30 mins of week 4-21

This week the Sesame sketches have a robot theme. And, the home sketches have a monster theme. The home sketches were inspired by a friend of mine. Michael Schupbach's blog is all about monsters. He's just gotten it up and runnin. It's fun and free, so go see it! Now here are some sketches. Bobbing head Elmo.  I realized I should have filled the tank up.  But, not its sort of a torture.  Eh, he's only a head anyway.  I really didn't like this sketch.  But, good or bad, I wanted to post the sketches.  Bomberman Elmo.  Yup, the suit was inspired by Bomberman.  Little monder.  I just pictured the head of this monster.  Everything was built off that shape.  This is how the Sesame characters would play "robot".  Strap some cardboard on and wammo you got yourself a robot.  That's my nephew Julian a few years back.  I just dug his expression.  I just thought it would be a good expression to play with.  Robo Bert.  Same robot exploration as the Ernie cardboard robot.  I'm not sure why I enjoy sketching yelling monsters.  But, here's another one.  And, here is Elmo in a cardboard robot suit.  I just really wanted to see how we'd handle the eyeballs above the head.  

plused 30 - droid

This is one of the earlier 30 minute sketches that I did a little while ago. The sketch was really rough, so I just had to clean it up. Hope yous likes.

30 mins of week 4-14

This week I only have 8 out of my usual 10.  I had some bad shrimp on Tuesday evening.  In trying to keep this clean, lets just say that I was unstable on Wednesday.  Therefore, there are no sketches for that day.  But, the others are there.  This week, with my Sesame sketches, I went with a "sticker art" sort of style.  I can't say that I've ever done actual sticker art, so this makes me a  poser.  But, hell, can't help it if I was inspired.  And, my home sketches were done in the "chibi" style.  I'm not sure what the style is officially called, but its the larger head smaller body thing.  I'm still feeling the style out.  So, I'm sure there will be many more.  These also took longer than I expected, so I was not able to clean them up.  So, you'll see cleaned up versions down the road.  Enough speak, now images.  

Here's Bert.  I think this one is my favorite of the Sesame 30s this week.  

This character was inspired by my friend Freddy.  He's just full of incredible energy.  This is him running through the halls of Sesame Workshop.  

Ernie.  I did this one twice.  This was the better one... I think.  

Chibi Wolverine.  He needs some work.  

Count Von Count.  A coworker said he looks like a speeding locomotive.  He does, doesn't he?  

Chibi Spidey?  Hmm, not quite.  

Oscar sticker.  I liked how this one came out.  

Chibi Batman.  I think this is probably my favorite of the chibis this week.  

plused 30 - Disney Abby

Here's the Disney Abby I did for a 30 minute drawing a couple of weeks ago. I cleaned her up a bit. Darkened her lines in. I think I went a little to Diz and not enough Sesame with this one.

30mins of 4-7

Here are the 30 minute exercises for this week. Weeeeeeeeeee!! This was inspired by one of my friends reacting to a box of mini plastic food. Mr. Grover-tastic. I was researching graffiti and got inspired by the sticker graffiti and this was what came out. And, here's a little Sesame version of my venture into sticker art. This guy was inspired by a collection of shapes I saw in a fake marble counter in a Chinese take out place. Invisible Muppet Rosita This is how I feel at the gym as I'm trying to finish my set. I'll have to go in and clean this one up. Robo Elmo. This chibi character is done after one of my friends. And, that is the stink face that seems to be her default expression.

Kid DJs

Here are the DJ kids I sketched in my 30 mins a couple weeks ago. I cleaned them up a little.

30 mins of week 3-31

Last week I took a vaca, so there were no 30 mins to post. But, this week, I did my daily two. I think for my morning exercise I decided to go with a super hero theme every other day. And, the other days will be for anything that comes to mind. For my nights, I'm still struggling to come up with sketches. But, here are my sketches for this week. Enjoy!Zoe as Bill the Cat. Did some playing with some shapes for Venom. Captain Elmo! This is a guy I saw in the gym when I went for a work out. I've been exploring the "chibi" style. I like good Chibi character art, but its hard to find. Or else, I just don't know where to look. Here's Ernie in a chibi-ish style. My girlfriend says he's looking a little slow... he does. This is my girlfriend in chibi style. No worries, she's not a child. This is Ernie as Logan. The pose was off and he didn't look aggressive enough...So, I did this one. I think the pose is better and the energy is better, but still a little off. My girlfriend's suggestion of a caveman looking Sesame character. So, here's prehistoric Bert.This is one of those stupid inconsiderate lazy asses that stop the world from turning because they don't seem to realize or care that there are other people around them. This sketch was based on a person that was in front of me getting on the subway. Once he gets on, he just basically stops as if there weren't anyone else behind him that needed to get on. And, this was the expression he had on his face as he stood there. Not a bright bulb.

Welcome to LA!

This past week I took some vacation time. Therefore, no 30 min sketches were done. But, I didn't go without pushing the pencil around. This will actually be one of the things I worked on. This one even has a little story to go with it. So, here it goes. For the early part of the week I was in LA with my girlfriend visiting her new niece. So very cute. Coming from New York City, the warm weather was very welcomed. We mainly went over to spend time with the new baby, but we actually got some time to wander around as well. We(I) wanted to see how the locals spend their time. Being Asian, we went to see all the little "Asian" towns. The Chinatowns, Korea towns, and the little Japan. Places that my girlfriend's family would frequent. I enjoyed this greatly because these were the areas I did not get to see in my past visits to LA. One of the days we spent with my girlfriend's college friend and an interesting situation happened. This is one of the only times we were not visiting a Asian community. We visited a shopping area called the Grove. It was a very nice "higher end" shopping strip with a very nice farmer's market. And, since it was close by to where our friend lived, we decided to walk it. Yes, walking in LA. Highly not recommended. We had walked the strip and just enjoyed a home made ice cream and was heading back to the house when something interesting happened as we were making our way out of the parking lot. A car pulled up. A newer model silver four door sedan. As I see the car pull up, naturally I think it is someone looking for directions. Why else would anyone pull up to strangers, right? So, even though I wasn't from the area, I turned my head towards the car. As the car came closer, this is what I encounter. A car full of guys in dress shirts and ties pull up. The over weight being in the front passenger seat leans out the window as far as his fifth chin would allow and proceeds to shout gibberish equivalent to the old school taunting of "ching chong ching chong". And, the rest of the car erupts in laughter as they sped off. I wasn't scared or insulted, but more shocked. I remember thinking "REALLY? Did that just happen? What year is this? Do they still do that? How old were they?" I turned to my girlfriend and friend, and the harassment happened so fast they didn't even realize what just happened. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not one that is overly touchy about racial issues. I rather enjoy racial jokes when performed properly. But, tired old jokes are annoying in the fact that its been done way too many times. Usually, I write people that perform these uncreative acts off as "this lack of self control of theirs will only get them so far in life" or "why don't you concentrate more at your McJob and get me my number 2 and not hurt yourself trying to be clever." But, in this situation it was different. These guys were not "street punks". They were not hanging out on the corner in clothes that didn't fit. They weren't driving a beat up bucket. They were dressed in shirts and ties and driving a newer model car. More than likely, they were well off. These could very well be future bosses or coworker because of their connections. Which in the creative field, we'd hope not to see much of. I know I shouldn't be so shocked. I know racism is alive and strong. But, being confronted with it in LA of all places shocked me. They have two large Chinatowns, a Korea town, a little Japan, and a little Tokyo. The Asians that look "Chinese" are all over the place. And, as soon as I step out of one of the "Asian" towns, I'm faced with this. I'm only shocked because I've been to a good number of states. States where you'd expect racism to jump up and chase you down with a gun rack equipped monster truck. I've gotten my fair share of evil eyes and "what the hell is that" stares. I found them rather amusing. I was even raised in a state where some people still used the "N word" like there was nothing wrong with it. And, in all these states, I have never experienced a drive by harassing. If I had experienced this form of harassment in any of the states you'd expect it from, I would find it rather amusing. Not that I wasn't amused by the experience of the drive by harassment in LA, I was. But, it was also a little disturbing because of the location. I guess I think of LA like a New York City type of community. Where people are generally more accepting because there is so much of a mix when it comes to race and culture. And, to come face to face with an old school drive by taunting was disappointing. I guess it was a unexpected "welcome to LA" experience.

30 mins of week 3-17

I'm still going. Well, last week I was still going. This week of the 24th I'm on vacation and have slacked off a little since my days are pretty packed with activities. But, no worries, I'll still have things to post by the end of the week. I'm planning on finishing off some of the sketches that I started on my past 30 min sketches. But, I finally set a side some time to post the sketches I did last week. And, here they are. This is Bert as Flash. This is actually a character I created and animated in college. Of course, the sketch didn't get very far because I was too careful with the lines. This will be one that I will finish later. Here I attempted to do Ernie in a more TokiDoki style, but was unsuccessful . Just didn't have the time to work the details. But, folks in the office seemed to like it. For this night, I had no idea what to do. A picture of a dwarf hamster that I saw earlier in the day popped into mind. And, this is what I cam up with. This is Bert hulking out. I wanted to make him even larger, but time ran out. Let's just say he's in transition from Bert to huge. Here's the dwarf hamster attacking. Haha. Yeah, just thought the dwarf hamster was a little too cute. Had to give him a little edge. :) Not sure what this Ernie is all about. Just had a very angular flat idea in mind as I did the sketch. I really was all out of ideas here. This started as a guy I saw on the subway platform. But, as you can see, my mind was wondering. This is one I will be touching up later. Here's Abby Cadaby in a Disney-ish style. The pose took longer than I had expected to work out. And, the structure is still off. I'll go in and clean her up a little later. Here, my mind was already heading off into vacation. I sat. This came into mind. I sketched. That's all. :)