...guess who's BACK ?

Landed safely in my new home/studio... more or less. Sorry a week turned into several.. Was able to get online again today for the first time in weeks - sheesh!

I know you probably already saw this Bonsai painting above in the sketchbooks, but here's the non-digitally fudged version.  I think I just made it more narrow. I'm actually thinking of dumping non digital version most of he art in those two books into a future larger collected book down the road.

Okay - NEW crap: i grab a few pics I took *before* the move... so here's some overdue peeks at the Batman Mad Hater crap. I'm told the trade out right now.. which may be stupid posting these b&w pages, because you can check it out in color on the stands anyways... but what the hell..

It goes all across the board, from more noodley semi-detailed bat stuff..

To wildly simple cartoony styles, so it's all over the board, style wise.  Since Bruce Jones who is a personal hero of mine, wrote the story.  So,  unlike my stories, this story may actually make sense! : )

But on the other end of the scale.... this one may be kinda interesting - remember that old mixed media post I did awhile back? Well, many of those close up pics were from THIS one single painting.

Here's the back of the two different pieces of bristol i used too, mostly because i ran out of room after I painted phallic looking little fellah there in the corner..

Here is it right side up. I call it Phallic Duplicity.  I figured why even try to pretend it's one painting anymore? Why not try to emphasis the two different styles/sizes?

Promise i really did *try* to keep one side simple... and deliberately wanted to throw everything but the kitchen sink into the other side...

But both sides are pretty busy.

Overworked.

The above pic is pretty dark so some of the softer hues get lost - here's a netter pic of it.

Then all hell breaks lose on the left.

and ... Yeah, that IS pink fur in the upper corner.

Glad to be back! Cool of everyone for not giving up on me.  - the followers even kept growing even while i was gone - spooky! : )

I'll try to make it up to you the next couple of weeks with a ton of stuff i did before the move I've been sorting through. Funny how even in the middle of a chaotic move, creative crap never slows... it just seems to always keep happening..

Especially the paintings.  It's weird... like they've a mind of their own. I hate how pretentious that comes off as, but it's sorta true.


Expect things to pick up.. posting wise... this week for sure - i'll make it up to every 'bored' one of you! ; )

Slight break for a Week...

Yeah. I know some of these things are pieces i did a few years back or posted before, some are new -

But this will have to do ~ afraid i'll have to skip a week of posts since i'm moving to another house this week.  

Will be back online in a week or so... Meanwhile,  enjoy a few of these goofy things to check out..

Thanks

- Sam 

Sketchbook Stuff

I'm crunched for time right now, so i thought i'd throw up a few old sketchbook pages.

These were around the time of the Broadminded story i did... note the girls belly aching to pop out a little?

Some of the 'plot points' are littering these art doodles.. sometimes i'll do them in color, one for each 20 page issue or chapter.... Obviously i lost more time on Charlie's shoulder and bicep and the Ira's girlfriends outfit that i did anything else..

above, just doodling between the of blue lines in the notebook.

I always like looking at how different artists-writers plot a story... it's always different. Some let the visuals set the pace, some write it out, or a little of both. It's telling ... what key words a writer uses to sum up a sequence. Be it either thumbnails or written sentences.

Interesting that above,  Four Women was part of a group of ideas... Legs too.. 'Kalamazoo' eventually morphed the Soccer Queen story in later Maxx issues.  Special Ed was something my Cousin Dave and I kicked around, then abandoned.

The 'Mother Daughter' idea went through dozens of several incarnations... which finally grew so large i split it into four parts ~ which later became the four stages of 'Dana' life.  ( I know, where *is* it, right? Coming SOON, i promise!) It's hard when things seem 'alive' in my head, but before they come out of my pen of pencil, they don't exist yet for you guys, huh?

What was 'Men and War' on that list above?  Don't even remember.  I do know 'guy' action stories, politics or war issues never hold my attention like dysfunctional mom daughter stuff does, so i imagine any War plots... just faded away.

I sometimes did these on the backs of pages too, so some have bleed throughs that look kinda ruddy.

Lucky a few are on one side, so their less busy.  I also was fiddling with those colored pencils, soft leads, a little color... but mostly just seeing where a sharpie took me.

There's always something 'revealed' about sketches, it's so personal.  Flawed.  It's like nothing's polished or fixed yet. It's all raw and exposed there, for better and worse.

I always thought my fashion stuff dated way back to Zerogirl, (remember the square headed mom?)  But i can see some of that fashion stuff scattered even these old sketches too.

Fashion designs just never pops up much in super hero comics, do they? So it never found an out let. Just bubbled away. These are a lot like everyone else's doodles, which is the point. Just letting the our imaginations go where they go.. even if it's a dead end.

Batman Figure: with humongous 'Sam Kieth' Jaw....

Just for fun, here's a link to a new DC Batman Figure that's been in the works for a while. Looks they've finished it up, which is cool. Below are my rough sketches for it... duh.

And some specs based on that by the DC folks.

This is always weird when I see something i drew in a figure.  It shows me how not used to thinking through a 3D drawing... esp. when i face what depths a sculpture has to wade through.

There's lots to cheat when you draw on a flat surface, isn't there?

It's based on some of my goofy art, so it's obviously maga-distorted.

Here's the uncolored rough version, where i asked for the ears to go back a little bit.. we even when further back with the ears.. (as you can see on the finish figure in the first pic above).

Typical humongous 'sam kieth' jaw and all.

They done a few of these black and white figures, so i was flattered they even asked.

Also big thanks to Shawn Knapp over at DC for lobbying to get this sucker made - thanks buddy!

So that's it for now.

- sam