SJV Random Drawings

[Stewart Vernon]

Background on me... Most of my experience is as a Technical Writer/Illustrator but I've been branching out this year into cartooning and I run a couple of comic strips on my blog.

Figured it was time to roll the ball a little and post a few things. I'll start with some quick-pics I drew this week for Halloween on my blog.







http://iesjv.wordpress.com/

[Bishop]

I don't get the Ghost picture. What is that sticking out of his sides?

[Stewart Vernon]

Originally Posted by Bishop

I don't get the Ghost picture. What is that sticking out of his sides?

It is subtle... he has emptied his pockets and thrown up his hands.

It was hard to make inside-out pockets that didn't have more detail than the ghost.

It probably helps that when I posted it on my blog I had accompanying text that explained the setup for the gag. I think they look more like pockets if you know they are supposed to be pockets.

[Stewart Vernon]

I'm working on a new soon-to-be web comic with insect characters... but I have a logo already designed (a couple actually)...





And before anyone asks... I am officially coining the term "apostrophbee" to refer to the use of a bee as an apostrophe in the logo!

[Dannthr]

I read the ghost as "springing a leak" in the busted picture.

Maybe I have a dirty mind, but I didn't read the bee as an apostrophe, as much as I love the word "apostrophbee," all I saw was Sects with an insect in front of it, and I felt like there was a strong focus on the sound of the word: Sex.

[Stewart Vernon]

Originally Posted by Dannthr

I read the ghost as "springing a leak" in the busted picture.

I can see how out-of-context those out-turned pockets aren't obvious. On my blog I had a caption of "Ghosts Need Jobs Too" and additional conversation. I think that took more of the "what the heck" out of the image... though I'll be the first to admit that those pockets are my least favorite part of the illustration.

Originally Posted by Dannthr

Maybe I have a dirty mind, but I didn't read the bee as an apostrophe, as much as I love the word "apostrophbee," all I saw was Sects with an insect in front of it, and I felt like there was a strong focus on the sound of the word: Sex.

Went right for the gutter did you... That's ok... some of the best insects build around your gutters!

Actually, I thought of both "sex" and "sects" as subliminal messages as I plan an evolving world of characters and groups.

When I was growing up, my favorite strips/comics were Bloom County, Calvin & Hobbes, and The Far Side. I can't compete with my own memory of the last two, even though I do try a little with one of my strips... but this one, will be my Bloom County (I can only hope).

[Dannthr]

Those are definitely cartoon titans--but good influences, for sure!

[Stewart Vernon]

Something I worked up to promote my blog. It's not an explicit blog post as yet, as I plan to email and post it around on some sites for promotional purposes to help drive some traffic to my blog... but I'll also post it as an art entry on my blog at some point soon.

edit: I should have noted that it is a homage to EC's MAD Comic (Magazine) issue #1.



https://iesjv.wordpress.com/

[Stewart Vernon]

Following up the above...

I didn't realize it until someone pointed it out to me, but I had completely forgotten to credit Kurtzman on the illustration for the original piece I was mimicking. That was an unintentional oversight on my part.

I also found a lot of people missed seeing the suit of armor. I had omitted that intentionally because I knew my dialog was going to partially obscure it... but after putting it in there, it wasn't as obscured as I thought and it makes the whole picture a lot better.

So... here's an updated version of the same piece... now with the suit of armor and a proper credit to the great Harvey Kurtzman.



https://iesv.wordpress.com

[Stewart Vernon]

Just something I started for fun on Friday... and finally finished today. Spider-Man is probably my favorite super-hero so I gave it a stab.

I don't know that I will do anything more with it... but it was something different and more involved than what I've typically been drawing for my Web comics. As I posted on my blog, I strangely find myself liking the version without the webbing more than the version with it.

[Stewart Vernon]

I already tied my daily comic strip to a fun version of Friday the 13th, but I wanted to do something else as well. In honor of Jason, and all those Friday the 13th movies... here's a rendition of the classic hockey mask he wore in most of those movies.

I'm quite proud of this, if I can toot my own horn. I think it came out looking really well and didn't take me nearly as long to draw as I thought... which either means I am getting better at drawing OR worse at estimating time.

I will be posting it on my blog as well, in a couple of hours probably but am giving the early look here on my art thread.

[Stewart Vernon]

It's Friday the 13th again... so I tweaked and prodded and made a slightly more worn/damaged variant of my Jason hockey mask from last month. Some parts I wish were a little better, but at the same time the more I tried to make it look worn/damaged the less I liked it.

I have until November for the remaining Friday the 13th this year, so I'm thinking of taking a stab at a Jason X version of the mask between now and then.

[Stewart Vernon]

Incidentally... I also draw all my own avatars, often a comic book character insignia or logo. I have been posting these to my blog as logo/design examples. Sometimes I create original designs, but a lot of the time I'm just recreating my own vector-version of well-known ones.

I haven't posted that stuff here, because while I'm proud of the work... in the scheme of things, they are the simplest things I've done. I try to post here the more complicated (relative to me at least) things I do...

But I am proud of the Superman/Bizarro insignias I did last night. Of course, Bizarro was just a mirror and color change away once I drew the Superman shield... but I liked it so much that I made Bizarro my avatar on all the forums I visit as of last night.

I particularly like doing these kinds of things because as vector-art I can scale them and use them however I want... sometimes I get good use of them in other cartoons or comic strips down the road and it's nice to have them already drawn.

It also, in the meantime, serves as a demonstration of my ability to do that kind of work pretty fast for anyone who ever needs that kind of thing drawn or created.

[Stewart Vernon]

That said... I changed my mind. Some of my logo and insignia work bubbles to the top of searches on my blog and I get a lot of Google referrals for them as well. Also, I see people from time to time here looking for logo or title design work... so I've had a change of heart and will post some of my logo work in my art thread too.

Kicking things off... A couple of things that have been high-volume "finds" from people doing Google searches:

Flash and Reverse Flash Insignias (popular I'm sure because of the CW show):



And something I drew years ago, a Spider-Man head in the John Romita Sr style:

[Stewart Vernon]

A couple from the way-back... some of the earliest comic logos I drew on the computer.

My Batman chest insignia, mostly based on the 1989 movie era version also pops up in a lot of searches:



And not one of my more popular ones, but I guess that's because the Legionnaires aren't always the most popular characters it seems: