Dan Barrett's Art Blog

Illustration Friday: Intention

2012-03-04T22:32:00.002-08:00

Click on the image for a bigger version.

My submission for this week's Illustration Friday is autobiographical.

Lately I've been trying to work on my masters research. I'm looking at a little critter called the "velvet worm"; a really interesting relic from the Cambrian geological period (~450 million years old). I'm planning on doing a habitat selection study on the little worm so I have about six statistics and wildlife textbooks on my desk right now, and I've been buried in scientific journals. Aside from my good intentions, I still find myself getting distracted from my research. Case in point.

PS. Check out this video of the velvet worm hunting. Very cool!

The Contenders

2012-02-29T16:24:00.002-08:00

The last couple of days I've been drawing caricatures of the current presidential contenders. I've just been doing it for fun to relax between reading scientific journals. Yesterday while I was working on Gingrich's face my wife looked at it and said, "He looks like Krang." After that statement there was only one thing to do- stick him in the robotic Krang body from the animated series.

Here's my caricatures of Santorum, Romney and Paul as well. I also included some quotes from the candidates - just for fun.

Digital Painting Practice

2012-02-26T03:05:00.000-08:00

Today I decided to try my hand at a more painterly approach to digital illustrations. I started with a "quicky" strawberry painting this morning (that turned into a three hour painting), and then this evening I did a somewhat exaggerated blue penguin.

Wildlife Lesson - "The little blue penguin (or fairy penguin) is the smallest species of penguin in the world. It is native to New Zealand, and some of the sub-antarctic islands." I was lucky enough to see one of these birds about a year ago, and they are truly the most adorable bird imaginable.

Stephen Fry

2012-02-25T01:39:00.000-08:00

Stephen Fry. The Twitter king.

Recently Mr. Fry made national news here in New Zealand for some comments he made on Twitter about the country's broadband. Basically he said that the broadband in New Zealand is shameful, and consumers should demand better service. I cannot agree more!

I hate being "that person" - the one that moves to a foreign country, and then complains about how different it is from home - but compared to the United States, the internet here is horrid. Not only is it overpriced, but there are also absurdly low monthly data caps. I thought that broadband data caps were a thing of the past! I'm paying three times what I was in Nowhere, Oregon for a slower connection and a data cap that makes me second guess every YouTube video I watch. A few days ago my Windows automatically updated itself, and it used a sixth of our monthly limit.

And how did New Zealand respond to Fry addressing a very real issue? With overwhelming derision. The evening news even portrayed Fry as some sort of moron for going over the data cap.

Anyway, I drew this as a bit of solidarity behind Fry.

I also drew this because I've recently discovered Qi. I love that show!

Timothy Dalton

2012-02-23T18:19:00.000-08:00

Over at the e-caricatures forum there was a themed contest to draw one of the many incarnations of Bond.

As I mentioned on the forum, Dalton really is my favorite actor who has portrayed Bond, without being my favorite Bond. That is to say, even though I like other actors' versions of Bond better, in general I like Dalton best as an actor. His characters in Hot Fuzz and Rocketeer played no small part in that (not to mention, I've really liked him in Chuck as well).

And, yes, I even like him better than Connery!

Anyway, hope you all enjoy!

Rhino Hunting

2012-02-22T19:50:00.000-08:00

Some more venting, but this time about animal conservation news.

After reading the news about rhino poaching this year I was fantasizing about what would happen if poachers tried to steal the horn from the Rhino character from Marvel comics.

I'm quite into animal conservation, and 2011 was a real bummer for wild rhinos. The rate of rhino poaching was about 35 times higher last year than four years ago, and 54 have already been killed this year (about one a day). Not to mention that the Javan rhino was recently declared extinct in Vietnam (poachers got the last one).

I have nothing but loathing for people that buy rhino horn or poach rhinos. Consuming rhino horn is basically the same thing as eating your fingernails!

I think this guy is really on to something!

Lamar S. Smith

2012-02-22T16:59:00.000-08:00

This illustration is a bit of political venting.

A lot of people were really upset about Congress in general for threatening to pass the SOPA bill, but I don't think enough ire was directed at the chief sponsor of the bill - Lamar Smith of Texas's 21st Congressional District. Why a congressman from San Antonio has ANYTHING to do with the internet piracy is beyond me (none of the big movie/music production companies fall under his constituency from what I can tell). Could it have something to do with the fact that media companies were his largest campaign contributors?

The really frustrating thing is that, since I don't live in Texas, I have no say in whether this guy stays in the House. And he's up for re-election this November. It's all up to the people of San Antonio, Austin or Texas Hill Country to boot this guy out... *hint hint!*

I originally drew this during the height of the SOPA controversy, but haven't had the opportunity to finish it until now. I was afraid that this picture would no longer be topical, but it looks like ole' Smith is at it again.

I thought this story was pretty funny too - though a bit petty.

The Information Age

2012-02-20T14:16:00.000-08:00

This quick sketch is from a conversation that Anna and I overheard on the bus in Auckland. Two uni students were sitting directly behind us talking about computer issues, and one of them, in a very loud and authoritative voice made the observation above.

I find it somewhat funny that his statement inspired me to do this drawing - which I am now posting on the internet. The information age is indeed, "cruel and unforgiving."

And, yes, he was also wearing a Pilates baseball cap.

Jack Kirby "Tribute"

2012-02-20T13:45:00.000-08:00

My very "heartfelt" "tribute" to "Jack Kirby".

Years ago a group on Deviantart posted a challenge to draw a big headed character in the style of Jack Kirby. I dreamed up with this concept way back then, but didn't get around to sketching it until recently.

Now I just need to come up with a name and back story for this guy.

Christmas Ornaments

2011-12-22T21:03:00.000-08:00

Some Christmas ornaments I made this year of Santa and his helpers. From left to right they are Santa, an elf, Rudolf, and the Krampus.

I have been without my stock card collection for about a year, so I thought it would be fun to break them out and make some Christmas decorations.

Happy holidays everyone.

Illustration Friday: Silent

2011-11-17T05:52:00.000-08:00

Another quick entry for Illustration Friday. This week's word was "Silent". I'm reminded of that famous tag-line from the Alien movie - "In space no one can hear you perform your one-man band act."

The Vault: Clash of the Irritating

2011-11-16T23:29:00.000-08:00

I drew this one way back in the summer of 2009, but I'm still really proud of it. I'd be proud of any illustration that shows a dead Jar Jar though.

This drawing is largely inspired by how much I hated Phantom Menace, but I also couldn't get this scene from Spaced out of my head -

http://youtu.be/bUQfHRfX2o8

(Gotta click the link. Whoever posted the video doesn't allow embedding. PFFFT!)

A couple of years ago the director of the documentary "The People vs. George Lucas" contacted me about using this illustration in his film. I haven't had a chance to watch the movie yet, but I've heard it is pretty good. I guess they even used the drawing in the same context as I have; linking it to the quote from Spaced. I think I even spotted the drawing on the splash page for the film's web-site. I have officially out-nerded myself. It's a proud moment.

Digital Sketches: Cassowary and Emperor Tamarin

2011-11-16T06:50:00.001-08:00

I’ve been dong some more digital sketches of animals on the Wacom the last couple of nights.

I accidentally drew the tamarin lines on the background layer, so I wasn’t able to add color. I still like how the lines turned out though.

Digital Sketch: Elephant

2011-11-14T20:25:00.000-08:00

Last night I needed a break from coloring the comic book, so I did some other drawing and coloring. (Don't question it. It makes sense.)

This was about a 45 minute sketch that I did completely on the computer. I'm still working on my Wacom sketching skills, but I think I am slowly getting there.

1000 Words: Green Lantern Movie

2011-11-13T03:10:00.000-08:00

Today Anna and I tried to watch the new Green Lantern movie. It was painful! We only made it about half way through until our groans and wailing became so loud that we could no longer hear the film.

When did over-saturated CGI become a valid replacement for story, acting, pacing, originality, etc, etc?

To try to vent some frustration I drew this up really quick on the computer this evening.

The Vault: Treebeard Shadowbox

2011-11-12T07:27:00.001-08:00

This project took me ages! I think it was about a year in total from sketch to completion. I had a long post about this on my previous blog, and have finally built up the initiative to post the process again. You can click on any of the thumbnails for a more detailed version.

First Step: The Sketches and Digital Color Test

Second Step: Mapping the Pieces and Painting Watercolor Swatches

To make sure that I constructed Treebeard correctly I had to map out all of the pieces, and then paint swatches for each of the mapped pieces.

Third Step: Cutting out the Pieces and Construction

To cut out the pieces I have to trace them from my “map” onto tracing paper, and then tape the tracing paper to my colored swatches. It’s time consuming!

Fourth Step: Building the Box and Placing Treebeard

I built the shadowbox with some lumber I bought at the hardware store, and painted it black. The Treebeard figure had to be attached to a wire skeleton that I glued to the frame. After gluing in the ground and Treebeard I attached the background. Later I had the pieces on the outside of the frame laminated (so they wouldn’t be ruined if the box was splashed with water), and I super-glued them to the front of the frame.

Ta da!

Babelfish Panda Cards

2011-11-12T01:09:00.001-08:00

This series requires a bit of backstory.

My in-laws are from Korea, and don’t typically speak English. When they write to me it is usually in Korean. I assume this is to motivate me to learn a bit more of the language. Currently my grasp of the Korean language pretty much only involves names of food, and how to say “Hello” and “Thanks”, so I either have to get my wife to translate, or sometimes I’ll use online translation programs. The translations from Babelfish are my favorite. They are so abstract and bizarre sometimes it’s almost poetic. Poetic, but total nonsense. We thought it would be funny to do a series of greeting cards with these direct “quotes” from Babelfish.

Observe:

(Click on any of the cards for a larger image)

Anyone think I’ll be getting job offers from Hallmark?

PS. Just to be totally clear, this is me making fun of Babelfish. Definitely not mocking the in-laws.

The Vault: The Office Caricatures

2011-11-08T00:44:00.001-08:00

I’m still going through and uploading some of my favorite images to my blog.
About three years ago I took it upon myself to do caricatures of all of the main players of the American version of The Office. It was a very boring winter.

Michael (Steve Carell) Jim (John Krasinski) Dwight (Rainn Wilson)

Pam (Jenna Fisher) Ryan (B.J. Novak) Andy (Ed Helms)

Angela (Angela Kinsey) Oscar (Oscar Nuñez) Kevin (Brian Baumgartner)

Creed (Creed Bratton) Phyllis (Phyllis Vance) Stanley (Leslie David Baker)

Toby (Paul Lieberstein) Kelly (Mandy Kaling) Meredith (Kate Flannery)

(Click on any images for a larger version)

A friend of mine printed out all of these caricatures for me, and for a while I had them all displayed in my home on cork boards. I also wrote out some of my favorite quotes from the show on multi-colored sticky notes, but unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of the complete set-up.

Hopefully this massive, image heavy post hasn’t destroyed everyone’s internet browsers…

The Arnolfini Shotgun Wedding

2011-11-06T04:52:00.003-08:00

This month on E-Caricature the challenge is to caricature a famous painting.

For my illustration I decided to do a spoof of the Arnolfini Wedding by Jan van Eyck. This picture has always cracked me up. Both of the subjects appear to be less than thrilled to be there, and they also look a smidge inbred. Because of the man’s lackluster expression, and the fact that the woman is obviously pregnant, I could imagine this being some sort of antique Netherlandish shotgun wedding (Maybe “crossbow” wedding would be more time-period appropriate). I guess that Arnolfini decided to “do the right thing”.
For my version of the painting I wanted to make it look like they hired a caricaturist rather than Jan van Eyck. I borrowed a few of the traditional wedding caricature accessories like the love hearts, ball and chain, and adorable pet.

I also wanted to do some other parodies with the details of the painting, like the self-portrait in the mirror, and the little dog. In the original painting the little dog was meant to symbolize fidelity. Rather than muck about with such abstract symbolism, I thought it was easier to just draw a ball-and-chain. Same meaning.

In the tradition of pretty much every art history book ever printed; here are the details zoomed in.

Illustration Friday: Stripe

2011-11-06T03:27:00.000-08:00

My submission for this week's challenge at Illustration Friday. This week's challenge was to illustrate the word, "Stripes". There are always great entries to the contest. Check 'em out!

The subject of this illustration ended up being strangely appropriate. Where I am living now it is supposed to be late spring. Barbecue weather. But just yesterday (while I was drawing this no less) it started snowing.

The Vault: Monkey Island Spitting Contest

2011-11-01T01:43:00.000-07:00

This is a collaboration that I did with the beautiful and talented Anna (formerly Lee) Barrett about two years ago. She had the idea of illustrating a spitting contest between the two famous severed heads from the Monkey Island video game series. We then divided up the supporting cast of the video game to draw in the crowd. She has her larger versions of her characters on her blog, and I’m just now getting around to posting my versions on my newer blog. Click on any of the images to see a larger version.

Guybrush Threepwood and the Navigator Hellspawn Pirate LeChuck

El Pollo Diablo Largo LaGrande

Carla the Swordmaster The Men of Low Moral Fiber

Fans of the game may notice the absence of a recurring supporting character from the series. We didn’t include him in the drawing, but objects associated with him have been strewn around the drawing. “Where’s *Fill in the Blank*?”

Benicio Del Toro

2011-10-27T02:49:00.001-07:00

Another faux cut-out caricature. Any followers of the blog (all lucky nine of you) might remember the sketch I did of this a few months ago. I only recently got around to coloring it, and had to make some minor alterations (magic?) to the pencil sketch to make it work as a cut-out -

Comedian Caricature Dump

2011-10-27T01:22:00.001-07:00

A collection of some of my favorite actors and comedians that I have done caricatures of over the last few years. Rather than mob my blog with a half of a dozen posts I thought I would post all of these caricatures at once.

Dudley Moore as Arthur (2010) Nick Frost as Ed (2010) Patton Oswalt and Remy (2010)

And now for a mish mash of comedians and styles-

From Left to Right: Zack Galifianakis (2009), Jack McBrayer as Kenneth (2010), Gene Wilder (2009) & Geoffrey Rush as David Helfgott (2009)

Ghost in the Graveyard

2011-10-26T06:54:00.001-07:00

Lately the wife and I have been watching a lot of horror and Halloween movies, so I've been inspired to do some creepy illustrations. I actually completed this drawing about a week ago, but totally spaced out uploading it onto the blog.
This is very much inspired by the graveyards in Dunedin, New Zealand. They look like the setting of a zombie apocalypse. Don't believe me? Take a look-

That last picture is Larnach’s tomb, which was in the final stages of being restored when I was there last. That place also has a pretty messed up history.

Jim Henson

2011-10-24T22:10:00.000-07:00

My faux cut-out version of Jim Henson for a monthly caricature contest at the E-Caricatures forum. I am a huge Henson fan, so when I saw the contest I actually joined the forum specifically to enter.

Why the sock puppet version of Kermit? I just think it's really amazing how Jim Henson was able to take unassuming materials like bits of plastic and felt and create fully developed characters with such memorable personalities. It's pretty incredible.

Phoebe the Feeb and Frankie

2011-10-15T04:43:00.000-07:00

Anna and I recently watched Monster Squad to celebrate Halloween. That movie really stands the test of time. There is so much in it that you really couldn't get away with in movies nowadays too- namely kids acting like kids.

The interaction between Phoebe (Ashley Bank) and Frankenstein's Monster (Tom Noonan) was one of my favorite aspects of the film. And Ashley Bank was just hilarious. It's so nice seeing kids acting like little kids. Little kids in movies nowadays are either way too emotionally mature, or just obnoxious. Likeable children in movies seems like it was some kind of 80s phenomenon that writers/directors have lost the knack for nowadays. Maybe it's cause production companies won't let them say "shit" anymore?

Elwetritsch

2011-10-15T04:31:00.000-07:00

The Elwetritsch, a German crypto-critter that's a bit like the elusive snipe.

A Elwetritsch is supposed to be a bit like a flightless chicken with antlers, a long beak, and more recently human breasts. Apparently there are organized Elwetritsch "hunts" in a region of Germany that are quite a lot like snipe hunts; basically an excuse to have a laugh at someone else's gullibility.

Stingy Jack

2011-10-12T01:05:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!

I thought it would be fun to do a portrait of Stingy Jack to celebrate the holiday this year.

Stingy Jack is the legendary figure that the Jack O' Lantern is based off of. Here's the legend of Stingy Jack copied and pasted from this web-site:

According to the story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. True to his name, Stingy Jack didn't want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks. Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form. Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul. The next year, Jack again tricked the Devil into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree's bark so that the Devil could not come down until the Devil promised Jack not to bother him for ten more years.

Soon after, Jack died. As the legend goes, God would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into hell. He sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with ever since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as "Jack of the Lantern," and then, simply "Jack O'Lantern.

I didn't exactly follow this version of the legend. I saw another version once where the devil carried Jack's head off to hell, leaving Jack with a hellfire ember to light his way. Jack carved a turnip into a face and dropped in the burning ember, and used that to replace his own head. That version seemed like more fun to draw.

The Vault: Wally

2011-09-02T23:43:00.000-07:00

After uploading the Chupacabra I thought I'd upload another of my cryptozoo-critters.
This guy is a little more obscure. He's Wally, the Wallowa Lake monster. He's a bit of a local legend where I'm from, even though it seems like half the people I ask have never heard of him. Sightings of him are supposed to go back as far as the native Nez Perce tribe.

Check it out - http://www.unknownexplorers.com/wallowalakemonster.php

Mysterious: Chupacabra

2011-09-02T23:32:00.000-07:00

A candid snap of the mysterious Chupacabra, aka: The Goat Sucker.

Lately I've been on a bit of a cryptozoology kick, and have been wanting to do some more of these kinds of creatures. Any ideas?

I know this one is a bit of an oldy, but it seemed to fit really well with this week's challenge at Illustration Friday.

Rowan Atkinson Caricature

2011-08-31T21:14:00.000-07:00

Another drawing that I did entirely digitally. It's nice getting to the point now where I don't always have to sketch things on paper first (even though I still think I prefer doing that in general).

When Anna and I were doing our caricature challenges one of the celebrities we did was Rowan Atkinson, but I wasn't totally pleased with what I came up with. So this is my second attempt at a likeness.

Rooster Cogburn

2011-08-31T20:01:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I forgot to upload this before.

This is a digital sketch that I did of Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn in True Grit about a month ago.

The Coen Brothers are truly geniuses. I knew that I was going to like True Grit a lot, but I had no idea I would like it as much as I did. I really think it's one of their best films (definitely my favorite of their non-original stories).

I was surprised how well Matt Damon fit in with the rest of the cast as well. I thought it was funny that most of their repeat offenders had ridiculous accents in the film. Matt Damon's stifled voice about half way through the film (don't want to spoil anything) almost seemed like an initiation into the crew.

In the spirit of our old Big Critique web-site, I give True Grit a +9.

The Vault: Basil Fawlty

2011-08-11T23:28:00.000-07:00

John Cleese as Basil Fawlty.

Another oldie. I did this cut-out about two years ago.

I ended up giving it away as a gift, with no small amount of remorse, but luckily I married the girl I made it for, so it's mine again.

Digital Sketches

2011-06-29T23:28:00.001-07:00

Lately I’ve been playing with doing sketches in Photoshop without drawing them out on paper first. It’s actually a bit freeing for me because I’m not so precious with the drawings as I am when they are on paper. Yes – I am so cheap that I don’t even like wasting sketchbook paper on bad sketches (hopefully these aren’t that bad though).

I started out doing a few figure drawings of women because, frankly, I’m not very good at drawing women-

Then I did a couple of animal sketches – because they are fun-

A Rodin sculpture and Dirty Harry (strangely, these seem somewhat related)-

(Click on any of the images for larger versions)

There Can Be Only One

2011-06-28T02:21:00.000-07:00

(Click on the image for a bigger version)

My response to the new Harley Quinn reboot design that DC released.

I am not impressed. Part of what makes Harley Quinn so fun is the fact that she hasn't been overly sexualized like so many other comic book villainesses (unless you're looking her up on deviantart or playing Arkham Asylum). She has a bit of a childish manic evil to her that is really fun. This new version just looks like a goth anime hooker. I'm pretty sure the costume is part of a licensing agreement with Hot Topic.

Just to prove what an aging nerd I am, I decided to throw a Highlander reference in there too. Enjoy.

Evening Caricature Challenge Part 1

2011-06-18T05:54:00.001-07:00

The last week or so Anna and I have been doing caricature challenges where we post a number of pictures of an actor on our living room television screen, and then take 20 minutes to capture the person’s likeness.
Here are a few from the last couple of nights (I’ve omitted the really bad ones)-

Alan Ruck Benicio Del Toro Wanda Sykes

Minnie Driver Rachel Dratch (from SNL)

(Click on the image for larger versions!)

I’m definitely going to have to add color to that Benicio Del Toro caricature. I quite like how that turned out.

Walking the Dog

2011-06-18T04:35:00.000-07:00

(Click on the image for a larger version)

This is an idea that I've had floating around in my head for quite a while now. It has gone through a number of incarnations in the last half of a decade. I drew out the first version clear back in 2006 and started coloring it in Flash before I realized that it looked like crap.

And here is that crappy version from clear back in 2006 -

Painful!

Lady Caricatures

2011-06-18T03:17:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been working on capturing the likenesses of women. Typically I'm pretty dreadful at drawing women. Women are difficult! It's a balance between drawing enough lines to make the woman recognizable, but not enough to make them look old and wrinkled. Here are a few that I added color to:

Amy Poehler Drew Barrymore

Emma Thompson Maggie Gyllenhaal

Helena Bonham Carter

(Click on the pictures for larger versions!)

The Vault: Bill Murray

2011-05-30T03:20:00.000-07:00

A faux cut-out caricature of one of my all time favorite comedians - Bill Murray.

Rushmore heralded the beginning of my love for quirky independent comedies, and Bill Murray was amazing in the film.

Even though this was one of my first faux cut-out illustrations it's still one of my favorites.

The Vault: Pazuzu

2011-05-19T03:11:00.000-07:00

Another one from the vault.

Professor Farnsworth riding his gargoyle Pazuzu. Sort of an obscure character, but one of my favorites.

Can you spot the 80s movie reference?

Tilt Shift Photography

2011-05-14T02:10:00.000-07:00

I've always been a bit amazed with tilt shift photography ever since I first saw it in a few years ago. I have a small collection of my own photos that I've done the effect on that I've always just had sitting on my computer. I figure now that I'll post a few of them online. Hopefully you enjoy them.

A view from my hotel room of a poolside cabana in Manta Ecuador back in 2006.

A pool and fountain at the Auckland wintergarten.

The Maid of the Mist tour boat at Niagara Falls. This one is my personal favorite, because this is really how it feels to ride this boat to the base of the falls. You fill tiny compared to the falls.

A small stream near the base of Mt. Raupehu in New Zealand.

The Vault: Moss

2011-05-06T05:58:00.000-07:00

Moss (played by Richard Ayoade) from the British sitcom The I.T. Crowd.

One of my all time favorite TV nerds. The actors from Big Bang Theory have nothing on this guy.

The Cybertooth Tiger

2011-04-28T18:47:00.000-07:00

A quick drawing for a friend of mine. He was VERY pleased with himself for coming up with this concept.

Enough said.

The Vault: Flight of the Conchords

2011-04-28T18:33:00.000-07:00

I drew this for a Flight of the Conchords poster design contest a couple of years ago. I didn't win, but it was fun coming up with a design.

The poster is an ambigram, so there is no right side up.

Coming up with layout was quite the work in progress because it had to be viewed from two different angles. I did a lot of sketches.

And here is the ambigram itself.

Happy Easter!

2011-04-19T14:51:00.000-07:00

Another one from the vault. I made this little guy about five or six years ago now, and it's become Easter tradition to post him on whatever new blog I have that year.

It's pretty awesome; here in New Zealand they give us a whole week off of school for the Easter holiday. Unfortunately I'm just going to spend the whole time doing homework though.

I'm still really not happy with the border that I gave it. Maybe next year I'll come up with something else.

The Vault: The Electric Mayhem

2011-04-13T02:06:00.000-07:00

(Click on the image for the larger version)

The Electric Mayhem taking Animal out for a walk. I was originally going to draw a woman running away in front of him, but I rather preferred the idea that this is what it's always like to walk Animal.

I tried to make this one look a bit more like one of my cut-outs. In fact, I was originally just going to do this as a cut-out, but decided against it because it would have taken me months to finish (instead of hours).

This one is another illustration from the vault.

The Vault: Fiji Mermaid

2011-04-11T04:09:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I did any personal drawing, so I've decided to start dragging some of my older drawings out of the vault. I've been meaning to repost a lot of my artwork since my old blog went tits up, so this is as good of an excuse as any.

This is my version of the famed Fiji Mermaid. I wanted to play off of the fact that Fiji mermaids were usually just mummified monkey torsos sewn onto dried fish bodies.

I really enjoyed messing with the colors and lines in this one too.

Kakapo Leprechaun

2011-03-22T20:10:00.000-07:00

(click on the picture for a larger view)

I recently moved to New Zealand to study Wildlife Management which inspired me to do a drawing of one of the many critically endangered New Zealand birds.

After looking at a number of Kakapo pictures I started to realize just how much they remind me of little fluffy leprechauns. They're evasive, green, and like to hold things in their mouths (thus the pipe).

Hoatzin Sketch

2011-01-06T23:50:00.000-08:00

Sketched this up really quickly this evening. It's a hoatzin (pronounced "watson"). I saw a whole tree full of these when I was in Ecuador in 2006. It was like seeing a tree full of 80s punk rockers.

I started this out at exactly the wrong dimensions and resolution, so that's why it kind of looks like a black velvet painting. Better luck next time.

Christopher Lloyd Caricature

2011-01-06T15:29:00.000-08:00

This is a caricature I did of Christopher Lloyd for an caricature contest I found online. I figured that a Back to the Future caricature would be fun considering they were just celebrating the 25th anniversary in 2010. That and I've been wanting to redeem myself for a poor caricature I did of Lloyd a few years ago.

And now for a couple of progress pictures!

Ray Fillet

2011-01-06T14:53:00.000-08:00

Another of my Ninja Turtles Redesigns. I'm adding this to my TMNT page with a description, but I'm also going to post them on the main page as they are finished.

Polyphemus the Shepherd

2010-12-25T21:25:00.000-08:00

Polyphemus from The Odyssey tending part of his flock. Prior to the eye impaling of course.

I read once that the Greeks came up with cyclopes after finding an elephant skull, so I wanted to base my design off of the pachyderms.

Yahweh and the Buddha

2010-12-25T21:10:00.000-08:00

Yahweh/Allah/God and the Buddha sharing a spaghetti dinner with the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

This was one of those ideas that popped into my head the moment before I fell asleep, and it took me ages to remember the next morning.

I was playing with the halftone effect in this one a bit. Going for more of the look you would find in a magazine comic out of the New Yorker or something.

Banjo Hero Pig

2010-12-07T19:48:00.000-08:00

My submission to the Dueling Banjo Pigs blog; a website dedicated to illustrations of banjo pluckin' swine.

Anna and I were discussing possible concepts for the duel a while ago, so I'm sure this was her idea. But I stole it fair and square. ha HA!

IguanoFonz

2010-12-04T23:44:00.000-08:00

The IguanoFonz

My submission to Illustration Friday. The topic this week was "Prehistoric". What better than a picture of an Iguanodon and Henry Winkler? I did this illustration about a year and a half ago, but haven't uploaded it on to my new blog yet. This is as good of an excuse as any.

The final illustration was done entirely with cut out stock card, foam core, and lots of glue.

RIP Leslie Nielsen

2010-12-04T20:32:00.000-08:00

Leslie Nielsen: 1926-2010

When I was in middle school the Naked Gun movies were my absolute favorites. Even though I didn't even understand half of the innuendo in the movie ("Niiiice beaver") I freakin' loved the series. It was a real bummer to hear about Nielsen's recent death, so I thought it would be nice to do a tribute to him.

I originally did this for a caricature contest that I found online, but realized that this is more of a cartoon than a caricature. Not to mention there were set dimensions for the drawing (which I wasn't even close to). I'm glad I did the illustration anyway though, because I was always a big fan of Nielsen's work.

This is what the pencil drawing originally looked like of his face. It gives a nice idea of the amount of tweaking that I do once I've scanned the sketches into the computer.

Emma’s ABCs

2010-12-01T23:04:00.001-08:00

For about the last two months I’ve been working on an ABC book for my niece for Christmas. She’s only about 13 months old but she’s already well past the traditional ABC animals, so I wanted to create some more challenging critters for her. For a while I considered naming it the, “My Uncle Is A Biologist ABC Book”. I think this title is a little less narcissistic.

Click on any images to see them larger.

Sneaky

2010-11-20T12:44:00.000-08:00

The enigmatic Bigfoot. Why is it that Bigfoot still continues to elude us? Could it be that Bigfoot is trained in some sort of Japanese art of stealth? Could it be that Bigfoot is actually a ninja!?

Now, finally, the world has proof.

This is for a contest over at Illustration Friday. The topic for this week was "Sneaky".

Seinfeld Cast

2010-11-18T22:42:00.000-08:00

Playing catch-up with some of my older illustrations.

For this drawing I wanted to do caricatures by slightly abstracting full figures, and not just faces. I figured the cast of Seinfeld would give me an interesting assortment of body shapes and character traits. That and I couldn't resist drawing Elaine doing the little kicks dance.

Hillbilly Swamp Monster

2010-11-12T19:44:00.000-08:00

I had to take a little brake from the ABC book I have been working on for my niece, and decided to do a quick monster sketch, which turned into a much larger project.

I haven't shaded a drawing with pencils in ages. I always do everything digitally. So I figured it would be fun to break out the old blending stumps and really render a drawing traditionally.

The first version I sketched out didn't exactly look right, so I redid the design a bit, and did some pencil shading.

After that I added some colors, and called it good.

Name Ambigram

2010-11-05T22:11:00.001-07:00

At first I didn’t know what to call this. I didn’t think it was an ambigram, but I guess they don’t have to spell the same thing both ways.
If you look at it one way it spells my name/Anna’s name, and if you turn it 180 degrees it spells Anna’s name/my name. Just playing around to see if I could do it. I know it seems awfully mushy, so I was thinking we should get them engraved on brass knuckles.

Tiki Monsters

2010-11-05T21:34:00.000-07:00

Earlier this spring Anna and I were chatting about possible illustrations and came up with the idea of doing tiki interpretations of figures in popular culture. While chatting about candidates for tiki-ification I drew up a quick sketch of Slimer that I later decided to add color to.

I used the Slimer design as an excuse to experiment with Illustrator, which I had never used before. And to think that I thought Photoshop was confusing! Poor Anna had to hear me screaming and cursing through the whole process. I do really like that vector images can be exported from Illustrator into Photoshop while retaining the layers though, which was absolutely necessary for this project.

I drew every shape in Illustrator, then exported them to Photoshop where I did the shading, overlaid a woodgrain texture, and threw in a drop shadow to add a bit more layering (and because drop shadows are sooo in this year).

I followed the same process for a series of nostalgic latex monstrosities from the 70s, 80s and 90s.

Stripe from Gremlins

The Xenomorph from Alien and Predator from Predator

Dan and Anna's Cardboard Palace

2010-10-30T17:02:00.000-07:00

A collaboration between myself and Anna Lee. We were originally going to do a No Such Luck website for our projects together (drawing ourselves as homeless people), but scrapped the idea when we realized that it probably wasn't the most positive way to promote ourselves. Because we had already done so much of the groundwork we decided to finish the project anyway.

Anna did an entry in her blog with some progress pictures. It can be found here.

Muppets Matches

2010-10-28T22:09:00.000-07:00

Myself and the beautiful and talented Ms. Anna Lee have been working on modern Muppet two-somes with more contemporary figures in popular culture. For this one we've paired two notorious sour-pusses, Sam Eagle and Peter Boyle, out for a ride on the tea cups.

And for this one we've paired British comedian/musician Bill Bailey with Rowlf the Dog.

New Blog

2010-10-15T12:46:00.000-07:00

Hey all. New blog time. My old one's lease ran out (formerly danblog.thebigproductions.com), so I decided to hop on this blogspot bandwagon.

You might all know me as WonderDookie on devart, or just Dan Barrett on planet earth.

To start things off right, here's a drawing I recently did of myself and my partner as ghosts.

Thanks for visiting!