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I started this drawing I don’t know how many months ago, and just now finished it for a thank you card to one of my many in-laws. My wife has been on me this entire time to finish the drawing, so I figured it was appropriate to do it for this occasion. I was playing with my grey brushpens, and I’m not 100% satisfied with the result, but satisfied enough to put it here, out in public.
Direct-ink sketches from tonight’s Sketch Charlotte meetup. At left, customer with bigass awesome beard. Right, my buddy Henry, making funny faces as he drew, knowing that I was drawing him. Tonight I rediscovered the joys of direct-ink sketching. Forced my mind to tune in as it turned off and let my eyes and pen do the rest. As always, wonderful to see everyone, laugh, and try to figure out what the hell kind of movies or TV shows they were talking about.
Finished up Thursday night’s sketch. Had total fun doing this, and will use it as a springboard for what I’m doing for the next Comicopia cover. What a meeting Thursday was! Awesome to see the newbies, Joel, Jason, Dan and Bridgit. 
So I have recently been connecting with old high school classmates on Facebook which led to me going through my old high school yearbook in order to help better identify said Facebook friends. Turns out the yearbook is a cornucopia of fantastically dated headshots of all the teachers from good old Massapequa High. While on vacation last week I started going through and drawing them.
My goal in doing this is to work on my cartooning skills and to work on using reference without necessarily drawing directly from it.
Here’s Mr. Burke and Ms. Black, English Teachers. More to come.
Ahhh, cool dames and groovy chicks make the best sketch studies. No better way to warm up. Yeah, baby!
~T
I finally finished up this sketch I’d made one afternoon a week or so ago. I enjoyed the slinky length of the maiden contrasted with her fabulously wide dress’s hemline. She was inspired by an amazing artist from the UPA cartoon studios of the 1950s.
I spent lunch-time today with Dr. Martin’s Bombay India ink in hand, as the breeze gently lifted the pages up in my sketchbook. Flying insets with pretty purple wings were buzzing around my eyes, mouth and sketchbook while I inked.
I discovered this amazing cartoonist from UPA, thanks to Amid Amidi and his fantastic blog and book on Cartoon Modern. The cartoonist’s name is Lew Keller, and his work has blown — my — frickin’ — mind, which is no surprise given the amount of mind-blowing events I’ve experienced and tried to channel over the past months from UPA in general. Keller’s women are amazing, and I wanted to channel that.
Thanks to my discovery of Gene Deitch and his amazing book of jazz magazine covers from Fantagraphics, I went on to discover 50s cartoon style in general, which led me to Amidi. I’m revelling in it. I recently got a collection of UPA cartoons on VHS, and it’s amazing. Anyway, I was really impressed with the few web images I could find on Keller. His women are amazing, but then again everything I’ve seen from Keller is amazing. Lots of self-discoveries in ink transpiring. All totally cool ‘n groovy, dig?
For those of you possibly checking out the site because of the back-up story in
Transhuman #2, welcome. Here is a new one page Mr. Lune strip for you.
I hope you enjoy it. I will be at Heroes Con this year and I’ll also have a new Mr. Lune
comic. So, stop by and say “hello”. I’ll be set up at the 803 Studios booth. While you are here
check out our site. There is a lot of good stuff. Take care.
Peace,
Herc
Hey gang,
Here is an early cover idea I had for the new Mr. Lune book.
In the end I didn’t like the drawing that much and didn’t feel like it worked.
Stay tuned for tomorrow when I post a new one page Mr. Lune comic.
peace,
Herc
Still playing around with ballpoint pens in my sketchbook. I put down a preliminary pencil sketch on this, but used a soft graphite. The paper in my sketchpad is pretty soft and toothy, too. I tried to ink on a windy day, and this brand new Uniball that I’m using just wanted to do little more than skip, skip, skip. It frustrated me, but I kept on. I fumbled with the idea of finishing the lines using a pen nib, and put a little bit of Hunt #108 in there. Then tried a fountain pen which I didn’t know and which also had its own challenges. Today I went back to the Uniball, this time in a closed environment, and it flowed super smoothly. I realized I was going very slowly and just taking my time, two benefits of using a ballpoint pen. And sometimes those skips add a bit of character to the line, I feel, but I REALLY just enjoy putting down a solitary line slowly. It’s kind of zenlike. At the end I realized my frustrations at the pen skipping also could’ve been due to my impatience and just not slowing down and enjoying the line.
~T
Our last few meetings, as sporadic as they’ve been, have really been excellent. Last time out Joe put me on the Podcast spot and the group hammered at my sales pitch for the comic I’m creating and will unveil at the Heroes Con. I didn’t even know I needed one (thanks, Nuri and Joe for the illumination). It was an awesome meetup. Learned a lot. I even took notes, hence the sketch paper. I uncharacteristically forgot to bring paper and pen. Fortunately a visiting Cat and Gina loaned me pen and paper to sketch. I look forward to the next round!
~T
