Tuesday, July 31, 2007

sketches galore!!

I'm getting to the end of my Moleskin sketchbook, but don't worry! I have a new one waiting to be filled, so get ready for more sketchbook zaniness! For this page I broke out the colored pencils again.
This page has some Harvey Kurtzman characters from his Hey Look! comic strip, he has provided me with endless inspiration.
I really can't think of what to say about this page other than I like my Godzilla caricature on the bottom right.
I'm thinking "Zombie Tree" (on the left page) will be my next painting.
I think I captured Barney Rubble pretty well, those Ed Benedict characters are harder to draw than they look.
Drawing from some more Gene Deitch drawings, that guy's style makes me drool with envy.
I'm obviously trying to cram in as many drawings as possible in these last few pages, I hate wasting paper.
That goat has a seriously messed up leg, not sure what happened.
Batman makes an appearance.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Confessions of a Toy Junkie

And now for something completely different. I don't have much new sketchbook stuff but I wanted to post something new, so I decided to post some pictures of my art room/ toy museum. One of my favorite things to do in the world is to go to garage sales, flea markets and thrift stores and hunt for any cartoon character or monster toy I can get my hands on. I have filled my "studio" with many of these finds, and there are tons more that I don't even have the room for to display. These photos are the tragic results of this sick obsession.The vertical stack of books between the two shelves are all of my old sketchbooks since high school. The shelf on the left is chock full o' cartoon and art books that I try and draw inspiration from, but basically just serve to show me how far I have to go in becoming a "real artist".
My Mickey Mouse collection actually lives in our bedroom on top of our entertainment center. My wonderful wife is gracious enough to share her sleeping quarters with Walt Disney's famous rodent.
The Simpsons live here as well, they seem to enjoy each other's company.

Back to my room, my love of giant monsters knows no bounds. Here is a small sampling of my King Kong collection, the red and green monster is a Kong wannabe from the awesome 16-bit game "Primal Rage".
Superman and Batman are my absolute favorite superheroes of all time (Plastic Man is my third favorite since I KNOW you were wanting to know).
My shrine to one of my idols and an absolute creative genius, Jim Henson. He watches over my drawing table and gives words of encouragement and inspiration.
One of my linoleum prints from college lives behind some Ren and Stimpy stuff, the first animated cartoon that made me want to draw.
Another shelf of toys, books, and more toys. This needs to be organized REALLY badly.

My wall of movie monsters and villains. The Crow figure is signed by James O' Barr and the Captain Spaulding figure is signed by Sid Haig.
My grandmother gave me this vintage typewriter, so I naturally had to cover it with more crap. It sits on top of an awesome ceramic camel that my other grandmother gave to me. That's a framed Ed Wood poster behind it, one of my absolute favorite movies of all time.
My small but growing collection of glow-in-the-dark toys. It looks pretty cool to see them all glowing at once, that's my custom Munny on the right behind Herman Munster.
Yet another shelf. The top row has my Looney Tunes and other classic cartoon characters, the middle is my Kid Robot collection, and the bottom stuff is whatever would fit. I'm proud of my Slimers.
Of course the King of the Monsters gets his own shrine as well. When I was little I could never find any Godzilla toys and it killed me, I even went so far as to make a custom Godzilla from an old dinosaur figure I had. As soon as I had my own money to blow I began to compensate for this lack of Godzillas.
I have plenty more but I think that's all any sane person could stand for now, I'll be back soon with more art. Also, everybody go check out the blog of the immensely talented and super cool Justin Winslow:

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

just spank me already

I almost went through the whole month of June without posting, I'm a horrible person. Here are some more sketchbook pages. Random acts of violence on cartoon characters makes me laugh.
Designs for a painting I'm currently working on.
I've discovered that I really like inking with a brush, the tree and snowman on the right was an experiment to see if I could pull it off. The ballpoint has replaced the pencil as my sketching tool of choice (for the time being anyway).
More painting designs and a really strange dream.
Designs anf character ideas for a comic book story I'm working on, hope it turns out well.
The tree drawing is basically what the finished painting will look like, I changed the designs quite a bit until I was happy with it. Not really sure what's going on on the left page.
More brushwork and Spongebob.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

new stuff

I got bored drawing in pencil so I tried sketching with a ball point pen and really enjoyed it. I think these pages have an antique woodcut or etched look to them. Makes me want to experiment with printmaking again.
Trying to get better with cross-hatching, getting slightly less frustrating.
Just for fun here's my Munny I painted a month or so back. It looks really at home on my toy shelf.
In case anyone is interested, here's the link to my appearance on Fanboy TV:
Look for my name (David DeGrand) under previous episodes and you'll see my interview. If you watch the rest of the segments you'll see me occasionally working on a drawing that they will give away in a future show, you can see the finished piece in the Artist Results section. I'm in the Sub or Flub section as well giving my opinion on various topics. If it's not up on the main page still check out Episode 15 on May 21, 2007 in the archive here:
Thanks guys!

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

more stupid sketchbook senselessness, and a sticker

A robot, a ghost, a chicken, and a maggot. Seems like I just drew four random things out of a hat and drew them, huh?
There's something about the look on the guy's face that's saying "diggin'" that I find kinda disturbing. But in a good way.
That elephant sure is happy to be dripping snot on that poor whatever-he-is.
A guy with man boobs and a retarded tree stump walked into a bar...
Just on the off chance anyone is interested, this is a sticker that I just got printed up to help promote my little portfolio website thingy. I'll be more than happy to mail one to anybody that requests one on the condition that you display it somewhere where people are sure to ask "Where'd you get that awesome sticker?!?!" E-mail me at mdaviddegrand@gmail.com with your address and I'll get one sent to you ASAP.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Enough with the trees!!

I don't know what my fascination is with drawing trees and wooden people, could be some sort of deep hidden psychological something or other.
See what I mean?!?! Anyway, these pages contain character designs for a comic story I'm working on with a friend of mine. More on this in future posts. I think the guy on the top of the right page with a cylinder head and stuff dripping out of it needs to be turned into a vinyl toy, anyone agree?

Friday, April 13, 2007

latest stupidity


More snowmen, more globby stuff, more of the same weird critters. Being from Texas the cowboy in the top page was fun to draw, I copied him from an old children's book.

Friday, March 30, 2007

sorry about the delay

I haven't been doing as much sketching lately, I've been sorely lacking inspiration but hopefully I'll come out of it soon. Anyway, all I can remember about this page is that the guy on the bottom left was my attempt at doing some type of Garbage Pail Kids looking guy. I think.
I found this awesome book of old carnival illustrations and so tried to draw a few of the woodcuts and lithographs from it. Like usual, I gave up and let my mind wander and came up with the rest of what's on the page.
For some reason I was in the mood to draw people in period costumes, so there ya go.
The critters on the bottom part of the right page were designs for a Munny I finally completed. If I can ever find my digital camera I'll post pictures of it.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

the little sketchbook that could

I'm thinking about turning "The What Bus" image into a large painting, but chances are I won't.
After getting the awesome "Terr'ble Thompson" book by Gene Deitch, I tried drawing some of the characters and realized he is a cartooning god among mere mortals.

More melting snowmen and dripping snot. What's wrong with me?
I bought a vintage Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters figure on ebay and the blue guy on the left was born.
Lots of happy people on these pages despite the guy on the right side of the left page wanting to die.
Trying to draw more Gene Deitch characters and, of course, more dripping stuff.
Vomit! And Lard Nuggets! Seriously, what's wrong with me?!?!