A Son of Berlin

A little character concept of a German infantryman. The Turtle is gonna have his hands full with both the Nazis and the Communists. Not to worry, the Turtle is gonna be serving up a double helping of Pain Cake and there will be plenty of left-overs.

Although by no means a final design, I thought I would add some color to this sketch...just for fun.

Henri Grenouille

Here's a glimpse of Henri Grenouille, the local Marquis contact for Operation Chaotic Fiasco. I like to keep my first sketch of a character rough and untethered to the need to make a good drawing. Otherwise, I get hung up on the mechanics and cannot connect with the "character" I am trying to draw.

Please let me know what you think of all these character doodles so far!

Take a Gander at this...

Lt. Robert Downs of Her Majesty's Special Air Service on loan to the American Rangers detachment, the Black Berets, for Operation Chaotic Fiasco in occupied Europe...

Green is my Favorite Color

I cannot believe how fast the week has gone by. I am working on some more concept sketches for the Crazy Turtle idea that was spawned last week. I am having a great time researching old photos and World War II era uniforms and weapons for these yet unseen sketches. Check back for progress on those. In the meanwhile, here is my go for this week's DrawerGeeks, the Orion Slave Girl from Star Trek. Also, see the new movie. It's pretty entertaining.

Bearly a Sketch

If that turtle is going to fight the Commies, he's going to need an adversary.

Vanhoozer Special

Man, I am pretty psyched that my friend, Jeremy, added color to the Crazed Turtle sketch. He has an uncanny ability to splash tone, shade and awesome on just about anything in just about no time! He has the Talent. If you have not had the pleasure, visit his blog at Vanhoozer Studios .

Die Commie, Die!

After returning from lunch with a coworker this afternoon, I spotted a green box turtle sunning itself on the bank of the canal by work. Having a few moments left in my lunch break, I quickly doodled a "likeness" of a coworker as a brooding and bellicose turtle. It was great fun to do, because I scratched it on a scrap of lined notebook paper that I had on my desk. I still like to draw on lined paper, it reminds me of a time when I didn't know that there was blank paper made specifically to draw on.

So, then I went home and decided to "draw" this character a little more. I made a few changes to him. Although the second drawing is more fundamentally sound (three dimensional and volumetric) I'm not sure that I retained enough of the vitality and whimsy of the first sketch. In this second attempt, it no longer "resembles" the coworker but rather has begun to take on a life of its own. What do you think?

And yes, he is wearing a turtle neck sweater.

Walt Stanchfield's New Book

A good friend from work just got the new Walt Stanchfield's book on Gesture Drawing, Drawn to Life from Amazon today. It looks amazing. I plan on ordering both volumes (human and animal gesture drawing) in the next few weeks. I have learned a great deal about gesture drawing simply from reading some of Stanchfield's notes on animation. I really would have loved to sit in on one of his classes. Here are a few of my own gestures drawings!