Like many artists, I draw, doodle, scribble, and sketch all the time. Over the years I've spent many a lazy afternoon, dull class period, or ridiculously slow work day sketching. Sometimes I draw to pass the time. Sometimes I draw to help me stay awake or alert by keeping my mind occupied. And sometimes inspiration just hits me. The fact that my computer wasn't working for the majority of 2009 also helped me rediscover pencil and paper as a medium in more recent years (And is, perhaps, the main reason that this page is the largest in my portfolio).
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I don't think I've ever seen Necros this happy. Heck, I didn't realize up until now that there was even a "happy" sector in his brain. Whatever has him chortling away, we know this: it can't be good. |
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Beach Heroes - Main Trio, Main Trio Color Version, Belt Boy Chilling, B-Team These drawings were inspired by the summer vacations of my youth. Belt Boy rocks a wacky ensemble between his signature belt, palm tree trunks, beach towel-cape, and use of sunglasses AND goggles at the same time. Titanium Maiden sports a 50's look with her cute retro sunglasses. Cannon reveals his rarely seen scrawny build. Athletic Dino-Mo has a lifeguard-esque one-piece. Dodge is ready for sports in his swim shoes. And Enticia and Sugar Rush are simply showing off what they've got in bikinis. Gelatin Boy's not built for swimsuits... y'know, without legs and all. |
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As the picture's title implies, this sketch is an homage to Disney's Lady and the Tramp. I thoroughly enjoy drawing my characters when they're not in "hero mode", and romantic pictures like this are no exception. I'm just a romantic sap at heart, I guess. |
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These are characters that already exist, unsurprisingly. However, they have all been drawn in original poses. I took the characters and broke them down into basic shapes - cubes, spheres, cylinders, etc. - and used them to put the characters "back together" in new poses. Note the light pencil lines beneath the dark ink outlines; they reveal the basic shapes used. You can see how Yoshi's head is made up almost entirely of spheres, how Sonic's head has a crosshair to position his face, or the shape of Vash's legs behind his trademark coat. I used visual guides for Daffy and Vash, being made up of the least simple shapes, but the rest were drawn from memory. SpongeBob Squarepants, Yoshi, Raphael, Ren, Daffy Duck, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Vash the Stampede are copyright of their respective owners. |
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I love wild takes. For those of you who don't know, a "wild take" is when a cartoon character reacts to something wildly in a way that a real person could never duplicate due to the limitations of physics. Y'know, when someone's eyeballs pop right out of their sockets and then fly right back into their heads... or when someone's jaw drops five feet until it hits the floor... or when someone is so angry that their skull pops open and a steamboat whistle blows as their face turns tomato red. Ahh... wild takes... Cannon, unsurprisingly, has done most of the wild takes in my comic. Here's a picture of him doing a particularly wild take. I think there's a little Ren and Stimpy influence in his teeth. |
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Like Cannon, I have no upper body strength. My record for chin-ups - back in high school - was two. When I made attempts to do chin-ups in gym, I looked a lot like Cannon does here. Good grief. |
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This unusual, mouthless, birdlike creature was the result of my trying to come up with some sort of common creature that could be found in a video game. Much like the Mario video game series has pals such as Toads and Goombas, or the Final Fantasy series has Moogles and Chocobos, I figured that a future video game I created could use some sort of simply-constructed critter. Thus, Chixter was born. Below is a figure study showing how to draw Chixter and a handful of variations on it. As you can see from the positioning of Chixter's eyes, this creature was made for 2D games. Despite 3D video games being more common nowadays, I like the idea of going back to a retro, cartoony look. |
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I cast several characters from the 910CMX forums as the characters from Clue. Belt Boy is Col. Mustard with the revolver, purple-haired Tedd (From El Goonish Shive) is Prof. Plum with the wrench, Bay (From SailorSun.org) is Mrs. Peacock with the rope, red-headed Anne (From The Wotch) is Miss Scarlet with the Candlestick, the culinarily-gifted Sam (From The Wotch:Cheer!) is Mrs. White with the knife, and Karl (From Crossworlds) is a pipe-wielding Mr. Green. But who is Mr. Boddy, I wonder...? All 910CMX and Clue characters are the copyrighted property of their respective owners. |
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These two pages of sketches were created during a "mindstretch session", an ad-lib doodling session in which I basically drew whatever strange creatures popped into my mind. I'm quite fond of several. The winged, horned creature on the first page is a cross between a pegasus, a unicorn, a dragon, and a phoenix. The mole-like creature toward the bottom was meant to have a nose whose nostrils resembled angry eyes, in order to scare off predators by simply poking its nose out of its hole. I was very pleased with the way I used the fins with the seahorse-like Hydragon on page 2. The owl was meant to resemble a totem pole, and the patterns might have been inspired by Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire. And of course, the "Caped Codfish" became my Belt Boy's superhero pet fish, Caped Cod, in my comic. |
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This image demonstrates how I can take a facial expression and apply it to different characters. The first column shows a fairly plain smiley face going through a series of expressions. The second shows how the same expressions translate onto my character Belt Boy. The third column applies the expressions to Yoshi; I chose to do a column of him in order to demonstrate that I could apply expressions to a character that someone else created and stay on-model, which I think I did a rather good job of doing. I feel that the Yoshi faces expressed the same moods as the other faces, despite a lack of eyebrows or teeth. Next to Yoshi's face is that of Chixter, a mouthless, birdlike creature I created (See above). While Yoshi's face was a slight challenge without eyebrows and teeth, I had a real challenge with Chixter, who didn't have a mouth - perhaps one of the two most expressive parts of the face. I instead had to rely on the other most expressive part: the eyes. I feel that I succeeded with that. I wanted to do one anime face to show how common expressions drawn American-style translate into their anime counterparts, and I did so with an anonymous catgirl. I also think that this column was a success, because she not only looked like a traditional anime character, but she also still looked cute and feminine even in the most extreme of expressions. Yoshi is copyright of Nintendo. |
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I've provided Belt Boy, Cannon, and the strangest device I could think of... and challenged the viewer to decide what they're saying! Oh, chickens, you are one of the funniest animals around... right up there with monkeys. |
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As I've said before, I love a good wild take. But you rarely see any good wild takes from girl cartoon characters. Why? I'm not sure... perhaps people are afraid it'll detract from their beauty or cuteness if their faces are distorted too much. Well, I'm not afraid to do that with my female characters, so here's Titanium Maiden looking rather shocked about something. |
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This picture was a get well soon message for my friend Chris, on whom Cannon is based. |
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With a character like Dodge in my comic, I couldn't help but pay homage to the movie Dodgeball. In the words of the movie's character Patches O'Houlihan, "If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball." |
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My webcomic is a part of the 910CMX Webcomic Community. Every year, they hold an event called Ka-Vention, in which members of the 910CMX community - be they artists, writers, forum-goers, or fans - meet to hang out, discuss the comics, and play card and video games. in 2009, Ka-Vention hit Pennsylvania, taking place mainly in Philladelphia. I sketched up this little unofficial logo, featuring Belt Boy alongside Carlita from Angel of St. Thomas, another webcomic from 910CMX. |
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At Ka-Vention of 2009, one of the main activities was playing card games, so I was inspired to create this drawing. I wanted to draw some characters besides my own, but was a bit limited in my choices, as I didn't have any images to draw reference from. As a result, I had to draw upon my own memory to draw upon the paper for this picture. I decided to put in Anne (From The Wotch), Lita (From The Wotch and The Wotch: Cheer!), and Lenny (From Accidental Centaurs). I think I did a pretty decent job on 'em. Keen observers should be able to see why Cannon seems to be having a lot of luck at the table. Hope Lenny's not the "sore loser" type...! Anne, Lita, and Lenny are copyright of their respective owners. |
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On one of the many occasions when I draw and doodle, I drew my characters as martial artists. Belt Boy is shown in Karate garb, Titanium Maiden is demonstrating some Kung Fu, and Cannon is dressed as a Ninja. I think I might've been watching Kung Fu Panda the night before... In any event, the picture was eventually recolored for a filler. |
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The Heroes of C.R.A.S.H. go medieval! Belt Boy's look was inspired by Marth, Roy, and Ike from Nintendo's Fire Emblem and Super Smash Bros. games - a look that coordinates well with his gloves and cape. Titanium Maiden is one part Disney princess and one part Zelda, with perhaps a smidgen of Leia for good measure. I was tempted to give her poofy sleeves, but with her massive shoulders, it seemed pointless. Cannon's armor was already fairly knightly in design, I just had to make a few minor tweaks. |
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This was the first time I drew Sugar Rush in a rare moment of calmness. I think I drew her knees a little low and I sorta wish I hadn't used red pen to color her in partly, but I think her head came out pretty good. Not bad for a quick doodle at work. She looks more like the friend of mine she's based on than ever in this picture. |
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Stephen Colbert (Alternate title: "Truthiness") During my 2009 hiatus, I wanted to draw a festive picture for the Fourth of July. What better symbol of America is there than "Mr. I-Am-America-and-So-Can-You" himself, Stephen Colbert? It was an interesting challenge, trying to draw a real person in my signature "Mango" drawing style, while still making it obvious who I was drawing, and I feel that I've succeeded. |
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Tenative Character Designs - Early Heroes, Early Villains, and Early Supporting Characters These are some of the earliest concept sketches of HoC characters. You can see a heavy anime influence in Belt Boy, Cannon and Titanium Maiden (Then named "Girlossis"... what was I thinking?!). Also, notice that the original name of the school was U.A.S.H. - the Utopolis Academy of SuperHeroism. The original versions of Miss Sunflower had her looking a lot more like a physically-reconstructed cyborg demon. Gusto hasn't changed a whole lot, but I kinda miss the pompador I'd originally drawn. Sister Sunflower looks a lot less like a gladiator and a lot more like a certain hammer-wielding video game baddie. Lastly, the gallery of supporting characters features a few rejects - including a brooding Batman parody, a duct-tape slinger, and a face for the comic's narrator - and a few familiar faces. You can see a lot of influence from DBZ's Goku in the early "Dodger" picture, and more Incredible Hulk in the early "Unk". Amaze-O-Man has changed the least of any character. Captain Royal, the founder of C.R.A.S.H., hasn't appeared in the comic yet, so we have yet to see how much he changes...! |
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Titanium Maiden is jumping for joy. Why? I dunno. Maybe there's a sale on XXXL-sized muscle shirts. Maybe it's "new manga" day at the comic book store. Or maybe Cannon hurt himself after making an insensitive remark towards her. Who can say? |
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I like to believe that everyone is, in some way, artistically gifted. Belt Boy's main creativity outlet is designing inventions. Cannon's wit is his medium and his tongue is his brush. But what about Titanium Maiden? She's come to take on some of the quieter aspects of my personality, so I thought of her as the type who, like me, enjoys drawing. Here she is doing an anime-style self-portrait, while seated in a bean bag chair. Note that while most of the picture was inked, I didn't go over her sketch, keeping it in pencil for authenticity. I also have her drawing herself as a "normal" girl, due to her body image issues. |
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I couldn't resist. :) Princess Peach Toadstool and Shy Guy are copyright of Nintendo. |
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After a bout with a rather nasty illness, I did this little drawing of my webcomic's Miss Sunflower, Gusto, and Sister Sledgehammer as the viruses from the Dr. Mario games. The Dr. Mario viruses are copyright of Nintendo. |
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Mousa Toure, the winner of my 2009 Birthday Fanart contest, was rewarded with the privelege of choosing the subject for the site's next downloadable desktop wallpaper. He wanted to see what C.R.A.S.H.'s esteemed faculty looked like when they were younger. This sketch eventually became that wallpaper, which can be found on my Downloadables page. |
