Summer Break

Hey Gang,

Justed wanted to let y'all know that TTT is going on a little hiatus. Zach's been crazy busy with a project he's working on and I've been swamped w/ work & wedding planning and I know no one wants to see the 'stick-man' version of TTT. Although now that I think about it..... Anyway, we'll be back in a few weeks with plenty more Tag Team Tuesday shenanigans. Later!

- Casey

Week 19: Zach's Shark

So, it's shark week and many people are putting up some pretty fun doodles of their sharks. Casey suggested taking a break from our 'steam punk Arthurians' for the week and the peer pressure was more than most could stand.

Plus, how can I say 'no' to gigantic sharks.
A fan of the Hammer-head shark since childhood (and having to deal with sharks in Florida...) here's my caffiene deprived homage to:

Shark Week.


Pretty fun project. I went with the first idea that popped, doodled & colors in under an hour. Like it should be.

snap snap.

Slackers! Both of'em!!

No TTT this week. Work's been crazy for both Zach and I (plus, still recovering from Comic-Con) so we'll catcha next week. Later kids!

Oh yeah, and to tide you over here's a random (old) drawing of a guy blasting some zombies. 

Week 18: Zach's "Steam-Punk King Arthur"

This week, Casey and I kicked off a small series of Arthurian Characters with none other than King Arthur. We wanted to challenge ourselves a bit, so we went for "Steam Punk" as an overall theme to them.

Neither Casey and I know steam-punk that well, so for us to adopt the victorian/ bronze gears to a medieval / dark ages hero was a challenge. Especially seeing as there's no real "iconic" King Arthur. So, with that I charged into the beginning of about 7-8 renditions of 'steam punk arthur'.

Enjoy!
Steam Punk Arthur Pendragon

I found that keeping a suit of armor still functional and protective meant sacrificing many of the gears, pistons and fun stuff of 'steampunk'. So, lightning sword it is!

Week 18 - Casey's ???

Yeah so... Well this week we decided to try doing a steampunk King Arthur. Not quite sure that that's what I ended up with here though. Basically I found some reference pics of a cool old dive suit and decided to draw something like that and it sorta went from there. Hmmm....

Week 17 - Casey's Prof Minerva McGonagall

If Prof McGonagall were to tool around in a flying car, I'm 100% sure it'd be a Morgan 3 wheeler. I mean, c'mon, look at that thing!

 

Week 17: Professor Minerva McGonagall

With the release of the final chapter (well, 1/2 chapter) of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, we here at T.T.T. decided to embrace the winning side. That's right, the good guys.
Now, this put us in a bit of a situation, as most of the fun 'good guys' are rough in appearance and could be taken for protagonists. Lupin, Black, Snape....all appear less than knights in shining armor.

The one powerful person we could think of, that seemed neglected despite her presence in Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry was the head of Gryffindor; Professor Minerva McGonagall.

Here she is; beating the living daylights out of three hapless death-eaters faster than you can say 'petrificus totatlus'.

once Casey posts his, I'll pop up some of the steps to this Matriarch of Gryffindor.


(I really wanted to fit in a 'Prime of miss Jean Brodie' reference, but didn't manage. I suppose I could yell: ASSASSINS!!!! loudly.....)

Week 16: Jack Torrance.

Apparently, we're continuing our trend of villains wielding weapons.

Huzzah!

A favorite movie monster of mine is "Jack Torrance" from Kubrick's 'Shining'. (not the King one with the guy from Wings). He has it all; charisma, menace, a slew of bad choices that lead to a downward spiral, dark humor, comb-over and a snazzy velveteen windbreaker.

The movie and the book are two different beasts, there's a bit of homage to the book in this T.T.T.

Many of the colors did not turn out how I wanted them, but it's an interesting feel. The blues, well....that's another story. I wanted something to add contrast from Jack, after all, he's a man made by his deciscions and 'people' around him.
If you were stuck with Shelly Duvall's "Wendy" for 6 months, wouldn't you contemplate dark deeds? It's a thinker.

So here he is; Jack Torrance in all his glory. Standing over the fallen form of Scatman Crothers howling into the halls of the Overlook hotel:

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnnny!! I'm comin' for ya boy!!



* In the book, it was room 217. The Overlook hotel was afraid that no-one would stay in the room after the movie, so Kubrick changed it to room 237. There is no room 237 in the Overlook Hotel.

Week 16 - Casey's Jack Torrance

Maybe it was the recent AV Club feature on "The Overlook" (hello road trip!) or maybe it's just the fact that I've watched this movie more times than I can count, either way this week the inspiration hit for The Shining's very own Jack Torrance. I can only hope I did full justice to his greasy comb-over.

Week 15 - Casey's Simian Astronaut

Well, Japanese macaque astronaut to be precise.

I can't claim to have the cool backstory that Lopez did in his post. I'm a simple man, I like monkeys and I like clunky old space-suits. Chocolate, meet peanut butter.  Enjoy!

Week 15: Simian Cosmonaut. To Boldly Go......

"hey. What are you feeling this week?"
"Hrm. Minotaur?"
"maybe."
"something human-like"
"_________" (ommited as it will be next weeks)
"no, not feeling that. How 'bout an old timey diver."
"Oh, cool.....but I kind of touched on that when we did 2000 leagues under the sea."

Hence the Monkey Astronaut.


I grew up in Florida, deep in the humid bowels of the swamp infested land. My fondest memories were of watching the space shuttle lift off in the creeping dawn, over the dark swamps and into the inky sky. The power of the rockets would make your bones reverberate and lungs squeeze.
Damn impressive.

I still get a bit sentimental about that and even more-so knowing NASA is in the gutter. It always felt like it was one of the reasons we came so far, so fast as a society. A tangible symbol of our achievements. Only to be discarded for any number of other programs.

(end rambling)
Enjoy the monkey man.

ps: whew! almost missed Tuesday! I was sitting there, literally, watching paint dry.

Week 14: Sketch Safari. Cafe' Leche

So this week, we took a hiatus from our villains and monsters.
We went and set up shop at Cafe de Leche' and just started to draw. (And enjoy some Horchata-infused drink ).

As you can tell, I was easily distracted.

Oddly, that person. Was a guy. I'm pretty sure I drew him about 30% thicker than he was in reality.

note: Oh, I see, MR. CROWE! Go all fancy with colors? Well, two can play at that game.

gauntlet has been dropped.

Week 14 - Sketch Safari - Cafe de Leche

I've been meaning to do some more outdoor sketching and so we're using this week's TTT to do just that. Zach and I set up shop over at Cafe de Leche and did some doodling. This first pic is the view at the corner of York (obviously) and Ave 50.

 

Oh yeah and then somebody left their dog outside while they ran in for a coffee. Some cool little Pitt mix, a total goofball.

Week 13 - Casey's She-Ra

Feel the power!

Week 13: She-Ra, Princess of Power

This is a first of our 'requests', and it's a fun idea.

We started out with another citizen of Eternia, Trap-jaw, and now go to the flip side. The ruling side, the 'good guy' side.
My sister watched "She-Ra" and I was amazed even then by her short short skirt. I felt that her conception was part-Barbarella and part Franzetta Amazonian warrior. Never trusting, or hell....liking good guys, I went with a less saccharine version of the Princess of Power.

Here's the colored up and finished version (click to see gold)


Some notes about this:
I felt that I lost TONS of the subjects life in transition from sketch to 'finished pose'. I'll be working from sketch and on sketch like I've done in the past.
The gold is a metallic surface. In the light, it shimmers. "sparkleeeeey'.
Hell yess that's "Hordak"'s head. If she's the 'princess of power, do something. Finish his tyrannical reign once and for all, right?
Right

Sketch below.


more life in that...or am I mistaken?


Z.

Week 12: Macho Man vs. The Rapture

Ahoy.

So, when drinking black goo to get my focus on and 'snap into a TTT', I was thinking: "Maybe, Macho man crucified and dying for our sins to save us from the rapture is NOT a good idea".

When I think Macho Man Randy Savage, I think: big, gaudy tassels, shredded larynx, massive dude, ass-kicker, name-taker, a man who stole the show from Hulk Hogan.....not an easy task.

Here he is, the MACHO-SAURUS-REX!!!!




I think this might be the start of a much larger painting......

Oddly, just a day or two before his untimely passing (and being the number one draft pick for the Rapture) I mentioned to Casey, "hey, let's do macho man".
Clairvoyance? You tell me.

Casey, being frail and weak, couldn't handle that much awesome. So now, after 40 boxes of slim-Jims and two coronary bypasses, Casey has beefed up.....and we can show our respect.




So to speak.


next week: the P of P herself.

Week 12 - Casey's Macho Man

Didja miss us? Yeah, took last week off. Lotsa work to be done but we're back with a bang, er, a snap. I've been working on my speed painting lately and this seemed like a good opportunity to put myself under the gun. For Mr. Savage here, I gave myself 30 minutes. It's pretty interesting to see what you can crank out when you're really hauling and in this case I think it turned out pretty decent. Though the subject matter certainly helped.

OH YEAH! Macho Man R.I.P.

Random thought - Waaaay back in the 5th grade I remember a kid coming to school wearing a Miss Elizabeth t-shirt. I know awesome right? Well the principal didn't feel the same way. Apparently it was too sexy or something and they made him wear the shirt inside out for the rest of the day. It was quite the t-shirt scandal, even bigger than when another guy wore a Bart Simpson, "Underachiever and Proud of it, Man!" shirt. He only got a lecture and a stern warning about the uncoolness of underachieving. Wild times....

Week 11 - Casey's Slimer

Well clearly Zach and I were on the same wavelength this week. Slimer = dumping food into his mouth. Great minds....

I'm fully in the "gross old Slimer" camp, y'know the one from the movie, not the cutesy one from the show. That said, the cartoon was awesome and the later years Slimer did bring us one great thing - Ecto Cooler. According to the box, 10% actual ectoplasm. Yum.

Let the neon colors begin...

You've been Slimed.

aka: bustin' makes me feel good.

Oh slimer.
are you the ghost of a corpulent man who cannot move beyond the mortal realm,
or are you our avarice and gluttony manifested?
Either way, you slimed Rick Moranis.

Bravo.

Here is take 4: Slimer



I played around with some colors, still missing some tools in the move (I really need to get my act together there.) so I tried some fun techniques.

Pictures of the steps as well as the dismal failures afterwords.

week 10: Jetta. (aka: jetta-tron-2000. aka: Beserker )

Week ten's subject is the biggest free-loader in history.
no, not your friend's boyfriend who taught himself how to yo-yo on youtube, but my dog; Jetta.

Jetta has been my pup for about 6 years now. So, I figured, she deserves a bit more attention than just a water-color from me or even a nifty pen & ink.
I'm busting out the paints and canvas for this one.
Time's been a bit of a luxury that I can't afford of late, so I'm doing this one in stages. The final result will be here, but hopefully, should only be done in three stages (and three weeks)

The first: Concept and canvas.

sleeping Jetta (aka: jetter) in the center. soon to be soft 'dog-dream' images around her. Not much to see here, move along.
move along.


Time to let sleeping dogs lie.

zzz.

Week 10 - Casey's Jetta - B&W

And here's a look at the ink drawing before the paint job.

Week 10 - Casey's Jetta

And here's phase two of our back-to-back beasts week: Zach's radar eared sidekick, Jetta. Here Jetter is hanging out in front of her pad modeling the latest in fetch technology (the squeek-o ball 5000). What, might you ask is Jetta looking at with such keen interest? Why a fence of seven feet in height that she plans on leaping in a single effortless ka-boing. Seriously, dog's an escape artist. No Joke.

This week, I decided to kick it old school with some watercolors. Digital is nice and all but nothing's more fun than making a big old mess and not having an 'undo' key to cover your ass.

Week 9 - Casey's Charlie - Line Art

... And here's the non-Photoshopped pen drawing from my illustration last week.

Week 9: Charlie

A good shift from our current line up of bad-guys. We're tackling the beasts close to our heart.

This week, is Casey's mutt; Charlie!
(aka: Charlie Boy).

Charlie has insane-o hair. Parts of his fur looks like toupee's tacked onto another dog. It's pretty rad, really. The thing I notice every time I see this goob, is his parade like tail and odd widow's peak.

Enjoy the furry monster!

snap snap!

Week 9 - Casey's Charlie

This week we decided to take a break from the pop culture (specifically the psychotic, cartoonish pop culture villains) and do something a little closer to our hearts; our awesome dogs. This week we're drawing my beast, Charlie. Next week we'll tackle Zach's fetch monster, Jetta.

Here's Charlie doing what he does best, riding shotgun. And looking pretty dignified if I may say so myself. I kinda wanted to try something a little cleaner this week and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Though, I'm thinking I might go back to the ink drawing and give it a watercolor pass. Stay tuned....

BTW - Lemme just use this opportunity to put in a plug for the good folks at the Glendale Humane Society. My girlfriend and I adopted Charlie from them a couple years back and they were really great. Can you believe such an awesome dog would be at a pound? Well believe it folks and there's plenty more great dogs out there looking for a good home.

B&W Bill

I've been meaning to throw up some roughs & WIP stuff (for those of you interested in that kinda jazz). So to kick things off, here's Bill in all his crow quill glory. No digital paint to fancy it up or fix my rough line work here folks.

Bill the Butcher v. Hordes of Foriegn Popery. Week 8

Yet another show stealer; Bill the Butcher.
Each and every time he appeared in "Gangs of New York", he stole the show with his dramatic flair, lanky build and thunderous violence. Bill the Butcher is a hero amongst villains.





What could be better than a battle ready Bill the Butcher, with his skull cap, cleaver and fillet knife, and moustache ready to gut and rend all whom oppose him?

Slight delay, I just finished moving...but spent the better part of a day trying to locate pencils and water colors among the labyrinth of boxes and stacked furniture. I had a blast doing this guy. So, T.T.T= Tag Team Thursday. (still fits!)

Maybe we'll do something other than a villain?

Maybe, Millhouse.....maybe.

Week 8 - Casey's Bill The Butcher

Yikes another Tag Team Wednesday! No good. But what is good is this fellow right here with his top hat, curly mustache and a dual set of battling cleavers. I sure wouldn't buy any sausage from him though...

Week 7: Jenner, plain and tall. (aka: Zach's Jenner)

As a kid, the antagonists of stories captivated my imagination.
Jenner, the conniving, power-hungry and savage rat from "Secret of NIHM" stole the show. Without him, the story would be just another boring 'help some sick kid' cliche'. (same could be said for most antagonists)
Jenner, in the vision of Don Bluth, was expressive, multi-dimensional and just an amazing presence on the screen/ canvas.

As much as I adore the character, I sadly am still knee deep in moving. I even had to un-pack the scanner to upload this goon. This week I tried using markers for coloring...not sure if I'm a fan. The colors from water colors seem more vibrant and alive.....
maybe even a re-do down the road for this.

Enjoy!

Week 7 - Casey's Jenner

Hands down my favorite animated movie as a kid was "The Secret of NIMH." It was such a dark and mysterious film and it was so cool how it seemed like we were getting just a small peek at this much larger world (probably no surprise that my second favorite animated film was "Pinocchio"). And don't get me started on Bluth's hyper-expressive animation. Absolutely amazing.

And so that brings us to this week's Tag Team Tuesday... There's a lotta great characters to choose from in NIMH (Nicodemus, Jeremy, that scary ass owl) but Jenner won out if for no other reason than his wicked curvy sword. I mean look at that thing, how cool is that?

"Not even the lee of the stone can save you this time!"

Week 6: Cobraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! Cobra Commander.

Ahoy ahoy.
Still knee deep in moving, and half my art supplies are either packed away, in the new place or just tossed to the wind.
Here's a small tribute to the best blue suited military in the world.
Cobra.
and their shiny commander.


(who shares the voice of Star-scream)

I feel that it's a good start, and needs a ton of work. Fun and quick.

Week 6 - Casey's Cobra Commander

Speed sketch and.... GO!

Week 5 - Casey's Hamburglar

And... here we go, my Tuesday-ish take on the Hamburglar (and Mayor McCheese thrown in for good measure). I fiddled around on this one for a little too long before settling on a concept; believe it or not this was the least violent of the various takes I noodled around on. Gotta say though, this was by far the most fun I've had thus for on TTT. I could sit around drawing bullet riddled hamburgers all day. Enjoy!

Week 5: Robble Robble. Hamburglar!!

Been a bit hectic. Moving and working on numerous projects.
Here's one of my favorite fast food larceny mascots (no, not fritter bandito)

The HAMBURGLER!!

Week 4: Nemo's Nautical Nuclear Nautilus

Apologies for the delay. I had what I thought was and would be a rad idea, and something different for me, but the siren lead me off course and into the maelstrom of failure/ botched attempts.
So, as penance for my delay, I donated 24 dollars to the Red-Cross. (24 for 24 hours). Not only that, but if anyone does want this puppy, I'll donate the sale to the red-cross. Win win.



The downside of the delay, was that I saw Casey's work. The Squid of ages was prominent in his work, and I wanted to avoid that, less they look too similar. Yes, the subject is Jules Vern's "Nautilus" of Captain Nemo's creation, but there has to be some difference.
I had a blast making a quick version of Nemo's lackeys. It looks almost like the start of a recruitment poster.

"Captain Nemo wants YOU for his submariner antidisestablishmentary army!"

Ok, the slogan needs work.
Enjoy.

here's the botched attempt. When I massacred the face, I called it quits.








So, the first "melt down" was mine. Casey, pressures off ya.

Week 4 - Casey's Nautilus (aka Mr. Squid's Wild Ride)

It's kinda buried under a big mess of tentacles but if you look real close you'll see one of the greatest ships of all time - the Nautilus from "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea." Naturally I went with the version from the old Disney movie which is awesome in all its bubble-windowed, saw bladed and riveted glory.

Week 3 - Casey's Bear Man

So we decided to take it outta the 80's this week and do something a little more topical (rest assured we'll get back to reliving our Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bomb addled youths soon enough) and what better subject to tackle than the guy who stole the show in my favorite scene of my favorite movie last year - Bear Man from "True Grit." Not only is he a bad-ass grizzled mountain man with a serious set of whiskers but he also wears a giant bear skin AND he's a dentist. It really doesn't get any cooler than that.

I went for a little different approach this week; a little looser and finished it off with some watercolors. Came out pretty snazzy I think.

Week 3: You are not LeBoeuf. "True Grit" bear man

You are not LeBoeuf.


Undoubtedly the best dentist in the West, the "bear man" from True Grit.
Trying to keep the drawings looser and fret & stress less about them, here's a fun character from one of my favorite macabre comedies.



(and a dapper frontiersman with a penchant for fine hats)

*note: need to fix my scanner. The white pages come off a bit more blue tinted.

Week 2 - Casey's Trap Jaw

I gotta say, Zach set the bar pretty high this week with his awesomely whacked out version of TJ. My hat is off to you my friend! The best part about tackling Trap Jaw was doing some research and reminding myself of just how much I freakin' loved He-Man as a kid and ESPECIALLY those mini-comics that came with the action figures. I tracked down a few issues and was pretty blown away by how awesome they still are, thanks in no small part to some great artwork by Mark Texeira doing his best Barry Windsor-Smith/Frazetta and succeeding quite well - though you can certainly spot traces of how his style would later develop into its own cool thing. Anyway, here's a battle wounded Trap Jaw shambling around in front of old Castle Grayskull and waving around a pneumatic hook. GRRRR!!!

Week 2: Trapjaw.

This week, we chose to do one something dear to us.
An unsung hero.
Always struggling to change the world, yet seldom recognized.
We saw him, yet never appreciated.
Now, we salute the hero of Eternia; Trapjaw.


I wanted to still use ink, but went with an old (and now broken) quill pen. See if you can spot where it broke! Trapjaw's amazingly 80's colors are still present and I wanted him to look at least half as menacing as he deserves to. Not just some buffoon in a green loincloth.

Like last week, I abandoned some first drafts. I'll post those under here later. With those drafts, I'm just overworking the subject. The above and final is what just jumped out at at the page and defiled it in the name of Skeletor and his nefarious legions.

Enjoy.

Week 1: Casey's Garthim

And so it begins! The first Tag Team Tuesday. I had a blast drawing this Garthim and of course you can never go wrong with Fizzgig or in this case a rabid flock of Fizzgigs. Vicious little dudes.

Week 1: Garthim Soldiers (ala: Dark Crystal.)

The First week of Tag Team Tuesdays!

With Casey's suggestion, we started out with a pretty rad, and fairly obscure subject; the GARTHIM SOLDIER! Known from 'The Dark Crystal' this behemoth beetle was the brute force behind the Skeksis.
I always wanted to see more of these guys, and thought they were just amazing. When sketching out ideas, I got to thinking: "what's better than the Garthim? A f*cking Skeksis riding a Garthim! With that bad ass sword too!" (clearly, I was listening to some pretty bad metal).

After 5 passes at it, here's the result and the FIRST contribution to TAG TEAM TUESDAYS!






I call it: "hide yo Gelflings, hide yo podlings, cause we're draining yo essence up in here."

The original is for sale at a steal of a price: 25.00 USD (plus shipping) @ etsy

Coming Soon...