Mind of a Man, Heart of a Robot (In Color!)

Well, here it is all in color. I rather like it in color, don't you?

And there you have it. My first hybrid in a long long time. I like to draw something with pencil or pen and then color it on the compooter. Partially because I suck with color. I can't work with paints or pastels or anything like that and get the results that I'm looking for. But with Photoshop, I can tweak the colors until they are just right, plus do some other cool stuff that helps to "complete" an image. Take, for example, the cherry on the cigarette. What I did originally looked just awful. It was a bright red. Had I painted that, there would wind up being huge gobs of paint in that area and I would have ended up destroying the thing. But this way I could tweak it down to orange and mess with some other stuff that I barely understand, but still appreciate, and make it look good. I was also able to make the background (which is super easy and I love the way it looks!) and the frame.

Now that I have the scanner, I suspect that I'll be doing more pieces in this fashion. I'll spend more time shading the original pencil or pen drawing and then just color it after the fact. I know that can work really well because I've done it before with favorable results.

The Scanner Has Arrived.

Yay! My scanner arrived on my doorstep this morning. So I sat down to spend the evening scanning and lo and behold, the second thing I scan wants me to color it in. Here is the uncolored version:



As you can see it is a man's head on a robot's body. And the man is smoking a cigarette through a cigarette holder like Franklin Roosevelt would if here a half-man/half-robot creature, with the head of a man, and the heart of a robot. That bit about the head of a man and the heart of a 'bot is pretty much what this one is about for me. If one were to design a creature utilizing the best parts of two other creatures, one would not be likely to create this: a slow, confused brain with a mechanical heart void of anima. This guy would be the thing made from left-overs.

Like there's this janitor who lives in the basement of the lab or machine shop where they build these man-bots with the brain of a bot and the heart of a man. And late at night he tinkers with some of the ort and creates his own critters. And this critter is his pride and joy, his greatest accomplishment in the world of splicing-together-two-things-that-don't-belong-together. It's his best friend. And this critter is a smoker, because it's sort of a depressing existence to realize that he's been created out of the dregs. And he's aware of the fact that "this just isn't right", he knows, with that human mind, that he shouldn't be. He's simply a science project for a weird janitor. So he needs a smoke to calm him down. All the reason of a human, all the compassion of a robot.

Well, whatever his story is, there will be a colored in version up here soon. So watch this space!

New Scanner On the Way!

I received my big fat IRS refund and decided to splurge! Not only did I get those good Ramen Noodle Cup-O-Soups, but I ordered a new scanner! It should be here within a week and I'm going to start incorporating drawings into digital works, and I'll probably start posting drawings, as well. I actually have quite a few that have been waiting for me to get a scanner, so there may be a lot of updates for a while. But there may not be, we'll see. I am, after all, lazy.

So keep your eyes peeled for all new work and all new style starting real soon!

??????????

I have absolutely no idea what this thing is. But it moves. Or at least it does for me.

I wanted to make a new image tonight but the ol' brain box is pretty dry. Let this be a lesson "make something everyday". For a while I was keeping up with a sketch book. I would add something new every day. It worked great! I had all kinds of ideas and things were growing and moving all the time. But I haven't been keeping up. There's only a few doodles for this month. And I haven't done much in Colors! either.

So this is the type of image I get when my brain wants to punish me for being so lazy. "Look at this!" It says (loudly), "Is this the best you can do? Do you really want to look at that thing? I know I sure don't!" But we'll see tomorrow if I listened to me when I told me to get back to drawing every day. If not, I'll call this piece "This is your brain on not drawing. Any questions?" If I do start drawing again tomorrow, I'll call it "Inspiration".

[Note to self: Fear and inspiration are the same thing maybe? Dammit.]

Floaty Bot

Well, this isn't any good, but it's something new. I was killing time one night on the NDS waiting for a friend to come over and this little guy was born.


I got tired of focusing only on large things (like the head) and wanted a more "complete" thing. So I made the little bot and, for some reason, put a drink in his hand. Kind of looks like he's welcoming someone (the viewer?) into his home, or what-have-you. "Over here is the den, which we use as a sort of gaming room when company comes over." Or mayhaps this is a cosmic bar, and we're all meeting for drinks and he's welcoming us to whatever the pan-dimensional equivalent of a table is. "Have a seat! What are you drinking?" And all those bubbles are either other "tables", other portals to/from other dimensions, or a physical representation of intoxication. The latter is what bubbles usually mean in my work.

Maybe I should call this one "To Good Times" or something. . .

Angelic Balance

This is an older image. Made from an older drawing treated with Photoshop.

I like balance. It makes me feel like everything is going to be okay on some cosmic scale. So this image addresses that balance. Equal parts white-bot and black-bot (one the inverse of the other) arranged in a circle. No doubt inspired by the yin-yang symbol, which I like so much. The idea is not about a struggle or a fight, it's about a balance. For each white there is a black. For each up, a down, etc. The red makes the image pop more and it gives it a bit more energy (it was pretty bland without it).

The bots were cut out of a scan of the first robot image I did. Or at least robots of this type and with this mind-set. I used to draw robots in middle school, but they were nothing like this. Pretty much just a blocky version of the heads I was drawing attached to tank treads with guns in their mouths on the sides of their necks. Ah, middle school. . . so innocent.

Thoughtful Me

Ah, the Nintendo DS. If there is any finer portable gaming system I don't want to know about it.

Here is another image from DS Colors! It's an elaborate doodle, which is what I would have a degree in, if they offered it in school.




Please don't ask me to explain the words. Other than defining them, I have no information to provide regarding why they are there. I just thought that there should be words on it. In fact, here is the same image prior to adding the words. You decide which you like best.