Here we have another menacing fellow. The approach with this drawing was a little different than the previous sketches. It includes a "subtractive" medium in the form of white gouache, which I'm a big fan of. I started using it for my comic Last Caress (which I'll get up on the site here soon enough, I promise). I also mixed in some photo reference, which can help add to the weight of the forms.

​- D

I thought I'd break up this series of horror drawings with something, or someone, a bit lighter. This lady we have here goes by the handle of Bamboo. As you may have noticed by her expression she can have the occasional "mood". Overall though she's a pleasant companion in the studio.

A few of her likes include bolting from room to room in the middle of the night as loudly as she can, beating up her partner-in-crime Cooper as he squeals defenselessly (he's a cat but he squeals), enjoying the effect of her favorite white mouse dipped in catnip, and or course biting human flesh. She's also fond of napping. As I type this she rests comfortably next to my longbox of comics (I believe she too enjoys banned horror comics from the 1950s).

A couple dislikes? Knowingly being drawn and/or photographed (and possibly blogged about behind her back) as well as pedestrian food that does not live up to her status as a feline.

Have a great weekend everybody,

- D

When we're babies our skulls aren't fully formed. They're soft, malleable. They a can be shaped and manipulated.  What shape is preferred I suppose is subject to opinion.

​- D

Everything I've posted this year have been drawings from my sketchbook - or sketchbooks with an 'S' as I've accumulated a number of them over the years. There's something exciting about a blank, brand new sketchbook. ​In recent years I've not regularly kept one, perhaps not since college. But I always had one and would use it for preliminary sketches on larger pieces though I found it difficult to simply sit down after a long day of drawing... and for just myself draw some more. I also take on other duties outside of sketching, drawing, or painting such as writing and this added to my distance from a regularly maintained sketchbook. However, last year I made a year-long commitment to sketch, draw or paint everyday, which I did (and so far I've predominately kept that routine this year as well). That included weekends, holidays, birthdays, vacations, Sundays or sick days. 2017 accounted for 365 straight days of sketching, drawing, or painting. And much of that was working within a sketchbook. Within those pages you get to explore. Areas you don't delve into you can and mediums or tools you've put down or are curious about you can pick up. It's great exercise and now I find it's something I don't think I can go without. If it's been a while for you too do yourself a favor and start filling up those pages.

- D

Here we have another unusual character. It's funny seeing all these characters in one spot like this. Quite the motley crew.

I don't typically think of myself as a "cartoonist" and I don't typically aim to draw in a cartoonish stye, that is to exaggerate features beyond realist proportions (these past drawings being the exception). But I do find that approach interesting and I love artists that can do it really well. Darwyn Cooke comes to mind. His characters are larger than life, and their persoalities shine through without even speaking a word. His Parker adaptations are fantastic and his single issue of Mark Chiarello's passion project, SOLO is so, so good. I've returned to it over and over again.

Be sure to check his work out if you haven't already. He was a wonderful storyteller and as versatile as they come. The comics medium is a bit emptier without him around.

​- D

There's something a bit unnerving about a waiter with a bow tie and vest. It's possible it's become a horror cliche, after the best frightful waiter there is, Delbert Grady, was portrayed in The Shining. Then again, was he the butler? Or the caretaker? Or was that Charles Grady?  I'm not sure.

Why so creepy? Maybe it's the fact that they have access your food and drinks and you never know when something could have been slipped in unknowingly. Or maybe it's the fact that they're dealing with something so intimate as food - what could be more intimate than something you've trusted enough to go into your body - and yet you never really know them, though they act so friendly, hospitable and kind, like a good friend. Or maybe it's because at the end of the day they're working for tips and a 20 spot could go along way towards something nefarious.

Just saying. Champaign anyone?

​- D

There aren't too many things more intriguing than a dangerous lady.

It could be that drop of blood on the corner of the mouth or the black decorative collar around the neck; or it could be that calm, steady stare, or the fact that she doesn't seem the least bit bothered by the scars on her face or the hair in her eyes; but either way this drawing came across with more edge than was originally intended.

​Sometimes you just start and see what happens when you get there.

- D

Happy Friday all. Continuing onward here we have a gentleman - or madam actually, could go either way - who apparently said "aaaah" with too much enthusiasm during a doctor's visit and ended up needing some stitches.

The sketches I've been posting this week have been drawn with one of my favorite new (or somewhat new) art-making toys, a Pentel brush pen, or "Color Brush" as they call it.

It's a great tool if you're a lover of ink as I am and if you'd like to merge the two-part process of drawing with ink - that being the bottle of ink and the brush. It feels and looks like a brush, keeps it's tip surprisingly well, and offers a wide variety of mark-making. The downside is that you can go through the ink cartridges in a day (or an hour). Being the jerry rigger that I am I found a way to inject ink into the pen. You just need to puncture a tiny hole in the top and use a thin needle to inject your ink, my preference being Speedball Super Black. Give the it a try sometime. Tons of fun.

- D

When working on a drawing I find there's two opposites of a spectrum that one can bounce between. One is working from reference - the Humphrey Bogart sketches for example. The other is working from one's own mind. Both of these have their own strengths. When working from the mind you get to tap into ideas quickly, immediately - shrinking this, extending that, adding stitches over an eye. A wrinkle here, a wrinkle there.

The challenge is merging the creativity in your mind with the laws of the "real world" we can find in photos. Laws like gravity, lighting, form, anatomy and so on. The dynamic between using what's in your head and/or what to seek reference for has always been interesting to me.

Alex Toth, the legendary comics artist, said that one should always seek reference, and his artwork reaped the rewards of this for sure. But he also merged this with his imagination, and did so seamlessly.

- D

Of course, you can't have a series of Humphrey Bogart drawings without having Rick Blaine from the iconic and timeless Casablanca.

There are many movies that lose their luster, fit best within the era they were made, or are just less accessible to their audience over the years but Casablanca is not one of those movies. It's both as easily accessible as anything out now and a time capsule of the world at the time without being a "period piece" (one could read Rick as a metaphor for the United States' policy of interventionism during WW2).

It's full of rich, interesting characters one after the other, both lead and supporting, that contrast each other in ways that feel truly authentic and organic -  Lund, Renault, Ferrari, Strasser, Sam, Ugarte, Brandel, and two of my favorites, Carl and Sascha. And of course Bogart plays off all the characters, accentuating their personalities with his own.

Casablanca is suspenseful, romantic, dramatic, and punctuated with bright spots of humor from beginning to end. And to this day there are moments that are as touching as a moment can be.

It's one of my favorites and continues to get better and better with time.

- D