there are some small flames still burning.

tunnel vision

     Here's goofy little drawing from my past.  Not sure what the eye tunnels are about but the electrical sparks in the hair seem to show the beginnings (or at least hints) of features prevalent in the Sharpie craze and, more recently, with nose bleed.  Weird how you can make sense of some of your past by examining your present state.

     Oh yeah, speaking of the Summer of '89.  I've already been posting shit from this period and just didn't bother noting it.  Check out the tag if you're curious.

dandelions and the summer of '89

     Ah, the summer of '89.  Judging from the date I was either 19 or about to turn.  I drew a lot that summer.  I should perhaps do a series or some shit.  Eh, I'll just tag this and see what develops.

     Three day weekend comin' up for me! : D

the maxx and radiationitis

     Well, I'm thinkin' I better get my art on before the radiation spreads and kills us all so here's some past pencil pushin' for all ya'lls.  This is some pre-Sharpie craze stuff from almost 10 years ago.  I'm thinkin' there's some influences from when the MTV showed the animated cartoon version of The Maxx all those many years ago.  I'm guessin' the teethy little Isz had something to do with what you see above.

     Seriously though, folks.  If any of you start to come down with the radiationitis let me know and I'll start my Octoberween-Palooza-Ganza early.  Likewise, if I'm the first to come down with it, I'll do my best to launch the event myself and crank out as much art as I can before my arms fall off.

looooving me is easy 'cause I'm beautiful!

     This is the only honest to goodness, actually attempting a photographic likeness, self-portrait I have ever done.  This was completed when I was 19 years old.  Early college, when I was all ambitious, arrogant and very serious about myself.  At the time I was all like, "I'm gonna draw myself using two mirrors, man!  That way what I draw will be an actual likeness of myself and not just a mirror image!"  And so I did.  I used two mirrors, concentrated very hard, narcissistically paid special attention to my eyes and pursed lips and, in the end, screwed the whole thing up by making the distance from the tip of my nose to my chin noticeably shorter than it actually is.  Eh, whatcha gonna do.  I was young, dumb and fulla cum.  The odds of me not screwing this up were pretty slim to begin with.

     Have a good new year.  I plan to get drunk and burn shit.

teen scream

     Here's a moldy-oldy for all ya'lls.  This is the oldest drawing that I still have lying around.  It's been creased, torn and abused by time.  It expresses my teenage angst very well and I drew this when I was 17 years old.

     That was 23 fucking years ago.  My wife and I started having the hot, naked, sexors 21 years ago and if fate had taken a different turn we could have a child right now who'd be just about ready to graduate college.  And then we'd have to kill them.  Considering how college turned out less than successful for us without kids, it would have been an even bigger quagmire of despair, failure and disappointment if we had been raising a child.

     Anyway, that's enough about that.  Thanks for your time, folks.  I appreciate it.

manimal cyborg dad

     Here's some more of my drawing backstory from high school.  Strong dad influences in this one (and, for some reason, a dash of Marlon Brando).  Also some beastman type stuff going on in there, probably from watching too many episodes of Manimal.

     Anyway, my dad got one of his eyes shot out with a bee-bee gun as a kid.  He apparently had a glass eye for a while when he was younger but by the time I knew him he was sporting an eye patch.  That combined with his dark, curly hair gave him a decidedly pirate look.  Thinking about it now, he would've looked much more awesome if he'd had a semi-translucent plate riveted over his bad eye, as pictured above.  Would've given him a much cooler, cyborg, road warrior look.

weapon hand

     A little futuristic, sci-fi action type stuff from my late teens.  Thanks for taking a look.

talons and audioslave

     This post was inspired by fellow artist and blogger Aquilus Domini.  After seeing his exasperated dragon I was reminded of a couple of things: (1) talons and horns rule and (2) so does Audioslave.

     While the above drawing pales in comparison to Aquilus' latest, it is nonetheless one of my favorites from high school.  After taking a closer look at it while uploading it, I also just realized it was one of the drawings I digitally fiddled with in my 30's.  Also, no thumb.  Eh, whatcha gonna do?

happy dragon

     Not much in the way of memories about Mr. Happy Dragon here.  I just thought I'd post him for your amusement and for another entry into my quick sketches category.  Thanks and enjoy.

simon

     This was done shortly after we got our dumbest cat to date, Simon.  Half cat, half dog, half badger and all animal, baby.  Most cats have a personality that transcends the animal and makes you think of them as a cute little member of the household but not Simon.  He operates solely on instinct; running around, eating, sleeping, pooping, barfing, eating some more and whining when he doesn't get enough attention.  He's no mystery at all, as his one brain cell can only do so much.  The one thing that does make him unique and/or remarkable in our household is that he's the first cat we've ever had that has a scorpion-like twitch to his tail when he's excited.  I attempted to capture that with this sketch.

bamboo engineers have a tough job

     Another assignment from early college.  This was when I was still living with my mom and she was renting this awesome studio-type apartment above a drugstore.  The subject matter here was one of those cheaply made, bamboo-wicker-type chairs that were all the rage in the late 80's, early 90's.  These chairs were designed to hold the weight of a normal adult or two calmly relaxing young adults (for example, me and my future wife).  Of course, the two young adults in question can remain calm and relaxed in a chair this size for only so long before they become active, horny young adults.  The physical stresses that two people in such a state produce are far greater than the maximum rated capacity for a chair of this type.  This was the first of at least two chairs my mother had to purchase when I explained to her they accidentally broke when I happened to sit down in them too hard, clumsy me.

don't wanna be around when he sneezes

     Got myself in the digital mood and futzed around with a pencil drawing from my teens.  I reduced the colors and edited the palette to achieve this effect.  This drawing always gave me sort of a bland feeling so sprucing it up a bit with some color has hopefully added some interest.

viking bananas

     I drew this in high school and it still perplexes me.  It mocks me like some sort of viking helmet, hover-jellyfish of confusion.  I'll get my revenge by drawing its nemesis.  I'll draw some sort of pumpkin, steam shovel, rocket-powered banana of clarity.  Yeah!  So take that you... you THING!

full speed ahead

     This is one of my favorite quick sketches from my late teens.  Fast lines, nothing too fussy.  Lotso good, raw content in this one I think.

surprise shout

     This here's a little pencil work in between my India ink experimentation and the beginning of the Sharpie craze.  Not sure what all the shouting and/or surprise is about but this is another one that always makes me stop and take yet another look and wonder what the hell was going through my mind at the time.  Enjoy.

lazy lines

     This is something I've been doing for years.  Every once in a while I'll just stop and draw one of these contour line compositions.  There's no rhyme or reason to them, I just start drawing lines and more lines until the page is filled.  It's almost like an exercise in a way.  Just something I do when I'm not particularly inspired but still feel like drawing something.