Wedding Invite! Bad Drawings #101 - #135!!!

Finally! Okay so it's now uploaded... And full of bad drawings. 35 to be exact!



All the drawings are mine, but it was Ar who colored them... So yeah... I can't begin to cut into it... there's just too many. But there ya go, 35 at one time! Bad Drawings #101 - #135!!

"The Dude, Pinned" BAD DRAWING #100!!!

Okay, yes, I have actually drawn since Bad Drawing #99... but I wanted to hold off so #100 would be one worth mentioning...

I know I SAID #100 would be a video, but I haven't been able to upload it yet, and since I'm tired of waiting to post a #100 drawing, I'm going to forgo the video and post a drawing I did for a local art show...

"Holy Shit, you got in ANOTHER art show?!?!"

Calm down chappy. To get into the show, all I had to do was something in the theme of "The Big Lebowski"... So I could have sketched a bowling ball on a napkin and made it in.

Anyway, "A Million Bad Drawings" is in another show, and that's worthy of a #100 post in my books.


So what's the piece?

DRAWING #100! "The Dude, Pinned!"

It's like a trophy for being awesome

So the idea for this piece came to me as I was in the closing sale of Zellers and found an old bowling pin from their cafe's wall. I bought it for 10 bucks thinking "I can do something Lebowski with this".

My art work shop... the dirt covered common area of our condo...

I took the pin home and spray painted it white... I wanted to get rid of the AMF markings, and knew I would have to seal the hole that they put in it to screw it to their wall...

 The back was cut off to have it sit flush to the cafe wall...

I also bought a plaque to attach it to - make it like a little trophy you can hang over your bed.

I sketched out a test drawing to be used on the pin... one that I could transfer on and then ink over... I wasn't completely happy with it... face was a little short and wonky, the shirt collar was wrong... but I figured I could fix all that when I transfer it onto the pin.

The fingers in this version look MUCH better than the flat ones in the final...

I then redid the pin striping on the bowling pin...

Thanks "American Restoration" for showing me the best way to do this...

...and stained and sealed the plaque.

Finally I transferred and attempted to ink "The Dude" onto the pin. Holy shit what a pain. The pen I usually ink with smudged when I did a test. I wouldn't be able to seal the final inking. So instead of my nice smooth pen, I had to use a black Bic. It was shitty and bumpy. Oh well.

Augh... those fingers! In my defense the ink would NOT TAKE to that side of the pin... no idea.

I finished it up and sealed it. When I sealed it, the ink turned purple. It was weird, but looked kinda cool. Ah well.

When I dropped the piece off at the gallery they asked how much I wanted to sell it for. I couldn't answer.

They take 50% commission, which seems CRAZY. So in order for it to be worthwhile to me, I would have to put it up for $400... which is nuts. But 50 % is pretty standard for gallery commission, so it's not really surprising.

When I did the "Deighton's After Dark" art shows I took NO commission. I didn't even consider it. It was just cool to have a night to show peoples art... Help the artists out (cuz artists are notoriously broke). I figured I didn't put any work into the art, why should I take a cut? However, I wasn't renting a space, and all money was made on the bar... so different worlds... ah well.

Anyway, it is unlikely people would pay $50 for this, so I just left the price blank. Maybe I'll change that when I get to the show, I dunno.

SHOW INFO!

HOT ART Wet City
Pop Up Gallery

presents

FK IT DUDE

Featuring art inspired by the Coen brothers film "The Big Lebowski"
Opening Night Party Friday September 21, 2012 from 7-10pm
752 East Broadway, Vancouver BC

Art submission deadline Thursday September 20

 

http://hotartwetcity.com/fk-it-dude/

There you have it. Bad Drawing #100!!

999,900 to go!

More BAD coming...

This is DONE! I may now have some more time on my hands, so hopefully we can get back to some BAD DRAWINGS!

The 100th bad drawing is coming..........

Welp, the big 100th bad drawing post is coming... probably tomorrow... And it's a doozy.

The 100th post will be a video... the video that's been mentioned a few times... the video that is my wedding invite!

Did I actually improve at all during that drawing task? Well we'll get to that...

That 100th post will mark a new era... I have tons more I will be posting...

And a few ideas that will hopefully keep me drawing more... cuz until just this last week, I don't think I've picked up a pencil for a month.

Time to upload the vid to youtube.

Bad Drawing #99 - "Wedding Character Designs That Never Were"

So I finished the drawings for the wedding invite last week, and will post something about all those soon. I guess it will fall under the "100th Bad Drawing!" milestone (or "Milly stoe nay" as I like to pronounce it)

Until I get to all that, here is a quick doodle I did at my desk today for shits and giggles. I was thinking back on what I had done for the invite, and thought that overall it was way too complicated for my drawing capabilities, and therefore the characters ended up looking like they came from a Vancouver film school animation project.

 So I tried to do the drawings super loose and shitty, and came up with this:

So looking back at what I've done, vs. what I could have done, this loose version probably would have taken a lot less time, and I wouldn't feel the need to make excuses for the shitty drawings in the final project... cuz they would be purposefully shitty.

Oh well.

 I probably would have over thought it any way and ended up with the same VFS looking project in the end.

Bad Drawing #99 - "Wedding Character Designs That Never Were"

Bad Drawing Update!

I've been crazy busy trying to get this wedding invite done, and will soon update with some more bad drawings, but for now, here is a nice little preview of what's to come...

I had to take individual photos of the drawings to use as place holders in my video edit while my Girlfriend, Arlyn, colors them... So much work... so many bad drawings.

Cabin in the Woods contest results....

 Well I gave it a shot... I entered Bad Drawing #98 "Creepy Octo-kid" in the www.aintitcoolnews.com Cabin in the Woods contest (see here for blog entry)

At least I got a runner up!... (I'm the 4th drawing down...)

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/55453

From "Quint" (the guy running the contest):

"Now here are some runner-ups that I like:

....Ellery Van Dooyeweert’s creepy tentacled-footed kid with a bowlcut. There was a lack of children-related horror coming out of those elevators, now that I think of it."

Can't argue the winners... The Indian guy looks pretty damn good.

I GOT MAIL!

 Yup, today I got my book order from Amazon.ca. I ordered the book "Drawing Words and Writing Pictures - by Jessica Abel and Matt Madden", on the recommendation of Bryan Lee O'Malley...

an even newer classic, this book blew me away. It’s essentially a college course in a book and contains many great ways to think about writing, drawing and everything in between. I was already an established pro when I got this book, but I still learned a lot from it. Jess and Matt are great teachers. They also have a sequel (like an advanced, second-year college course) coming out very soon and I’m excited!!!!

-Bryan Lee O'Malley


I have this weird dream that I'm gonna try and do a comic one day, and I figured this book may get me going in the right direction.

The point of this blog has always been to get me to draw more. Whenever I see really early work from a lot of my favorite comic artists, it's always amazing to me how much they've improved from the first drawn panel of their first comic, to the last panel of the most recent comic. I guess I feel maybe I should have my first panel of a first comic...

Anyway, whenever I get this wedding invite work done, I can start focusing on that venture... but there's a lot to do...

Page 1 of the script I'm drawing out... gah.

More drawings from said wedding project on the way... and as soon as I can post the finished, I shall.

Creepy Octo-Kid - Bad Drawing #98

www.Aintitcool.com is having a little "Cabin in the Woods" contest for a "visual companion" book... Not sure exactly what that is, but it has all kinds of background on the movie... design... script... anyway I WANT IT.

I want it because I loved the movie, and I love Joss...

Anyway, the idea of the competition is as follows:

"Now, for you arty folks, I want to see an illustration (a quick sketch or a rough doodle will suffice) of a monster of your own design in the Cabin in the Woods universe. I know that’s a tall order given the film, but I have faith in you."

Sounds like another MILLION BAD DRAWINGS contest to me!


This is what I sent in:

You know, as I step back from the drawing and see a photo of it, some of the problems are a little more clear... HOWEVER, I still like it. It's rare I like something I draw, but I do like this. Fuck ups and all. (By fuck ups I mostly mean the tentacles... they bug the shit out of me, but I had no idea how to draw them... this is where you use reference kids!)

Anyway, I needed a monster, something that I would hate to see come at me in the cabin. Well I find creepy kids terrifying... I also find bowl cuts terrifying. Kids with bowl cuts are the worst... so I figured give it a blank stare and tentacles and I would shit my camping shorts should I run across it at a cabin.

Drawing #98... Octo-kid.

CARDED at the Gallery Gachet!

So "A Million Bad Drawings" has finally broken into the art world. Last Saturday night at the "Gallery Gachet", Lot-O-Bots made it's way around a crowd, being traded for what I can only assume were broken dreams, wads of cash, or "You take this crap robot one, and I'll let you punch me in the cock".

Wow... Made it into print! it's like a real blog now.

So as you walk into the gallery all the cards are displayed, front and back, in clip frames along the walls. You can use these pieces as a guide to what cards are available for trade. It's also good to check out competition, or if you didn't get in, to say "WTF? THIS got in and I didn't?!?"

If you follow the giant pink arrow, you will find a furry pink box that you can jam your fist into and pull out a pack of cards.... and only for 5 dollars. That's a pretty good deal considering the part of town this show is in - most of the other furry box's you can reach into for 5 bucks will just get you AIDS.

Don't be shy! Get your whole arm in there buddy!

Vancouver's artsy crowd...

My parents came out to the show to check out my piece. I pretty much guilted them into it. They spent all that cash on my art classes when I was a kid, they should get some pay off. 

Mika doing some trading...

So my card wasn't the ONLY piece of brilliance that night... I had a few friends who were at the show as well, being awesome artists, as usual.

Jenn Brisson and Indy Astete piece! (I have TONS of Jenn Art around the apartment...)

Megz Majewski! (As well as Megz art...)

Peter Ricq! (We have two originals of this guy's stuff on our walls)

I don't know this guy... but I like the art...

And so the first ever art show "A Million Bad Drawings" took place in, happened. Now back to sketching. I still haven't hit the first 100 bad drawings after all...

look at those arty hands... like I never worked a hard day of manual labour in my life.

-EL

Drunken Proclamation Rough... Bad Drawing #97!

Ugh... this didn't work at all.

Continuing on with the wedding project, I needed a drawing of me at a window drunkenly proclaiming my plan to win the heart of some girl... This did not work out (the drawing... not the plan... though the plan only half worked.)

Okay... a lot wrong here on my first go. First off, I don't look drunk really. That is not drunk face.

Second, it is WAY too busy and shitty in the background. intersecting lines... crooked tables. It pretty much all around sucks.

The plan now is to redraw it and leave almost everything out of the BG except for the shitty drawing of Kev and the couch he is sitting on.

Also, what the fuck is going on with the hand holding the sill?!?!?... the fingers to right to the wrist.

The triumphant arm in the air I'm pretty sure connects to NOTHING if you followed the lines down to the shoulder area. Maybe I should try some structure.

These were SUPPOSED to be doodles though... really rough like. I get too wrapped up in having it make sense, and therefor it starts to make no sense at all.

ah well... REDRAW!

Bad Drawing #97!!!

An honest to goodness Artist?!?! LOT-O-BOTS! Bad Drawing #96

So there's there's this art show in town called "Carded" where artists submit their work and, if chosen, their work is turned into a cool little trading card. The idea is that you go to the show - whatever night it is - and buy a pack of random cards for 5 bucks. You then walk around the show and trade cards with people... collecting the ones you want.

The people who put this show on do a similar show called "Hot One Inch Action" which is the same idea as "Carded" but with little 1 inch buttons. When Arlyn, Mika and I checked out the button show a few months ago, I thought it was a pretty good time and figured I would attempt to put art in on the next show.

Well the next show turned out to be this "Carded" show. I knew about it a month before the deadline, but I didn't actually sit down and draw anything until the last day (I'm lazy like that). The day before it was due I was sitting in a meeting, remembered the deadline, and I just started doodling in my sketchbook. I liked the doodle enough that I took a pic and sent it in. I actually tried to get Arlyn to color it for me, but she thought it looked fine black and white.

Well success! 150 people submitted, but "Lot-O-Bots" was one of the 50 to get in!

Take that you THREADLESS jerks.

Anyway, My ego is now through the roof, and will probably remain that way until the night of the show when I hear people walking around asking "Will you trade ANYTHING for this stupid robot shit card?"

My first official art show drawing outside of Highschool... "LOT-O-BOTS! - Bad Drawing #96

Check out http://hotartcard.com/  for more info on show night!

ARGH. Drawing is haaaard... fux. Couch Drunkies! Bad Drawing #95

OK, so all I need is two guys on a couch. No problem right?

Here's what I've got so far...

Seriously... cannot draw this for the life of me.

Should have drawn more, TV'd less, these last 15 years.

Stay tuned... or TOONed! LOLZ! - fuk u interwebs for making me write that.

UPDATE!

So this is as it stands right now.... I went over it with a dark pencil and tried to save it. It looks shit.

BUT... What I can do now is flip the next page over and use it as a base to start again.

I used to be an assistant animator at Dreamworks, and my job was to go over shitty animator drawings and make them look good. However, even shitty animator drawings at Dreamworks was a HELL of a lot better than the best drawings I have here, so there was more to work with.

It's not TOO hard to fix a slightly-off line on a Keith Baxter drawing (his drawings are damn near perfect to start)... Especially when your desk is covered with hundreds of drawings of exactly what the character needs to look like...

That said, I will now attempt to make this drawing useable. Bad Drawing #95... "Couch Drunkies"


How I kept a job in animation I'll never know.

Kick Ball - Wedding W.I.P. Bad Drawing #94!

I came across this vid today, and while I'm not a fan of the song, I quite like this guys illustrative storytelling.

What I'm working on right now is a drawing based story, and I could only wish my drawings were as expressive as his. I kind of lose it on the expression bit.



I haven't exactly been updating like I said I would. I will tomorrow for sure. For now, here's just a small, shitty sketch I quickly did in my notebook that is part of a bigger drawing I will put up tomorrow.

It's a scene where I kicked a nerf ball into my GF's face.

Bad Drawing 94.


*As an aside, I'm getting grief about not updating with the sketch-a-day book I got from Jenn and Teen last year... I will start updating those to... soon.

So lazy.

Back to the BAD!... Bad Drawing #92 and #93

Welp, I took a little break from drawing... mostly out of anxiety over having to draw mine and Ar's wedding invite. However, pressure from the lady - and time running out - has forced me to pick up the pencil again.

THIS time, I'm going to actually put the project up in progress, drawing by drawing, until it's finished. God help me. I'm not a good cartoonist. I'm trying though... GET OFF MY BACK!

The previous project to this wedding one was a Christmas gift for my friends. I'm slowly going to leak pictures from that little project as well, starting today.

Now, last post (DECEMBER) I put up a single image from that Christmas project, Bad Drawing #91... Well in the final project it was colored... so I figured I would just throw that up!

That was colored by Arlyn, who the girl in the pic is supposed to represent...

This image is ALSO from that same project... Bad Drawing #92 - Myself, Hurley and Boomer.

Also colored by Arlyn, this is a point in the poem where I am looking out the window with our two dogs, Hurley and Boomer, who are Boston Terriers (they have been represented on this blog many times)

Am I happy with these drawings? Ehhhhh.... not really. I definitely don't hate them, and I wasn't too embarrassed to put them in the book and give as a gift.

So the deal is, the wedding invite I'm doing is also being done in this style. Since I'm not 100% happy with the style, especially the way I draw Arlyn, I figure I've got to figure out a better way to capture her on paper before I get fully going on the invite.

This was another of my attempts... unfortunately she looks 12. Bad Drawing #93 - Arlyn: 30+ going on 12.

I'll get it figured out! I have to.

Tomorrow I go pick up a sketchbook to get started. Funz.

Hey so how many more til a million?