"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!

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"

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!!!

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?

Sour Arlyn... Bad Drawing #91!!!

I have this HUGE wedding project coming up, and it requires a LOT of drawing. A LOT. The worst bit is, I have to draw myself and Arlyn.

I've never been a good cartoonist. In fact, even when I DID excel at art (grade 12) it wasn't cartooning.

This wedding project is all about tooning things up. Luckily, before I even get at the wedding project, I have one other project that also requires tooning.

So here's one of the drawings from said project...

Not bad, not great. The nice thing is, I can SEE where the problems are, and I kinda see how to fix them. Too bad I can't fix that it looks REALLY film school... it's just where my skill set is at right now.

When this project is complete, I will put all the final drawings up on here, and explain how they all work together. The crazy thing about this last project, and the future wedding project, is my style keeps changing from drawing to drawing. I keep changing how I draw Arlyn and I.

I hope this little project that I'm just finishing up here on will be a good warm up for the wedding one... Hope...

Bad Drawing #91 - Sour Arlyn Knitting

Poor Hurley! Bad Drawing #86!

Look... I know I haven't done anything worth while (or even not worth while - but with effort behind it) in a long time, but I've been busy.

I've been busy, and that leads me to not draw. When I'm MOST busy I usually shut down, do nothing, and watch a lot of TV.

However, I did find myself drawing today, so I took a pic and uploaded it.


I did this while trying to call a vet clinic to get a second opinion on our dogs fucked up legs. Hurley needs to have an operation to fix his bad knees, a costly one. He has one knee that is kinda bad, and one that is so shitty painful he won't even put pressure on it anymore - It just sort of hovers in the air.

Anyways, I doodled on a pad at my desk as I awaited a call back...

Bad Drawing #86 - Our Poor Hurley

"Thomas Birthday Card" Bad From The Past!! Bad Drawing #85

I've never posted this oldie, but since I have nothing else to post right now (cuz I haven't drawn in a bit) I figured I'd throw it up. I'll get to this whole drawing a million drawing things soon... I'm kinda focused on some writing stuff.

This was Mika's 7th Birthday card. She's turning 10 this year. I have not improved my drawing skills at all in the last 3 years.



Mika ... Bad Drawing #85

Teen-tini and Jenn-tini! Bad Drawing #74!!

Rolling along with the sketch-a-doodle assignments, here is last weeks "Martini Party".



I had originally wanted to do two people at a party, all stylized and such... like the Madmen DVD covers... but alas... I settled for cutesy cartoony again.

But see? It's Teen and Jenn... And Jenn has her drunk eyes and hearts cuz she gets all "I'm gonna tell her I love herrrrr"...

This weeks doodle is still coming!

Heather vs the Wipe Board! Bad Drawing #62!

I walked into the editing office to find Heather marking up the Wipe board.

Bad Drawing #62!


Yeah I dunno either.

9,999,938 to go.

My Brother's Family - A Christmas Present! Bad Drawing/PAINTING #57! (Also #43-56!)

I wanted to try and paint my brother's family as part of their Christmas present this year. I'm not a very good cartoonist, but in the end, I think it actually turned out alright.

It wasn't without a few REALLY bad drawings though.

Trying to get the essence of Troy, Caryn and Jordan is a terrible task for someone who is in no way good at caricatures.

First I attempted a rough of how I would lay it out (Bad Drawing #43) . I realized at this point that I had no idea what pets they own, so I had to give him a call. You can see my awesome notes along the side.

2 short haired cats (grey and brown) and 1 bird. At one point I was going to just draw Jordan holding a dog as I believe she should probably have one eventually.

My brother was the hardest to draw. this was my first attempt (Bad Drawing #44)

I don't actually see my brother as a muppet. I don't know why his mouth looks like that. I figured that even if the drawing looked nothing like Troy in the end, as long as he was wearing a Bears shirt, someone would figure it out.

The 3 top drawings of Troy ( #45, #46, #47) Weren't working at all for me. I got all angry, cursed my inability to cartoon, and then finally drew the one on the bottom (#48 ). This actually said "Troy" to me. I went with it. The two Caryns (#49, #50 ) drove me back to wanting to stab my brain.


TROY!


This sketch (#51) sort of had a Caryn vibe to it that the two scribbled over ones (#52, #53) were lacking... DONE! I gave structuring it out a little better in the bottom doodle(#54).

Jordan I drew once (#55 ). Girls are hard to draw.


So pink colerase in hand, I drew them all standing together (#56 ).

They needed to be standing closer together, so I photocopied the drawing, and cut and pasted them in tighter.

I then transfered to Canvas to paint. It is not lost on me that Caryn's arm seems to meld right into Jordan's arm. BAD. I didn't realize until after it was painted.


Painting was the hardest part. It's not at all as easy as Family Ties makes it look. Also, I don't really know color theory. I have been told I went very saturated with my color choices.

Damn right! Saturated bitches.



Bad Drawing/PAINTING #57!

Sha la la laaaaaaa

"My hand... is... terriblydrawn!" Bad Drawing #37

During our lunch break at work, Kevin and I have been watching original Star Trek episodes. They are a little slow paced, but awesome none the less.

I'm kinda getting why people think Shatner is so cool.

Anyways, Kevin was sick today, so I couldn't watch without him. Feeling empty with no Trek to watch, I doodled this on the Edit room wipe board:



Yeah I don't know what happened with his hand holding his little tri-corder talking thing (whatever it's called). I can only assume it got mangled in some awesome fight, and this drawing captured the moment he first noticed, as he pulled out his phone thing to call for help.

Yeah.

Pumpkins! Drawing #20, 21, 22,

Okay so they're not exactly "DRAWINGS" in the traditional sense, but they started out as drawings... these would just be the final renderings...



This would be the first pumpkin of the year, and the second pumpkin I've ever carved. It's also the only pumpkin where I took a picture of the original drawing.



And here it is, lit up, with Arlyn and Mika's pumpkins... pretty sweet.



This is the "Jenn Taylor" Pumpkin and next to it is the "Teen Chan" Pumpkin. Jenn and Teen are in Singapore, and pumpkins cost about 30 bucks there, so Arlyn and I carved a couple for them. I did the worried Taylor pumpkin, Arlyn did the Happy Teen pumpkin.



The final pumpkin I did for the year was for a Monster Factory competition. Monster Factory is a Toronto based company that makes wicked monsters.



You can check out their monsters at www.monsterfactory.net. I recently bought one for Arlyn for our 3 year anniversary... pretty awesome.



But back on topic...

So Monster Factory had a competition to make a monster pumpkin - bonus points if you did a design with one of their monsters. I chose to do EMMIT.



This was the final design...








Next post... some truly, TRULY bad drawings... ones that will live up to this blog's title.

UPDATE

So turns out I won the Monster Factory contest!

"And
the winner of the Monster Pumpkin Carving Contest is Ellery
VanDooyeweert! Ellery's incredible Emmitt pumpkin, with its light-up
tattoos, really impressed us. But we also fell in love with all the
many other great monster pumpkin entries! Thanks to everyone who
entered for getting so creative for this contest. Hope... you had a fun and festive (and spooky) Halloween!"

These two monsters will be coming in the mail soon...



Well then... Maybe "A Million Bad Drawings" will have to enter MORE CONTESTS!!!

Ummm... More Bad Drawings Coming?!?! (Also Drawing #15)

The intentions to do more bad drawings exist, but not so much the DRIVE to do them.

Often, at work, I'll walk by my pal Jeff Bailey's desk and see he has a page of little, awesome doodles sitting in front of him. I'll look over them with jealousy. Generally, when I try to doodle, I'll just stare at the page until I get frustrated enough to just say "fuckit" and just start watching TV instead.

Or I get super frustrated and draw out my feelings in sketch form:



Yes... I know... What's up with the hands? I DON'T KNOW!

I can see them in my HEAD, but when I put pencil to paper, THAT happens. I know it's wrong, but still, can't seem to fix it right.

Ah well... one more bad drawing out of my system. I'm really going to have to pick up the pace or I'll never be the artist my Mom thinks I am.

Funny, I just noticed in the background, behind my head, you can see discarded drawings I attempted by failed at, leaving me want to stab myself with a giant pencil in the first place. They are like the "Ghosts of Past Bad Drawings"

Drawing #12 - E-WALKING INDIANA - Attempt 1. Fail.

This did not turn out AT ALL like I wanted. I kind of killed it.


Looking back at the original sketch/doodle, I lost everything I had liked. The doodle had problems, but at least it was closer to how I saw it in my head.


This just looks stiff. Flat.

It reminds me of when when I was a kid and I would get a coloring book from a cartoon liked (like He-Man), and everything looked wonky and soul-less.


I'm gonna try this again though. I think I know what I did wrong.

And Sorry Indiana, I will try and capture your awesome-ness, without making you look like you've been taxidermied into a pose.

What I learned from this:

Maybe I should try to figure out my perspective first. Arlyn pointed out that Indiana wasn't walking right, so I had to fix (thus all the erasing). when you can't answer "Where's the horizon line?", You're doing it wrong.

I don't know how do draw fur. Especially in a somewhat Cartoony drawing.

I also don't know what style I'm going for.

This is all very frustrating.