Category Archives: Pencil

WENCESLAVS

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This is from a story that Senior~ Wenceslaus tells about a story that his grandfather told about his grandfather’s grandfather’s grandfather’s grandfather’s grandfather. The story is not so much about WENCESLAVS, as it is about his worthy opponent, Kvle (pronounced “Kyle”).

You see, Kvle kind of stumbled into this profession. He started doing it to put himself through Horticulture school. After he graduated he found the money was far better when he could pick up some day shifts, so he decided to do it full time, but only to save up some money, then he will by a suit, get a haircut (literally), and get a real job. This is exactly what he told himself.

At the moment captured in this sketch, Kvle is sad.

Ten years after that fateful decision, he finds himself doing exactly the same thing he was doing then. Apart from the lovely herb garden Kvle keeps in his back yard, he is no closer to his goal of being a top dirt doctor then he was before he graduated. To make matters worse, his popularity is growing within the gladiatorial circles. Normally, this would be wonderful news, however, his adoring fans have given him the moniker “Baboon Boy”, when Kvle clearly resembles an orangutan.

This is obvious to Kvle. What frustrates him the most is the fact that he would have to head the crusade to educate the public regarding the differences between the baboon and the orangutan and he knows he just doesn’t have the inclination nor the patience for that.

But, it really doesn’t matter, because after his chance encounter with this Wenceslaus, he will never step foot in an arena again…

Hehe. Now, I’m just starting to make stuff up…

That’s my friend, Arta, in the stands. She’s a dancer. I gave her junior high school eyebrows.

I am really playing with atmospheric perspective through blurring. I kept WENC in sort of a shadowed state to really draw him closer to the viewer, therefore pushing everything else out in the light/background. Imagine the stands filled all the way to the top of the drawing with people. That’s what I’d do if I were to paint this.

American Beauty

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I did this sketch a while ago for Century Granite. I would sketch a drawing of a person, place or thing and through an etching process, they would transfer it on a grave marker (notice, I didn’t say tombstone nor grave stone?). This was one of my favorite sketches. From what can I remember, the photo was taken just before WWII. I imagine some GI carried this photo half way across the world in his helmet.

I know I would.

I really enjoy the high contrast look every once in a while. It’s a simplified version of reality that’s pleasant to look at and easy to comprehend. What I like most about this sketch is how simple it is, and yet her essence isn’t lost at all.

Kitchen Sink

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I love creating different textures in my sketches. This one is no exception and there’s a lot of them, hence, the title. It is for a landing page for kmrucker.com.

I am blending my sketches a lot more lately. I love the tones it gives me. It makes it really easy to pull highlights and push shadows around. This may be the next evolution of this technique.

Tracking a Unicorn

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I have been taking personal inventory on a micro level as of late. I am going through my house, drawer by drawer, closet by closet, figuring out what to keep and what to throw away. I am hardly a hoarder. My house contains everything I need and very little of what I can live without. This is an attempt to get the very little even littler. LOL, how often do you get to use “littler” in a sentence? Funny, because I chuckle when I use “do do” in conversation every time also. Which brings us right back to the drawing…

If I had more time, I would have really played with atmospheric perspective here. Next drawing or so, I want to really play with blurring objects to make them look farther away, or too close to focus in on. I have officially decided to adopt the technique I have developed over the past few months. Or, maybe it’s adopted me, I’m not sure yet. The next logical step is to attempt something like this. Pretty mindblowing, huh?

 

Surprise

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The sheriff is a good guy, he’s doing his job and bringing a suspect in for questioning. I was gonna name this one “First Encounter”, but surprise won out because I wanted the viewer to get a sense of the playful nature of the RoBots as well as the surprise the sheriff is gonna get.

What would you do if you came upon an alien? Say, you were out camping, or better still, someone posts on Facebook that aliens have landed and you turn on the news and there it is, the mothership over your city…what would you do? I would promptly soil myself, drop to a fetal position, and cry myself to sleep. Not sure about after that. I’m kidding, actually. I don’t know what I’d do. I believe in ghosts and aliens for the most part. I think I’ve seen a few ghosts but no aliens…..yet.

Moby Dick

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Did you know that the Ford Mustang was named after the P-51 Mustang?

Did you know this car that I just drew is actually named after the Led Zeppelin song, Moby Dick? Yeah, I did that, just now.

I kept this sketch simple, just so I could concentrate on the lines of the car. I kept the tires small to make everything else look massive.

Swamp character study

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Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.

                                                                                                     1 Peter 4:10

I can safely say that God has given me a wonderful gift. For the better part of my life, I have identified myself as being an artist and I am very proud of it. But, what if I stopped drawing tomorrow, or couldn’t draw for whatever reason. Am I no longer an artist? If not, then is my life over? Who am I at that point? I bring this up for one reason, and that is to say, I am not defined by my gifts, but what I do with them. And I don’t believe God gives us only one gift and that’s it. I think we have many gifts and we (God and the royal “we”) choose which we develop at different points in our lives. The important thing to remember is listen to what you’re saying to yourself and feeling and act on it. The best day I have ever had was when I was doing exactly what I was supposed to be doing. Today, it is drawing, tomorrow it will be Interpretive Jazz Tap Dancing.

…kidding…either way, chances are, it will have a profound impact on my life and hopefully, the people I touch. Just like the people who actually do Interpretive Jazz Tap Dancing or raising miniature ponies.

I was at a video production this evening (acting as a prop master – actual title) for a commercial. The leading actor is an Account Executive with an ad agency based here in Atlanta. She decided to start acting professionally fairly recently and it turns out, she is really good at it. You can tell she loves doing it just by the level of creative energy she brought to the project.

Anyhoo, the sketch…These characters represent attitudes. Can you guess which one goes with which character? They are, Myopic, Narrow-Minded, Paralyzed (fear), and Will-Power. This is for the swamp project I am currently working on. What a blessing this project has been

DetectBotOne

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Every once in a while, a drawing will take over my day. This is such a drawing. I can’t help but let it out. This isn’t the first drawing I started today. I was about twenty minutes into one before I was struck with this idea. It’s based on the old pulp detective magazine covers. Overall, I would say I have over three hours into it. That’s about twice what I normally spend on a sketch.

If I had more time to burn, I would develop the clouds more. They have so much potential. If I did, the skull wouldn’t be so obvious as it appears now.

Meathead

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My youngest son, Stephen cooked chicken this weekend and left a piece of raw chicken in the sink. I discovered it yesterday (I gave the maid the week off, okay?). I am still smelling rotting chicken flesh in the kitchen for some reason. There must be another piece somewhere. So, what do I do instead of look for it? I use the smell to inspire this drawing. After I finish posting, I will look for it. I mean, seriously, how many places can raw chicken hide?

Texture is key in this sketch. I want the user to recognize most of the textures here. Therefore, trying to figure out what the more foreign textures feel like, based on knowledge of all of them presented here. For instance, what might the neck feel like, based on the knowledge of the feeling of meat.

66cc

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My buddy, Tom over at Lillie Glassblowers is a steampunk artist. He’s creating some amazing pieces. As soon as I get a link to his stuff, I will post it. anyway, we got to talking about steampunk bikes, and apparently, he’s built one…or actually two…put together like a tandem bike. I need to get a pic of that, also.

Anyhoo, We discussed making a motorized bike. Come to find out, there’s a company out there that makes engines for bikes. If you follow the link and read the comments below, some of these guys are all about speed. Hehe. I am really thinking I may need to build this, or at the very least, buy one of these engines.

I can feel myself gravitating to the higher contrast, more “graphic”. I am working on a couple of logos (which I love doing) and that may be why. It’s evident in the upper right hand corner of the sketch.