~ "Puffy Cheek" ... ~


...as May Ann likes to say. Been out this week after a tooth pulling and the internet crapping out. But a week's worth of Jell-O and rice pudding = Good times.

In any case, don't know when I'll enjoy internet again, so I'll be turning comment moderation off for now.

And... for all you tens of folks out there who check here from time to time, be considerate of the spambots when they start dropping Nike hyperlinks in the comment box.

........

On the upside, had some time to work on a side project involving one of the most well designed cars in the world: The Ferrari 250 GT/L Berlinetta Lusso.

Being the most well designed car in the world, it goes without saying that I have to butcher it several times via sketches and general tomfoolery with exaggeration.

My ode to Mr. MacLeod's recent series (the difference being Steve gets it right when he draws autos):

I discovered the golden reason of why comic artists never use existing car designs for their own comics: It's hard.

Designing your own auto-thing and keeping it consistent is easier, since you don't have to worry about gearheads and car enthusiasts faulting you for not getting the wheelbase parallel to the hood, or some other technicality. All the more shameful that I was using reference the whole time (for the car, not the girl).

But at least I can get the girl's countours if I squint enough while drawing:

My horrible renditions of the Italian James Bond-mobile. Ach, the wheelbase... the wheelbase.

Any wonder why I was drawing death and reapers near the end.

If I have time, I'll scan the finished mat in. If I didn't screw up the wheelbase, that is.

~ It's just a minor sketch... ~

And now for a bit of early 80's nostalgia from D.C. and the Beltway: Minor Threat:

Did these while having youtube clips of the band playing in the background. Tried not to pause or dwell too long looking at the footage while drawing - which actually helped I thought.

Anyhow, the drawings are pretty loose and sloppy.

And I know, there's something to be said about clarity when doing crowd scenes. But trust me, if you watch the video, you'll see what I mean...



Some links to other clips where the audience is being tossed around in a dryer. (This show's happening inside of a replica pirate ship, by the way):

-"Seeing Red" (This one's got a double stagedive at about 0:36)

-"Stand up" (First song of the set. Audience literally explodes within 0.5 seconds. Guy with a whistle jumps onstage and directs traffic.)

-"Little Friend" (Breakdown near the end is pretty off the hook - there's at least one jumpkick to the face.)

-"I Don't Wanna Hear It" (Michael Jackson launches off stage at about 1:03.)

-"Sob Story" (Although not the fastest or most intense song, the last part between 1:13 and 1:40 captures for me why I dug on this band so much.)

-"Betray" (Pretty much says it all. They fully throw themselves into the song, with some sharp Sinatra dance moves near the end.)

~ Guns, Robots, Reapers, Founding Fathers... ~

Haven't done a digital color piece in awhile. I'm not sure if that's helped or hurt any. Well, anyhow...

.........

And what's a 4th of July without a 20 min. sketch of a founding father, ah? Mr. Thomas Jefferson, ladies and gentlemen of the jury:

"I sincerely believe … that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale." *

Hmmmmm... now that doesn't sound anything like our modern society. C'mon, we're smarter than that, Mr. Jefferson. I mean, who would ever think that a nation - which won a two-front World War, landed on the moon, and invented the Internet - would willingly run itself into a housing bubble, credit funk, and a national deficit - all of which would end up making it an indentured debtor to its own banking industry, its own Federal Reserve, and ultimately to other countries? And all of this via small plastic cards and "creative" financing? Ha! Not us, Tom! We're smarter than that...

....Now where'd I leave the keys to the Hummer and the speedboat?...

Ah, here they are, buried beneath this Fannie Mae stationary and my limited edition Enron copy of "The Selfish Gene"...

....
* Thomas Jefferson; Letter, May 28, 1816, to political philosopher and senator John Taylor, whose book 'An Inquiry into the Principles and Policy of the Government of the United States' (1814) had argued against the harmful effects of finance capitalism. [Link]