I’d really like for this blog post to be more interesting and eloquent than it is but, frankly, it’s been a long week already and I still got three days left. So, in an attempt to muscle through the rest of it I’m gonna enlist the help of my friend Mr. Turkey, first name Wild. See ya on the other side

Ever since I discovered Lil Depressed Boy I was impressed with just how well designed the character was. He has such an iconic look that anyone can relate to on so many levels in such a psychological way it would take a whole post alone just to talk about them, so I won’t, I’ll just say I really dig the comic and really dug making this drawing!

If you haven’t read LDB yet, you really need to pick it up. You can get the first issue on Comixology for free, and trust me, you’ll want to get more once you’re hooked. So, enjoy today’s New Art Monday and next week look out for Howard the Duck!

I lived in a very flat, brown countryside as a kid so when the clouds were full and at just the right height in the sky I would imagine them as distant mountains with colorful snow caps where goats leaped and Yeti frolicked. I’d envision whole communities of giant humanoid creatures that lived in floating caverns a great distance away based on cloud shape alone. I’d give these creatures full lives and even societal history as I’d lose myself in the hypnotic gaze of a colorful sky.

Space ships would duck in and out of man made tunnels in the clouds on their way to magical mining communities or worm holes were poised to open to even further away lands just inside a giant lightning cloud.

Luckily I never outgrew this exercise. Luckily my imagination can still out perform anything on the ground around me. And luckily I never learned how to keep my head out of the clouds.

About a month ago I downloaded the book CSS for Print Designers onto my Kindle Fire because I understand just how limited in time print design has in today’s increasingly digital world. I don’t mean to say that print will die off completely, I don’t think it ever will, but as an artist or designer that has to put food on their tables print design isn’t going to get that done for much longer. So I bought a book that might help me transition into the digital design world a lot more smoothly and what I have found after reading half of it is that I already know a whole lot more than I thought I did about digital and web design. I understand the concept and some of the language, it’s just getting the syntax right that’s the trick.

My biggest fear is that one day I will wake up in the Matrix. Plug in the back of my fleshy body’s head while trudging around in the virtual world trying to make sense of it all. Wondering how I didn’t see this coming or why I didn’t prepare for it. Mark my words, this scenario is coming. We’ve lived in a plugged in world for over a decade now and it’s just getting more wired. Design and production art concepts won’t change, but the means by which we practice our craft is and will. The best bet we all have of surviving the shift is to learn the code and plug in while we still hold the choice.

I posted the initial Sketchbook Mobile sketch to Twitter as my wife and I headed off to dinner. When I got back home I was surprised to find a lot of positive response to the drawing, a lot of people loved it – even the Brony Twitter bot retweeted it twice!

Even though this started out as a joke, the positive response compelled me to color it up and I’m glad that I did because I’ve really come to like this drawing a lot. I probably won’t draw another pony any time soon, but it was nice to prove to myself that I can do this kind of thing and have fun doing it

I couldn’t imagine having a career that I happened into by force or circumstance where I produce indifferent widget A or B for some consumer contraption. Of course it can be argued, as a production artist, I do that very thing but on a more creative scale, or at least a more craft-like scale. Though it would seem that production artists and commercial designers tend to contribute more landfill to the consumer landscape I like to think that some of our efforts end up in the hands of someone who may be inspired by those efforts enough to cherish the things we make.

This thought is what gives me hope, keeps me going back to work each day. As of late my aggression peaks when I feel overwhelmed by shear volume, or by the pressure I put on myself from the perception of that volume. In essence I’m my own worst slave driving boss. I put the pressure on and don’t let myself have excuses until I break and let out the cathartic BLAAAAAAAARGH! And then I’m ok for another 24 hours or so, until another day of consumer widget design takes its toll.

Aside from Strip Search I have also found my self mildly addicted to other creative-type reality show’s via Netflix on Xbox, shows such as Cake Boss, Tanked and DC Cupcakes to name a few. It also got me to thinking what a reality show about graphic design and production art might look like. Today’s comic is what I can’t help but believe that show, at any given moment in any episode, might look like.

As artists that primarily are forced to work at our computers for hours on end I’m not sure we’d supply much in the form of entertainment as the viewer watches us work. I mean honestly, in the elimination rounds of Strip Search Jerry and Mike are the entertainment. Watching the artists toil away on their 90 minute comic could get a little old after about 5 minutes of it. Not convinced? Check out a Youtube tutorial sometime and tell me how long it takes you to hit the fast forward button.

Sakura means “Cherry Blossom” in Japan so I decided to make the overall piece pink and white to give that Cherry Blossom tree feel to it. I also decided to make the symbol of this bear (which is a Cherry Blossom) as throwing stars. I think it came out pretty well.

To give you a look at how I sketched it on my Kindle Fire in Sketchbook Mobile I’ve included the blue line digital sketch I did as well. You can see the areas that I adjusted and added to as I inked it in Adobe Illustrator before the final piece was complete.

On Saturday I will be at The Table’s Edge drawing pictures and giving away free stuff, so if you’re in the Amarillo/Lubbock/Clovis area you should come out. Hit the link on the right side bar for the what-haps and the wheres-its!

I colored this comic watching what I assume is season one of Adventure Time. I’ve heard a lot about it, but never saw any of it until about a year ago when I went on my honeymoon cruise. Recently I have been reading The Bravest Warriors comics and I really REALLY dig it, so I thought I needed to give Adventure Time another try. I’m glad I did, but it’s actually pretty good. I may try the comics now!

Speaking of comics, check out the right side bar for where I’ll be drawing cool stuff on Free Comic Book Day! Thanks for reading and keep spreading that comic word