For the Periscope Studio weekly sketch challenge: Tentacles! This drawing was inspired by a playset that my dad gave my oldest son a few years ago. When we finally start getting warm weather, you can be sure we’ll fill the baby bath in the back yard and unleash the Frogmen on the Octopus (or vice versa).
The Periscope Tumblr brings you a week of snowstorms. “Draw someone in a snowstorm,” they request. I reverted to childhood influences for this one. Two influential movie snowstorms MASHED into each other, along with the key characters. This was fun. (Are these sketch challenges killing my work schedule? Let us not speak of this…)
This drawing is an overdue Valentine for my dear sister, Bryn. It also just happens to coincide with the Periscope Sketch Challenge. Admittedly, that was by design not coincidence. If Bryn’s a fan of Janelle Monae (and who isn’t really?) then this is all the more appropriate. I wanted to stretch my imagination on this one in honor of Janelle and my sister. I planned out the figure in the foreground and Photoshop collaged a few structural elements in the background, but left the rest to figure out along the way. It was fun, and challenging. I’ll let you, dear reader, be the judge of the end result;) More Janelle fan art at Periscope Tumblr.
My sister lives and paints in NYC. She’s my hero. She sent me a V-Day card with a print of this recent painting entitled “The Obscure Object of Desire.” This is a scan of a print, so I’m sure the colors are off, but you can get a sense of her work with this. Abstract, enticing stuff, and full of vitality. You can see more of her work at www.brynmcconnell.com . Worth a look, or two or three!
Happy Valentine’s, Sis! (Hope you don’t mind the plug. ) Love Ya!
This guy looks familiar doesn’t he? Well, he may not be who you think he is. He’s one of the characters in Justin Pierce’s webcomic Wonderella. This webcomic is a revelation to me. I only just discovered it through the Periscope sketch challenge, but it’s a fantastic blend of humor, parody, and drama all within the guise of a superhero adventure strip.
In high school, my two favorite movies were The Graduate and Alien, an unusual pairing to say the least. Admittedly, I have had difficulty reconciling these two in life and art…until now! I think the playground that Justin Pierce has created with his webcomic is a stroke of genius and I was more than happy to contribute this token of appreciation to his endeavor.
Here’s the full piece of fan art. Fair warning: Wonderella uses some strong language in this, but I felt it was necessary to stay true to the character. She ain’t no withering lily! Without further delay, please enjoy “Coo-Coo Kachoo, Mrs. Wonderella”…
More Wonderella fan art here: Periscope Tumblr
The original art of Ginormous is available for sale here: Periscope Etsy Store
Well, I thought I may have to skip out on the Periscope sketch challenge this week, due to a lack of knowledge of the theme Mad Men. However, after watching a couple season recaps on youtube and after receiving some inspirational reference material from fellow studio members, I managed to put together a little something. There are already more fitting tributes available for your viewing pleasure at Periscope Tumblr , but here’s my offering nonetheless.
My sketch is probably more of a tribute to the likes of this:
Turandot is currently playing at the Portland Opera tonight, Sunday, Thursday, and next Saturday. I found this production to be extremely rich and layered in sound and visuals. I saw the show on Jan 31st during a most unprecedented 3rd invitation to sketch during the rehearsal. I designed a comic cover for my submission to the Opera blog, and as a special bonus here I added scans of some the sketches I did during the rehearsal. Thanks for looking!
Additional Turandot artwork by PDX cartoonists can be found here: http://www.portlandopera.org/operas/2010-2011/turandot#images
Racing into your week with a high speed pencil rendering of Mario and pals for the Periscope Tumblr sketch challenge. I enlisted my son to help me with the reference on this piece. We did some father/son bonding as we Googled the various race track worlds. I ended up using Wario’s Gold Mine, a most treacherous track indeed. Check that Tumblr link for more MarioKart art in the coming week. And by the way, you can fill your Shopping Kart with this MarioKart Original Art at the Periscope Etsy Store .
More Ditko-inspired doodling. Behold the orb!
Aaron McConnell 