Post-Game Show

This is not a good bye, it's a see you soon. I am going to stop drawing pictures for myself for a little while. Only comics and commissions for at least a month. I do have a few sketches I'll be adding to this post(because none of them are new). Those will just take a while so they won't all be up tonight. Half of this post details some pathetic and funny and sad and happy shit through the last year. I just decided to not edit it too much(except miss spellings and revealing identities). It's all true, at least so far as my perceptions.


So... out of the shit I've gone through this year I need to sum up the highs and lows. I spoke to Elaine(have no idea how to spell it right because she never corrected me, but besides she was super hot on her Biker Party day, like so hot that when she fell I refused to touch her on grounds that we were friends and it wouldn't be right even though I was talking about helping her from falling down drunk, eat that shit up lady) about letting it all hang out and the truth is more compelling than half assed shit like the stuff we are all in the middle of. As we lead to the end of this year and it all becomes tears in the rain(yeah I'll still quote that shit even ask me 20 years later and I'll still be talking about Blade Runner) I will spill the beans so to speak about almost all the shit in the form of lists. This will be really revealing, partially because I am drunk and partially because I don't give half a shit and I don't think anyone else does.

Top 10 favorite movies of the year:

1. No Country For Old Men: I loved the book, and the movie was even better. The performances perfect. The sound, maybe the best ever. And the direction is just veteran mature work from masters.

2. There Will Be Blood: The best performance of the year by Daniel Day Lewis. An epic about one man. the people around him don't even seem to matter. Just him. Paul Thomas Anderson shows what a once a decade movie looks like.

3. Knocked Up: Very fun, heart warming, and true to a certain kind of person. It just felt like home to me.

4. Super Bad: It made me laugh more than any other movie this year.

5. Death Proof: The definition of having fun while making a movie that comes across on the screen. It's not trying to be great, just fun.

6. Eastern Promises: Cronenberg shows how to make a completely different gangster movie. Viggo Mortensen shows once again that great acting he had in Carlito's Way.

7. Zodiac: Just a great story about a case and the characters involved in solving it.

8. Juno: A cute, sweet, and at some points painfully realistic look at a pregnancy. Jason Bateman had my feelings all over the map. And the kids were spectacular in it.

9. American Gangster: Another master (Ridley Scott who directed my favorite movie Blade Runner, remember) comes and shows yet another way of doing a gangster movie.

10. The Lookout: One of my favorite actors currently does an original heist movie. Almost perfect(except the music).

11. Into The Wild: An inspiring look at someone who would never give up and had only one mission in life. I don't care about the politics of his mission, it was his tenacity that was inspiring. This should probably be higher on the list if only for Hal Holbrook very nearly bringing me to tears. I took a girl on a date to see this and she was making fun of me for like an hour.

I just realized how many damn movies I saw this year. I actually excluded a lot.

And Last American Virgin stands out as a great rental(if you can even find it). Starts out as a straight Porky's riff and goes somewhere very dark. Seemingly explored in another movie that same year, here it is punctuated by the truest most painful ending, way meaner than the other movie I'm referring to here(but won't say it's name or I'll give away a key plot point). A stupid eighties movie that somehow shapes up way into it. Also there is a donkey dick dork in it that is so fucking funny. They mercilessly tease the dude any fucking chance they get. If there was a drinking game about this movie it would be every time they bully this dude for no discernible reason.

Favorite Comics this year:

1. Punisher: Strange to find this one dimensional character actually written not only well, but great. The best ruminations on vigilantism and violence I have ever read. Plus Barricuda has got to be one of the all time best villains(up there with some other Garth Ennis greats like Herr Starr). Garth Ennis is one of my all time favorite comic writers and here he forgoes traditional characterization(which he is the BEST at, think Jesse Custer, Cassidy, Tommy Monahan, and most any other thing he writes) and faces the pure violence of life and pure story. He knows he can't kill Punisher so what would in anyone else hands become pure looping episodic shit turns into something so much more.

2. Acme Novelty: Consistently great. Consistently perfect. Chris Ware will go down in history as one of the greatest story tellers of all. He can combine just a few lines and explain the meaning of life. Who else can do that?

3. Blade Of The Immortal: In issue form this comic has just bid farewell. But as books they are the most action packed long form comics ever made. Not like any of the Manga that surrounds it on the shelves. The villains are many times just as fascinating as the heroes.

Top 8 girls I've been devastated by this year who I have consummated nothing with:

(in order of appearance, not intensity and hey maybe this will hurt feelings but a)I doubt it and b) you should have taken the initiative I would have at least got you back)

(listening to Heart Of Mine by Bobby Caldwell, also done by a bunch of others)

1. Laura: Super hot half asian girl (I'm talking super out of my league and half naked like the whole night) who I stopped myself from kissing even though she asked why I wouldn't because she was super drunk. She had a long term boyfriend. Probably the worst decision of all. No one was around she was rubbing up against me, and I could have done anything I wanted to, but instead I was a limp dick loser and refused because she was so drunk it would be super wrong(although the limp thing is just a fabrication). She even slept in my house and I nursed her to health. Fucking idiot. She is killing me just thinking about her. What the fuck was I thinking. She makes me hungry. She could have been my "Last American Virgin" moment. You'd have to watch that fucking great movie in sheeps clothing, to mixed metaphors, to get what that means. Although I didn't in this case, I'd sum up that movie, and some choice painful moments in my own life, in the desert, years ago, as "driving and crying".

2. Sawako: Super hot Japanese girl who is probably the only girl who I could call a tease on this list. I got her number but decided not to call her because she made me jump through hoops for it. Very cute, and I had a rep for falling for asian chicks because of these first two but after that I basically gave up on the ones around me and accepted them as friends.

(now I'm listenig to "Feel Like Making Love" by D'Angelo)

3. K: I won't say her full name but I felt something deep and real with her and she worked at a "common" place that I frequented(yes, Starbucks, and yes, I was a fool). This was the first one I liked who was ten years younger than me. I totally was head over heals for her and she seemed to actually pick up on it and maybe like it on some level even though she had a long term boyfriend(the rapist who started me and Mendoza's term of Lee, based on the character in the british version of the Office). You can look at least to Spring when my whole Barista fetish began. I have never seen her since she quit and I don't think I will again. She is in love with someone and I am not. The lines do not cross. We could have been something really good. Fuck.....

4. Tu-Ahn: I may or may not have spelled that correctly. She is the girl with the most in common with me. If you like comics you will like to know I met her while stocking shit for Image Comics in Berkeley which my good friend set me up with. She was his friend and I had no idea she had a long time boyfriend from high school and my chances were next to nothing. I still talk to her every few months. She was ridiculous rad. She was fine and cool and just right like goldilocks.

(listening to "Desert Island" by Magnetic Fields)

5. D: She reads this. She was the Barista in my painting earlier this summer who e-mailed me back that she read my blog. I think we connected on an intellectual level(although she was hot to the point I painted that one picture of her and made a post about it). We loved art and she was interesting. I knew there was more to her than she revealed and I think she saw the same in me. More than ten years younger she left to college and I thought I'd never see her again. Then she came back. Just as hot but with a new boyfriend(she had one when she left which was the only thing that kept my crush from blowing the fuck up). I am trying to avoid her but I literally bump in to her all the time(the fact she works at a place I frequent all the time only has like 100% to do with it you subconscious motherfuckers). She has the guy and I don't think she likes me in any other way than in the fact we have interesting lives. To give you an example I don't think I've even said anything funny to her ever. I mean fucking ever. And that is the only thing anyone has ever liked about me. Shit, I shouldn't write so much about her. If she wasn't taken I'd eat her up like cookies...

(Listening to "New York Groove" by Ace Frehley, yeah, THAT Ace Frehley)


6. Michelle: Cute, fun, and just a great time. I met her in New Orleans during like a rain storm I thought might be the next Katrina. Seriously. They shouldn't have been showing reruns of the weather channel in the fucking bar we were stranded in. Very terrifying. Anyway, the next two days were dedicated to drinking and partying and living our last days in what clearly were not our last days. Taylor and I were depressed for days after that. Our fun level was raised to impossible levels because of her and her friends. Everything after that was a huge letdown. But it's still good to know life can be that good. Thanks!

Drought

7. M: Holy shit could you not find girl more suited for my tastes. I went out with her. I was on her so fast it was an Adrian revelation. She really didn't seem to dig me though. It was kind of sad and led to my very sad art posts of the later year. I basically thought that all women must hate me. She has a tattoo that I will not go into because I talked to her tonight and felt wrong even mentioning how hot it was. I see her all the time and hang out with her but she never reciprocated so I basically gave up on her. Still super cool and I should have gotten the fucking hair cut from her. Goddammit!

8. L: I see her all the fucking time and one night I had sparks like crazy with her. I took her on a date and nothing. I was into her but the moment I made a move the electricity was gone. So it's over.

(listening to "Wouldn't It Be Good" by Nik Kershaw)

I'm still seeing some of these girls(not in the dating sense but in a literal sense). But for the most part it is totally over with them and I think I won't actually have anything romantically to do with them. Right now I have an every other day hang over of D. at her place of work. Need to avoid. What good can come out of it?

There were actually enough repeats to make it to ten but I'm not going to go into how they repeated. Although I guess I have.

I'm gonna check my Itunes for embarrassing lists of music. Lets see what I listen to the most regardless of what people think.

These actually say a lot of my piece of mind. I can't believe looking back on it haow much, actually.

1. Magnetic Fields - In My Secret Place: About, literally what it sounds like. And most likely about how I feel alone where I live, yet sheltered and safe. Everything I do is so for myself it's an artists dream. Yet it is scary on so many levels. It leads to highs that most don't get yet it also leads to lows.

2. Elliott Smith - A Question Mark: Shit, this is really getting personal. This song explains a lot in it's lyrics about how you can feel confused , destroyed, and powerful. And yeah, he killed himself. No, I have a lot to live for so I would never do the same. But the whole album is on the edge.

3. Magnetic Fields - Strange Powers: Probably the only positive song I listened to. It treats women as a mystery(although I'm sure he's talking about a man since he is gay). "I can't sleep, 'cause you got strange powers". Pretty much my year.

4. Magnetic Fields - The Trouble I've Been Looking For: Same album as the other two. Again about meeting someone who will tear you up yet make you feel good for a short time. Dammit, I really thought my song choices would be more random and not so telling.

5. Gary Numan - Metal: A song about the disconnection between people. He basically makes the Blade Runner paradigm about some people are more human and sometimes a connection can be made anyway.

6. Dubstar - Everyday I Die: Actually a Gary Numan song, but the cover is so fucking immaculate and rad I listened to it a lot. About a crush on someone far away. Through celluloid or on the pages of a magazine. My crushes were distant and fascinating in their complexities.

7. Sugar - Helpless: About being helpless to the powers of another(again I thin I heard the dude was gay, so maybe that says something, although I am crazy straight). A great song about the confusing feeling that another can give you.

8. Sineade O' Connor - Mandinka: I guess this is a very positive song also(like Strange Powers). About love and making a connection. I somehow see it as light and heat and summer. Maybe something to do with my youth and when I first heard it. A great song.

9. Magnetic Fields - The Things We Did And Didn't Do: A song about the name and all the possible permutations. What relationships feel like and what they should and should not. Great lyrics and a great sentiment about the things that should and shouldn't be. Again, the lyrics say it all.

10. Lush - De-luxe: A song about sex and feeling. Very sensuous and just plain sexy. I love it and it reminds me of actually doing something. It reminds me about living. I guess I have. But sometimes I forget anyway.

(Listening to "Magnet And Steel" by Walter Egan via the Boogie Nights soundtrack)

I guess there is a note of possible happiness in these songs.

Favorite Porno Titles I can remember right now:

1. Somebody's Daughter: So fucking cruel and perfect. No I've never seen it. Just the commercial(huh).

2. Dirtpipe Milkshake: Not as bad as it sounds, but never the less I have never seen it. I know better, come on give me some fucking credit.

3. 7 The Hard Way: Reminds me of that great Rodney Dangerfield moment from Caddy Shack("How would you like to earn five dollars the hard way"). I actually had to sit down and think about this title.

R.I.P. Haley Paige. Long Live Jenni Lee. If you don't know you probably wouldn't care anyway.

I can make lists forever like High Fidelity or I can stop typing and live life. I think I'll do that. Live life. Draw the stories I said I would. Love the way I want. Live. Live.


One from the heart, the whole heart, yes it lives it breathes and it will abide, like the Dude, like everyone else,

Adrian Rivero

Blade Runner Day 25, Tears In The Rain

Merry Christmas! And happy everything else. I been complaining all year. I'm celebrating Christmas for the most part in a hospital with my sister. But, somehow, I'm not down. I think of that Clash song "I'm Not Down".

So this is it. The last Blade Runner post. Well, maybe not last. I have at least three ready to go images I'll post later. But this was one of the main ones I waiting for. One of the most pivotal moments of Blade Runner. When Roy Batty expires. I decided not to draw his actual death(although I did in the comic I made), instead I decided to draw the moment before where he says, with a casual, ironic smile, "Time to die". I almost was going to call this post that but decided to look at the whole thing, the movie, the posts, the year, with the same ironic smile, but also the sentiment of the "Tears In The Rain" monologue.

I drew the pencils at home. Everything else, inks, white paint, and pen were all done in the hospital on Christmas. Today. I really like this one. I don't think I've ever painted one of these so fast. It took me about an hour and a half.

Now I will go about finishing some of the ones I felt were either weak or needed more polish. I do have a year ending post that is huge and detailed and very very embarrassing. I don't know if anyone actually cares about any of this, but it feels good to let it out and I know that in the future I can look back at all this, the pictures, the posts, the recounts of my horrid love life and the good parts and I can remember what it was like. Instead of the fuzzy memories I can see it clearly. Painfully, beautifully, clearly.

If I ever have a memoir I can put all this shit in there. I can write what happened in the 2/3s of my life that I leave out of these posts. And I have a bunch of pictures to include in it. I'm already writing some stories about things that happened to me that were weird. It's all life.

I'm not down,
Adrian

Blade Runner Day 24, I've Seen Things You People Wouldn't Believe

I want to get a post up for today, so here are the inked pages(minus the brush inks and spotting the blacks and erasing the pencils). I inked all the figures while at my sisters bedside at the hospital. I came home and ruled out all the perspective and inked that. Then I laid an ink rain on it all. I will add more effects in the final stage. So this is what it looks like before I spot all the blacks and use brush and add the effects.

I fucked up the ruling on the second page. I'll fix that with some white paint. Pissed me off never the less.

For some reason it just occurred to me that Gary Coleman would hate Christmas. I don't know precisely why, but, come on, you know it's true.


Adrian

Blade Runner Day 23, Pyramid Landscape

I painted this in just over an hour in my sister's hospital room. I basically slapped down all the colors very roughly(in what Mendoza calls Tube Painting) and then smoothed them together with white paint. I'm surprised it worked. I will be adding ruled lines and some more paint on the backgrounds. The figure is for the most part done.

Been intermittently sleeping and shopping. I'm determined to make this an exciting christmas for us regardless of organ failure, bad haircuts, and crushed hearts(another form of organ failure). At least my dick still works. I think. I should check or something.

Adrian

Blade Runner Day 22, Dangerous Days

I saw the documentary, my sister is in the hospital, and I didn't catch up on drawing like I said. The last post I just updated like 20 hours after finishing the drawing. I will have something here in the next few hours. Obviously life is a little bit important at the moment. That's what happens when you raise a kid all by yourself. Anyway, she's fine, she's in surgery as I write this, and tomorrow she'll be much better.


UPDATE:
The surgery went well. She is okay and I'll probably pick her up tomorrow. They took out her appendix with needles(?). I am very very sleep deprived. Last night as she was throwing up(I thought she had food poisoning) we watched Dangerous Days, the Blade Runner Documentary. It is great and very detailed. I have read Future Noir the book about Blade Runner and still this documentary had all kinds of stuff I didn't know about. It is astounding how much editing took place at the script level, shooting level, and then post production. So much was cut out. So much was shot. So much dialogue was re-written or cut(and what they showed was in my opinion pretty bad ie:the majority of the voice over lines, Gaff's speech in the end is super blunt, and Roy Batty's speech was way over the top but Rutger Hauer made up the lines that made it in the movie which were so much better). And the level of detail behind the effects is like nothing I've seen.

I finished watching the movie at 5AM with my sister vomiting and shaking in pain. She went to bed so I went to bed. 3 hours later she says she is feeling an intense pain so we go to the ER. 8 hours later they figure out it may be her appendix. An hour later she goes into surgery. I'm literally passing out. I get an hour of sleep and then get an update from the doctor that it all went well. An hour after that(now we're at around 9PM) I talk to my sister. All she can say is it was good and now she wants to sleep.

I drew these sketches when I got home. The pages were done about a week and a half ago and I've been adding to them since. These are the layout stages. I did do tight pencils which I will include in the final post with inks and hopefully dialogue(cross my fingers). I decided to show all this since I am late, tired, and have no time to give more.
I haven't gone christmas shopping. I have no tree and I kind of fucked up the whole holiday. I'm gonna have to seriously pull something huge out my ass to save this.

See how bad I can fuck everything up? I told you so.

Adrian

Blade Runner Day 21, City Streets

Acrylic ink on cardboard paper.

The street scenes in the movie are amazing. One thing that Ridley Scott does really well is crowd scenes. Even now he does them great(I'm talking about American Gangster). Blade Runner, though, has some of the most amazing street scenes ever. Everyone looks unique and realistic. Everything is neon lit and busy. It looks super real.

I don't have much to say and I am really behind because I went to a party last night, then came home and drank. I had a hangover today. That kind where you spend the rest of the day feeling like really drunk and woozy. It sucked. So Saturday will have to be my catch up day.

This one girl I keep running into is kicking my ass. She has a boyfriend so I really need to let it go. But shes like a new friend and she is an artist and she is cool and blah blah blah I want her. Fuck it. She's too young anyway. I really shouldn't like anyone more than ten years younger than me. I need to be careful what I write. I know she reads this sometimes. Maybe I'm talking about someone else. Maybe you're not who I mean. Yeah, that's it.

Adrian

BR 3A

This guy's face should be easy to draw, but it wasn't. I know the owl was perched on its own pedestal, but I didn't want to keep sticking too close to photo ref/screen caps. Does Tyrell smoke? He probably does like everyone in future LA, but his hand remains cigarette-free.

Again, work is keeping me from finishing this, but I started too late anyway.

Rivero sure writes funny emails when he's drunk, so I might post it here to keep things interesting.

-cm

ps: yeah, that left arm is long...I see it now...

Blade Runner Day 20, J. F. Sebastian

Another tragic character(maybe they all are) is J. F. Sebastian. The toymaker, and replicant maker who finds more camaraderie in the artificial world around him than in anyone real. Deckard and him never even meet. Looking back it seems like it, but the only time he tries to meet J. F., he's already dead. I remember a while when I missed that comment and thought that Sebastian somehow made it. The Final Cut made it really clear in an added bit of dialogue from Roy Batty.

Sebastian is seduced, used, and eventually killed. You want what's best for the young man. He's only 25, looks way older than he actually is, has no friends, and this beautiful girl, Pris, comes along and moves in. You can't blame him if you ever saw Daryl Hannah in that threesome movie in Greece(I think anyone would get in a threesome in Greece, just like anyone will cheat on their husband in France). He has his endearing toy companions and a bunch of fun devices all strewn around his apartment. Poor guy. Breaks your heart.

I was going to paint this and I think I still will if I find time. It was never meant to be an inked piece. It was supposed to be a very detailed dark painting of Sebastian and his favorite companions. I forgot their names. I'll have to look them up. I know they had names in the book(and Sebastian was alive in the book, but then again so was Tyrell's hot niece, who Rachel was based on).

I'll paint it soon. I get to finally go to a party in my home town for once, instead of having to go to Oakland or San Francisco or Berkeley. So I'm leaving here early.

This also make the most posts we've ever done on this site. And it means I only have like 5 more posts this month.

Adrian

BR 2A: Rachel

I remember a teacher in college bringing in a book called The Pencil by Paul Calle. That guy did amazing stuff and probably made the most boring reference exciting.

Rachel from BR had such an interesting look. What was the last good movie Sean Young did? Looking at IMDB, things are looking too good. Rivero: recommendations? Now, I'm just writing filler, too.

I have to go to work, so I'll draw more later.

-cm

BR 1A: inked but not finished

I really should have penciled tighter backgrounds before transferring the drawing to bristol board. Had a headache last night, went to sleep early, and was able to work on this a little bit before lunch. Still haven't seen The Final Cut because the basic version was sold out.

I wish I had a replicant to help me with the last of my Christmas shopping.
-cm

Blade Runner Day 19, Raccoon Eyes

Done on 2 Ply Bristol with rapidograph and brush. I never tone drawings. I thought I'd try something different, plus Pris here is wearing nylons and it was the only way to show they were see through.

Pris was another goth/new wave style that caught on after the movie. The scene where she airbrushes her eyes explains a bunch of girls I've seen since. I once had a girlfriend who had beautiful makeup and would put her hair up in psuedo raccoon ears(it was really cute but very hard to explain). Anyway, Pris was really cool and pretty attractive until the end where she is kind of terrifying.

I did this picture because I felt I didn't give her a fair shake in the last picture I drew of her. This actually shares the same board as the hannibal picture. That's why they have a rectangular shape. I didn't want to waste two pages on relatively small drawings. I guess if I ever frame this stuff they'll be in the same frame. Or I can cut it. Now I'm just wasting your time.

Gots snuggle fever 4 U,
Adrian

Blade Runner Day 18, Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep

I painted this on watercolor paper with acrylic ink and gesso, and rapidograph pen. The ink rough is available in an earlier post. Day 6, I think. I have the finished one up top and the one and a half hours until finished one down below.

Took me like 4 hours to get a hold of the "briefcase". The special 5 disc version of Blade Runner. It came out today. I've literally waited almost a decade and a half for this. They had the theatrical version on video for about ten years. Then the directors cut came out. People pretty much took the original off the shelves, and, while it works(the directors cut) it was not to my liking. Blade Runner has always been what I saw in the theatre and on tv and on cable and on video for that first decade. That was what I wanted. When dvd came out they came out with the directors cut yet again. I was fucked.

I bought Future Noir, the book that chronicles the making of the movie and almost all the trivia you could want(except anything by Harrison Ford since he hated the movie). I found out that there were multiple versions of the movie. Now I was really fucked.

Then, after enough time had passed I learned to accept Blade Runner the directors cut for what it was. I still thought it was very flawed(and funnily enough I thought the theatrical version was totally flawless, again something I'll have to go in to in detail later). But not having the other versions and the fact that certain scenes were floating around like legends(the Holden and Deckard meeting scene and others).

Finally, this year it was confirmed(although rumors had abounded for a long time). The new DVD would be the king of all dvd's. And then they confirmed that not only would you have all the old versions, but the new version too. I wrote about the new version in the 3rd post. I loved it and I finally was okay with the famous unicorn scene. I finally had a real directors cut. I finally had the only real flaw of all the previous versions(Zhora running through the glass) erased and replaced.

Finally, I am happy with my favorite movie. Finally I get a documentary about it. Finally I get the fixes. Finally I get all versions. Finally, it is literally perfect.

Today, I am truly happy.

Adrian

BR 1A: Late to the party

Rivero's been relentless with his posts, so here's my first one. I'll ink this later when I'm off from work.

Found this reference on Google Images because I don't own The Final Cut yet which I'll hopefully pick up tomorrow.

He also said something about a BR thread on The Drawing Board which I'll also post to later when I get a few more drawings done soon. -cm

Blade Runner Day 17, I Make Eyes

I barely scratched by today because I had a couple of paintings I didn't want to rush, so I did this ink drawing of James Hong as Hannibal, the eye maker. He is a great character who does a lot in his brief couple of minutes in the movie. I drew this with a brand new Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph pen, my dry brush and for once, no white paint. Most of those details are actually accurate.

I have a brand new picture on my wall, and it is fucking huge. 1X6 feet. It is right above my computer and I feel so special because I have it. It is the however many page spread that Geof Darrow did in Shaolin Cowboy's first issue. I'll take a picture and post it. Fucking amazing.

I had quite a day today. Through sheer coincidence I was around the girls of past, present, and future. I ran into three in person, got an e-mail from another, and, just to push my luck after an eventful day, called up another. And then hit on two others. Mendoza had warned me that anytime you get a bad haircut you automatically become a chick magnet. He was right. Basically I can't go into more details without pissing off some, embarrassing others, and just spoiling the rest. The other day I realized as honest as I am on this blog I only really disclose like 1/3 of what happens to me. Mainly out of a plethora of reasons. I'd look bad, I'd look egotistical(I know, I already do), And I'd have a chronicle of shit I'd rather people didn't know about me good and bad. I kind of made a pledge to do that anyway, but there are limits. And this is one of those limits. So, I had a great day but the truth of it I will only divulge to people I know really well. I kind of hate that fact, but it's the way life is. Honesty fucks you sometimes. Sometimes you fuck honestly(I just said that because it sounds cool).

Adrian

Blade Runner Day 16, Too Bad She Won't Live

One of the things that sold me on Blade Runner was the philosophical lines in the movie. One of my favorite ever, in this or any movie was "Too bad she won't live. Then again, who does?". It was such a great end to the anti climactic scene(anti climactic was the best ending to that scene, so I mean that in a good way). I remember my dad and I would quote that constantly when I was a little kid.

I know I'm late on this post but I decided to try to live life despite the horrible haircut. I watched I Am Legend with Mendoza. He hated it. I though it was 2/3 of a great I Am Legend movie. I think I'll review it another time. We both read the book so we were very critical(I though a much closer to the book last 1/3 would have made it great, legendary, but the fact they always change it makes these movies always lose their luster while the book does not. Just follow the name fuckheads and maybe you'll have something that can endure as long as the book has).

Gaff keeps being cool(perhaps the coolest Puerto Rican aside from Benny From The Bronx in Carlito's Way, I'm Puerto Rican by the way, and most of "our" stars suck ass big time).

I drew this on 2 ply Bristol Board with Ink, White Paint, Gesso, mostly on my fingers(that is where those round white marks comes from) and I scraped a razor blade across it to get the rain effect with dry brush but it wasn't looking good and it would inevitably look too dark. So I did as the spanish artists of the seventies did and scraped at it with a razor blade(seriously, just check out any Vampirella comic or Eerie story that had spanish artists).

I'll post another pic today to catch up.

Adrian

Blade Runner Day 15, Spinner over LA/Suffer Beast

You'd think I had something poetic to say about my current favorite Blade Runner picture I did. But no, some Suffer Beast of a woman destroyed my nappy head with her clippers. I went in to get a hair cut, or to be more precise, a trim. I'm talking about cut the back and sides just a tad bit shorter. Don't touch the top, I'm growing it out. No need to get any thing bladed near the top of my head. The apex of the dome must remain unsullied and guess what? Guess what she fuckin' does? She starts at the fucking front, cuts off about an inch. An inch, you say? How bad is an inch? You know what? Not very fucking bad. But you see, that's where the Suffer Beast really did her magic. I was distracted by her cutting an inch off of what I was trying to grow. I didn't notice that she literally shaved the back of my head into a brand new hairline. I'm talking where the back of my hair stops growing, she shaved an inch HIGHER than that. You know how they do that cute little thing where they trim it around the ears, just a tad. Just that small little millimeter. Well she goes ahead and does a clear cut around my ear widening to that inch up on the back. I look like a missionary here. Not like funny missionary position, I'm talkin' missionary killing indians with conquistadors because they won't convert. Or I look like one of those dudes who lets snakes bite him for Jesus. I look like I sell real estate in Detroit, okay. It's funny because aside from those things the hair cut ain't that bad. But aside from those things I'd be making a million dollars and have women on my jock like a modern day Conan. I was gonna cut off those stupid ass sideburns but now thats the only thing to distract from the shitty thing happening behind them.

I was SUPPOSED to go out with that girl. I was SUPPOSED to go see like three movies this weekend. No way am I going to let any woman see me like this. No way will I see the girl. No way will I see a movie. Now I am going to stay inside my house with a beanie, my flask, and my samurai sword in Seppuku position all weekend.

I said to myself, just take it to Supercuts, it's simple and fast. No production just plain bullshit is over haircut time. Avoid the other girl I like who could give me a kick ass haircut for cheap and I would have had the quality of her company. Why would I want that?


To quote Scotty in Boogie Nights: "I'm a fuggin' idiot. I'm a fuggin' idiot. Fuggin' idiot, fuggin' idiot, fuggin' idiot..."

Yeah, I drew this with ink, white paint, red paint, blue paint on blue paper and that is the millennium falcon and I did this pre Suffer Beast before my life sucked for days.

Now I will take the sleep of ages. For the world enters a new dark age at the hands of the Suffer Beast.

AdrIan

Blade Runner Day 14, Holden

This arrogant dude gets it pretty hard in the first few minutes. Leon shoots him after losing it over the Voight-Kampff test. A great scene. I don't remember if it was in the book(When Rachel takes the test it is practically word for word in the book, even though the rest of the movie is very different). Anyway, Holden is very interesting. The way they talk about him in the rest of the movie. The way he goes about being a Blade Runner. His office in the pyramid(I think it was a temporary one to trick the replicants but who knows). Later on Deckard even acknowledges how good he is. It's pretty obvious that Gaff is a kick ass Blade Runner but he's hobbling around town with another cop looking to hire Deckard who is a replicant(at least in later version). Interesting.

There is a deleted scene I have seen on the internet where Deckard is talking to Holden who is in an iron lung. I guess they were friends. Bryant even says he's doing good as long as you don't unplug him. That's dry police humor for you(for more of that watch the best drama ever on tv, The Wire). I'm sure that the deleted scene will be on the new dvd.

I drew this in my Windpower(the name of the brand) sketchbook. Used dry brush and a little bit of crow quill. I got to do those noirish blinds that I am so fond of and was so jealous of when Taylor drew them in his Kiss post earlier.



And here is a Batman drawing I did for the hell of it. I hadn't drawn him in more than a month so I had some pent up bat to get out. Nothing to do with Blade Runner but it made me feel good so who cares.

This commercial for Walk Hard done by Judd Apatow and his buddies is Hilarious. 2 minutes in one of the guys loses it pretty bad.

Doing good as long as no one unplugs me,
Adrian

Blade Runner Day 13, Leon Kowalski

Poor Leon. Yeah, he's a homicidal murderer. But he loves his girl, Zhora. He loves his false memories and his pictures. And above all he loves his mom(he shoots Holden for even mentioning her in the first scene). And on top of all that he gets capped by a replicant. Not a Blade Runner replicant, another replicant on the run.

He was a great actor. He was also in another of my favorite movies, Flesh And Blood. Until recently that was the most accurate medieval movie. It also starred Rutger Haur(and Jennifer Jason Leigh who was super hot in it, and after Rutger debauched the hell out of her they made the Hitcher where he tears her apart). Brion James, the actor who portrayed Leon was also in another great science fiction movie, The Fifth Element. He also had a small role in Enemy Mine(which I like no matter what you think). Unfortunately he died of a heart attack in 1999. He was pretty great.

I drew this on purple paper. The color mainly shows through in his eyes. The rest has been painted over to different degrees with watercolor(I used almost every color in there). I painted the sky blue, which in the scan looks more like the scene in the movie, because it is supposed to be blue smoke. I used acrylic blue ink and acrylic white over water color white. And I used black ink for all the black parts. I used acrylic brown ink for the hair.

This is the moment after Deckard has shot Zhora, when you get a quick glimpse that Leon witnessed it. He is totally shocked yet completely filled with rage. After a few scenes he attacks Deckard.

I keep the television on for some background noise(I use music when I write for the mood). All day they've been showing the commercial for the new Blade Runner DVD. So I'm drawing Leon and thinking about the movie when all of a sudden I think I'm hallucinating his voice but it is actually his voice in the commercial saying "Time To Die". A phrase repeated by Roy Batty later on although in a completely different way.

Adrian

Blade Runner Day 12, Deckard Pattern

I didn't want to post another Deckard picture for a little bit(I was eventually gonna post another anyway, of course, just not so soon), but here is another I was working on. I wanted to do something in the vein of Paolo Serpieri. His inking style is very unique. He usually draws dirty european comics but he is fucking great, so I wanted to try his style. I used to ink kind of like this anyway. Before I switched to dry brush, which saved me a bunch of time(although I found this took me very little time). I got the latest Heavy Metal magazine where he had a pretty long story(more than 60 pages!!!). It kind of sucks but his art is some of the best around. This also is inspired by a very Deckard like drawing in my office by Geof Darrow of his Blade Runner-like character Nixon in one of my favorite comics ever, Hard Boiled.

Geof Darrow kicks so much fucking ass. Anyway, I wanted tyo draw a full body Deckard and I didn't want to copy Darrow(not that I really could) so I did Serpieri's style. This whole thing probably took me about 3-4 hours. Maybe 5.

I am of course a fool for posting a Darrow drawing next to my own but I am proud of it and it sits above my computer. Incidentally I was sitting outside of the San Diego Convention center when Mendoza shot this. And Olivia Munn(drool) was within my eyeline(at least her ass was...don't blame me, it's true). To paraphrase Ice Cube, that day was a good day.

I also bough a five foot long print of Shaolin Samurai by Darrow to have framed in my office. It's that 8 or 10 page spread he did in the first issue. It is really amazing.



Adrian

Blade Runner Day 11, Zhora

I have the next 7 or so of these planned out. Maybe more. I will be doing more obscure characters and repeating others. Plus I will do some of the more famous scenes(not in a copy of what was on the screen but in an interpretation). Mendoza requested a picture of the Spinner flying over the city and that is coming up. It's my favorite so far, although I have big plans for the last two posts. I think I'll also be updating some older posts that I felt were a little weak. Just because I'm a completeist.

I asked the 21 year old out again. See, no hard feelings. We'll probably have to just be friends. Since she didn't kiss me(even though I did my one smooth move for the winter and it demanded a kiss, anyone would have thought so). We'll hang out after finals. Heh. That just made me laugh. Finals.

This is a picture of Zhora, the violent stripper with the replicant snake(all the animals are replicants). Deckard shoots her in the back and seriously regrets it. I remember when I first saw that movie(in the theatre when I was very very young, my parents also took me to Alien incidentally, so now you know why I am fucked up, I dreamed about it for years and almost believed I made it up), I felt really weird that Deckard was shooting a woman, who was running, in the back. In fact the only people he kills in the movie are women. Leon is killed by Rachel and Rutger Haur(he is both the character and the actor to me) dies of old age. He even seemingly brings the gun to Rachel's head at the end when he is really taking the covers off of her to see if she is alive.

I drew this on red paper. Used Green and White paint and ink. I may color her hair brown later. It's funny that if you are going to use this much color you might as well just paint on white paper. The colors would have been a little more even and fixing mistakes would have been infinitely easier. But I set out on this road.

When Deckard comes in to investigate Zhora he pretends to be looking for holes with which to see her in her dressing room(which is weird since she is on stage "taking pleasure from the snake").

Deckard: You'd be surprised at the lengths some guys would go to to see the female body.
Zhora: (looking at Deckard with an ironic smirk)Actually, I wouldn't.


Adrian

Blade Runner Day 10, Rachel Let's Her Hair Down

A wonderful moment in Blade Runner is the moment that Rachel takes down her hair and plays piano in Deckard's apartment. Very simple and elegent and beautiful. I also love it at the end where she has that huge fur coat(even though I generally hate fur coats).

This doesn't look too much like her but it gets what I feel about the character at the end. My slight buck tooth fetish is showing here. I drew this with ink brush and crow-quill. I later used dry brush over the majority of the crow-quill inked fur coat.

It's cool that Xbox has the theatrical cut of Blade Runner to rent, but it's not so cool that their transfer is worse than my bootleg dvd. Of course all this will be obsolete in a week or two when the box set comes out with every version in crystal clarity.

I think I need a young swedish au pair to take care of stuff at home. Or just to have sex with. I remember going up to some rich houses and passing a bunch of freedom loving european hot chicks tooling around in an SUV. I asked who they were. They were various au pairs in the neighborhood who had were done taking care of several families kids. This is either my dream or the dream of every rich man in a mansion.

I'm just telling it like it is here.

Adrian

Blade Runner Day 9, Tyrell

Finally had a prolonged chance to draw today and get a head start on some of these pictures so I don't fall behind like I did on Day 7. I was so hopped up on caffeine my hands were shaking. I forgot to eat, bought a lemonade at the coffee shop and got a free triple espresso, after already having a redline(crazy caffeine drink). I was really messed up and had to stop drawing half way through with Mendoza because I was wigging out. I ate, went home, watched the Alec Baldwin part of Glengarry Glen Ross, watched my theatrical version of Blade Runner on dvd(a special e-bay narrated version, and I will go into detail about that version in a later post). I finally got to add some paint to what is becoming one of my favorite Blade Runner pieces(hey, no one else is complementing them so I have to, otherwise I'd quit drawing). I hope to post that one around day 12 or 15, unless I am running out of time.

This one is Tyrell, the mysterious genius behind the Tyrell corporation that made the replicants. "More Human Than Human" is the company slogan. Great actor who I'm pretty sure was the bartender in The Shining. He has a great scene with both Ford, and Haur at different pivotal moments in the movie. His scene with Rutger Haur is so symbolic and really harkens back to greek myths and bible stories. He is god to the replicants and when confronted by one he looks at him like a work of art. Plus he has that cool owl and Rachel just running around that awesome Pyramid being cool. Just think about that, there is a niece of his running around looking like Rachel. Just being hot and awesome all day doing nothing. God. I want to meet that fictional niece.

Anyway, after that sojourn through my sick imagination, I have to say that I drew this on cardboard paper with Ink, White paint, Yellow paint, Red paint, brush and micron pen. That is supposed to be one of the pyramids in the movie. If you haven't seen the movie that doesn't look at all like a pyramid.

Tyrell uses that cool saying in the movie. "The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long". I love that saying and find it is usually true. Probably why I like younger women. I'm already burned out. I need someone to sap energy from. Or life force. Or brain juice.


Adrian

Blade Runner Day 8, Gaff

Now I really don't have much to say since I posted like 30 minutes ago. So heres some stuff.

I drew Gaff. The only Puerto Rican Blade Runner or person in the future. Because Puerto Rican's don't exist there. Ink and white paint in my sketch book. He's one of the coolest and he looks dangerous.

The other reason I was late was because I went on a date last night. After dinner, a movie, and some drinks, I tried something smooth and was a little let down when I got a kiss on the cheek for it. It was a spur of the moment artistic thing that really deserved some lippage. I'm only smooth like 3 times a year, give me a break. I'm not even going to repeat the move because it was so good I don't want someone to steal it. Oh well. 'Nother one doesn't like me. Who would have guessed. Me would have guessed, that's who!

What am I doing dating 21 year olds anyway. I guess I do it because they're tasty.

Just to show you I have no hard feelings here's another of Doctor Steve Brule's Brule's Rules.

For Your Health,
Adrian

Blade Runner Day 7 1/2, Deckard Sky

Yeah I know I'm a day late. That's why it says 1/2 up there. I took my time on this one. I wet the whole thing, painted it, and then painted it again, and then again, and then with white paint. Not as spectacular as it all sounds and the scan sapped all the color out of it. I need a new scanner. Maybe it was the photoshop save for web thing that sapped it. It looks better in real life.

I was trying for those scenes when he is in the spinner and the dirty sky is reflecting in the lights on his face. Or when he is up against all that neon. One of those things anyway.

The Beaver Boys recently had to go to the hospital because their shrimp and white wine levels were not correct. Here's hoping them the best and I hope they recover soon.


Adrian

Blade Runner Day 6, Blade Runners

Don't have much to say because my life isn't currently in shambles.

This is actually the rough for a painting I'm working on. I may end up liking this more. Ink and white paint in my sketchbook. It's supposed to be Deckard and Gaff getting out of a spinner ready to shoots some damned replicants. This never happened in the movie but it would be cool.

Here's another reason I love Doctor Steve Brule. I strictly follow all of Brules Rules.

For Your Health,
Adrian

Blade Runner Day 5, The Kiss, Pris

This first piece is by my friend and fellow director Taylor Wansley. He lit my movie. His own movie is the best no budget movie I've ever seen. And we crossed the country together in a station wagon. He did this on a Wacom tablet on his Mac. I think he used photoshop to paint it. I really need to take this up. I barely use my Wacom now a days. This is the moment that Deckard slams Rachel against the shades and kisses her. It's hot and weird and awesome. My favorite thing, and something I've personally struggled with so many times in the past are the light beams through the slats. How they fall on Deckard's face and especially how they reflect in Rachel's hair is amazing. I don't think I've ever gotten that effect right.

I get jealous of Taylor for how good he is. The guy doesn't draw for months to years and then just pops out a masterpiece. He is left handed and all the left handed artists I've met were naturals. I took years of study on an almost daily basis and he just sits down and does it. He gets what he wants while I search for a finished stage.



I drew Pris. This is not my favorite but it may be a case of still being down because it looked much worse for the first 90% of it. I polished a turd. Now it's nice and shiny, but I still see the turd underneath whether it is there or not. I didn't plan on inking it at all but it needed it badly. But I didn't want to put my favorites up against one of my friends. So he gets best in show today.

Now I got to get Mendoza to do a Blade Runner Day sketch.

Adrian

Blade Runner Day 4, Rachel

I just finished this painting and feel it was a failure. Although looking at it from a distance makes me like it. Yeah, she's smiling. I wanted Rachel to smile for once. Sue me. I drew it in pencil and painted it in watercolor. This measure like 5X7 inches. About that much. It is pretty small.

I still have like seven half finished Blade Runner pieces. Hopefully I can finish them in time to post everyday. I'll still post 25 no matter what. I decided to make a new painting instead of posting what I had because I was going to post a small one with a special guest's tomorrow.

Is it time to say how much I'm in love with either of the Dechanel sisters. Zooey Deschanel and her sister Emily Deschanel are so cute and hot it tickles. They are shiny like crystal(old post inside joke). Plus they are sure to never go out with Lees(at least in real life).

I got a laugh from an MSN headline, "Has Yeti Returned To Mount Everest". The funny part is how it takes for granted whether a Yeti exists or not. I wish I lived my life like that.

Was drinking white wine while watching the Beaver Boys. Of course that is appropriate since their favorite things is shrimp and white wine. My favorite dance moves of theirs are Corwin's Crouch and Pestel Press. I do regret not having shrimp while watching though. Also Doctor Steve Brule's Last Resort Fighting technique is probably the best Doctor Steve Brule episode ever.


Adrian

Blade Runner Day 3, Deckard

I watched Blade Runner : The Final Cut the other night. I guess I don't really have too much to say about it. I loved it. I finally felt that the unicorn sequence worked. The new shots were great. Zhora running through that glass in the old version was the only thing I disliked about the movie and they fixed it so I was very happy. Also the dove going up into the blue sky I always kind of liked but it didn't look like it was in the same place and they fixed it with a whole new background. They added a scene with strippers in hockey masks which seems to foreshadow horror for the next two decades.

It was very nice to see Harrison Ford on the big screen looking and acting as cool as he used to. And Rutger Hauer is just a god in the movie. He is a force of nature. His moods changing on a beat. You can see why he is the leader of the replicants. He is just magnetic. In a side note I recently showed my friend Taylor that he wasn't just a one hit wonder. In the Hitcher he is so fucking scary and weird. I think I was kind of going for that in my own movie with the villain. Plus another of my favorite movies Flesh And Blood he pretty much thoroughly defiles Jennifer Jason Leigh(thus the movie helped get me through puberty) while being a mercenary during the middle ages and the bubonic plague.

And god, Rachel on the big screen is like the best thing that ever happened to me. Okay, I got a goth fetish(and people who know me, know I really go crazy about goth girls who look like Rachel). She looks like a statue. Like her skin is too perfect to be real.

My only complaint, and it's a weird one coming from me are the somewhat repeated FX shots. Before people started doing science fiction movies a lot those shots were a precious commodity. Now we see cool future cities everyday. So showing the exact same shot is over kill. Again, I stress that this applies to 2007. Not 1992 when they added the extra city scenes. Once or even twice is fine. Three or four is a little much. Of course my problem might just stem from watching the movie several times a year for the last 25 years.

This is my favorite Blade Runner piece I've done. I drew it at 24 hour Starbucks(which is no longer 24 hours) a few weeks ago. I inked it over the weeks and painted it while Taylor wrote his screenplay. I know there really isn't any resemblance to Harrison Ford but I didn't have any access to pictures at the time and I feel it gets the point across. I may possible paint some highlights in the hair because it seems a little detailess the way it currently is. I actually did this one fairly fast. Just over a long period of time. I really like it and it is probably the best thing I've drawn on tinted paper so far.

I also have to mention my framed Final Cut poster I got for free at San Diego Comicon. I saw Ridley Scott, Syd Mead, Rachel, Zhora, Tyrell(who I really though was dead so I was very pleasantly surprised) and James Hong among others. James Hong was so fucking funny it was incredible. Ridley Scott was the opposite. Dead serious. He is one of my all time favorite directors(either number two or three after Scorcese). And he is so awesome I have no idea how he can be so dark. Anyway, awesome.

I guess I had more to say about it than I thought.

Adrian

Blade Runner Day 2, Eyes Like Animals

I drew this one because I wanted to specifically draw the moment where Deckard eyes reflect light like the rest of the replicants(although I can't remember where Zhora and Leon's eyes reflect, the rest of them do). I got a two for one on this because Rachel's are also reflecting in that scene. The only thing I regret about this is the fact that I had a really hard time trying to show how Deckard is blurred in the background while Rachel's face is in clear focus. I think I could have done it better.

One thing of note in this picture is that I think I did this more than 2 years ago. I remember showing this batshit insane girl I was trying to date at the time. She was really good looking but she was so crazy that I was just the first of several people who swore never to talk to her again. And that was december of 2005. I remember writing that screenplay(the one I quoted from a few posts down) a few days after I made the decision to not have anything to do with her. The point of all this is I think it predates when I started using my drybrush technique regularly. So it has a completely anal line style that I no longer do. I think I was using crowquill pens on everything except for the blocks of black.

I obviously love the movie if I had this laying around for no reason two years ago.

I'll have a review of the Final Cut tomorrow. I saw it last night but I want it to have it's own post.

Whenever you need the old Blade Runner magic,
Adrian

Blade Runner Day 1, Fluorescent Silhouettes

I know it was released yesterday. I just decided to start this event on the 1st. The event? 25 Blade Runner posts for December. The most we(Mendoza and I) have ever posted. Maybe I can pull it off. Maybe not. We'll see. I'm sure I'll miss a day for some reason or other. But I'll try not to. Whatever happens, shitty picture or good I want to do 25(like my cut off age for girls I date. I kid, I kid....even though it generally is true. I was interested in that Cougar last week so give me a break).

This is all to celebrate the 25th anniversary of my favorite movie ever, Blade Runner. I could explain a million reasons why I love it(and I have gone off about it plenty of times before now), but I felt that just drawing it would do more to show my feelings than anything else.

I drew this about two weeks ago as an experiment in putting down water color over pencils and then inking and putting down white paint. I drew a much better, tighter picture but as I put the paint down the lines disappeared along with the subtlety and beauty. It still has a nice feel. Just, it seems to be kind of clumsy. Blur your eyes it might look better. The lower one is what it looked like about half way through. I obviously didn't use any reference, which really hurts the piece. My other pieces at least use a little reference. Some are even frames from the movie(although in a style that adds instead of just copies, I hope). So lets see how this goes.



Last girl I tried to date was 21. The girl before that was 25. I really have to catch up to my own age, but I was going the wrong direction. I'm still supposed to take the 21 year old out. She's fun. And I think there are sparks. But I could be wrong. I was kind of a dick. I turned her down when she called me back to hang out after initially canceling. I at least have to make up for that. I've had a lot of people do that to me so I was stand offish, not in what I said, but in my own head, and by canceling when she wanted to hang out the same night. She deserves better than that.


Adrian

Eating Holiday

Don't overdo it like this guy and have some self-respect. Eating disorder...blah blah....addiction...blah...blah...it's in my genes...blahblah.blah blah blah...i'm trying...not my fault...it's the holidays...blah.blah...

Get outside and walk [a lot] if you're going to eat 2 pounds of turkey.

But my knees hurt...

Well, because you're fucking obese. At least try and do something about it, and don't eat half of that pie! Put it down.

I'm hungry, so Happy Thanksgiving.

-Grumpy

Monster, Monster

Yet another sketch that I have to finish later thanks to work.
I started drawing this yesterday in my car before going into the "office." Actually, I only had the head and one arm done, so I had to work on it today.
Is Rivero doing okay after that one post? It sounded like he was recovering fine, but he might be carrying his flask around the house more often.
My brother also mentioned a new "Cloverfield" trailer online, so I checked it out before lunch today. Looks pretty cool. Monster overload? Just like the zombie thing?? I'd love to see some monster comics, and hopefully Paul Pope is working hard on Batting Boy which I think has monsters pitted against, yes, a boy.
I still need to work on all those characters Rivero asked me to draw... C'mon, Thanksgiving vacation days. Hurry up, and give me time to work on this stuff.

-cm

Sketch from a couple of months ago

I was digging through my closet, looking at what drawing paper was hiding inside when I found my big AquaBee sketchbook. I remember painting this not too long ago, and it may have been the time that Rivero and I were going to the 24H Starbucks that is no longer open 24 hours.

This was done in watercolor and maybe some gouache. Sometimes you see something on tv or in magazines, and it can help with character designs.

Some digital hatching was added a few minutes ago to bring out some of the form that wasn't quite finished with traditional media. It's still unfinished, but most of the stuff I put on this blog is admittedly. I'll try to complete some of these sketches tonight since I got out of work early.

Didn't realize that we had posted 17 times in August; it must have been all the energy we had before Comic-Con. I don't know why I have it in my head that we have to post a lot this month. It must be my guilt for making Rivero post so many times without me contributing anything.

-cm

Number 160

I looked at the Drawing Board Drawing Jam and worked on the latest thread like Rivero. Looks like we both picked the first picture, but I also want to work on the second pose. Working too slowly for the first pass I decided to put a tone over the whole drawing with graphite just so I could find some kind of focus in the drawing. In the end, I came to the realization that I need to go to some figure drawing classes again just to loosen up. Doing some gestures and just working bigger would feel much better than working in front of this computer screen with a drawing pad on my lap.

Here's a more finished version of the drawing, but I still wanted to do some work digitally to bring out certain parts, especially the background the parts of the face, hands, and feet.

No time right now...have to get ready for work.

I'll try to get Rivero to go to a figure drawing session somewhere here in the Bay Area, but getting him to wake up before noon might prove harder than watching a Michael Bay movie.

The title of this posts refers to this being our blog's 160th post. Looks like November will be our best month so far in terms posting more often.

-cm

update: Here's my last attempt at this one before I move on to other drawings tonight. I used some transfer paper to get the figure onto some bristol board with a little tooth, and then I tried to render it as cleanly as I could. It would be nice to get away from this kind of line quality...something with a little more life. Paul Pope is so great at creating these energetic drawings that make me remember why I like ink drawings and ones where the pencil creates something that can't be found in so many [comic] artists today.

Will have to post this one on the Drawing Board before I sleep.

Unfortunately, I have no stories to tell other than I got out of work early, decided to come home and draw, and... I'd better find a way to make a living out of doing this soon... sigh... I need to start working on storytelling and comics again.

-cm