Thursday 16 December 2010

The Unknown


I've had a couple of lovely surprises this year when it comes to movies and comics with the most recent being "The Unknown" from Boom Studios written by Mark Waid with art by Minck Oosterveer.

The book (as described at http://www.amazon.com/Mark-Waid/dp/1934506974#_):

"The Unknown is a detective comic starring master detective Catherine Allingham and her ex-bouncer apprentice, James Doyle. Specializing in science and unsolvable crimes, the series begins with Allingham learning she has six months to live (a specter of death is watching over her) and determined to solve the ultimate mystery of what happens in the afterlife. In the meantime, she and Doyle jet off to Europe to assist a pair of physicists who have invented a superscale and may be victims of the very first Quantum Crime. Tight pacing, plenty of action, and Oosterveer’s moody artwork and sense of framing contribute to a considerable success. --Carlos Orellana"


I love reading a story that is so good you can't put it down till you've finished it. And this is definately one of those books.

The twist Mark Waid has used on a strong female lead detective trying to find out about the afterlife intwined with quantum science, devils and a great train fight sequence makes for an awesome breathless page-turning read.

Plus that spooky devil guy that pops up through the story - Minck Oosterveer has him pinned so well that every time you see him you will feel like checking the room to make sure he's not actually sitting across from you - brrrr!

Minck's art is stunning and superbly suited to tell this tale. His settings and moody inks bring the characters to life with a relish that i haven't felt from a comic in a long time.

If you're a fan of Mark Waid or just want to find out if there is a possibilityof an afterlife pick this book up, i guarantee you'll not want to put it down.

Enjoy!
Rob

Friday 3 December 2010

Pig of a Friday


One of the ladies at work has a bunch of pig pictures on her wall and with a few minutes of spare time i whipped up this little piggy and stuck him on her wall too.


He was a bit of a hit and needless to say i'm quite proud of how he turned out seeing as i have never been bale to draw pigs very well. I did use reference for him though i was amazed to find that he was similar to construct to Wal Footrots head. If you look closely you can almost see the egg shape used to construct the main part of his head.


You have to look closely though. :)


Enjoy!
Rob.

Thursday 11 November 2010

Wednesday Pen Sketches


It really seems to be a pen sketch week this week. Here we have a very cartoon scared guy, two drawings of me; one now and one a little while ago, and a staunch looking 'Rally Mark'.


Enjoy!

Rob

Monday 8 November 2010

Tech Ed Sketches


While attending Microsoft Tech Ed (Geekfest) this year i did a couple of pen sketches of the presenters to see if i could capture their likeness in a quick drawing and here's how they turned out and they are Mir Rosenburg, Rhonda Leyfield & Jason Buffington.
Enjoy!
Rob



Monday 1 November 2010

Bret Michaels - Sketch Monday




Bret Michaels

Saw Bret Michaels (Poison front man and Celebrity Apprentice/Rock of Love) on Oprah today talking about his brain hemorage and by all accounts he's licky to be alive.

I'm not afraid to say i thought Poison was cool in their heyday back in '87 - guess it shows my age - but hey they were a fun, freaky rock n' roll band at the time and they have some good tunes like "Every Rose has it's Thorn", "Your Mama don't Dance", "Fallen Angel", "Ride the Wind" and "Something to Believe In".

So i did a couple of pen sketches while i was listening to them talk and this is how they turned out. I was going for the caricature look and especially with his headband and jooby lips it's not too hard what to pick to exaggerate on him. :)

Enjoy!
Rob

Friday 29 October 2010

Friday Lunchtime Sketching


Some Friday Sketch fun:
Paige Hareb, an awesome Kiwi surfer riding high in international competitions, go Paige!!

And a cow-girl. Love the hats but never really got the hang of drawing them so i thought i'd give it another go.

Enjoy!
Rob

Tuesday 19 October 2010

Put a Cake on you head John!


I've recently been doing birthday cards for my extended family and here's my latest piece, aptly titled "Put a Cake on your head John!". With inspiration being taken from an event early in John's childhood and surrounded by the plethora of things he likes now.


Needless to say he had a good laugh at it and certainly enjoyed it. I really enjoyed making it especially the texturing in the background as i haven't had as much fun playing with different filters and settings in Photoshop in a while.
Enjoy!
Rob
P.S. No AJB for Christmas this year, maybe we'll see the boys back in 2011.

Thursday 26 August 2010

Amazing Joy Buzzards - Stevo


I've been wanting to do some Amazing Joy Buzzards sketches for a while now and this one popped into my head recently. This fella's name is Stevo and he's the bad-ass sword weilding, bass playing, martial arts expert, some also say he may be half Yeti!


Amazing Joy Buzzards is an awesome Rock n' Roll advetnure comic book about a band that battle supernatural forces along with their mythical Mexican wrestler El Champeon. AJB is created by the masterminds Mark Andrew Smith and Dan Hipp (http://www.mrhipp.blogspot.com/)


I'm hoping the new volume Amazing Joy Buzzardss : Monster Love might be out before Christmas but we'll just have to wait and see!


Let me know what you think.

Rob

Tuesday 17 August 2010

Nightmares Competition


I just entered a competition to try and win a sketch by the creator of Lilo & Stitch and to enter you had to create a drawing of something related to nigthmares and so i came up with this:

Not that anything like this has ever happened but i am positive it'd give me nightmares :)


The link to the contest is here if you want to have a go or can watch it and vote i'd greatly appreciate it (especially seeing as it'll screen probably while i'm asleep).

http://www.sketchoholic.com/Talent/member/my_contest_items.php?ContestID=565
The most talented Chris Sanders nightmare prize sketch is here:
http://alohalilo.deviantart.com/art/Nightmare-contest-drawing-175522035?q=&qo=

and his DeviantARt site (if the link above doesn't work is here:
http://alohalilo.deviantart.com/
Happy Nightmares!
ROb.

Monday 16 August 2010

Gir & Cowwy?


A friend of mine who lives in Australia celerated his birthday recently and i wanted to send him somethign fun. Knowing he likes the Invader Zim show and Gir and also cows i decided to do a bit of a mashup and created Gir & Cowwy (it's usually Gir & Piggy you see) :)


It was a lot of fun and Mark really liked it too!


Enjoy,

Rob

Friday 13 August 2010

Wonder Woman

I've never really drawn Wonder Woman before but here are a couple of different attempts:

A slightly cartoony Wonder Woman,

A slim wavy haired Wonder Woman,

A curly haired version and

you might be able to make out a Squee (crazy cartoony) version too.


I had a bit of fun with this though not overly happy with proportions the end result is fairly satisfying.

Happy Friday the Thirteenth!
Rob

Tuesday 27 July 2010

Topical Cartoons

Topical cartoons are always something i have been interested in but very rarely attempt. So after reading about how the Springbok coach was saying he'd have to teach his players to cheat because the referees never gave his side a fair deal in the two test matches against the All Blacks, an idea sprung to mind and here's the result.



Monday 5 July 2010

Instant Inspiration


Have you ever done anything on a spur of the moment inspiriation?


Well this is where this next sketch i did came from. I met up with Action Man Adam (http:/www.actionmanadam.com) created Marc Streeter at the pub the other week and am always impressed by his enthusiasm for comics art and his character.


So a few days after on the bus home i had an inspirational moment and ripping my sketchbook from my back pack I scribbled furiously on the page. It felt great, such a free and easy drawing and the pure joy of creating it was totally magic. No constraints, no expectations and viola! on the page it appeared.


I still can't get over how great it felt to have an idea and blast it out on the page with such enthusiasm. So i hope you like it, i know i sure do.

Cheers,

Rob

Wednesday 23 June 2010

Following your heroes - Imitation for inspiration


I'd been looking at a way to kickstart my drawing again as i've felt like i'd been slacking. It's not often that i try to draw like other artists that i really like but it struck me the other day what would my character 'Rally Mark' look like if i was able to ask another artist to draw him for me?

With this thought in mind (and little financial backing to pursue asking real artists to do their take on 'Rally Mark') i decided to have a go at other peoples styles myself. First up is the remarkable Dan Hipp (mrhipp.blogspot.com) of 'Amazing Joy Buzzards' & 'Gyakushu' fame.

Dan Hipp has been doing some rad drawings of late on his blog and amazingly can use the colour pink to make his drawings look really, really cool! Anyway here's my attempt at his style.

Cheers,
Rob

Friday 4 June 2010

Dennis Hopper

I hadn't even realised he had died but i've always thought that Dennis Hopper was a great actor.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment_and_arts/10223051.stm

Rally Mark fun

Just a couple more ideas playing around with body shapes and wokring on my anatomy skills with my character Rally Mark.
Why is he jumping off a cliff? I have no idea either it's just the way it came out :)
Enjoy.
Rob

Wednesday 2 June 2010

More sketches







I've been working on a few more sketches lately and here's the results.
My character 'Rally Mark' and two more head sketches of Quesada & Palmiotti's 'Ash'.
Cheers,
Rob
(see i am still working on 'Rally Mark')

Friday 28 May 2010

Noh Love

"Noh Love : Leave it all behind" - Tattoo design inspired by David Mack's 'Kabuki'
and Angelique Houtkamp.

One of my favourite pieces i've drawn this year.



Friday 14 May 2010

Two Tattoo's and a Sketch

After reading a book in alocal bokstore about Angelique Houtkamp (http://www.salonserpent.com/Home.html) i had a couple of ideas for tattoo designs and the following snippets are from these works in progress.

One is related to David Mack's Kabuki and the other is a flight of fancy based around the singer P!nk. More will be revealed as i get them closer to the finished pieces. :)












And then there's this fella, a character created by Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti back in the mid-late 90's. An awesome fire-fighting hero called 'Ash'. Though i'd try my hand at him by copying a character design sheet that Joe Quesada produced, and for once he's turned out quite well.
Thanks for reading!
Rob

Thursday 13 May 2010

ActionMan Adam


Action Man Adam

by Marc Streeter

ActionMan Adam is a entertaining introduction to a crazy Canadian character - based in Christchurch, New Zealand - trying to fall in love with every good-looking female within eyeshot. And lets face it who doesn’t want good-looking girls to fall in love with them?

Marc’s knack for witty dialogue and often cringe-worthy situations brings Adam’s personality off the page and with the introduction of a supporting cast (Adam’s flatmate Munter) starts to bring some real dimension to the character. Fluid layouts, great toning, consistent artwork and great story-telling make the Adams adventures a pleasure to read.

You can see the development in Marc’s art from story to story within the book and I can envision Marc doing a Spiderman story in the future with the way the character tumbles across a tree branch in the first story and Adam slightly geek-ish nature puts him in a similar realm to Peter Parker.

Marc’s writing endears the character of Adam to the reader through laughing at his outrageous attempts at gaining the affections of any good-looking female within eyeshot and sympathising with him when it ultimately doesn’t work out. Adam has a good heart just a misguided sense of affection.

Unfortunately most of the stories in the book are a bit short, which makes it a quick read. Though the last story ‘Cold’ rounds out the book quite nicely and leaves you wanting to know more about the character it’ll be interesting to see where Marc will take Adam in his next adventures and how he will develop his character further.

By the look of the new pages being posted online (www.actionmanadam.com) Marc is definitely pushing it to the next level in terms of story, layout and artwork.

Keep up the good work Marc, great things await.


Review by Robin Hotter

Thursday 11 February 2010

Daily Sketch 12 - Nekkid Skydiving


Weird idea's at funny times of the day or night produce weird cartoons. Think about it...
maybe it's just my warped imagination. :)
Cheers,
Rob

Wednesday 20 January 2010

Hellboy


Hellboy - head sketch.
A bit of fun and a great character to draw. I always love drawing his chin really big. :)

Friday 15 January 2010

Racin' Red


A Sketch of my character and Rally Mark's mechanic "Racin' Red".

Rally mark continues apace and i am hoping for release later this year.

Welcome to the New Year and i hope it's fruitful and zany, crazy and fun for you!

Cheers,
Rob