Cripple Con 2

This weekend I'll be near Kansas City, MO. Why? Oh, just to make fun of everything and anything, party with some friends, listen to some great live music, create ridiculous art and see some pals that I neglect for 11.75 months out of the year (sad).

Yes, it's the 2nd of the CRIPPLE CON species, and it is going to be bigger and broker. I'm quite excited. If you don't know what it is, go HERE to read, and you should probably just book a flight and room and show up. It will be a ton of fun (yes, 2,000 lbs of a grand ole' time)!

Anyway, by now I'm on the road (ah... scheduled blog posts...) and I'll be having fun this weekend. I've got some great news about the next book coming up, so check back in a couple days.

.

Sketch Infectus

Over the last seven years or so, I've been stashing scrap paper with doodles, keeping my sketchbooks hidden under the bed, and scanning artwork and forgetting about it. I decided that 2009 was the year that I dusted it all off and shared it with others. A good friend of mine recently said "...in a sketch you see the hand of the master..." --not that I consider myself a master-- but it is quite true that sketches inspire. The loose, confident secure mindset of trying to teach yourself something, all alone, in a book that you never intended to show off, is powerful and wonderful.

I realized for years that nearly every book I purchased and every inspiration I had, came from the sketches and sketchbooks of other artists. One of my good friends, Stephen Silver, has been a big inspiration and motivator for me over the last few years. How? His sketches. His doodles. His scratchy sketchbooks.

Well, after talking to many peers and inspiring artists, I've captured dozens of quotes and tips and supplied them along side a dense collection of drawings and doodles. This will most likely be the most art-heavy little book you've ever seen, and I think it looks pretty snazzy. You will be able to get it over at Art Squared Books.com, pre-orders coming up next week (with a special incentive for those who order early!).

Here are some previews. I'm really excited about this book, and I hope it continues to inspire someone out there, as much as other artists have (and continue to) inspire me:

* More to come soon...
.

Some Birds and more Cars

Just trying to keep healthy and sketch/draw/paint every day. I'm usually fascinated with certain topics and subjects. I think I understand why, but... well, who knows.

Among these topics are BIRDS and CARS (along with faces, people, dogs, and most animals). You'll definitely see those interests (obsessions?) in my sketchbook, coming out next month.

Here are some more cars as well as some bird sketches. They're really not for anything other than keeping my hand limber, my mind working and trying to come up with some creative ideas. I guess it's just the beginning of stuff to come, but who knows. I guess it's just fun to keep drawing, and I'm trying to have fun. These are all completed with Prismacolor products (FineLiner, Markers, Pencils...)

♪ . New Podcast . ♫

Hey there. If you scoot on over to the Digital Art Podcast blog (link on the right, there...), you'll see a new video of an illustration. This is a new take, not just some caricature while I gab the whole time. It's something I've been thinking about for a long time, to it feels great to get it "out" of me. I hope the band, Blitzen Trapper, likes this...

...and I hope you like it, as well.
.

Happy New Year!

Howdy, y'all. I hope anyone reading this had a great time over the recent holidays. It's a great opportunity to pig out for nearly a month, gain some weight, slack a bit with your productivity, and have fun with family and friends. I did a bunch of ALL of that, and I'm back to the grind, drawing as much as I can. It feels good.

I'm working on a new podcast that I've been thinking about for nearly 6 months. This one is completely new and exciting; I'm illustrating the vibe of a band that I've discovered (they're getting a bit more popular by now, you may know their work), with a focus on illustrating more accurately the characters created in a the lyrics to my favorite of their songs. It's a point I'm making on illustration, how cartoons can follow the "feel" of a group, a song, a story, an article, or anything else. Illustration is more than just putting a pretty picture to the cover of a magazine so people will buy it. I see it as an equal partnership of text and visual. Sound and sight. Editorial and humor. A good illustration suppliments a story or song, and does not retell it. There is a lot of redundant illustration, meaning the story says what the picture says, and not in a clever way.

This is just one facet of illustration, one theory. I know that good illustration also grabs your eye and will "sell" the reader of say, for example, a magazine. It needs to say enough so you get an idea and a smile or a feeling that makes you compelled to read more... but anyway, I'm just typing too much now.

For today, I'm throwing at you some sketches that I did last night (podcast spoiler?). I'm into drawing cars, much like Ken Knafou - and caricaturing them a bit. I like to extremely exaggerate, but I have found that it is easy to lose the ability to quickly get structure down on the page, in a convincing way. These drawings were for practice, just to keep my hand moving and to keep my brain limber in this respect. I'd hate to get rusty, and sketching is so important to help curb that rut.

Most of these are drawn from a classic car book that I own (Barnes & Noble Bargain Books section is GOLD), just trying to get a little exaggeration and a lot of essence down, while focusing on structure. I'm using what I call a blue "animator's" pencil (Staedtler Non-Photo Blue) and inking/shading with a .01 cm Prismacolor Fine-Liner pen and 10% cool gray Prismacolor Marker. I find these tools to be great for quick sketching. You can learn to commit to your lines quickly, knowing you can't erase the marker, yet you can lightly sketch with the gray marker or blue pencil before inking. Using the gray marker also gives you a chance to shade, layer and put washes down, experimenting again without the pressure of having to produce "finished" art. This is, again, why sketching is so vital. You build your skills without having the deadlines and stress of quality.

My buddy Jeremy said it best; "A sketchbook is a place where you are allowed to suck although you strive not to." This is so vital to an artist, and I really encourage everyone to sketch, doodle and practice. These sketches can definitely be improved, and I am seeing what I need to work on as I do more... That's why I'll be publishing my sketchbook collection this February, with quotes from amazing artists all throughout the book.

Anyway, I hope you dig these (each car sketch is 4-6" wide). I'll have more posts and another digital art podcast coming in the next few days.

.

Another Girly-Gurl Sketch

I completely forgot about this Supergirl sketch when posting the girls I worked on this year (she's pretty butch, right? I figured if she's SUPERgirl, then... well, anyway...).

This was done in early summer (08) when I was working on the female side of sketching, and I found it while grabbing some final images to my sketchbook, being published in February by Art Squared. It was done on a Wacom Cintiq using Adobe Photoshop. I would love to do a series of these soon, perhaps for a smaller sketchbook. Drawing women is tough, but they sure are nice to look at!

.

Girl Sketching

Drawing girls is not that easy, and it's something I've tried to brush up on this past year. At the 2008 Comic Con in San Diego, I did a few sketches to sell while at the show. These were just for fun to practice, and I came across them yesterday while cleaning out some boxes, so I figured I'd share them here.

WARNING: naked lady drawing below

Drawing women is a separate mentality and skill, in a way, and I always feel it's important to work on our weaknesses. Women make me weak, and drawing them is not easy... hwah ha ha.

These drawings came on the heels of some other drawings of the feminine variety, also done for Comic Con. These were staple-bound as a small sketchbook. I still have a dozen or so left, if anyone is interested. Here are some samples of the drawings in that compilation:

.

Life Drawing Weakness

I was visiting the Society of Illustrators this past week with my friend Arkady, for the bi-weekly "sketch & jazz" night, for figure drawing. Even though one of the models was great, I was distracted by what I am always drawn to: FACES. I am inspired by the quick doodles of Canadian artist Seo Kim. Frequently she posts sketches on her blog from life drawing sessions, where she strays a bit and sketches the other artists. This can look a bit creepy to a bunch of strangers (I got a few weird looks), but it was really fun to test out a quick and cartoony observational sketch. I was clearly influenced by her work, and it was really a fun exercise.

Next time I'll have to draw the models some more. I had plenty of nude sketches of those girls, but they are a bit weaker than these cartoon faces. That's another reason I must go every week... to improve where I feel like I'm lacking in my craft. That's what it's all about! Maybe I'll see you there?

.

A Holiday Special

Christmas, Hanukkah, whatever you celebrate: From December 5th through December 25th, you will get a free personalized sketch of YOU or a loved one inside your copy of REJECTS, when you order it from Art Squared Books.com, as a holiday special from me to you.

Just order one or more books from Art Squared, including REJECTS. Email your photo(s) of you or a loved one to me at joe AT joebluhm DOT com. ...and just like that, you will have your own special Holiday copy of REJECTS, signed with a custom caricature! But to get this to your house by Christmas Eve (giving it as a gift?), be sure to get your order in no later than December 15th. That being said, this offer is good through CHRISTMAS day.

Here are some samples of the style of sketch you may get. These are caricatures of some great artists from a book signing in Toronto, Ontario, CA. So go ahead and give some art as gifts!

.

Virgin Ads Complete

They have been finished for a little while now, but the Virgin Media advertisements which I was a big part of designing are finally all aired or being aired in theaters and television in the UK.







.