SKETCHBOOK: "Another Bot...Why Not?"

Here's another "Mascot Makeover"...done the same week as my "Jay-Hulk" sketch. That's all...no long wordy blah-dy blah this time...just one last quick post for July.

TABLETOP GAMING: "Alien Terrain"

Time to post some more stuff from the gaming archives. After I had made some spaceships for my friend Steve, I decided to try to build some alien landscape pieces to go with them. I've been a lifetime fan of artist ROGER DEAN (most famous for his album cover art for the Prog-Rock group "YES"...which happens to be my all-time favorite band). So for fun, I let myself be inspired by the crazy landforms he designs.


Here are the original sketches that got things moving...I ended up scaling the size of everything down for the modular pieces.

Once I had formed the structures out of styrofoam, I discovered an interesting technique to add more "alien-ness" to the forms. On another occasion, I had tried to make some terrain using aerosol spray-foam insulation. It was a complete mess...the stuff continues to swell up for hours...it's very sticky...and it smells. However...once it starts to set up, you can drag across the foam with a stick, and it makes really cool skin-like webs. I thought it made for some nice alien fungus-growth.

SKETCHBOOK: "Day At The Zoo"

Yesterday, I took a day off from work and headed solo over to the Kansas City Zoo. It had been a few years since my last visit. The weather was nice and sunny (though pretty hot by the end...mid 90's). It was a challenge to draw the constantly moving models, but I had a lot of fun.

The first two pages are done in pencil and washes...then I switched over to a brown micro-tip felt marker. For highlites, I used white prismacolor pencil, and an opaque white watercolor. Not sure which tools I prefer...each has their advantages. Hope you enjoy!