Spring has Sprung!

Hi,

Just a quick sketch to drop in and say 'Spring has Sprung!'. Welcome back new blossoms and plenty of sunshine and longer days!

That's all!
Robin

Daily Draw February

Weekly Draw February

Hi!

 

Well it is supposed to be ‘Daily Draw February’ and so far I’m managing that, it’s just not ‘daily upload February’ so it’s going to be ‘Weekly Draw February’ with 5 days of drawing and two of tidy up and publish per week J.

 

Day 1 – Mirror Mirror

After camping for a week in a remote location with limited facilities you really begin to appreciate what life is all about and how simple it can be, but it wasn’t till we returned to ‘civilisation’ that I realised just how you can be affected by something as simple as a  mirror.

You’ll stop, look at yourself, check yourself over for what – imperfections? Judge yourself on the way you look? Or just plain have a smile at how good looking you are? Wow, are we really that critical/vain?

Not having a mirror for a week actually showed me that yes personal appearance is important for self esteem but so is being happy with who you are and the life you have without have to have an external source of reference, and so I created these rhymes about the ‘Mirror, Mirror on the wall’.

 

 

Day 2 – Roses are Red

I can’t believe I’d even forgotten the bit past ‘Violets are blue so I had to look it up. How bad is that! But in doing so I found some interesting pointers to the origins of the apparently now commercialised ‘Valentines’ style rhyme from something that I felt had a bit more meaning. So after a slightly rambling start I managed to recraft it into more of it’s original style, which was quite fun.

 

Day 3 – Jack and Jill and the Beanstalk

Following on – as one’s mind is want to do – the nursery rhyme track, I decided to crossover Jack and Jill with ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and rather enjoyed trying to fit the two together with the main thrust being the beanstalk coming out of the well. J

 

Day 4 – Foxy

A cross between J Scott Campbell and Erika Pearce. I’ve wanted to try this since I saw Ericka’s awesome pieces with animals and people. The face turned out J Scott Campbell style someone and I image her being a redhead of course.

 

Day 5 – In the Mind

Sometimes the easiest way to find something to draw is un-focus yourself and see what the pencil will do, it usually ends up a bit weird as evidenced here but it’s still fun.

Enjoy!

Rob

Month of Robin's I & II

Hi,

Seeing as it is my birthday this month, I thought I'd make it a "Month of Robin's".

I haven't quite finished this first one but she's almost ready to go. Though not actually a 'Robin' in any DC comics continuity, I was just having fun with the idea, so here's "Robin I":

Robin II is from one of my favourite animated shows at the moment 'Teen Titans GO!'

I aiming for 28 all up so keep you're eyes peeled for a plethora of Robins!

Happy Friday the Thirteenth!
Rob

Chromacon Update and Painting

Hi there!

Well I've heard back from my Chromacon application and unfortunately I haven't  made the cut this time round. A bit gutted but onwards and upwards.

I'll be heading to the show to check out some wonderful artists that have made the cut, check them out here: http://www.chromacon.co.nz/artists/

I've had a second go with my watercolours and am happier with how it turned out this time, so here's the progress, though i'm still feeling there's a bit more till it's completed.

 

Look for more soon.

Enjoy!

Rob

#InkTober #7 - Jump!

Hi,

This one came out of the swirly lines for the scarf/parachute that the guy is holding and evolved wirdly from there with a cartoon bird, cartoon plane and a flying stingray with a top hat (of course)... maybe I've done a bit much running this week and my brain has left the building.

Anyhoo it's InkTober #7!

Enjoy!
Rob

Caricatures Abound!

Well here they are at long last, the second set of caricatures mainly of the Associate Principals, but also including the NZCE and NZ HR manager. Pencil, then inked, scanned and coloured in Photoshop. I'm really happy with how they turned out and how well they have been received as well.

So without futher ado here they are!

 Amanda - Loves Travel, Champagne and Hippos,

 Andree - Netbal Champ, trademe fiend, mother and cat-lover

 Donna - loves Wine, gardening, shopping and her cats

 Greg - Tri-athelete, ocean swimmer, sports fanatic and MGB devotee

 Janet - Cats, Caravaggio, red wine and coffee

 Margo - loves Art, James Dean's Porsche, Boston Legal, SHOES and her 'rockstar' saying

 Phil - Sports mad, keen cricketer, southland wine and music

 Renee - Loves her dalmation, shopping, the gym and wine

Tony - mountaineering, Grove Mill Chardonnay, Tennis, and Golf

I'm open to commissions so give me a holla if you like what yo see. :)
Enjoy!
Rob.

Lunch time Sketch

Hi all,

I'm getting some inspiration from Ben Caldwell's blog where he's sketching up a storm of late. I have two of Ben's books, (Action Cartooning and Fantasy Cartooning) as well as his first Dare Detectives Book 'The Snowpea Plot'.

Ben has done some awesome animation work, a series of Wonder Woman for DC Comics and loads of other projects so you should check out his blog!

So in this sketching vein today at lunch time i whipped up this little Iron Man pic.

Enjoy!
Rob

Several More of ze Caricature

A couple more caricatures to light the way. These are some other ones i have done recently, hope you like 'em :).

Enjoy,

Rob

NZ Music Month

A quick sketch in tribute to NZ Music month and all of the amazing Kiwi artists that are rocking the world!

Rock on NZ!
Enjoy!
Rob

Tattoo/Valentines Day Update

Finally coloured it up but i can already see a couple of changes i'd make. :)

Still pretty damn happy with the result.



Cheers,
Rob.

Shihad

My all-time favouritie kiwi band is Shihad. So when i had the chance to use some thick cardboard blocks for some artwork the idea to design a Shihad logo just screamed out to be done.

So here she is, it's done pencil, ink and vivd (sharpie) and i'm really happy with how it turned out.

Let me know who you think i should do next, and we'll see what i can come up with. :)

Cheers,

Rob

Brixton Bricks & Coffee Beans

A few weeks ago i was lucky enough to have my guest-strip run on the Actionman Adam website
http://www.actionmanadam.com/2011/03/brixton-bricks-n-coffee-beans/

I wasn’t sure if I needed to explain the importance of the brick a bit more.

Apparently back in the late 70’s and early 80’s (around the time ‘The Clash’ and ‘The Sex Pistols’ were around) “Margret Thatcher’s Britain was the riot capital of the world. Thatcher may have ruled in Parliament but out on the street it was a different matter. From the first eruption of inner-city rioting in St Paul’s Bristol in 1980 through the July rioting across the country in 1981 to Brixton and Broadwater Farm in 1985 someone some- where was lobbing a brick or petrol bomb at Thatcher.” (IAN BONE). As far as I have been informed carrying a brick around in your pocket was a part of Punk culture as well (but I may be wrong about that).

So the Sniffles & Cough characters love punk music (especially 'The Clash') and always have a brick handy incase of interlopers. In this case the manic dude Greg.

Hopefully that's a little clearer than mud. :)
Enjoy!
Rob

Rally Mark, Brownie (the dog) and Racin' Red

Here's a little pic i did a while ago that i found just recently that i thought was pretty cool, so i thought i'd share it. Pretty happy with the anatomy though Rally Mark is looking more than a little scary. :)

Enjoy!

Rob

Lady with a Gun.

Howdy,

Here's two versions of a pen sketch done recently from a picture in Buddy Scalera's book "Comics Artists Photo Reference - People and Poses".

As you can see in the first one pen sketching is sometimes not very forgiving and it's taken a little photoshop magic to clean up some of the mistakes and centre the focus of the picture properly.

I've finally got some ink for my fountain pen so i'm gonna be trying it out soon, i'll be posting the results so keep an eye out.

Enjoy!
Rob.

DC Powerhouses & Retro Girl

To practise a bit of variety i've been checking out other peoples work and having a go at their style. These latest two are Shaun 'Cheeks' Galloway (JLA Sketch) and Mike Avon Oeming (Retro-Girl sketch).

I've based my drawing loosely on their sketches and tried to add some of my own style too and i'm pretty happy with the results though i've still got a bit of work to do on anatomy because even cartoon work doesn't carry well if you can't get the proportions right. :)

Once again i'm sticking with the ballpoint pen but this is mainly because i waiting on an order of ink for my new fountain pen.

Ooh and just as a teaser i thought i'd include a snippet from something you'll see online in the very near future and it's something i'm really quite excited about because i've been working on it for a few months now and it features a small cameo of my favourite character and yours, "Rally Mark"!

Like i say it's only a cameo but it was a fun little detail to add. :)

Thanks for reading!
Rob.

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.

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

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

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 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