Doodles From DeGrand Land

Turkey From Hell

2009-11-01T11:07:00.003-06:00

I found this while going through some old drawings and felt it was appropriate for a post Halloween, pre Thanksgiving post. Apparently this is what happens when I get hold of an old cookbook and given a free afternoon. I also find the caption to be oddly fitting.

Heeby Jeeby Comix

2009-10-29T10:53:00.006-05:00

We interrupt this blog for an important announcement:

Introducing Heeby Jeeby Comix!! A FUN and EXCITING new art and comix blog from the minds of Chris Houghton, Bob Flynn, and myself. We'll be posting weird, funny, and possibly gross comix for all ages, a good time is promised for all! Here's my contribution for the first post:Be sure to check back for new material. Tell your friends, neighbors, and Barack Obama. Now back to your regularly scheduled doodles.

doodley doo!

2009-10-28T10:01:00.002-05:00

Howdy folks! I've been happily swamped with cartooning assignments and commisions the past few weeks, but sadly have let the blog go dormant yet again. But finally got around to scanning more sketchbook pages, huzzah!

The page on the left has character designs for my 24 Hour Comic I posted last, and the page on the right has designs for a character that will soon appear in something I can't discuss just yet. But soon!

The sweaty bearded dude on the left page is partially inspired by a cartoonist friend of mine. If he's reading this blog, he knows who he is. Hopefully everyone has an awesome Halloween, and look for a cool announcement soon!

24 Hour Comic

2009-10-05T20:47:00.005-05:00

This past weekend I participated in the 24 Hour Comic Book Day challenge. The goal is to simply create a 24 page comic book in 24 hours. I finished 12 pages before I thought I was going to either pass out or stab myself with my pigment liners. Keep in mind that the event took place in a comic shop, so a lot of time was eaten up by browsing. The comic I did finish is an homage to the brilliant Fleischer brothers and makes about as much sense as their cartoons. I gave myself 2 restraints just to make it even harder (a bad idea); I didn't plan out ANYTHING until I started drawing it, and I didn't use any dialogue. Against my better judgement, here are the results:
That $2 is a joke. It's worth is immeasurable.

My favorite page. It actually ended up on the local news (no joke).

Only God knows what the next 12 pages will hold, but rest assured if they ever get drawed, they won't make any sense either.

new sketchbook pages

2009-10-01T15:23:00.004-05:00

Well after disappearing for a whole month, my sketchbook returns to the internet (huzzah!). After working a 40-50 hour a week job, getting artwork done for various gallery shows and working on a tv show (more on that later), I've sadly neglected my poor lil' blog. Hopefully I can post more often on October, Halloween always gets me inspired to draw weird ghosts and monsters.

I started doodling with a mechanical pencil again and forgot how much fun it was, I love using the blending stump to add quick shading.

The fellow on the left page is proclaiming one of the things I hate to hear people say the most.

For some reason I scanned these pages in grayscale. Whatever.

The page on the left turned into a drawing I tried to get done for a gallery show but turned into one of those pieces that I couldn't belp but make more complex as I went along. Needless to say the finished drawing will be done by the time Obama leaves office.

Barfing cartoon characters, hilarious during any occasion.

My attempt at drawing some sort of Dick Tracy inspired gangster on the left. And then more weird stuff.

Well if I don't get anything else posted for ANOTHER month, everyone have a fun Halloween and don't forget to watch "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown", my absolute favorite holiday cartoon. Thanks for lookin' folks!

doodles & stuff

2009-09-01T09:57:00.005-05:00

Well after ANOTHER long delay I finally managed to fill up my latest sketchbook and start on another, I'm getting a sizeable collection at this point. I've also been busy with completing some drawings for 2 upcoming art shows I'm involved with, as well as a top secret project I can't really talk about just yet. All I'll say is that my obsession with Jim Henson has proved helpful ;0)

After watching the awesome "Inglourious Basterds" I was inspired to draw Hitler, who I think we can all agree already looks like a stupid cartoon character.

Not sure what my latest obsession with ghosts and robots is all about, but hey, I guess I'll just go with it! At least they're sweaty.

I decided to share a couple of pieces that will be featured in the previously mentioned art shows. These pieces were inspired by, well, not really sure to be honest. Let's just say they're bold statements about social class differences in our current economic climate.

I will be sure and post more info about the art shows shortly, both of these pieces are for sale so get the credit card ready! Bye for now, thanks folks!

latest cartoon idiocy

2009-07-22T11:15:00.003-05:00

Well well well, after quite a long break I finally got around to posting more sketchbook pages, sorry about the long hiatus! I bought one of those fancy pocket brush pens that the awesome Bob Flynn blogged about and have had a blast using it. Most of these new pages have drawings using this pen, some better than others as I tried to get used to it.

I guess when you want to yell but don't know what to yell, just yell YELL!

I just noticed that on the rare occasion I draw a happy character, the character looks insane. Whatever.

I seriously have no idea what that monstrosity os on the top left of the page, but it really weirds me out.

Once again, thanks to all the really cool folks that stop by my silly little corner of the internets, I promise to post more frequently! See ya!

ghost arcade

2009-07-01T14:32:00.003-05:00

Since I haven't really doodled much in my sketchbook lately I thought I would post this nonsenical finished drawing. I'll leave it up to you folks to tell me what it's about, since I have no clue.

latest stupidity

2009-06-10T09:30:00.004-05:00

I finally got off my lazy butt and got more doodles scanned in, can't believe it's been so long since I posted some drawings, this annoying thing called "life" keeps me busy. That being said, I'm never too busy to watch old Van Beuren cartoons and gain inspiration from them which is where the majority of these doodles came from.

Ghosts, robots, and Batman. I think we have a new tv series.

I've said it before and I still stand by it, Popeye is really tricky to draw. Segar is one of my favorite cartoonists so I can't help but take a crack at his characters every now and then. I then feel the need to surround them with my typical weirdness.

The guy on the bottom left was inspired by a creepy "To Catch a Predator" lookin' guy I saw at my favorite bookstore. He was of course browsing old comic books like I was.

Here we have an assortment of unpleasant faces. The face on the top left page was inspired by my favorite cartoon short of all time, the Fleischer's "Swing You Sinners".

A robot that shoots balls out of his head, still not sure why, but does it REALLY matter?

I must say the sun on the right page may be the closest thing to "cute" I can muster.

Lastly, I wanted to share this photo that was taken after one of the greatest experiences of my life (my wedding day counts slighty above this). I attended a live show called Cinematic Titanic which was performed by the original cast of my favorite tv show of all time, Mystery Science Theater 3000. After the show I got to meet everyone and they were all cool enough to sign my Tom Servo head. The picture is me with Joel Hodgson, the creator and star of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Cinematic Titanic. I really don't geek out over much these days, but I hold MST3K so dear to my heart that getting to meet the creator and star of the show was close to a religious experience for me. It would be like a Trekkie meeting Gene Roddenberry while winning the lottery at the same time. It was a blast and if anyone gets the chance to see them perform live then by all means GO GO GO!!! Thanks for lookin' folks!

my art space

2009-06-02T09:28:00.004-05:00

Well folks, I decided since it's been so long since my lost post I would share why it's taken me so long to unpack. My wife and I recently purchased our first house and so that has taken up all my drawing time. However, I finally have my art room/studio set up so I can start drawing again, and I thought it might be fun (and incredibly self indulgent) to share photos of where I create my stupid doodles and drawings. The first picture above is my framed poster from my favorite movie of all time, Ed Wood. I decided it would make sense to surround it with Batman, Corpse Bride, and Army of Darkness toys. My wife later told me this does not make sense, and she would be right.

Here is an assortment of various horror and cult movie figures, sense a trend yet?

Yes, I am nerdy enough to display all my old Game Boy systems (the best console of all time) with my Super Mario Bros. toy collection (the best video game of all time).

More cult movie stuff. It just doesn't end folks.

Some vintage flea market finds. The Chilly Willy soaky in the background is damn creepy staring out from the darkness.

More from the Mario shelf. On the top are some Dunny's and various other vinyl figures, and in the middle are all my Donatello figures, my favorite Ninja Turtle from childhood.

These have been my most prized possesions since the early 90's, original Ren and Stimpy drawings by Bob Camp who I got to meet when I first started trying to be a cartoonist. He has been a huge influence and inspiration for me ever since.

My framed Joel Hodgson autograph, an original Dave Cooper drawing and some doodles by John K. I have some more original art I want to put up but can't decide where to put it just yet, as you can see wall space is dwindling.

What art room would be complete without a buttload of books? And a My Pet Monster?

My collection of Peanuts toys, another huge influence from childhood.

Lastly, here is my collection of Muppet toys and figures. Words fail me when I try to describe my love for Jim Henson and his brain, so I will let these photos do the talking. More artwork to be posted soon, thanks for indulging me in this useless post!!

beards and bosch

2009-04-28T20:56:00.002-05:00

Sorry about the lack of updates once again, I've been working on some really cool and top secret projects that I hope I can share sometime soon. Until then, enjoy more sketchbook pages. More sweat and stubble, and body hair, yuck.

I really enjoy drawing ugly and weird people (big surprise, right?). The old guy on the top part of the right page was inspired by a particularly unpleasant fellow I saw giving someone hell at a grocery store.

On the left page I was inspired by some Hieronymus Bosch characters. Seriously, that guy had an imagination the likes of which this world has never seen before or since. I was also in the mood to draw weird facial hair on the right page, the handlebar moustache is a fashion trend I feel is far overdue in its return. Thanks for lookin' folks!

and we're back!

2009-04-01T14:14:00.002-05:00

Well, the wife and I are about 75% moved into the new house. Still have a lot to unpack (including the art table and all my drawing supplies), but I finally got the computer hooked up with internet, so I can bring you awesome folks some new stupid doodles!

Another collection of miserable sweating souls. Perhaps I am subconciously doodling the damned?

I was looking through some old book of Renaissance woodcuts and saw these dudes wearing these funky cone shaped hats. I really liked the look of them and started putting them on my weirdos. A new fashion trend will surely begin soon.

You folks just TRY and find another sketchblog with Batman and Gumby on the same spread!

If any artists out there are interested in doing an art trade with me, please e-mail me at mdaviddegrand@gmail.com to set up the details. I recently did one with the awesome Chris Houghton (check out the art we traded on his blog here:
http://chrishoughtonart.blogspot.com/2009/03/art-trade.html). Basically you'll get an original drawing of mine in exchange for one from you, cool huh? Hope to hear from some folks!

silly sketchbookery

2009-03-04T09:18:00.003-06:00

Well folks, this could be the last post for a while as my wife and I will be moving out of our tiny apartment and into our first house here in the next few weeks. I tried to cram as many drawings as possible into these pages so there will be plenty to look at in my absence.

My attempt at drawing donut head Homer on the bottom of the left page was a miserable failure, so I just stuck with the usual ugly sweaty people for the rest of the pages.

I promise that's not a KKK member on the left page, just an idiot in a conical hat. I swear!

I think this started as another exercise in how many different faces I could come up with and evolved into this monstrosity that will surely devour us all. And yes, I believe that is a Devo hat the fellow on the top of the right page is wearing.

And how about a little gore to finish! I really want to say thanks to all the cool people that regularly check out my blog and leave nice comments, you are all really great artists and it's been a pleasure exchanging words. Anyone that requested a sticker start looking in your mailbox as they are on their way! Hope to be back soon, now on to the boxes, ugh.

the sketchbook returns!

2009-02-17T10:48:00.003-06:00

Finally got around to scanning more doodles. Just more random crap from the depths of my brain, a scary place to visit I've been told.

The dude on the far right may be the most disturbing thing I've ever drawn, maybe.

Trees and trunks.

Something about Santa on a page with zombies makes me laugh.

Another Photoshoped drawing I did to experiment with color, I think this one turned out better than the last two.

And don't forget, if you want some free stickers please e-mail me at mdaviddegrand@gmail.com. They're FREE people!! Bye for now!

STUCK on you!

2009-02-05T11:53:00.004-06:00

Howdy folks! In my ongoing quest to plaster my name and idiot images onto every surface I can find, I offer my brand new DeGrandLand.com sticker! They are free for the asking, just drop me a line at mdaviddegrand@gmail.com with your shipping address (don't worry, I'm not a serial killer) and I'll get one out to you. If there are any other artists out there with stickers that want to trade then by all means let me know, I will plaster your image in the highest travelled area in Fort Worth, Texas (or wherever is most convenient at the time). I also have plenty of my old sticker left (below) that I will throw in as well, as long as you promise to stick it in an obnoxious place that will irritate at least one guy that wears a tie to work everyday!

a couple o' drawrings

2009-01-22T15:06:00.003-06:00

Here are a few ink drawings I scanned and threw some Photoshop color onto. I think these could make cool t-shirt designs perhaps. I'll probably tweak the colors more before calling these done, just wanted to post something different than the usual crowded sketchbook pages.

last pages and a new book!!

2009-01-14T11:54:00.008-06:00

This spread and the page below mark the very last pages of my old Moleskine sketchbook. I've been trying to branch out lately and draw things other than drippy trees and ugly people, but with this page I obviously failed. At least there's a cute cloud, that's a slight departure.

Charlie Brown is really tough to draw correctly, which I why I didn't even try and drew him in my own way. Take THAT Charles Schulz! More ugliness to close out this sketchbook, which leads us directly to....

The custom cover I did for my brand new sketchbook! I know, I know, more sweaty ugly people and the head of a cadaver. I guess I'll just stick to my own niche I've created for myself.

I'm determined to cover every square blank inch of this book, so I started with the front inside cover. The elephant is already disturbed by what is to come, as well he should be.

Here we have quite the assortment of rotund gentlemen. Most of these guys came from me observing people at a shopping mall over the holidays, I tried to remember the most miserable looking men I could and then drew them from memory. It was quite fun until I grew tired of the holiday music and glut of obnoxious shoppers asking if I did caricatures.

With this page I realized that I apparently can't draw a character without making his mouth with either a creepy smile or horrified frown. I'll try and branch out to close mouthed characters in the future.
Barf+sweat+stubble=hilarity. This is why I failed math in school.

I also wanted to use this post to point out several blogs I've been following that I feel are worth sharing, these dudes are awesome artists and are a huge inspiration for me:

http://bobjinx.blogspot.com/
http://bobcampcartoonist.blogspot.com/
http://dankrall.blogspot.com/
http://danbobthompson.blogspot.com/
http://cartooncurio.blogspot.com/
http://www.onsmithcomics.blogspot.com/

Thanks for looking at my doodles, I hope they have made your life better.

The Beginning of the End!!

2008-12-04T13:59:00.002-06:00

Man it's been too long since my last post, hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! These pages mark the last few pages remaining in this sketchbook that I started in August of 2007. Since then I have posted almost every single page from the book, for some reason. I sincerely appreciate all the awesome people that have left comments and that still check out this blog, it's really reassuring to know SOMEONE out there digs my art.

I can see now why it takes me so long to finish a sketchbook, I just can't bear to leave a single empty square inch on any page. A sign of insanity I'm sure.

If there's one article of clothing that needs to come back in style, it's the top hat. And the bow tie.

Last but not least, I would like to point everyone to this radio interview I did this past weekend:

http://www.fanboyradio.com/ Although I was on the whole three hours, you can hear me talking a little about my artwork on episode 495.1. A big thanks to Scott Hinze and everyone at Fanboy Radio for inviting me on and letting me ramble. Look for some new pages soon, and maybe a finished piece or two!

tentacles and dripping eyeballs

2008-10-31T18:36:00.002-05:00

On this Halloween eve as I wait for my significant other to get home from her place of employment, I feel the need to share more sketchbook pages. I'm almost to the end of this Moleskine that I started in August of 2007, it usually doesn't take me this long to finish one but this annoying thing called "life" keeps getting in the way. The smaller tree on the left page above was Disney inspired, back when Disney actually inspired artists.

And this page was inspired by a can of Mountain Dew and some old horror & sci-fi movies. Happy Halloween everyone!

?!

2008-10-01T09:27:00.002-05:00

Sometimes I look back through my sketchbook and just start to wonder what's wrong with me. I know my drawings are pretty tame compared to a lot of cartoonists, but the thing is that I don't intentionally sit down to draw weird stuff. It just seems to come out, so I guess what's the use of fighting it. It's more fun to draw weird mutated sweaty people than boring still lifes anyway (did plenty of that in school).
This looks like one of those pages done on an energy drink buzz. I really need to lay off of those, I'm afraid my heart is just going to turn into maple syrup soon.
Lacking inspiration I flipped through a book of nothing but images of devils and started doing my takes on some of them (left side). I really like the one with the trunk and feathery eye thingies at the top of the left page.

Thanks to everyone that came to the art show at Kettle, and especially to those awesome folks that bought my art! I sold about half of my work, so that rocks. I wish I could say that the money will go to good use, but in reality it will be used to feed my insatiable toy and book habit. It's worse than drugs.

Art Show!!

2008-09-20T20:41:00.002-05:00

I'm more than late in posting this, but anyone reading this blog that lives in the Dallas area should come by the Kettle Art Gallery in Deep Ellum and check out this show I'm in: http://www.kettleart.com/page2.htm. Here are a few pieces that I'm showing, some still available for purchase (hint hint).

The other artists in the show are top notch, I feel really priviledged to be in the same gallery with them, check them out:

Ryan Thies http://www.rthies.com/

Miguel Aguilar http://www.aguilarart.com/

Tyson Summers http://www.tysonsummers.com/

The show will be up until the 27th of this month, so make haste!

Gallery hours are Thursday through Saturday, 7:00-10:00 pm and by appointment-214 573-7622. Frank Campagna, the Artistic Director, is a really awesome guy and I would love for as many people that can to go by the gallery. They have a ton of great shows that people should really go check out.
More sketchbook pages coming soon, thanks!

2008-08-20T17:26:00.002-05:00

Well, after an incredibly busy summer I finally managed to get some more crap doodled and posted. The only drawing I like on this first page is the bearded guy in the hat on the far right. I copied him from some Disney book I had laying around.
I'm thinking about actually trademarking sweaty heads so that I'm the only one allowed to draw them. Maybe just trademarking ugly would work as well.
Charlie Brown is covering up probably the stupidest and most embarrasing thing I've ever drawn. Seriously, it was one of those drawings that made me question if I should keep drawing anymore at all. But as long as it's not visible it doesn't exist.
More random ugliness and weirdness, I promise not to take 2 months until my next post. Thanks guys!

faces

2008-06-24T13:44:00.003-05:00

This was an exercise to see how many different faces I could come up with, it turned out to be really difficult. Most of them are either way too happy or horribly miserable, at least I covered the emotional spectrum. See if anyone can spot the Basil Wolverton lookin' dude.

new stuff

2008-05-27T17:57:00.003-05:00

Been super busy lately but got around to doing a few doodles finally. More of the same really, been in kinda a creative rut lately. Can't go wrong with more vomit!
Your eyes aren't playing tricks on you, I did indeed use a blue pen on this page. I think this was done after working a 10 hour day and just needed to unwind.
More blue! I must have just gone crazy with the colors here. Comments welcome, thanks folks!!

more doodles and some actual finished art!!

2008-04-08T13:36:00.004-05:00

A couple of fresh pages for you awesome people that check out my stupid scribbles. Started working with a brush in these pages, lots of fun and I hope to get better at inking.
Don't even ask about the man in the bra, I have no answer.

These two finished pieces are for an art show based on Saturday morning cartoons. I was a complete Ghostbuster nut as a kid so I did this watercolor of the boys chasing an oblivious Casper who thinks he's found some friends. Poor ol' Casper!
I also loved Inspector Gadget so I did this one of him using some rather violent gadgets on a burgler. If these pieces don't sell at the show them look for the on my website at http://www.degrandland.com/, I'll make them available to purchase then. Thanks everyone!