beards and bosch

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!

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

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!

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!

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

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!!

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!!

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

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!

?!

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!!

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!

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

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

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!!