"None Shall Pass!"

Now for something completely different, and kind of "nasty":

So, not a HUGE fan of Monty Python, but the theme for "sketch_dailies" the other day was "The Black Knight" from "Holy Grail". I reviewed the scene from YouTube, and noticed not only Graham Chapman's "Arthur" and John Cleese's "Black Knight", but also the reaction shots of "Patsy" played by Terry Gilliam.(and don't side kick characters always turn out to be the favorites?)  I rolled with that and placed my "Patsy" in the foreground, making him seem to be larger than the other two characters. I also exaggerated the size difference between Arthur and the Black  Knight.  I got lazy and relieved myself of the burden of drawing Patsy's backpack, thus relieving him of the trouble of carrying it. But please take note of the coconut shells.

Oh, and I kept the scene in gray tones, except for the blood, and the Black Knights insignia thing, which is a reference to one of my earlier pieces. See if you can find which one!

A little trivia for my "Universal" peeps: Did you know that the Production Designer on "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" was "Roy Forge Smith", who 30 years later did the design work for the "Ghost Whisperer" series. So he's the one tasked with turning Courthouse Square (Back to the Future's "Hill Valley") into "Grandview" for that series.

Fly The Friendly Skies!

The theme over at sketch dailies the other day was "Wonder Woman". I'm not sure, but of all the submissions, I think I may be the only one to place Wonder Woman in a version of her iconic "Invisible Plane". Here you can see how I worked the pose and attitude of the character separately. I made good use of the photoshop "stroke" tool to create the outline of the plane.

Hope you had a fabulous 4th, with mustard!

The government says I can use photoshop for my coloring. I do sometimes, but this time, I stuck mainly with colored pencils. The theme was "Uncle Sam", so I thought I'd reference a commercial I remember from when I was younger, and maybe one you remember from when you were younger too!

(note: I re-did the "final" version with a blue coat, which is how the character is traditionally dressed.)

Up to his old tricks again!

My latest entry for "Sketch Dailies" The theme was the "Joker". I sometimes like to put my characters in some kind of environment, so I chose a little "carnival" with the Joker as sort of a "barker" character, with a really low, tilted horizon (almost like an angle from the sixties TV series), with some exaggerated perspective.

Rule* of "Thump".

As a lot of you know, I owe a LOT of the progress I've made with my art to my friend Charles Zembillas and his school,  The Animation Academy, where I've actually had the opportunity to be an instructor as well as a student. Below are some sample pieces from a personal project that Charles has been working on since the 1980s. It's a project which Charles is just now preparing to unveil to the World. From the looks of the first piece, part of the story takes place in a hostile, treacherous environment with vicious beasts and rocky terrain, probably full of high, towering Montgomery cliffs! (Charles has a thing for puns, I couldn't resist). The most recent chapter is mainly in "rough" form, as seen in the second piece here. I included it because there's an appeal to the roughs that I really like. It's one of my favorites.  I won't say anything more, as I'd like everyone to click on the link below and peruse the body of work so far for yourselves.

Montgomery Thump

*"rule" here doesn't mean a directive or guideline, so much as it means a "dominion", or a "reign", as in "Thump's going to rule!".