Accidental Dracula

When I'm working I always have this blank sheet of paper ready to write down stuff I should look up, and things I shouldn't forget. But of course the paper gets doodled upon as well. Today I accidently did this Dracula, I actually think it doesn't look all bad so I thought I'd share it with you.

Dracula is one of my favourite things to draw, I rather like vampires as long as they are cool-dude-vampires like Dracula. (you know: aristoctratic, creepy acent, evening dress) I don't really care for the cry-baby-buffed-up-shirtless-teenpic-vampire that seems to be so popular these days though... 

Checkered

A warm-up sketch I did today. Ink on paper, and some digital colors. Based on a photo from the Sartorialist. 

It's been a bit slow here on the blog, I'm working on a few things but haven't got anything to show, yet. If all goes well this should change soon!

Rough Ezio

I'm trying to do an Assassin's Creed piece, but I'm having a tough time. One of the things that's giving me trouble is the hood. The assassin's hood has this little flap hanging down in front of his face. In real life this would look stupid, it would also be quite impractical since it would be constantly in your eyes, obstructing your view. But in the game, of course it looks really cool and mysterious, it ties in with the whole bird of prey thing they got going; it looks like a beak.  

I like the rough look of the older Ezio. (I want my heroes old and grim: Batman, Solid Snake, The Dude) I haven't played Revelations yet but I'm anxious to get to it. Old Ezio has a beard -which rocks- and he is also more buffed than young Ezio. I also quite like the furry parts they added to his costume. These are some sketches I did of Ezio, the two left ones are of him wearing the Armor of Brutus, that you can unlock in Brotherhood. The one on the right is Ezio as he appears in the trailer from Revelations.

I hope to have more to show you soon!

Ink on paper, digital colors.

Do You Need Some Time On Your Own?

Can you remember when MTV actually used to play music all day? I grew up during the golden age of the music video, and I feel a little sad for kids today because they have to miss all these awesome videos. Of course a music video was never much more than a commercial for a band or artist, and I guess they helped the evil music industry to stay in power, but there really were some sweet videos back then!
 
The other day I was hanging out with a friend when I began to doodle Slash rocking his guitar outside that little church, in the video of November Rain. It amazed me how many details of the video I could remember. (This is not that doodle by the way, I watched the video before I drew this one.) It made me think how music videos used to be everywhere when I was in high school and how they have quickly disappeared in this digital age. Maybe I'll do some more drawings based on music videos, I had a lot of fun with this one.

Pencil, ink and (paint)markers on grey skectch paper.

Oh, and by the way... Happy new year!

Drive Corner

As you might have noticed I thought Drive was a pretty cool film. I especially liked the whole 1980's vibe of the film. I also think that Ryan Gosling's jacket is pretty cool. I had this image of the Driver as a comic book character; the jacket is really not unlike a superhero's costume, it even has a logo on it.

The image of the Driver as some kind of comic book hero inspired me to the illustration above, for the awesome Cornered Blog. Some of you might remember that I did another corner for them back in March. (That one was also based on a film, btw.)  

I really hope you also like my Drive Corner!

Ink on paper, digital colors and lay-out.

Another Driver

Another drawing of the Driver. The color is based on an effect I saw in The Hunter by Darwyn Cooke, it is not completely similar but that also has a lot to do with my lines, Darwyn Cooke left more open space and also draws with color; he does the inking and coloring of the Parker comics himself. The colors are also done tradiotionally with a PITT artist brush pen.

This drawing of mine was done with ink on paper and digital colors. I will try to do some colored drawings the way Mister Cooke did his, might be a cool exercise.

Recently I'm experimenting a lot with different halftone effects. I have always liked halftones and had a tough time to find out how to recreate the old fashioned print effects in Photoshop. It feels like I'm getting closer, though!

That line is from the book by James Sallis btw, which is also pretty cool.

The Driver

A couple of weeks ago I went to see the movie Drive. I had read quite a lot about it on a number of blogs.   Unfortunately it took a while before Dutch cinemas picked it up, but I guess we are lucky that they showed it at all.

Anyway, even though I had high expectations, Drive did not disappoint me. This is especially surprising since the plot of the film is in no way spectacular, it's the atmosphere of this film that makes it awesome. Ryan Gosling is also great as the silent Driver who makes a living as stuntman and getaway driver for thieves and robbers.

Ever since I saw Drive I have been doodling the Driver. My first attempt were pretty far off, but I believe I'm getting closer. This is a compilation of different driver doodles I did the last few weeks. I wouldn't be surprised if there will be more of this...

Ink on paper, digital colors.

Doodle Thug

Whenever I'm working I usually have a stack of blank paper lying next to me. At the end of the day most of the paper will be filled with doodles of random tough guys and gangsters. I don't much worry about it, that's just what I put on paper when I'm not thinking about what I'm doing too much.

This drawing is a typical example of one of my doodles, although I have to say that I usually won't leave so much empty space on my doodle sheets. I've got some marker brushes in photoshop that I really like so I gave this some quick color using those brushes, as way of exercise.

Papermate Flair on paper, digital colors.