Welcome To Slumberland

Right-o, here is the next article about an artist who I admire,

Mister Winsor McCay.

Thanks, again, to Sharon Gerow & Nina Cunningham for there tremendous help!

Good Afternoon

This amiably dapper octopus is a design that a friend of mine asked me to do. I'm going to add some color on here soon, but for the time being, here is the pen and ink version of the drawing. The was first drawn in pencil then drawn with a black Micron pen (point 01). Hope to have some more doodles up here soon.

Cheers,

A. Taylor

Good Ol' Fashioned Adverts

These were taken at the Auburn Cord Duesenburg Museum in Auburn, Indiana. I just thought these were interesting. I'll have some actual drawing work up here sometime in the near future (maybe some motorcars?).

Cheers,

A. Taylor

Mary's Critical Times

My sister asked me a couple of weeks ago to create a banner for her blog entitled Mary's Critical Times. She also asked me to incorporate something about film around it so I picked out some of the best films and TV shows and just sort of mixed everything in. The list of films Incorporated into the banner, if you would like to check them out, are as follows:

Hugo (2011) or Le Voyage dans la lune (A Trip to the Moon, 1902)

Doctor Who (1963-present)

Blazing Saddles (1974)

Harry Potter Series (both the movies and the books)

This banner was drawn with a variety of mediums. I drew the moon and the rocket along with the stars with waterproof ink and a dip pen. I then used regular ink to create the inkwash effect. I drew the letters with blue waterproof ink and a dip pen and the red letters I drew with red waterproof Sharpie pen. After that was dry I then used just water, while some of the blue ink was still wet, and then brushed it around the letters for another inkwash effect and then I drew the paisley marks with a blue Sharpie pen. I then drew the rest of it with a Micron pen (01 point) and then used watercolors to color the rest of it (save for the Tardis, which was colored with a blue Sharpie pen).

Here is the edited version:

Cheers,

A. Taylor

1916 Rauch & Lang

I know that I have said this before, but I just love the clucky kind of quality to these old motorcars and thought that this was a marvelous little vehicle.

When my family went to the Auburn Museum we found this interesting little motorcar. This is actually one of the first electric cars, which I thought was really neat.

One the world sort of established that they could make these great automobiles, various companies tried to establish what sort of engine would work the best: electric, steam, or gas, just to name off the main types. Although the electric engine worked like a dream, there were slight problems when it came down to actually operating the motorcar.

Look Ma, no hands. This car actually operates with a literal backseat driver. That sort of stick that is at the left hand side is where the driver would steer the vehicle. This was common to most early motorcars, although by 1916 most motorcars had regular steering wheels. Sorry about the odd ghost of the reflection off of the glass.

 Since the car also had to carry both its passengers and a huge battery to power it, the motorcar went very slow down the road. So, this particular motorcar was quite ahead of its time, it was just too inconvenient for many modern motorists that had become accustomed to the reliable internal combustion engine. This was soon taken off of the shelves and was a mere footnote in panels of motoring history.

Sorry about this being a bit blurry.

I thought that it was still a brilliant little car.

More Great Motorcars

1929 Cord

Auburn (1930's, I cannot recall the exact year)

1951 Jaguar

(sorry the 2nd picture is a bit blurry)

A 1904 Auburn, the earliest recorded Auburn that was in production.

Behold, The Auburn!!!

My family and I went on a sort of one-day-holiday to Auburn, Indiana, specifically the Auburn Cord Dusenburg Museum, where these rolling pieces of art were manufactured. This is my favorite.

I've always had a soft spot for the Auburn 852 Boattail Speedster, I had a little Hotwheels model of it when I was a kid and it has, since then, become nothing less than a dream car for me.

These were meticulously manufactured for those who had deep pockets and had a need for speed. These cars were rolling sculptures and were the epitome of the jazz age.

Needless to say, I was in heaven looking at various cars like these. I ran around and found that I had taken over a hundred pictures, my dad, the ultimate car guy in the house, had taken well over hundred as well. We were like kids in a candy store, basically. It was great.

Until next time, I'll be cruising around in a great 1916 Dodge (boy, I wish)...

Perhaps more pictures to come....

Things to Come...

This is a caricature of an artist that I am using for an article that I am writing over the artist Winsor McCay. I really enjoyed drawing and painting this one. The actual portrait of Winsor McCay and the frame around him, as well as Little Nemo, the boy, was drawn with a Micron pen. The rest of it was drawn (including the hair of Little Nemo) with a dip pen and waterproof ink and the whole of it was painted with watercolor paint.

I Speak for the Trees

Drawn with a Micron pen and painted with watercolor paint.

Just Mucking About

This was just something I did merely because I was bored. I have no clue what in blue blazes it could be, possibly something from the mind of H. P. Lovecraft (?), but I enjoyed drawing and painting it. After I painted it I went to a site called picmonkey and did the frame and the words Good Day above it.

This was drawn with a dip pen and ink and then painted with watercolor paint. After the paint dried I then drew out the paisley design on his lapel and the iris as well as the feathers with a Sharpie pen (blue and red).

Keep a sharp eye out...

The Trumpet & The Sniper

In light of it being the Fourth of July, a pretty big deal in America, I thought that  good story was in order for this particular day. This story is about a veteran by the name of Jack Leroy Tueller who served during the Second World War. I shall let Mr. Teuller tell the rest of it because it is pretty amazing.

This story also inspired the great short film company called Whitestone Motion Pictures and their latest short film entitled Lili Marleen is a re-telling of this great story.

Hope you all have a happy Fourth of July, here in the US and otherwise.

The Doctor Is In, Pt. 2

Here is the second (and last) part of my parodies of the famous Doctor Who.

Doctor When & his companion, the misanthropic squirrel, Hedley.

Doctor Where & his trusty sonic plunger

Doctor Why & his companion, the sarcastically silent parrot, Bob.

I had a great time creating these oddball characters, granted they might be rather lame jokes, but I enjoyed creating them all the same. The inspiration of Doctor When was a combination of the Fourth & Tenth Doctor (who I have a soft spot for since I grew up with Tennant's Doctor), and, rather obviously, the movie Blazing Saddles (where I got the name of Hedley from). The inspiration of Doctor Where was a combination of the Ninth (hence the leather jacket), Fifth (due to the sneakers) Tenth (the sort of gravity-defying hair, the sort of paisley tie, and, in turn, the sneakers), & the Eleventh Doctor (my current, all-time favorite). Doctor Why's inspiration was derived from the Fourth (the scarf and long coat), the Fifth (the sneakers), & the Tenth Doctor (hence the sneakers and long coat, again) also the way it was drawn and painted was inpsired by illustrator Edward Gorey and they were all drawn with the same medium as the previous two. Hope you readers enjoyed them!



Keep a sharp eye out...

The Doctor Is In Pt. 1

As you readers can tell by the previous posts I've done recently, I'm a bit of a fan of Doctor Who. So, just purely out of whim, I decided to create other versions of the famous Time Lord. Behold, here starts the unlikely exploits of the Good Doctor's rather ragtag bunch of Time-Lords and traveling comerades.

Doctor What & his Outrageously Ostentatious Overcoat of Obscurity.

Doctor How & The Incredibly Slow Snails From BEYOND!

Hope you readers enjoy them! There will be more to come!

Keep a sharp eye out...

Notes: the first drawing was inspired by the Seventh & Sixth Doctor and the last one was inspired by the Fourth(one of my favorites), Seventh (another favorite), and the Sixth Doctor. They were drawn with a Micron pen (point 01) and painted with watercolor paint.

Further Exploration

 I've been still doing some test runs with my new Micron pen and this first drawing is based off of a hovercar from a book that I recently finished called The Search for WondLa, by author and illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi. It is a great book and so is the one that follows it called A Hero for WondLa, I highly recommend them.

This next drawing is of one of my favorite characters, Severus Snape from Harry Potter. Granted this one isn't finished yet and he isn't dressed in his professorial robes, but I thought that it would be interesting to draw Snape in civilian clothes and lost in thought, so to speak. I'll be posting the finished product up here soon.
This last drawing was just a little character that I doodled one day and just inked it with the Micron.
Right-o, thanks for enduring the rambling, I'll have something official up here soon, with any luck.

Keep a sharp eye out...