1000 ARROWS

2010-09-19T18:51:00.000-07:00

I am hoping to do a personal project in the next year that will involve a more cartoony style. So I thought as practice it would be a good idea to so some drawings of some of my favorite characters from my childhood as chibis. In this case they are the characters from the cartoon MASK.

coffeeeeeeee

2010-06-13T11:48:00.000-07:00

I recently switched to decaf, and this week when I ran out of my fancy pants swiss water decaffeinated beans, I started to use an some caffeinated beans until I can go grocery shopping today. I didn't really notice a difference when I switched to decaf, probably because I never really drank a ton of coffee, so I didn't really think that I would notice a difference when I switched back to the good stuff for a couple of days.

I was wrong.bbbbbbzzzzzzzzz.

2010-05-23T17:57:00.001-07:00

Here's me trying to work the ol foreshortening.

1KA.

more girlie doodles

2010-05-23T14:41:00.000-07:00

Well my brain is slowly turning into mush as I continue to look for work. I think I am ready to stop doodling during my days off and ready to start making some finished pieces. Looking at my website it is in need of a huge overall. Nose to grindstone time.

1KA

2010-05-19T14:22:00.000-07:00

I have some time off so I am going to step away from doing poses based on photos and move onto doing some sheets of poses based on whatever I feel drawing. Here's a warm up sheet and some sketches. When it comes to liner art, I am finding it really hard to work "straight vs. round" when drawing women, I have a tendency to get a rather square looking girl when I try to work it, so I sort of abandoned the idea and started trying to work "round vs more round."

2010-05-05T15:54:00.001-07:00

more girls.

Silhouettes

2010-03-27T16:14:00.001-07:00

Here's some warm ups from this morning.

More gestures

2010-02-17T22:24:00.000-08:00

I am going on vacation Friday, so I will not be posting for a week, and I think that when I get back I will switch to posting these gestures in a "best of" format and I might only put them up once a week.

Enjoy,
C.

Gestures.

2010-02-15T23:53:00.000-08:00

I didn't do any gestures yesterday because I was at Whistler watching the Mens 10k biathlon. Here's the ones I did this morning.

2010-02-13T11:47:00.001-08:00

Here one more pose that i didn't time, I just wanted to sit and doodle and look at a picture of India Reynolds without her clothes on. I don't really care for how it turned out, I think it is a nice enough drawing, but the presentation isn't really there. I had a professor in art school who said that markers and pencil don't really look good together, and I though maybe working digitally I could marry the 2 a little better.

I suppose not. I really like this pose though, I think I will take another crack at it maybe tomorrow.

More pretty ladies

2010-02-13T11:43:00.000-08:00

more gestures, this time I numbered the poses and put the times down. I am hoping that I will be able to see some type of progression as I warm up. I am hoping that I will be able to capture more information faster and more accurately as time goes on.

One draw back to working digitally, that is that the wacom pen doesn't really seem to work when you hold with the point up (like you hold a soft pencil while doing life drawing, like holding a remote control or a flashlight.) Holding a pencil, or whatever, allows you to put down a wider variety of marks and therefore you are able to capture more information faster.

These have all been done using sketchbook pro, I love the brushes to death and my shaky hands don't seem to show through like they do when I use photoshop. There may come a time when I will have to switch in order to experiment with brushes and pen tilt to see if I can get something that mimics charcoal or conte.

Gestures

2010-02-12T19:02:00.001-08:00

Heyo,

I always lament the fact that I don't get to do enough life drawing, especially gestures, and I decided to do something about it. Because I can't always fit a class into my schedule I have started using a stopwatch and good fashion/girlie pictures from magazines like Maxim and FHM. This was I can do a bunch of quick sketches in the morning as a warm up. This allows me to get in the practice I wanted, but because I can do it at home it also makes it easier work digitally too (I doubt I will ever be able to bring my cintiq into a life drawing class.)

Anywho, it is pretty cool so far, it makes a lot of the things about life drawing that always annoyed me easier. Like you can fit as many drawings as possible on the page, and recompose the page so that each sketch plays off each other. Because you aren't in a class you can redo a pose if the first run through didn't turn out, or decide mid-drawing that you want this to me a 3 minute pose instead of 30 seconds. Lastly, I always felt guilty about going through so much paper in a life drawing class, this way I don't have to bother.

I know the point of gesture drawings is to learn to capture poses with a sense of spontaneity and having all the amenities that working digitally affords me could take away from that, but I find not having to worry about these things let me relax more and work more loosely, so I figure the pros outweigh the cons at least for the time being.

these poses are between 30 seconds and a minute.

2010-02-07T19:39:00.001-08:00

Here are some poses that I doodled these week. I am trying to not feel like I have to noodle everything about my work before I post it. So here's some stuff that was inspired by Frank Frazetta, in my books he paints/draws sexier women than anyone around.
Peace,
C.

Mega Man

2010-01-30T18:10:00.000-08:00

Well I did this so my good friend Dan Beaulieu could colour it. He in turn did a drawing of Mega Man as well. Though it should be mentioned that Dan not only had his done the week we agree to do the swap, but also did 3 versions. I on the other hand am posting this way late and there's only one.

Peace.

Michaelangelo

2009-10-20T00:06:00.001-07:00

Well it feels fantastic to finally get this one out the door. I can't believe that I finally came around and finished the colours on these TMNT drawings. Thanks to Chris Bourassa and Daryl Mandryk for the help. I couldn't have done it without them.

C.

WHAT the WHAT???

2009-10-04T22:29:00.000-07:00

Hey, I actually got another one done, who would have thought it possible?!

Colouring the Turtles

2009-10-03T18:05:00.000-07:00

Well it is about bloody time that I got around to doing this. I have been trying to get these darn turtles coloured for what seems like forever, and my plan was to get them all done before posting. Well Leo is 3/4 done and Mikey is about 1/2, so if at this rate they should be done sometime in 2053.

Peace,
C.

2009-09-07T22:46:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how many things I have been trying to juggle lately, between: work, travel, having a knee injury, trying to rehab said injury, family visits and the unexpected I have had the better part of a month where my life has been seriously overclocked. I doodled this at work while I was waiting for my computer to reboot and liked it so much i decided to colour it. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel though, after next weekend my life should come down to a wonderfully mundane level. Fingers crossed.

L`et's try this again

2009-09-04T00:39:00.000-07:00

So I am struggling to get back to sketching for myself. I needed some time off to do something purely for fun.

Hulk sketch

2008-10-22T00:19:00.000-07:00

I watched the Hulk tonight, the new one with Ed Norton. It was cool, Tim Roth is a great actor, but didn't seem to fit well in the role of the villain. Here's a sketch.

Supergirl edit

2008-08-26T22:22:00.000-07:00

My good friend and colleague Daryl Mandryk took a look at my Supergilr painting and offered some of his sage like advice. Daryl is an absolutely amazing artist, he is unbelievably disciplined in his practice and never fails to impress in his work. Here is my final version, editted based on a paintover that Daryl did. I have also included the 3 different versions, my original painting, my final version and Daryl's paintover.

Big big love to Daryl for his help.

C.

2008-08-05T22:34:00.000-07:00

still working on the painting skills. I have to admit I referenced the face from another painting, but all the same I am pretty darn happy with how this came out.

C.

face studies

2008-07-30T23:51:00.000-07:00

I really need to do more studies more often. As these images show. I did these old school, flipped them upside down and gridded them. Then after a while I eyeballed them. I really should just be eyeballing them. But I am currently trying to make my art education more relevant to my work now, which I think means revisiting some of the things that I did while I was getting my degree. I am also trying to help my poor brain visualize images in terms of painting rather than drawing. It is a huge difference to those of us who live and die on the page. But I won't bore my none existent readership with the details.

So here we go. I also want to get better at drawing/paining women. This drive arose after I realized that there seems to be 3 kinds of (concept) artists in the world. Each kind is broken down into categories that involve what they doodle on napkins when sitting at a restaurant waiting for food.

1) Artists that draw guys doing guy stuff, ie blowing shit up, shooting guns and otherwise being macho. This categories included, but not is exclusive to, artists that like to draw ninjas, space marines, superheroes, post apocalyptic warriors and/or monsters.

2) Artists that draw pin up girls. Girl' faces, girls' bodies, boobies, bums, legs, hair, with machine guns or without, but girls' nonetheless.

3) Artists that you hate and resent and also admire the sh*t out of. Artists that are good at drawing everything, artists that say stuff like "I just make it look 'right.'" and then proceed to produce unbelievable works of art. "Right" indeed.

I tend to gravitate towards drawing guy stuff, not many space marines, but definitely a lot of superheroes. I like to think that it stems from a deep interests in contemporary mythology and not some weird fascination with men in tights. At any rate, I want to get better at drawing women, and not just pin up girls.

C.

the eyes have it

2008-07-21T00:09:00.000-07:00

I have been practicing drawing women's eyes, I was practicing using a variety of artbooks to copy from. I am happy how they came out, considering, no pun intended, that I eye balled all of them.

Poses

2008-07-08T00:02:00.000-07:00

Here are some poses I did while at the Massive Black Seattle Workshop. I definitely think that I could use some work on my anatomy, but I sure love drawing people in funny poses.

2008-07-02T23:25:00.000-07:00

Well here is another sketch, so far I am actually doing pretty well with all of this. I did this image of Nightwing as an homage to deviantart. I started posted artwork there way back as a kid, before I became a pro. One of the first images that I drew and posted was of Nightwing and to be perfectly honest... it wasn't that great. It is really cartoony and there is a blatant tangent and poor anatomy. But to date it is still one of the most viewed images on my DA page.

So here is a little nod to DA and all the folks there who have supported me.

C.

2008-07-01T20:33:00.000-07:00

I went camping for the weekend so I haven't been able to post. Here are 2 sketches that I did on a plane trip a while ago and coloured up in P-shop. I am still surprised at how much more I like drawings that I do in the corner of a notebook with a dull pencil.

C.

2008-06-27T00:48:00.000-07:00

WEll kids here is another hero, though I think this is one of the worst paintings I have ever done. Whatever, I am more concerned with doing a little bit of work and letting it go, so win lose or draw, this fits the bill.

I goes out to my friend and coworker Chris Bourassa who is going on a long trip and I will miss him.

2008-06-24T23:57:00.001-07:00

So here it is day 2 and I actually barfed out another superhero. If I was a more inquisitive man i might question my need to draw men who are basically naked each day, or moreso, why do I find it easier than drawing anything else?

Who cares, I have decided that due to a shortage of morale of late I should actually write about some of the things that I can honestly be grateful about. The first one I thought I should write about is my good friend Jane.

If you set the Wayback machine to 2002, I had quit my prestigious job as a shift supervisor (middle management represent!) at Blockbuster and started working at a totally righteous coffee shop called "The bean scene." Despite the fact that the coffee shop was a cool job, I was starting to worry that my childhood dream of drawing comics wasn't going to pan out. (My plan to fight Nazis as an archaeologist hadn't panned out either and the prospect of going from a batting average of .500 to .250 was terrifying.) I was disillusioned and had little faith that I would ever work as an artist. Understanding that I needed to meet and greet the people that ran the world of comics, my dad had fronted the cash to send me to my very first comicbook convention and not just any con, the San Diego International Comicon... aka the mother of all cons. I was going to fly to California with my life on my back and plead my case to as many comicbook publishers as possible.

In the process of preparing though, like so many neurotic artists types, I started to think about what would happen if I failed. But unlike many artists, I wasn't worried about being critiqued, or being told that I wasn't "good." I had graduated from art school and I was no stranger to criticism. I had started to wonder if I could handle the idea that I wasn't ready to work as a professional. What if I traveled all that way, put so much on the line, and in the end all I came to learn was that I wasn't ready? That I wasn't close enough to see the light at the end of the tunnel?

The pressure of that idea was debilitating to say the least. I was getting older and it was taking all my strength to work enough to make ends meet and practice drawing. What if it wasn't enough? What if I had to work even harder just to make it to the bottom rung?

One night not long before I was going to head to the con I was relating this to the aforementioned Jane and I said that I didn't know if I could keep on going as artist if I didn't find some kind of work. I said that I didn't know what I would do if all my hard work didn't pay off. I didn't think that I could keep going, she said, "it is either that...or quit."

She had really shown me that it was that black and white, either keeping trying or give up. There was no room for anything in between. Either keep fighting until I get what I want or give up and move on.

So I went to the con and got my first pro job, working for AK Comics out of Egypt. It took a lot of hard work and will power to get that job. A convention is grueling for a tourist, and going to one for a seemingly endless unending string of heartbreaking job interviews is downright torture. If it wasn't for Jane I don't think I would have gone forth with my head screwed on straight. I don't think I would have had the confidence to walk into one of the biggest conventions in the world and sell myself to editors, artists and publishers alike. The gig I got with AK was the first step in a long line of jobs that has lead me to where I am today... and probably the turning point was a little bit of tough love from my good friend Jane.

So in thanks I have drawn Aquaman, possible the most efeminate looking superhero of all time. Props to Jane.

2008-06-23T21:29:00.000-07:00

Well, I have been trying to get my bum in motion to do something like this. So here's step one. Only time will tell if I can get to step 12 and officially recover from being a compulsive procrastinator. Trust me it sounds dirty and more exciting than it really is.

At any rate, I drew this today, it took about an hour. This was done entirely on my wacom tablet using photoshop. I was just trying to keep things simple and try out a fun pose and some simple colour. If you want Picasso visit the Louvre.

C.

The Final

2007-08-23T00:28:00.000-07:00

Well here we go, I finally finished the last Ninja Turtle. I hope you all like it.

some WIP stuff

2007-07-31T23:45:00.000-07:00

Here are 2 drawings that have been in the works for a while. They are WIPs so don't worry, they will be coloured eventually.

C.

Next in Line!

2007-06-03T22:23:00.000-07:00

I guess this is fairly straight forward. Donatello. period.

For Cole.

2007-05-22T00:13:00.001-07:00

Well, as previously mentioned, these Ninja Turtle drawings were intended to be "weekly" pieces, with the lineart being one week and the colours being the next. Well there as been a little "intermission" let's call it and now I think I am back on track. Originally I was going to draw Donatello next, because I am basing these poses off of wushu postures, I really wanted to draw Donny doing a "lance-stlye" pole form, but my nephew Cole was so hopped up to see Michaelangelo I couldn't resist.

Peace.

TMNT Coloured

2007-05-19T22:58:00.000-07:00

my first weekly personal piece

2007-05-19T13:43:00.000-07:00

A little while ago I went to the Emerald City Comicon in Seattle. There I ran into one of the hardest working guys in the business today and all around nice guy, Sean "Cheeks" Galloway. After talking for a bit he mentioned that he tries to do 1 personal drawing a week in and above his bread and butter work.

I thought it was a good idea. I did this one and then got swamped, so the next one is about 2 months overdue. I almost have the colours for this one done and should be able to post it in a couple of days.

Peace.

Sketch Night!

2007-05-17T18:13:00.001-07:00

Be there or be square!

More unused Batgirl art

2007-05-16T21:54:00.001-07:00

Unused Batgirl Panels

2007-05-16T21:02:00.000-07:00

Here are some panels from discarded pages of my 2006 Comicon sample. I had to stop working on the sample and when I came back to it I had different priorities. I still really like some of the images so I thought I would post them.

Peace.

More comics

2007-05-16T00:53:00.000-07:00

Here are some more pages. This time more recent, these were done for the San Diego International Comicon last year. It is a fiction "Batgirl" sample that I took to the con to show to editors and friends. Comicon has provided me with a lot of great opportunities (my first job drawing comics to be precise,) not to mention a lot of great friends. So while I am at it I gotta give props to Larry Brown and Marc Streeter, two guys who I have only seen for about a week once a year, but I think of as family, and to Juan Ferreya, who I haven't seen in too long and I am happy to say that it is because he is getting so much work published.

Peace.

2007-05-16T00:43:00.000-07:00

2007-05-16T00:41:00.000-07:00

Day one.

2007-05-16T00:03:00.000-07:00

Hello.

After a long time trying to get a website going I have decided the start a blog instead. I hope that the ease of this process will allow me share more of my artwork more often.

I have been working as an artist professionally for the last 5 years, for more on that you can check out my bio. Since the majority of my most recent work is still covered by my Non-Disclosure Agreement with Propaganda Games, I will begin with some of my older work.

These are some selected pages from a comic that I penciled for a company out of Bermuda, called First Salvo Productions. As such all rights reserved Thad Branco and First Salvo Productions 2004.

I worked really hard on these pages and used a lot of reference. Almost all of the pages were drawn larger than normal (comicbook pages are usually drawn at 10" x 15", then reduced in size for print.) I still really like the way they all turned out and all the effort that went into them still holds up today. For those of you out there who are big comicbook fans you will notice that I was really trying to incorporate some of my biggest influences, Joe Madureira and Ed McGuinness. So those guys have to get props for inspiring me and pushing me to be a better artist.

Peace.