Friday, September 2, 2011

New stuff

 Some character from the pages of California history. A banker, I think. Just loved that self-assured grin.
 A famous singer, done in the style of Mort Drucker.
 First attempt at the unforgettable Bride of Frankenstein.
 The Golem, a character from Jewish folklore. German filmmaker Paul Wegener made a wonderful movie about the most famous Golem story, simply called The Golem.
 Humble Klaus, one of my characters, catching up on some reading.
 The Leshy, spirit of the Russian forest, in his wolf-skin coat.
 Mr. Pfefferneusse, a troublesome bureaucrat.
 A raven standing in snow.
 A hep cat jiving on the bongos.
 The Leshy again, looking goofy.
 A Transylvanian innkeeper as imagined by Hollywood. From Tod Browning's Dracula.
The Tsarevich Alexei, son of Nicholas II, the last czar of Russia.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Assorted scratchings

 Here's...a baby!
 Here's an old crone...best stay away from this one. She looks crafty.
 I like to make up characters and settings, and I created a little tavern called the Foggy Porthole, the sort of place 19th century sailors might frequent. I seem to recall it being on the Black Sea.
 This is one of the toughs who walked the wild streets of 19th century New York City. Not fictitious; I found this picture in my illustrated copy of the book Gangs of New York, which served (loosely) as the basis for the Martin Scorcese film.
 This is an odd little egg-man I dreamed up. Here he is, contemplating existence.
 Here he is again, striving for an apple.
 Here he is, looking into the sky on a rather Seussian pillar. His cousins dot the skyline behind him.
 I don't know why, but gorillas are extraordinarily fun to draw. Although I do tend to anthropomorhize a bit, I admit.
 Here's a rather apathetic looking fellow. Some of the detail didn't photograph well.
 Here is an expressionist rendering of one of my favorite historical characters, Grigory Efimovich Rasputin. He combines so many of my interests: the late 19th century, Russia, claims of control over the limits of human ability. If you're at all interested, I highly recommend the book Rasputin, the Holy Devil by Rene Fulop-Miller.
 Here is a pair of brothers I devised in imitation of the great Edward Gorey.
 Remember what I said about gorillas?
 Here's Jackson Pollock at work. I made no attempt to recreate his art; this is only a crude representation.
 Mike Kurtz, another hood from the pages of Gangs of New York.
 A drawing taken from a poster at work. I drew this in about 10 minutes, longer than I usually take for a drawing; it comes from New Zealand, I think.
 You can't learn about Rasputin without getting sucked into the tragic and compelling world of Nicholas II, Russia's last czar. This is one of my favorite drawings of one of my favorite characters.
 Here's some old man, likely an inhabitant of 19th century Nantucket. Perhaps inspired by Father Mapple from Moby Dick. If, by the way, you haven't read Moby Dick, then you're just biding time.
 Speaking of Melville's masterpiece, here's Queequeg; one of literature's most captivating figures. It's possible to impose all sorts of "noble savage" deconstruction of the naivete of the Victorian white male ideology on this character, but at the end of it all, Queequeg still stands, severe and serene, and utterly believable.
 Well, just because I didn't major in English doesn't mean I can't be working on a novel in my spare time. Here's a study of the main character (English majors call them "protagonists"), named Viktor. And here's the surprise: he comes from the 19th century, and he's Russian.
 Sometimes you draw whatever you see. I had a DVD of Tracey Morgan's "Best of SNL" moments at hand, and this was the result.
Czar Alexander III, father of Nicholas II.

A quick sketch

Here's one I did while on break at work, taken from a poster for vacations to New Zealand.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

 Just a drawing of some Victorian gentleman. One of my favorite subjects.


Alonso Quijano, the man who would become the famous Don Quijote, the Knight of the Sad Countenance.