Another Visit with our Friend the Lion

Here's a little story. Back in 2009 I was working on this animated short, a fun little personal project in my own spare time. I got pretty far on it, too. So far that I was actually starting to record voices for it. I used my own voice for all the characters, not because I don't eventually want to use real voice actors but simply because there weren't any in the room with me at the time.
Now here's where the story takes a turn. You know how a lot of actors say they can't stand watching themselves on screen? Well, watching this cartoon where all three characters had my voice was so painful to sit through for me, I became convinced this short was the worst thing I've ever done, decided none of the jokes were funny, and vowed never to show it to another living human soul.

Jump to two years later, about a month ago in fact, I was digging through the old files on my computer, and I came across the old movie file and decided to watch it again. And you know what? After such a long time I'm far enough removed from the experience of recording it that I actually kind of regret that I stopped it. This project seems pretty funny to me now. I think I'm going to finish it after all.

Here's what it's going to look like.

You can see the original test cells in this old post here.

If only I hadn't stopped working on it two years ago, this 7-minute animation it might be almost part of the way done by now! (Animation takes forever!)

-Joe

Hulk Smash!

I don't often draw characters that aren't mine, but I recently checked out this new Avengers cartoon and it got my mind going on the Incredible Hulk.
One of my favorite parts of the Hulk's mythos is that the angrier he gets, the stronger he becomes, putting the upper register of his powers right up there at infinity. Here you see my vision of the big green machine raging at about a 9: at 10 he just bulks into a pulsating green ball with fingers and a smushed-in angry face.
At first I was drawing the "SMASH" in big stone letters crumbling under the weight of him, but it just looked so Schoolhouse Rock, I had to go in a different direction.

The trademark on the Incredible Hulk is owned by Marvel, which is owned by Disney, who's majority shareholder is Steve Jobs, who also runs the same company that made the computer I used to create this image. Thus, should anyone take issue with me posting their trademarked character on my little blog, it's their own fault for giving me the means to do so. Nyeh.

Mile High

Somehow you can always tell whether a sexy lady drawing was made by a male or a female artist. I don't mean that male artists sexualize the female form any more overtly than women do -- if anything, some of the raunchiest, most big-boobs-havin' art I've seen all came from ladies. Women are just better at it. Not that there aren't amazing pinup artists who are men, and terrible ones who are women too. There's just this strange dimension girls can inject into that subject matter; like a respect or maybe a secret like fraternal (hah!) understanding. Some mysterious energy that, for the life of me, I've never seen a man be able to capture. Could be women just know the physics of curving in those same places better, from experience and all. For a man, drawing the female form is always like guessing at something exterior. I don't know, it's mysterious.

Anyway, here's a drawing of a sexy lady in the sky. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas!

If you don't know who the Krampus is, or why Santa might want to be killing him, strap yourselves in because it's kind of amazing. Once upon a time some parents thought it wasn't enough to threaten that if children misbehaved, they wouldn't get their share of free stuff at Christmas. No, back in the day Santa had an evil counterpart who crept into the beds of naughty children to stuff them in his canvas bag and steal them away into the night, never to see their parents again. In the English-speaking world this was Black Peter, an ape-like man in blackface, just to make it even more offensive. But in Germany, Black Peter became the Krampus, and was upgraded to have horns and chains and usually a giant tongue. German legends have way cooler badguys, that is a fact.

Anyway, it stands to reason that Santa, champion of childrens' hearts, would take issue with the Krampus and its nightmare ways and thus a centuries-long battle would begin and end, here, today, on this very blog entry, with Santa as ultimate the victor.

Hey, do you guys think I need a cooler signature? I kind of just write my name, I think maybe I should add some flourish or something. I don't know, I'll work on it.

Two Frogs Fighting

I noticed in the last two updates that I used a similar orange/violet color palette for both, and far be it for me to want to pigeonhole myself, so I decided to switch it up to a more red/green deal today.

Zombie (with Pet)

Hello, how was your Thanksgiving? This one's a little different for me, with the boarder and everything. Wanted to try it, you know how it is.

Don't worry, the bird will be fine.

Grape Ape

I drew this tonight because I wanted to draw something. Gorillas shouldn't play with swords, kids.


-JoeW.