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