Black and White Mural

Mural – Finished

Catching up on posting some of the projects I had worked on over the last two years of my blogging hiatus.

A few years back I was asked by a good friend if I would consider painting a mural in their office spaces.  At first I thought that would be a horrible idea, as I’m not a fan of traditional painting, and most of my art style is much closer to a comic book/cartoon aesthetic.  But we talked about if they would want something black and white that resembles a comic panel and they were totally on board.

The idea was to incorporate 6-7 different icons or elements into a single image and after a few revisions, we settled on a panel that ended up 6 feet by 24 feet.  I also did some research and found these paint pens that seemed to be well reviewed and I thought I could try to “draw” it on the wall instead of painting.

Mural – First Character

We marked out the space with chalk lines and I built some reference markers into the image and on the wall to help line up the projector as we moved from one element to another.  It ended up being tremendously easier to get the projector close to being lined up, and them simple manipulating the canvas perspective in Gimp to get it just right, than it was to try and make the projector perfect by itself.  We also had to find a short throw projector as the space was a long hallway that had a finite distance we could push back the projector.

Mural – Third Character

From there is was just a matter of getting the characters up on the wall.  I did most of the work over lunch breaks, with one final all-day push to wrap it all up.  I also found spaces that simply needed to be filled with black paint and marked them with X’s, so someone else could help get them filled.

Mural – Masking Fills

Another thing that helped was making templates and using tape to mask off elements that didn’t need to be drawn by hand.  I also got assistance filling in those areas, but I wish I had found a better paint.  We used one that was almost identical to the look and finish of the pens when dry, but it required two coats because it wasn’t quite as good at covering the wall color.

Mural – Masking Fills 2

Ultimately, I was happily surprised how close it came to the original digital design.  I’ll always find things to nit-pick about my work, but it was a very fun project, and I’ve been hoping to find time and an excuse to do more like it in the future.

Mural – Finished

Inktober 2022

Greetings!  After being in school and work full-time for that last few years, I finally was able to participate in another Inktober.  It was a lot of fun, many of the prompts were challenging to decide what to draw, and a good friend of mine was participating too (so we texted images back and forth every day).  I quickly started repeating a comic book or cartoon theme, so I just stuck with that for the rest of the month. 

These were all drawn in a little 3×5 Moleskin notebook with either a Pentel or a Zebra brush pen.  Here’s a gallery of my doodles, and I’ll put a list below of the reasoning behind them all.

1. Gargoyle: Goliath from Disney’s cartoon
2. Scurry: Jerry trying to get away with some cheese
3. Bat: For some reason I decided to draw Bat-Mite from the old DC comics
4. Scallop: Really Jake Parker?  I just made up a character that would fit in on Sponge Bob.  “The Scallop”
5. Flame: Ghost Rider is a pretty good source of cumbustion
6. Bouquet: I thought I would draw Pepé Le Pew admiring his aroma
7. Trip: Goofy falling (my dad always did a spot on Goofy scream growing up at the top of roller coasters)
8. Match: Wile E. Coyote about to have great success (my wife’s idea)
9. Nest: I orginally thought of nesting dolls, so then I wanted to draw Soundwave and Rumble
10. Crabby: Mr. Crabs from Sponge Bob
11. Eagle: Sam Eagle from the Muppets
12. Forget: A Neurolizer from Men in Black (that was a comic, right?)
13. Kind: I originally thought grandmas are kind, Disney’s Gummi Bears had a grandma, she’s not all that kind, but Tummi sure was!
14. Empty: Astro Boy completely spent after taking down some foe
15. Armadillo: Our family has a long standing joke (not really) that armadillos are not real, and are surveillance drones made by the government
16. Fowl: Heihei from Moana
17. Salty: Bluto from Popeye
18. Scrape: King Kong climbing a skyscraper
19. Ponytail: Ty Lee from Avatar: The Last Airbender
20. Bluff: Pinochio from Shrek, playing cards poorly
21. Bad Dog: Gir from Invader Zim, truely not good at pretending to be a dog
22. Heist: Nega Duck from Darkwing Duck getting away with the loot
23. Booger: Ren, gross
24. Fairy: Jorgen Von Strangle from Fairly Odd Parents, best fairy ever
25. Tempting: Jessica Rabbit from Who Framed Roger Rabbit.  I immediately thought or her line, “I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way.”
26. Ego: Gaston from Beauty and the Beast
27. Snack: This cute silver fox is an ode to my wife (my snack)
28. Camping: On the road with Stan Pines from Gravity Falls
29. Uh-Oh: Spaghetti-Oh’s
30. Gear: My favorite young adult ninja from the Metal Gear series
31. Farm: I drew a scene with Travis the Tractor from Bob the Builder but lost the picture (and it wasn’t very good doodle in the first place.

I realize that Inktober ended almost 3 weeks ago, I will try to be better next year!

My Search for a Great Everyday Pen

A progression of pens

Over the years I have been trying to find a great pen to carry with me everyday, and stash in all my various bags and notebooks.  The picture above shows this progression over the years.

Zebra F-301 ($3): This pen is a workhorse and a great place to start.  I remember when I was younger meeting people who had a writing instrument that was anything nicer than a random/cheap BiC pen and thinking they were fancy.  Then I got tried of not having something reliable to use and instead deciding the quality I wanted to have all the time.  The F-301 holds up to most wear-and-tear and has long lasting refills in a few different sizes.

Zebra F-301 Compact ($3): This pen is essentially the same as the previous, but instead of clicking, it opens and reverses to switch between a compact, pocket friendly pen, and a regular length one.  Great for throwing in any pants pocket on the go, and uses the same refills.

Zebra F-701 ($6): This has been the pen I’ve been using for 5-6 years straight.  It has a fully metal exterior, a great heft and balance, a knurled grip, and uses the same refills as the previous two.  At first I was not sure whether $5-6 was excessive for a single pen, but this one is absolutely worth it.  It has been the standard I have compared all other pens to since.

rOtring 600 Ballpoint ($28): I bought one of these pens after I had been using a rOtring 600 and 800 pencil to draw with for a few years.  The pencils I protect and store away, but this one I bought thinking it would be my new everyday pen.  It has all the same characteristics I love in the pencils, but when compared to the F-701, it’s hard to say it’s that much better to justify the cost.  So this one got added to my safely stored pencil collection, and I kept using the F-701.

rOtring Rapid Pro ($32): The Rapid Pro design is an update to the standard rOtring and I do like using it a little better than the 600, but I came to the same dilemma.  At 5-6 times the cost as the F-701, I couldn’t see carrying this around everyday, so it too got added to the collection and I stuck with the old faithful.

Zebra G-750 ($11): I recently discovered this pen and decided to give it a try.  I have to say I am very happy with the weight, finish, and functionality of this pen.  And at the cost, this will be replacing my F-701 for everyday usage.  My only gripe is with the standard Gel inserts the pen comes with.  They exhaust themselves far too quickly, I generally prefer something smaller than a 0.7mm line thickness, and I’m not a big fan of Gel inks in the first place.  I found I could shorten and fit a Pilot Acroball refill, and now I’m even happier with it.  Hoping to see it on sale in the near future, so I can purchase a few more.

Cleaned Up Tool Box

Tin Tool Box

One of the joys of growing up on a farm in the midwest, is all the “treasures” you find collected in the out-buildings.  My boys are particularly good at finding random things when we visit the farm that they feel compelled to bring home.  One visit my dad had dug out this cool but very filthy old tin tool box he’d picked up at a swap meet.  This one did come home with us.

I spent a couple hours one weekend scraping out grease that’s probably older than I am, fixing up the moving parts and replacing the latch.  Now I use it to carry all my random art supplies/tools wherever I’m doing a project away from the house.

I also made a few quick shelves for the inside with very rough box joints, and painted the bottoms with some vinyl stencils.  Overall, I’m pretty proud of the outcome and plan to use it for many years to come.

Tin Tool Box Trays – Top

Tin Tool Box Trays – Bottom 1

Tin Tool Box Trays – Bottom 2

Tin Tool Box Trays – Box Joint

Cloud Spotting

narwhal bear cloud

A few days ago, my wife and I were out for an evening walk and came upon a distinctive cloud.  I immediately reported that it looked like a Narwhal with a Disney Gummi Bear riding it.  She said she could see what I was talking about, but she was probably just being nice to me.  I felt compelled to take a picture and try drawing what I saw, which is below.  I’ll consider this a glimpse into how my brain works.

narwhal bear

I also made a little GIF of the steps between the two.  Doodled in Krita on my Surface Go 2.

narwhal bear steps

Germ Mule

Germ Mule

A week before the Valentine’s holiday our youngest son came home from school with a nasty case of the Flu and a little tonsillitis.  Needless to say the house went into full quarantine mode which only had one problem.  Our little cat Scout loved to go back and forth rubbing and getting pets from both the ill and the healthy so we started calling him the “Germ Mule”.  The healthy ones in the family had to start shunning him until the contagious period had passed.

Clone Wars Poster – 17 Years in the Making

clone wars poster

A few weekends ago we took on a project to organize all our old family photos.  One of the unexpected things I can across was a Clone Wars cartoon drawing I had started for our oldest son probably 17 years ago.  It looks like I had done some sort of composite image from references, drew a grid over it, and then redid a larger scale version of that in pen on some oak tag.  These were all methods I learned in highschool and clearly predated all the skills I’ve picked up over the years with the computer.

I figured I would finish it up with some color but leave the original lines I had drawn intact.  Now I’ll have to print up a bigger version for both boys.  It was a fun little surprise to find!

Found Clone Wars Poster

Colored in Krita on my Surface Pro 3.

Custom Curvy Frame

Triple Oval Frame

This project was a custom frame for three prints that my wife wanted to put together.  We tried a bunch of different arrangements and considered doing them separately, but eventually decided on the side-by-side layout above.  I designed a few different shapes so it wouldn’t just be a big rectangle and built the one my wife liked best.  I haven’t painted or stained it yet because we’re still deciding what would look best.  I’d like to paint the frame a distressed white and paint the wainscoting a light blue, but who knows what we will settle on.  Below are some pictures capturing the process.

Triple Frame Designs (top right picked)

Starting Interior Shaping

Interior cut and corners joined

All cut and routed

Wainscoting fit

Wainscoting Windows

Triple Oval Frame

Rustic Fix to Broken Glass Plate

Repaired Plate

During the time I was working on the final assembly of the lamp shade I posted last night, we got the idea to solder an ornamental glass plate we’ve been lugging around for years.  It used to sit above our entertainment center when we were newly married, but once we added pets and kids to the mix, it took a tumble and broke.  Luckily, it cleanly broke into a small number of pieces so we’ve kept it for probably 15 years thinking we would fix it someday.  It’s quite the rustic looking fix, and my soldering skills could use a lot of work, but it’s nice to have the plate back out in the light again.

Stained Glass Lampshade

Stained Glass Lamp Shade

Greetings Internet Peoples!  It’s been far too long since I’ve taken time to post, and while I’ve been quite busy, I still had time for a few projects along the way.  I’ll try to get all caught up over the next week or so.

The lamp shade at the top of this post is one I made in the last stained glass class I took.  We picked those colors to connect with a small collection of sea glass we’ve been gathering over the years when we lived near the coasts.  The idea is eventually to find or build a base that we will fill with the glass, but for now, this one looks nice too.  This was a complicated build because I had to cut six of everything and I had little margin for size deviations or the panes would not line up.  It was definitely challenging but a fun project.

Cut Stained Glass