Natalie in her own world ...quick sketch

Happy Thanksgiving

DTTN in Plymouth

Drawn to the Night in Plymouth...our last month event....live drawing at Plymouth Arts Council

 smaller turnout than previous weeks. But still interesting and fun...
5 min to 20 min sketches....

Blaze-Thru Comics in Plymouth

Brand New store in Plymouth....BLAZE-THRU Comics.

Come down and visit...Weekends and Wednesdays

Frame 8

It was all for the love of candy!

Been gone a while...work has kept me busy...more SuperCow in the works....just having trouble finding time and motivation lately:(

Super Cow Frame 7

Here is our next frame in our Super Cow story.  I dropped off the full comic to the second grade class just before Halloween.  I left them the challenge of finishing the story on their own. I promised to come back after the new year to see what they come up with.  Some started to sketch even before I finished handing out the books to the rest of the class.  I would not be surprised if many will lose the book over time but I plan on showing my next pages to them as I go.

Super Cow frame 6

Munch! Munch! The Gopher-bot is out to steal Halloween

Frame 5 Super Cow

Here is another panel set on the Super Cow comic.  I am planning on going in next week to introduce this the 2nd Grade.  I hope they get pulled in to finishing some of the open pages.  The idea is to start them off on a story and let them complete.  In the panel below the kids find that something is eating their lunch and candy! Who? and How?

Super Cow frame 4

The Evil Villain in Black is back! We learn of his evil plan...and his Gopher-Bot creation!

Frame 3 the Flying Pig

Up Up and away...

Frame 2 Super Cow

No that's Betsy you smell, boss.....

DTTN last Friday night

Kirby Fagan's Live drawing session last Friday at the Plymouth Arts Council, 

very enjoyable night!... It is a great setting with wine and gormet snacks and goodies. 

This is not twinkies and corn chip stuff. Great treats to go along with music and wine, while sketching a live model in a different theme every month.  This month was:

  

I got to meet a new artist..check out ...Michelle she has great characters and animation at her site

Here were some of my sketches from Friday....

New Web Page - Trooper Treehouse

I trying out Square Space for a while with a new Website for my personal sketching and Art Parent activities through school.

Please Visit Trooper Treehouse

at:
http://www.troopertree.com/

Comments for improvements are welcome....Thanks

At the secret command center

At his secret command center, a farm on the outskirts of the city, we are introduced to our hero....#inktober

Super Cow

      I participate in a grade school program called "Art Parent" at my kids school.  I have had a chance to go in and draw with the kids in kindergarten through 4th grade so far.  I think the best experience has been with the second grade class.  Kids are focused enough to draw and its still fun.  I set the class out on a drawing assignment after introducing a topic...Next I have the teacher send me groups of 6 or 7 students to sit with me and draw on a large newsprint pad for about 10 min. rotating through the whole class.  I have them show me their drawings and I improvise a drawing with the small groups in these sessions.
      I have also brought in worksheets to get their focus on storytelling and mixing writing with images. Super Cow was a workbook based on the teachers very creative Halloween costume and characters. The kids love it when Mr. Lloyd plays Super Cow and his nemesis the super Villain EVB, (Evil Villain in Black)...Here is the cover a short workbook I plan to bring in just before Halloween this year...stay tuned.

Captain Cow

Made a little birthday visit from a favorite Super Hero ....
Great Teacher , Mr. Lloyd, at  Plymouth Bird School

After Dark still no sleep

 one more page of my long night camping...

Drawing Robots for Art Parent 2

Here is another update for the Mini "Drawing Robots" book ....more to come....
The idea is for them to play with simple shapes at first then progress to more complex
combinations....

Art Parent Robots

Here is a sample page of my "Art Parent" how to draw robots...should be ready in January 2015...

Drawn to the Night Sept. 2014

Last Friday was another DTTN (Drawn to the Night) Live model drawing session at the
Plymouth Arts Council.  Hosted by a local artist Kirby Fagan.
There was a good turn out and the food was great.

After the session we all show our drawings...the model asked if she could have one of my sketch. I was happy to give her the sketch....I hope she comes back to model some day. 

ROBOT PARTS

Here is the start of another "Art Parent" hand out, for the grade school class.

Drawing robots with simple shapes....

Here is a possible cover....

I got to go!

The middle of the night bathroom visit, comes along with any camping trip.

League 7

And just like that the game was over....

League - page 6

Knocking down icicles! ...while the kids cheer me on.

Out of my league - page 5

The first few pitches...

Out of my League - page 4

I was the relief pitcher for my kids little league...I could nail those icicles easy...

League page 3

Out of May League page 2

 
Ice covering the windows...only one way to fix this...

Out of My League

Did a small "Mini Comic" this was an exercise with the kids.  This really happened last winter.
Look for 8 panels in the next few days...

After Dark page 2

Here is the second layout test. Experimenting with layout and detail. Realizing how cropping and details can be much more effective than full view shots..

Here, again, is the original...

After Dark Page layout

I have been posting a few panels about our summer camping trip over the past few weeks.  Originally I liked the sketches, they were quick and a little crude but looked decent. After looking at a couple of very inspirational online graphics such as Sithra by Jason Brubaker and some good pod casts from Jerzy Drozd I am trying to rethink the layout process....rendering light and dark in ink is still giving me trouble, still need to think less 3D and more graphic....

Here is page one of two for "After Dark"

Here is the original layout, that seemed a little boring...hope the above shows some improvement..

Letter Box page

After Dark Full Page

I reworked some of the different panels and modified the text a bit....hope it looks better...
This really happened to us this summer while camping...if you ever hear screams in the woods at night it just might be a Red Fox or a Bobcat....but it does sound human....

Letter Box 4

When you do find one, the kids use the stamp in the box to mark their notepads.  We look to see who was there before us. We are starting to recognize some of the stamps from our previous finds.
One box in Ann Arbor had not been found for over a year. We found it!

Letter Box 3

We follow all the clues, but sometimes the boxes have been removed.  Maybe gone for good, hard to tell.  So we go onto the next one....

Letterbox 2

Our last search led us to a local old cemetery. We had to take turns looking for a number of hidden boxes.  Spooky fun.

Letter Box

We have been doing "letter boxing" this summer with the kids...Letter boxing is like Geocaching for kids.  Someone hides a notebook and an ink stamp in a secret location and post clues for other to find. If found, you stamp your own notebook with the found stamp and leave your mark in the hidden notepad.  Be discrete and careful not to give out the secret location to onlookers.
I drew a few sketches after our last litter outing. ...will post these over the next few days.....

Long long night

I didn't get much sleep...