Somedays I’m in bad mood and then I do sketches like this. Some days I’m in a great mood. And I do sketches like this. Basically this sketch doesn’t tell us a thing about how I was feeling the day I drew it back in 1995.

Uptop we have Cthuhu. This version is an attempt to combine Matt Howarth’s version with the H.P. Lovecraft winged and tentacled original. Both Howarth and Lovecraft have been big influences on my art. Howarth, being an artist, has been a more direct one than Lovecraft but they’ve both done their share of damage. Howarth generally writes his own stories (usually quirky scifi and horror featuring psychos and musicians) and draws in a style like no one else. Lovecraft, well, Lovecraft writes about hideous indescribable horrors that are just asking for someone to try depicting. The challenge is keeping the illustrations (and the creatures in them) strange and alien. Only a few artists do that well. I’ll leave it to others to decide if I get close to succeeding.

Downbelow we have the Pile from Misspent Youths. The Pile is a … pile … of sewer debris that came to life one day. He’s pretty good natured for such a creature. He’s got no grudge against humanity. He plays a pretty good harmonica.

Here we have the Weirdsmith, 1995 version. Probably the earliest version. The Weirdsmith is one of many characters who came to me as images before I had any sort of story to tell about them. In W’s case the image is of a guy in a suit wearing gloves and a strange inhuman mask. The suit is featureless. That is, when drawn, only the edges have definition, it’s a single color or shade.

The really rough sketch in the corner is the Weirdsmith sans mask, long haired and burnt out looking. Or at least he’d look that way if I’d finished the sketch.

On the left side is a woman in a big fancy gown. For no other reason than than I felt the need to draw some ridiculusly complicated clothing.

On the right side are a trio of Matt Howarth‘s characters. From top to bottom – Savage Henry; Hiroshima, the nuclear earth goddess and a Caroline clone.

This is the final illustration that yesterday’s sketches were working up to. Still don’t remember exactly what we used it for.

No post yesterday. I never seemed to be able to access blogger when I had time at the computer. Oh well. I imagine y’all survived.

Today’s page (from 1995) was probably sketches for a greeting card or invitation. I don’t remember the occasion now. I have great fondness for the word “Hark”, both because it sounds happy and because whenever I hear it I think of my friend Blake. And thinking of Blake is never a bad thing.

I make faces when I draw, especially when I’m drawing a character behaving emotionally. I act. I generate the feelings that I’m trying to reproduce on paper. It’s not big and dramatic but it is obvious enough that I consciously have to keep myself from doing it when I’m drawing in public places.

One of the great revelations of my childhood was the discovery that other people didn’t have stories and adventures and voices and monsters and big bright worlds bouncing around in their heads. Poor other people.

From the 1995 sketchbook, more sasquatch figure drawings. The big difference between yesterday’s work and today’s is that on this page I’m no longer trying to figure out what the sasquatch looks like I’m trying to make sure that I can draw the character in action. This is an individual sasquatch meant for a specific story. Despite appearances he’s a pretty mellow guy.

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New posting at my Epilogue.net gallery – It Came from the Septic Tank, a pinup I did for Jason Levine’s Mishmash proposal. Jason is the letterer for the new Oz Squad. If I hear of any Mishmash stuff online I’ll add a link.