Few more..

A few more sketches.....

.. using those old the brown sketchbooks...

... and this.

The Beauteous Linda Gretchell, and a few other things...

Here's a few things...

Second Twout witness, the newspaper dubbed her: "The Beauteous Linda Gretchell".

Guitarist John Fahey's song The Beauteous Linda Gretchell ... is rumored to be a tribute to this woman who became famous for her Twout Visitation in the 1890s.  

Funny how few people use the word 'Beauteous' anymore, do they?

I've got over two dozen versions of this pose lying about the studio,

...two women sitting under a tree, one on her tunny, and the other sitting.  No clue what there is about that particular pose that struck my fancy so much.

Yet another 'sam-woman-with-big-hair.'   In this case... her hair seems to be flowing right off the page, doesn't it?

Here's an early page from the Nola graphic novel. There's a few clumsy figures on this page that got away from me, but overall, i still sorta like it.

I dunno about you guys, but sometimes i'll choose a 'more natural looking, yet weaker' figure in a panel,  instead of a 'technically better drawn, yet staler' figure, because sometimes the 'better' one can lose the feeling of who the character is supposed to be.

Does that make sense?

How artists draw our characters feels so subjective, it can feel like choosing different takes of the same song.  Sorta hit and miss. Gains and losses.

I dunno..... i might be overthinking it.

Marbleized Background effect..

Here's a saturated photo of a still unfinished Maxx cover.

Actually - maybe it's already done, but i haven't decided yet.

It uses the same abstract marbleized background i've used before.  It's pretty easy, just pour ink into a pan of water, then dip some bristol board in for a few seconds and slowly pull it out.

Here's the back of the same cover, showing how the ink and water swirl together when you tilt it.

I added a few extra swirls in watercolor pencil, extending the same swirls that the water created randomly.

Here's Chief Constable C.B. McLouden's ground breaking sighting, the first eye witness of the Twout corroborated by three other witnesses, and the first time the mention is made of the Trout retreating by 'flying into the air'.

In the 1960's the Trout image resurfaced in this rare 8-track tape which was a soundtrack to the failed Saturday Morning pilot  entitled the "Bandana Splats"...



.. the Bandana Splats cartoon was a thinly veiled rip off of the popular Banana Splits Cartoon already on Television at the time. Though the Twout is renamed "Fishy", the unmistakable form of the Twout is clear, this time sporting a turtle neck and peace sign to appeal to growing and impressionable counter culture youth market.

- okay, enough of this goofy Twout - nonsense!

Something you've probably never seen...

I forgot all about this, it's a cover for some "Marvel Year in Review" in ages ago, so thought i'd throw  up the printed version here.

And here's the original art for it,

This was probably one of the last things i did for Marvel ~ and just before i started the Maxx series.

Okay, enough nostalgia, now back to the usual 'weird-o' stuff again.   : )

Piles of Artwork..

Here's another Maxx cover. It's one I actually painted many years ago. After we stopped at 35, i just kept drawing covers, some of which only got published as tiny trading cards.

At least now, you can see more of the detail in full cover form, as cards tend to lost a lot of detail.

Here's something i forgot about.. It's both a page from one of the Dana/Nola graphic novels, and Oni did a poster of it too years ago.

The sideways panels are from yet another page from said Dana/Nola project.

Here's a disturbing shot of Nola's dad. Don't worry, he's a good dad. This is just her distorted view of him.

Ever notice i'm kinda fond of drawing character's names in 'logos'? 'Mom' 'Dad'  'Nola' ... 'Julie'  ~ I did Mom & Dad logos too, it an old Maxx issue, where we first meet Sara.

Same art, tighter shot.

Hey, if i don't hurry up and publish some of this stuff, it'll just get hauled away to the dump once i finally kick the bucket.

May as well get some use of before that happens.

Buncha ( 6, actually ) different things..

Breaking up the sketches... just some odds and ends... I've posted this 'Pink Twout' one before, but this is a straight ahead shot.

They've all got nothing to do with each other.

This profile shot is a little different than what  usually do.

An old Marvel cover i did many years ago...

There's something unnerving to me about this one, which is weird because.... i drew it.

Another chickens page. Note sure why, but my woman's faces are usually much more distorted than this,

Guess i just lucked out...

Dana, as a little girl.

a Sketch for a day - 5

Another excerpt from the Twout-a-verse poster..

1906 - As a little girl, Stephanie Aatrole took on of the first photo of the Oculus Spiritus ( 'Eye Creature', in Latin) -

Another example, decades later, was Annie's discovery of an 'eye creature' in the Ojo series.

The connection of Eye Creatures to the Magic Trout remains unclear.  Some believed Eye Creatures have some unknown connection to the Twout,  but others believe Eye Creatures a separate anomaly altogether.

All this goofy-assed minutiae will all come out in some 'Big Book of Trout crap', someday.

For now it can fill in as a 'Sketch', which will, fortunately gets us through another day. 

a Sketch a day - 4

Here's a kind of a abstract and blurred tree. 

Lot of motion in this one.

a Sketch a day - 3

Here's a curious one. Oldest  trick in the book, covering up one eye so you don't have to draw both.

Truth is you can see the other eye under those leaves anyway, flaws and all.

I don't think i necessarily draw women's faces any better now that i used too, but i do think i'm more... comfortable with them, even when they come out flawed.

My drawings,  i mean.

But then, people's faces in real life are full of flaws too.  That's what makes them compelling to try to capture.

a Sketch a day - 2

 

I guess it's a stretch to call this a 'sketch',

maybe more like an ornate doodle?

In 1906 - Mert Fassenbinder ~ aka: 'The Disappearing Man', ( so called, because the only known photograph of his image appears to have mysteriously faded. ) Fassenbinder was  an early collector of Magic Twout, and formed a close friendship of the first three people to have witnesses the Twout, which are:

1888 Lady Soon Limedale,
1893 - Beauteous Linda Gretechell,
1895 - Chief Constable C.B. McLouden

a Sketch a day - 1

 Kinda uninspired lately,

so thought I'd try to build a little momentum...

quickie notebook sketches..