Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Merry New Year Sam!


Mabes we'll see each other in another french class or near Battery Park city. In the meantime please accept this token hors deuvres of my esteem. A bacon wrapped asparagus (that didnt fall on the floor or anything)...to enjoy with the champagne you so generously provided.

Its great to know you.

-Mich

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Dumpling Shark P2

Here's the 2nd part to this strange and colorful exercise.
Heres a Link to Part 1...just in case!

Old King Cat was a Merry Old Soul...

Desperately trying to get into the impending 28 Days Later Xmas frenzy. Here's King Cat waving to all his loyal subjects in the Great Hall (aka - under a tree stump in a vacant lot) before the Holiday feast.

Line work - 10 min with an ink brush pen.
Color- 1 episode of Tough Love.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Tea Tasting Tuesdays

Yesterday afternoon at my job, an optional seminar was given to provide people with an introduction to different kinds of tea. We tried a few different kinds and the woman who spoke even brought dark chocolate for us to enjoy with some of the teas we tried. My new favorite is Pu-erh tea. It was lovely. I had my ink brush and sketch pad with me soooo....I drew a simple sketch to go with the notes I took., then colored it at home.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Dumpling Shark P1

Im not entirely sure where the inspiration for this came from but...here it is. I think I had a craving for dumplings. Still trying to get a hang of these water pens. I did this as an exercise that involved no pencils. Just pen and ink, watercolor and a wacky idea written up on the fly. Stay tuned for part2!

update - Click here if you wanna see P2

Friday, November 06, 2009

Alien sketch

Tried an Alien™ sketch with the ink brush yesterday. He's either crouching or stumbling drunk, Im still not sure.

draw time - approx. 8 min. coloring time - approx. 15 min.

Thursday, November 05, 2009

Gimme some Dimsum!

A friend recently showed me a pen he bought that had a brush tip to it. It works off of replaceable ink cartridges and I was curious so I got myself one. It feels great but kind of strange in that Im used to having more control of my line when I draw. I think I'll enjoy getting used to it. I was craving some dimsum last night so I drew this pic with the pen and colored using an Aquash waterbrush set. The paper was from a packet of blank postcards with the address lines, etc printed on the back.

Total time: 2 hours + one plate of left overs.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

More Doodlage

Trying to get back into at least, semi daily postinks. Here is a werewolf type character.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Daily Doodle - NOW IN 3D!!!!

A coworker and good friend ( and awesome 3D artist) approached me months ago asking if I would mind if they used one of my past Daily Doodles as a 3D exercise in Maya. I thought it would be cool to see the end result of that and here it is! I LOVE it! I think the 3D version pose looks more like he's running than the original, and it reminds of the Wacky Wall Walker toys that kids would bring into grade school and toss at windows. I hope we can have more of these collaborative efforts in the future.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Happy Birthday to ME!!!

Yep, thats right. Today is my birthday and I figured Id open it up by posting this piece I was working on last night to commemorate the occaision. So, here's to XX more years of working hard, playing hard, finding happiness and getting back on track with my fitness goals which have been lying by the side of the road somewhere for ages.

ball point pen, scanned and colored in Photoshop.
total prod time - two glasses of Chilean white wine.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Not so Daily Doodle

So I got a diagnosis on my neck pain and it turns out its a pinched nerve. While I suppose it's not such a big deal in the larger scheme of things, it still made me feel kind of...old.
Anyway, I posted a doodle that reflects my crappy state of mind lately. I'll shake it off and will soon be back to making regular posts.

Monday, June 15, 2009

How I did it.

For the strip below I started with this rough. I had an idea and began to sketch it out panel for panel on graph paper. This was so I could work out angles and placement of the characters. I did this with a ball point pen and just worked with a very sketchy technique. I also tried to work out the placement of word balloons and text.

After I was happy with what I had, I redrew the same thing on larger paper with a technical pencil and after that, inked it with Microns of varying point sizes, paying the most attention to thicker, strong lines. After that i scanned it into Photoshop and colored it. Had a lot of fun trying to select a bright and crisp color palette.

Comic Strip Exercise

These past few days I've been reading the book, Making Comics by Scott McCloud. Ive really been enjoying it and it's great to see all the best techniques, approaches and concepts that go toward making comics and graphic novels in one place. I tried to create an exercise for myself that involved taking some of the concepts discussed in the initial chapters. These included, camera angle, posing, pacing a story and establishing mood.

I think maybe the frame treatment is a little distracting but I had a lot of fun making them and I think it also helps illustrate the somewhat claustraphobic feeling you might get from living in a bunker on alien infested Earth. Ive also come to the realization that Im no letterer..but that was fun to do also! :}

Next time though, I must remember to draw Professor Bing's dreadknot on top of his head.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Daily Doodle

Do ducks get tired of the rain? I LOVE grey, cloudy days but this is a bit much, even for me.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Daily Doodle

So I was in this meeting today and before we really got down to biz, people were talking about what they do to keep bugs out of their apt...you know, mosquitos, roaches, etc. One person mentioned that they try to refrain from killing bugs as often as possible and will instead attempt to evict them..aka. ball em up in a napkin and throw em out the window...lol!

Another person mentioned how a possum had invaded their LA apt...so I was compelled to doodle one with glowy night vision eyes. Then I got to thinking...you ever notice in documentaries about nocturnal animals, how they always show some lemur or small animal munching away on a hapless bug? And the way theyre scarfing it down always makes it look just nummers!

I dunno..maybe it's just me.

~ ballpoint pen on lined paper - scanned and colored in Photoshop

Monday, June 08, 2009

Semi-Daily Doodle

Now, while Im seriously hoping my diagnosis will NOT be matching what you see in the X-Ray above, I finally had to go to the Dr. to find out what in blue blistering barnacles is causing so much pain in my neck...no not THAT Tony...geez..Anyway, due to the fact that it hurts more to be sitting up than anything else, there might be some serious gaps in posting...until the painkillers kick in. Sorry folks.

~drawn and colored in Photoshop.

Sunday, June 07, 2009

So I didnt win this one either...but at least I got in

This is another Contest I signed up last year I think. It was to design a creature (or UMA) that would then be modeled and brought into the game Little King's Story for the Wii which should be coming out sometime this week. It's kind of like a cross between The Sims and Harvest Moon and has so far garnered some pretty decent preview/review articles.

Sadly, I didnt place in the contest...but I DID make into the In-Game Monster Museum. No free copy of the game coming in the mail for me though...ppthhhh! Click here to visit the Little King's Story website's UMA page where you can see the other entrants as well as my own...mine is allllllllll the way at the bottom....I was ROBBED I tells ya!!!

Thursday, June 04, 2009

Daily Doodle - Warrior Boy

After a crazy day I am surprisingly still inspired and am reading a book on Developing your own graphic novel. I'm really glad to have something that encapsulates the process and there are lots of handy bits of info. I have already gleaned some really great ideas for how to tell my next story. Im also working on this book by Will Eisner and find the visual format to be an outstanding way of communicating the concepts therein.

That said, I bring you Warrior Boy, a sketch I made that playfully illustrates a simple and quick fighting character possibly for a fantasy game.

~Ballpoint pen on lined notebook paper - scanned and colored in Pshop.

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

I didnt win...

So my job had an inter-office contest to see who could develop the best new property. The prize would have been two thousand dollars and the winning property would also be featured in an interstitial ad on TV. The bad news is I didnt win..the good news is I get to keep the property I created so I guess thats a good thing.

Monday, June 01, 2009

Daily Doodle

So lately Ive been reading a lot of manga by Osamu Tezuka, and a recurrent theme I often see is the character of the old, surly grump with the heart of gold...so I thought Id make one (since I kind of fancy myself one at heart). Here is Proffessor Bing, mad scientist and inventor. Im not too crazy about the color scheme and Im a lil annoyed by the fact that he kind 0f reminds me of Dr. Eggman from the Sonic the Hedgehog series...but other wise Im really quite happy with it for a 1st time sketch. Part of my inspiration comes from my oil painting teacher from High School Mr Bing. An outstanding teacher and some of my first exposure to the brutally honest world of crtitique.

~~ Drawn with ballpoint pen, scanned and colored in Photoshop.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Daily Doodle


Circus doodle...tired...gonna watch Family Guy.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Daily Doodle

Yesterday I found out a colleague of mine was let go from where I work and it made me so sad, so I thought this doodle would be most appropriate. Goodbye Dave. You were one of the hardest working, helpful, creative and awesome people I've ever met, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for everything you were trying to do. I'll miss you terribly.

Friday, May 29, 2009

Daily Doodle - Zombies had invaded the land and all I had were flip-flops...

...so my best friend Fred gave me a pair of combat boots. That was all I can remember of the dream I had last night. Most of this interior is made up but I like to think of it as a cozy bunker that we chill out in throughout the zombie onslaught, drinking Guinness, eating ramen cooked on our modified wood burning stove, watching Godzilla dvds and stomping zombie butt with my steel toed beauties. I also think my dream was telling me something too...always make sure you take time to appreciate your true friends.

That aside...I have taken the liberty of hiding not 1, not 2 but 10 zombie nekos in this piece!!!
Can you find them all?

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

So uh.....Daily Doodle much?

You ever have those moments where you're convinced someone has a voodoo doll of you and is sticking pins in it, lighting it on fire, letting their dog play with it, hitting it with rocks, etc? Well thats what happened to me recently...but Im all better now..so that said I proudly reveal...Wonder Squirrel. Originally his spots were supposed to be red and blue like a package of Wonder Bread (hence the name) Anyway..lazy...so here he is!!!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

The Daily Doodle

Wouldve posted yesterday but was detained by drunken shenanigans. Here we have a smoky alien snail surrounded by a giant rat head and a vomiting stick figure. I imagine the sickly stick (wo) man should have been me last night. But I was saved by some slightly watered down Tequila I think.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

The Daily Doodle


My Firefox is sick...uploading this was annoying.

Monday, May 11, 2009

The Daily Doodle


Lately Ive been hearing the siren song of the Newport cigarette and so far I have fought the urges successfully. This doodle was done during a past, failed quit attempt I made when in the full throws of what I can only assume was a smoke induced case of lung rot. I present to you the Smoke-a-saurus Rex.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Video Game Character or Comic Book Character

Seeing masks for sale in China Town plus weird feet shoes a friend from work had on plus the encore presentayshe by the winner of the 2009 Miss Pole Dancing Competition inspired me to create this character. A combo pack of grace and lethal sensuality. I could almost see this character being used as a kind of sexy Ninja in a fighting game. Im kinda mad though since the more I look at it the more it resembles the Evil Fox rendition of Priestess Rao from Okami. DAMMIT! Oh well...This is the pencil version which I may ink later tonight. I might lose the braids as I guess it would make it too easy for someone to grab her by one as she's trying to make an escape.

*Note - Im still having trouble getting links to open in a new window so if you go to the pole dancing link please try to remember to come back!

Daily Doodle

Wellp, here's another one. I kinda have to 'lol' when I look at this drawing considering it took 3 times as long to color it as it did to draw it in the first place. I think when I did this one, I was trying to make the person next to me laugh. Can't remember if I had any luck with that though.

Saturday, May 09, 2009

One more Daily Doodle

So after reading this article online about a Wolphin, I became temporarily obsessed with rare and exotic hybrid animals. The image above is my depiction of the fierce and curious Lirrel, a hybrid of the lion and a squirrel. Watch with horror as this one attacks a helpless babe.

Daily Doodle Make-up

Been feeling tired and somewhat uninspired of late so there has been no posting of doodles. I'll try to be more consistent in the days ahead. This is a doodle I did just the other day of a character called Sabre Tooth Gopher Girl. I dont know what she does or why...shes just a super hero gopher woman. The hammerhead shark lurking about above her has no real connection...he's just kinda there.

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

The Daily Doodle

Got up too late this morning to color this one. That damn Riolu totally threw me off track last night..BAH! Meh...it was worth it though. I think I might have been hungry in this one...nothing new there I guess. In upcoming doodles you will see many horses, as they have always been my favorite animal to draw.

Monday, May 04, 2009

Wow! Im really on a Riolu here...waaa waaaaaa

So I did Lucario yesterday so all day I was thinking about doing his pre-evolved form, Riolu! Isnt he cute and spunky looking? This time I did a brighter, more vivid background. I might have to file this under eco-friendly art, since everything I've been drawing lately has been on pieces of cardboard boxes.

The Daily Doodle-Got Swine?

Here is a sketch I did roughly a year ago. Harbinger of swineflu to come? Or simply a moment of self-loathing?

Sunday, May 03, 2009

ok i know I was supposed to be studying but...

As I was putting up the previous picture I did, I ended up knocking over my Lucario figurine.
Lucario is my favorite Pokemon in the whole Pokemon universe so I HAD to do a picture of him doing his best, "What's that boy? Jimmy fell down the well?' look. Here's another set of pics that detail my process. Took me another 2 hours maybe. I tried using chalk for the background color but it didnt really turn out how I wanted...still I think it ads a nice texture to everything. Cute no?

Fire breathing pastel experiment

Ok so I was at Blick the other day and while walking around, these oil pastels in this one aisle started makin sexay talk at me. So I bought a box, along with 5 of these giant luminescent
colored pastel bars...the colors were so luxurious and shimmery I couldnt resist. As a digital artist, I get so accustomed to doing everything with a mouse or stylus, I start to miss what its like to really get my hands dirty. I attached a pic that shows my process which took about 2.5 hours total work time. Im hoping the Mod Podge I put over it will seal the colors and not let them get smudged. Now if you'll excusez moi, my tired fingers and I are going to study some french!

The Daily Doodle

A stressed out Octopus rushing to make his next flight. Ball point pen. Scanned and colored in Photoshop.

Saturday, May 02, 2009

The Daily Doodle

So after doing a Spring Cleaning on my desk at work I decided, rather than throw them out, to harvest some of my favorite doodles and post one every day here on this blog. I dont know if Im going to add color to all of them like this one, but I'll see what happens. I dont know why this one has the word 'reincarnation' at the top...I think maybe I was referring to someone I wanted to have reincarnated as a hapless Cheeto...maybe I was just hungry.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

...and another thing

Here is something else I did a day or so ago. This past Sunday I made the mistake of walking into an art supply store and well...that was that. So one of the things I bought was a book of blank, pre-cut postcards. (Yes I know I could cut them myself) but these were so cool! I also got a new set of Microns and drew this with no pencil first. I think at the time I was wishing for a cure to Hay Fever hence the mad scientist's outburst. I colored it with a set of brush pens I bought at Kinokuniya and hadn't used much until recently. I really like coloring without the computer sometimes. Hopefully the next attempt will come out a bit less muddy.

The Last Biz Cards

So these are the last of the cards I did before the networking event I went to. I started pulling motifs from classic film...for some reason. My favorite was the Alien™ one...HATED to give it away. Overall I only gave around 5 cards out of 20, but I was pleased that they were received well and my friend Tricia chatted me up and told anyone I gave one to the whole story of how and why I made them. The person I gave one to, stared at it for a minute and then said.."You know, there's something to be said for craft". I agree and plan on doing more of these when I have time so I won't get caught rushing at the last minute again.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

DIY biz cards

So on Saturday I'll be attending my Grad school reunion, and I figured I'd use it as a chance to do some networking. Since I have no printer and my old cards are outdated, I thought Id create a set of cards (each with its own sketch) for the sole purpose of driving people to this blog. Here is a sample of what I have so far. As you can see, Nekko is the star of all of them while past characters posted here are also showcased!

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Swimmer Grrl Part Deux

This is part 2 in my strip titled - The Loneliness of the Single Lap Swimmer...maybe Single Lane would be more appropriate. Anyway, I may rescan this panel sometime soon as I did it this morning on no coffee and as a result forgot to erase the pencil lines! CRAP!!!!!

Anyway here it is...TADAA.

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Alien Child

A spoiled, petulant looking alien child who is clearly given anything she wants. I was inspired to create this piece after purchasing the fruit on the left at a Whole Foods I ended up in one day.

I think its called a Citron. The second I saw it I knew I was going to draw something based on it. In fact, the cashier asked that when I finish, I come back and show her what I did.

Ive been back once, but for the life of me, I can't remember what she looks like.
Full circle FAIL I guess.....

Drawn in ball point pen and colored in Pshop.

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Swimmer Grrl Part 1

Another weird product of random thoughts spawned during a morning swim. This will be a 4 or 5 part strip about the embarrassing misfortunes of a lovelourne swimmer chick.

OHAI I CAN HAS TWEET?

Ola! Back from a short break to work on some things that I cant yet post.
I have also gotten on Twitter, so Im kind of hoping it will help get
more of my work seen by folks. Above is the character Im using for my
theme on that page. I figure I'll have some fun with it and change up
the image of SketchGrrl on a seasonal or holiday basis. neow!

Saturday, March 14, 2009

quickSketch

I did this during a meeting...YES I was paying attention to what was going on...anyway...I seem to be stuck in a pattern of cute bat winged things. AAUUGGHH...Total sketch time-15 min.

Monday, March 09, 2009

Bailey Prince of Darkness


Ok when I lived in Queens and had my dog Bailey with me, there was this guy Alex who I became friends with. Our dogs would play together all the time. One day (cant remember why) he started calling him Bailey-Prince of Darkness. I guess it took since I never forgot it. Here is my chibi version of Bailey Prince of Darkness.

Sunday, March 08, 2009

Nappy Natty test



This is a test I did for a one off strip called Nappy Natty the Self Hatin' Hedgehog. After gushing to the 100th friend about this new leave in conditioner I started using, I came up with the idea for this exercise. At one point I joked about how I would freak out if they stopped making it and that I should horde the product as much as possible...what does it mean when one develops such a dependence on hair control? Cant be anything good.
Anyway...i HATE the way this came out. My friend Jason was right...I should have used Illustrator instead of Comics Life...BAH!
Oh well...just an experiment. Next time the layout (and the writing..cant blame software for that) will be better.

Figure drawing + fresh, hot Congee = smiley face


Went figure drawing this morning with a friend at this studio on Spring St. It was fun! It was good to draw from a model again and made me realize that my foreshortening and consistency of line need work. I mostly worked with the water brush set I bought a year ago but almost never used.
Afterward off to Congee Village for Congee and some delicious fried sweet bread...YUMMY!