Monthly Archives: September 2011

Portrait of Bones

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This is in honor of my friend Francesco Francavilla. A fellow artist who is currently working on every comic book everywhere. Not really. I met Francesco when I was an Art Director at The Home Depot. We hired Francesco to do some vector graphics for us. I remember when we interviewed him, he had a difficult time trying to explain his philosophy because of his thick Italian accent. We weren’t very impressed at that point, since communication skills were mandatory. What impressed me was the next day, he had sent us a thank you email, complete with a vector illustration of a HD employee driving an LPG Lift truck. He had started working on it right after the interview. I was sold. If he wasn’t working, he was drawing. Now, he is invited to Comic-Con to draw in front of people. How cool is that? I guess someone has to do it.

I added color just to push the background away from Mr. Bones. I like the play of the glow off the ball on his lapel. You can see the glow follow the contour of his face.

Sunday Afternoon Snowball Fight

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I teach my boys about choices and consequences. If you decide something is a “good idea”, just think about the outcome and ask yourself, is it worth it?

When my youngest, Stephen was about four or five, he asked to do something he would be punished for, which was play in the mud with his clothes on. This is not normally a crime with a sentence, but we had to get going and a bath would have slowed us down. I told him no, repeatedly and finally said,  “If you do it, I’ll swat your behind”. He pauses for a moment, then says, “Are you gonna swat me hard, because I really wanna do it?” This story has little to do with the sketch, but the theme is the same. It’s all about choices. I believe a habit is just a familiar choice. I recently quit smoking cold turkey, by the grace of God, and replaced that nasty habit with a productive one. Now drawing is a very familiar choice and smoking is a distant memory.

I like this paper stock. It’s ultra white and stays relatively clean. Ideal for drawing straight, clean lines. Although, it has a nice finish to blend with, I chose only a select few areas to darken. This creates quite a contrast between the sharp, crisp lines and the white of the paper.

 

The Escape

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“I shut my eyes in order to see.”

                          – Paul Gauguin

 When I was a young man of about twelve, most of my made-up, cool stories in my head (starring me, of course), involved a girl, a fast motorcycle, and my imagination. I could go anywhere I wanted to go and be anyone I wanted to be. Like my friend, Cyrus, I was the king of my castle more than a couple of times. When you look at the drawing and the title you may think they are getting away from something and that’s the escape aspect, but if you look at his face, you see, they’re going somewhere wonderful and that’s the real escape. The quote from Paul Gauguin is regarding imagination and I thought it appropriate. Since early April of this year, I have exercised my imagination every day. I am constantly thinking about drawing and what’s the story I want to tell today. I can go anywhere and do anything. Oh, and thank you by the way for taking this journey with me.

My plan is to do this for a year and see where it goes. So far, my imagination has taken me back many years to remember what motivated me to draw all day in my room in the middle of summer and figure out how to get that passion back. It also allowed me to really dream of the future and remember that anything is possible. Not bad for the first year.

The emphasis in this sketch is motion. Even my signature is getting into the action. The long lines of the background tend to flatten, ideal for creating this type of effect. I “erased in” very few highlights, thus preserving the illusion of dusk.

BotKey

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DISCLAIMER: KMRucker and all affiliates do not advocate excessive violence in any sense for the sole purpose of entertainment. See Marvel Comics for the definition of excessive violence. These are robots and don’t feel pain, so there. This was a request after I posted 3rd & 50 by my buddy Mike Rinehart. He didn’t request the golf swing to the head. Okay, so it’s not exactly hockey, but it’s pretty close.

Interactions throughout the drawing is key to keeping your eye moving in a deliberate direction. If you start out with the players in the foreground, which is the focus of the piece, the eye gradually works up the stick and into the stands, then over to the Bot spilling the beer and eventually to the players going over the wall, via his pointing finger. I kept the players by the wall sketchy because I wanted to show the difference between the fans and the ice. There’s a “glow” coming off the ice that I was trying to capture as well to give some atmospheric perspective. I was going to draw the team in the box, but I have about 3 hours into this drawing and wanted to get on to the next one. I do have a day job (for now, anyway). Overall, there’s a lot going on in this sketch, however the different elements and techniques work fairly well together. I’m happy with it.

Klesko

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Man’s best friend. One of many examples of true love. This Dictionary has 27 different definitions for it. Do you know Corinthians 13:4-8? It’s the favorite verse at weddings, “Love is patient, love is kind…love carries a big stick”? That is the definition of God’s love for us, not human/human love between us. I think that verse is to give us comfort and let us off the hook for being human and making mistakes. I feel bad for individuals who have that verse in their head and think that’s what he expects from us. I, being a slacker, like to believe God has relatively low expectations of us in the general sense. He’s gonna’ love us anyway. That is my opinion and I’m sticking to it. Preachy, Kev.

I really enjoy drawing fur. I love to contour the chest and face. It’s just fun. I didn’t pull any highlights by erasing. I thought it looks okay without them. It makes the fur look softer.

Checkpoint 021

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A bit of Sci-Fi for this Labor Day. Any artist worth his salt has to be, or has been a sci-fi fan. You just have to be to get your artistic license. It’s the law. If you haven’t seen Firefly yet, I highly recommend it as a great series. It was cancelled back in 2002 and due to the popularity, they finished the franchise with a movie named after the ship,  Serenity. It won an Emmy in 2003 for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series. The reason I bring it up is because it is my favorite sci-fi series of all time.

Our main character here seems to be a tad young for his post, let alone the fact that he’s holding a firearm. It started off to be a simple “Kids in Space” type drawing, but took a detour after a bit of imaginating (verb; means to imaginate). I was going to draw the remains of a giant bug to the right of our young friend, complete with shiny guts, but decided against it and opted for the safer “Checkpoint” backdrop. Still, I wouldn’t want him to be unarmed, hence the sawed-off.

The Bounty Hunter

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Ever since I drew The Old Merchant, there’s been a desire to develop this world. Its the world of the dead. The Mexicans celebrate their dead relatives in a festival dating back over 3000 years. What better way to honor them than to talk about them. Stories that endure the test of time – and may even get better with age. There’s a lot of awesome art generated for this festival. Here’s an example.

The second paragraph is usually for the technique I use, or something worth pointing out. This drawing came together Fairly quickly and there’s not really anything of note in it. Just a really fun drawing to do and I hope you enjoy it.

 

Senior~ Wenceslaus character study III

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I love the idea of going to exotic places without the hassle of checking bags or layovers. Here’s my solution. A large round rock garden, overgrown with brush and various thick, viney growth plants, with doors representing the four corners of the world. The one above represents the South. Wouldn’t that be something? It may have been written about already, and if it has, I would love to read about it.

I added a bit of color to this, however, I didn’t finish it to save my markers. This is merely a study. Also, it’s the opening Saturday of college football – hence, the short entry.

 

James Mardukas

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This is a character I’ve been working on for a couple of weeks. His name is James Mardukas. He is a cross between Hank Mardukas, best friend of the main character’s father in “I Love You, Man” and James Judd, a gentleman I work with. The personality is a culmination of all the neighbors I had growing up on Roberts st. All beer drinkers (Stegmaier), most veterans and all just as cool as the next. There were a mix of Polaks, Slovaks, Italians, and us. I was lucky growing up. The gun in the background is there because I think it looks cool. That’s it.

I started this sketch on a piece of paper I used to rest my hand on while drawing. My son says its the same idea of lines that he learned in first grade. “It’s just straight lines, diagonal lines, and squiggly lines. But, just more complicated”. I agree with him.

 

3rd & 50

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Thank God for the return of football. If you think about sport, besides the side bet, there’s no positive or constructive outcome. So, why do we pay athletes millions for the privelidge of watching them do the very thing they love? I think that’s it.

Love.

We love watching the best athletes in the game compete against one another. We love the bragging rights we have for at least one whole year when our team barely pulls out a victory in the last seconds of the game. We love watching the highlight reel from every single game before we turn in at night. We love the underdog. What a great game and thank God it’s back.

I drew this in honor of my good buddy, Mike Lunsford. He’s a huge Tech fan. He’s always running around his house yelling, “Go Jackets!”. Go Tech, Beat Georgia! Don’t worry buddy, I said it for you.

I am really happy with the texture of the grass. All it is is a bunch of random pencil strokes close together. I was going to get a little more detailed with the fans, but decided it would take away from the main focus, in this case it’s the eyes of the robot catching the ball.