Drink and Draw Dec 2008


Here's a picture I drew with my left hand (I'm right handed) During last night's Drink and Draw gathering Michael Beyers put together at the Pennywhistle Pub in Guelph.

I drew this with a Bic pen (the kind you get at the store for $1.50 for a pack of 12) on some kind of decent bond paper, like printer paper, left over from a live caricature gig I did last year. I used to draw in Bic on bond all the time in high school... in the margins om my lecture notes. It's actually a really nice drawing tool because you can draw quite a range of light to dark with it.

Because of the glasses I thought this was looking a lot like Malcolm X... but I was drawing from my imagination and, upon photo research today discovered that the clothes do not make the man. My guy's face is quite different from the real Mr. X. So I just call this picture "Glasses Guy" now.

We had about 15 illustrators, cartoonists and artists show up. What was really cool about it is a) meeting and chilling out with a bunch of other illustrators and cartoonists and b) actually sitting down to draw whatever I feel like drawing! So many of us are so busy with drawing for clients and keeping up with life that we don't give ourselves the time to do the very thing that brought us into this career in the first place... which is having fun drawing stuff!

And that we did. We had a lot of laughs! You will likely find some hillarious cartoons from the event being posted someday soon on Michael's blog at http://www.michaelbyers.blogspot.com. If you haven't seen my illustration site yet, check out the comics section at www.moon-man.com. There's some neat stuff on there... if I do say so myself.

Cheers!
Scott

Kate Shutt, Orrin Evans, Musicians

I keep forgetting how great it is to draw from life. I spend so much time cartooning out of my head. I had the privilege of being present at the recording of Kate Shutt's new album (it's going to be an amazing album!). I brought my modbook and made these drawings of piano player Orrin Evans (www.myspace.com/orrinevans). He was the only person I could see from the soundproof control booth. I wish I had made some drawings of Kate and the other musicians while I was there. Ran out of time and opportunity though. Maybe I'll be able to draw her another time. Here's her website: www.kateschutt.com


Modbook sketches

I've bought myself a Modbook. I'm the first person to buy one in Canada. I love it. What's a Modbook? It's a modified Macbook, the first mac tablet computer. So put me in the history books! This thing covers a lot of firsts... It's also my first mac!

Anyway, the reason I bought it is so that I could draw just like I do in an actual paper sketchbook. It's actually easier to draw with it than on my big 18" Wacom Cintiq because I can take it around, sit in front of people and draw from life directly into it! Awesome! It's the computer of my dreams... almost. If it had one of those monitors that you could see in daylight like oin the $100 laptop that would be even more dreamy.

So here are a couple of drawings I did on it... actual drawings from live subjects! Not just photos or made up out of my head! Neat!


Cheers!
Scott

Hulk Fan art in Painter

Okay, here's more Incredible Hulk fan art from me. (If you go far enough back in this blog you'll find a crossover fan piece about Hulk vs. American Elf). I drew the pencil for this one a year and a half a go at the Paradise Comicon in Toronto. I've been playing around with Corel Painter over the las couple of days, trying to get a feel for it. Decided to paint up this sketch and see what happens. I gotta say, I sure like what painter can do. I like how the Hulk looks kinda translucent and luminous here... a happy accident with the nice smooth oil paint feature.

I wonder if Marvel would ever like to have me do a Hulk Cover!!!

DJ Cartoons


More drawings I like that would otherwise never be seen. I drew this series of caricatures for the Bob FM Radio station website and half way through the project the concept was canceled. These were based on photographs of the DJs emailed to me by the client.

Here's a close-up of my favorite one... my favorite for it's wacky Mad Magazine aesthetic ;-)

Ratatouille is Amazing!


I just saw Pixar's new movie "Ratatouille" and loved it loved it loved it! Aside from being a great story about knowing and honouring your self and your gifts, it's an amazingly well told story and, if your an illustration geek like me, the character designs, set designs, prop designs, and animation simply blew me away.

You know what I love about Pixar? They are a huge business that create real soulful meaningful art... consistently. Every movie they've ever made has been in the range of really good to truely amazingly wonderfully incredible... in my humble opinion.

So I came home and really wanted to doodle rats inspired by the characters of Ratatouille, and these are what I came up with. Think I could get a job with Pixar? ;-)

Head Transplant

This is a new head for a head transplant on a corporate communcations comic I've been working on. I thought this ink drawing looked really pretty, want to share it with y'all.

I needed to change the identity of one character in this comic. In my illustration vernacular a head transplant is what happens when, for whatever reason, I need to change the face of a character in an illustration. I draw a new head and lay it over the old one. "Never draw anything twice if you can aviod it" was some early illustration advice from my mentor when I was just starting out. Saves a lot of redrawing! The same advice can apply to a lot of things in life!

Cheers!
Scott

Blotter Doodle


It's been a while! Here's a blotter doodle from today's inking session. Gave her a bit of an oversized hand... and I guess her head is a bit too big too, but that's what you get with these things. No pencil under-drawing. Just ink laid down on white paper, one stroke every minute or two whenever it's time to test the brush charge again.

Cheers!
Scott

Phone Doodle


Trina Thinks I'm rude for doodling while holding a conversation, but beleive it or not it actually helps me focus on what the other person is saying. I honestly don't know why. I actually can follow the thread of what the person is saying better. Maybe it's because my mind can't sit still very long, but drawing is a non interruptive, non verbal thing I can focus the other part of my brain on so it doesn't start pulling me out of the conversation with entertaining inner dialogue.

I watched Pixar's superhero film "The Incredibles" twice in the last two days and the cool caricatured fantastic shapes and costumes are constantly dancing in my head. As you can see it's influenced my phone doodle here.

Cheers!
Scott Mooney

PS. Check out my new EFT blog site. If you need a web presence in a hurry, Blogger is an amazing resource! I started my EFT business almost instantly by building a Blogger blog in about 15 minutes (content was pre existing on my http://ArtofSelfDev.com blog), buying the domain name http://EFT-in-Guelph.com and pointing it to the blog. Presto! Instant web presence!

Rope Skipping Babe, and EFT


This was a test illustration for a job that would have been on TV. Sadly, it's not going to happen this time. The good news is that I got to draw this sexy retro girl-next-door doing her calisthenics! I figure she deserves her time in the spotlight anyway, so here she is.



On a completely different subject, if you are at all interested in self development stuff, I just wrote an article on EFT on my other blog at www.artofselfdev.com. EFT is an amazingly effective and easy to learn energy psychology technique that combines tapping on certain acupressure points with key statements in order to clear emotional disruptions, such as phobias, aversions to things you'd rather not be averse to, stuck emotions (anger, frustration, resentment) and the like. This can be really handy when you're trying to accomplish something but can't because of these distracting and detracting emotions. Amazingly, the stress relief people experience from this technique often has powerful effects on physical ailments too. Anyway, you can read all about it in my article, which is about how to do EFT, called "Be Free with EFT" by clicking here.

Earl's My New Favorite Show


Jason Lee, who you've probably seen in a bunch of Kevin Smith movies, is in an amazing show with amazing writing, great comedic acting, and a good positive message in a dirtbag context. The show's called My Name is Earl. Season one is out on DVD and I'm totally addicted. It's HBO show quality, only it's not HBO. Politically incorrect with a heart of gold. It's right up there with Malcolm in the Middle, Sex and the City, Futurama, and Northern Exposure.

Hold Doodle


Operator put me on hold, doodled this on the corner of my to-do list while I waited. Funny thing about the creative process, your best work happens by accident when you're not trying to make it good, you're just playing around. That's why I have a hard time drawing on expensive paper... my expectations are too high.

Drawing Tip:
If you're creatively stuck, draw on cheap paper that you won't mind throwing in the garbage. Just doodle, don't try to make it good. Let go of the result. If you want to do the same on good paper, buy the paper with the intent to throw it all in the garbage. Don't get attached to the paper, or the resulting image. Think of it more as an experiment to see what emerges as you play.

Lessons anyone? Half price offer for E-Lessons.
I've updated my workshops page at http://www.moon-man.com/workshops.htm. It's got pricing and descriptions of what you can learn in private lessons with me. I'd also like to experiment with distance teaching over email and/or telephone. If anyone wants to be my guinea pig I'll give the first three people who sign up for distance learning 4 one-hour lessons at half price. Just put "Drawing lessons distance ed at half price?" in the subject line when you email me at scott@moon-man.com.

Jabberwocks

The 8 page full colour, multi-medium Sci-Fi comic story called "Jabberwocks" I co-created years ago with writer Robyn Harrington and then-editor of Remote Veiws (an anthology of short stories) Andrew Foley, is now live on my site, available in it's entirety to the public for the first time! Go to the comics section at www.moon-man.com to check it out.


Robyn passed away without ever seeing the story published. She was so excited about it, being her first comic story ever produced. She really enjoyed showing it around to her friends. It's been on the shelf for a long time, so it feels really good to have it available to the public now. I'd love to hear your feedback if you read it.