The Drawing Board

Time to gouge our mounts with great brutal spurs and cultivate our hair like lettuce

2012-01-04T16:34:00.002-05:00

If you know the John Wayne movie quote, then you'll know we're talking Glen Campbell. He'll be featured in this weeks Weekend section with his upcoming concert and also a tribute show to Hank Williams Sr.
This illustration was pretty easy to get Glen's broad face, and Hank Sr's pretty much drew itself without much exaggeration.

Enjoy!

Chopsticks, Spoon or Shovel? Finish

2011-10-14T16:29:00.001-04:00

I decided against putting something in the rice … wasn’t satisfied with any ideas by the time it needed to go to press … some of the items would be difficult to identify in rice and may have been flat-out disgusting …

Chopsticks, Spoon or Shovel?

2011-10-13T19:52:00.001-04:00

Well bless Chuck Landon’s heart for giving me a good idea.

This weekend the Herd gets a chance for its offense to get its feet under it against the low-ranked defense of the visiting Rice Owls. The 117^th-ranked defense should provide a stabilizing factor for a Marshall offense that has struggled against top-tier defenses all season. At least this game can be a chance to see what could be offensively possible with the Herd for the rest of the season.

So the theme is Marshall dining on Rice, literally and metaphorically as in rice — the food item.

Here’s my prelim sketch which will feature a big bowl of rice, the Owl and a choice to how Marco can feast.

First of all, Marco should be very hungry and secondly, he is not going to impress anyone with his chopstick skills … so go for the shovel!

However, I’m thinking about putting something in the rice as a cautionary reference to not be careless and eat too fast. A bone or brick or something recognizable.

Caging the Golden Eagles

2011-10-12T10:58:00.002-04:00

Very late posting of illustration for Herd's game against Southern Miss.
The most challenging part of this image was trying to get Marco's expression to mimic the kind of 'munch-munch' face that some pet owners get when they're trying to coax an animal to eat a snack.

Herd to try ball control against WVU

2011-09-01T17:41:00.003-04:00

Here's a quick idea on the Thundering Herd strategy of employing ball control on offense to keep WVU from 'dropping 70 points on them' ... as has been reported, WVU's new vaunted offense is no different than what several of Marshall's CUSA opponents run.
So is the team's goal to prevent 70 points against them? ... I wouldn't care so long as they win the game.

Long overdue piece on latest Idol winner

2011-07-07T15:20:00.002-04:00

As it’s become a semi-tradition to do caricatures of American Idol winner (I say ‘semi’ as I haven’t done all the winners, but usually pick and choose then most fun faces. This season had some good ones that I kinda latched onto early in the elimination process. Scotty McCreery was one such with his Mad Magazine “What Me Worry” look and seemingly odd handling of the microphone. All this with the ole’ southern Elvis-lip-sneer-thing going on ~ made for a fun one to work on. I probably had more fun with the ears than I had a right to, but with Scotty’s generally ‘even’ face, I needed something to compositionally play off his microphone.

Spam and Lots More at Ashland’s Paramount (Finis)

2011-04-06T17:54:00.001-04:00

So long Marina ... this was obviously fun!

Ruff: Spam and Lots More at Ashland’s Paramount

2011-04-05T15:47:00.001-04:00

OK, the topic for this week’s Weekend section has Ashland’s Paramount Arts Center over-crowded this weekend with its movie series featuring Charleton Heston in “The Ten Commandments,” the stage production of Monty Python’s Broadway musical “Spamalot” and Marina Jurica giving a special final performance with the Tommy Money Big Band before she embarks for a new job north … so here’s a rough layout of Marina, Moses and King Arthur vying for attention … more fun to come …

Revamping an illustration … to save time

2011-01-25T17:30:00.004-05:00

Near the end of this past football season, I was crunched for time with several products coming out at once. Adding to this crunch was the holiday events that further limited my time available to come up with a new Gameday illustration. At time such as these I will revamp an old illustration, so long as the theme fits the current week’s opponent and situation. Such it was with the game against SMU.

This is actually an illustration from an October game against the Broncos of Western Michigan from the 2000 season. So obviously I had to Photoshop a different uniform on the Bronco. In addition, Marshall was the road team but the illustration was done when they were at home, so I had to swap the jersey pants colors and the number. This was done simply by selecting the parts of the uniform I needed to change and using levels to fade the color out of the shirt. Then it was a matter of painting the green back into the pants and numbers.

Finish on Tethering the Blazers

2010-11-10T17:53:00.001-05:00

Worked out pretty well ... the game too.

Tethering the Blazers ruff

2010-11-04T12:20:00.002-04:00

I was very specific about what I wanted to do this week and this ‘ruff’ reflects that. My idea is keeping UAB’s balanced and prolific offense in check. I liked the body language of Marco pulling on the rope — he’s really going for it. With that in mind, my finished piece will nor be very far from this.

Lighting It Up

2010-10-22T17:36:00.001-04:00

The Herd travels to East Carolina to take on Conference USA’s top offensive unit. But Marshall’s own offense will need to get on track just to keep up with the prolific Pirates.

I chose the motif of actually lighting the scoreboard rather than a flip-the-switch idea I did a long time back when Marshall was doing it to other teams. Payback is sure heck. On this one I originally had the Pirate warming his hands over the fire, but thought it would be more funny if he were roasting marshmallows. The ‘MARSHALL MALLOWS’ was my last adjustment I thought appropriate until I’m proven otherwise.

For Marshall, it helps that the Pirates defense also gives up a ton of points averaging 39.5. Still, if I don’t stress yourself over who wins and loses this game, its bound to be fun to watch East Carolina and its exciting offense perform ~ and who knows, Marshall could finally do what it needs to do and perhaps get a confidence builder it so sorely needs to carry it through the rest of this rough season.

Aerial Assault ruff

2010-10-01T14:38:00.002-04:00

This week, both the Herd and Southern Miss likely will look to use their talented receiving corps. Marshall is ranked #2 in receptions and yardage and Southern Miss has the formidable DeAndre Brown. A 6-foot-6 235-pound All-American caliber deep threat who will be going up against two talented, speedy-but comparatively undersized Herd freshman corners.

With that storyline, I knew what I wanted to do — the proverbial bombs away theme. The composition was easy enough and planning to incorporate the type I the middle. The big thing was getting each mascot’s body language right. So typically, the ruff is very sketchy. I usually do these based on a ‘feel’ — often as an actor, I will actually place myself in the shoes of that which I’m drawing. Once I put the ‘feel’ down, I’ll go back and make revisions — often finding my initial sketch is not anatomically or physically inaccurate, or does not exude enough ‘body English.’ Therefore, the ruff will look like it has been drawn over again and again, with several lines representing the same arm or face. When I go to do the finish. I ‘boil-down’ these extra lines to whatever makes the most sense to my original idea.

Awwww! Come on, now!

2010-09-24T22:49:00.003-04:00

Pretty self explanatory – Herd need to get the much anticipated new look, new vision going – this game is crucial!

RING THAT BELL!

Intruder Alert!

2010-09-10T10:56:00.002-04:00

The theme of this one may seem obscure just from looking at it, but there was definitely some additional bad blood between the two school in regards to a perception of ‘picking WVU’s pocket.’

Deciding what to have in Marco’s fridge was a fun challenge.

Final on matchup with #2 Ohio State

2010-09-02T11:51:00.002-04:00

The only change to the ruff concept was using one big buckeye rather than several raining down on Marco. I flipped the direction he’s facing to work better with the new masthead and layout. Having buckeyes falling from above would have conflicted with the game information above the masthead, thus the need to have one big buckeye coming from a more level direction. I still wasn’t satisfied with having the lower end of the ‘Gameday’ letters misconstrued.

Thursday doesn’t look too hopeful

2010-08-31T17:37:00.001-04:00

Come on let’s face it ~ there is very little chance of the Herd making much of an impact against huge, No. 2-ranked Ohio State. The best thing is just enjoy the big stage as much as they can, see what works and what needs work in their new system and come out the other side as un-mangled as possible. It’s all uncharted territory. I hope its an experience they can build on for the games that really matter.

So here is my ruff idea showing Marco in the ‘horseshoe’ awaiting an avalanche of Buckeyes. Tell me I’m wrong ~ I’d love for you to be right, but, come on now.

As if it wasn’t busy enough

2010-08-06T11:27:00.002-04:00

A lot of folks might be thinking, I’ve been sleeping on the job since I haven’t been very persistent in keeping this blog updated. Well, my work responsibilities here have been altered to the point where opportunities for fresh images have been harder to generate.

Yet there is a fresh Marshall football season lurking just around the corner … and Herd football, as we know, is a priority. SO, we’ll be getting ourselves in gear here in the next few weeks and start laying down some ideas for a stiff test against the Buckeyes of Ohio State ... and Doc’s head coaching debut …

Getting expression in your drawings

2010-05-17T16:58:00.002-04:00

This past Saturday, I served as instructor at the Huntington Museum of Art’s Kids Art program. I got an opportunity to show a group of children about drawing faces with a pretty wide range of expression — beyond happy-sad-mad. We tried to get into some of the more subtle expressions such as disgust and sneekiness. The kids did quite well and the event ended up going over our allotted time frame. We were beginning to get into expression in body language when we ran out of time.
I realized much of the things I’ve done over the years usually get seen once and then they archive fodder. So here is an expressive example from several years ago on phone etiquette. The head and the phone are in face-off position with the over emphasis on the big mouth. The rest of the body is stiffened in rage and all other elements are secondary.

George W. Bush

2010-03-26T15:48:00.002-04:00

From the President’s series: This was a fun one to do and emphasizes that doing a caricature is not just about exaggerating certain facial features at the expense of others.

It’s also good to emphasize the natural asymmetry that all faces have. For example, not only are George’s eyebrows vertically askew, so are his eyes. Sometimes this can be caused by a structural factor. Such as the idea that if you lay a baby on it's back too much the back of its head will get flat. Perhaps his mom laid him on the side too much.

Other times this can be just an emphasis of an individual's expression. Like if I were to do Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock, I would want to raise one of his exaggerated eyebrows as if he was saying "Fascinating, Captain."

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2010-03-04T14:25:00.001-05:00

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Sibling Rivalry Finish

2010-02-11T13:32:00.002-05:00

This was quite fun. I had to go back in and make sure the valentine heart was readable enough as a heart rather than just a big red blob.

Sibling Rivalry

2010-02-05T14:57:00.002-05:00

This week’s Entertainment Tri-State cover is going to feature two acclaimed stage performers fighting over your attendance to their respective Valentine’s weekend shows.

Mark McVey will be performing with the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra on Friday and Saturday, Feb. 12 and 13 in Charleston. His sister, Beth McVey will be performing with the Huntington Symphony Orchestra on Saturday, Feb 13.

Here, I’ve got the ruff showing the two of them tugging on a heart. It’s a fairly straightforward composition and as always, I’m trying to keep the all-important faces large and close together.
I haven’t done Beth before but I did Mark’s about 15 years ago. I’ll dig that one out later after I’m done with this one.
This should be fun.

Symphony piece before Christmas

2009-12-30T16:18:00.002-05:00

Meant to get this one up before Christmas, but with the other holiday events, bowl game preps and my own vacation going on, I didn’t get time. Apologies.

This one was fun with the good faces of Marina Jurica, Kimo Furumoto and especially Ryan Hardiman. I met Ryan when he was a student in my dad’s illustration class at Marshall back in the late 80s.

Chris Daughtry

2009-11-13T16:46:00.002-05:00

I tried a little different approach as far as media on this Chris Daughtry. Rather that using straight colored markers, which has been my standard for years, I decided to mix it up a bit.
From my on-going presidential series, I relied on doing a basic pencil sketch, over which I laid heavy, bold markers – just to rough in the darkest values.
From there, I introduce pastels in pink, orange, brown and white colors from which I can blend a nice flesh tone right there on the paper. Using the side of the pastel lightly on the paper, then burnishing everything with my fingers. Burnishing this way allows me to emphasize motion and the relationship between the light areas and shadows. I then spray fix everything, then go back in with black detailing pen and colored pencil. I kept picking at it this way until satisfied. The challenge was to avoid making him look like Vin Deisel.

Bottling the Run

2009-10-24T08:30:00.003-04:00

Having such a busy week, I waited until the last minute figuring out what I wanted to do on this.
What stood out in my mind was the memory of last year’s game. The Herd was favored, but somehow found itself in a tight battle down to the wire.
A great opportunity to put it away was foiled when mulit-threat QB Joe Webb got the crucial yardage on a fourth-and-ten play. The drive continued and the Herd lost.
This season, Webb is again tearing up the ground on teams.
Some of the ideas I had early, such as a cowboy and dragons round-up in a corral, or lassoing dragons in a rodeo, were a little too involved for a mid-Friday. So I’ve kept it simple, stuck the dragon in a bottle and gave Marco the mallet.

Secondly, here’s the image from last weeks game against WVU. Just thought I’d point out what I did in PhotoShop to pull this off. I did the image of Marco and the Mountaineer pretty much as you see it. Knowing I was going to be blurring the Mountaineer’s legs a bit, I didn’t draw them complete and the actual drawn part was not too far below where you see it. I clipped the Mountaineer portion out and pasted it on a separate page. From there I just did a simple horizontal motion blur with an 800-pixel distance. That smeared the image unrecognizable other than some color and provided a nice lightening on the ends. I copied this blur, went back to the original drawing, selected the entire background and pasted the blur inside. After positioning it to line up with the running Mountaineer, I erased the portion of the blur that extended in front of the Mountaineer. I then flattened the original and blur layers together, then smeared parts of the Mountaineer to blend the transition of the blur to him. It was a pretty easy effect.
Oh and incidentally, “speed” ended up not being much of a factor in the game.

Avoid the Wave finish

2009-10-10T08:12:00.002-04:00

Its always fun to sketch big sweeping waves of green water.
As I was working on Tulane's homecoming queen, I'm thinking to myself "OK, how do you make a pelican look alluring?
Good luck today, Herd.

Avoid the Wave ruff

2009-10-09T12:47:00.001-04:00

OK. So Marshall had a rough homecoming loss to defending conference champion East Carolina.
At first, I was thinking this was the time the Herd would get complacent and take it easy on a softer opponent, only to end up finding itself in a dog fight, and ultimately losing. It seemed to happen last year way too often. When you’re a team trying to earn the league’s respect, you don’t have the luxury of mailing it in — ever. The best teams never mail it in.
Anyway, I originally had Marco in a boat labeled “complacency” with the pelican riding the big green wave of confidence. Tulane had an optimistic off-season but opened with two dismal losses. It has now bounced back and is riding a two-win resurgence.

Now usually the Homecoming opponent is a mismatch and an easy contest. So here Marshall is as Tulane’s homecoming opponent.
I remember years back when Marshall was the homecoming opponent for the at-the-time lowly Buffalo Bulls. In that illustration, I had Marco running off with Buffalo’s homecoming queen ~ that was fun.
Now it’s the Herd’s turn to steal the queen from Tulane.

Ride That Float, Baby!

2009-10-03T10:26:00.003-04:00

Snyder was fun to do although the image was a bit small and with the 3/4 angle view of his face, I couldn't really accentuate how close together his eyes are. I may do a better one later ~ just for the fun of it.
Good luck today Herd.

Ride The Float! second rough

2009-09-30T16:43:00.002-04:00

Just an in-process rough to tighten the composition and establish some of the detail areas.

Ride The Float! rough

2009-09-29T12:42:00.003-04:00

I was thinking about the Herd riding their momentum into today’s game against East Carolina and since its homecoming weekend, the idea of the float came quickly. It will be fun doing the decorated float, the toilet paper, etc.

At first I was going to have the flatbed by itself, getting ready to run over a Pirate, but its not so much about the Pirates as it is about Marshall being prepared to go up against the defending conference champs.
Also, the idea of a float not being towed seemed a bit awkward. So, I’ll draw a big pickup truck. Now I need a driver ... Coach Snyder.
I always thought would be kind of fun to do a caricture of him. I'll need to give myself plenty of time this week.
More later.

Finish on Memphis

2009-09-28T10:19:00.001-04:00

Good start Herd.

Conference play begins

2009-09-25T13:29:00.002-04:00

Now that the Herd has had a chance to work out the kinks (and there were more than previously expected), it begins conference play — which is the only thing that this season’s success or failure should be measured. Still, a two and one record is the best Marshall could have expected, so it is right where it needs to be for this conference run.
This is a pretty straight-forward concept of rolling up the sleeves and going to work — not just for a winning season, but for a conference championship. Why should they sell themselves short?

How prolific this turned out to be

2009-09-15T11:24:00.002-04:00

Not a good thing at all. Two weeks into the season and I'm still waiting to see the defense we've heard about during the off-season. At least there wasn't significant injuries suffered.

Not an easy task

2009-09-05T08:09:00.002-04:00

Good luck Herd. Get this season off right.

A Matter of Perception

2009-09-01T15:51:00.001-04:00

My idea for this weekends Herd game against Southern Illinois deals with the perception that Championship subdivision teams are weaker and should be an easy victory. Yep, tell that to Michigan last year after blowing it at home to Appy State.
The Herd had a similar home humiliation when it hosted New Hampshire last year. Or, was it humiliation. What it comes down to is, Marshall is struggling in the upper division and it is facing the #7 ranked team in the “lower” division.
So here I’ve got Marco standing on the higher podium and still being dwarfed by the Saluki (Egyptian hunting dog ~ I’m not sure why) standing on the lower podium.
Marshall’s going to have their hands full.

Finish on Riverfront shows

2009-08-20T16:17:00.002-04:00

This one was pretty fun. With a hodge-podge of events going on, it was good to plop the guys into the car and completely disregard the roof of the vehicle — its almost like a Camden Park ride.

Weekend action on the Riverfront

2009-08-18T14:24:00.003-04:00

This Weekend, reggae and NASCAR-themed Symphony performances will grace the Harris Riverfront Park.

Lexington, Ky.-based reggae act, Rob Dread performs on Friday.

On Saturday, the Huntington Symphony Orchestra’s last Picnic With the Pops concert kicks off with “Rockin’ Down the Highway — NASCAR At the Finish Line.”
The NASCAR-themed show will include a guest appearance by Brett Rowe, driver of the Herd Racing’s NASCAR Nationwide Series car.

So I’ve got Kimo Furumoto with baton in hand, driving the Herd car with Rob Dread on the back.

Father of Our Country

2009-07-17T16:16:00.003-04:00

From the in-process Presidential Series.
One of the tricky aspects of doing caricatures of historic figures is the obvious absence of photographic reference. Gilbert Stuart was renowned for capturing a subject's essence, and this portrait is based on his eyes. Washington sat for him dozens of times and they were not especially fond of each other ~ Washington hated the drudgery of sitting, which Gilbert picked up on, thus making a decent portrait a special challenge for one who could sense so easily.
Stuarts versions are consistent in their facial structure, unlike earlier, romanticized versions by other artists. As I looked for reference of less celebrated leaders, such consistency becomes unattainable. Or in the case of our 7th President Andrew Jackson, a later-in-life photograph looks little like the romanticized portraits ~ so I'm going with photographic reference, in his case and president #6 John Quincy Adams ~ the earliest president ever photographed.

Time for Roy Clark

2009-06-19T11:16:00.002-04:00

The summer has shaped up to be super busy. And its been a bit hard to get time for drawing ~ but I HAD to make time for one of the ultimate pickers.

3 Doors finished

2009-05-19T08:08:00.003-04:00

Some of you have asked me what sort of medium I use for my illustrations. The News Industry, is one of only a few places where your product is virtually re-invented everyday. News happens very quickly and it's shelf-life value is extremely limited.
Assignments need to be done quickly and cleanly, and newspaper illustration should be no different.
I use colored art markers on tracing vellum. I can lay down color quickly, and don't have to wait at all for a project to "dry." Using tracing vellum allows me to copy over my previous sketches, and since it is a dense-surface paper (won't allow color to bleed into the fibers) I can better blend colors to give a watercolor effect. I could even push lighter colors into darker ones, but I usually work from light to dark ~ laying down my black lines last.
Now for today's piece, you'll notice the colors are weird. Well, my markers are drying up. And since the illustration ran in black and white, I used what available colors I had and approached the piece as a value-only illustration, that is, I obviously didn't consider the color itself, but rather the darkness or heaviness of the color. You know how when you squint your eyes at certain colors, some look darker than others (like red, is usually darker than blue).
In this piece, I pushed this aspect a little, just for the fun of it ~ using colors I rarely choose.

Enjoy!

3 Doors Down

2009-05-18T12:00:00.002-04:00

Got a quick preview for 3 Doors Down concert. Usually what I'll do, after finding some decent reference, is make a quick "impression sketch" ~ just taking the initial facial shapes of each of the band members and how their features are arranged on their heads. These are obviously VERY rough. The reference I found featured their former drummer, so I need to find a good image of the new dude.

Later, I'll get into a more detailed rendering.

Quick One for Heritage Farm

2009-04-30T16:59:00.002-04:00

Here's a quick Entertainment cover done this week for the Heritage Farm. I had short notice so I didn't get to do much verbiage. Aside from the Mike and Henriella Perry reference, I looked for and found a nice buckboard wagon for reference, and because of cramping of the composition, abandoned a brief idea to include a goat off to the side.

Finish on obesity illustration

2009-04-25T14:48:00.002-04:00

I had fun with the cool light of the television cast on one side and the warm light of the sun on the other.

Establish form first, then work toward specific

2009-04-24T13:17:00.003-04:00

For front page layout, a horizontal main image works best as the art can be seen above the fold ~ to be seen better in newspapers sold in street corner boxes. So I needed to reconfigured the ruff.

Here is the illustration in process. Using a dark colored paper and working the light colors back into it. I’m keeping the shapes rough and geometric and I will gradually tighten the image, add more color and punch the highlights. In college, my drawing professor had the class work in black and white pencil on mid-range grey paper. The idea was for us to draw from life, only the darkest shadows and the lightest highlights. In doing this, it was really surprising how much one can leave out of the illustration and still come away with real solid image. The middle areas are suggested without being specific. This helped us concentrate on overall form and solid structure, rather than zeroing in on detail that ends up on a shaky, ill-conceived structure.

Childhood obesity ruffs

2009-04-22T15:27:00.002-04:00

I am currently working on a front page illustration for a childhood obesity package that runs this weekend. The subject of obesity can be a touchy subject, and our problem is – how to get a good solid main photo.
I’ve found a fairly stylized illustrated image works well. They are non-specific, non-comical and can represent the issue objectively.
I had done a comical illustration for a feature story on kids lazing around all summer. It was a backside view of a extremely large boy sitting on the floor in front of the television with a remote in one hand and surrounded by an abundance of snacks. Meanwhile, outside his window is a perfectly good sunny day being enjoyed by and unidentified dog-walker.
Now, the humor of that illustration coupled with the lightness of the feature story was appropriate. However, this upcoming story is not to be viewed the same way.
My idea will be basically the same, as the elements of the obesity problem are consistent: inactivity, lousy food choices in abundance are key elements.
So here’s my rough where I’m changing the angle of composition, while still getting the view out the window. From here I can stylize with big bold shapes and less detail to distract. The box around the ruff is where I was adjusting my crop – deciding how tight a composition I want and where I want to place the key elements.

Finish on Hannah and Bob

2009-04-09T07:13:00.002-04:00

These two were pretty easy to do. The smoke coming out of the cars was added in Photoshop. The only hitch was getting enough space under the cars to fit a headline and copyblock. Check out the print edition to see how it all came together.

First impressions

2009-04-07T12:09:00.001-04:00

This weeks Entertainment cover story is on the eclectic mix of things to see and do this Easter weekend. Comedian Bob Zany and the Hannah Montana movie release, along with some demolition derby make for a fun drawing opportunity.
Here’s my first impression of Bob Zany ~ an important step in the caricature process. I try to get one done quickly and at a small scale. This helps me avoid over-analyzing the features and allows me to concentrate on how the features relate to each other.

John Marra is ready for Spring

2009-03-26T17:10:00.001-04:00

John really enjoyed this one.

Funny Bone Microphone

2009-02-26T08:10:00.003-05:00

In this quick illustration for the Funny Bone Comedy Club, the reference was taken directly from the club logo.

It was most important to get a good laughing face and make the body gesture match it. The texture on the microphone was added last and I’ll show a little of how it was done.

I googled “metal mesh” and came up with several image files, picked one that I liked (in decent resolution and quality and opened the file in PhotoShop.

After digitizing my illustration, I made room on my pasteboard to place the mesh file (at the same angle and size of the microphone.) Using the “warp” tool, I molded it to match the contours of the mike. Once satisfied, I simply used the “clone stamp” set on “darken” and at about 20% or so, and just placed the mesh texture where I wanted. Voila!

Trace Adkins

2009-02-12T10:00:00.002-05:00

Trace Adkins tempts fate (or superstition, depending on your beliefs) The hardest part with this one was incorporating everything I wanted with the cat, ladder and mirror, knowing I had a lot of verbiage to include on the Entertainment cover.

Leaders of the Free World

2009-01-26T15:40:00.002-05:00

A while back, while digging through my storage area at home for Christmas decorations, I came across some old caricatures of US presidents done during my first year of college. I thought, “Oh yeah! I remember these!” Then I sat down on the edge of a cardboard box and started looking through them. What I discovered was that they, for the most part, really, really, … er could have been done a whole lot better. They had originally been done just for fun, but at the same time were pledged for a Spring art show that year at Ashland Community College.
So despite the enjoyment I was to have in creating these images, I had obligated myself to a deadline that although still distant, would soon be looming large. I figured my enthusiasm for the subject matter (I’m big into presidential history), would carry me through the project without problem. And I cranked these suckers out, one after the other. They were simply done, primarily flat watercolor renderings on 7”x10” illustration board. Some of them were decent, though not exaggerated too far. But most were flat out wrong.
So I was inspired anew, and with this historic year of President Obama, I decided to take another crack at them. So I’ll be posting images from time to time adding critiques and sharing some insight.

Finale in the Fire

2008-11-26T15:34:00.002-05:00

Sheesh, If we thought Rice was bad (with their 40 points per game average) the Herd now goes against a Tulsa team that averages 50. After thinking about it some, the idea of playing with fire came to mind. So here's a quick ruff that I intend Marco to being with some "Rice"-labeled matches while looking behind him at the Tulsa bonfire.
If the Herd's task seems impossible, keep in mind that of Tulsa's two losses, one was a 70-30 drubbing by Houston -- a team Marshall beat handily 37-23.
It would be great to send these seniors off with a good feeling.

Finish on Rice game

2008-11-25T12:45:00.002-05:00

We didn't chop very well in this game.

Knock-Out Finish

2008-11-15T13:37:00.002-05:00

I changed the composition slightly to give more motion and torque (as physicist's would say ). The change gave it better dynamics than a rather straight-on punch-in-the-face, which is comparatively boring. Now Marco, without seeing his expression, looks like he's really putting some force into it. I also liked the idea of him getting his fist inside the helmet. Although after doing it, it looked like Marco was trying to grab the Knight's nose (or something) ... but that would be OK too.

Knockout! Ruff

2008-11-13T11:06:00.002-05:00

There has been much written this week about the Herd’s upcoming challenge against Central Florida that has focused on line play, man-on-man / talent-on-talent matchups and the like. But that angle is pretty much what I covered last week.
Consider that the Golden Knights are currently sharing the East Division basement with 1-4 UAB (who beat the Herd).
Also, Marshall’s final two games are against West Division-leading Tulsa (5-0) and currently second-place Rice (5-1). This is an opportunity to establish the tempo for the rest of the season.
So I figured a knockout game is what is needed. Also, I just liked the idea of Marco’s fist going into the Knight’s helmet – they’ve been a Herd nemesis since they moved to C-USA.

Old School finish

2008-11-08T11:15:00.002-05:00

Usually Marco's upper body greatly dwarfs his legs, but the style of these old football uniforms (if you look at images from, say, 1920) the heavy padded pants are contrasted to almost skin-tight-looking long-sleeve jerseys.
The dirt was actually kind of fun to do. And quickly done -- I just roughed in the warm greys and layered some blades of grass here and there.

Old School Trench Warfare rough

2008-11-05T16:25:00.002-05:00

This week, the Herd needs to get down to basics. It going to be “old school,” smash-mouth, warfare on the line against the Pirates of East Carolina. This can be a fun one just based on the idea of Marco in a vintage uniform. I pulled an old photo from a 1919 Marshall team as an example of the style of uniform. It should make for a fun little change of pace.

Finish of the Houston Game

2008-10-28T08:03:00.002-04:00

Modified second ruff for Houston

2008-10-27T13:29:00.003-04:00

As always with these illustrations, I try to compose them with the knowledge that they will be coupled on a cover with a headline and copy block. In the last posting’s composition, the typography would suffer much from the dramatic “upper left to lower right” composition. The logical space for the header would have been shoved out of first position (the upper left). To place the header in the next logical spot (the upper right) would have forced the copy block to go nowhere but directly below, as it’s the only remaining logical spot.
In our culture, as we read from left to right/top to bottom, designers must compose the same way, otherwise readers can get confused. With the headline out of position, the copy block is limited in where it can logically be positioned, but directly below would be the only other option. However, last postings composition would force it to the lower left. Bad choice.
So the easiest thing for me was to simply flip the illustration.

Second ruff for Houston

2008-10-27T11:48:00.001-04:00

As I said I was going to do last week, I got Marco out of the foxhole and made him take a more active role in his defense by placing him behind a 20mm anti-aircraft gun. The reference for this one is from a naval ship, and obviously due to the shape of Marco needed to be modified. The big H-Bomb is coming in more at an angle for effect rather than a straighter drop.

Ruff for Tuesday Houston game

2008-10-23T13:09:00.002-04:00

Hey, I’m back from a not-so-relaxing vacation at Myrtle Beach (with four teenagers), and I’m ready to get back to it.

This week’s sports stories have focused on the Herd’s next opponent — Houston — and their vaunted aerial attack. Conference USA has been described as a pass-happy league, and the Houston Cougars are the giddiest. If fact, of the top 10 passing teams in the nation, four of them are from C-USA: #2 Houston, #6 Tulsa, #7 SMU and #9 Rice. Marshall finishes this season against Rice and Tulsa.

So this idea is pretty straight-up, with a title “Defending the H-Bomb (yeah, “H” is for Houston). I have preliminarily put Marco in a foxhole, with H-Bombs falling around, but I don’t think this will represent the situation well enough, as Marco needs to defend himself, rather than sit passively waiting for these things to go off.
I’m thinking doing one really big bomb coming in while Marco operates a 20mm.

Finish for Cincinnati

2008-10-03T09:49:00.002-04:00

I tightened up the composition a bit by moving the Cincy door closer to Marco. This gives a better feel of going out one door and on to the next. And despite the obvious movement toward the Cincy door, Marco's attitude toward it is uncertain (the hand is held back)

Ruffs for mystery week

2008-10-02T11:03:00.002-04:00

The Herd blew off concern over last week’s dismal performance at WVU to concentrate on Cincinnati during a short week.
That’s the basic theme I wanted to go with. So I came up with Marco on a treadmill, quickly prepping for Cincy.
A nice wrinkle to this idea was the mystery surrounding what sort of challenge the Bearcats will bring against the Herd as it keeps shuffling its depth chart at QB (four different QBs in 5 games) and on defense. I decided to have Marco reading a “Mystery” book.

I then started thinking about the old TV gameshow “The Dating Game” and came up with the ruff of Marco behind the partition while three different versions of the Bearcat were concealed— this would have been fun for the Bearcats expressions. But this isn’t really a “date” — is it? So I reluctantly canned that direction.
However, the gameshow thoughts kept the idea of “what’s behind door number three” in my mind. So I came up with the third ruff of Marco exiting the WVU door, and facing the “Door of Mystery.”
In giving it the I.D. of Cincinnati, I plopped on the UC logo and some question marks. This however, was a bit clunky. So I started working with the UC logo to create a hybrid of it, and a question mark. Problem with the open space of the letter “C” and a “?” being in the opposite direction. So I thought it more important that the UC logo be more identifiable.

Finish for WVU

2008-09-27T09:19:00.002-04:00

I made the adjustments to the Mountaineer's "shovel arm" – the problem being, whether I placed it overhead or under, it was going to crowd something – either the flowing hair and 'coon-skin hat tail, or the ECU sword. Going under allowed me more space to add "air" around the shovel.
Some other details that were fun to include:
Putting the Buffalo logo on the hat was more specific than just writing "Colorado."
The Mountaineer's hat is actually alive!
When illustrating big grassy areas, always include a few dandelions – it's much more realistic and adds visual interest.
In doing the train track, the details are very rough, but the solidity of the track is defined mostly by areas of light and shadow.
It should be an exciting game today – Enjoy!

Revised Ruff for WVU

2008-09-26T09:02:00.001-04:00

After the basics were ruffed out in the first sketch, I was able to concentrate on little details in this one. It is important that the train track looks right, even though its not the main focus.
In the first ruff, I had several positions for the Mountaineer’s shovel-wielding arm. That is where I was trying to think it out on paper as to whether to have the arm over or under. The Headline and copy block is planned for right of the illustration. I’ll often drop a sketch like this onto the layout so I can plan how the verbiage and image will work together, and putting the arm overhead may crowd the header. I’m still not satisfied with the foreshortening and positioning of the Mountaineer’s (shovel) arm and will need to make adjustments there. The Colorado Buffalo’s hat will need to be a good deal bigger so I can fit an ID on it like the ECU sword. I’ll need to decide whether to put “Colorado” on it or the UC logo.

Ruff for WVU

2008-09-24T16:35:00.004-04:00

As I had mentioned back on September 10, I was working in advance for the Marshall-WVU game, The rough I posted then had Marco charging up a hill toward the standing Mountaineer, who was more than a little distracted by the East Carolina Pirate sword sticking out of his rump. (Yeah, I know you haven’t forgotten THAT loss.)
For this week, however, I’m going with a “friends of coal” idea that will have much more fun stuff going on compositionally.
I started the ruff with the coal car at the extreme flying angle. From there, I weaved the principle characters in and around it. Starting with the car this way instantly gives the composition dynamics and flow. Now, from this precarious position, the mascots share a tight hopper car with such evident distain for each other, they begin smacking each other with shovels, chunks of coal and whatever else they can get their hands on.
The reference to East Carolina’s sword sticking out of the Mountaineers’ butt in my Sept 10 sketch was — I felt — too distant an event from this weekend’s game that it would have lost its poignancy. However, thanks to WVU’s loss to Colorado last week, reopened that significance of ECU’s victory like a can of worms. So I’ve “re-included” the Pirate sword — AND added a pointy Colorado Buffalo hat — also, sticking out of the Mountaineer’s rump.
Now if we can just find enough room to jab some Marco horns in there — all should be well!

“Chess Game” Final

2008-09-20T09:09:00.002-04:00

After tightening the composition, I realized that including the reflection of Marcos mirrored “Eagle” hand was clunky — so I eliminated the reflected hand.
Doing all the chess pieces was going to be tedious. So rather than draw all the pieces, I drew one pon, one rook etc. and styled them to be “white” pieces. I then duplicated them in Photoshop, and adjusted their darkness levels to make them “black.” I then selected each piece I wanted on the board and simply copied and pasted where I wanted.
The reflection of the pieces was done the same way, only I imagined looking at them from the mirror-side of the board. I then shrunk them down slightly as per the laws of perspective, and then “burned them into the mirror using Photoshop’s cloning stamp tool set on darken — taking care not to clone over the chess pieces on our side of the looking glass. Once I had the mirrored pieces in place, I cloned over them again with the stamp set on normal. That gave the pieces the dimension they needed.
For all the pieces missing off the board, I placed a box on the floor to cover their whereabouts.

Enjoy!

“Chess Game” Rough: Version 2

2008-09-19T09:50:00.002-04:00

Here’s a more fleshed out version of the idea. Due to the cover space available, and always needing to keep in mind there will be a headline and copy block to consider, I will likely revise this slightly and make it a more vertical shape. But rather than cramming everything in tight, I’ll need to make sure the inside and outside negative spaces (I highlighted in RED) are not compromised. Keeping these areas uncluttered ads to the interest of the overall shape, and the clarity to how the elements relate to each other.

A Chess Game of Solitaire

2008-09-17T11:47:00.002-04:00

While listening intently earlier this week to the talk following Marshall’s conference opening win against Memphis, I was struck with a visual idea to Coach Snyder’s reference to “publicity being like poison; it can only kill you if you swallow it.” And the need for Marshall to stay focused on its next game.

So I had the idea of Marco sitting in the optometrist chair getting his eyes checked with an optical refractor (you know one of those bulky multi-lens things that hangs at the end of a mechanical arm and rests on your nose when put in place). I had also considered placing a trashcan behind the chair with a poison bottle of “publicity.”

But then I settled on the idea of Marshall being a mirror image of Southern Miss and that Saturday’s contest would be a chess game. So that’s the idea I think I'll go with.

Honestly, I don’t think I have time to draw all those lenses anyway.

Quick Ruff for Memphis

2008-09-12T12:26:00.001-04:00

Here’s a quick ruff for my Memphis idea. Since this is a pivotal game for both teams, I’m doing a “climb the ladder” theme. The to of them will be fighting while clinging to the rungs. Ruffs like these often take extra time cause you want the interaction between the characters to be logical and visually sound, and they need to be solidly on the ladder. Initially, there are many lines sketched and as I settle on where the characters final position will be, I line it out with a heavier line.

Lots to do this week

2008-09-10T14:35:00.001-04:00

I’m still trying to figure something to do for Marshall’s game against the Memphis Tigers. The Tigers are reeling after a 29-point fourth quarter melt down against Rice last week. There’s unrest and frustration and perhaps a little dissention, although though not confirmed. I was toying with the idea of putting the Tiger in a straight jacket, but it may be too severe an image for our purposes. Regardless, Memphis appears pretty soft on defense, having given up 40+ each game.
Well, sure, the Herd gave up 51, but THAT was at Wisconsin. Mistakes were the killer there — not the defense. So, I’ll look into an idea where Marshall must avoid mistakes, as there’s no telling what they’re up against with the schizophrenic Tigers.

Although the Herd doesn’t play WVU for a few weeks, for publication purposes, I need to get the cover of our upcoming special section “Thunder on The Mountain” done early. So here’s a quick rough for that for you to enjoy while I’m working on a Memphis Tigers idea.

Finish on Push Comes To Shove

2008-09-06T23:30:00.002-04:00

Push Comes to Shove ruff

2008-09-05T10:38:00.003-04:00

Here's my initial ruffs — concentrating on Marco's posture as he pushes (hopefully not in vain), the badger's expression and a non-descript bulldozer.

I separated the dozer and Marco's interaction with it so I can get the best posture for Marco without the dozer's distracting bulk.

Don't get pushed around

2008-09-04T09:33:00.005-04:00

Good job last week Herd!

The idea this week is big — really big. Big Ten powerhouse Wisconsin is Marshall’s next big challenge and, well, the team knows how to use its size to its advantage.
Last week it pushed its way all over the field against Akron — and when all was said and done they had amassed over 400 yards on the ground. They only attempted 10 pass plays — I guess figuring if they can’t be stopped on the ground, why go to the air — keep going and control the clock. The Badgers offensive play calling leaned heavily on the run, calling the plays in chunks of six, ten, seven and eleven straight. Wisconsin’s clock control netted them a 35:49 result.
It all starts with a heavy and experienced offensive line, which to the man out weighed Akron’s defensive line by nearly 40 pounds, and the Zips linebackers by nearly 90 pounds. It also helps that the Badgers run a Power-I formation featuring the 259-pound fullback Chris Pressley and running back P.J. Hill, who is listed at 236.
Marshall’s D-line is negligibly lighter than Akron’s, but the Herd linebackers are significantly more stout.
So long as the Herd can tackle well and hit hard, it shouldn’t expect to give up 400 yards on the ground.

By the way, Wisconsin’s defense is 20 pounds lighter than the Herd’s on both the line and in the linebacker corp. So I bet their team scrimmages are interesting.

Finish on Chip On His Shoulder

2008-08-30T01:54:00.001-04:00

A Revamp for the “Redeem Team”

2008-08-27T12:24:00.003-04:00

Yeah, I know — it’s an Olympic year, but the sentiments are appropriate.
And with that in mind, I decided the “chip” wasn’t big enough — hence, it’s now more the size of a tree trunk. So in making it more dominant, I was allowed to change the perspective significantly and get away from the “face-off” composition.
I believe that if time permits, you should look for an atypical perspective that supports a first-person angle, this is our team so the perspective is always from Marco’s point of view.
Secondly, the perspective should promote the overall concept to be as dynamic and effective as possible.

However, it doesn’t always work out that way.
Here’s an example of where I screwed it up:

Marshall was playing at Furman in 1995 — a place where their record was 1—8.
During a brainstorming session, someone made the comment of “Marshall heading into a snake pit.” So going from a “Raiders of the Lost Ark” idea, I tried to recreate the scene where Indiana Jones reacts to the snakes covering the floor in the Well of Souls. Bad idea. In the film, the scene cinematically shows us the snakes on the floor far below — backs up to allow Jones to turn to face the camera and display his reaction. This didn’t translate well, as I only showed the snakes and never got the all-important facial reaction from Marco. This flub inspired me to make every facial reaction important.
Secondly, you can’t really tell he’s looking into a deep pit — looks more like a box or window. Sorry folks, I’ll try not to do THAT again!
By the way, Marshall won that game 31—6.

Bad Time to Come to Town?

2008-08-26T10:02:00.002-04:00

With an awful 2007 season to put behind it, the Herd should be motivated to stomp all over any and all competition this year.
Think I’m wrong? Check out the team’s official athletic site. It features an impressive movie intro touting the team’s proud history, its legacy and the fact that it has the personnel for great things this year. “This Is Herd Country!”
Motivation? Yeah I think so.

So a good opener for any Division I Bowl Subdivision team is a lower Championship Subdivision team — unless you’re Michigan.

With that note, we remember Marshall also lost to New Hampshire last year — it’s lower division opponent.
However, New Hampshire came in as a highly competitive and decent team — much like Appalachian State did in Ann Arbor.
This year the Herd opens against the Illinois State Redbirds, a 4-7 team needing to replace several offensive starters and with big concerns in the linebacker corps.

So my initial idea here is the “face-off” motif that you know I love soooo much — I’ll be looking for ways to make the composition not so diagrammatic, but for now … Marco will have the proverbial “big chip on the shoulder, and I am toying with the idea of having a New Hampshire Wildcat gloating somewhere in the background.
That may be too much — and make things confusing, though.

Stay tuned.

Its coming ...

2008-08-01T18:30:00.002-04:00

Been a while, folks.
Things got ridiculously busy as I had planned to do the Oak Ridge Boys for their concert advance. But I didn't get time and we changed our coverage slightly. But guess what? — I'm going to do it anyway — doing them would be too much fun.

But for now, some nice folks have been asking me what have I got going on the Herd's upcoming season.
That's right ... the end of this month! I'd better get crackin.'

My general take on this upcoming season is that Marshall should be plenty motivated. But aside from wanting to erase the memory of last year’s ongoing problems, injuries, lack of experience and resulting dismal record — I believe there is something more they should use to bring out some justifiable aggression.

Oh I’m sure as their pride will want to expose the fact that last year was a fluke, consider the following actual conversation:

“The C-USA Preseason Coaches poll just came out and the Herd was picked to finish fifth.”

“Wow, fifth in the conference is not too bad. Things must be looking up!”

“No. Fifth in the division.”

“Huh? Waitaminute the division only has six teams … What the … Fifth?!”

Apparently the belief around the league is that Marshall’s performance last year was no fluke — they absolutely stunk last year and there’s no reason to expect anything better from them this year.

Now there’s motivation.

If this isn’t an angry and aggressive season, then there’s something definitely wrong.

Finish on Hatebreed

2008-06-26T08:20:00.003-04:00

This was fun. I kept the lesser important aspects simple and rough, such as the bodies. I feel it worked appropriately to the bands aggressive sound. Despite the roughness, there's enough sculptural detail in the faces to give the piece the solid look it needs. The T-shirt slogan Jasta wears was an idea I had joked about with writer Chris Mitchell. We later decided it would be fun to include it: While researching the band, the majority of online images featured the band in black shirts -- and some with similar verb-age. The type font on the slogan is called "bluecake," and was done using a Photoshop technique of a cloning stamp set to "lighten" at 100%. I had the type reversed out of a black box scaled to the desired size in Freehand. I then imported the box into the image over to the far right -- what would be considered "off the page." Then using the cloning stamp, I lightened the words into the t-shirt -- then simply cropped out the black box.
Enjoy!

Quick ruff for Hatebreed

2008-06-24T18:50:00.002-04:00

Front man Jeremy Jasta will get the biggest head and after collaborating with writer Chris Mitchell, thought we should have a “colorful phrase” on his black shirt.
Note that I play up the size of heads to emphasize the faces and bodies are of much lesser importance. I’ll be doing the Oak Ridge Boys in a week or two and am considering rendering them with no bodies at all.
More to come later.

Hardcore Hatebreed a change of pace

2008-06-20T14:30:00.002-04:00

This week’s Entertainment Tri-State section has a planned story with Connecticut-based hardcore punk band Hatebreed. The national act will be dipping down to Huntington in between dates in Cincinnati and Columbus.
We had planned to run the standard submitted publicity shot.
But being the kind of thrash metal group they are, they have an look inherent to their musical genre’. Aside from their look, they have really good faces that I can’t resist.
I hadn’t ever done a caricature of a group like this and welcome a change of pace from the numerous country music acts I’ve done this year. Needless to say, I’ll be listening to a lot of this group while I work on the piece — with headphones of course.

Stay tuned …

Finish on Carrie Underwood

2008-06-12T09:31:00.002-04:00

A Question of Beauty

2008-06-10T13:01:00.002-04:00

Here’s a question I’ve received from folks on several occasions:
“Which do you find more difficult to do — a caricature of an attractive person or a caricature of a “less-attractive” person?”

My answer is — they are equal in difficulty.
The key to doing caricature is not based in the degree of a pleasing countenance, but in the proportional relations between whatever facial features the subject is blessed with.
I seem to remember a quote that may have been attributed to Jimmy Durante: “It’s not the size of the nose, but rather how it’s arranged on the face.” (My Google search couldn’t shed any light on the author.)
So that being said, this week we’re doing the lovely Carrie Underwood who will be in concert this Father’s Day weekend.
Stay tuned to see what I do.

Finish for Free-For-All

2008-05-08T07:27:00.002-04:00

Free-For-All: Second Ruff

2008-05-07T12:46:00.004-04:00

Now that I’ve gained some space between the characters, I’m better able to specifically designate what each of them is doing in the composition. The white spaces between the characters will add an airyness and flow that would have otherwise been bogged down and confused their actions.
More importantly, I have the option of making their heads as large as possible — as this is where I’ll spend the majority of my efforts.

So I better get crackin’.

Free-For-All: First Rough

2008-05-06T17:14:00.002-04:00

At first glance, this is an extremely confusing rough, but it also includes my adjustments with not too much erasing of the elements I decided against.
At the top of the sketch you can see I scrawled “undertaker,” “katie” and “kenny.” Under each I wrote down a short list of items each is to use as a weapon. Undertaker gets a chair (of course,) Katie can wield a deadly cooking utensil (like a ladle — cause a knife is too violent and too obvious.) As I researched Kenny Chesney, I found out he had injured his foot in a stage accident at the beginning of the tour, so I’m putting a cast on him and letting him swing his guitar.
Now, in this compact composition, I’ll need to gain a little breathing room, as I want these character’s faces to be the main attraction. Note that I’ve included in the image, gray arrows that show where I want each combatant to move — away from center. I’ll work this til I’m satisfied the composition can work visually and it’s logical to the action. Then I’ll do a tighter rough, fleshing out the particulars and post it Wednesday.

Enjoy this now and hear me later!

So Much To Do

2008-05-05T18:30:00.002-04:00

In this week’s Entertainment Tri-State, Mr Lavender is serving up a whole lotta good stuff to do this weekend, from local cuisine queen Katie Lee Joel’s appearance at Border’s Bookstore, to a Kenny Chesney/LeAnn Rimes concert in Charleston. Don’t forget about the Saturday morning Marshall graduation followed by a WWE smackdown at the Big Sandy Superstore Arena featuring the Undertaker (among others.)

With so much going on, I’ll compose one of my favored “free-for-all” fight scenes with three of the featured participants.

First of all, I’ll get the Undertaker, (cause, you know — that’s what he does); and I’ll pit him against Katie Lee Joel wielding a soup ladle. Then I’ll drop Kenny Chesney into the mix. I may place a Camden Park rollercoaster as a backdrop, cause there will be a special Mother’s Day discount at the gate.

While I'm gathering my research and visual reference, you might want to limber up before the weekend.

FInish for Derby Day Parties

2008-05-01T07:25:00.002-04:00

Happy May Day folks. These derby horses came together fairly easy and the incorporation of the racing colors really made the image pop more.
I was able to spend a little extra time to make sure the grill surface (with unidentified food) and the color of the wine inside the bottle looked right. Earlier on in the process, I decided not to worry about the horses lack of ability without opposable thumbs -- just float the wine glass and the BBQ skewer -- that justified my inclusion of the oven mitt.
Enjoy!

Derby parties coming

2008-04-30T13:23:00.004-04:00

This week’s Entertainment Tri-State cover is a quickie drawing on the upcoming derby parties around the area this Saturday.
The initial idea was to have a horse and rider, but with the horse rearing up with a glass of wine in its hooves.
However, I wanted to convey the idea of a party with grilling out and several horses around. So I came up with the first rough.
I also briefly came up with the notion of including a television (for them to watch the festivities) but after sketching it out, I realized its inclusion would make the composition feel clunky.

Now in the second rough, I’ve moved the wine horses to the foreground and placed the grilling horse (sounds weird doesn’t it?) further back. This gives the composition more visual depth. Since it is a quickie, I’m going to try to minimize the number of detail horses — those horses that I want more attention drawn to. I may end up doing a grayish background mass — which is a way to wash in the illusion of a crowd of horses without investing a lot of detail and time.

Here’s just a quick mention. As I started to draw my horse heads, I didn’t like that they were coming off “mule-ish.” These thoroughbreds are an elite group and needed to exude that sort of dignity and aire. Check out my before and after.

I also think it worth mentioning that in drawing horses, it can be challenging to get the body structure right, otherwise your horse can come off looking like a big dog. That will be a challenge as I create horses that can cook on a grill and pour wine into serving glasses.

More to come later … but not too much later.

Finish on Appalachian Film Festival

2008-04-17T08:35:00.001-04:00

Submit your art to The Drawing Board blog

2008-04-16T15:28:00.000-04:00

Got some art or illustration you'd like some feedback on? Have some nice stuff lying around your art table, you'd like to see get more exposure? Got a nagging question on improving your illustrations? Well, consider this an open invitation.
Submit anything you'd like feedback on with a little verbiage to our news illustrator Thom Marsh at tmarsh@herald-dispatch.com.
He will periodically post some of them to his blog, complete with feedback.
To view his blog, go to www.herald-dispatch.com. Click on More Blogs at the bottom of the page.

Appalachian Film Fest: Second Rough

2008-04-15T16:12:00.002-04:00

Here’s a better flushed out version of the previous rough that I’ll likely use for the finish. I made the ball cap change I mentioned earlier and, in the same vein, updated the megaphone, to a bullhorn. Adding the hillside helped a lot as well.
The part that is crucial, though I’m not going to enjoy as much, is doing the tedious sprocket holes on the rolling film — making sure they line up across from each other and have the proper curvature, and a reasonable thickness (so they look like actual holes with film-edge depth, and not like square shapes on the film’s surface. I won’t deal with putting actual images on each film frame — I may lose my mind …
One other thing I changed was after I did the single film strip, I realized it look a lot like a rollercoaster track, so despite the additional tedium, I’ll place a few more partial film strips to create a “cascading like water” look. Also, to this end, I raised the raft and all above the “water” to give it more action.
More later.

Appalachian Film festival rolling in

2008-04-14T16:34:00.003-04:00

Dave Lavender is doing a preview for the upcoming Appalachian Film Festival and suggested the idea of a whitewater stream of film coming out of the mountains. I thought it a good idea but wanted to put someone in a raft coming down the film rapids.
A caricature of someone wouldn’t work, cause the person would need to be widely recognized by our readership. So I decided to go with a “generic” film director-type guy, with a megaphone, ball cap and heavy-soled workboots. Note in the rough that I put one of those, artsy beret-type hats on him (I don’t know if its an actual beret) but after having done it, think the director’s ball cap smashed down on his head with oversize sunglasses would work better. I’ll need to leave enough room to fit a camera as well.
Here’s a quick rough, where I’ll obviously need to go in and put the mountains around, so he won’t look like he’s riding a rollercoaster.
I’ll also need to be mindful of where to put the obligatory headline and copy.

More to come soon.

Finish on David Allan Coe

2008-03-20T08:21:00.002-04:00

David Allan Coe, from what photos I found of him, has a very diverse look, which despite the diversity, is consistently textural. What I mean is, he has a lot of things going on from the beads woven into his long scraggly beard to the multiple tattoos up and down his arms. These tattoos, I chose to omit for the most part, aside from a few quick doodley scrawls. With his signature rebel guitar, the basketball and the Easter basket, there needed to be somewhere for your eye to take a rest.

David Allan Coe catching all for Spring

2008-03-18T13:53:00.002-04:00

This week’s Entertainment cover story is a hodge-podge of Springtime events, with a headliner of singing country outlaw David Allan Coe. Add to this the last opportunity for skiing, March Madness and Easter events, staff writer Dave Lavender gave me the idea of putting David Allan on skis with a basketball and Easter basket. With not a lot of time to work with, it sounded good to me.

I don’t remember ever seeing a picture of David Allen Coe (until recently), but his classic song “You Never Even Call Me By My Name” was a party anthem of ours at Eastern Kentucky U. Oh, the late night choruses we enjoyed!
Anyway, here’s a straight-up ruff of Dave’s suggested idea.

More to come…

MercyMe finish

2008-03-09T13:30:00.004-04:00

Hey folks,

Computer problems resolved.

Enjoy!

MercyMe in progress

2008-03-05T16:51:00.001-05:00

Here’s a quick rough showing where I’ll generally place the band members — obviously making front man Bart Millard the largest guy. As usual, I place the heads first and let the rest of their bodies and instruments flow around as secondary importance. I’ll not be too concerned with these things being in correct perspective. Their use, other than the obligatory, is to enhance the overall flow around the image.
More later …

MercyMe sort of like Aerosmith … uhh, let me explain

2008-03-03T15:04:00.002-05:00

Hey folks, Good news! The outstanding band MercyMe is coming to Huntington, meaning there’s an opportunity have some fun in caricature. As I’ve posted before a little seminar on the process (see my Jan 17—18 postings) where I used the band Aerosmith as my example. I’ve been a fan of MercyMe for a while now and although they don’t look anything like Aerosmith, their faces are dynamic and interesting enough to put together a fun illustration. Check out the photo of the band. Compared each face to the next one and note what about each face makes it different from the next — head shape, eyebrows, nose size, etc. The most even-featured is, perhaps, guitarist Mike Scheuchzer (far left). Also, in regards to Barry (shaved head) it’s not good in an illustration like this to just draw a hairless guy and have it assumed to be Barry. The challenge is to make him recognizable as Barry, even with hair — or better, a hat.
But the main problem with doing a caricature of a band with this many members (6) is trying to give each face equal size and space. In the Aerosmith, it was less problematic because the composition with the five members is less blocky.
Check out the caricature I did some time back of Diamond Rio who have equal members (6). While still rendering the bodys as secondary to the heads, I staggered them to give a more interesting composition. However, this time with MercyMe, I’m going to try to make the overall composition within the image flow even better by varying the head sizes a little.
More on this later.

Finish on the energetic Martin Short

2008-02-10T08:52:00.002-05:00